#psio

Final del disco 1

Lately, I got myself an SD-card based memory unit for my original PlayStation 1. With this unit, up to 1 TB of space is avalaible just for your save game files. It also has a Wi-Fi port, which is kind of a novelty in the 21th century. The fact that you can store up to 100+ games on one single cartridge is just mind blowing! I’ve got it very early this week, so I don’t have much experience with it. Unfortunately, currently, it’s not compatible with the PSIO I have, but I hope that this will change as soon as a new firmware will come out for the PSIO. Hopefully, this will happen very soon!

This is how this baby looks like

And this is the MemCard Pro next to my PlayStation 1

Though the real deal must be the PS1Digital I’ve also got this week. Basically, it’s a way to get your PlayStation 1 console ready for smart or HD TV’s. It gives your PlayStation 1 an HDMI port, meaning that it’s totally compatible with modern TV’s. But not only that - it also has a Wi-Fi antenna built into it. That’s really rad! In the menu, you can adjust many things inside your PS1Digital - from 240p to a whooping 1200p. I’m currently at 480p, because the screen just gets big enough to see at the far end of the living room (I have glasses, btw). And also one of the cooleste things by this mod is the fact that you can force 240p into it, meaning that there is no flickering in sudden changes of the resolution (i. e. from 240p to 480p, when going into the menu in Dino Crisis).

An HDMI port for SERIAL I/O

Inside the clean PU-18 motherboard

Everything is set up. With a Brooks wireless DualShock 4 receiver, a MemCard Pro adapter and a PSIO.

There is really nothing else bad to say abouth this product. Maybe the fact that it’s not easy to install it yourself - I had to send my PlayStation 1 unit to an Italian company to install it for me. Oh, and the fact that’s it only limited to PU-18 and PU-20 boards (mine is a SCPH-5502 model, with a PU-18 motherboard). Other than those nitpicks, it’s really a great device. And it’s far, far better than an emulation device like the PlayStation 1 Classic and other emulators like that. Oh, and I’m using firmware 1.5.3 at the moment. Maybe they will make some more threats out of it in the future.

Some gameplay of Tekken 3 in HD!

Let the games begin! :)

Anyway, I’m totally ready for this years holiday summer! :D

MemCard Pro

8/10

The Good:

- One memory card to rule them all!

- Wi-Fi connectivity

- Easy to connect to your PC

- Nice looking OLES display

The Bad:

- No connectivity with the PSIO at the moment

- Quite expensive, not suitable for everybody

PS1Digital

9/10

The Good:

- An HDMI port for your PlayStation 1

- Wi-Fi connectivity

- Beatiful HD graphics

- No emulation, all is very keen to the original

The Bad:

- No connectivity with the PSIO as of firmware version 1. 5. 3

As many of you may or may not know, I grew up in a time when there was a clash between the PlayStation 1 (PS1) and Nintendo 64 (N64). I can quite good remember about how glad my neigbhour was when in late 1998, he got a PS1 to play with. And not only that - he also got a Crash Bandicoot game from his parents! Lucky bastard!

Then again, at that timeline, I had my own console, which was a Nintendo 64, together with two controllers, Mario Kart 64 and Star Wars: Shadows of The Empire games. Though we had quite different consoles, we never argued who had the better one.

Fast forward to 23 years later and I’ve finally got an addon, called the PlayStation Input Output (PSIO) for my PS1. This is a so-called Optical DiscDrive Emulation (ODE) device, which let’s you play yout favourite games via an SD card. No more using those pesky little CD’s, to when read, the drive sometimes gets just too loud! With this little thing, your PS1 becomes almost “immortal”!

Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, in order to make your PS1 somehow “immortal”, you have to solder a Switch Board to your motheboard that is provided in the package in order to make it work. And not only that - if you have a game that is on multiple .BIN files or you use some Redbook audio inside of your game, you have to use their Cybdyn application in order to make a .CU2 file that the system can read. That sucks a lot.

But other than that, the installation process isn’t as difficult as it looks like it. As long as you are well prepared as I was for this task, off course! Aaah, and when you’re done modding the console, you can still use your CD-Rom if you want to. That’s neat!

After two months of waiting the postman, I’ve finally got my PSIO! It made quite a long trip from Australia. And after then, it was time to go to my workshop, eee room! Before I started the installation, I had to read through the 80+ (no joke!) pages of the manuals. Specifally, the manual that talks about the installation of the Switch Board to your motherboard. I’ve got an SCPH-7502 from 1998, which I bought for a laughable price of 10 € off Facebook Marketplace some long time ago, and because it has a Parallel I/O Port to it (like newers models of 9002 numbers unfortunately doesn’t have it anymore), I could install the PSIO onto it. And I totally did it! I’ve used a lot of flux, a sharp knife, some handgloves, solder iron, a magnifying glass, a wire cutter, a multimeter and the kynar wire you get with the package, though that was just right for my project. After I soldere a wire from the Switch Board to the motherboard, I carefully used a multimeter, just to be sure that the solder and wires were connection to each other. And when I finally did manage to wire everything together, after about 2 hours later, I’ve downloaded the contents of the SD card and the big SD card dongle onto the Parallel Port, gave some electricity through my system, put it together with the AV Cable of my television, put some controllers and a memory card onto it and - it just worked! Nice!

I’ve tried a lot of game on this device, and every game works on it! Incredibly! If I would know about this device, like 15 years ago, I would go nuts. It is really convenient to play some games over it and what it just the best thing about it is the fact, that you can play any PS1 game, as long as you have the .BIN files, and there is no skipping while looking at cutscene(s), while the loading times are also a bit faster than on CD’s. And to have a cherry on top - the console works very, very quite now! I’ve also removed it’s CD-Rom drive, because (A) I don’t need it anymore and (B) I want to preserve it for my children, so I can show them how it was to play those games on a CD-Rom.

I’ve also used an 64 gb SD card to store some of the best games of that generation (like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro The Dragon, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Mortal Kombat 3 and 4, etc.) to show various people the best games of that generation, while I’ll be on a convention - if that virus will ever be defeated, off course!

And to all you “nay, you are not speaking the truth, you haven’t “modded” anything at all” - here is your proof!

All in all, this is a great little device and the for the price of around 100 €, it is a must buy for anyone who lived through the 90’s, is a nostalgic gamer or had a PS1 at home. With it’s community and in the future, there will be an option to use your save/load files from your memory card to your SD card. This really is a device every retro fan should have!

Score: 9.8 / 10

The Good:

+ No more CD’s, just SD cards!

+ No more skipping in in-game cut scenes

+ Faster loading times

+ The console is far less noisy now

+ A good way to preserve your PlayStation 1 console

The Bad:

- Not compatible with Redbook audio.

- It’s quite difficult if you have multiple .BIN files