Mr Reorg

My son, 13 next month, wants a PSP. Can anyone tell me their experience with a PSP? Is it worth the cost?

For a handheld, he has the old Gameboy {xx} (I can't recall it's exact name.)

Agent Plissken

I would suggest the Nintendo Gameboy DS, but im sure many people will suggest the PSP. The DS is cheaper and to me it seems to have more "fun/good" games. If you are just looking for the best A/V experience, including movie and music playback, the PSP comes out ahead.

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Kudos

My brother got the Nintendo DS and he loves it, the games are really fun.

PSP you can get onto the internet though, and play movies on it....and music...

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Bires

Of the guys/gals in my video game club, about half a dozen have PSPs. They don't really like them because the memory sticks are expensive and the games are dumb. A few are going to use them as PDA's once we get our pirate wireless connections setup on campus. So, I guess if he wants something to browse the web with it's great (very clear screen). However, as a gaming machine, the DS > PSP.

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Airencracken

DS has wifi for multi player and it's teh roxor.

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zero2dash

DS has games worth playing...PSP does not.

The DS took awhile to get going and have a good library of games, but now it's kicking the pants off the PSP in terms of quality games and game selection.

If you get a DS, you've got a ton of great games...almost everything from Nintendo is gold including the recently released Mario Kart and Animal Crossing (both of which are have multiplayer over WiFi, which if you don't have WiFi, you can use for free at several places including the Nintendo-sponsored Mcdonalds partnership). There's also Advance Wars: Dual Strike, Meteos, Castlevania (and the GBA ones are great too), Nintendogs, Mario & Luigi (both the GBA one and the new one for the DS).

Meanwhile on PSP you have Lumines, WipeOut Pure, and Grand Theft Auto: LCS (which, if your child is 13, isn't a title your son should be playing). That's it. 3 games worth owning.

If your son wants to listen to music or watch videos, well he won't be able to with a DS, but the tradeoff is - DS has much better games and a lot more reasons to own it IMO.

I chose DS over PSP and I'm really glad I did. Take that extra $100 saved and buy 3-4 great games with it.

Bires

I've wondered about this. The asian-mod stores sell adapters to use the GBA as a TV, mp3 player, and digital camera. Seems similar mods for the NDS can't be too far off.

BTW: I LOVE my GBA. I count it as the best console I've ever owned, including the SNES and Genesis. I'm waiting until next spring for the DS, but I'm definately picking one up (unless Santa drops one off)

mcs328

I've been thinking about the Gameboy Micro muself but it's 100 bucks. I would normally carry it in a pocket or a bookbag to pass the time in a waiting room or on the subway. Smaller than most cell phones too.

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zero2dash

You are correct -
there is the Play-Yan which lets you play mpeg4 movies and mp3 songs on the GBA (off of an SD card), and I'm *assuming* it works on the DS (since the DS plays GBA cartridges).

There's also the flash carts that allow you to use emulators on the GBA/DS (like PocketNES); my friend has one of those and it's awesome.

Nintendo (last I heard) was going to bring the Play-Yan over here sometime around Christmas, so...keep an eye out for it in stores. Again, it *should* work for the DS since it's the same size as a GBA cart.

edit: here's an article for you to solve your problem, Mr. Reorg.
Buyer's Guide: Nintendo DS vs. Sony PSP

More info on the Play-Yan including confirmed DS compatibility:
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6115158.html

gear02

wow...the overwhelming response for the DS is surprising. Remember how everyone loved the PSP when it came out?

I have a DS myself and I love it. It's really all about the games, and the PSP doesn't have any great ones.

Bires

They are. I have a three-year-old 128megabit card. It's fabulous. I can play Guardian Legend from the NES with a real-time save state.

SnowSurfer

i have a psp and i love it because i can have psp games, snes, nes, super genesis, etc all on one device. Plus movies and music and pictures. oh yea i didn't upgrade mine either so it is still 1.5

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Pemolis

The only reason DS is more popular is due to the amount of games for it.

