Playstation Classic as a universal retro console: better than its reputation

The mini version of the first PlaystationSony, which came on the market at the end of 2018, was not a stroke of luck: The customers criticized both the selection of the 20 pre-installed games and the emulation itself. Not only did some titles jerky, but Sony also had the slower 50 Hertz PAL versions of the more fluid 60 Hertz US variants selected. However, a few simple steps solve these problems – and make the unloved mini console a suitable player for a number of old games, for example for Super Nintendo, Sega Megadrive, N64, Amiga or C64.

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The hardware of the Playstation Classic is powerful: As a system-on-chip, a MediaTek MT8167A with four cores and 1.5 GHz is used, paired with a PowerVR-GE8300 GPU and a gigabyte of RAM. This roughly corresponds to the specifications of what is also popular for retro game emulations Raspberry Pi 3B.

However, what speaks for the Playstation Classic: It currently costs 60 euros only a little more than the bare Raspberry Pi board, but in addition to a playful housing in the Playstation 1 design, it comes with two original Playstation controllers plus HDMI and USB Cable with. Unlike the Raspberry, you don’t have to buy anything other than a USB stick to start playing. And: Sometimes you can get the Playstation Classic in offers for only around 40 euros.

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You don’t have to be afraid of accidentally turning the Playstation Classic into a useless piece of plastic when modifying it: The hack described below only works with a USB stick that you plug into the USB socket for the second controller. If you take the stick out of the console, it behaves again like a completely unmodified model.

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Economical sticks

We limit ourselves in this article to the so-called “AutoBleem” hack. If you are not afraid to modify the internal firmware, you can do that instead “Project Eris” software (formerly BleemSync) use. The biggest advantage of this more complex hack is the support of a USB OTG splitter, so that you can connect the USB stick with the software to the micro-USB power supply socket on the console – the port for the second controller remains free.

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With AutoBleem, on the other hand, you have to make sure that you use a compatible USB stick: The USB port for the second controller only delivers 0.5 watts, which is just not enough for newer USB 3.0 sticks. In our tests, however, it worked without problems with many older sticks, for example with a Sandisk Cruzer Blade (16 and 64 GB).

To get started, all you have to do is the content of the AutoBleem Zips copy to the USB stick. The stick should be formatted with the FAT32 (recommended) or the ext4 file system. The data carrier must also have the name “SONY”.

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Additional ROM and disk images are simply copied onto the stick: Playstation 1 games must be in the “Games” directory, files for other systems in the “roms” directory. For example, if you want games for Sega To play Megadrive, create a “Megadrive” folder in “roms” and copy the desired ROM files there.

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If you are wondering where you can get them legally: For € 11 you can get the “Sega Mega Drive and Genesis Classics” package on Steam, which consists of over 50 games. After installing the game package, the ROM files can be found in the “Uncompressed ROMs” folder and can be copied directly to the AutoBleem USB stick. For other systems, the search for legal sources for ROMs is more difficult – you should find out more on specialist websites.

The AutoBleem main menu opens after switching on by pressing the Start button. The menu initially only shows Playstation titles, the Select key brings the other emulated systems to the screen. You can access the alternative retro arch menu with the square key.

The “c’t” conclusion

Together with AutoBleem, the inexpensive Playstation Classic has become a powerful universal retro console. And thanks to its stylish housing and very good controller, the Sony console is at least as much fun as a Raspberry Pi with the RetroPie emulator collection.

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