This YouTuber mod project brings the original PlayStation up to date with HDMI output, USB power, and wireless controller support
Even though I'm in the land of PC hardware now, I wrote about all things PlayStation for a chunk of my early career. As such, I could not resist the siren song of this hardware project that brings the original PlayStation 1 bang up to date. HDMI output, USB power, wireless controllers: it's all here in a snazzy blue shell inspired by the original dev kits!
I do enjoy a teardown video, and Elliot Coll of YouTube channel The Retro Future delivers here. He first disassembles a very crusty-looking SCPH-5502 PAL region PlayStation, revealing old mod work from a previous user—it's a bit like finding a fossil-rich strata in sedimentary rock.
These old hardware mods introduced NTSC region compatibility, plus the option to play games burned to a disc, but Elliot instead opts to work from a blank-ish canvas. After sending the original PlayStation shell off for a much-needed spa day, the creator starts by desoldering all the old modding work from the PCB, before revealing the "catalyst for this video": the PicoStation ZeroWire.
Turns out hardware mods have moved on a bit over the decades. The ZeroWire allows modders to launch games on the PlayStation via an SD card by including a Raspberry Pi Pico and greatly simplifying the soldering process to get all the contact points on both PCBs to play ball. It's a really elegant bit of kit, and vastly preferable to folding the motherboard in half 'like a book' as in this handheld PS1 project.
But contrary to its name, it does involve soldering one remote contact with a single wire (as Elliot reflects, 'OneWire' would still have been a fine name). After the not-actually-ZeroWire is in place, the video shows the modder disconnecting a few select pins on the CD-ROM controller chip from the motherboard so that the PicoStation can take over. Elliot isn't even halfway done on all he needs to solder on this 'Ultimate' PS1 project, though.
Just for a start, the HDMI mod features a ribbon cable with almost 50 contact points that need to be soldered to the PlayStation's original video chip. The other option is an external adapter that plugs in via the original component cables and converts the console's 480p output to 1080p (PSSR, who?). But who wants to introduce yet more cables to a retro gaming project if they can help it?
Speaking of, adding wireless controller compatibility to the 32-year-old console involves taking apart the original controller ports and—you guessed it—introducing another bespoke PCB, plus a whole lot more soldering. Still, this mod does mean you can play your PS1 with the PS5's DualSense.
After all of that, the last mod is a fresh power board that enables the whole thing to be powered via USB-C connection. As someone with the svelte redesigned PS one from the year 2000, this particular mod certainly appeals, though I've not touched a soldering iron since Design Technology lessons in school.
Still, the actually-not-that-scary-looking, almost modular guts of the original PlayStation already make me want to don some protective gear and get elbow deep. The Retro Future's in-depth video and lo-fi beats to solder to only stoke that ambition. Who would've thought I'd be more excited about a PS1 mod project than the PS6, eh?