Titles

Titles

See also: Chronology of PlayStation games and List of PlayStation 1 games

As of September 30th 2007, a total of 7,978 software titles have been released worldwide (counting games released in multiple regions as separate titles). As of March 31, 2007, the cumulative software shipment was at 962 million units. The very last game for the system released in the United States was FIFA Football 2005.[citation needed]

The OK and Cancel buttons on most of the Japanese PlayStation games are reversed in their North American and European releases. In Japan, the button (maru, right) is used as the OK button, while the button (batsu, wrong) is used as Cancel. North American and European releases have the button or the buttons as the OK button, while either the or the buttons are used as Cancel. However, a few games such as Squaresoft's Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy VII, and Final Fantasy Tactics, Namco's Ridge Racer Type 4 and Konami's Metal Gear Solid, have the buttons remain in the same Japanese configuration in their North American and European releases. These Japanese button layouts still apply to other PlayStation consoles, such as the PlayStation Portable (PSP), PlayStation 2 and the PlayStation 3. This is because in the early years Sony America (SCEA), Sony Europe (SCEE) and Sony Japan (SCEJ) had different development and testing documents (TRCs) for their respective territories.

Production Run

Lasting over 11 years, the PlayStation enjoyed one of the longest production runs in the video game industry. On March 23, 2006, Sony announced the end of production. However, the last game for the PlayStation was released on September 29, 2006.

Variants

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removed. (October 2008)

Developer's kit PlayStation.

The PlayStation went through a number of variants during its production run, each accompanied by a change in the part number. From an external perspective, the most notable change was the gradual reduction in the number of external connectors on the unit. This started very early on—the original Japanese launch units (SCPH-1000) had an S-Video port, which was removed on the next release. This also led to the strange situation where the US and European launch units had the same part number series (SCPH-100x) as the Japanese launch units, but had different hardware (Rev. C silicon and no S-Video port)—they were the same as the Japanese SCPH-3000, so for consistency should have been SCPH-3001 and SCPH-3002 (this numbering was used for the Yaroze machines, which were based on the same hardware and numbered DTL-H3000, DTL-H3001, and DTL-H3002). Also, the first models (DTL-H1000, DTL-H1001, DTL-H1002) had some problems with printf() function and developers had to use another function instead. This series of machines had a reputation for CD drive problems—the optical pickup sled was made of thermoplastic, and eventually developed wear spots that moved the laser into a position where it was no longer parallel with the CD surface—a modification was made that replaced the sled with a die-cast one with hard nylon inserts, which corrected the problem.

With the release of the next series (SCPH-500x), the numbers moved back into sync. A number of changes were made to the unit internally (CD drive relocated, shielding simplified, PSU wiring simplified) and the RCA jacks and RFU power connectors were removed from the rear panel. This series also contained the SCPH-550x and SCPH-555x units, but these appear to have been bundle changes rather than actual hardware revisions.

These were followed by the SCPH-700x and SCHP-750x series—they are externally identical to the SCPH-500x machines, but have internal changes made to reduce manufacturing costs (for example, the system RAM went from 4 chips to 1, and the CD controller went from 3 chips to 1).

The final revision to the original PlayStation was the SCPH-900x series—these had the same hardware as the SCPH-750x machines with the exception of the removal of the parallel port and a slight reduction in the size of the PCB. The removal of the parallel port was probably partly because no official add-on had ever been released for it, and partly because it was being used to connect cheat cartridges that could be used to defeat the copy prevention.

The PS one was based on substantially the same hardware as the SCPH-750x and 900x, but had the serial port removed, the controller / memory card ports moved to the main PCB and the power supply replaced with a DC-DC converter that was also on the main PCB.

With the early units, many gamers experienced skipping full-motion video or dreaded physical "ticking" noises coming from their PlayStations. The problem appears to have come from poorly placed vents leading to overheating in some environments—the plastic moldings inside the console would warp very slightly and create knock-on effects with the laser assembly. The solution was to ensure the console was sat on a surface which dissipated heat efficiently in a well vented area, or raise the unit up slightly by propping something at its edges. A common fix for already affected consoles was to turn the PlayStation sideways or upside-down (thereby using gravity to cancel the effects of the warped interior) although some gamers smacked the lid of the PlayStation to make a game load or work.

Earliest series had potentiometers on the board for adjusting the reading mechanism, named BIAS, GAIN and an unknown one. By connecting a voltmeter between the upper-most metering point near the BIAS potentiometer and the chassis, the resulting voltage could be read. The supposed right values are 1.70V when a CD is spinning at 1x speed and

1.85V when a CD is spinning at 2x speed. Further tuning was also possible on the unique potentiometer present on the CD drive. Later series featured an automatic laser calibration mechanism.

Sony then released a version dubbed "Dual Shock", which included a controller with two analog sticks and a built-in force-feedback feature.

Another version that was colored blue (as opposed to regular console units that were grey in color) was available to game developers and select press. Later versions of this were colored green—on a technical level, these units were almost identical to the retail units, but had a different CD controller in them that did not require the region code found on all pressed disks, since they were intended to be used with CD-R media for debugging. This also allowed the use of discs from different regions, but this was not officially supported; different debug stations existed for each region. The two different color cases were not cosmetic—the original blue debug station (DTL-H100x, DTL-H110x) contained "Revision B" silicon, the same as the early retail units (these units had silicon errata that needed software workarounds), the green units (DTL-H120x) had Rev. C hardware. As part of the required tests, the user had to test the title on both. Contrary to popular belief, the RAM was the same as the retail units at 2 MB. The firmware was nearly identical—the only significant change was that debug printf()s got sent to the serial port if the title didn't open it for communications—this used a DTL-H3050 serial cable (the same as the one used for the Yaroze).

