My first project: RetroPie in a PSone case (planning stages, advice and tips are welcome)

BillyH

So, to lay everything out for a bit:

About a year ago I've bought a Raspberry Pi, and installed RetroPie. reasoning was threefold: 1) I don't really like the way my SNES games look on modern televisions and don't have room for an extra CRT television, 2) Many SNES games use passcodes or require you to finish the game in one sitting, which I just don't have time for so save states are great, and 3) I'm increasingly scared that the cartridges which I have with save games, which require batteries, will at some point in the near future have the batteries die on me. After a while, I turned back to Switch and PS4 gaming because I do not have a spot reserved for the Pi, and had to get it out of the cupboard every time I was using it (I'm still doing that). We're moving soon and with that comes a bigger mancave, with more console room, and I want to give the Pi its own space, so I'll hopefully use it more.

Last year, I mentioned killing a SNES or Famicom so I could use the case for the Pi (sorry @obsidianspider, I won't ever use foul language like that on here again). Recently, my parents moved house and a lot of old stuff came floating up, among which the PSone and games that my brother owned, who didn't have any interest in gaming any more.

Now, back in the day my brother had the PSone modded or whatever you call it to allow for playing of illegal games, which I disapprove of and so I threw out all the illegal discs, keeping the legal ones and adding them to my own collection. I still have a working PS3 so I could go that route for playing the PSX discs (that being said, I prefer to use RetroPie on which I use CRT + smoothing shaders, and RetroPie lacks the speech delay in TPM which I do have on PS3), meaning the PSone console itself is pretty much useless to me. Its closing button also doesn't really work any more, the controllers are sticky, and used stores refuse to take it in because it has been modded.

So, there comes my revelation of today: instead of looking for a defect console like the first Xbox or a Famicon, I could just use this unwanted PSone. I haven't measured the inside yet but even a PSone should be big enough in height to house a Pi.

So, as far as I see it, the quick and easy way for me to do this is as follows:

screw open the PSone, take out everything inside.
remove the top part of the console that is covered by the disc cover when it is closed.
clear enough parts so that the Pi cables can exit the case (including making it so that my wired Switch controller appears to go into the case as an actual controller).
paint over the case (it's quite dirty now so sandpaper or something may be involved, and I feel like spraypainting it in a different colour so it's very obvious it's not a PSone any more). Make a cool RetroPie logo where the PlayStation logo is now.
stick the Pi in its basic casing front and centre in the PSone case with adhesive or screws (I feel like this is better against dust and such than just putting the Pi in there without protection, as well as it being less trouble, and in case this would result in too much heating (which I don't think it will), I could just pop open the disc cover whenever I'm playing), in a way that USB sticks can still be connected to it (or pick up a USB extension cord and make it exit the case at the place where the memory card goes now).
make sure to keep the on/off button and its wires intact in case I ever want to make the effort to use it for turning my Pi on/off.

Any obvious flaws I'm missing here? I've never done something like this so any and all constructive criticism is very much appreciated :-)

mitu

Some of the previous builds from the forum

markyh444

@BillyH I have also done this, and I re-used the power switch as well as putting the USB extensions out of the memory card slots. I've done a build-log on my wordpress site

(gratuitous-plug)

Rion

@BillyH

Retro-Emulation sells 3D printed parts for Pi Installation inside a Playstation 1 Shell.

Have a look here

BillyH

@mitu said in My first project: RetroPie in a PSone case (planning stages, advice and tips are welcome):

Some of the previous builds from the forum

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/8880/my-pistation-project

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/7378/pi-3-in-a-ps1-w-hard-drive-usb-hub-and-miles-of-wire/

@markyh444 said in My first project: RetroPie in a PSone case (planning stages, advice and tips are welcome):

@BillyH I have also done this, and I re-used the power switch as well as putting the USB extensions out of the memory card slots. I've done a build-log on my wordpress site

(gratuitous-plug)

Thanks both, I'll look at all of those for inspiration.

@Rion said in My first project: RetroPie in a PSone case (planning stages, advice and tips are welcome):

@BillyH

Retro-Emulation sells 3D printed parts for Pi Installation inside a Playstation 1 Shell.

Have a look here

Cool stuff, but those are for regular PSX models, as in it is the first PlayStation, but not the PSone, I specifically have the PSone version of the PS1 (it would have been much better if that version had just been called the PSmini or something).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_models#PS_one

By the way, I haven't opened it up yet but as it appears now I should have juuuust enough room inside in the middle of the PSone to put in the RetroPie together with the casing I have, with maybe a millimeter or three to spare.

BillyH

Well, I managed to build something over the weekend.

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/21596/retropie-in-a-psone-case-1-0-march-2019

I'll update that thread as I go along.