Sony Playstation / PSOne
Japanese electronics company Sony?s involvement in the videogame industry began as a manufacturer of a custom sound chip used in Nintendo?s SuperNES console.
Rival companies NEC and Sega had taken the leap to CD based gaming, and Nintendo had no intentions of being left behind. They immediately partnered up with Sony to develop their CD based system. Sony went on to develop two units. One was a 16-bit add-on for the Super Famicom / SuperNES that sat underneath the system and allowed CD based gaming (SNES CD ), and another as a stand-alone unit. Initially the agreement allowed Sony the ability to license CD based games for the system. Nintendo was not willing to relinquish control over software licensing. They dropped Sony from the project, and approached Phillips to develop the add-on.

Ken Kutaragi, the Sony researcher who had worked on the "SNES PlayStation" prototype and the sound chip for the SNES (Sony SPC700), did not want to give up the hard work put into the unit. He wanted to continue working on this project and so he approached the then Sony President Norio Ogha to develop the stand-alone console without Nintendo. The project continued, and the new Sony Computer Entertainment Division was formed (SCEA).

Sony announced the console dubbed ?Playstation? at the Tokyo International Electronics Show on October 1991. The original Playstation concept would be able to play SNES games, as well as educational CD software. Nintendo would try to re-negotiate with Sony in fear that they would drop support for the SuperNES sound chip, but the joint effort between the companies never saw the light of day. Ken Kutaragi went back to develop the Playstation from scratch making it a 32-bit console that was simple yet powerful, easy to program for, and cheap. The new Sony Computer Entertainment division (SCE, SCEA, SCEE) began to use their company connections, and financial influence to persuade 160 3rd party software developers in North America alone, and over 400 worldwide, to develop for the newly designed Playstation.

The Playstation (a.k.a PSX) was released shortly after the Sega Saturn on December 2nd 1994. The console was an immediate success selling over 100,000 units it?s first weekend. Developers found the Playstation simpler to develop for then it?s 32-bit rival Saturn. Sony then took it?s console abroad. The Sony Playstation immediately saw success in America on September 9th 1995. Europe saw releases a month later.

The PSX success was driven by a strong advertising campaign, and a price $100 cheaper then Sega Saturn. The PSX eventually claimed the number one videogame console sales position by beating out the Saturn, and even maintaining it?s position after the eventual release of Nintendo?s 64-bit console.

Even after the release of next generation systems, Sony saw an opportunity to make even more money out of the PSX. In 1999 Sony released the PSOne. This remodeled PSX console was made to the size of a portable CD Disk player. It was also both cheaper to buy, and cheaper to produce. LCD screens, battery packs, and vehicle power outlets also made the console somewhat portable.

The PSX had one of the largest libraries of software spanning 1000+ releases, and a wide assortment of accessories. Ken Kutaragi's desire to keep Playstation going ushered in he next level of three dimensional CD-based videogaming, and helped make Sony a dominate force in the videogame industry.

FACT: In mid 1997, Ken Kutaragi brought back an idea that had not been seen in almost 20 years. A special version of the Playstation called Net Yaroze (Yaroze meaning ?Let?s do it together?) was released in limited quantities for around $750USD. This unit was a simplified development kit that would allow users to make their own PSX games using the C program language. Such an idea was last introduced back in 1979 with the Bally Professional Arcade (Bally BASIC), the Magnavox Odyssey2 (Computer Intro), and the Atari 2600 (BASIC Programming).

The console contained both S-video and A/V ports with cables and software to connect to any Windows / Mac PC. The unique thing about the Yaroze is that it did not contain region lockouts... so pretty much any game from any country could be played. However it did come with a special memory card that was required to start the console. The memory card contained protections that prevented copied games from running. Sony even established a website to assist programmers in development.
. .

I’ve released a new version of libmikmod for Nintendo DS. Here is what’s new:

* Based on libmikmod 3.2.0-beta2
* Many fixes to the hardware mixer by Andreas Back. It is almost as good as the software mixer now!

Download here: http://code.google.com/p/tetattds/downloads/list