I Built The Ultimate PS2 System For 2024 (And Beyond)

ladies and gentlemen I have an update on a system I've been building for a while now it's it's been a bit I I've made multiple videos on this PlayStation 2 fat model as I've worked to kind of upgrade and modernize it this is something I've been doing for multiple systems whether it's the Nintendo 64 the Dreamcast the PS1 it's just something about being able to get an HDMI port to pull video directly from the chip and see what these systems are actually capable of now being compatible with a large highdef display is it's interesting to me and for the PS2 when I started going down that rabbit hole I realized there are quite a few replacement parts that make this system fit right in with current devices so I said you know what let's go for it let's let's basically do as much as I can and that did get to the point where I did indeed install an HDMI port into the system as well as a few other things and we're going to go over that today and the conclusion to my ultimate PlayStation 2 system so if you guys enjoy the video make sure the like button and subscribe if you're new first of all if you missed it I again I did multiple videos one that kind of detailed the process of installing a Samsung SSD I also had to change out the IDE plug on that on that network adapter and make it compatible with SATA devices and that's how I was able to get the Samsung uh SSD inside of the system there are a bunch of different things you can do with that some people put full 3 and 1/2 in hard drives in there just for the overall storage which the PS2 operator off of very slow ID drives back then so even like a modern SATA drive and you can go to 2 terab 4 terab or something to fit as many games on there as you want it's a it's a pretty good upgrade there also I just the SSD is silent so I I figured hey I'm trying to make this thing really really quiet let's go that route which also brought me to another video that I did where I showed off the fan upgrade where I put a knock to a fan on it and then the system I was basically silent it was very very difficult to even tell if it was on if it wasn't for that led on the front that you press and it goes from red to Green I would have no idea it it had actually powered on at that time however there was still a situation I had which had to do with two things one was the controller which there's a third party controller that I got that I did like it it's fine but the idea of being able to use uh maybe a first-party controller from Sony L A later generation one with the PS2 which was something I thought would be fun to have and the video out solution so what I was doing was using component out and then using a a conversion box to then move it over to HDMI which again was fine but it lacked a lot of customization and really features that say a modern TV now would be able to take advantage of and also be able to change up resolutions on the Fly aspect ratios and whatnot to find the best image possible or one that I would be happy with which then brings us to a certain device that has gone through some scrutiny because of kind of the the options that they have in place and that's the Retro gem from Pixel FX now at first glance it seems pretty straightforward it's a board that works with multiple different systems like the the PS1 the Nintendo 64 the PS2 slim fat I think the the Dreamcast but when I heard that it would work for the PlayStation 2 that's the route I immediately was looking to take but then I realized they have this thing called the shiny Edition which they had to put out a chart for it and you know in gaming when there's a chart involved it's going to be a lot of fun um but looking at the the shiny Edition it supports 1080P and 1440p as well as de interlacer for weave and motion adaptive now since using this I will admit I have basically stuck now with 1080P and motion adaptive for the D interlacer so I I am taking advantage of the shiny addition just seems odd that you need to get the shiny Edition which is a sizable price difference so from what I'm seeing on their site now $120 is like the the standard model the basic Edition going up to shiny then pushes up to $190 or $70 difference for the PS2 fat again odd situation there that you have to kind of choose between the two I I'm not sure if there's a reasoning behind it when it comes to sourcing different parts that then go on that Universal board but it is uh kind of annoying to have to deal with that uh 1080p though to me is is worth it because I would be using it on a larger OLED display for example like the one back here and that was my biggest thing was to get the PS2 to a position where I can play from the system from far away with a wireless controller and have a pretty good image and being compatible with a newer TV like this so that I could play off of the actual Hardware while also taking advantage of things like an SSD for faster loading now the install for the this retro gem is as you'd expect I've done many of these installations for HDMI boards where you have to have a ribbon cable with multiple points run up against a chip or multiple chips inside of these systems now I typically will just do drag solder and go across this one was a little different because there are components in the way kind of and