Portable PlayStation 2
A famous console modder named GingerOfOz this time came to the fore on the internet for his creation of a portable PlayStation 2 he dubbed PS2 Eclipse. This is obviously an unofficial product, but the design and the ability to walk the valuable products of the PS2 era is truly a daydream.Here's a peek into what the internals look like: pic.twitter.com/GZjGFv6jvb
- GingerOfOz (@GingerOfMods) August 5, 2021
PS2 Eclipse was created by adapting the original motherboard of a PlayStation 2 to insert it into a 3D printed frame. The set of buttons, as the most attentive Sony fans will have noticed, are instead taken from a PS Vita, which has recently returned to the fore for the OLED screens of the new Switch model. The analogs, on the other hand, were taken from a Nintendo Switch, while the 5-inch display at 480p, the batteries lasting about 2 and a half hours, and a couple of extras to complete the circuits were taken apart.
The result, as you can see from the tweets attached to the article and from the video below, is really elegant and compact, perfect for portability. The interesting thing is that the main hardware of the PlayStation 2 was used, so there are no emulators in between; this also means (in theory) full compatibility with the entire PS2 video game library (about 4000 titles). Obviously, for such a device, there is no CD player: games must be loaded via USB, which provides a reading speed certainly slower than an optical player. Some titles, therefore, may experience slowdowns or fall short of FPS than expected, not to mention longer loading times. There are also some games that just fail to run due to the too slow reading method.
To complete the PS2 Eclipse there is also the audio system, complete with a headphone jack. The battery can also be monitored by indicators placed on the body. For the moment, the homemade console seems to have worked smoothly, the only problem GingerOfOz has encountered is that it sometimes has difficulty detecting connected controllers. Ah, yes, right, other controllers can be connected too! However, the modder expects to solve all the problems encountered soon in order to have the perfect portable PlayStation 2.
If you want a modern but compact portable console, perhaps you should fall back on a Nintendo Switch Lite. There are great prices on Amazon, just check this link.
This Portable PS2 Is the Handheld of Our Dreams
Yeah, the Nintendo Switch is cool and all, but have you ever played a portable PlayStation 2? Probably not, because Sony never actually made one, and while both the PS Vita and PSP had plenty of PS2 ports on them – well, they couldn’t play GTA: San Andreas, could they? This hobby project named the PS2 Eclipse by GingerofOz can, however.
It’s been built using original PS2 Slim components, so it’s a perfect portable version of the iconic console. There are some caveats: there’s no disc drive, so it’s running all of its games off a memory card that’s outfitted with homebrew. Aside from that, though, there’s no emulation here: every game performs exactly the same as it would on the original hardware.
It is quite chunky in size, particularly in terms of depth – but that’s because the original PS2 Slim motherboard is inside it, and while Sony did a bang-up job of shrinking the components, it’s still much larger than your traditional handheld. Nevertheless, this is a really impressive adaptation, and it kinda makes us wish there was a legit PS2 Portable. Are you listening, Sony?