Topic: According to Sony, the PSX was something else entirely...

[Lumi Kløvstad]

All these years, we've gotten the names wrong.

Shame the OFFICIAL PSX never saw the light of day outside Japan. It would have been a badass product.

The PSX is a fully functional digital video recorder with RF, S-Video and composite inputs. It is able to tune analog VHF and CATV. It comes with a remote control and can be also linked with a PlayStation Portable to transfer videos and music via USB ports. It also features software for video, photo and audio editing.

The PSX supports PlayStation and PlayStation 2 gaming using PlayStation 2-based hardware, with Emotion Engine, Graphics Synthesizer and the I/O processor. It supports online game compatibility using an internal broadband adapter. Games that use the PS2 HDD (for example Final Fantasy XI) are supported as well.

The PSX doesn't include a controller. A special, ceramic-white USB DualShock 2 was released separately. However, original DualShocks are fully supported by two joystick ports in the back side and memory cards are also supported via port in the front side.

The PSX is also known for its introduction of Sony's XMB graphical user interface, used later on PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3, 2008 BRAVIA model TVs and most new Sony devices to date.

Sounds like most of the features they built into this were later reused for the PS3. So we can thank it for at least that much.

[crimsonmist]

i've been actually wondering for a long time why we've all always called the original playstation the psx...
but not me myself though... always called the original playstation the ps1 ever since the dawn of ps2...

[VladCT]

I'd propose renaming what we used to call the PSX to PlayStation Vanilla, but then there's the PlayStation Vita...

[PFG9000]

I remember that, but I thought the PSX was during the tail end of the Playstation's lifespan.  I didn't realize it had PS2 capabilities.  I wondered back when the term PSX first started being applied to the Playstation why that was happening, since I had heard about this other PSX doohickey.  But since then, I've taken to calling the Playstation the PSX, just like everyone else.  Nobody in the USA seems to know anything about the real PSX anyway.

[Darth Cariss]

I've always called it the playstation, and not used the term PSX as I never knew where it came from. At first people just called it the playstation, they didn't use PSX until later on. I always figured maybe that was the smaller version that came out later was called or something.

Now I'm wondering where PSX ever came from...

[Ed Oscuro]

I remember being pissed at Sony for misusing the popular brand term on a one-shot gimmick that they had no intention of supporting, back when this appeared in 2004 (roughly).

(Random A/V equipment thing here) BUT ALSO IT PLAYS GAMES!  is not new for Sony.  They have made oodles of TVs with PlayStations in them, and some Nintendo consoles got in Sony TVs if I remember correctly.  There are even some outlandish things, like a beefed-up MSX2 with extra RAM for video editing and titling use.  In every single damn case they have dropped these like a hot potato.  Why make more when you can just relentlessly cut production cost so you lose less on your console late in its lifespan than at launch?

The "all in one console" that will sell you games, music, and movies from the comfort of your armchair for use on your television was a dream at Sony since the early 1990s (an American named Mickey Schulhof was one of the proponents of the idea, and still is, though he was booted out of Sony partly in connection with the Sony Pictures "fiasco" - at least it was seen that way at the time) but it is only really becoming practical with the widespread adoption of broadband and hard drives in consoles.  It simply would have been too expensive, even in the PS2 days (as the "PSX" demonstrates), to roll it out universally.

For a while Sony had a lot of us talking about PS, PS1, or "PSOne" games, which only pissed me off more.  I'm back to saying PSX without a care.

[GypsyGrifter]

I always knew PSX was something else entirely, didn't know anything about it though. Which is mostly why I've never used the term before. Also partially because, like crimsonmist, I've always said PS1. We have PS2 and PS3, so PS1 makes sense.... I think.

[Abnormal Freak]

Now I'm wondering where PSX ever came from...

The PSX initialism dates much further back than the video recorder system. From what I remember, the PlayStation had the codename PlayStation Experimental or something, hence PSX. It's been known (unofficially, I suppose) as the PSX ever since it's been around.

When Sony started using the "PSone" designation, as Ed Oscuro pointed out, I said, "WHAAAAT IIIIIS THIIIIIS SHIIIIIIT?!" and refused to call it the PS, PS1, or PSone because PSX is how it had always been and will always be what I call it.

[Sumac]

Always was confused why PS1 was called sometimes PSX. Until later I actually found out that PSX is the other version of PS1.
Now it looks like it was something else entirely...

Whatever, I never had original PlayStation and completely missed its generation. Since I started my gaming experience around the time, when PS3 already was around the corner, I always called original PS "PS1" to differentiate it from other PlayStations.

[Kale]

I knew it was something different. Didn't know exactly what, just something about a multimedia player or something.