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GingerOfOz, a hacker known for creating portable consoles, has released a video detailing his newest project, the PS2 Eclipse, a portable PlayStation 2 console. It is a fully-featured, 3D printed console that has a battery life of roughly two and a half hours. The Eclipse runs off of a real PS2 motherboard, though drastically trimmed down, so the games are running on original hardware, avoiding the slowdowns and imperfections of emulation. It doesn't support discs, however, as the disc drive would be too large and bulky to reasonably attach to a handheld. Instead, attached to the motherboard are the internals of a PS2 memory card running Free McBoot, a homebrew application that allows your PS2 to run backups and homebrew off of a USB drive.

This does lead to some issues, however. Since the PS2 uses USB 1.1, the load times can be considerable, closing in on an minute for some titles, according to GingerOfOz's video, Another known issue is that the PS2 will not recognize the controller on "quite a few games," rendering them unplayable, though GingerOfOz seems confident these issues can be addressed through software fixes. While there's no compatibility list available, he says that if a landmark PS2 title isn't shown running in the video, it's likely because it wouldn't run. (For reference, some of the titles shown running on the Eclipse include the Super Monkey Ball games, the Grand Theft Auto trilogy, Persona 3 and 4, Kingdom Hearts, Katamari Damacy and Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence.)

GingerOfOz will not be selling the Eclipse on commission as he has for his other handhelds in the past; however, he is encouraging users to create their own. His video gives an overview of the process and his website points to some extra resources, and will reportedly be updated with more details in the future.

 

[subcon959]

Very cool. Wonder if there was a way to get the network adapter in there instead to eliminate the need to use USB.

 

[Jiehfeng]

That's neat. PS2 portables have already been on the market for sometime now on AliExpress though, not sure how this compares. Making your own is sweet though.



There's links in the description where you can get one, though it's very expensive and probably not worth it for most people.

Building your own would be much cheaper but time consuming. Though the one made by that guy in the OP looks much better overall, more compact and probably free of small issues like the AliExpress ones.

 

[sarkwalvein]

It should be possible to produce a custom made "network adapter" replacement interfacing directly to an M.2...

 

[Esdeath]

Always nice to see such fan projects, hope these won't die out withthe release of steamdeck and other similar ones

 

[CoolMe]

Very cool. Wonder if there was a way to get the network adapter in there instead to eliminate the need to use USB.

Not sure that's possible, as the PCB was significantly trimmed and the network adapter option wouldn't be feasible anyway. Maybe if they can re-trace and do the IDE HDD mod (since it's the slim) with an IDE to SD card, that would be really cool. If it's even possible that is.

 

[banjo2]

Finally, Persona 4 on the go

 

[Drak0rex]

How about a million easy payments of a dollar ?

 

[AlexMCS]

Just get a steam deck + PCSX2...
Also, citing PS2 emulation negatives (some compatibility issues and minor glitches) without citing its huge benefits (better graphics, filtering, easier mods, savestates, much faster loading speeds etc.) is not really an honest way to approach this,

 

[sarkwalvein]

Just get a steam deck + PCSX2...
Also, citing PS2 emulation negatives (some compatibility issues and minor glitches) without citing its huge benefits (better graphics, filtering, easier mods, savestates, much faster loading speeds etc.) is not really an honest way to approach this,

This is well known, as also is the "niche" of perfect accuracy that people tend to idolize and pay big bucks for.
Emulation is cheap and convenient, but not part of the niche this kind of projects go for.

That said, I don't think one could consider something that doesn't reach the original transfer speed specs accurate, specially when it destroys the gaming experience not just with load times but specially with broken streamed audio that jitters like crazy and other artifacts (anyone that tried to use USB1.1 from PS2 to play a game will know what I talk about). CPU/GPU is not the only part of a system that makes it "accurate".

 

[Deleted member 194275]

Just get a steam deck + PCSX2...
Also, citing PS2 emulation negatives (some compatibility issues and minor glitches) without citing its huge benefits (better graphics, filtering, easier mods, savestates, much faster loading speeds etc.) is not really an honest way to approach this,

Steam deck is not available yet, nor will be for more than a year for the majority of the world.
We don't even know if it will performs well, the company says so, and we trust them, but still no guarantees.

Also PS2 emulation have laughable bad accuracy, for purists this is not an option at all.

 

[Aheago]

Just get a steam deck + PCSX2...
Also, citing PS2 emulation negatives (some compatibility issues and minor glitches) without citing its huge benefits (better graphics, filtering, easier mods, savestates, much faster loading speeds etc.) is not really an honest way to approach this,

Some people just prefer using real hardware for various different reasons. Yes you can easily emulate these things but you aren’t getting the whole “experience”

 

[Deleted member 473940]

That's neat. PS2 portables have already been on the market for sometime now on AliExpress though, not sure how this compares. Making your own is sweet though.



There's links in the description where you can get one, though it's very expensive and probably not worth it for most people.

Building your own would be much cheaper but time consuming. Though the one made by that guy in the OP looks much better overall, more compact and probably free of small issues like the AliExpress ones.

Dang those things from aliexpress are expensive. Been looking into it for quite some time.

A snapdragon 860 or 870 device can be found between £180 to £250. A decent USB C controller costs around £50. I would be able to play all the way up to Wii and some Wii U games

 

[64bitmodels]

Some people just prefer using real hardware for various different reasons. Yes you can easily emulate these things but you aren’t getting the whole “experience”

the whole experience is not worth shelling out 500+ bucks on aliexpress, and with emulation you're getting a better experience, regardless of if it is "whole" or not. 400 dollars will get you a steam deck as well as a bunch of other systems available to easily be emulated.

 

[Jokey_Carrot]

Not sure that's possible, as the PCB was significantly trimmed and the network adapter option wouldn't be feasible anyway. Maybe if they can re-trace and do the IDE HDD mod (since it's the slim) with an IDE to SD card, that would be really cool. If it's even possible that is.

I don't think the board he used has ide. I believe that's limited to older ps2 slim models.

 

[Jiehfeng]

the whole experience is not worth shelling out 500+ bucks on aliexpress, and with emulation you're getting a better experience, regardless of if it is "whole" or not. 400 dollars will get you a steam deck as well as a bunch of other systems available to easily be emulated.

That's all true. The thing with custom built handhelds though is that they're usually highly priced. Buying the parts separately plus the time taken to build them is why, if someone does this they would most likely always sell for over $400 at least. It's a very niche market though and only some enthusiasts would buy them, for everyone else emulation is the way to go for portability for the most part.

 

[Darth Meteos]

Always nice to see such fan projects, hope these won't die out withthe release of steamdeck and other similar ones

PS2 is so janky to emulate that real hardware is still the best solution for many games

 

[guisadop]

I don't get this boner with portable devices, if I'm not at home I have stuff to do other than playing video games, and if I'm at home I don't want to play on a tiny ass screen

 

[x65943]

I have watched a ton of portable console videos, but this guy put in the most work to make it fun and open to anybody by far

 

[godreborn]

I prefer the original hardware as well, but something appears to be messed up with ps2's laser. The music in tales of destiny kept cutting out after the airship is attacked at the beginning of the game.