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Join Wundry Plus in the Wundery app or on Apple Podcasts. Wandering. It's May 12th, 1995 at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, a new trade show being held for the first time at the Los Angeles Convention Center in California.

Menoru Arakawa, the president of Nintendo of America, sinks gratefully into a chair next

to a cardboard cutout of his company's most famous creation, Mario.

Manoru spent much of the day on his feet showing off demos of Nintendo's upcoming

games for its S&ES video game console.

But right now Nintendo's stand is quiet. Most of the

trade show attendees have gone to a press conference being held by a

newcomer to the video game industry, Sony. Howard Lincoln, Nintendo of America's vice president, shouts from the back of the booth.

Menoro, it's about to start.

Menoro heaves himself out of the chair and goes to join Howard, who's hunched over a small

television. On screen a Sony employee stands at Electron and behind him a giant

screen is emblazoned with the name of Sony's new product, the PlayStation.

Manor who turns to Howard.

Well, are we expecting any surprises?

I don't think so.

Most of the details have already leaked.

It's a 32-bit console, plays games on CDs, not cartridges, going to retail it over $400.

That's a lot of money for a home console.

Well, I guess it's a lot more powerful than the SNES.

But we've been here before, though. The important thing isn't the console, Howard, it's always the games you can play on it. Well, speaking of which,

Minauru and Howard fall silent as the Sony employee on the television introduces a presentation of the PlayStation's launch titles.

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