Over 20 years ago (1 day counts as “over”, right?) Sony released the original PlayStation console and changed the face of gaming. Thanks in part to Jurassic Park.
This week’s Weekly Famitsu, was dedicated in large part to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Sony’s console. In a recollection of the console’s development, Ken Kutaragi, the father of the PlayStation, wrote this of the first demo of the original console:
On October 28th, 1993, we held what was to be the first PlayStation tech presentation at the Sony HQ auditorium. Be brought altogether 4 test machines. These were prototype models that had not yet undergone large-scale integration where the basic functions were enabled by connecting numerous electronic parts and housed in duralumin racks.
After giving an brief explanation of the tech, we moved the audience to the 4 demo machines that were set up on either side of the stage. As crowds of people gathered around, we began the tech demo.
First, a white circle, triangle, and square appeared on the screen. By using the controller, we showed by moving the camera around that these weren’t flat images, but really a 3D rendered sphere, cone, and cube. After that, we added colourful light sources in the screen to show a demo of shading.
Next, we showed multiple 3D objects on the screen at once to show off the powerful rendering capabilities.
Finally, we showed a 3D image of a tyrannosaurus rex like the one from the movie Jurassic Park that had opened the same year. It wasn’t a basic polygon 3D image, but a realistic image with minute details in the dinosaur’s skin. Then, by using the controller, we began moving the dinosaur in realtime. The dinosaur suddenly began moving forward, roaring and moving its eyes as the software makers simply stood there and watched in silence. It was the same at the other demo machines.
In such a manner, the presentation came to a close. After the last guest had left, we looked at each other nervously wondering “how did it go?” The demo itself went well — in fact you could say it was almost perfect. But maybe it wasn’t very impressive to the audience… We had been expecting a more emotional response and instead, it was as though we had been blown off.
However, as I heard later, apparently, everyone had been so overwhelmed that they couldn’t say anything. From the next day, we got a response that far surpassed our expectations. Our dream began moving towards a reality.
In a separate interview Sony Worldwide Studio top man, Shuhei Yoshida recalls his first memories working with Kutaragi on the original PlayStation. “Mr. Kutaragi said that he wanted to make a machine as powerful as the Silicon Graphics Onyx — a machine that at the time cost over 10 million yen ($100,000) — and sell it for ‘50,000 yen’ ($500). I thought to myself, ‘this man is a liar’.”
Kutaragi has since left Sony after developing the PlayStation 2 and 3. Yoshida still remains at Sony, though through his own admittance, would have thought about retiring if it hadn’t been for Project Morpheus, Sony’s interactive 3D head-mounted display. “On a personal note, I turned 50 this year. When you reach your 50’s all of a sudden you begin to see down the road ahead and I began to think about retiring and considered finding a successor.” Yoshida said with a laugh. “However, once I got involved with the development of the Project Morpheus system, it felt much like what it was like before the release of the original PlayStation, and I began thinking, ‘how cool would it be if this technology became available to everyone.’” Looks like Yoshida’s going to stick around a little longer.
The past 20 years for the PlayStation has been the evolution from CG rendered T-rexes to virtual reality headsets. Here’s to the next 20 years.
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13 responses to “What Jurassic Park Did For The Original PlayStation”
Iirc, the T-Rex demo was part of every PS1?
It was a demo disc – I remember having been given it from a friend who collected gaming magazines, but I’m not sure about it being packed with consoles
Yes! I just remembered the T-Rex demo! It also came with the Manta Ray demo, yeah?
yeah T-rex and Manta Ray! man that was so cool. I remember mine being part of the Console, I don’t recall having to put in a disc to play it… mostly because I couldn’t afford a game with the console -_-‘
I remember this t-rex on the tech demo that came with the original Playstation. The screen was black and the dinosaur comes walking into it, then continues to walk on the spot and you could manipulate it…
What ever happened to tech demos that came with machines that could keep you entertained for hours? The PS4 only has something like 12 demos and it’s been on the market for over a year!
Seriously, that T-Rex demo was amazing… seeing it coming towards you from the ‘darkness’, it was something you couldn’t believe was on a games console (at the time). Then being able to rotate around it, open it’s mouth and everything, it was crazy for the time.
Wow, hasn’t dated as badly as I thought it would, still looks cool.
Looks better then some of the Dino games on steam
A lot of great things have Jurassic Park to thank.
Shoulda opened with the line “Hold onto your butts” right before the t-rex demo.
Good to see the spirit of the ludicrously overblown first impression has been with Sony right from the start 😉
“Sure, every game on the Playstation will look like this awesome T-Rex!”- 1994
“The PS2 will be a billion times more powerful than the Dreamcast, we’ll unveil it when we work out what it actually is in 6 months time.” – March 1999
“The PS3 will have a battarang controller, 25 HDMI ports, 150 USB ports and that Killzone trailer is TOTALLY real time!” – 2006
Looks like its come straight outta Tomb Raider on PS1.
Although it makes me wonder if sony has an underlying obsession with dinosaurs the Xperia Z3 series VR Features a 3D Dinosaur in the camera its quite impressive 🙂
No image of this T-Rex on the PS1?