There are some easy options and hard options for modding the Classic.
When all is said and done, all of these retro consoles that have appeared recently are the same. They are simply an emulator wrapped in a pretty box with nostalgic controllers. Because of that, there is a lot of options when it comes to hacking or modding them because the software is so basic.
The PlayStation Classic made by Sony is both very easy and very hard to mod. Sony made a few strange choices when making it, like leaving the encryption key on the device it encrypts and using what appears to be an open source emulator to power the whole thing, which gives a lot of opportunities for clever people to do clever things
In this article, we give you an overview of what can be done in the way of modding for your PlayStation Classic.
Apart from your Windows PC, there really is only two things you need to mod your PlayStation Classic. You will need a USB flash drive and the PlayStation Classic itself. Everything you need to do is done on those three things.
The Console
PlayStation Classic
20 retro games to idle your hours away.
The PlayStation Classic is Sonys first retro console and though some of the 20 games are lackluster the modding community has helped make it an excellent retro machine.
The PlayStation Classic is a bit of a contradiction. Some of the things Sony has done are great — the controllers being standard USB ports is an excellent choice, and making the disk tray button actually open the virtual disks is a beautiful touch — but the game library leaves a lot to be desired. Happily, Sony also left a lot of backdoors to allow the modding community to help us load any games we want onto it anyway.
Flashy drives
Sandisk 16GB Flashdrive
16GB of speedy memory.
The Sandisk Ultra Flair 16GB flash drive is an excellent product for storing information and transferring it quickly over it's USB 3.0 connection. At just $15 this flash drive is a steal.
I used the Sandisk Ultra Flair many times, for many different projects and it never fails to do a good job. This drive is perfect for the PlayStation Classic mod as it can be formatted to FAT32 and, because of the USB 3.0 everything can be transferred quickly and easily.
How to add new games to the Classic
While the PlayStation Classic does have some great games, Final Fantasy VII springs to mind, it is also lacking a lot of the fan favorites. The Tony Hawks Pro Skater series was among the top picks for a lot of fans of the original PlayStation but never made it onto the Classic. Thankfully, we have a lot of dedicated people out there, like the BleemSync team, who found a way to hack game images onto a USB thumb drive and run them on the Classic.
The hack is extremely simple with very little risk. You should be able to this with just a modicum of computer know-how. You will need to pick up a like this one to make it work, and it doesn't let you play the original 20 games, only the ones on the flash drive.
The best part of this hack though is how simple it is to restore your original console. Once you safely remove the flash drive the Classic returns to its original setup. The full how-to can be found below.
How to access the hidden menu
When the PlayStation Classic was first released, within hours, we had a hidden menu to play with. Unfortunately, it required you to use a mechanical keyboard by Corsair or Logitech, both of which cost a lot of cash. I tried many different keyboards in the hopes of getting this to work but it just wouldn't. Rejoice, however, the same people who make the game hack above have got the secret menu working on the controller.
#!/bin/sh
#Access Esc Menu from Select + Triangle on controller
sleep 5s
export PCSX_ESC_KEY=2
killall ui_menu
sleep 5s
cd /data/AppData/sony/pcsx
/usr/sony/bin/ui_menu --power-off-enable
sync
By using the above code and some more shenanigans that can be found in the handy guide below you will be able to access all the extra emulator features that your hearts desire. In fact the more we delve in the more mods we will post to this article so you can keep a running total of awesome projects to do on your Classic.
How to add scan lines
Adding Scan lines will make your games look even more retro by recreating the look and feel of the old style TV's, you know the type, back when a 32" TVs were for the rich and they took three people to carry.
While Scan lines look very cool, in a retro sort of way, they do get irritating fast. Thankfully the guide below will tell you how to turn them off as well as on.
How to change regions
Region locking has been the bane of video games and DVD's since time began and that issue is brought into the modern world with these new retro consoles. Once you have done the you may want to "import" some of your games from Japan or Europe and you will need to be able to change the region your PlayStation Classic is locked to.
Region locking also reduced the potential frames per second your game could reach as 50Hz games, or those labeled PAL, were limited to 50FPS unlike 60Hz, or NTSC games, that were limited to 60FPS. With the hack below you will be able to make all games run at the 60FPS they deserve, and maybe save your eyes too.
What do you want from us?!
Are there any of the hidden settings you are interested in and want us to look at more closely? We are happy to delve in deep for you so just let us know in the comment section or on the forums and we will bend over backwards to find the answer you seek.
