Random: Shuhei Yoshida Reminisces About Playing Sony’s First ‘SNES PlayStation’ Game
Gosh, Shuhei Yoshida has actually introduced us the Nintendo items at present, huh? On the most recent episode of the Minnmax podcast, the previous PlayStation government started to reminisce concerning the early days of his time at Sony, recalling the time that he received to play the corporate’s first title for the fabled ‘SNES PlayStation’ — the CD-ROM enlargement that by no means noticed the sunshine of day.
We’re positive you already know the story, however briefly, Nintendo had agreed to work with Sony on the SNES’ disk enlargement, however the Massive N secretly went behind the accomplice’s again and introduced its intentions to work with Phillips simply moments earlier than Sony would unveil the console. Discuss drama, eh?
Earlier than the well-known double-crossing might happen, nonetheless, Sony was engaged on video games for the collaboration. The primary of which, Yoshida recollects, was an area shooter of the same vein to the SEGA CD shmup Slipheed. In response to the previous PlayStation exec, the sport was “nearly completed” and boasted “richer graphics than the usual of that point” due to the belongings being streamed from the CD.
Sadly, Yoshida can’t bear in mind the sport’s title or its growth workforce (not even when it was developed within the US or Japan), although he mentioned that he “would not be stunned” if a replica nonetheless existed within the Sony archives. Come on, Sony, take a look will ya?
As identified by Gameranx, VGDensetsu was capable of present much more specs on BlueSky, stating that Yoshida’s description matches “Fortessa [/Forteza], a shmup produced by Epic Sony and (co-?)developed by System Sacom”. It is an obscure shout, we’ll admit, however the descriptions definitely appear to match up.
In response to a discussion board put up shared on VGDensetsu’s Tumblr in 2018, Fortessa was set to be an “unique for the SNES CD and be a possible pack in”, boasting “FMV backgrounds with overlaid sprite-based graphics”. The unique discussion board poster claimed that they had been monitoring down a video of the sport, although the put up has since been deleted, so it is unclear whether or not the tape was ever found.
Fortessa or not, there’s one thing fairly cool about listening to the previous exec. speak about taking the ‘SNES PlayStation’ for a spin — how many individuals can declare to have achieved that?
For the PlayStation’s thirtieth anniversary final 12 months, former Sony government Shawn Layden spoke to Eurogamer concerning the collaboration that by no means was, describing the double-crossing as Nintendo leaving Sony’s Ken Kutaragi “proverbially standing on the altar along with his optical disc drive in his arms”.
An SNES PlayStation prototype was discovered within the wild again in 2015, assumed to be the final of its type. The {hardware} was fastened up and went on to be offered with an enormous price ticket years later. Now, if Sony might simply test the archives then maybe the client would have one thing to play on the rattling factor!