In the early-to-mid 90s, the video game market was experimenting with a transition from cartridge to disk. Not to be outdone, Nintendo decided to board the bandwagon themselves, a decision which manifested itself in several ways:

The original plan was to partner with Sony in order to release a console with both a CD drive and the ability to read Super Nintendo cartridges. This contract ultimately fell through due to some allegedly shady dealing on Nintendo’s part, but not before birthing a “Nintendo Playstation” prototype that was unearthed in late 2015.

A deal was, however, worked out with Phillips, resulting in some notoriously awful Nintendo titles that were licensed for the CD-i.

Finally, Nintendo was also considering the release of an accessory that would fit on the bottom of the Super Nintendo and allow data to be streamed from CDs to SNES cartridges equipped with special chips.

Complicated? You betcha! Fortunately, my friend einstein95 is preparing an article on the development process of this Super NES CD-ROM, from its birth to its cancellation, and I thought I’d help him out by translating some old Japanese magazine articles that have been archived around the web.

Read on to learn more about this ill-fated system!