Credit: Comic Book
The last remnant of a lost timeline.
Back in the early 90s, Nintendo was looking for a partner to produce a CD-based add-on for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Their partner of choice was Sony, and they teamed up to create an add-on tentatively named the “Play Station.” However, at the last minute, Nintendo terminated their partnership with Sony and partnered up with electronics company Phillips. Sony ended up with the PlayStation, and Nintendo and Phillips’ made the CD-I console, which is a tragedy that does not bear repeating. Before all that went down, though, a prototype of the SNES Play Station snuck its way out into the world. That prototype will be sold for what is likely to be a pretty fat stack.
Collector Terry Diebold, who obtained the prototype in 2009 from an abandoned property sale without knowing what it was, announced his intent to auction it off on February 27, 2020. He’s been travelling around the world for a while, testing the waters for buyers, but so far, he hasn’t found a good deal. The console is one-of-a-kind after all, and considering Diebold’s travel expenses, even $1.2 million hasn’t met his standards. To date, the highest recorded auction price for a video game item is $100,150 for a sticker-sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. If Diebold’s ballpark is any indication, we could be in for a record-setting sale.
