A few extremely talented coders have figured out how to hack the PlayStation Classic, and it turned out to be much easier than they anticipated. Sony has left the key to unlock the most vulnerable parts of its throwback system on the system itself, and the hardware lacks some very basic security measures that might have otherwise thwarted anyone attempting to boot it up with custom software side-loaded. (We would have bought a GameShark Classic, but this works too.)
What does this mean to the layman, non-hacker gamer? The PlayStation Classic is a decent product out of the box (check out our review here), but is admittedly missing a few bells, whistles, and games. Well, you can rest assured knowing that the PlayStation Classic has been hacked, and new PlayStation and non-PlayStation games have been booted up to run on the system.
PlayStation ClassicでDOOM（PC版）が動いた！ PrBoom+のSDL2版をWayland上で動作させてる pic.twitter.com/lz6p6Gusph
— NV@アドセンスクリックお願いします (@nvsofts) December 6, 2018
That’s great news. You should also know that the key needed to transform your PlayStation Classic into the ultimate emulation station is already resting latent in the console. The dream is real, but it’s not quite within our grasp. Here’s where things get a little more complicated.
Ars Technica highlighted the work of two hackers in particular, who go by the handles yifanlu and madmonkey1907, respectively. They figured out that the PlayStation Classic is encrypted using a key on the console itself, and they figured out that the console does not perform any kind of signature check for the bootrom code. That means that anyone with the proper know-how can tweak some key settings and boot up the PlayStation Classic with all kinds of custom software.
Now, we have to wait for the hacking community to put together an easy-to-deliver payload that we can work with on, say, a USB drive. The average consumer still needs an easy system of delivery and some safe, reliable custom firmware to work with. It’s coming and it’s probably coming sooner than we think, but it’s not here quite yet.
So which games will you be adding first when the time comes? Check out this list of great games that were discovered hidden in the PlayStation Classic’s source code. They didn’t make the cut, but you might be able to change that soon. We’ll keep you updated.
[Source: Ars Technica]
