This classic logo was staring at us for two and a half decades, and it turns out to be technically more detailed than it looked!
Sony has had a stunning entry into the gaming industry with the PlayStation (whose launch lineup is being discussed weekly on Digital Foundry’s channel: they are currently on the North American slate of launch games). Already when you turned on the console, it was chilling to hear the jingle that started as the Sony Computer Entertainment logo showed up, followed by the PlayStation logo with the region, all on a black background. And this is the logo that isn’t a simple static image or icon, even though Sony could have used something like that.
Regarding this colourful PlayStation logo (which, as a monochrome format, is still the centrepiece of the PlayStation Studios logo), it turned out to be a 3D model, and this tweet was the first to break the news: „The PS1 bios logo being a 3D model means you can view it at some cursed forbidden angles.”
And if you look at it in Unreal Engine, you can see how… weird it can look. Watch it at your risk.
If you insert a non-compatible (or copied…) disc into your PS1, you’ll get a startup error. After the Sony Computer Entertainment logo, you get a glitch, and you will see a missing PlayStation logo. It means that this 3D model is part of an authentication of the disc: if it’s a legal (or approved…) disc, then you will get a proper booting procedure. If not, you may encounter a glitch:
This glitch is called Fearful Harmony, and according to the PlayStation Wiki, „the reason why the PS1 logo is never present during Fearful Harmony is that the model is intended to be read from the game disk, which is missing on an invalid disk. This is similar to the Nintendo logo that displays at the beginning of every Game Boy game, which was required in every cartridge’s ROM as copy-protection.”
Source: PSL
— ?✨ Lilymeister: Off Hiatus & Tired?️⚧️ BLM ACAB (@b0tster) June 30, 2021
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