Only last week, we reported on a portable PS1 that was built into a Japan-only controller. This is an impressive achievement, but it's one that was built around emulation and not original hardware.
For all of the PS1 purists out there, we advise you to check out Mackie Kannard-Smith / @YveltalGriffin's latest accomplishment, the PS Hanami.
"This is the PS Hanami, my handmade Playstation 1 portable that I designed and built in one month," says the modder. "It uses a REAL PS1 motherboard that I cut in half, folded like a book, and rewired. NO emulation!"
With dimensions of 181 x 91.5 x 30.25 mm, this is a pocket-sized powerhouse that uses XStation to load games from an SD card, as fitting a CD-ROM drive into this thing was never going to be possible.
"I care a lot about audio and video quality in my portables," adds the modder. "So, the PS Hanami includes beefy stereo speakers and a Shinobi Scaler running GBS Control for pixel-perfect 480p VGA."
The battery life is around 2.5 hours, which isn't brilliant, but when you see how much stuff is crammed inside this thing, you'll be more understanding:
The fact that the PU-18 PlayStation motherboard had to be sliced in two and completely rewired is seriously impressive. "All the rewiring was done by hand," says YveltalGriffin. "No fancy flex PCBs this time around! After the fold, the board is less than half the size of the original mobo. Naturally, it's also twice as thick."
Here's the 'before and after' shot:
While emulation will be perfectly fine for most people and FPGA promises to give us hardware-level accuracy for retro consoles, we admire the talent, skill and resourcefulness that goes into a project like this, which resources original components to create something entirely new.
This is a true portable PlayStation in every sense.