July 07, 2015
Dan Diebold/Reddit
Dan Diebold says he found a rare Nintendo-PlayStation hybrid console in his father's Philadelphia attic. The device has long been known about, but never seen.
For gamers, it's as if someone discovered the Holy Grail -- in Philly, no less.
Polygon.com reports that Dan Diebold unpacked the Nintendo-PlayStation hybrid console from his father's attic while visiting over the July Fourth holiday. His father, Terry Diebold, previously worked with Olaf Olafsson at Montgomery County banking company Advanta Corp.; Olafsson happened to also be the CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment during the time it partnered with Nintendo to create an add-on peripheral (the "Play Station") for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System -- designed to play CD-ROMS just as the technology was booming.
Of course, considering none of us can recall opening a Nintendo PlayStation under the Christmas tree, that deal went sour. Because of concerns over Sony's licensing demands, Nintendo unexpectedly announced a similar partnership with Philips -- Sony's biggest rival at the time -- at CES 1991, leaving Sony furious and triggering the release of PlayStation as a standalone concept.
The rest is history.
But before the deal went bust, a reported 200 prototypes of the Nintendo-Sony hybrid product were said to have been manufactured and later ordered destroyed. However, Olafsson must have sneakily saved at least one unit from destruction, perhaps knowing it might be valuable as a museum-worthy piece of gaming history down the line.
Enter: Terry Diebold.
Terry Diebold claims he found a box containing the console while cleaning out a room in the Advanta offices after the company declared bankruptcy in 2009. His son, Dan, posted the photos to Reddit just last week and told Polygon.com that he doesn't know what he and his father will do with the console. That said, he did indicate that his dad may sell it because he's "pretty broke."
In which case, prepare to max out your credit card to buy it.
It's worth asking, though: Is the whole thing a joke? There are a few indicators that the device might not be real.
• Where is the Nintendo branding? The photos capture a lot of PlayStation and Sony logos, but not a Nintendo logo to be found outside of the controller. Though it fits with the narrative of Sony wanting too much control over the project, it's unlikely Nintendo would forgo its own branding on a product it issued -- even if it is an early-stage version.
• Why the CamelCase? PlayStation as we know it was not branded as a single word until Sony released the product on its own. Until then, it was simply "Play Station." The lack of the space between the words might make all the difference in determining whether the console's a fake.
• Why wait to show off the console? Dan Diebold claims he discovered the console "years ago." Why sit so long with something worth a bundle and so significant to video game history?
• Why is the top not nearly as yellowed as the bottom? Perhaps it's just part of what materials were used, but it's strange that the cartridge and top section of the console still have a shine on them, while the bottom half is the typical yellow of any old console you'd see dusted up at a yard sale.
• Where's the official comment from Sony and Nintendo? The companies are both mum about the news, which is fishy. Then again, the companies are rivals to this day and are likely eager to forget the whole thing ever happened. So, there's that.
At any rate, Dan Diebold posted a video to YouTube to showcase the console and attempt to prove naysayers wrong. You can judge for yourself whether it's real or not and set up an eBay account in anticipation of it popping up for sale.
