An engineer has developed the first custom-made motherboard for the PlayStation 1 that is not made by Sony – and could save broken consoles.
On December 3, 1994, the first PlayStation console saw the light of day. A lot has happened in the gaming world since then, but the PSOne is still very popular among retro enthusiasts.
However, like the author of this article, who is four days older, the Sony console is showing the first signs of age: here, the eyes are (once again) getting weaker, there, the laser unit is failing. Here, the back is warping, there, capacitors and voltage regulators are losing their functionality.
The problem: While the author simply has to go to the doctor, there are no more Sony replacement parts for the PlayStation 1 – until now.
The nsOne project: A lone warrior against time
A resourceful engineer took a closer look at the console’s inner workings and presented the first functional prototype of a PS1 motherboard developed outside of Sony. The project is aptly named “nsOne” (short for “Not Sony’s One”).
Unlike modern emulators or FPGA-based replicas, nsOne is a real circuit board that is fully compatible with the original PlayStation 1 chips.
Development of the nsOne motherboard began in March 2024, when Italian electronics engineer Lorentio Brodesco discovered that the original documentation for a PlayStation 1 he was repairing was incomplete or unavailable. This realization led to an ambitious undertaking: the complete reconstruction of the circuit diagrams for one of the most successful game consoles ever made.
- Brodesco used an unconventional method for his project. He sanded down an original motherboard to expose the inner layers and then compared the exposed circuit tracks with component data from service manuals.
- Using optical scanning techniques and manual reverse engineering, he reconstructed every single circuit of the PlayStation 1 using modern PCB design software.
The nsOne as a lifeline for defective consoles
The board is based on the PU-23 series of SCPH-900X models, but reintroduces the parallel port that was removed in later revisions. Brodesco has thus created a “hybrid that never officially existed.”
The new board is a four-layer PCB design that improves on the original console’s two-layer design while maintaining the same dimensions. It accepts all original PlayStation 1 chips, including the CPU, GPU, SPU, RAM, oscillators, and voltage regulators.
For the first time ever, a PS1 motherboard not made by Sony is here
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TheKickstarter campaignfor the nsOne project has already been successful. By June 2025, Brodesco had already raised nearly €5,800 from 65 supporters, significantly exceeding his original goal of €5,000.
The campaign offered various funding levels: An empty four-layer circuit board costs €35, while a fully assembled board with all the necessary chips is available for €80. Delivery is scheduled for January 2026.
The future is also taken care of: Brodesco wants to share comprehensive documentation, design files, and production-ready plans—and eventually build a portable PlayStation 1 based on this.
