So in Iran people take old PlayStation consoles, refurbish them and sell them as new stock. My favorite part of this is that they do so with this incredible custom box.
I kinda love this, and if I was there? I’d buy one in a heartbeat.
To be honest, retro gaming on the PS1 is a bit 50/50 for me. Early 3D gaming before my time can be rough. But I have such a soft spot for how beautiful the console is from a design and hardware standpoint. That boxy gray box is such beauty.
I’d probably play it more than the PS5 I ended up selling!
I know it is likely just the nostalgia, but the PS1 startup sounds really were the best.
I had a ps, but the GameCube jingle was always my favorite
Oh I agree! I loved that startup sound! Compared to the SNES I was used to it sounded sooo next gen!
thats cool, really bring nostalgia, the ‘ps1’ font tho is hilarious
Similar to how the market works here in Iraq. They package refurbished consoles with new boxes and often 3rd party controllers. A ps1 with two controllers and a usb flash drive full of random roms goes for around 50,000 IQD which is about 35$.
They don’t have NES or SNES like that do they?
They don’t, I’ve only seen Sony consoles repackaged, basically because they are well known to most consumers. When it comes to Nintendo, they sell cheap knockoffs that come with 1000 games or something pre-installed.
As long as they are indeed being competently refurbished, this is awesome news. Less e-waste!
Less e waste, more useless plastic and cardboard that won’t get recycled lol
For older consoles I usually stick to RPGs. Resident evil is okay once you get used to the shit controls. But final fantasys, xenogears, metal gear is good, jet moto, Gran Turismo 2…
Great now I want a PS2
Xenogears was tight, but I never played the sequels
Lengthy cut scenes
I generally provide the lengthy uncut scenes
Xenogears was fun but I preferred the non-mech side of the game much more than the mechs, tbh.
Xenogears man, I hate that game. It put a deep hatred for random battles into my heart which killed most JRPGs for me.
You could literally hear the CD stop and the random battles load.
Xenogears is the best game, or at least JRPG, I ever played and I played over 40 JRPGs from the 8bit era to the modern era. There might be a better JRPG out there but I haven’t played it yet.
Story yes, game no.
The only reason I completed it was because I wanted to see the end, but by the end I hated the game so much I can’t play the entire genre anymore without almost physical pain… The mechanics of random battle and grind cause my spirit to flag and my will to drain, now no matter how good the story of the game is I just can’t.
You said Xenogears. Take an internet.
I have an attention span of a 2 year old, so I never really finish games. But that one of the few to hold my attention all the way through. Even if I initially hates the movement and controls at first since I had expected a FFVII style game
Such a dope game.
But I have such a soft spot for how beautiful the console is from a design and hardware standpoint. That boxy gray box is such beauty.
Agree to disagree lol
I guess I have the fact that I wasnt alive for that ‘era’ of gaming, so its maybe a bit more fascinating to me to see a more utilitarian design over what we get now.
I dislike the move in PCs and consoles where everything has RGB (you’ll see it everywhere on SBC retro handhelds), or just looks garish. To me this boxy-box just looks BEAUTIFUL. Gray/beige hardware wins me over every time
Similar to how the NES was made to look like a VCR, the PlayStation was made to look right at home as part of a fancy 90s home hi-fi setup. Functional/industrial grey was the aesthetic du jour, and gave it a look that said this isn’t just a toy; it’s the future of home entertainment.
And dude us kids LOVED the hatch-opening design. That felt so freaking FUTURE at the time
We were easily amused
gray, whatever.
beige, no. never again.
Yeah, to me, the PlayStation might seriously be one of the ugliest major home consoles of all time (beaten out by the PSOne which looks like a cheap toy). And this isn’t even a generational thing: a grey N64 and Sega Saturn stand head-and-shoulders above the PlayStation in terms of looks. Cool how compact it was, at least.
I dunno. I think you just prefer rounded aesthetics. IMO the Saturn just looks like an oversized CD player. Boring and no personality. The little ridges and whatnot on the PlayStation were just plain neat to me , and I greatly prefer boxy to rounded. It’s why the PS One was such a disappointment by comparison.
I think the Atari XEGS probably wins the battle for ‘ugliest grey box’
Pastel pretty colors?
Okay judging by all these anti-gray/beige comments I’m an outlier in what I find lovely, but even this looks nice to me!!!
I kinda like it. Brutalist console
Yeah, that’s pretty damn ugly.
PS1 was my first console, I wish I still had it. Spent my days with Crash Bandicoot and Hogs of War
I’ve been playing Crash Bandicoot on an R36s recently, it’ such a nostalgic game. Amazing that you can play it on a ~£35 handheld! You can’t beat the gameplay in some of the old classics.
Hell yeah you have, nice. I looked up that thing, do you like yours? One of my kids really likes the retro games and that price is right
Yeah it’s great, my daughter has been enjoying all the old games as well so i bought her one too for her birthday. It’s much easier as a parent to give her the R36s and the retro games because they are all self contained offline things unlike a lot of modern games.
Some things I’d say to consider before buying:
- Factor in the cost of a good quality SD card (or two, one for the system and one for ROMs) to replace the one that comes with it. There are loads of warnings in forums etc about the cards that are supplied, but even so I was shocked when the card that came with mine broke after 2 days. Get a decent card like Samsung Evo Plus 128GB.
- It’s easier to start fresh when you get a new card than it would be to clone the one that comes with the device. Get the OS from here: https://github.com/AeolusUX/ArkOS-R3XS/releases
- For ROMs, search archive.org for “tiny best set go”
Not everything being sold as the R36s is able to use ArkOS (although I think there’s been progress on getting the other ones to use that OS), more deets here. Also, not every micro SD card works in that second slot, but yeah, just get a Samsung Evo Plus (I’m running dual Microcenter cards, don’t do this lol). There is a huge enthusiast community doing cool things with these devices, there’s a bit of tinkering to get them set up but it’s easy enough.
Alpaca, got anything set up through PortMaster yet? I’ve been meaning to get Stardew Valley and Half-Life on there.
I’ve never heard of PortMaster, I still haven’t got bored of all the tiny best set games yet!
I think I played half life (maybe 2?) when I was a kid and it scared the crap out of me!
I got one around Christmas on sale and I’m a big fan of mine, I’m replaying Crash Team Racing and Final Fantasy Tactics at the moment. They’ve got some quirks, there’s a lower powered variant floating around, definitely read through the subreddit and do a bit of research on the device. I will say that it’s awesome for what it is, but there’s places where it feels like a ~$30 gadget.
Where are you finding it for so cheap? It’s $60 in American dollarydoos.
Aliexpress. I bought from a UK website first time and it was double the price but still shipped from China, making it a bit pointless. This is the aliexpress link I used, I have no connection to the seller and only bought from them once, but it arrived in good condition and I’ve tested it works as expected. The unit I received was a “v5”, or “screen panel v4”, I paid £25:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007448762232.html
Edit: maybe it’s the tariffs? Haha
I wonder if these can be imported. If its about the aesthetic of it in a retail ready box.
You’d probably be breaking a lot of sanctions. And if you’re not part of the oligarchy that will have consequences.
They ought to be doing it with Dreamcasts since pirating games for DC was way easier.
It sounds like these are modchipped if they come with a USB stick of games (that the owner then burns as they wish?)
PS1 3d is my favourite early 3d. I think it’s so charming. Some absolute bangers on the ps1 too
Are they labeled as refurb? As long as they’re not being passed off as new, 100% can get behind this.
It’s almost 30 years old lol
