The PlayStation logo that appears in the iconic PS1 boot sequence is actually a 3D model, not a static 3D image like so many of us thought. It’s not something an average user pays attention to, nor is it something that makes a whole lot of difference (at least not now, anyway) but it’s a cool revelation nonetheless.
Last week, Twitter user Scuttlepunk published their discovery.
the ps1 bios logo actually being a 3D model means you can view it at some really cursed forbidden angles pic.twitter.com/2u2Pa0GEOd
— Em (@Scuttlepunk) June 30, 2021
You can actually move it around using Unreal Engine to view it from different angles, as demonstrated below.
— Lilymeister: Off Hiatus & Tired BLM ACAB (@b0tster) June 30, 2021
If you insert a non-compatible disc into your PS1, you’ll get a startup error that causes the system to freeze after the SCE logo appears on screen as normal. This causes the screen to turn black with the PS logo missing while the rest of the visual glitches out and fades. In other words, this beloved 3D logo only appears once the disc has passed authentication.
Called “Fearful Harmony,” the aforementioned glitch is best explained by the author of this PlayStation Wiki, who wrote:
The reason why the PS1 logo is never present during Fearful Harmony is because 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.
We learn something new every day!
[Via Kotaku]