you start have to bend and move the cable over top of it you can change it out to a lower profile uh Crystal that you can buy online but I I was having a hard time sourcing that part correctly or even within any kind of reasonable time frame to have it shipped in so I I just opted to solder over top of it and it wasn't it wasn't the easiest one I feel like if those pieces weren't there on the board this would be pretty straightforward and I would put it actually easier than the N64 and the Dreamcast but because of that it put some stress on the on the cable and it was uh a bit more work in fact even after I got it back together I noticed that there was sort of this I guess a weak connection even kind of a bridge that was formed from the kind of the pressure that was mounting on it so that I had to go back in and clean that up but a after I did all of that it went together fine I also set it up with the controller in mind so you can use the shortcut keys on the controller which is R1 L1 right on the d-pad and then Circle and it brings up an entire menu that allows you to connect to Wi-Fi update the firmware and do all kinds of things to the image now as I was getting the system back together I realized something the power supply is no longer compatible if you go the route of installing this uh this retro gem which led me to changing out the power supply for something called the re PS2 PSU and what this does is effectively move the large power supply outside of the PS2 all right so it's a very tiny board technically that goes inside of it and then takes the rest of it and puts it in a box outside of the kind of like think of a laptop adapter that's basically what you have then with your PS2 uh it's not a big deal because the PS2 slim technically goes that route as well one of the ways they were able to shrink it down so much but it I don't really like the fact that I went from what's a a fairly universal cable now right the the infinity or figure 8 cable that we use for basically everything with the Xbox series and the PS5 so it's pretty easy to switch them out to what's basically a barrel plug from a laptop that's fairly specialized in fact I had to go online to get the adapter because it's it's like a it's like a 12vt 5 amp not typical especially with that Barrel plug so fortunately it was on Amazon it was easy to get but it's not something you would have just kind of laying around maybe at a friend's house if you took it over there there's also a lot of 3D printing on the back of this system now because the fan uses it kind of a 3D bracket the power supply uses a 3D bracket so a lot of things got replaced on the back with cheaper Plastics is what I'll say there and the HDMI port on the back is unfortunately like the mini HDMI I prefer a full-sized HDMI plug and the only one I feel like I've done that that went that route was for like the the PlayStation one system but I had to break off an entire port to make that happen so I I know that there are space constraints that's just one unfortunate drawback when it comes to this is I'm using not only a barrel plug for the power supply I'm also using a mini HDMI so this system is basically traveling with those two cords if I have to take it anywhere as for the controller I opted to go with an 8bit dough retro wireless controller adapter and this allows me to connect the PlayStation 4 dual shock controller and I I don't I have so many of them laying around now because the PS4 has basically been retired in my house at this point so I figured I'll get some use out of it and I was pleasantly surprised with this thing so I did update the firmware on it at which time I synced up the PS4 controller and the dual shock had like a little bit of a rumble to it when I did so and it synced up very quickly every time after that when pressing the play PlayStation button it was like a second or two the rumble works great uh the connection is solid I mean I was like 15t away no problem at all so that does eliminate one of the big drawbacks of the PS2 which is that you are tethered with a cable something that I know the newer generation does not understand but that's why a lot of people you may say older people now who are playing games and when they get the Super Nintendo out or they get the original PlayStation out they might sit on the floor and play it it's it's funny to think about that but that's just kind of how we played games back then because I'm not even kidding the controller cable would not reach the couch so with all that said the experience using this retro gem with the HDMI out is really really good I mean it looks great this is probably the best image you're going to get out of the PS2 we bypassing all the little things that the system may do to it on the way to that multi outport and you can play around with the resolutions the scan lines the uh the the de interlacing settings it even has the the ability to attempt to apply HDR to the PS2 image and I tried it uh not not really for me although it it did at least make the colors a bit more vibrant on like my OLED display I I don't know just it looked weird for the PS2 I tried it in God of War I and I the capture device I have doesn't capture HDR anyway it um it kind of stuck out like a sore thumb like you could tell it was not at all supposed to be there I