Sony PSP Appreciation Thread

[strider]

2 minutes ago, SeanR said:

Can I just say how nice (if a little pared back) the PSP version of gran turismo is?

 

I would have sworn it was the ps2 version if not for the lack of options.

 

I discovered it on my pandora3d+ one of those little jamma emulation boxes with thousands of other ROMs. It does a sideline in PSP emulation.

Didn't Gran Turismo come out around the same time as Little Big Planet, ICY Motorstorm and Assassin's Creed. I'm sure Sony did a big push on the system 3 or 4 years in.

[Yobo Ahoy]

The resurfacing of this thread made me dig my PSP out. It's grubby and worn out but I immediately selected Outrun and 'just race' or whatever it is and it's just astounding. 15 years old FFS! 

[strider]

I've sunk a few hours into the Ghost Of Sparta and Loco Roco. Really enjoy both, although Ghost Of Sparta sometimes looks a little muddy.

It's interesting that the Vita never really captured people's attention in the way the PSP did.

[ianinthefuture]

21 minutes ago, strider said:

I've sunk a few hours into the Ghost Of Sparta and Loco Roco. Really enjoy both, although Ghost Of Sparta sometimes looks a little muddy.

It's interesting that the Vita never really captured people's attention in the way the PSP did.

Almost everything people love about the Switch, the Vita did. It just didn't have Mario and Zelda, I guess?

 

Which is admittedly a big couple of things to not have. Still, it didn't deserve to die cold and alone like it did. Damn fine machine.

[strider]

7 minutes ago, ianinthefuture said:

Almost everything people love about the Switch, the Vita did. It just didn't have Mario and Zelda, I guess?

 

Which is admittedly a big couple of things to not have. Still, it didn't deserve to die cold and alone like it did. Damn fine machine.

I think the other thing that killed it was when they started trying to sell it as a way to efficiently stream (lol) your PS4 games. After all, why developer two games when you can focus on one? I think it's a fantastic quirky system (I've nearly got a complete set of limited run games) but it just didn't seem to pick up that mainstream support.

[Yobo Ahoy]

The Vita hardware was and is great, and I've had some enjoyable experiences with it over the years (P4G, Everybody's Golf, Tearaway, ... Not to mention the glorious MGS 2+3  ports).

 

Unfortunately in my opinion it never really had the breadth and depth of software (especially the exclusives) the PSP did  - not least because Sony gave up on it so quickly. 

 

Worst of all is the Ridge Racer comparison. The Vita version is probably the most disappointing game I've ever played.

 

 

 

 

[ianinthefuture]

1 hour ago, strider said:

I think the other thing that killed it was when they started trying to sell it as a way to efficiently stream (lol) your PS4 games. After all, why developer two games when you can focus on one? I think it's a fantastic quirky system (I've nearly got a complete set of limited run games) but it just didn't seem to pick up that mainstream support.

That said, I did play most of Yakuza 0 via the Vita streaming, and it was ace. Meant I didn't have to lug my PS4 around to the girlfriend's place.

 

IT WAS AHEAD OF ITS TIME, DAMN IT. (yes I know other things, including the PSP, did streaming stuff before)

[Fuddle]

I was back on ridge racer 2 last night.

maybe it’s because we haven’t had much ridge action lately, but I was amazed at how good it still looks.

i love that stage of 3D graphics where you can still see the polygons but everything is all crisp and solid. It’s hard to explain, Dreamcast does it well too.

[Qazimod]

There’s definitely something nice about a “clean” low-poly look where there are a lot of bold colours but it’s not a complete mess. It’s the same thing that all of the kickstarter indie games based on classic arcade racers try to go for, so it clearly has some appeal.  

[Vimster]

I have a 1000 and a 3000, dug the 3000 out a while back expecting it to look pants compared to mobile devices today but was pleasantly surprised at just how solid a machine it still it. The screen is great, battery life very good for something like this, I still rate the OS on it, easy to use and unobtrusive. The Vita somehow lost that simplicity even though it's not the most complex device. 

[dumpster]

The Vita, for me, was ruined by the ludicrously overpriced memory cards, the 3G/non 3G models (choice always leads to "I'll think about it" in shops) and the silly touch pad on the back.  Also, if it was designed as a device that could stream it should have had 4 shoulder buttons to match the device you're streaming from. Having said that, a modded Vita is a must own piece kit and becomes a one stop shop for lots of Sony PS1, psp and Vita stuff (and it has cheap memory cards too, if you mod it).  But despite the modded Vita being awesome, it does get used as a sort of PSP Deluxe  with the bigger screen and better D-pad.  I probably play PSP stuff on the Vita more than I play Vita.

 

On with Densha De Go at the moment.  It uses fmv for the train track but it doesn't spoil it.  Such a simple game but really compulsive. 

 

[Zio]

5 hours ago, dumpster said:

On with Densha De Go at the moment.  It uses fmv for the train track but it doesn't spoil it.  Such a simple game but really compulsive. 

 

 

There's several Densha De Go games on the PSP - the one with the FMV is Mobile Train Simulator + Densha De Go and is just the first one (it was one of the games I had on my import PSP before the system was released in the UK. I still have the UMD at my parents!). The others are the more traditional 3D graphics experience.

[fat flatulent git]

What are the differences between the two Makaimura games on the PSP?

[strider]

59 minutes ago, Tomcat said:

What are the differences between the two Makaimura games on the PSP?

According to Wiki it's an enhanced version that includes the original version as well as a suitably tweaked one that adjust the difficulty, makes it more like the arcade games and adds a few other things.

