We've all heard about the legendary Nintendo PlayStation console, the equivalent of catching Mew in Pokémon Red & Blue. You might have seen different variations popping up on the internet or on second-hand auction sites over the years, but the original, the granddaddy of the tech, is the Sony MSF-1, and it's arrived at the National Video Game Museum in Frisco, Texas, where it can be preserved forevermore.
The MSF-1 is where plans for Sony and Nintendo's hybrid console all started. It's hard to believe that Nintendo and Sony were going to release this console back in the 90s considering the fierce rivalry that started soon after. The MSF-1 is a reminder that, at one point, however, the two gaming giants were friends.
BREAKING: The NVM has acquired the mythical Nintendo Playstation! 🤯
— National Videogame Museum (@nvmusa) March 4, 2026
This Sony MSF-1 is the OLDEST known existing Nintendo Playstation hardware artifact, and is the original development system for Sony’s planned Super Nintendo CD attachment. It is the ONLY known unit to exist!… pic.twitter.com/9JQyCsFtxc
To go a little deeper, the MSF-1 is the original development system for the Super Nintendo CD attachment. Our friends over at Console Variations have some images of the controllers that it would have used too, with the pads looking like a hybrid of a Sega Genesis pad crossed with a SNES remote and a flattened PS1 controller.
The wildest thing is that this is the only Sony MSF-1 known to exist in the world. One of the actual prototypes of the finished machine sold at auction for $300,000 back in 2020, so I can only imagine what the very first prototype of the console would cost if it were ever sold.
Knowing that, I'm glad that it's been preserved by the NVM so that future generations can soak up this piece of gaming history. It's a reminder of what could have been if Ninty and Sony remained friends, and no matter what they tell you, its existence proves that they were once a team, and I hope that one day they can be once again.
