PSX Keyboard and Mouse Adaptor (SCPH-2000 Prototype)

[Administrator]

Sony was planning a keyboard and mouse PS/2 Adapter.
They would have written a library for the device to convert the keyboard presses into ASCII data.
A simple microcontroller inside can do just the thing. You could probably get away with an Arduino.

[Gradius]

Those would be very useful on games like Tokimeki series.

[LameGuy64]

I think this is part of Sony's cancelled plan to add online capabilities for the PlayStation where a dial-up modem would be connected to the Serial I/O port and this adapter is used for players to be able chat with other players in a online chat room or hub by using a standard PS/2 keyboard.

[Administrator]

You're absolutely right. That's why Sony added a serial port in the first place. There is even talk about modem ideas in a Psy-Q document. The parallel port in my opinion was going to be used as a RAM expansion module to increase the RAM from the factory 2MB up to 8MB. In theory, the parallel port can be used for almost anything

[Gradius]

Expanding RAM wouldn't anything, except for homebrew, since every game was made to use just 2MB.

[Administrator]

Unless Sony was planning on selling this RAM card and adding a title to games that needed the RAM card to work (much like the N64 expansion pack).

[Gradius]

Totally agree, but since $ony never released such games, nor the memory expansion, there shouldn't be such thing.

[LameGuy64]

It would have been interesting if Sony did release such a modem as that could make the PlayStation the first home console to have on-line multiplayer support before the Dreamcast.

I'm also wondering if the mouse portion of that keyboard and mouse adapter works on PS1 games that supports the PlayStation mouse.

[baldjared]

Genesis/Megadrive and SNES had online through XBAND before the dreamcast, wasn't official though, more than likely there were a few older consoles that did too but are slipping my mind.

[legacy]

where have you seen SCPH-2000 Prototype ?
are them destroyed by SONY ?

About the PIO, I am planning to add a C8900 (ethernet 10Mbit/sec) , and a NVram of 2Mbyte to Playstation1.

[Spipis]

Maybe this is what is hidden inside that adaptor!

http://www.piclist.com/techref/scenix/c ... /index.htm

[Administrator]

You're exactly right. That's all that is in there. A simple PIC MCU and some well thought out assembly.

[psx-collector]

They are for Lightspan. Some of them are still alive. I've also seen final version without "PROTOTYPE" text.

[Administrator]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_T8CBUx208[/youtube]

We need to get our hands on one so we can crack it open and dump the raw machine code from the MCU. It's probably a PIC based MCU, so any experienced PIC assembler would know exactly what the logic is doing, and in doing so, convert it to C logic to have it then replicated and produced. Unless, we just dump and duplicate 1:1 as it stands from Sony's engineers.

It would be interesting to see how it worked.
If anyone does have one, please send me a PM and I will get it sorted. K. Thnks. Bai

[nocash]

They are for Lightspan.

Good to know! Do you know which titles are supporting them? Or are they supported by all Lightspan titles?
Disassembling those programs would be interesting to find out how the transmission protocol worked.

We need to get our hands on one so we can crack it open and dump the raw machine code from the MCU.

Okay. I am impressed. As a shy person, I would have asked if somebody could post a photo of the PCB. But of course, a dump would be better. But we would still need a photo to find out what chip we want to dump!

[nocash]

PS. here's a photo of another variant (without cable): http://atariage.com/forums/topic/145825 ... ?p=1920875 don't know if it's called "SCPH-2000", too (the photo doesn't show any model number).

[Administrator]

Looks like a final release.

[psx-collector]

It's SCPH-2000. I found this picture somewhere on the forums and asked the owner about more information.

I've seen the back side but I was asked to not release any pictures of it. The source also told me about working modem but I didn't get any pictures of it because he doesn't have it. I tried to get this SCPH-2000 to my collection but without any luck. It wasn't for sale for any offered amount. The source was from Sony if I remember correctly.

One of the prototypes was offered on eBay many years ago and I even won it but the seller refused to sell it for unknown reason.

[nocash]

Sounds really rare. Did anybody ever confirmed if it's really working with any lightspan titles? Or are people guessing that they are used for lightspan?

Personally, I am thinking that these devices were used by the japanese secret service. Particulary because the cdrom controller is having those secret unlock commands for use outside of japan. So special agents on foreign missions could use a CDR disc, an expansion port cdr-unlock dongle, and the keyboard adaptor that they are carrying with them on every mission - and then they would have access to a powerful RISC machine.

Oh, and here's a "Getting Started" screenshot http://pscd.ru/info/1917-lightspan-onli ... a-psx.html telling to "use the keyboard to surf the internet". That must have been the mission briefing screen, confirms my theory!
Or maybe not. Maybe that screenshot is just about some virtual onscreen-keyboard, not about real keyboard hardware (?)

[psx-collector]

Yes, it can be used with Online Connection CD.