The Lost PlayStation Console Add-On! - Gaming History Secrets
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- Опубліковано 3 лис 2022
- In this upload, we discuss the Sony PlayStation's parallel port, which was essentially an expansion port allowing other hardware to access the PS1 databus. What was the slot's true purpose, and how did third parties utilise it? We'll look at a gaming mystery that remains unsolved. If you're a PlayStation fan, then this video is a must-watch! #playstation #gaminghistory #ps1
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I have used the parallel port for my plug and play. Playing pirated copies, plain region locked games, and even the cheats were very awesome. The biggest issue was that as you open the disk tray to put in the pirated CD, you had to find a way to close the disc tray to enable the reader. If you close it by itself, it would not read the disk. So often times, we would have to use a toothpick to press the button in the back, so that the disk reader can start reading the pirated disk. I’m pretty sure a few of us in the chat have had to do that in order to play pirated games or pirated copies.
A tiny spring fixed that, open the cover and the spring kept the button down, just wait for slow down-stop to change disc's
Me too I still have mine I bought around 1999. Barely used it, I got it for Dragon ball imports
I only ever used that port for the original GameShark. Which was a great upgrade to the idea of the game genie
same. the live cheat search with gameshark was awesome
Still have mine
My first experience with a playstation was when you find your first zombie in the original Resident Evil. Pretty sure it scarred me for life lol 😆
And the dogs in the corridor outside that room 😱 I recall throwing the controller across the room in terror.
@@timdene yea that part got me too! That game gave me serious anxiety, like a great game should!
Itchy, tasty
@@nameless646 omg the scars!!
My mom's friend had Resident Evil and Casper of all things. At 9 years old I went for Casper 🤣🤣
A dial-up modem or RAM expansion cart are the two most likely candidates from an internal development perspective, especially given that Sega had both for the Saturn from almost the get-go. Odds are Sony sat tight and waited to see the market data from Sega's various efforts to make final judgement calls on the necessary overhead versus return on investment. It was probably the smart move to skip on the modem at the time, but a RAM cart would've been absolutely phenomenal to have.
Yes especially for the 2D fighters
They likely looked at Nintendo with there Ram add-on before releasing there own. The Expansion Pac sold well with Nintendo choosing to pack it in with flagship games that required it.
It's a shame I never had the original Sony PlayStation. Since I got into modding, it's something I would like to do. That console was definitely a "necessity for gracious living"
I had that exact model of the VCD player on my PS1. When my internal modchip started to fail it could be used to play backups too. Amazingly versatile device.
Lady Decade, have you ever heard of the PlayStation Type-C? It was mentioned in, I believe, EGM during the development cycle of Tekken 3 as an updated PSX that had more RAM and a faster CPU. I wanted that thing to come out sooooooo badly!
whoah! im a huge tekken history nerd, and ive never heard of it!
Brave Blade, by 8ing/Raizing uses such a system. It's a souped up psx with more memory and a faster cpu. That game is great, wish I still had it.
@@CykPykMyk not sure if I can post links or not but here we go. LOL. Otherwise if you don't trust the link, and I can't blame you, I found this by Googling Playstation Type-C Tekken 3. Looks like it was a faster CD-ROM, not a CPU upgrade. Posting the link separately so as to not lose this.
Yeah the URL is gone. I tried 🤣
I remember that from the old EGM magazine rumors sections too! I’ve been looking and looking for more info on what that could’ve been. It was rumored that without the add on that Tekken 3 just couldn’t be possible on regular ps1 hardware.
I used to be a freelance writer for certain Official Sony magazines back in the day, and the Parallel Port was indeed used by devs for things like debugging. I personally never saw any of the devices used (being freelance I worked from home). There were the occasional pices of alpha and beta code that needed a dongle in the form of a memory card to run.
I wonder if the weird naming of the port as a parallel port had anything to do with the leftover days of earlier computing where it was mostly parallel processing.
It's related to bus speed. Bits in serial move single file. Parallel ports move bits on multiple channels faster. It's flipped now with USB buses moving much faster.
@@JeffreyPiatt Yes I know what parallel ports are compared to serial ports in the olden days. That's not what I'm referring to. The point here is that it was called a parallel port and it's a bit of a misnomer, as she rightly says in this video. I'm commenting on that.
Maybe it connected to the parallel port on debugging pcs
I don't know anything about ps1 development
@@franciscosoares2440 I don't think so, as the connections aren't the same.
From what I remembered, that port was intended for additional peripheral support. In short, add on's for future tech intended for the PSX. Saturn would similarly have this with the 4 Meg cart inserted in the back where its memory card would go. Sadly, nothing could push the PSX like that add on, yet the Action Play/ Game Sharks did help play import games. I abuse it to this day.
