At a quick glance, this may look like any other PS2 Slim. However, upon closer inspection, we start to see that it's anything but normal. Under the hood are some of the most advanced mods available for the PS2 that make this console fit right next to its more modern siblings. It has crisp, high-definition video output via HDMI, An internal SD card reader that allows any size SD card to be used, like this one here that's 1TB.
And the icing on the cake is this. Internal Bluetooth controller support that not only lets you use any Bluetooth controller, but also allows you to turn the console on and off wirelessly like any other modern console. These mods and more make this the ultimate PS2 Slim.
So let's see how I crammed all these mods into such a small package. Hey everyone, how's it going? My name is Tito and welcome to another episode of Retro Renew. Today I'm going to be doing one of the most challenging builds that I've ever done on this channel.
I'm going to be stuffing three incredible mods into this PS2 Slim, which will basically test the limits of not only my patience, but also my soldering skills. These mods include the Retro Gem from Pixel FX, which is pretty much the gold standard when it comes to HDMI mods. The iFlash to PS2 SD card mod from Arthramus that lets us exceed the 128GB SD card size limit so that we can use something like this 1TB one, giving me the ability to store just a ton more games on the console.
And lastly, I'll be installing this Methylene internal Bluetooth mod from GUS that lets us pair pretty much any Bluetooth controller to the PS2, like this PS3, PS4, or even a PS5 controller. And it even lets us turn the console on and off remotely from the controller itself, which is pretty sweet. And to really round the build off, I'll be accessorizing the PS2 Slim with some pretty great products like the Memcard Pro 2, which means I'll never need to swap out a memory card, even for things like free McBoot. All this and more will help bring this PS2 Slim from the early 2000s into 2024. So I got a lot of work ahead of me, but all you need to do is sit back, relax, and watch how this insanely modded PS2 Slim comes to life.
Alright so in this video we'll take a quick look at all the mod kits that I'll be installing. Then I'll show you how to install everything into the PS2 Slim, go over how this fully modded system performs, showcasing some of its really standout features, review the pros and cons of this build, and of course provide you with my overall thoughts. Okay, so first we have the Retro Gem. It comes with the Retro Gem board itself, which is universal and actually fits into a bunch of different consoles, but these here are custom ribbon cables which adapt the Retro Gem board to the PS2 Slim.
The kit does also come with some other odds and ends to help with the installation process. Next up we got the iFlash to PS2 kit. Here we have the power board which obviously supplies power to the entire mod, but it also houses the microSD card slot. And the way it's implemented into the console is really awesome, but stay tuned for that coming up later in the video.
It also does utilize a couple custom flex ribbon cables that we'll need to install, as well as this very interesting 3D printed retaining bracket that will actually replace the lower RF shielding of the console. Now something that is not included with this kit is the actual iFlash Solo SD Card adapter board. You'll need to purchase this on your own from either the iFlash website itself or from Amazon.
And lastly we have the Methylene kit. I was sent this pre-assembled one from Gus, but you can also purchase the basic version which is a little bit cheaper and only comes with the custom flex PCB, meaning you'll need to supply your own ESP32, as well as the optional speaker, which makes this really cool chime each time you turn the console on and off. I definitely recommend getting the standalone kit, which comes with the ESP32, pre-programmed with Blue Retro. Alright, so those are the main mods that I'll be installing into the PS2 Slim.
However, I'll also be doing a few small upgrades and housekeeping items while we're inside the console, which I'll show during the installation portion of the video. Additionally, if you want to do all these mods, you'll need a very specific PS2 Slim revision, and that's the SC- SEPH 70000 models. This is the SEPH 70000-1, but any 70000 model will work as it does have the necessary circuitry for the iFlash to PS2 mod to work. Okay, so that's a lot of stuff we're going to be doing, but before we dive into the installation tutorial, let's talk about the sponsor of today's video, iFixit. If you've been following my channel for a while, you'll know how critical quality tools are for the mods and repairs I do.
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And again, a huge thank you to iFixit for sponsoring this video. Alright, now let's go ahead and start modding this PS2. Alright, so since we have so many intricate mods to install, the order of the installation is pretty critical since we don't want to install a part of one mod that might prevent us from installing another. So we may install a component of one mod, then do another so that we don't have to redo any work.
At least that's the idea. Anyway, the first thing we're going to do is obviously disassemble the entire PS2 Slim down to the motherboard. Ok, now that we extracted the motherboard, we're first going to install the methylene kit.
