Playstation Classic Mini System

A Former User

So disappointing. I think I might wait until they end up on ebay, pre-owned, and a lot cheaper than new.
The form factor is great, and looks infinitely better than those 3D-printed cases you see on ebay.
I will get one, just to complete my Sony collection. But I might also get a pre-owned cheap one to take apart, pop a Pi 3B+ inside, and use it just for PSOne games. I have a huge collection of original boxed PSOne games, nearly 500, so I might just end up dumping the lot to a sdcard and using a Pi just for PSOne only.

markwkidd

This might be the future: https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/issues/7245

thelostsoul

So, turns out you can access the emulator settings of the PlayStation Classic by plugging in a keyboard and pressing Escape ..which allows you to use multiple save states, scanlines, change games to NTSC for 60 FPS and so on

Source: https://twitter.com/Nibellion/status/1069873514512031744

A Former User

Lol.
This is probably what Sony are currently doing, after hearing this.

thelostsoul

@John_RM_70 And there is no internet connection for an auto update. :D This will be history forever.

A Former User

@thelostsoul A mass recall ? lol.

"Send your Playstation mini back to Sony for a "Free" firmware update!", "And, we'll even throw in another "Free" game".

Dipkid

Its so weird/lazy Sony didnt enable these settings in the UI by default..
Gonna go home and test out some keyboards.

I think we`ll be able to flash/mod/firmwareupgrade this beauty within a week. :)

Magnum77

When the price drops after the holidays they might be useful eventually… with some modifications

Dipkid

My "PS Micro" next to my PS Classic and Ps4 Pro:

Bonus! My diy PS Micro games cover..:

ruckage

I wouldn't mind picking up a classic a bit later if the price drops if only for the controllers and to gut to use as a case for a raspberry pi. In the meantime though I've been making my own as well just using a standard raspberry pi case and ps3 six axis controllers.
As always I can't resist and have to make a theme as well to go with it so I've been working on one inspired by the PS4 menu.

BobHarris

@ruckage Where do you live? In the Netherlands prices have already dropped from €100-120 to as low as €50,-. It's a well deserved loss for Sony imo. The design is great but I won't buy it just for that. Do you want the controllers for the original feel of them? I wouldn't want to go back from Dual shock 4 to the first Playstation controller.

Clyde

@ruckage That looks great! It is such a bitter irony that private individuals create user experiences in their free time that are far superior to that what a multi-billion dollar corporation does deliver (after a smaller 1-2 billion dollar corporation already did it better).

goobatroopa

@ruckage that looks mint. Cracking work.

ClassicGMR

My step-daughter bought one for me 2 weeks ago when they dropped to $50 US here. This is a really nice system for $50 since it includes 2 controllers, power cord(no power block but who here doesn't have a bunch of extra plugs laying around) and an HDMI cable. It beats a complete Pi setup for that price. All I had to supply was a 2.0 thumb drive.

It performs very well. Granted RetroArch isn't fully functional yet - you have to load a core then a game manually and it doesn't scan directories yet - but if you can live with that for now it plays great. I added a bunch of PS1 games to the system and, honestly, either emulator works fine as far as I can tell. So I tend to use Bleem! for PS1 games. Yes... unfortunately it still doesn't like Driver "Retry mission" commands. It still crashes out.

Overall I love this system. I'm going to grab a 2nd one and duplicate the setup for my son and grandson to use once the bugs are ironed out.

I'm using:
2.5A power adapter (had this extra when I upgraded to a 3A for my Pi)
SanDisk Cruzer Glide 128GB
Generic USB 3-port hub had lying around (this is new since I didn't know you could do this until yesterday)
BleemSync 0.4.1 (0.7.0 is right around the corner)
RetroArch 1.7.5c (Classic+)

ruckage

@BobHarris said in Playstation Classic Mini System:

@ruckage Where do you live? In the Netherlands prices have already dropped from €100-120 to as low as €50,-. It's a well deserved loss for Sony imo. The design is great but I won't buy it just for that. Do you want the controllers for the original feel of them? I wouldn't want to go back from Dual shock 4 to the first Playstation controller.

I'm in the Uk. And you're right they have dropped quite a bit here, they're down to £50 now which isn't unreasonable but for me I just felt I could get a better experience by doing it myself using a rpi so I would only be buying it for parts really. I do think the controllers look pretty good but I have lots of Sixaxis and Dualshock 3 controllers so I still get an authentic feel and they have the added bonus of analogue sticks for games like ape escape. Plus can be used wirelessly.