I had a friend that told me about a mod device (Game Hunter) that plugged into the parallel I/O port and got one then. It was like the year 2001 and was real cheap that allowed to play back up discs, Game Shark codes and watch FMV and music files off a game disc including a burned game. I still have it today and still has codes I entered in 2001. Buddy had a CD burner then and made me burned games as long as I let him copy all my collection. A CD burner was EXPENSIVE so it was a blessing having a friend that was into computers. I loved renting games and not playing the original with only making a copy and returning. Racked up a lot of games, fun times!
I have the exact same story, but I don't have the PS or the mod chip anymore.
@@callumcc8897 It had Game Shark capabilities as well as Action Replay but was branded as Game Hunter
@@roger2602 Yea it saved me a lot of money in those days. It also came with a spring to allow you to keep the door open and keep the lid switch pressed in. You still have to boot with an original PS1 disc to play burned discs. It would spin the original for like 3 seconds and stop to remove and place the bootleg.
That’s where I plug in my gameshark in, hasn’t been unused since I got my gameshark 😂
I had a blast using my game shark on that port to do things in FF VII, like bring Aeris back to life
Rad video. Your doing a good job finding fresh topics other you tubers don’t discuss.
To me it’s the cheat cartridge slot lol
My dad passed down his original PlayStation 1 to me and what’s awesome about it is that it’s got that I/O port! I could play games off an SD card if I wanted to!
I used the parallel port for my GameShark. Never had to remove it and could be turned off with a switch. Still use it today!
I used to plug in my GameShark in the parallel port
Thanks for the great memories. 😁 Excellent memories about that blessed port.
I still have my action replay that used to plug in the parallel port as well as my original PS1, sadly the laser has completely died over the years.
I bought an action replay the same month I bought my PS1 pretty much back in the summer of '98 and enjoyed its benefits from watching STR videos to listening to in-game STR music, using cheat codes, browsing discs for stuff, it was simply amazing.
It was so impressive to me having a fully fledged file browser on a console similar to NC on PC.
You're videos are amazing.
My guess is the Parallel I/O port was much like the hidden port on the NES. Sony was probably just thinking ahead. In case they ever did decide to release some type of add on for the console, they'd have a port to connect it to, but then later decided they weren't gonna use it so the later PS1s had it removed. Whether or not Sony ever made an add-on that used the Parallel I/O port or planned to make one that used it is anyone's guess.
I have a similar model version. Cool to know. Thanks for sharing 👍🏽
I remember getting that in 1995 I think, I had Tekken, Die Hard trilogy, and Destruction Derby. To begin with.
Die hard trilogy was such an amazing experience. I had the gun for one of them and the steering wheel for another.
I used that slot to plug in my Gameshark device!
To be actually exact, the PSIO is more of a flashcart like an everdrive than a development tool, even if you can put your own games in an SD card. It's clunky because every time you need to test your game you have to copy the game onto the SD card. And also, the PSIO (as I know) does not feature any debugging capabilities.
But the Xplorer FX, the cheat cartridge, can be actually used as a proper development tool. You need a chipped PS1, or a way to play burned CD-Rs, to be able to run the flashing program for the Xplorer FX.
Once flashed, the Xplorer FX can be used as many things : an action replay cheat device, a VRAM viewer, kind of a memory card manager and of course, a development tool.
You use it with an old PC with a parallel port (the big VGA looking printer port) and you can transfer your game and play it directly on the playstation without needing to either copy it again and again onto an SD card, or burning CD-Rs (that would be a waste).
That was the precision comment of a PS1 homebrew developper !
I still have a device that that uses that port that was not mentioned, it is called the V-mem from InterAct it had virtual memory cards and if I remember correctly it held about 80 memory cards worth of saves on it.
@ladydecade My nostalgia just went off the roof I mean I remember being 3 years holding the PS1 controller playing Tekken that was 95 😆.
I bought a gameshark in like '98 or '99. Good times.
Had it, used a GameShark and a Game Wizard Pro to play imports, game copies, and view the game files on discs.
Friend had a disk drive for games saves instead of using memory card.
I used the slot for GameShark and importing games.
I remember that me and my brothers used the Port Game Shark and watched Wild Wild West on VCD with this Adapter one time.
I used the parallel port to connect an MP3 player that had a built in Action replay. I had an Amiga at the time with an 040 accelerator that was too under powered for playing MP3's at full stereo quality so i would use the Playstation with MP3 player to listen to music.
The parallel port should’ve been used for a ram expansion unit just like the Sega Saturn and the Nintendo 64.
There is more to the Xplorer than mentioned. You can connect it to a win 9x pc and scan the ram to create cheats or even edit ram on the fly! You can also iirc grab screenshots from ut. It is a very cool tool.