When all is said and done, all of these retro consoles that have appeared recently are the same. They are simply an emulator wrapped in a pretty box with nostalgic controllers. Because of that, there is a lot of options when it comes to hacking or modding them because the software is so basic.
The PlayStation Classic made by Sony is both very easy and very hard to mod. Sony made a few strange choices when making it, like leaving the encryption key on the device it encrypts and using what appears to be an open source emulator to power the whole thing, which gives a lot of opportunities for clever people to do clever things
In this article, we give you an overview of what can be done in the way of modding for your PlayStation Classic.
Apart from your Windows PC, there really is only two things you need to mod your PlayStation Classic. You will need a USB flash drive and the PlayStation Classic itself. Everything you need to do is done on those three things.
The Console
PlayStation Classic
20 retro games to idle your hours away.
The PlayStation Classic is Sonys first retro console and though some of the 20 games are lackluster the modding community has helped make it an excellent retro machine.
The PlayStation Classic is a bit of a contradiction. Some of the things Sony has done are great — the controllers being standard USB ports is an excellent choice, and making the disk tray button actually open the virtual disks is a beautiful touch — but the game library leaves a lot to be desired. Happily, Sony also left a lot of backdoors to allow the modding community to help us load any games we want onto it anyway.
Flashy drives
Sandisk 16GB Flashdrive
16GB of speedy memory.
The Sandisk Ultra Flair 16GB flash drive is an excellent product for storing information and transferring it quickly over it's USB 3.0 connection. At just $15 this flash drive is a steal.
I used the Sandisk Ultra Flair many times, for many different projects and it never fails to do a good job. This drive is perfect for the PlayStation Classic mod as it can be formatted to FAT32 and, because of the USB 3.0 everything can be transferred quickly and easily.
How to add new games to the Classic
While the PlayStation Classic does have some great games, Final Fantasy VII springs to mind, it is also lacking a lot of the fan favorites. The Tony Hawks Pro Skater series was among the top picks for a lot of fans of the original PlayStation but never made it onto the Classic. Thankfully, we have a lot of dedicated people out there, like the BleemSync team, who found a way to hack game images onto a USB thumb drive and run them on the Classic.
The hack is extremely simple with very little risk. You should be able to this with just a modicum of computer know-how. You will need to pick up a like this one to make it work, and it doesn't let you play the original 20 games, only the ones on the flash drive.
The best part of this hack though is how simple it is to restore your original console. Once you safely remove the flash drive the Classic returns to its original setup. The full how-to can be found below.
How to access the hidden menu
When the PlayStation Classic was first released, within hours, we had a hidden menu to play with. Unfortunately, it required you to use a mechanical keyboard by Corsair or Logitech, both of which cost a lot of cash. I tried many different keyboards in the hopes of getting this to work but it just wouldn't. Rejoice, however, the same people who make the game hack above have got the secret menu working on the controller.
#!/bin/sh
#Access Esc Menu from Select + Triangle on controller
sleep 5s
export PCSX_ESC_KEY=2
killall ui_menu
sleep 5s
cd /data/AppData/sony/pcsx
/usr/sony/bin/ui_menu --power-off-enable
sync
By using the above code and some more shenanigans that can be found in the handy guide below you will be able to access all the extra emulator features that your hearts desire. In fact the more we delve in the more mods we will post to this article so you can keep a running total of awesome projects to do on your Classic.
How to add scan lines
Adding Scan lines will make your games look even more retro by recreating the look and feel of the old style TV's, you know the type, back when a 32" TVs were for the rich and they took three people to carry.
While Scan lines look very cool, in a retro sort of way, they do get irritating fast. Thankfully the guide below will tell you how to turn them off as well as on.
How to change regions
Region locking has been the bane of video games and DVD's since time began and that issue is brought into the modern world with these new retro consoles. Once you have done the you may want to "import" some of your games from Japan or Europe and you will need to be able to change the region your PlayStation Classic is locked to.
Region locking also reduced the potential frames per second your game could reach as 50Hz games, or those labeled PAL, were limited to 50FPS unlike 60Hz, or NTSC games, that were limited to 60FPS. With the hack below you will be able to make all games run at the 60FPS they deserve, and maybe save your eyes too.
What do you want from us?!
Are there any of the hidden settings you are interested in and want us to look at more closely? We are happy to delve in deep for you so just let us know in the comment section or on the forums and we will bend over backwards to find the answer you seek.