I recently picked up a PlayStation TV on eBay for a steal and thought that I would share it here with my fellow gamers.
First, a bit of background.
In 2012 Sony released the Vita, the successor to the PSP. In short, it failed, for a number of reasons, including having to compete with smartphones and the Nintendo 3DS and expensive and propitiatory memory cards. And lack of games, obviously.
So what did Sony do? They released an inferior version of a failed console! in 2014, the PlayStation TV (PSTV) was released. They took a failed portable console and made it non-portable. They also made sure half the games on the Vita couldn't be played on the PSTV, either by deliberately locking them out through software, or because the PSTV lacked a touch screen, touch pad, gyroscope, accelerometer, camera and microphone. It was marketed as a device that allowed remote play with the PS4, allowing the PS4 to be streamed to a separate TV, but that use is choppy and borderline unplayable. Even Netflix was disabled on the PSTV, but not on the Vita. So I could watch Netflix on a portable console, but not on a set top box connected to a full size TV...
But no matter, with a little work, the console is easily softmodded to address all the issues. Mods and plugins allow the use of PS3 and PS4 controllers gyroscopes, button remapping and emulation of other Vita hardware such as the camera, allowing unplayable games to at least be somewhat functional and unlocking all full game and app library that Sony locked out.
Everything was boxed, in mint condition with all cables and manuals. It came pre-modded with a Vita SD card, 256GB micro SD card and an adapter for using the game card slot as an SD card reader. I was actually disappointed that it was pre-modded since I wanted the challenge myself, but thankfully the previous owner used an old method, or didn't quite complete the modding process fully. Games could not be updated and DLC couldn't be installed, so I got my challenge after all and added another console added to my collection for a very cheap pirce.
Not much to see internally, just a motherboard sandwiched between 2 RF shields also acting as heatsinks. Thermal pads were in good condition and didn't need to be replaced. Even when I overclocked it to the maximum, it still doesn't get hot.
I had a look around the config files using the homebrew file browser VitaShell.
The Vita had a 3G modem, which is lacking on the PSTV. But interestingly, I still found all kinds of icons and config settings in the system files referencing various mobile networks.
Next I did some trimming down. Deleted all the useless apps such as calender and e-mail. I tried an app that hid the icons from the system menu, but that didn't actually hide all the icons and the icon for the app itself just added clutter to the menu. Luckilly, the PSTV uses a simple SQLite database, so I copied it to a PC, had a look around and simply deleted the icons from the SQL database and transferred the file back to the PSTV. I now have a nice clean home menu with just the icons I want and nothing else.
Now on to software.
A few game series had exclusives on the Vita/PSTV including Dynasty Warriors, Assassins Creed, Killzone, Resistance, Call of Duty, Uncharted and Silent Hill. Not a huge library of games, there are around 30 on the PSTV that I'm interested in.
Emulation isn't particularity feasible with the Vita/PSTV, with only 59% of games being playable and very little support and workarounds for hardware features.
There were a few games pre-installed on the SD card. I also had a look around the homebrew store. I found a couple of great homebrew games, the best being VitaHot, a version of SuperHot for the Vita/PSTV built from the ground up. An entirely new game, not just an unofficial port. There was also a Doom game, similar to Doom 3 and The Four of Us Are Dying, a Silent Hill/Alan Wake type game which looks hugely promising but is still in development.
Vita Homebrew Games (Adventure) - GameBrew
All in all, not bad at all for an afternoon project.
First, a bit of background.
In 2012 Sony released the Vita, the successor to the PSP. In short, it failed, for a number of reasons, including having to compete with smartphones and the Nintendo 3DS and expensive and propitiatory memory cards. And lack of games, obviously.
So what did Sony do? They released an inferior version of a failed console! in 2014, the PlayStation TV (PSTV) was released. They took a failed portable console and made it non-portable. They also made sure half the games on the Vita couldn't be played on the PSTV, either by deliberately locking them out through software, or because the PSTV lacked a touch screen, touch pad, gyroscope, accelerometer, camera and microphone. It was marketed as a device that allowed remote play with the PS4, allowing the PS4 to be streamed to a separate TV, but that use is choppy and borderline unplayable. Even Netflix was disabled on the PSTV, but not on the Vita. So I could watch Netflix on a portable console, but not on a set top box connected to a full size TV...
But no matter, with a little work, the console is easily softmodded to address all the issues. Mods and plugins allow the use of PS3 and PS4 controllers gyroscopes, button remapping and emulation of other Vita hardware such as the camera, allowing unplayable games to at least be somewhat functional and unlocking all full game and app library that Sony locked out.
Everything was boxed, in mint condition with all cables and manuals. It came pre-modded with a Vita SD card, 256GB micro SD card and an adapter for using the game card slot as an SD card reader. I was actually disappointed that it was pre-modded since I wanted the challenge myself, but thankfully the previous owner used an old method, or didn't quite complete the modding process fully. Games could not be updated and DLC couldn't be installed, so I got my challenge after all and added another console added to my collection for a very cheap pirce.
Not much to see internally, just a motherboard sandwiched between 2 RF shields also acting as heatsinks. Thermal pads were in good condition and didn't need to be replaced. Even when I overclocked it to the maximum, it still doesn't get hot.
I had a look around the config files using the homebrew file browser VitaShell.
The Vita had a 3G modem, which is lacking on the PSTV. But interestingly, I still found all kinds of icons and config settings in the system files referencing various mobile networks.
Next I did some trimming down. Deleted all the useless apps such as calender and e-mail. I tried an app that hid the icons from the system menu, but that didn't actually hide all the icons and the icon for the app itself just added clutter to the menu. Luckilly, the PSTV uses a simple SQLite database, so I copied it to a PC, had a look around and simply deleted the icons from the SQL database and transferred the file back to the PSTV. I now have a nice clean home menu with just the icons I want and nothing else.
Now on to software.
A few game series had exclusives on the Vita/PSTV including Dynasty Warriors, Assassins Creed, Killzone, Resistance, Call of Duty, Uncharted and Silent Hill. Not a huge library of games, there are around 30 on the PSTV that I'm interested in.
Emulation isn't particularity feasible with the Vita/PSTV, with only 59% of games being playable and very little support and workarounds for hardware features.
There were a few games pre-installed on the SD card. I also had a look around the homebrew store. I found a couple of great homebrew games, the best being VitaHot, a version of SuperHot for the Vita/PSTV built from the ground up. An entirely new game, not just an unofficial port. There was also a Doom game, similar to Doom 3 and The Four of Us Are Dying, a Silent Hill/Alan Wake type game which looks hugely promising but is still in development.
Vita Homebrew Games (Adventure) - GameBrew
All in all, not bad at all for an afternoon project.
