The NSONE project homebrev playstation 1 is included in the growing community of hardware development. Other recent projects include PicostationA raspberry pie pico-based optical disc emulator (Ode) that allows Playstation 1 console to load the game with SD card instead of the physical disc. Other odes like Method And Chairman Popular solutions have also become for retrogaming collectors who play games on the original hardware as the age of the optical drive and fail.

From repair jobs to reverse-engineering project

To understand the physical architecture of the classic console, Bodesco physically sanded an original motherboard to highlight its internal layers, then cross-refered the exposed mark with the component datsheet and service rules.

“I realized that the detailed documentation on the original motherboard was either incomplete or completely unavailable,” Brodesco explained in his kickstarter campaign. This discovery launched what would be a comprehensive documentation effort, including detection of every connection on the board and creating multi-layer graphic representation of the circuitry.

Using optical scanning and manual net by-nevere reverse-engineering, Bodesco re-planned the planned of Playstation 1 in modern PCB design software. The process involves the accurate pin mapping and making component symbols with identity – or in some cases – the right footprints for each proprietary component that Soni had never publicly documented.

Brodesco also identified that it says “minimal architecture”, which is necessary to boot the console without BIOS amendments, streamlines the design process while maintaining complete compatibility.

The mock-up boards shown in the photographs validate the footprints of the chips and connectors, all are re-prepared from the scratches. According to Brodesco, a fully rooted version with full multipurpose routing and final layout is already in development.

As Bodesco mentioned on the kickstarter, the goal of their project is “to create comprehensive documentation, design files and production-taire blueprint for the creation of a fully functional motherboard.”

Beyond repair, documentation and design files are creating Brodesco which will preserve the hardware architecture of Playstation 1 for future generations: “This is a tribute to PS1, for retro hardware, and for belief that a person can actually create impossible.”