The PS1 has to be one of my favorite consoles. From when I first played one at my cousins house many years ago, I knew that there was something special about it. Of course, the games are obviously the main thing that comes to mind when you think about this system. A good deal of the games that either got their following on the PS1 or were exclusive to it are still popular today with either the franchises still continuing to this day or remakes and remasters have been made of them.
However, there is also something else about the PS1 that is quite interesting and that is that I would say that it largely spawned the birth of console modding. Now, I know there will be people who will say that people were modding Mega Drives and SNES consoles years before that to run out of region games and the like. And whilst that maybe true, I think most would admit that it was nothing compared to the PS1 modding scene.
To give you an idea of how big it was, to this day when I buy PS1s from eBay about half of them have a modchip in them. When you consider how many of these things were sold, it is absolutely insane. Most of these chips are the original 'Old Crowe' style of chips. However, there are many better modern alternatives now days. Whilst the days of CD-writers are begging to fade, these chips are still incredible useful to either those who don't mind going to the effort to burn a cd, or to those who want region free booting on their console. The following is a list of these
- MM3(Multimode 3) - Supports PU-7/8 motherboards with partial stealth, unlike the Mayumi v4 and also has one less wire for those looking for a quicker install
- Mayumi v4 - Like MM3. Except clock signal comes from the Mechacon clock rather than the onboard oscillator on the PIC. Many consider this to be more reliable for this reason. However, it is not compatible with PU-7/8 motherboards
- PSNee v7/v8 - Open source modchip that has additional BIOS patching for Japanese consoles(v8). V7 only has patching for PAL PSone consoles
- Onechip - Chip designed specifically for PAL PSOne consoles. Has in built BIOS patching
Personally, my favorite is the Mayumi v4. Seems to be very reliable and it is what I mod all my consoles with. Since I am not interested in the PU-7/8 boards it is perfect for me. Also, for the consoles that need a BIOS patch I simply replace the BIOS with one that does not need patching. This allows me to mod every console that I care to work on with just one chip! Now there are other options other than chipping your console. For example, you can opt to replace the disc drive entirely and replace it with an Optical Drive Emulator such as the X-Station. But that is a discussing for another time :-)
If you are interested in buying a modded PS1 I have a number for sale in shop linked below.