I think it was a badly missed opportunity by sony. Outside of the really nice case and authentic controllers they messed up everything else. The choice of games is quite poor, missing games out like Wipeout was a mistake even though I understand why they probably couldn't due to the licensed music tracks. The menu looks cheap imo and isn't iconic - particularly if you had a PS1 outside of the USA as it has zero nostalgia factor here. On top of that mixing pal and NTSC version of games was a dumb idea as was having no extra options for enhancing visuals with scanlines etc.

@ClassicGMR said in Playstation Classic Mini System:

My step-daughter bought one for me 2 weeks ago when they dropped to $50 US here. This is a really nice system for $50 since it includes 2 controllers..........

I agree, it is a great system for getting everything you need in one go at that price. For me personally though I already have controllers so I just needed the pi and a SD card which was cheaper than the classic and I think will always be more flexible. I would still like to get a classic if the price drops a bit more as I do think they made a really good job of it aesthetically but can't justify the cost just for a nice rpi case. Also as I still have an original PS1 I don't feel I'm missing out too much.

lilbud

@ruckage said in Playstation Classic Mini System:

I think it was a badly missed opportunity by sony. Outside of the really nice case and authentic controllers they messed up everything else. The choice of games is quite poor, missing games out like Wipeout was a mistake even though I understand why they probably couldn't due to the licensed music tracks. The menu looks cheap imo and isn't iconic - particularly if you had a PS1 outside of the USA as it has zero nostalgia factor here. On top of that mixing pal and NTSC version of games was a dumb idea as was having no extra options for enhancing visuals with scanlines etc.

They really did butcher this whole thing. I get what they were trying for, but they didn't quite reach it. They were trying to jump on the whole 'retro microconsole' trend started by Nintendo. This had the potential to be incredible, Sony had it easy. They had one of the most iconic systems of all time, with the games to match. But they couldn't even do that right.

ClassicGMR

@lilbud Absolutely. The system in and of itself is an embarrassment. Sony should be firing whomever was in charge of the project AND whomever did the quality audits. I usually say stuff like that with a tongue-in-cheek(I don't usually want to see anyone lose their jobs) but in this case they seriously should.

They also didn't learn anything from the news reports of the Big N downloading rom(s) from the internet to use in their Classics. They just grabbed some cheap hardware, threw in a PSX emulator they didn't even create and dropped the ISOs into the system. That cannot get any more lazy.

Quick question - what's the legalities of using an open-sourced emulator in a for-profit venture? Isn't that covered by the licensing agreement? Granted Sony is distributing Sony products under a Sony brand but it's technically NOT Sony's emulator... Mostly just curious on that one since I doubt that would ever see any type of litigation.

dankcushions

@ClassicGMR said in Playstation Classic Mini System:

Quick question - what's the legalities of using an open-sourced emulator in a for-profit venture? Isn't that covered by the licensing agreement? Granted Sony is distributing Sony products under a Sony brand but it's technically NOT Sony's emulator... Mostly just curious on that one since I doubt that would ever see any type of litigation.

totally fine to use "open source" (assuming that means GPL) software in commercial products.

lilbud

@ClassicGMR said in Playstation Classic Mini System:

Quick question - what's the legalities of using an open-sourced emulator in a for-profit venture? Isn't that covered by the licensing agreement? Granted Sony is distributing Sony products under a Sony brand but it's technically NOT Sony's emulator... Mostly just curious on that one since I doubt that would ever see any type of litigation.

That is perfectly legal under the open source license. All Sony would've had to do is make their source code and any modifications public.

Also, the PCSX-Rearmed guys can't really do anything about this. It is kind of wrong for them to take code that isn't theirs and sell it for a profit, but they have that ability.

Also, I found it funny hearing about Sony basically selling an emulator. Consider that fact that around ten years ago, they were suing a small company out of everything for making an emulator. And now Sony is selling one themselves.

BobHarris

@lilbud I bet them using this emulator can also be one of the reasons why we didn't get a dual shock 1 controller...as people would expect vibration to work (for example in Metal gear solid), but afaik vibration still doesn't work properly in pcsxrearmed.