The point of this thread is simple, if you're interested in a cheap small emu box, that you should grab a playstation classic while you have the chance. I honestly believe it won't be long before enough people are clued in on the fact that the classic is more powerful than the Pi, simpler to setup (now at least), has faster bootup, and with all that comes with 2 controllers in a fairly attractive case. I'll break down each point.
More powerful than the Pi:
This should be pretty self explanatory, the SoC is just more powerful. The real question comes what can you do with that power that you can't with a pi. The answer? Dreamcast and PSP emulation. Both are still relatively early in development, but at least on the PSP side I was able to get every game I tried at full speed. Dreamcast isn't quite there yet, but is showing a lot of promise.
And yes, Autobleem/Bleemsync use a newer and more optimized PS1 emulator so it even does that much better.
Simpler to setup:
If all you're interested in is a box that plays PS1 titles then using Autobleem is about as simple as it gets. Format a USB stick to be fat32, then drag and drop the setup files and your ISOS/Compress PBPs and plug it in and turn it on. If you want to play anything else, you simply drop Retroarch onto the root of the stick and create another folder for your roms and boom! All set!
If you want to get fancy and add NTFS/exfat support (and in the near future usb otg support) you just install bleemsync and then go back to autobleem.
Faster bootup:
At least for me, I've never gotten my raspberry pi's to bootup into anything useful without almost a minute or more. Autobleem is up and running in the time it takes for the Sony PS1 bootup to complete. So maybe 15 seconds? I should have timed it.
Comes with 2 Controllers:
True, they aren't the best... but I got my system for $40 and they work fine for everything that doesn't require analogs, so most classic systems. For PSP and PS1 games that need the analogs, you can simply plug your DS3/4 into the system and you're good to go as well.
Some lingering concerns:
Right now there are a couple things you do need to still be aware of. The biggest being that USB sticks are mostly limited to 2.0. Not because of speed, but because 3.0 sticks tend to draw too much power even in 2.0 mode. The only solution to that right now is to use a powered USB hub, or mod the console. Soon the bleemsync devs plan on releasing OTG support which isn't power limited using the back microUSB port, but you'll likely still need an older USB flash drive to install the payload.
The second is that since all of the emulation cores are retroarch, you do have to deal with it's still very archaic UI and idiosyncrasies. If you're just interested in PS1 games you'll never have to worry about that though since it's all handled through the system's default UI.
Conclusion:
If you're interested in a cheap emubox, this really is an all around great device and the best time to get into it. Aside from tossing in a USB flash drive of your choice, it's pretty much all in one and setup is quick and mostly painless.
Links:
Bleemsync - Main exploit, adds NTFS/exfat support as well
AutoBleem - Completely independent and much simpler alternative to Bleemsync, but doesn't add NTFS/exfat unless you use Bleemsync at least once.
PSX2PSP - Converts PSX isos and multi-disc games into compressed PBP files for easier management and to save space on your USB
PSC Retroarch repository - Where you can download any additional emulator cores you want for Retroarch
/r/PlaystationClassic - Guides, videos, news, support, etc for the PSC.
(Note to Raspberry Pi fans, this thread was not to shit on the Pi. I love my Pis and they are overall still more open and useful for most projects, but for a straight emulation box, PSC is not simpler and more effective)
Finally I close this out on a nerdy video showing PSP performance on the classic with a wide range of games to give people an idea how well it works.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-kP3s1loCc
More powerful than the Pi:
This should be pretty self explanatory, the SoC is just more powerful. The real question comes what can you do with that power that you can't with a pi. The answer? Dreamcast and PSP emulation. Both are still relatively early in development, but at least on the PSP side I was able to get every game I tried at full speed. Dreamcast isn't quite there yet, but is showing a lot of promise.
And yes, Autobleem/Bleemsync use a newer and more optimized PS1 emulator so it even does that much better.
Simpler to setup:
If all you're interested in is a box that plays PS1 titles then using Autobleem is about as simple as it gets. Format a USB stick to be fat32, then drag and drop the setup files and your ISOS/Compress PBPs and plug it in and turn it on. If you want to play anything else, you simply drop Retroarch onto the root of the stick and create another folder for your roms and boom! All set!
If you want to get fancy and add NTFS/exfat support (and in the near future usb otg support) you just install bleemsync and then go back to autobleem.
Faster bootup:
At least for me, I've never gotten my raspberry pi's to bootup into anything useful without almost a minute or more. Autobleem is up and running in the time it takes for the Sony PS1 bootup to complete. So maybe 15 seconds? I should have timed it.
Comes with 2 Controllers:
True, they aren't the best... but I got my system for $40 and they work fine for everything that doesn't require analogs, so most classic systems. For PSP and PS1 games that need the analogs, you can simply plug your DS3/4 into the system and you're good to go as well.
Some lingering concerns:
Right now there are a couple things you do need to still be aware of. The biggest being that USB sticks are mostly limited to 2.0. Not because of speed, but because 3.0 sticks tend to draw too much power even in 2.0 mode. The only solution to that right now is to use a powered USB hub, or mod the console. Soon the bleemsync devs plan on releasing OTG support which isn't power limited using the back microUSB port, but you'll likely still need an older USB flash drive to install the payload.
The second is that since all of the emulation cores are retroarch, you do have to deal with it's still very archaic UI and idiosyncrasies. If you're just interested in PS1 games you'll never have to worry about that though since it's all handled through the system's default UI.
Conclusion:
If you're interested in a cheap emubox, this really is an all around great device and the best time to get into it. Aside from tossing in a USB flash drive of your choice, it's pretty much all in one and setup is quick and mostly painless.
Links:
Bleemsync - Main exploit, adds NTFS/exfat support as well
AutoBleem - Completely independent and much simpler alternative to Bleemsync, but doesn't add NTFS/exfat unless you use Bleemsync at least once.
PSX2PSP - Converts PSX isos and multi-disc games into compressed PBP files for easier management and to save space on your USB
PSC Retroarch repository - Where you can download any additional emulator cores you want for Retroarch
/r/PlaystationClassic - Guides, videos, news, support, etc for the PSC.
(Note to Raspberry Pi fans, this thread was not to shit on the Pi. I love my Pis and they are overall still more open and useful for most projects, but for a straight emulation box, PSC is not simpler and more effective)
Finally I close this out on a nerdy video showing PSP performance on the classic with a wide range of games to give people an idea how well it works.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-kP3s1loCc
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