The PlayStation Classic is, honestly, a bit disappointing.
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While Sony certainly hoped it would be as phenomenal as Nintendo’s mini NES and SNES consoles, it leaves a lot to be desired. Sure it’s beautifully made and incredibly small and cool, but aside from a couple of choice cuts, it suffers from a lack of gaming lineup and performance issues.
Fortunately, that doesn’t have to be the case anymore. A group of keen enthusiasts have opened the PlayStation Classic wide open, revealing a tasty menu to help tweak and improve game settings and unlock support for a host of PlayStation games that you can add to the device yourself.
But be careful. While accessing the PlayStation Classic debug menu should not void your warranty, the changes you make could be irreversible. If so, Sony certainly won’t help you fix them. As for adding new games to your PlayStation Classic, not only do you have to be the legal owner of the original ROM, but making any physical modifications to the PlayStation Classic will completely void your warranty.
Basically, it’s the same situation as if you hacked your SNES Classic Mini to add more games to it.
PlayStation Classic Hack: How to Access the Debug Menu
To access the PlayStation Classic debug menu, you will need to get a compatible USB keyboard. Unfortunately, not all keyboards work and it seems like the only way to find out is a trial and error method. So far the only keyboards confirmed to work are the K70 Corsair and K95.
However, once you have a compatible keyboard, tap the ESC key while your PlayStation Classic is loading a game and you’ll open a debug menu to tweak all sorts of settings.
As you can see in the Retro Gaming Arts YouTube video below, setup is relatively simple and straightforward. You can emulate CRT scanlines if you want to give your games a retro feel, and there’s the option to switch PAL games from 50Hz to 60Hz, which will noticeably boost the performance of titles like Tekken 3 and Ridge Racer 4.
PlayStation Classic Hack: How to Install More Games
If you’re not happy with the list of 20 games found on the PlayStation Classic, you can now add more games to the list of playable titles without having to open up your console and solder off items like a Japanese modder managed to make.
In fact, if you want to add additional games to your PlayStation Classic you can do so by simply connecting a USB memory stick and following a few simple steps. However, you need to be careful as this process could not only damage your PlayStation Classic, but you will need your own ROMs for the games you want to play.
BleemSync is the easiest way to get different PlayStation games on your PS Classic, as it doesn’t require you to modify the files on your console. Instead, simply load the game files you want to play and insert the USB into the PlayStation Classic controller’s second port and play. It’s still not as simple as that, but it’s a starting point for those who want to get more games on their PlayStation Classic.
Install more games on your PlayStation Classic:
- To get started you will need head over to GitHub and download BleemSync
- Download the ZIP file and extract the contents to the root location of a FAT32 or ext4 formatted USB drive connected to your PC or Mac.
- Name the flash drive “SONY”; this is a requirement.
- In the same root directory where you extracted the ZIP file, you will need to create a folder called “Games.”
- Inside here you must create a folder for each game that you want to add to the system. Each folder must be numbered sequentially. Each of these folders should also contain a “GameData” folder with a “Game.ini” file, a cover image, a “pcsx.cfg” file, and the game’s “bin” and “cue” files. A template for what the game folders should look like is in the initial ZIP file, and the GitHub page also has a schematic for indexing.
- More specific details about how to format files and where to find them are described on the GitHub page, so be sure to read it carefully. It also describes how to install multi-disc games.
- Once this is done, you can go to the BleemSync directory and run BleemSync.exe. This generates a “System” folder containing a database and a script to help mount the games.
- Insert the flash drive into your PlayStation Classic and turn it on, the new games should be on display.
- Be sure not to remove the flash drive while gaming or while the drive is in use. Additionally, it’s not known if all games will run on the PlayStation Classic without issues, so don’t be surprised if you encounter some issues.
