HACKER Q&A
📣 rocketmars

Can you DIY a “Playstation 1”?


A PIC32 microcontroller has 512 KB RAM. If I somehow combine 4 of those, I get to have 2 MB. I need 1 extra MB for the VRAM.

Not sure if this is going to work. How would you approach this? (FPGAs for the display controller?)

I just want to approximate the PS1 hardware for fun and profit.

References:

- https://gamehacking.org/faqs/PSX.pdf

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_(console)


  👤 dusted Accepted Answer ✓
You _CAN_ diy most anything, the question is if you have the time and resources.

But, frankensteining 4 pics to get 2 MiB ram, I don't think it will be beneficial in making a PS1, there is a good article on the architecture, which was also posted here on HN previously https://fabiensanglard.net/doom_psx/

But, making a none-ps1 compatible video game thingy out of 4 pics would be a weird and fun project, and probably a total hell to code for, so go ahead! :D