Console revisions and loss/gain functionality.

[pustal]

I was talking with some friends and we're trying to list all the hardware functionality that consoles lost or gain with revisions. So far this is the list I came up with:

- Mega Drive: losing serial port, sound quality;

- Gameboy (Pocket): gain backlight (Japan)

- PlayStation: losing serial port;

- GameBoy Advance (SP): gained backlight and a rechargeable battery

- PlayStation 2: losing HDD bay and Firewire port;

- GameCube: losing digital AV;

- Nintendo DS/DSi (not sure of this counts): losing GBA slot, gaining clock speed and SD storage

- PSP (Street): gaining RAM, color range, losing Wi-Fi

- XBox 360: gaining HDMI, Wi-Fi;

- Wii (Mini): losing GameCube retro compatibility, Wi-fi and SD storage.

- PlayStation 3: losing PS2 retrocompatibility, card reader and 2 USB ports;

- PlayStation Vita: gaining internal memory, losing OLED;

- (New) 3DS: gaining better 3D stabilization, clock speed, right analog, NFC reader/writer;

I won't consider XBox One to One X or PS4 to PS4 Pro since they were sold side by side, same for Switch and Switch OLED. Still:

- Xbox One: gained 4k video output.

What else am I missing?

 

[SylverReZ]

Wii (RVL-101, Family): Removal of GameCube ports and compatiblity, although, it is possible to re-solder the connectors back onto the motherboard and install the appropriate IOSes.

GameCube (DOL-101): Missing SP2 port for accessories such as Game Boy Player, SD2SP2 and the modem adapter.

PlayStation 2 Slim (SCPH-900xx): Ability to boot from memory card for recovery use (exploited by Free McBoot).

Wii (Mini): The use of modchip/drivechips, Wi-Fi and SD card ports (possible to install Wi-Fi card).

PlayStation: Removal of parallel port (SCPH-900x), DAC chip removed to reduce costs (SCPH-750x).

 

[KleinesSinchen]

- Gameboy (Pocket): gain backlight (Japan)

Gained: Better LCD than DMG-001
Lost: Running time with one charge → Only 2 AAA batteries instead 4 AA
====

I'll repeat a bit about Wii and mention some more of the lost functionality

Wii: (RVL-001)
Lost in later revisions (including all units with non-white housing):

• Very first models boot1 vulnerability allowing BootMii in boot2
• Early drives are able to read standard DVDs (pressed/burned video as well as burned backups) with softmod only

Wii: (RVL-101)

• GC functionality
  • I'd like to know if the RVL-101 drive will read genuine GC discs if manually centered. It misses the mechanical parts to catch 8cm discs. Installing an old drive allows booting GC discs for sure (of no use without also adding GC ports)
  • RVL-201 drive rejects legit GC discs

Wii Mini (RVL-201) lost… pretty much everything in addition to GC stuff:

• Possibility to even install GC controllers 2 and 3 (only 1 and 4 can be added as far as I know)
• Light on drive
• Second USB port
• SD
• WiFi
• Compatibility to LAN adapter
• All better video out; only composite. No RGB Scart, no S-Video, no Component
• (Reset)-button → WTF?

GBA SP:
AGS-001 has bad frontlit screen, while AGS-101 has bright backlit screen

DS → DS Lite:

• Better screens (some late DS phat have better screens and profit from FlashMe in this regard adding the brightness control)
• Removable WiFi/Firmware chip → easy unbrick

PS1: Of course most things were lost in later models. A few things gained:

• Later models have better optical drives with the slim PSOne model being the best
• Dual Shock analog sticks controller included instead of old digital input only controller

 

[DinohScene]

Ehh, the only PSP having 32 megs of RAM is the 1000 aka phat.
ALL other PSPs have 64 MB.

Not to mention all PSP models having different screens...

 

[FAST6191]

Master systems and the ability to play SG1000 as well as some other things
https://www.nostalgianerd.com/sega-hardware-revisions/

I don't want to start on the Amiga and differences there or we will be here all day, even before user modified versions (buy a card, plug it in for the most part, endorsed by the maker) are considered. Something to consider though. Wikipedia I know but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_models_and_variants should be a start on that one.

360 also has memory card slots to consider. SPDIF could also be pondered but that gets even more hazy than DS to DSi and GB to GBC.
https://support.xbox.com/en-US/help/xbox-360/console/connect-sound-system

Original xbox. Technically hard drive size but was formatted to be the same. Some older models might also be slower in the memory which you can find observable effects for.

SP 101 was mentioned above but here again.

PS1 serial port needs to be careful with terminology. Officially it might mean the network play thing for which the PSone lacked it but all others did, around these circles many (especially noting its absence) might instead think the thing cheat cartridges aka lets me run burned games operated with which more officially was a parallel port. There were also video port changes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Link_Cable
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_models

 

[SylverReZ]

PS1 serial port needs to be careful with terminology. Officially it might mean the network play thing for which the PSone lacked it but all others did, around these circles many (especially noting its absence) might instead think the thing cheat cartridges aka lets me run burned games operated with which more officially was a parallel port. There were also video port changes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Link_Cable
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_models

I think the parallel I/O port is what you're referring to, which was removed in the later SCPH-900x models. (as shown in below figure).

The serial I/O port, not to be confused with the parallel I/O port, was still added to the PSone (slim) models.

There were also video port changes.

One of them being the S-Video port, which was exclusive to the early Japanese models only.

 

[dekuleon]

PSP Street has only one speaker. Bummer.

 

[SylverReZ]

PSP Street has only one speaker. Bummer.

I own the original PSP model with two speakers.