The Best Spot on The Net: PlayStation

History:

The first conceptions of the PlayStation date back to 1986 in Japan where it was created. Nintendo had been attempting to work with disc technology since the Famicom, but the medium had problems. Its rewritable magnetic nature could be easily erased (thus leading to a lack of durability), and the discs were a copyright infringement danger. Consequently, when details of CDROM/XA (an extension of the CD-ROM format that combines compressed audio, visual, and computer data, allowing all to be accessed simultaneously) came out, Nintendo was interested. CD-ROM/XA was being simultaneously developed by Sony and Philips. Nintendo approached Sony to develop a CD-ROM add-on, tentatively titled the "SNES-CD". A contract was signed, and work began. Nintendo's choice of Sony was due to a prior dealing: Ken Kutaragi, the person who would later be dubbed "The Father of PlayStation", was the individual who had sold Nintendo on using the Sony SPC-700 processor for use as the eight-channel ADPCM sound synthesis set in the Super Famicom/SNES console through an impressive demonstration of the processor's capabilities.

Sony also planned to develop a Super Famicom-compatible, Sony-branded console, but one which would be more of a home entertainment system playing both Super Nintendo cartridges and a new CD format which Sony would design. This was also to be the format used in SNES-CD discs, giving a large degree of control to Sony despite Nintendo's leading position in the video gaming market.

The SNES-CD was to be announced at the May 1991 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). However, when Hiroshi Yamauchi read the original 1988 contract between Sony and Nintendo, he realized that the earlier agreement essentially handed Sony complete control over any and all titles written on the SNES CD-ROM format. Yamauchi decided that the contract was totally unacceptable and he secretly canceled all plans for the joint Nintendo-Sony SNES CD attachment. Instead of announcing a partnership between Sony and Nintendo, at 9 a.m. the day of the CES, Nintendo chairman Howard Lincoln stepped onto the stage and revealed that Nintendo was now allied with Philips, and Nintendo was planning on abandoning all the previous work Nintendo and Sony had accomplished. Lincoln and Minoru Arakawa had, unbeknownst to Sony, flown to Philips headquarters in Europe and formed an alliance of a decidedly different nature—one that would give Nintendo total control over its licenses on Philips machines.

After the collapse of the joint project, Sony considered halting their research, but ultimately the company decided to use what they had developed so far and make it into a complete, stand-alone console. As a result, Nintendo filed a lawsuit claiming breach of contract and attempted, in US federal court, to obtain an injunction against the release of the PlayStation, on the grounds that Nintendo owned the name. The federal judge presiding over the case denied the injunction and, in October 1991, the first incarnation of the new PlayStation was revealed. However, it is theorized that only 200 or so of these machines were ever produced.

By the end of 1992, Sony and Nintendo reached a deal whereby the "PlayStation" would still have a port for SNES games, but Nintendo would own the rights and receive the bulk of the profits from the games, and the SNES would continue to use the Sony-designed audio chip. However, Sony decided in early 1993 to begin reworking the "PlayStation" concept to target a new generation of hardware and software. As part of this process the SNES cartridge port was dropped and the space between the names was removed, thereby ending Nintendo's involvement with the project.

Specifications:

Analog Joystick.
Controller.
Memory Card.
Link Cable.
Mouse with Pad.
RFU Adaptor.
Multitap Unit.
R3000A.
32 bit RISC processor.
Clock- 33.8688MHz.
Operating performance - 30 MIPS.
Instruction Cache - 4 KB.
Data Cache - 1 KB.
BUS - 132 MB/sec.
Data Transfer Rate (DMA TO RAM) 150 KB/sec. (Normal) 300 KB/sec. (Double speed).
Maximum Capacity - 660 Megabytes.
Features Audio CD play XA Interactive Audio.
Control Pad Two control pad connectors Expandable with multitap connector.
Backup RAM Two removable cards 128 KB Flash Memory OS support for File Save, Retrieve and Remove.
Serial Port I/O Link Cable Connectivity.
Main RAM: 2 Megabytes Video RAM: 1 Megabyte Sound RAM: 512 Kilobytes CD ROM buffer: 32 Kilobytes OS ROM: 512 Kilobytes
24 Channels.
44.1KHz sample rate.
PCM audio source.
Digital effects include: Envelope Looping Digital Reverb.
Load up to 512K of sampled waveforms Supports MIDI Instruments.

Emulator:

ePSXe is considered to be best Playstation emulator. It plays most commercial games so it wont let you down. Make sure to also download and configure the plugins playstation bios otherwise ePSXe will not work!.

ePSXe (enhanced PSX emulator) is an emulator of the PlayStation video game console for x86-based PC hardware. It was written by three authors, using the aliases "Calb", "_Demo_", and "Galtor". It has been described as the best freeware Playstation emulator available.

ePSXe makes use of a plugin system to emulate GPU, SPU, and CD drive functions, similar to the model first introduced in PSEmu Pro. This approach is also taken in PCSX, PCSX2, and Project64. ePSXe is closed source with the exception of the application programming interface (API) for its plugins.