We'll first need to isolate these two pins here for enabling the controller auto detect feature. It's recommended to actually fully isolate these pins using some UV activated resin to avoid any potential continuity, but I'm going to see if I can leave it as is since I think there is enough space between the pin and the through hole for it to work, so fingers crossed. Now here I'm desoldering the lower pins so that I can trim them flush to the motherboard, which will help the Methylene Flex PCB sit flush to the motherboard.
I'll of course re-solder the pins once they're cut flush. I find that doing this will help prevent any sharp edges on the pins, making it less likely that it will damage the Methylene PCB when I go ahead and mount it. And this diode here needs to be relocated since it does get in the way of the methylene board. I'm just going to desolder it using hot air, and sort of flip it up, and then reconnect the bottom part to the original pad using a small piece of Kynar wire.
Just make sure the polarity is correct when you do reinstall it. Its new position should give us just enough space for the methylene kit. Ok, now before we lay in the Methylene PCB, we actually need to install the controller flex ribbon cable for the RetroGem HDMI kit.
If we instead installed Methylene first, we wouldn't be able to lay in this flex cable, which allows us to access the RetroGem's on-screen display menu system, and we obviously need that in order to access all of RetroGem's features. Alright once that's installed, we can now lay in and install the Methylene Flex PCB. Now I soldered these pins last because if you remember, these are the ones we isolated for the controller auto-detect feature.
I'm adding just enough solder to connect it to the methylene flex, but being cognizant to not flood the area with solder, as I do want these specific pins to remain isolated from the PS2 motherboard. And here I'm going to solder in about an 8 inch length of wire to the reset pad, but we'll solder the other end of the wire a bit later, which will make sense once we get to that step in a few minutes. Over here by the PS5 silk screening, I'm scraping away some of the solder mask since we'll be pulling power for methylene from this point.
Now all that's left to do is test it out. After plugging it in and turning the PS2 on, we can see the blue LED on methylene is pulsating, which means it's in pairing mode. Now I'll be using a PS4 controller to test it out, so in order to connect it to methylene, I need to press and hold the share and playstation button for a few seconds. And as you can see the controller and methylene LEDs turn solid blue, meaning they have successfully paired.
I then went ahead and tested all the buttons, and everything worked great, which means we can go ahead and continue installing our other mods. The next item we'll be installing is actually on the other side of the board in this area here. We'll need to solder in the flex ribbon cable for the Arthramis iFlash2PS2 SD card mod. This is definitely one of the more challenging steps of the install, so be sure to take your time and ...and use a lot of flux.
Here we'll be soldering in the anchor points to help reduce any potential strain on the ribbon cable itself. And... This is the final result. Next, we'll carefully flip the console over and bend the ribbon cable to the other side of the board.
I'll solder in one of the anchor points to help secure the ribbon cable in place and then proceed to solder in the remaining points. Now, we're going to go ahead and drop in the power board for the iFlash to PS2 and solder it in place. This one is a lot easier to install than the ribbon cable.
And finally, we'll solder in the last remaining ribbon cable for the iFlash to PS2 kit. to the power board itself. Awesome.
Now before we begin to install the RetroGem main flex, we need to do a few things like install the other end of our controller flex to this chip here to pull audio for the RetroGem board. And then we'll solder this wire here which is for the reset functionality of RetroGem. The other end of this wire, along with the other reset wire we soldered in for methylene, will go to this point here right next to the Arthramys power board which is for resetting the console.
And here you can see how I routed both of those reset wires. Now here we'll solder in a wire that's about 8 inches in length to this pin on the optical audio port, which we'll later attach to the RetroGem to enable the digital audio pass-through option. Alright, now here comes another challenging step of the build, and that's soldering in the main flex ribbon cable for the Retro Gem.
For this, you'll need to locate the DAC, or digital to analog converter, which is where we'll be tapping the pure digital video signal from. The location of this chip differs depending on what revision PS2 Slim you have, so definitely refer to the Pixel FX documentation, which I'll have linked down below. To prep the area, I'll be removing a few capacitors and resistors, which again differ depending on your particular revision. Once everything is removed and cleaned up, it's recommended to insulate the exposed pads with some Kapton tape. Now we can finally go ahead and solder in the main flex.
Definitely take your time when doing this, and remember, flux is your friend here. And here I'll be soldering in a few other points as well as connecting our main ribbon to our controller flex cable. Some PS2 revisions will require an additional ribbon to make this connection, but this one doesn't.
And here's the Retro Gem flex cable fully installed. Next, we need to do a bit of trimming on the RF shielding to allow the retro gem to be mounted. I'm using my dremel for this, but some heavy duty tin snips could work as well.
