Nintendo PlayStation Prototype's CD Drive Finally Reads Data. Hardware hacker Ben Heck gets the Nintendo PlayStation in working order after months of work.

It was no small feat when Terry and Dan Diebold got their hands on a prototype of the fabled Nintendo PlayStation, but there has always been a catch to it: its signature feature, the CD drive ...

Prototype Nintendo PlayStation is real but the CD drive doesn't work By Shawn Knight November 6, 2015, 17:45. Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years.

Although the SuperStation One lacks a CD-ROM drive and doesn't ship with any copyrighted material, games, or software, users can load "backups" of PS1 games and ROMs via the microSD slot or USB drive.

The fabled SNES-PlayStation prototype has been turned on and disassembled Prototype plays SNES games, but CD drive is non-functional for now.

The SNES-CD system dates back to 1991 when Nintendo was still holding tight to the cartridge format while Sega was looking at all types of add-ons to the Genesis.

Those Playstation CD-ROM drives were notorious for melting back in the day, so it’s no surprise they’re still for sale today. Thus, he was able to bring the Sony back to life.

Still, the CD-ROM drive itself wouldn't spin up, and a system check mode failed on the "CD I/F" test. The system was sending commands to the CD drive but not receiving any responses back.