I had the privilege of meeting the BrickBoy team shortly before they started shipping the BrickBoy out to their customers; it was a remarkable invention and raised over $1,00,000 in crowdfunding on Kickstarter. They literally crammed an entire Raspberry Pi and a display into a LEGO GAME BOY, making it playable. It offered one of the craziest ways to emulate GAME BOY games, and if you've been a Retro Dodo reader for some time, you know I've explored hundreds, if not thousands, of ways to do that in my time writing about retro gaming.
Well, the team behind the BrickBoy are back, ready to modify a new LEGO set, one that we're all very excited to see released, and that's the LEGO PlayStation 1, being officially released in a few days. These guys are pretty much doing what they did previously, designing a custom-made Raspberry Pi and inserting it into the LEGO PlayStation, allowing you to quite literally use your new set to play games and more. They are calling it the BrickStation. The BrickStation pre-launch page is now live for you to register your interest; it will likely go live fully in "the next couple of weeks".
Credit: Substance Labs
Quite simply, this new kit allows you to drop in a custom-built Raspberry Pi that features an HDMI output, an original power button that lets you literally push down the "POWER" button on the LEGO PS1, lit by a green LED, alongside a vibration motor and speaker that will make the PS1 wobble slightly to replicate the feel and sound of a spinning disc tray. You can even display a CD inside the console too if you want to go all out; insert your favourite PS1 game, though it won't read it, only store it.
This base will slide into one of the trays on the side, meaning you can pull out the Ape Escape Diorama, for example and replace it with this to make it look seamless. There's even an additional 83 pieces in this kit, to bring the total to 1,994, the very year the PlayStation was released in Japan. These pieces go towards a display memory card and a tray frame that keeps the internals secure.
From the team behind BrickBoy: make your LEGO PlayStation build playable. Swap the left side tray and play PS1 games on your TV via HDMI.
Press the original POWER button, see the green LED, and feel the CD drive through sound and vibration.
If you want to get real nerdy, you can insert an original PS1 Memory Card into this thing, and your save states can be read and saved internally, allowing you to load and save authentic save files inside the emulator! The team are planning on a future accessory that allows you to import your own discs into the local storage too.
This is a remarkably fun way to turn your pieces into not only a nostalgic set, but a playable games console that can emulate your favourite PlayStation 1 games and more, confined to a small base that slots into the console without any conflict. If they do what they did with the BrickBoy, create a fun, good-quality accessory for retro gamers with a passion for LEGO, then I know this will be just as good.
I am guessing the Raspberry Pi will have Bluetooth connectivity too, so you can hook up some controllers to it. You can hook up your original PS1 controller though you will need a USB adapter, which these guys will not include, so that's on you!
This Kickstarter Campaign will likely go live in October, and there's been no information regarding pricing or shipping times as of yet, so you'll have to wait until release day for that information. You can join our free weekly newsletter to stay informed; no doubt we'll create a news post on that, and you can bet your socks we'll get hands-on with this once it's ready!
