Wait, The PS1 Logo Was A 3D Model?

Just because it never moved doesn't mean it couldn't

The PlayStation logo seen as part of the PS1's boot sequence never moves. And so I have spent the last 25 years simply assuming it was never meant to.

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But behold! Turns out it’s not a static image. It’s a 3D model (here’s an example of a glitch that can occur when the PlayStation bootup fails to load the model properly), meaning folks can recreate it in Unreal Engine and poke around and mess with it, producing oddball and unsettling results like this:

And this:

OK so now that I know this, I’m looking at it again with all its jagged polygonal edges and sure, yeah, it’s clearly a 3D model. But it never moved, or even shimmered, so in my defence, why would I not spent decades thinking it’s just some image!

Not that it matters either way, our lives are entirely unchanged by this revelation. But the accumulation of dumb facts like this is one of the few joys left to me on this husk of an internet, so even if this has zero interest to you, thank you for indulging me and the forbidden angles of the PlayStation logo.

Luke Plunkett is a Senior Editor based in Canberra, Australia. He has written a book on cosplay, designed a game about airplanes, and also runs cosplay.kotaku.com.

DISCUSSION

drrandom
Dr. Random

Well! This certainly provides a new perspective on things!

... I'll let myself out.