The PlayStation Classic Could've Been So Much Better
When Sony announced it was stealing a trick from the Nintendo playbook and launching a new (old?) version of their classic PlayStation, gamers got hyped. A miniaturized PS1? YES. Complete with 20 games and two controllers? FUCK. YES. The only way this console could've been a more perfect nostalgia trip was if it came bundled with some Hi-C Ecto Cooler and your lost virginity.
Then details of the console started leaking. It didn't come with a power lead. It couldn't connect to the internet. The games only ran at 50 fps instead of 60. The controllers weren't DualShocks, which meant our thumbs would have to relearn how to use a D-Pad as if we're common savages. Finally, the selection of games were so shockingly bad they should have been announced with a giant middle finger.
Oddworld? Intelligent Qube? Rayman?! We got Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy VII, sure, but where was Tomb Raider or Castlevania or Ape Escape? It's hard to believe there were more people jonesing for a re-release of Grand Theft Auto: The Bad One That Looks Like SimCity than for Crash Bandicoot or Tony Hawk's Pro Skater.
Well, it turns out the PlayStation Classic was supposed to be awesome. Sony just cut all the cool shit during development. Since the company used an open-source emulator to make the Classic, they were required to upload a copy of the console's code to GitHub. When someone took a look through that code, they found a list of 36 games Sony tested on the console during the development process. We're talking titles like Gran Turismo, Legacy Of Kain: Soul Reaver, Medal Of Honor, PaRappa The Rapper, Driver, Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone, Tomb Raider 1 (and 2!), and goddamn Silent Hill.
It's not clear why these games were cut from the final product, but it's likely that Sony was unable to secure the necessary licenses and rights to use certain games from third-party developers, or that the games just flat-out sucked when they were plugged into the shitty emulator software.
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