Sony released the original Playstation way back in 1994-1995, and it was an instant success for the company. At the time, the Playstation was the new console manufacturer on the block, squeezing in where Nintendo and Sega dominated. Now the Playstation is fully established, with the Playstation 5 only recently hitting store shelves.
There are five generations of Playstation console, and that isn’t even including the two portable devices — and today we’re celebrating that legacy by investigating the weird things these consoles could do. Some of the consoles can still pull off weird features that most of us have never used. And Sony keeps throwing weird, poorly explained features at us — let’s take a look at the little things we didn’t know the Playstation consoles could do.
Every PS3 Can Play PS1 Games
Early adopters of the PS3 got a huge bonus feature that was quickly removed — the first PS3s could play PS2 games through emulation. Only a small number of backwards compatible PS3s were ever produced, and they demand high prices off Ebay today. But, did you know that every single PS3 can play PS1 games perfectly?
I had no idea. Even the non-PS2 backwards compatible PS3s can play PS1 games. Just pop in a PS1 disk and it works exactly like you’d expect. You can save using a virtual memory card. This feature wasn’t promoted by Sony at all — fans have known for years.
PS4 Controllers On PC Can Emulate Mouse With Touchpad
One reason why you might want a PS4 controllers (or PS5) instead of an Xbox controller on PC is the touchpad. Once connected to a PC, the touchpad can emulate a mouse — you can use the touchpad to quickly mouse through menus, and even left-click or right-click. If you’re emulating old PC games but still want to use a controller, the PS4 pad is your best option.
Seeing as the touchpad is so rarely used for anything else on the Playstation, you might as well get some use out of it on the PC, right?
You Can Delete Trophy Progress On PS4 & PS5
Who knew? It’s entirely possible to wipe Trophy Progress on PS4 & PS5 — you just can’t unlock any trophies first. If you’ve put a game on your console and haven’t unlocked any trophies at all, you can wipe the offending title from your system memory forever. If you’ve unlocked even one little trophy, it becomes impossible.
[NOTE: This article originally stated that PS5 trophies could be deleted even after 0% completion. This is totally false — you still can’t delete trophies permanently on the PS5! The best you can do is hide them on the PS4. If you hide a game, you trophies will be hidden too. But only for friends checking out your profile. They’ll still appear for you. And weirdly, this feature isn’t available on the PS5.]
Delve into more little-known Playstation features on the next page.