Now, included with the Retro Gem kit is this really nifty 3D printed jig that acts as a guide for trimming the PS2 shell for the HDMI port opening. It slots right into the optical audio port cutout, and as you can see, very clearly marks the area we need to trim. Once we're happy with the HDMI opening, we then need to drill a hole in the RF shielding for mounting the Retro Gem board.
After loosely mounting the board using one of the existing holes in the RF shielding, I marked and drilled out the second mounting hole, and installed RetroGem using the included hardware. Then as an optional step, I actually soldered the nuts to the RF shielding to make future removal easier. Now a simple upgrade that I also wanted to do while we have the PS2 tore down is upgrading the old thermal pads with some newer high grade ones.
I'm using some Arctic branded thermal pads that I cut to size so hopefully this will keep the PS2 running cooler and increase the console's life. Awesome, this build is really coming together. Now we can go ahead and reinstall the RF shielding, and in order to secure it in lieu of using the original bottom RF shielding, we'll be using the brackets included with the Arthramas kit. It is a bit of a juggling act to hold everything together while fastening the screws, but the brackets are very nicely built and even include brass inserts for the screws. Next, because the RetroGem is a universal kit, we need to configure it for the PS2 which is done by bridging the C, D, and E jumpers located here, as well as the one labeled J shown here.
Now on the F jumper, just tin the one side here. Do not bridge this connection. We'll take that wire we soldered to the optical audio pin a few steps ago, and solder the other end to this pad here. This is what will enable digital audio through the HDMI port.
And then go ahead and connect the main flex to the RetroGem. And another housekeeping item that I wanted to address is installing a fresh clock battery, again since we're already in here. Next we can go ahead and mount the methylene antenna which I placed on top of the controller ports, as well as the antenna for RetroGem which I placed here on the RF shielding. Now the last thing we need to do is prep the iFlash solo board.
To start we need to remove the metal housing for the SD card slot which is mounted to the board at each of the four corners. To remove it, heat up each of the corners and use something like this craft knife to gently lift the housing up. Once the metal shielding is removed we can then very carefully begin to desolder the pins. To do this, first ensure the solder is melted on the pad before pulling the pin off. You want to take extra care in this step because you definitely do not want to accidentally pull a pad off the board.
Also, do take care to not melt the connector, which is located pretty close to a few of the pins. Once all the pins are out, you should be able to lift the plastic bracket, which does also have a point that is soldered to the board. Now that our iFlash solo board is prepped, we can mount it to the 3D printed bracket and connect the two ribbon cables. One to the ZIF connector, and the other which we'll need to solder to the recently exposed pads. And that folks is everything fully installed onto our PS2 Slim.
All that's left to do is put it back into the shell. And, there you have it, a PS2 Slim fully kitted out with some of the greatest mods available. To say this was a difficult build would be an understatement. While I've gotten very proficient at micro-soldering over the years, the amount of flex ribbon cables and fine soldering required, in addition to being cognizant of the order in which to install all these mods, definitely makes this a very challenging project.
But honestly, I have to say it was all definitely worth it. After using the heavily modded PS2 Slim for a few days, I have to say that I'm absolutely in love with just how easy it makes playing my games. As well as the upgrade in video output quality, it's just simply incredible. But I am getting a bit ahead of myself, so let's go ahead and quickly go over some of the major features of this build.
Let's first talk about the Retro Gem HDMI mod. This thing is a beast. It has a ton of features, which can be accessed through its comprehensive on-screen menu system by pressing R1, L1, Right, and Circle at the same time.
You have scaling features with resolutions all the way up to 1440p, as well as motion adaptive deinterlacing which is critical for PS2 games since much of the library outputs interlaced video. Now you will need to opt for the Shiny edition of the kit in order to get the higher resolution and motion adaptive deinterlacing features which is more expensive, but I would honestly treat this as the only version to get and just forget about the cheaper basic version since it doesn't have what I would consider to be some of the most crucial features. For more details on all the features of the Shiny Retro Gem kit, Definitely check out my dedicated video covering this mod, as well as another great video by AposVox that gives you a very comprehensive breakdown of the kit. Now when it comes to the iFlash to PS2 kit, the main feature here is the ability to support SD cards that are larger than 128GB, which was previously the upper limit of capacity. This is due to the iFlash Solo card supporting LBA48 addressing.
That, coupled with GrimDoomer's custom OPL build, we are now able to use SD cards of any size. I'm using this PNY 1TB card, and it works great. It should be noted that there are some 1.5TB cards out there, but those typically come from SanDisk, which unfortunately isn't a very compatible brand with the iFlash Solo board. Definitely check out ArthurMis'website for tested compatible cards.
