PlayStation Classic successfully ‘modified’ shortly after release

MANILA, Philippines – Well, that didn’t take long. The PlayStation Classic, a miniature version of the original PlayStation released in the mid ’90s, has already been proven to be “modifiable” – just like its ancestor. 

The original PlayStation was known to be not very secure. In the Philippines, in many other Southeast Asian countries, and likely other countries as well, “modified” PlayStation consoles were rampant. Through modification, these consoles were able to play games copied on any writable disc, which went for as low as P35 (less than a dollar). Original games went for $50. 

Now, those with the technical know-how are reporting that they’ve been able to get into the new PlayStation Classic easily, and have been able to play PlayStation games copied on a USB drive.

Console hackers such as Yifan Lu and madmonkey1907 have been documenting the process online, and have reported discovering that the decryption keys for the PlayStation Classic’s system codes are hidden in the system itself, opening up the system to all sorts of hacks, The Verge reports. 

Lu has reported being able to run Crash Bandicoot via a USB drive, while another console hacker, Pat Hartl, has uploaded an open-source tool on GitHub called BleemSync that will allow users to do similar things.

There are many ways now to emulate PlayStation games even without a PlayStation Classic, so it’s unlikely that hacking the Classic is the top motivation for its buyers. But it’s interesting that one trait of the original has seemingly inadvertently made it once again to its recreated version. – Rappler.com