Sony Playstation Classic + Retroarch ?

[Flojomojo]

Does anyone here know anything about memory cards? I got the bright idea to load my PS Classic to the brim with a 400 gb microsd card only to learn that USB readers won't accept that large of size (or so the seller told me). Does anyone know if this is true? I guess I'll throw it in my phone if it won't work. It's currently coming in the mail, so I can't really do any tests myself yet and am curious.

 

That doesn't sound right. There are different standards, and I could see how you wouldn't be able to use a plain old SD card reader (up to 2GB capacity) with a SDXC (32GB - 2TB capacity) card. But if you bought stuff that was built for SDXC, you should be good to go. Maybe your vendor just doesn't sell what's needed.

 

A 400GB card (which is way less expensive than it was just a few months ago!) works great in a Nintendo Switch and should be fine in your phone as you point out.

 

In my experience, transferring CD-ROM games to these devices is slow and a pain in the butt. Filling up a 32GB drive was plenty for me. I haven't taken mine out lately but I "need" to revisit that.

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

You know I had no interest in getting a Playstation Classic myself, mostly because my collecting days have ended, maybe one day I would accept one in some sort of trade because frankly I WAS tempted if I could have found one in my area for a reasonable price, sadly I never did BUT considering the mods and hacks that can been done I certainly would not pass on one under the right conditions, sure as is and for the launch price it was not great but for those who do not mind a little tinkering getting one for a good price is a no brainer and aside from other emulation and hacks I just seen THIS video from a source that has been legit, not a bad way to play Nintendo DS titles !

 

 

TEASER of Nintendo DS Running on Playstation Classic - COMING SOON! | DEMO

https://youtu.be/wrmcy_yFxSw

Edited May 23, 2019 by OldSchoolRetroGamer

[Shannon]

DRastic runs pretty nice on the SNESC ( considering )... so I'm thinking it will run even better on the PSC although I've yet to see that come to fruition. I think that is partially due to the fact that the three popular PSC hacks only have the ability to load retroarch and it's cores in addition to the normal PSC carousel. Whereas other potential titles like DRastic and openbor are standalone programs. I'm hoping they will come up with a way to pass parameters to homebrew titles like you can do on the SNESC. That will open a lot of possibilities for the PSC.

 

Edit:

 

I just watched the video and I see definite performance improvement over the SNESC version of this emulator.

Edited May 23, 2019 by Shannon

[Shannon]

Well just to let you guys know. Bleemsync 1.1 just came out.. has has OTG support.. more stable retroarch support ( no more black screens ) and support for Retroarch "Xtreme" cores. I'll post more info later. I'm kinda wiped from tinkering with it. But I was able to load numerous games without black screening like I was getting before. I also tested my OTG adapter that I use for my SNESC and it worked perfectly fine. Upgrading the Kernel in order to get OTG support is a little tricky. Especially if your current PSC mem stick is in NTFS or exFAT format.

 

Finally.. Yes your PSC will have to be modified in order for the OTG enabling kernel to work. Bleemsync 1.1 does, however, back-up all of your Kernal files to the USB stick so you can safely stash them away if you want to restore the PSC to it's previous state. Which would require two steps.. 1 ) restoring your current PSC Kernal, 2) Using the bleemsync uninstall instructions.

 

Later!

[Shannon]

To further elaborate. When I first got my PSC I began the process of going through each Retroarch emu ( mostly the ones I'm interested in ) and testing / setting them up so I knew what was needed to get them working, how they performed, which ones were worth using, etc. One of the downsides of Retroarch was the tendency to black screen or lock-up after opening and closing many games. I eventually just developed the habit of exiting retroarch on each game load in hopes that they would someday fix it.

 

I eventually started working on playlists for each systems. Once I got them working nicely I started adding box/cartridge art as well as in-game screenshots. I've only recently added overlays for those systems that don't use up the full screen when emulating. It's pretty nice! With this latest release the stability seems to be much improved! Last night I was able to load and exit numerous titles without any lockup before I decided to call it a night. So I'm one step closer to making this a pretty nice setup.

 

The SNESC by far still has a more flexible interface but it's hardware is a little less powerful than the PSC. I'll have to read the changelog.. but they did mention adding the ability to command line launch titles from the main menu. So I can see stuff like OpenBor ( which recently reached the SNESC ) and Drastic ( DS emulator ) making it to the PSC soon. Watching that video the DS emulation seems like a good jump over the SNESC.

