PlayStation Development Network

Hi, I have a mission, that I hope some of you might be able to help with.. I'm looking to turn a Playstation 1 SCPH-1002 'audiophile edition', into a truly hacked media server that basically plays all ps titles from a hard drive, as well as having a built in snes with all snes titles, and the same for game boys and master system 2 etc, etc.. I think it needs to run on its own operating system so that music, pictures and videos can also be played from the hard drive through the playstation as a media server.. I also want it to have full game development capabilities for making games.. Like the Net Yaroze machine.

I will post back more info on here as the project comes along, but if anyone has any input I would greatly appreciate it, as I am not that experienced when it comes to writing advanced code just yet. I have had lots of Playstations up to PS3 but until now not hacked any of them, I am new to this project and although I may have to ask what appear to be very beginner level questions, I do have some background from other areas that makes me think this is an achievable task...

-Do I understand correctly that to make a console with the same capabilities as a Net Yaroze console that costs lots of money, I can connect to the SCPH-1002 to a PC through parallel port, through a PSX Blaster comms link (is this software on the PC or a physical connector add on?).. And I need to run Psy Q development platform on the PC to write the code and build games, and other cool stuff? What else is possible through the development platform, can I write new OS basically into the chip of the ps1 and then unplug it from the computer and its modded/debug?

-How do I debug / hack the console so that it will play a library of all game roms from the same drive (not multiple discs and cases everywhere) and should I be running emulators within the console itself in any way for the snes and others?

-Are there any good places that are recommended for reliable places to download all the emulators and rom games/game libraries?

I am fully prepared with this project that I will more than likely have to open it up and to solder in some extra chips and terminals for hard drives etc. I'm not scared about this but I am really quite excited, thinking about what it will be capable of afterwards.. I intend to put all the hacks into one console, as well as some other modifications like making it an absolute 'audiophile' edition by even better audio circuitry for the media server output.

If there is anything I need to know, or that I have missed? Comments, feedback and help is all welcome.

Thank you for taking the time to create the content of these forums, I will post more here about this project soon.

Matt

well, first of all: where do you plug the pATA interface ? On the PIO ? So you have to design a new PIO interface, as i am doing just in order to have 4x32bit latches to handle a C9800 (level voltage adapted to 3.3V) net board. A lot of work to produce the PCB and solder the chip, than the device is very easy to be memory mapped, the rest of difficulties are around the software side, 'cause you have to handle udp/ip stack and ... tcp/ip stack: too many lines of code in the second case!

I really think in 2013 you'd better play with raspberry pi or such a stuff (router with linux, or embedded board with linux) if you want to have a media center + game emulation, game server, etc .... They have enough ram and power to run PSX emulator, they have USB EHCI for hard drives, and a cool set of library for MPEG video, streaming, audio and multimedia.

I have planned to remove the PSX bios (i have already desoldered the chip) and replacing it with a DIP socket in where i could put a NVRAM or flash in order to escape me to fight with the PSX bios and his trivial voodoo stuff.

PSX is way underpowered for the task you are planning to do. There is a lack of fast r/w interface on the
machine except for PIO which is just exposed bus. Also, retail models only have 2 MB of RAM.
GPU also has it's limitations, the maximum resolution is 640x480 interlaced,
single buffer (you will have tearing issues) and buffer alone almost takes more then half of 1 MB VRAM.
For tear-free experience you will need to employ double buffering which leaves you with 640x240.

You can expand memory and use DMA tricks to output higher res picture but you will have hell of a job pulling this off.
You will have to design completely new hardware for the features you want to implement and software for interfacing it.

I'm with Legacy, you are better using a modern solution then hacking up a PSX.

Thank you, I am really grateful for your input.

So the console itself is not really capable of all the media stuff internally.. The mods I would need to do in that way are maybe too much... I also have access to lots of other kit like a Raspberry Pi, lots of PIC microcontrollers, Arduino and loads of other chips, boards to put them in and stuff like that.. Maybe that is indeed the best route to put all the emulation and roms and other media stuff into the Raspberry Pi and some other kit with HDD and the other features. So, does this mean an HDD cannot be connected to a chipped console to play backed up games / roms from, instead of recieving the data bitstream from the game cd spinning? I like the idea of being able to get the full ps1 game library, through the ps1 console, it has the processing to play the games on disc, so if an HDD with good enough data speed was in it, then each game could be stored, and played one at a time, just as easily? And would this HDD be able to connect through PIO? I do want to understand more about the changes that can be made to the console through chipping with different PIC chips, and the modifications to the OS that can be made..

Anyway I still have a funny idea that I can get the SCPH-1002 to do some really cool stuff by chipping it in some way and using the parallel port to connect up to a computer and have the equivalent of a Net Yaroze game development machine..?

I did see a video about having to make up a custom PIO interface, which I am prepared to do to make the most of the terminals that are on the SCPH-1002, but is that what is necessary to use the parallel port to interface a computer with the playstation?

I am not looking to increase the video resolution output of the playstation, but I am looking to do some modifications to further improve the audio, it may not be the central hub of the media server but it will be a great cd player thats for sure. I am also still really interested in carrying out mods other than just the audio improvements.

I have recently ordered 2 of the SCPH-1002, I really hope I can find a way to play all the game titles that I used to play without buying them all again.. Some of those games cost me £45 each back in the day, I'm hoping that there is a way around it, Sony already has all the money from the ps1 game sales anyway.

Has anyone ever played games like Gran Turismo through an emulator on Raspberry Pi or similar? Does it all run smoothly and have a full game with game saves etc? I have not found many games emulators in the past that run everything smoothly and as the original console did..

There are so many great titles for ps1 that I am really looking forward to playing again.

I will post back here with any progress and really appreciate your help, the technical points that you have both picked up on already are all very good points and extremely useful to me, thank you

I would suggest waiting for PSIO rather then starting your own thing now. As for parallel connection you can use Xplorer FX.
There is also a possibility of using PSXSERIAL adapter (should be in store soon) which enables you communicate with PSX using serial port (max bps is 115200).

A pretty proof of concept video of PSIO

PSIO is a cartridge that plug's into the back of your PlayStation 1 console, which will let you play your backed up PlayStation 1 games from an SD card. It will also allow you to boot and run code you have programmed from an SD card on the actual PlayStation 1 console itself, making it a must have tool for homebrewers, developers and most importantly, gamers.

PSIO is the way forward, thats what I'm looking for, nice one. I'm also hoping to do the audio mods to the scph-1002 and make it into a better cd player too. I've not properly tested it yet but apparently its a reasonably good cd player even without mods.