What happens when you try to run Go but on a classic PlayStation 2? That’s exactly what modder Ricardo Silva (RG Silva) set out to explore in his innovative blog series, beginning with a deep dive into getting Go working on PS2 hardware.
In Part 1, Silva tackles a huge challenge: PS2 wasn’t designed for Go. Its Emotion Engine CPU is a MIPS variant, not natively supported. To make it work, he’s experimenting with TinyGo, a lightweight Go compiler that targets microcontrollers — and potentially the PS but bridging the gap to unique architectures like the PS2’s R5900 demands serious engineering however tvtropes.org+12rgsilva.com+12rgsilva.com+12.
He also explores the ps2dev SDK, the longstanding toolkit for building native PS2 binaries. Integrating Go means ensuring compatibility with the PS2 development environment (including ABI differences in MIPS formats). Silva’s careful analysis highlights the need to match calling conventions and deal with low-level compiler intricacies rgsilva.com.
In short, Part 1 lays the groundwork for something bold: real, native Go code running bare-metal on a PS2 not via emulation. It's a retro-modern engineering challenge bridging a contemporary language with a classic console's hardware architecture.
If you're into retro hardware, low-level programming, or just love seeing unconventional code runs on unlikely platforms, this is a technical journey worth following. Ready for the next chapter?
