Benj’s Oddities Series Returns with “PlayStation Oddities”
December 9th, 2014 by Benj Edwards
Last week marked the 20th anniversary of the Sony PlayStation’s release in Japan. To celebrate, my old friend Harry McCracken (who now works at FastCompany) asked me if I wanted to bring my long-running Oddities series out of retirement. In short, I said “heck yes,” and the result can be seen over on the FastCompany website.
This latest entry marks a change in format for the series: it is the first that is not a page-by-page slideshow. I made a bajillion slideshows between 2007 and 2012, and while they were fun to make, I am thankful that I have moved on.
So if you’re a fan of the PlayStation, click through and check out some weird variations, accessories, and tributes to one of the most successful game consoles of all time.
All Entries in Benj’s Oddities Series:
- 10 PlayStation Oddities
- Atari Oddities
- iPod Oddities
- IBM PC Oddities
- Donkey Kong Oddities
- Sonic the Hedgehog Oddities
- Legend of Zelda Oddities
- Windows Oddities
- Nintendo Entertainment System Oddities
- Super Mario Oddities
- Game Boy Oddities
December 10th, 2014 at 12:36 am
Hi Benj, congrats on your Oddities Series, they’re very interesting to read, I liked the Atari and IBM PC articles, keep it going.
December 10th, 2014 at 9:23 am
Thanks, Intergalactic. I’m glad you like them. Feedback from readers keeps me going.
December 11th, 2014 at 6:50 pm
I also enjoy them. It’s nice to read well-written articles/lists without “insane” amounts of hyperbole that “will make your head explode!”…or that have loads of snark. Thanks
December 11th, 2014 at 7:52 pm
One thing, Benj, about the Playstation Floppy Drive – it wasn’t the only console to offer a floppy drive as savegame storage. I believe prior to that one came out for the Famicom in Japan.
December 11th, 2014 at 8:03 pm
Glad you like the article, cozfer. One of the great things about working with Harry (the editor of this piece) is that he is allergic to hyperbole. So if I ever get carried away, he gently pulls me back.
Bill, thanks for your comment. Re-read the piece carefully and you’ll see that I claimed no such thing about the PlayStation and floppy drives. You may be referring to this: “Unlike any system before it, PlayStation’s memory cards introduced the potential for easily removable, portable storage of saved games.” There, I’m talking about the PlayStation memory card, which kept saved games on removable storage media independent of the game itself.
But guess what — I just now remembered the Neo-Geo memory card system, which predated the PS4 (and the Sega CD memory cartridge, also released in 1994) by a few years: http://www.neogeoprotos.com/memcardfaq.htm . So in a sense, I am partially wrong in that statement. There’s an easy fix for that, though, and I just put it in place on the main FastCompany article.
December 12th, 2014 at 2:58 pm
I wonder how many years away we are from getting a console that small that could play PS like games. 10? 15? Though that controller would be murder on hands. 😉
December 12th, 2014 at 3:02 pm
Not that far, actually, Jim. The main electronics in most smartphones could fit inside a case that small and the most powerful smartphones are easily able to emulate PlayStation 1 hardware. (Also, you can buy a small android stick computer that can emulate a PS1 fairly well). So it’s probably possible today, if someone desired.
And if someone made a custom native PS1 chipset (not emulated) with modern processes, I’m sure it could fit in a box that small.