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Sony almost crammed a PlayStation inside a DualShock controller, it has been revealed.
The unreleased hardware was shown off by former Sony and DMA Design staffer Brian 'Biscuit' Watson at an event hosted at The Retro Collective museum in the UK (thanks, GamesRadar).
Intended solely for release in Brazil, the "PlayStation PUGA" would have come with ten pre-loaded PS1 games and isn't a million miles away from those cheap-and-cheerful Atari, Capcom and Namco plug-and-play micro-consoles that were all the rage a decade or so ago.
Watson reveals that the prototype (which sadly no longer works) is powered by a TI-OMAP 3530 system-on-a-chip with an ARM CPU and runs off four AA batteries. It connects to the TV via a composite cable.
"Yes, it's a PlayStation controller, but it's a PlayStation controller with PS1 inside of it," says Watson. "It worked off batteries; it was specifically for the Brazilian market, because they had import restrictions, so the consoles you could only get on the grey or black market there."
So, why did this never make it to market? Well, Watson says that was Sony's fault. "The unfortunate problem is that Sony licensing couldn't get their act together about the royalty terms for each of the games."
Watson clearly felt the device could be a success, as he reveals that he "almost left Sony over that one."
The developer has titles such as Lemmings, Turok 2: Seeds of Evil, Shadow Man, Re-Volt and Medal of Honor: Rising Sun to his name, and has been working in the industry for over 40 years.