The PlayStation was a video game console first released by Sony in Japan on 3 December 1994, and in the UK and Europe the following September. The unit was first conceived in 1986, when Sony began working with Nintendo to create a game console that could use discs as media, rather than traditional cartridges. However, when the partnership with Nintendo fell through, Sony decided to use what they had developed so far and release their own console.
The PlayStation was hugely successful on launch, mainly due to its competitive pricing ($US299, compared with the Sega Saturn which sold at US$399) and its massive range of titles that covered almost every genre. The PlayStation soon claimed the number one videogame console sales position over the Saturn, going on to maintain its position even after the eventual release of Nintendo's 64-bit console in 1997.
In March 2005, the PlayStation (and its smaller, lighter variant, the PSone) became the first home console to sell more than 100 million units. Production of the popular console was finally ceased in March 2006, after 11 years - making it one of the longest production runs in the videogame industry.
Games
Popular titles for the PlayStation included Tomb Raider, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Crash Bandicoot, Resident Evil, Wipeout and Silent Hill, with Gran Turismo and Final Fantasy VII being two of the highest sellers. Games that received particularly high critical acclaim included:
An engine inside the main CPU chip that gave the additional (vector-) maths instructions needed for 3D graphics.
* These figures were given by Sony for optimal circumstances, but were unrealistic under normal usage.
An engine inside the main CPU responsible for decompressing images and video.
This chip was separate to the CPU and handled all the 2D graphics processing, including the transformed 3D polygons.
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