PS Vita prototype video resurfaces
A video of an early prototype of the PS Vita has resurfaced recently. The original video, credited to website assemblergames.com, had been published mid 2015. But was quickly made private after news sites caught on, potentially out of fear of legal impact. Assemblergames.com reuploaded the video last week, it’s a good opportunity for those of you who had only seen a few screenshots of the PS Vita prototype, to see the full video.
PS Vita Prototype – What the Vita could have been
For those of us who have dug into the Vita for hacking purposes, and who are in general interested in the Vita scene, the features showcased in the video shouldn’t surprise you much. Nevertheless, it shows what the Vita could have been…
The prototype PS Vita has a design that is very close to that of the PSP Go, with a sliding screen. Rumors said that sony had to cancel this design because of overheating risks. I love the PSP Go design and I’m sad they had to give that up for the Vita.
The Video also shows that the PS Vite prototype uses SD Card instead of Sony’s proprietary memory cards. Sony coming up with yet another proprietary format for the PS Vita, which wasn’t compatible with their former Memory Stick format, contributed to the poor sales of the PS Vita in my opinion. At this point it almost looks like the retail Vita is a crippled version, compared to the prototype.
There’s also a bunch of pretty cool leds on the prototype, probably used to debug the booting and power sequence. Yes, the blue/orange led we have today is probably cooler and more “end user” friendly, but I love how all the test leds light like a Christmas tree during the power sequence.
From the software perspective, no surprise here, the video shows the infamous “package installer” (which we revealed on wololo.net several years ago), and the fact that the console is running an early firmware revision, version 0.990.
Last but not least, the video shows that the PS Vita prototype has an HDMI output built in, a feature that probably contributed to many rumors about the PS Vita’s “mystery port”.
Check the full video below
Source: ASSEMblergames via youtube, thanks to John for the tip!
Dang, it looks like it could have done well if they stuck with the prototype. Where did they get in in their heads that they needed to completely lock down the system in every way possible for it to be a success? Were the higher ups just bored and knew this thing would flop and just said,”Why not?”?
Will their send to us disassembly this PS VITA tô reversal engine?
I really would have loved the HDMI-Port on my Vita, i prefer the new design, tho.
And i think there is NOBODY out there who isn’t upset with the memory-card-format…
This Article infuriates me not only did the prototype have SD card support but HDMI too!!! Come on this so disrespectful to us consumers. I am sick and tired of these devices being so limited. Give us our moneys worth stop trying to add stupid gimmicks to make more profit i hardly even use the back touch pad just add L2 and R2 triggers to the next revision of Psvita and add more internal storage like how the PSP GO at least had 14 usable GB.
That’s really lit! Wish they go with this. But I do like the ps vita design right now. If they go with that structure they can probably put a umd drive too.
Why would they do this? It would cost them money to allow us to play physical copies of old PSP games we have as opposed to gouging us on games we already own to play them on Vita.
thats the point play your old umd games on vita. rather than buying it on psn. without relying on exploit. if DS can do it why not the vita?
If Sony could gouge you for free as opposed to adding something that costs money to a new Vita model why would they? In their eye they can spend no money to sit back and rake in money or they could spend money to not get much money in return.
It’s not going to happen.
Because a company like Nintendo has class, and Sony doesn’t. If you didn’t catch what the other guy was saying, putting a UMD drive in a Vita means that Sony can’t make more money off of you re-buying games you already own. It’s greed.
Those are the risks of closed platform where company, be it s, m or n dictates what you can and can’t do. And well… those are the risks I’d honestly rather not undertake again… after ps vita
In a way that’s like asking Dell to add a 3.5 floppy drive on their Alienware laptops 🙂 Backwards comparability for Sony is called emulation 🙂
Not sure about the rest (design, hdmi, etc.), but at least the SD card support would have helped to sell more consoles.
And software.
Damn that looks slicks; maybe the vita would not be collecting dust if sony took this design approach. I really like how it took the form of a psp go. Maybe sony has something to reconsider in their next portable console.
i doubt this design would have helped the VITA much. in fact it probably would have hurt it more. in the video there was no mention of the the VITA game cart slot at all and with the internal storage there, all signs points to this prototype being digital only just like the PSPgo. we all know how the digital only PSPgo was received by the majority of gamers.
as for the sliding screen, while it is nice, it will make having actual twin analog sticks impossible. the prototype seems to have sliding nubs only. i don’t know about you but i’ll take actual analog sticks over sliding screen+sliding nubs any day.
That’s it I’m taking my ps vita apart to make it look exactly like that.
Good luck…
I’m really glad they ditched the GO design personally, but the lack of any sort of SD or micro SD card support is ridiculous. I’ve seen so many posts on reddit recently of Sonys own 64 GB vita cards being corrupted and turned into paperweight, forcing people to buy more overpriced proprietary memory cards. It really makes me worry about my own.
Sony have a perfect opportunity to release the Vita Go with everything shown here.
Although they aren’t exactly common, you can buy those from other people. Same goes for debug/IDU vitas. Although prototypes are more difficult to find than the other two. Too bad you’re really at the seller’s mercy as far as price goes… IDU/kiosk vitas pop up on ebay from time to time though.
ill admit this i dont like screen setup it looksl ike psp go i hated that system with passion.
but all other features in this r amazing keep original vita screen added protypes led hdmi out etc it would been way better system in end imho.
find out where this *** is and get this from him so we can reverse engineer
Now that i have cooled down i did wonder some things about the prototype. Was the SD slot going to be the storage or were they thinking of putting the vita games on a SD card? Also i noticed in the video it has an internal 12 GB. The SD card he shows says 4GB was this an addition or maybe the internal storage is really 8GB?
Im really Crying now 🙁 it could have been a master piece …. could have been.
PS Vita DEM-3000H84 Very interesting…
100 bucks says this *** *** doesnt even do anything with this.
This prototype is promising. I wonder can we use this for exploit hunting
I remember before the vita was officially announced and before all those grainy pictures of this vita leaked out all those years ago there was a leak by a game dev he said at one of the game expos him and a few other devs and suits from other companies were invited to a private Sony conference at the expo he went on to say that they had two ngp prototypes one go and one candybar and they had decided on the design they wanted to go with yet
Go cut your nails.