A white version was also produced that had the ability to play VCDs—this was only sold in Asia, since that format never really caught on anywhere else. From a developer perspective, the white PSX could be treated exactly like any other NTSC:J PlayStation.

Some audiophiles claim that the PS1 with a model number of SCPH-1001 is a superior sounding compact disc player rivaling audiophile CD players from high end audio manufacturers.

"Chipped" consoles

The installation of a modchip allowed the PlayStation's capabilities to be expanded, and several options were made available. By the end of the system's life cycle almost anyone with minimal soldering experience was able to realize the modification of the console. Such a modification allowed the playing of games from other regions, such as PAL titles on a NTSC console, or allowed the ability to play copies of original games without restriction. Modchips allow the playing of games recorded on a regular CD-R. This created a wave of games developed without official approval using free GNU compiler tools, as well as the reproduction of original discs. With the introduction of such devices the console was very attractive to programmers and illegal

copiers alike.

Anyone seeking to create copies of games that would work correctly faced several issues at the time, as the discs that were produced by Sony were designed to be difficult to copy — and impossible to copy on recordable media. Discs were manufactured with a black-colored plastic, transparent only to the infrared radiation used by the CD-ROM drive's laser. This was found to offer little protection. Additionally, the discs were mastered with a specific wobble in the lead-in area. This wobble encodes a four-character sequence which is checked by the CD-ROM drive's controller chip. The drive will only accept the disc if the code is correct. This string varies depending on the region of the disk—"SCEI" for NTSC:J machines, "SCEA" for NTSC:U/C machines, "SCEE" for PAL machines and "SCEW" for the Net Yaroze. Since the tracking pattern is pressed into the disc at the time of manufacture, this cannot be reproduced on a CD-R recorder. Some companies (notably Datel) did manage to produce discs that booted on unmodified retail units, but this required special equipment and can only be done with "pressed" discs. However, inexpensive modchips were created that simply injected the code to the appropriate connections to the controller chip, which provided an easy way of bypassing these measures. The other issue is that most PC drives used Mode 1 or Mode 2/Form 1 (2048 bytes/sector) and the PSX uses a mixed-mode format with most data in Mode 2/Form 1 and streaming audio/video data in Mode 2/Form 2, which most CD-R drives at the time could not handle well. Newer drives were able to correctly handle these variations.

The creation and mass-production of these inexpensive modchips, coupled with their ease of installation, marked the beginning of widespread console videogame copyright infringement. Also, CD burners were made available around this time. Prior to the PlayStation, the reproduction of copyrighted material for gaming consoles was restricted to either enthusiasts with exceptional technical ability, or others that had access to CD manufacturers. With this console, amateurs could replicate anything Sony was producing for a mere fraction of the MSRP.

Swap Trick

On earliest series, SCPH-100X and SCPH-3000, it was possible to launch games burned on CD-R without any mod-chip. The trick consisted in starting the console with no game, then going to the CD player application. After inserting an original game, using a small object like a match or a spring, make the lid contactor go down to simulate a closed lid. The CD would spin up and stop, after it was exchanged by another game this time burned on a CD-R. After exiting the CD player application, the PlayStation loads the game thinking it's an original CD. On later series, this trick was defeated, though it was still possible to realise a double-swap which consisted of launching an original game, the two times the CD-ROM spins to 2x speed and lowers to 1x speed, the original game was exchanged by a copy, twice. This defeated the tighter verifications on newer series, but at a price of wearing out the CD-ROM motor.

Net Yaroze

A version of the PlayStation called the Net Yaroze was also produced. It was more expensive than the original PlayStation, colored black instead of the usual gray, and most importantly, came with tools and instructions that allowed a user to be able to program PlayStation games and applications without the need for a full developer suite, which cost many times the amount of a PlayStation and was only available to approved video game developers. Naturally, the Net Yaroze lacked many of the features the full developer suite provided. Programmers were also limited by the 2 MB of total game space that Net Yaroze allowed. The amount of space may seem small, but games like Ridge Racer ran entirely from the system RAM (except for the streamed music tracks). It was unique in that it was the only officially retailed Sony PlayStation with no regional lockout; it would play games from any territory. It would not however play CDR discs, so it was not possible to create self-booting Yaroze games without a modified Playstation.

PS one with LCD screen and a DualShock controller.

PS one

The PS one (also PSone, PSOne, or PS1), launched in 2000, is Sony's smaller (and redesigned) version of its PlayStation video game console. The PS one is considerably smaller than the original PlayStation (dimensions being 38 mm × 193 mm × 144 mm versus 45 mm × 260 mm × 185 mm). It was released on July 7, 2000, and went on to outsell all other consoles—including Sony's own brand-new PlayStation 2—throughout the remainder of the year. Sony also released a small LCD screen and an adaptor to power the unit for use in cars. The PS one is fully compatible with all PlayStation software. The PlayStation is now officially abbreviated as the "PS1" or "PS one."[citation needed] There were three differences between the "PS one" and the original, the first one being cosmetic change to the console, the second one was the home menu's Graphical User Interface, and the third being added protection against the modchip by changing the internal layout and making previous-generation modchip devices unusable. The PS one also lacks the original PlayStation's parallel and serial ports. The serial port allowed multiple consoles to be connected for multiplayer or for connecting a console to debugging software.

Summary of PlayStation models

The last digit of the PlayStation model number denotes the region in which it was sold:

• 0 is Japan (Japanese boot ROM, NTSC:J region, NTSC Video, 100V PSU)
• 1 is USA/Canada (English boot ROM, NTSC:U/C region, NTSC Video, 110V PSU)
• 2 is Europe/PAL (English boot ROM, PAL region, PAL Video, 220V PSU)
• 3 is Asia (Japanese boot ROM, NTSC:J region, NTSC video, 220V PSU)