Elliot Coll’s PlayStation Upgrade Brings Classic Gaming Straight into the Present

Elliot Coll found a very beat-up Playstation on eBay, one that appeared to be on its final legs, filthy and damaged, with a slew of previous owners’ patch jobs tossed in. Despite this, the SCPH-5502, which is widely regarded as one of the best upgrade pathways, appeared to be a good location to begin constructing what he refers to as “the ultimate” version of this console.

First up was the outer casing, which had been neglected for years and had a thick layer of filth covering every inch. He took out the dish soap and a brush and washed the plastic until it was shiny again. Then he shipped the case (which cost some money) to a man named Rob at RAW TALENT ART, who specializes in taking things and making them seem better. Rob applied a fresh layer of deep blue paint on the case, a hue inspired by Sony’s early development kits used before the console even left the factory. The end effect is a clean and practical design that isn’t overly showy.

The console was now a hot mess, as the previous owners had messed with it, particularly with region switching and burnt game support. If you looked closely at the motherboard, you could see cuts where they had started tampering with cables, and one of the crystal oscillators was actually misaligned, resulting in black and white screens on a PAL television. Coll went in with a scalpel (not literally) and meticulously removed all of the excess wires. He then scrubbed the copper paths and reattached the breaks until the board looked as if it had just left Sony’s factory. After locating and removing one stray repair wire, he performed a test show to validate adequate color output.

The next task was to upgrade the storage by soldering in a PicoStation ZeroWire board based on a Raspberry Pi Pico chip. All of this made use of existing motherboard holes and a single short jumper wire for good measure. Once the board was installed, games now load directly from an SD card rather than the old disc drive, and things continue to play well across the library, with loading times feeling rather speedy.

The addition of an HDMI mod board, which required careful dismantling of the shielding and removal of the original serial port connector, resulted in the biggest improvement in video output (albeit much of that work was done inside the cardboard packaging of the AliExpress order). He connected the two using a couple of cords, one for video and one for audio. The result is crisp 1080p on current TVs, which is significantly sharper than the old composite or 720p converter he had previously tried. The jagged edges have even smoothed out little, but the games still appear right at home.

Coll’s bold move to replace the original port board with a Re-Live BT board from TecnoBit Videojuegos resulted in full wireless controller capability. He assumed he could use the old ribbon connector and a small diode, then solder the new board in place. Put in a tiny speaker to obtain that familiar starter chime, but this time with a fresh new sound that isn’t too bad. With a simple tap of the touch-sensitive surface or a paired Bluetooth controller, the console is online. Yes, memory cards function very well with the wireless setup, and all of the popular pads, such as the DualSense from the PS5, connect without the need for any adapters.

Coll eliminated the old AC transformer board completely, making power delivery much easier. A small little USB-C board from Robot Retro has taken its place. All you need to keep the console operating is a regular phone charger. The entire system receives electricity neatly via a single contemporary wire. Games on the SD card boot up quickly, look well on HDMI, and respond quickly to wireless input. Let’s not forget that the blue shell gives the console a completely new identity, but the hardware inside accomplishes all the original could and more.
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