As an added bonus, this is a no-cut mod. utilizing the perfectly sized vent holes in the front of the console to access the SD card for easily adding games when needed. Now moving on to the Methylene Blue Retro mod, this basically allows us to use any Bluetooth controller. But the most standout feature in my opinion is the ability to turn on, turn off, and reset the PS2 right from the controller itself. So to turn the console on using a PS4 controller for the purpose of this demonstration, Simply press the PlayStation button as you would normally for any more of the modern PlayStation consoles, and you are greeted with a nice little tone as the system powers on.
I just love how the implementation of this mod makes it feel like it came from Sony, really rounding out the overall feel and refinement of the mod itself. Now to turn the console off, you need to use a button combination of L2, R2, Option, X, and write D-pad, pressed all at the same time. It's a bit of finger yoga, but it does work. And to reset the console, it's the same button combination as turning it off, except press square instead of X.
And the last cool thing about this mod is the controller auto- detect feature. If I were to plug in another controller into the player 1 port, you'll see that the PS4 controller will change LED colors to signify it is now in the player 2 position. I mean how cool is that? Anyway, the last thing I want to discuss isn't so much a mod, but rather a pretty crucial accessory.
And that's the Memcard Pro 2. This thing is an absolute godsend in that it stores all of my save files, so no more juggling multiple memory cards. This thing has so many features. many features that I did an entire dedicated video covering it which I'll have linked down below. I also recommend checking out my Life in Gaming's video which goes into all the nitty gritty details about the Memcard Pro 2, so I'll also have that linked down below.
Ok so I think it's safe to say that this is an extremely over the top way to enjoy your PS2 library. So with that, let's get into the pros and cons. Starting with the pros, I have to say that it's truly astounding just how many features we managed to cram into this small package.
and the fact that they all work cohesively with each other to make the PS2 feel like it belongs in 2024. Here I have all my games stored on a 1TB SD card, as well as all my save data on the Memcard Pro 2. I never need to swap a disk or memory cards ever again which is pretty amazing. Additionally, I get the absolute best video output quality using the Retro Gem HDMI kit, And I'm no longer tethered to the console thanks to the Methylene Blue Retro Kit. I mean what is there not to like?
This is just an absolute monster of a PS2. Plus the original optical drive is uncompromised, which means I can even play my original game discs if I wanted to, as well as PS1 titles. There's just so much to like about this build, but it's not all sunshine and rainbows, so let's take a look at the cons. And probably the biggest con is difficulty.
Even for the experienced modder, this is definitely challenging due to the amount of microsoldering required and the complexity of all the mods. Each mod on their own are difficult already, but doing them all together is definitely a challenge. Now being able to install all of these mods is one thing, actually acquiring them all is another con entirely.
To purchase each of the mods and parts I used for this build would amount to roughly $415, and that doesn't include installation, shipping costs, or the cost of the PS2 Slim itself. So this is a very expensive proposition. Whether you think it's worth it is up to you, but for this price you really need to start thinking about which mods matter to you most. Now the last couple cons I'm going to talk about aren't really that big of a deal.
For one, the button combos for the methylene to reset and turn the console off are a bit awkward to do on some controllers, and while they do work, I think it would have been cooler to have something simpler. like maybe holding the PS button for 7 seconds or something like that. And lastly, I kinda wish the Retro Gem had a full size HDMI port. I mean, I get why they used the mini form factor, but I think it would have been a nice option to have. Now the last thing I'm going to talk about is not so much a con, but rather an observation.
The PS2 Slim gets pretty warm to the touch. I kinda wish I measured the heat coming off the console before I did all the mods for a comparison, But I did notice that the fan spools up quite a bit after an extended play session. I don't foresee this as causing any long term issues, but it is something I'll be closely monitoring.
If anyone has any experience with a stock, unmodded, 70,000 PS2 Slim, let me know if these run hot. I know there are outside factors like ambient temperature, and there's a lot of dust caked onto the heatsink, but I'm curious if these just run hot normally. It would be really awesome if there was a fan upgrade available for the console, but given how small the PS2 Slim is, it's probably unlikely without a major modification to the case.
But other than that, I'm extremely happy with how this build turned out, and if I had to do it over again, I wouldn't change a thing. Well folks, there you have it. The most modded PS2 I've ever built. Let me know what you all think. Is there anything else I should have added or done differently with the project?
Let me know down below in the comments. And if you enjoyed this video, I really think you'll like this one here, so check it out. And as always, thank you all so much for tuning in today, and I'll catch you again next time.