Q 01/05

Which Sony executive, later dubbed 'The Father of the PlayStation', conceived the console?

A) Norio Ohga

B) Ken Kutaragi

C) Kaz Hirai

D) Shuhei Yoshida

Answer · why

B) Ken Kutaragi

He had earlier designed the Super Famicom's sound chip and was moved out of Sony headquarters to keep the project alive.

Q 02/05

The PlayStation project grew out of a broken partnership with which company to build a CD-ROM add-on?

A) Sega

B) Philips

C) Atari

D) Nintendo

Answer · why

D) Nintendo

A day after Sony showed the 'Play Station' SNES-CD at CES 1991, Nintendo announced it was going with Philips instead.

Q 03/05

Which Sega arcade hit convinced Sony to focus the PlayStation on 3D polygons rather than 2D sprites?

A) Virtua Fighter

B) Daytona USA

C) OutRun

D) Sonic the Hedgehog

Answer · why

A) Virtua Fighter

SCE's Ryoji Akagawa said that after seeing it in Japanese arcades 'the direction of the PlayStation became instantly clear'.

Q 04/05

In which year was the original PlayStation released in Japan?

A) 1994

B) 1995

C) 1996

D) 1997

Answer · why

A) 1994

It launched on December 3, a week after the Sega Saturn, and reached North America and Europe the following September.

Q 05/05

Which two consoles were the original PlayStation's main fifth-generation rivals?

A) Sega Genesis and SNES

B) Sega Saturn and Nintendo 64

C) Dreamcast and GameCube

D) 3DO and Atari Jaguar

Answer · why

B) Sega Saturn and Nintendo 64

The Saturn actually outsold it in Japan in the first weeks thanks to Sega's flagship arcade fighting game.