Engineer Creates First Custom Motherboard For 1990s PlayStation Console (arstechnica.com)
- Reference: 0178025807
- News link: https://games.slashdot.org/story/25/06/12/206219/engineer-creates-first-custom-motherboard-for-1990s-playstation-console
- Source link: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2025/06/engineer-creates-first-custom-motherboard-for-1990s-playstation-console/
> Last week, electronics engineer Lorentio Brodesco [1]announced the completion of a mock-up for [2]nsOne , reportedly the [3]first custom PlayStation 1 motherboard created outside of Sony in the console's 30-year history . The fully functional board accepts original PlayStation 1 chips and fits directly into the original console case, marking a milestone in reverse-engineering for the classic console released in 1994. Brodesco's motherboard isn't an emulator or FPGA-based re-creation -- it's a genuine circuit board designed to work with authentic PlayStation 1 components, including the CPU, GPU, SPU, RAM, oscillators, and voltage regulators. The board represents over a year of [4]reverse-engineering work that began in March 2024 when Brodesco discovered incomplete documentation while repairing a PlayStation 1.
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> "This isn't an emulator. It's not an FPGA. It's not a modern replica," Brodesco wrote in a Reddit post about the project. "It's a real motherboard, compatible with the original PS1 chips." It's a desirable project for some PS1 enthusiasts because a custom motherboard could allow owners of broken consoles to revive their systems by transplanting original chips from damaged boards onto new, functional ones. With original PS1 motherboards becoming increasingly prone to failure after three decades, replacement boards could extend the lifespan of these classic consoles without resorting to emulation.
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> The nsOne project -- short for "Not Sony's One" -- uses a hybrid design based on the PU-23 series motherboards found in SCPH-900X PlayStation models but reintroduces the parallel port that Sony had removed from later revisions. Brodesco upgraded the original two-layer PCB design to a four-layer board while maintaining the same form factor. [...] As Brodesco noted on Kickstarter, his project's goal is to "create comprehensive documentation, design files, and production-ready blueprints for manufacturing fully functional motherboards." Beyond repairs, the documentation and design files Brodesco is creating would preserve the PlayStation 1's hardware architecture for future generations: "It's a tribute to the PS1, to retro hardware, and to the belief that one person really can build the impossible."
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/psx/comments/1l47s0o/for_the_first_time_ever_a_ps1_motherboard_not/
[2] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/brodesco/nsone-playstation-1-custom-motherboard
[3] https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2025/06/engineer-creates-first-custom-motherboard-for-1990s-playstation-console/
[4] https://x.com/LBrodesco44460/status/1769683646150008938
The one that blows my mind is The game gear one (Score:2)
There's a custom board with modern electronics for the Sega game gear, basically sega's answer to the game boy black and white, and it's astonishing how much just using modern electronics increases battery life even before a modern LCD screen is used.
The original game gear would be lucky to get 5 hours and realistically more like three. The upgraded motherboard alone double that just because modern electronics use less energy. With the modern screen you basically get 25% more battery life with the exact
Re: (Score:2)
> There's a custom board with modern electronics for the Sega game gear, basically sega's answer to the game boy black and white
Ah, the Game Gear. When through batteries like Charlie Sheen on a coke binge and while it technically did have a color display, it was like the worst cheapest passive matrix garbage panel imaginable. If that wasn't bad enough, the library of games kind of sucked, too.
If that "we have X at home" meme was a thing back then, Game Gear would've had one. I'm sure by now though, there's at least a few of us olds who fondly remember playing a bad port of Sonic the Hedgehog instead of finishing their homework.
Re: (Score:2)
>> An iPad or Android tablet with a screen you can actually see and boatloads of free-to-play games, is the real innovation since then.
> At least Game Gear games are a buy-once affair; nearly all of those iPad games are rife with in-app purchases and "surprise mechanics" and other garbage that doesn't involve actual gameplay, but does involve wallet draining.
> The games look better, and yes, one can rotate through games easier...but despite the improvement on those ends, I'll take the Game Gear shovelware.
This changes the game. (Score:2)
I've seen a recent increase in modern replacement motherboards for vintage electronics, and this is just the latest. If more people can come up with cool projects of this sort, soon enough the days of a device being completely killed by leaky capacitors or other critical damage will be almost completely gone for some of our favorite devices.
Re: (Score:2)
> I've seen a recent increase in modern replacement motherboards for vintage electronics, and this is just the latest.
Except it's not. It's a modern PCB for the original vintage chips, which means you could go through the entire hassle of transferring everything and having it still not work in the end if the problem was actually a faulty chip.
Don't get me wrong, there's certainly some failure modes that genuinely are attributable to a failure of the PCB itself. But realistically, that mostly comes down to hardware that was stored in less-than-ideal conditions. If you've kept your PlayStation 1 in a nice climate controll