Jon Bringus, a console modder and YouTuber, undertook the challenge of playing Valve’s early development hero shooter, Deadlock, on a PlayStation 4. This endeavor proved to be both laborious and impractical, as it required extensive modifications to the console, which was originally released in 2013.
Bringus documented his journey in a recent video, highlighting the difficulties faced while trying to run a game that is currently in an invite-only beta stage and exclusive to the Steam platform.
To get started, Bringus first opened up his aging PS4 and replaced its traditional spinning disk with a 512 GB Micron SATA SSD hard drive. He then installed Linux on the PS4’s internal hard drive and used a Raspberry Pi 4 model B computer to run the PPPwn jailbreak server.
This setup aimed to establish an internet connection that would allow him to access the game, but the process was anything but straightforward, requiring a considerable amount of time and patience.
After numerous attempts and hours spent trying to install Deadlock on his modified PS4, Bringus finally succeeded in reaching the game’s menu. However, the victory was bittersweet; the menu was displayed in a low resolution of 360p, which he had to further reduce to an even poorer 144p to begin playing.
The entire experience was fraught with technical setbacks, including multiple crashes and lengthy Linux reboots that added to the frustration.
Once he managed to get into the game, Bringus was met with another harsh reality: the graphics were reminiscent of a Game Boy Color title, running at a dismal frame rate of between zero and nine frames per second.
Despite this, he humorously noted that it was an improvement over not being able to play at all. However, Bringus quickly realized that the game was not enjoyable under these conditions, ultimately opting to leave a public match early to spare his teammates from the experience.
In a final attempt to enhance performance, Bringus tried installing Deadlock on a 2016 PS4 Pro, hoping for better hardware capabilities.
Unfortunately, this led to further complications, as the game broke when he attempted to run it at 540p. Given the impracticality and unplayability of the game on these consoles, Bringus concluded that the best option for enjoying Deadlock remains on Steam, where the game is intended to be played.