 

One thing I have noticed about some of the sequels I've played on PSP is that they often don't feel like sequels and come across more as Game of The Year-style enhancements.

[fat flatulent git]

12 minutes ago, strider said:

According to Wiki it's an enhanced version that includes the original version as well as a suitably tweaked one that adjust the difficulty, makes it more like the arcade games and adds a few other things.

 

One thing I have noticed about some of the sequels I've played on PSP is that they often don't feel like sequels and come across more as Game of The Year-style enhancements.

Thanks.

 

May I ask which sequels you mean in your second paragraph, besides Makaimura?

[strider]

46 minutes ago, Tomcat said:

Thanks.

 

May I ask which sequels you mean in your second paragraph, besides Makaimura?

Ridge Racer, Hot Shots Golf, Luminous 2 and , Dissidia 2 and Pursuit Force 2 immediately spring to mind. Luminous is slightly different as it depends on what music you like, but the others generally improve on the base games or offer slight adjustments making the originals largely redundant (in my opinion).

[fat flatulent git]

Ah, I see what you mean.

 

Yes, I have felt that my Ridge Racers and Everybody's Golf are a bit redundant, although as I got them with my launch day PSP, I keep them because they remind me of that day - the PSP is long gone, for newer models.

 

I didn't know there was a Pursuit Force 2.  Might check that out.

[filecore]

I bought a new battery for my PSP1000. I hadn't used it in a few years as I also have a 3000. 

Now my original PSP doesn't read any UMDs, a problem it never had before. What's the best, most recommended fixes?
 

[carlospie]

Bump.

 

Just found an old slim psp in my cupboard. Are these easy to mod these days? My son would love a handheld to play on instead of shitty gatcha tablet games. 

[Ninja Doctor]

On 18/05/2021 at 11:18, filecore said:

I bought a new battery for my PSP1000. I hadn't used it in a few years as I also have a 3000. 

Now my original PSP doesn't read any UMDs, a problem it never had before. What's the best, most recommended fixes?
 

 

27 minutes ago, carlospie said:

Bump.

 

Just found an old slim psp in my cupboard. Are these easy to mod these days? My son would love a handheld to play on instead of shitty gatcha tablet games. 

The PSP is absolutely trivial to hack nowadays and you don’t even need to be on a previous firmware. 
 

https://hackinformer.com/PlayStationGuide/PSP/DEVICE_PSP.html

 

[Vimster]

Have been trying to play Metal Gear Acid recently. Never got on with the MGS games generally but thought the turn-based design would make it easier to handle. Either my patience level for these things had evaporated down the years or this was confusing. It was really difficult to get my bearings on the map, the conversations were MGS-long and windy which made just getting used to playing the game difficult; I'd forgotten half the stuff after another long-winded convo. It looks great and I've heard the sequel fixes a lot of issues. Might try again and really concentrate this time. 

 

Also played a bit of Pipe Mania. Having got addicted to the Spectrum version a while ago I was looking forward to this, but it suffers from a lot of the issues these updated games tend to: too much story, too many characters, overly-detailed graphics that look nice but take away from the game, lots of interesting ideas that expand the core game but make me wish for something simple. There is a classic mode so that's not so bad. 

[carlospie]

Ah shit. Charged up the psp fat and got the hack downloaded. Only thing is I don't have one of those ancient usb wires!!! Nightmare. Can the ps vita be hacked and does it play all psp games?

[Vimster]

8 minutes ago, carlospie said:

Ah shit. Charged up the psp fat and got the hack downloaded. Only thing is I don't have one of those ancient usb wires!!! Nightmare. Can the ps vita be hacked and does it play all psp games?

Yes, and it plays them amazingly. There's a program called Adrenaline that is basically a PSP virtual machine. It may not work on all hacked firmware though.

[Ninja Doctor]

https://vita.hacks.guide Walks you through unlocking the vita. I recently downgraded a 3.73 ofw machine to a fully unlocked 3.60 cfw. 

[Zio]

Hacking a Vita and loading Adrenaline on there is a great way to go. You basically get two hacked consoles in one there - one hacked Vita and one hacked PSP. I found on mine that Adrenaline would crash on the first attempt to load it (but work fine following this), but this is a known issue and fixable.

[ScouserInExile]

17 hours ago, Vimster said:

Pipe Mania

I was lead tester on the PS1 version of that. Testing was severely delayed by there being a Terminator 2 pinball table in the office we were set up in. 

[Vimster]

4 hours ago, Zio said:

Hacking a Vita and loading Adrenaline on there is a great way to go. You basically get two hacked consoles in one there - one hacked Vita and one hacked PSP. I found on mine that Adrenaline would crash on the first attempt to load it (but work fine following this), but this is a known issue and fixable.

Yes, use Autoplugin and select the Adrenaline startup fix plugin. Easy. 

 

It is a great thing though, bigger screen, there are some patches you can apply to some games to use both sticks or improve the graphics. It even has save states. 

[carlospie]

Might have to buy a cheap vita then...

[ScouserInExile]

Prompted by this thread, I decided to dig out the psp stuff I've basically never done anything with. 

 

And I found this:

 

Am I right in thinking that, along with the corresponding video cable, this will allow me to play psp games on a vga monitor? 

 

Curently charging the two psps I have. 

[buizel]

Anyone figured out how to get a good PSP Battery?

 

Everyone I buy has like ~2 HRS Max on average.

 

I've seen people on Reddit build their own chunky battery but I wouldnt mind if it was 4HRS.

 

At 2HRS max, and in standby it still drains quickly, its unfortunate.