Gman just keeps getting better and better. For this year’s contest, Gman entered the wonderful world of clamshell design. The only thing that rivals its beauty is its features, so let’s get into it!
Gman used a handful of custom PCBs last year, but this year he went all out. Just about everything that could be mounted on a custom board is, and the controller is no exception. The above board’s primary feature is a custom PS2 controller emulator dubbed “PS2+”. Designed from the ground up by Gman, along with Matthew and Dave, PS2+ is still in development right now. Once finalized, it will change PS2 portablizing as we know it. This board also features controls for screen settings through the PS2 controller, an audio amp that switches between the built in speakers and headphone seamlessly, indicators for the current battery life, as well as FFC connectors that go to Nintendo Switch joysticks.
Something has to be controlling that battery indicator though, and that something is another PS2 game changer that Gman has been developing – PowerS2. PowerS2 has many features, including full voltage regulation for everything the portable needs, battery protection and regulation, single port charge and play, an on/off button, and the ability to autoboot the PS2. The battery indicator is very smart, and has an RGB LED that cycles through different modes depending on what the user wants and the status of the battery. It’s a pretty slick system overall.
A classic insane Gman trim.
The final internals, organized and tidy as always. But wait, is that a Raspberry Pi? Is the PS2 Razor just being emulated by a Raspberry Pi, or is the Pi being used to run games through Ethernet, in order to avoid the brutal load times that come when trying to run games off of a USB stick? I suppose it’s the latter, but we’ll be keeping an eye on this portable.
