The PlayStation Classic has been plagued by a list of failures nearly since its inception. Being revealed with just 5 of the included 20 games know led many to raise a suspicious eyebrow. The inclusion of the original PlayStation digital only controller over the Dual Shock analogue controller left many wondering why. The final game list had many detractors over the complete lack of actual “PlayStation Hits” like Castlevania Symphony of the Night, Tomb Raider, Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon. Worst of all was the final realization that nearly half the games on the PlayStation Classic were inferior performing PAL region releases.
Thing didn’t get much better for Sony’s nostalgic micro console upon release last week as it was quickly discover the emulation quality was phenomenally sub par. Several inaccuracies in both sound and video quality could be easily spotted. Worse yet the performance in some games was worse than a 20 year old computer emulating the same game. Yes, no joke My Pentium III system can handle the emulation of these games better than the PlayStation Classic. The worst part of this story is that the hardware included in the PlayStation Classic is more than capable of delivering a capable and enjoyable emulation experience for Sony’s first console. Lack of optimization with Sony’s fork of the capable open sourced emulator PCSX RE-armed has managed to severely gimped this once promising system.
All hope is not lost for the PlayStation Classic however! Prominent Vita hacker Yifanlu managed to blow the PlayStation Classic wide open all on a live stream. Yifanlu was able to side load games from USB. While the method Yifanlu wouldn’t be useful for the common user, since it required soldering, payloads have since been made to allow the process to work straight from USB. While this is great to allow users to change up the game list on there new mini console it doesn’t yet fix the poor emulator. But, the fact the system is now wide open and easily changeable means it is only a matter of time before community developers and hackers fix all the mistakes found on the PlayStation Classic. If you want to try out the hacks for yourself keep in mind there is a small chance you can brick your console.
Were you an early adopter of the PlayStation Classic or does the news of its hack make it a more intriguing buy for you? Let us know in a comment below!