The slot exists imo for Sony to create a hardware expansion. They never did but 3rd parties took advantage.
"What's this for?"
...My Gameshark to plug in, silly!
I remember having a GameShark and plugging it in the parallel port. Other than that, I've never used it for anything else. Figured Sony would release something that would make use of it. It would've been nice if they made RAM carts similar to Sega Saturn, or graphic boosters.
Same with the GameShark
Lmao, the good old Game Shark port!
And when the PSone model rolled out, Code Sharks worked with a disc and memory card, you swapped out the disc with a game disc after you picked your cheats to play with.
Parallel port works with original game shark or codebreaker. I had one.
@ 1:49 that port was the slot that the GAMESHARK originally went into
Keep up the good work lass and, as always, stay safe!
My mom bought me it at launch, for $599ish in Canada, included a memory card seperate, plus a seperate Ridge Racer. I got it for graduating from grade 9 to grade 10. Aren't mom's awesome.
VCD takes me back watching 007 the world is not enough on the PS1
There's an intersting third party accessory for that port made some years ago, named PSIO, you put PSX isos on it and...
The explorer fx now that takes me back to my childhood 😂😂😂
Outstanding 😎👌👍
You forgot another device that uses the port. VMem Virtual Memory Card System for PS1 can be use and its gives you 60 virtual memory cards for your games to use. I have couple of these and they work really good. You can turn on or off the real memory card slots and use the virtual memory slots instead. You can copy back n forth from both card system.
Milady, I don't think my Playstation had the parallel port. I bought mine in 1998. Great presentation.
Ahh the good old Parallel port.. Wouldnt have been able buy so many games on my paper round wages without you xD
I have a second-model PS1 with the parallel port. Only ever used it for a GameShark.
I always used it for my Gameshark, I was kind of hoping there was going to be a megabyte upgrade for like X-Men versus Street Fighter when it came out but, only for the Saturn. And that's why I bought my Sega Saturn LOL
I honestly didn't even realize that Port was ever there. Maybe my family had a PS1 that didn't have that port. That's cool to know that there are people still making use of it even today even though the PS1 is getting close to 30 years old now
It was only on the first generation model, the SCPH 100x
God, the Super GB booster, it's been soo long since I've heard that name.
Discovering yet even more cancelled/unreleased hardware add ons are the real necessities of gracious living!
They should have just used the circuit-board, edging out the tracks, like Sinclair Spectrum. That way they could have kept prices down and also allowed for the feature of mounting devices.
I don't know what was that thing but my uncle used it for watching VCD for the playstation
My 1st playstation I had was the OG! it had the Yellow white and red metal circles built onto the system. Was bluky, was before the dual shock was even thought of! It was a few years before the Dual Analog controller came out! Was a double stick controller that had plastic tips that grooved in instead of the outward rubber gripped sticks were all so familiar with now. There was a Green and Red setting for the ANALOG on button.
I got one the same night "SF EX plus alpha" came out. We traded lots of stuff in ti be able to get the game and needed a 2nd controller and that was the unit one they had. Never knew it would be this lost piece of PS history!🤷♂️😯😳
Very cool 😎
I bought a PS game shark that connected in the port, back in the days, it came with a spring that i had to insert in the cd door mechanism, the spring was always pushing on the switch inside the door, telling the PS that the cd was always closed, so with the game shark in place I would boot the PS with an original cd, once booted I could open the door and swap a copy , close the door and play the copied game
The SD!2 Know your rule soundtrack in the background
I used it with my gameshark, thats how I discovered it even had that port.
the first progamme i watched with you talking about that "Saturn want all rubbish really... still i think I have figured out that PlayStation in truth seems to be an all time fave for you AM I RIGHT?
I have a gut feeling
I used the Explorer to play my Japanese copy of MGS on my pal console. Was well strange, I had to leave the disc drive cover open while tricking the system in to thinking it was closed by using a spring to hold down a notch inside the drive. Then I would start the system with a pal game and then after the boot up logo I swapped the discs to MGS and it would run. It played in black and white. Felt strange playing in colour when I got the pal version a few years late 😂 Also used it on ff7 to explore the debug menu and add stuff to the game. Shame I could get sephiroth in my squad, but he wasn’t controllable, he’d do his own thing lol
I remember the first time I have unboxed my PS1 when I was young, I was stuck on that parallel port wondering what it was used for… I read the manual and everything were clearer 😂 Make me laughed when you said the same!
