Sony stops making original PS

Sony entered the global gaming industry with the Japanese release of the original PlayStation in December of 1994. More than 11 years and two more consoles later, the electronics giant has pulled the plug on its first console, ceasing all production of PS units. Last September, Sony announced that the original PlayStation and its PSOne redesign had surpassed the 100 million units sold milestone.

Despite the news, Sony representatives noted today that the end of production does not necessarily mean the end of availability. PS hardware and software are still selling in countries around the world.

Even if original PlayStation systems and games are becoming slim pickings in the US, gamers likely won't be going without for long. As part of its PlayStation Business Briefing 2006, Sony last week announced that it is working on an emulator that would allow gamers to play PS titles on the PSP. Details haven't been released yet, but Sony Computer Entertainment president Ken Kutaragi said the games would be digitally distributed.

While the PlayStation's decade-plus production run is certainly impressive, it isn't the longest life span for a gaming console. Atari released its Video Computer System (more popularly known as the Atari 2600) in 1977 and didn't officially pull the plug on it until 1991.

:source: GameSpot

Wow at the Atari information. That explains why mine was stolen in 1992. I didnt know that the games for it were still around. Im glad they are working on an emulator because I am one of those people that collect my games and still like to play some of my old games. I would hate to think that I could no longer play them. Of course most of them are playable on the PS2.

I didn't realise Ataris were produced for that long... I still have one in a box in the back of my cupboard... great memories :D

Regarding the PS1, has anyone else played around with PC emulator software like ePSXe (http://www.epsxe.com/) or similar? They're a lot of fun, and make the old games look a lot nicer than they ever did on the original hardware.

no, I haven't but that sounds really interesting.