A recent YouTube video seems to show the Nintendo-Sony "Super Disc" video game console powered by a cartridge-CD ROM hybrid system. It followed a Reddit user posting photos of the gaming system's prototype.
The console's cartridge is welded atop a CD-ROM disc drive. Meanwhile, the controller looks almost exactly like the one for the Super Nintendo, minus the "Sony PlayStation" logo, according to CNET.
PC Magazine has reported that the failure of the Super Disc system resulted in the launch of the Sony PlayStation. It had entered the video game industry.
Nintendo launched the Super NES in 1990. It then teamed up with Sony to add CD-ROM tech to a new game console.
The two gaming companies seemed to distrust each other. Sony unveiled its "PlayStation" in 1991, while Philips was developing a CD-ROM drive for the Super NES.
Sony and Nintendo never produced a cartridge-CD ROM hybrid system due to their mutual suspicions. However, the scrapped project has become super-collectible.
The Super Disc system is one of several console prototypes that never hit the market or were short-lived there. Hardcore gamers might say they belong in a museum.
For example, the Apple Pippin (1995) was oddly licensed to other manufacturers. It was pricey, less powerful than other consoles, and was badly marketed, according to The Guardian.
Then there was the Nintendo Virtual Boy (1995), which featured a 3D-like display. It also had a high price tag and although it promised to transfer gamers to a "private universe," it delivered nothing but very bad headaches. Virtual Boy was taken off the market after a year.