I used it on mine i had a memory card HDD that had about 100 virtual memory cards and you could save on any of them i mainly used it for monster rancher and save often to keep using rare monsters that died but this time take better care of them or dont fight them anymore and use them to mix with other monters
I had a clone of the Super GB Booster that seemed to be a crappy emulator soc. The worst part is it just repeatedly played a 25 second clip of some crappy tracked chiptune. I always figured the port was for a modem.
the parallel Isis/Osiris worked for Gameshark connection
As a kid I had a cheatcode device that plugged into that port.
For me, it was for Gameshark and playing games imported from Japan.
Dunno, but my pro action replay connected to it, allowed me to use codes, and to play games out of my region.
I figured they included it just to give them options down the line even if they didn’t necessarily have plans at launch e.g. if devs started complaining about RAM they could release a RAM addon down the line.
Ram card will work. Sony missed out on that opportunity when the saturn and n64 l had Ram Expansion externally.
That back port is used to put video game enhancer to make Japanese and PAL games work in the system
What if that port was a leftover from the SNES colab that sony did with nintendo?
I have a X-ploder, It was great to use!
What a dirty old slot, taken it from multiple hardwares
I have this model, bought it in 1996.
I always automatic assume parallel ports are for software/ hardware diagnostic and flashing for the developers.
Wow many things i didn't know about the psx1,nice to know,i play a bit of psx1 trough emu now days and had it in 98,medievil 1&2 were the best for me next to mgs and mgsvrm !! WOW GAMEBOY GAMES ON THE PLAYSTATION WOW
It has to be for either a modem add-on or perhaps a pc adapter. I don’t see why it would be for debugging since that’s what dev units are for and wouldn’t be needed for a commercial product. I am leaning heavily with online because there were consoles before that tried it as well (Sony channel, Nindendo satellite whatever, etc). Perhaps they then realized how well those turned out for their competitors and decided that it wasn’t the right time for it. That OR that they saw that software devs weren’t going to be making enough games to utilize it for it to be worthwhile to introduce.
Still have the GB player I bought way back in 2000 from GAME in the UK. Isn't fantastic, but just kinda neat.
Very nice video. Thanks. Love your curly hair. 😍
Lady decade!!!!! I miss the channel so much!!! It's great to be back
back when expansion ports existed but only a few used them
I had the original gameshark that operated on that port
1995 I got my self my first playstation. I packed up Sega CD and became a big time fan. My buddy went to Nintendo 64 and enjoying his Golden Eye! That was the only game I liked for that system. My first game was Dark Forces! Rebel assault 2 was next. Then sports games. Golf, John Madden NFL, triple play baseball and NBA basketball. Then 1996 RESIDENT EVIL! ALL my buddies loved this game. Metal gear solid. Rainbow 6 1 and Navy Seals! We played on PS live with the head mic. Playing other people over seas. And the rest is history. My PS1 died in 2002. So I picked the PS2 great system to. The DVD player had problems working. I sent it back as ND they gave me new PS2. No cost. That same year Xbox! That ruled we played that system more than the PS2. Xbox live and better graphics. But Resident Evil ruled over Xbox. We went to play RE2, 3,4, 5 and 6.
ez that slot is where the external mod chip plugs in so you can play burned games!
The VCD cards were all kinds of ridiculous back in the day. The quality was amazing.
I never knew about the V-cd or game boy add on.
I now could play Game Boy on my Playstation, and Playstation on my Dreamcast, and Dreamcast on my MacBook with an Xbox One controller…
Honestly I'm not at all surprised all game industries try with game add ons and sometimes they worked and sometimes they sucked but seeing a psx add on doesn't surprise me I grew up with the PS2 and Gameboy advance and GameCube all had add ons that I never knew also great video lady decade
I had one ofthose ps1, mine was used foe an exploder cart which is a games genie really :) :) :)
I am not Lady Decade, but I am the Green Koopa
I remember having an add on in order to play the imported dragon ball z game my parents aquired for me.
I only bought PSX for their VCD and then was told it was removed from the UK version, but still charged us the prices of a version built in. Sony still do this now, ps3 fans were better in Japan.
Now u can alot more like hdmi mod n removing the cd drive to add a device that lets u add sd card
I use that port for my original gameshark.
I'm guessing they were thinking of one and saw how Sega 32x and Sega CD flopped and decided add ons consoles weren't good until we get PlayStation vr
I used mine to play and insert VCD adaptor.
i have a device that hook's in the back of the PlayStation called gold finger. a friend of mine gave me this. the gold finger let's me do the swap disc trick with burn PlayStation cd's.
I very highly doubt it was meant for debugging. I think it's pretty clear that it was intended for some kind of add-on or accessory, and I would have to agree with those theorizing it was probably intended for online purposes. My guess is either online multiplayer or a downloadable game service similar to the Sega Channel. Or perhaps it was intended for a device that boosted the console's power in some way, or an external hard drive.
I had both the game shark and vcd player that I donated to RMC!