don't know it's kind of a cool feature I guess just sort of built in there's also a bunch of presets that have uh have kind of been uh tweaked and changed up over over I guess the the development of this board and I assume that means that maybe more presets can be added through different updates over time since it's able to connect to your wireless router completely on its own and receive information so yeah maybe we could see more and more people play these different games on the PS2 come up with settings I would like to see them as like a game by- game basis I don't know how difficult that is to do exactly like can it detect what game necessarily you're playing and then change things up there on the Fly because the issue with the PS2 which I I can show you a ton of gameplay here as we go through is that each game can kind of put out its own weird setup for video whether it tries it can do widescreen but not progressive scan or it can do like the 16 by9 setup but it does like this weird less than 480i resolution that that is then moved to that and then the adapter attempts to figure it out from there through de interlacing and it's uh it can be it can be a nightmare based on which game you're playing something like Tekken 5 I mean just benefits completely from progressive scan and then moving up to what this board can do for me example at 1080P and I ended up resting on just the the standard 4x3 resolution that that's what a lot of PS2 games expect when you turn it on and the picture just looked really really clean except for one thing and it has to do with the interlacing issue which again PS2 games not all of them are pro progressive scan some of them are in the options where you can just go in and and toggle between them others are kind of hidden like Simpsons Hit and Run you hold down X or cross and triangle when you're starting it up and it will ask if you want to go to progressive scan but if there is no option for it the Retro gem does what it can but for example when it's a fast moving game like like Jack and Daxter the first one you can see interlacing and like things kind of breaking up around the characters as you're swinging the camera around or just running around it's um kind of distracting but that's just sort of where we are with these older systems you can only get so much out of them since they were basically expecting you to play this on one of those old tube TVs 20 years ago but overall for what I'm trying to get out of this system which is to be able to put it in the entertainment center have it hooked up through HDMI wireless controller a good picture from original Hardware with an SSD that will hold all of my games that are typically my go-tos yeah it's it's worked great I'm actually very happy with what I have here now the only other thing I'm considering doing is changing out the shell so unfortunately this system that I started originally with like oh I'll put an SSD in it now it's gotten to this point it's definitely beaten up it's seen its it's seen its time just kind of I'm sure getting passed around a lot getting beaten up maybe stepped on dropped I things happen to systems all the time back in the day but it has scratches and scuffs all over it and as much as I clean it and scrub it with brushes it just unfortunately just never looks good so it's very functional right now right more so than most ps2's but it unfortunately looks kind of beaten up and maybe I'll get to a position where I can find a really clean stock plastic for it like the Plastics all around it because I do like the idea of looking at it from the front it looks like a stock PS2 I mean the free mcboot memory card is just that a memory card that plugs into the the first slot even and then the rro wireless controller adapter looks like a a wireless adapter from back then so you'd have to look around the back of the PS2 to know that it's been heavily modified and I kind of like that look if I went with a third party plastic maybe like a nice like a ghost gray kind of look that translucent plastic that'd be kind of fun but I think just the sleeper stock look is the way to go so maybe I'll hold out for a really clean looking original plastic setup that pops up on eBay or something but let me know what you guys think about all this down below it took a bit to get all of it done mostly because I had to wait for parts to come in like the Retro gem when I pre-ordered that took months to get to me even reps2 the power supply that took a bit over a month just because they got hit with a ton of demand after the Retro gem released and it was basically required at that time but I'm pretty happy with how all this turned out and it was a fun project from start to finish and maybe I'll look around and try to do this with another system so let me know in the comments what you'd like to see me tackle to build the ultimate system thanks guys for watching and I'll see you next time

Channel: Spawn Wave

Views: 107,416

Keywords: tech wave, ps2, sony, spawn wave, spawn wave media, video games, video game teardown, playstation 2, playstation 2 mods, ps2 hdmi, ps1 hdmi, is it worth it, retro gem, retro gem hdmi, repsu, pixelfx, ps2 freemcboot, ps2 hard drive, ps2 ssd, ps2 fan

Id: F1smKRJSa_Y

Length: 15min 23sec (923 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 12 2023