Modder builds the tiniest PS One using original chips

Modding enthusiast Thedrew has effectively built the smallest PlayStation in history—not through emulation or an FPGA, but with Sony’s original chips. Timed to the 31st anniversary of the first PlayStation, the project has already caught the tech community’s eye: he managed to shrink a PS One revision motherboard to less than a quarter of its original size.

The guiding principle was simple: only original hardware. Thedrew used PS One PM-41 revision chips—CPU, GPU, SPU, memory, and BIOS—and then designed an ultra-compact board around them. The working prototype is so small that, according to him, the first revision of his mini-board measures just 73 × 59 mm. For context, the classic PlayStation’s motherboard was about 10 × 7 inches, the PS One board roughly 7.5 × 5.5 inches, and the new design comes in under 3 × 2.5 inches.

The project is already functional, and he doesn’t plan to stop there. At the end of the demo video he hints that, now the prototype works, it can be refined further, with upcoming iterations forming a series called The PS One Redesign Series. In practice, this lays a solid foundation for future ultra-compact builds where authenticity of the hardware remains the central value. That purist focus gives the work a distinct charm.

Thirty-one years ago, Sony released its first game console—known as the PS, PSX, or PS1—kick-starting a mass-market revolution in 3D gaming. In 2000 came the PS One, a smaller version of the same console that kept compatibility with first-generation titles. Now the fan community is taking the next step, compressing the platform to sizes once deemed impossible without emulators—only this time, everything runs on the original console’s chips.