Further information: https://youtu.be/jkIlghQlbzY?t=125

For anyone not around during the late 90s; the above image might look like some sort of fever dream but this is an official Sony Product designed to enable internet access for the original PlayStation. 

• Yes, this did get released!
• Yes, there are games that use it!
• No, it didn't leave Japan!

Maybe the most well known game to use it was iMode Mo Issyo:

A game that is not only an expansion pack for the Sony Mascot game; Doko Demo Issyo but also must be used in conjunction with the Japanese only Sony Pocket Station.

If any of this topic seems interesting to you, I'd really like it if you watch the video I made on it which I linked just below the first image.  If you made it this far into the post, you'll probably really like the video!

Ahead of its time is what this would be called.

 I remember this. There was also a link cable from Nintendo in Japan only for the Game Boy Color to connect to a cell phone. Something like this was planned for Dreamcast as well. The idea of mobile gaming in Japan seemed to be a desire the moment they saw cell phones.

Nice vid! I love the PS1 so it's always nice to find out more about it. So, now I know that both the PS1 and the N64 had limited internet access with an add-on. The late 90's must have been an interesting time to be a gamer in Japan!

It was an interesting time to be a gamer period. For instance, in 1994, Sega attempted a version of Gamepass, nearly twenty-three years before Microsoft launched theirs. lol. It was an era of excitement and wild experimentation. I miss it. 

Thanks Dude!

I used a time stamp to skip right to the section that covered what I'm talking about here.  But did you see the bit before that about the Namco arcade cabinet that allowed PS1 & Dreamcast to arcade cross saving?  Here's a photo of that cabinet that had ports for S1 and Dreamcast memory cards:

Unrelated really but I just learnt of this today. A portable dvd player that had a GBA cartridge slot and could play GBA games. Even had link cable support. Launched in 2006 for $1300 which might be why I've never heard of it.

The Visteon Dockable Entertainment System.

Another piece of lost and forgotten tech and the only non-nintendo device to officially run GBA games.

I'm just here to drool on those quality connectors. So sick of replacing mini, micro, lightning, usb-c cables all the time because my kids cannot handle them. Worse when the charging ports get faulty as well.

Like a portable version of the LaserActive. A Laserdisc system you could play Mega Drive/PC Engine games with a cart slot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaserActive

I've actually heard of that in a book called Console Wars. Was it called Sega Channel? It's too bad it didn't work, it was truly ahead of its time.

I can only imagine what people at the time felt like when they played some of my favorite games (most of them are from the 90's) Stuff like MGS, the FF games on the PS1, Diablo and Fallout. It must have been amazing to experience those games back when they were released.