prototype Playstation Controller

Here is a cool thing I picked up recently. I am not sure what it is but my guess is it is a mock shell prototype controller for the PS2 or more likely PS3 as it seems as though it was to be a wireless controller. Interesting based on the looks of it, it was to use AA batteries like the 360 and not a rechargeable battery. Also even though it is just a mock shell the buttons all click like a normal controller and the Analog Stick moves around and clicks for the R3 L3 buttons. I thought I'd add that the D pad absolutely sucks. Overall if this is a prototype I am glad Sony didn't use this design because when I hold the controller it just feels odd and unnatural.

 

Looks like a mockup if it is real. Protos usually have markings of some kind. I would open it and look.

 

seems like a chinese model :\

 

I second this. It looks too different from any of the retail Dualshock controller models to be a prototype Dualshock 2/3 controller. The plastic looks cheap too, and the text looks badly printed.

Still, open it up and examine the insides.

 

Yeah that text printing, and the molding of the inside of the battery compartment REALLY look like a third party product that's attempting to appear as a sony product... only way to know for sure is disassembling the pad and looking at the board.

 

Well, to answer your guy's questions yeah the plastic is bad looking in the battery compartment, but elsewhere it is high quality similar to a ps2 controller. The text actually looks very good with your eyes, appears to be similar to the text in quality on the PS2 controller and the text says Sony, playstation, select, start, and analog. I have to take new pictures using a real camera instead of the ipad camera. I took it apart and it doesn't have much on the inside. It has like a clear plastic piece were a PCB would go. However it does have two real analog sticks all the little pad things the buttons sit on top of, and the two motors for rumble. I still feel it is real. You can't tell from those lousy pics I took but it is fairly high quality. Like when I place it under stress from my hands by squeezing/flexing the controller it doesn't feel like its going to fall apart like most cheap crap.

 

Chinese can also fake corporation logo, do you know? They clone jeans, bag, shoes with fakes logo.

See above.

If you don't post PCB photo for US it's only a 3rd party chinese controller.

 

Looking at the patterning inside that battery compartment, I think the housing was made using an STL machine - which fits is with the idea that it's a mockup, although it probably has real dual shock 2 works in it, since all the controls and indicators are in the right place.

I also don't buy the Chinese copy idea - if they are cloning something, they just clone it and wouldn't bother to change the industrial design. The reason for changing the ID would be if it had a design patent on it, and they had to engineer around the patent - but it you were doing this it would mean that you were trying to build a legal clone, and in that case it wouldn't have Sony logos on it.

 

Here's a couple more pics of the controller. The more I look at it, the more I believe it is a genuine Sony mockup. I do not believe it is some chinese clone for several reasons. First it has too high of a build quality, it seems on par with any other sony PS controller. Next if it is a chinese clone why would they put effort in creating a new design, it would be easier to carbon copy a Playstation controller. On the second debate of whether or not its a 3rd party controller all I have to say is if it is a third party mock up, why would they put the Sony Logo on it.

From the looks of it this controller seems to have been created in between the boomerang proto and this one.

 

Proof is in the PCB

 

looks like a rapid prototyped case. nothing that would certainly be mass produced.

 

The last controller is a PS3 proto controller and it does have the complete components inside minus the motors for rumbling. It has 2 mini-USB ports and it does work with the DECR-1000A on earlier fw. The controller you have is a PS2 controller. I've seen it once and the one i saw also didn't have any guts inside. probably a mock-up or rapid proto.

 

He should be careful, though - assuming it was produced using stereolithograpy (which seems likely, since that was about the only viable 3D printing process back then) then the plastic is quite brittle, and this gets worse with age. On top of this, although the resin is set, it still seems to be capable of bonding onto the screws to a certain degree, and it's quite common for the screw bosses on those sort of mockups to shatter when you try to take them apart.

 

I think in that controller there is no pcb, nothing functional, only a mock-up for me.

 

Does it have a part number on the back?

 

He's already said there is no PCB, just a piece of clear plastic

 

Yeah, there was nothing to this I bet. Looks fake unfortunately and a leap to a beta boomerang.

 

The case clearly looks like a rapid prototype as others have mentioned, and the use of plastic on the inside, along with all those screws to hold it all in place just seems excessive for a "chinese knockoff". They'd do everything possible to drop the cost, no?

Not to mention the very authentic looking thumbsticks and buttons, the textures look spot on to retail.
Maybe I've missed some, but I can't think of a knock off controller that would try this hard to look like the real deal. It's not like it's an expensive item worth trying to fake when there is a market for 3rd party accessories.

And, if it was a knockoff, why have a different case?

I call prototype on the case, or more likely a mock-up for a proposed design.