 

When I get a chance I'll read over the 1.1 list to see what other goodies they have in there. But that is currently what I'm doing with my PSC.

[ClassicGMR]

Ooh... I haven't been paying attention lately. Will have to push mine to 1.1.

[Shannon]

https://modmyclassic.com/2019/05/24/drastic-psc-port-standalone-nintendo-ds-port/

Testing it now...

[ClassicGMR]

So I FINALLY got around to updating to Bleemsync 1.1. RetroArch is so much nicer. The interface is MUCH cleaner and easier to navigate. Easier to load games, set overlays and set box art.

 

I have purchased an OTG adapter but I think I bought a Chinese dud. My USB drive gets power through the adapter but when I plug it into the back and turn on the PS Classic I get the original UI and 20 games. It's time to buy from Amazon again.

 

IF I can get the OTG adapter running (which should be just plug n play) then I will be using this a lot more! Not to mention I'll have 2 other systems to upgrade properly. Of course that means I'll have 3 USB 2.0 hubs collecting dust but what's progress without some dust?

Edited July 20, 2019 by ClassicGMR

[Shannon]

The OTG adapter I use is a square intec adapter if I remember correctly.

 

[Shannon]

3 hours ago, ClassicGMR said:

So I FINALLY got around to updating to Bleemsync 1.1. RetroArch is so much nicer. The interface is MUCH cleaner and easier to navigate. Easier to load games, set overlays and set box art.

 

Yep.  When they updated to Retroarch 1.7.7 the stability improved A LOT.  I've been able to load multiple games without the system locked up.  I have playlists set up, box art and even set up some overlays for the various emulators.

 

A correction on my earlier post.  It's the Inateck adapter that I use for OTG ( both SNESC and PSC ).  I picked it up off of Amazon.

a

[ClassicGMR]

I tried the OTG adapter again for the hell of it and it worked... then it didn't... then it did... etc etc etc. Then I threw it out and ordered a cable instead. The reviews specifically state it works with the NES and SNES mini so should be good for this.

 

As for functionality on 1.1 what an improvement!

 

The Bleemcast performance is as good as it was. I have over 100 games in the carousel now and it is sweet.

 

The RetroArch performance is miles and miles ahead of the previous releases (kilometers and kilometers for you non-imperial people). It immediately sectioned all my games into playlists - Atari 2600, Sega Genesis, Nintendo, etc - something that the previous versions wouldn't do for me. Every piece of box art displayed immediately. The only thing I still have a problem with is MAME but I have been playing with the FAVORITES work-around. That has the added benefit of not having to go through 4000+ roms I don't care about just to find the game I want.

 

The system is still $20 at a lot of retailers if you pick it up locally. For the price and included accessories this beats my Raspberry Pi 3B+ hands down while performing almost exactly the same! If anyone is reading through this thread and is still on the fence about buying one this is worth it for an emulation machine. Target / Best Buy / Walmart

[Shannon]

Those left/right OTG adapters are pieces of crap.  I'm not sure why some NESC/SNESC/PSC sites recommend them.  Every time I see someone in the discord chance mention it the people there tell them it's a piece of crap.  I believe people, however, have gotten that cable adapter to work just fine.

 

 

[ClassicGMR]

I received my cables a few days ago. I got the chance this morning to test them out and they worked first time ... and every time.

 

Last thing to purchase is an 8bitdo adapter. I can put my PS3 controllers to work again. I also already own an 8bitdo Switch Arcade stick that I will definitely try out with this.

 

My son is on his own for controllers! ???? At least I got his system updated and running exactly like mine.

Edited July 29, 2019 by ClassicGMR

[ClassicGMR]

Sold a refurb laptop so I bought some 8bitdo adapters mentioned above. Connecting PS3 controllers takes an extra set of steps but nothing that would take anyone here more than 5 minutes to do. 2 minutes after that I was playing Metal Gear Solid and Gran Turismo with analog sticks on good Playstation controllers. Excellent!

[ClassicGMR]

Quick bump but GameStop has these for $20 again. Still worth it.

 

Bleemsync or AutoBleem - pick your poison!

[KeeperofLindblum]

On 9/14/2019 at 5:34 PM, ClassicGMR said:

Bleemsync or AutoBleem - pick your poison!

Having only used Bleemsync... How does AutoBleem compare?

