The Nintendo Play Station will be up for Auction in February 2020

[Yoshi178]

Properly known as the Play Station, the machine would have been manufactured by Sony, played standard Super Famicom cartridge games, and also run games off a CD-ROM drive. Disputes between Nintendo and Sony caused the cancellation of the project around 1991, and Sony went on to create its own proprietary PlayStation console in 1994.

In 2009, a man named Terry Diebold unknowingly bought the incredibly rare prototype at auction, in a lot of abandoned property from a former Sony executive. In 2015, his son rediscovered the machine in the family attic, which caused a great stir in the game collecting, preservation, and historical communities. Since then, Diebold and his son have toured the ?Nintendo Play Station? around the world to many classic gaming expos and other venues, building up its reputation as the ne plus ultra of classic gaming collectibles. Now he?s ready to let it go and pocket the cash.

I can't keep losing money, Diebold told Kotaku in an email. I've put a lot of work into this by travelling with it and we have made nothing on it. Every trip that we... have taken with it has cost us money out of pocket.

Heritage, which bills itself as the world's largest collectibles auctioneer, only started selling video games in January of this year. Since then, it has auctioned some games for record-obliterating prices. It's sold sealed copies of The Legend of Zelda and Bubble Bobble for nearly $US20,000 ($29,211) each. A sealed Donkey Kong 3 nearly hit $US30,000 ($43,817). The biggest sale so far has been a copy of the original Mega Man that reached an eye-watering $US75,000 ($109,541).

https://www.kotaku.com.au/2019/12/nintendo-play-station-prototype-will-be-auctioned-off-in-february/

How much would you pay to have this historic piece in your collection?

 

[Hawki]

How much would you pay to have this historic piece in your collection?

Nothing.

Seriously, I'm not forking out hundreds or thousands of dollars just for the sake of owning stuff.

 

[BrawlMan]

Zip. Nada.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

The fuck is up with those massively inflated prices? Mega Man for $75,000? There's sealed copies of that on ebay right now for 2 grand, which admittedly is still a lot of money, but still. Does it come with a certificate of authenticity and video proof that Keiji Inafune personally rubbed his nutsack on it or something? Is this kind of like that thing where rich assholes buy ludicrously overvalued shitty art so they can get a tax deduction?

Also, the seller already turned down a $1.2 mil offer. So chances are good this will disappear into the hoard of some wealthy 'collector', never to be seen in public again.

 

[Yoshi178]

The fuck is up with those massively inflated prices? Mega Man for $75,000? There's sealed copies of that on ebay right now for 2 grand, which admittedly is still a lot of money, but still. Does it come with a certificate of authenticity and video proof that Keiji Inafune personally rubbed his nutsack on it or something? Is this kind of like that thing where rich assholes buy ludicrously overvalued shitty art so they can get a tax deduction?

Also, the seller already turned down a $1.2 mil offer. So chances are good this will disappear into the hoard of some wealthy 'collector', never to be seen in public again.

honestly i hope it gets picked up by a museum rather than some crazy rich *****.

 

[Yoshi178]

The fuck is up with those massively inflated prices? Mega Man for $75,000? There's sealed copies of that on ebay right now for 2 grand, which admittedly is still a lot of money, but still. Does it come with a certificate of authenticity and video proof that Keiji Inafune personally rubbed his nutsack on it or something? Is this kind of like that thing where rich assholes buy ludicrously overvalued shitty art so they can get a tax deduction?

Also, the seller already turned down a $1.2 mil offer. So chances are good this will disappear into the hoard of some wealthy 'collector', never to be seen in public again.

honestly i hope it gets picked up by a museum rather than some crazy rich *****.

Yeah. Doesn?t the Smithsonian already have a videogames section? This would be a terrific addition imo.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

honestly i hope it gets picked up by a museum rather than some crazy rich *****.

Yeah. Doesn't the Smithsonian already have a videogames section? This would be a terrific addition imo.

I definitely agree. It's a physical representation of one of the most pivotal moments in video game history, with consequences that still reverberate today. It belongs in a museum, to quote Doctor Jones.

But I suspect the seller is just looking for a big score, considering how much they already turned down. Possibly more than entities dedicated to preservation are willing and/or capable to spend.