[ClassicGMR]

Oh I couldn't tell you. I just know it is an option. I may try it with one of my consoles for the hell of it at some point.

[israelg]

 

[Shannon]

My son has been getting a lot of use out of the PSC recently.  Mostly DS and GBA games..  But in other news.  Expect to see some retroarch builds with the ability to overclock in the near future.  This should be a nice little boost for some games.    Before that he was using the SNESC and my wife is currently using the NESC.

 

My own time has been pre-occupied with the original xbox and computer based emulators.

 

 

[ClassicGMR]

Bumpage for some news and a question:

 

Looks like BleemSync has given way to Project Eris. I love the fact that EmulationStation is included as the RA front end. I hope it's as customizable. I love "showcase" for the theme in ES. I will be trying this later today on one of my PSC units. I'll let you know how I like it.

 

Question to people who know more about this stuff than I do - which is almost everyone - do I need the original "PSC backup" for any reason except to restore the system? I realized I forgot to grab the backups I made when I lost my old MSI laptop. If I never have intentions of restoring the system do I care about these files?

[ClassicGMR]

I can't edit my last post so here's an update:

 

I installed Project Eris 0.9.5 and installed it. I just did it as a fresh install since I don't have the backup files anyway. It worked perfectly.

 

EmulationStation is a major improvement over the standard RetroArch interface however RA is still there! There are 3 menus - RetroArch, Project Eris(PS games) and EmulationStation. I plan on never using RA if I can help it.

 

For the Playstation games it's the same as BleemSync was. Put the bin/cue/png files into the TRANSFER directory on the root of your stick, plug it in and it adds the games to the wheel automatically.

 

As for emulation there were some headaches with getting cores. It doesn't come with anything except a psx-rearmed core. You have to download them and install them manually. Apparently there's a way to connect via WiFi - I assume using adapters - but I don't have that option yet. Haven't figured it out is more like it but anyway... So I downloaded all the cores from their nightly build repository and put them into the "project_eris\opt\retroarch\config\retroarch\cores" directory. That took some doing but I finally figured out where to put them and it works fine. Hopefully I just saved someone a headache. Once those cores are in place it's just a matter of putting roms in the proper directories. The structure is already there. /roms/a2600/ for 2600 games, /roms/genesis/ for Sega Genesis games, etc. That all works.

 

My only complaint is there doesn't seem to be a MAME directory. I tried to create one but ES doesn't see it. I created an ARCADE directory but ES wants to use FB Alpha if there's something in there. MAME runs under RetroArch but not through EmulationStation. I have some questions in on reddit to see if people have found a way to fix this.

 

Meanwhile I plan on doing a PC side SKRAPER of the games so I have the info filled in. That should make this an awesome setup and it was quick!

 

 

Edited June 12, 2020 by ClassicGMR

[Shannon]

I'll have to checkout that SKRAPER link sometime.  When they added ES to their Project Lunar I had a bit of fun setting it up.  I'm still undecided on rather to stick to it or the built in interface.  I've kind of stuck to making each system as console specific as possible ( Sega console games on the Genesis Mini ), etc.  Anywho I created a dos batch file based off of another one to scrape data.  It worked fairly well although I never fine tuned it as I originally intended.

 

I've yet to try ES on the PS Mini.  Once they added manual scan to retroarch I have not had a need just yet to tinker with it.  Plus Autobleem has built-in access to the Retroarch playlists so I can access the games with Autobleem.

 

[bradhig1]

Does it allow you to use gameshark codes?

[ClassicGMR]

5 hours ago, bradhig1 said:

Does it allow you to use gameshark codes?

I have never tried but a YouTube search for "playstation classic gameshark cheat" brings up quite a few videos. The newest seems to be from December 2018.

 

I found a MrMario video. I did not watch it but his videos are usually good. Give it a watch and let us know!

 

https://www.bitchute.com/video/ABrE-i5OFuQ/

[Asaki]

I still haven't done anything with mine. I tried playing it stock, and gosh, what an awful product

Fortunately, I got mine free. The guy never shipped it, wouldn't reply to email, so I filed a complaint with eBay to get my money back...and the guy gives me my refund and ships it anyway! Gave me one of those apology letters that just screams "please don't report me to the police for being a bootlegger!"

Didn't even bother packing it, just put a big shipping sticker on the box >__< Thanks.