 

[Avnger]

The fuck is up with those massively inflated prices? Mega Man for $75,000? There's sealed copies of that on ebay right now for 2 grand, which admittedly is still a lot of money, but still. Does it come with a certificate of authenticity and video proof that Keiji Inafune personally rubbed his nutsack on it or something? Is this kind of like that thing where rich assholes buy ludicrously overvalued shitty art so they can get a tax deduction?

Also, the seller already turned down a $1.2 mil offer. So chances are good this will disappear into the hoard of some wealthy 'collector', never to be seen in public again.

honestly i hope it gets picked up by a museum rather than some crazy rich *****.

Funny how you chose to make that a gendered insult..

 

[Yoshi178]

honestly i hope it gets picked up by a museum rather than some crazy rich *****.

Yeah. Doesn't the Smithsonian already have a videogames section? This would be a terrific addition imo.

I definitely agree. It's a physical representation of one of the most pivotal moments in video game history, with consequences that still reverberate today. It belongs in a museum, to quote Doctor Jones.

But I suspect the seller is just looking for a big score, considering how much they already turned down. Possibly more than entities dedicated to preservation are willing and/or capable to spend.

It?s too bad Sony and Nintendo can?t step in and help sway the goods into the proper hands, given the rarity and all.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

It's too bad Sony and Nintendo can?t step in and help sway the goods into the proper hands, given the rarity and all.

They can't lay claim to the prototype as company property, no, but I'm pretty sure both are free to make their bid. Tho Sony is more likely out of the two. Nintendo might not be so keen on a memento of the nascence of a competitor that would dethrone them from the nr 1 bestselling spot for the next decade or so.

 

[Yoshi178]

The fuck is up with those massively inflated prices? Mega Man for $75,000? There's sealed copies of that on ebay right now for 2 grand, which admittedly is still a lot of money, but still. Does it come with a certificate of authenticity and video proof that Keiji Inafune personally rubbed his nutsack on it or something? Is this kind of like that thing where rich assholes buy ludicrously overvalued shitty art so they can get a tax deduction?

Also, the seller already turned down a $1.2 mil offer. So chances are good this will disappear into the hoard of some wealthy 'collector', never to be seen in public again.

honestly i hope it gets picked up by a museum rather than some crazy rich *****.

Funny how you chose to make that a gendered insult..

play me a violin won't you?

 

[Yoshi178]

It's too bad Sony and Nintendo can?t step in and help sway the goods into the proper hands, given the rarity and all.

They can't lay claim to the prototype as company property, no, but I'm pretty sure both are free to make their bid. Tho Sony is more likely out of the two. Nintendo might not be so keen on a memento of the nascence of a competitor that would dethrone them from the nr 1 bestselling spot for the next decade or so.

Nintendo and Sega also used to hate and compete against each other but now Sega's one of the biggest 3rd Party supporters of Nintendo so i wouldn't necessarily be so sure on that.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

I'd totally buy this tat up just to destroy it. The console wars are too lucrative for my arms industry for which the disenfranchised, disgruntled console fanboys are the most loyal of my customers. This relic could seriously damage the bitter divide I have worked so long and tirelessly on accentuating. The longer it's allowed to exist, the more risk to this vast investment it presents as a symbol of cooperation and...peace between warring factions. It makes me sick, I tells you! These idiots need direction, purpose and vitriolic validation in their meaningless lives! Not a blasted truce! How many yachts can a truce buy?? Fuckbugger all, is how many!

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

snip

Nintendo and Sega also used to hate and compete against each other but now Sega's one of the biggest 3rd Party supporters of Nintendo so i wouldn't necessarily be so sure on that.

I don't know. Despite some bumps, Sony's position on the console market has been more consistently strong than Sega's. Sony has the luxury of choosing in a way Sega hasn't been able to in a long time, and Sony may not have forgotten nor forgiven that Nintendo snubbed them in favor of Phillips. Japanese companies can be weird about holding grudges like that.

Then again the recent year has seen some remarkable indicators of intercompany cooperation. Like Sony deciding to go multiplat with MLB The Show, a formerly 1st party franchise. It's not much, but you now, baby steps. Or the much more major one of Sony and Microsoft joining forces for cloud-based gaming, which would've been unthinkable back when MS first entered the console race. I mean, the Xbox line basically exists because MS wanted to partner with Sony for consoles, but they kept getting told to F off, so MS eventually went "fine, we'll do it ourselves". Kind of funny how both Nintendo and Sony inadvertedly ended up creating competitors for themselves.

But yeah, maybe. The landscape is changing and stranger things may yet happen.