PSP has maybe... 10 to 15 games, while DS has 30+.

If (AND I PRAY THEY DO) re-release some of the older Playstation 1 games (like final fantasy 7, tactics, etc), then it'll pickup.

but for some dumb reason.. they don't want to/not doing it.

zero2dash

Fixed that for you.


I read awhile back that UMD movie sales far surpassed the game sales for the system...that's pretty bad. Talk about faith in a system's game library...

In regards to re-releasing old PSOne games on the system...umm...I seriously doubt that's gonna happen. Most people don't want to play those old games again, so they wouldn't sell well. And low sales would cripple the developers who would have to spend the time/effort/money on redeveloping the game for the PSP.

ribitch

i had a psp.

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doolittle

I would ratherhave a pocket PC with a good grafix chip, the emulaters work pretty well and all the games are free if your internet savvy.

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Cheesypuff

as posted in the hardware forum

PSP = suckors!!!!

there are many reasons why I hate the psp. One very trivial reason is because they named their proprietary disc UMD (universal media disc). CAN somebody PLEASE tell me how an oxymoron like an proprietary universal media disc can be in existance? NO NO NO NO NO NO...SCREW YOU SONY!!!! SCREW!!!

now...I would "consider" a DVD to be a univerisal media disc because a BUNCH of other companies make a dvd. but what did I hear? what? pardon? did I hear that only FRICKIN sony plays a "UNIVERSAL" media disc. THERE IS NOTHING F**KING UNIVERSAL ABOUT IT!!!! DIE SONY!!! DIE!!!!!!!!

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zero2dash

Sony just loves proprietary formats.
See also: Memory Stick, Memory Stick Duo, Betamax, Mini Disc.

I swear I will never purchase another piece of Sony equipment in my life. I've had problems with my Sony tv, my Sony vcr, a couple Sony Discmen, two PSX's, one PsOne, two Ps2s...etc I'm done with Sony.

nojoke007

The sole reason I want a PSP is to play Socom. I saw someone with it playing online, definitely sweet.

Cheesypuff

I got a minidisc player, I only got one when other companies started making them.

avlena

(This is Grafalgar posting on Avlena's acct)

I have a PSP, and I love the thing to pieces Mostly because I can't justify a couple hundred dollars on a handheld specifically for games. Since the PSP plays games, movies, music, etc (iow, it's a multimedia system, not just games) I'm very pleased with it When Avlena and I flew to Texas it was REAL nice to be able to watch a movie and then play a game afterwards on the same system

I looked at the DS some time ago, but I decided against it simply because I didn't like the games offered In fact, I generally don't like (recent) Nintendo games (except for a select few). This is also why I can't care less about the gamecube

*shrugs*-Yeah, Sony really sucks re: their proprietory formats, but meh - I'm quite happy with the system I'd actually love to be able to ship a title on it, since it's pretty damn powerful for a handheld

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gear02

How about battery life?

avlena

On a full charge, mine runs 9+ hours with games, movies and so on

-Graf

gear02

huh...really? What were those reports that it lasted like 2 hours?

avlena

don't know, but on this trip alone it's lasted a 3 hour airline flight (we watched Shaun of the Dead, and then played a bunch of games until descent), and at least 3 or 4 more hours of play this afternoon without re-charging. We've had absolutely no problems with battery life.

-Avlena

Pemolis

Right now what got me is the loading time on a PSP.

They are abismal.

I am 50/50 on getting myself one. I might just buy a laptop and load a playstation emulator on it instead (bigger screen, about 1000+ games to choose from, can watch dvd's, surf the web, listen to music...).

Though it'll cost me about 1500 for it.

avlena

What games are you talking about, because I haven't had any problems with loading time.

and you can't carry a laptop around in your pocket while being dragged places by your wife!

eSDee

My girlfried just got me a PSP for Christmas, which means now I have to become a PSP enthusiast (returning it would hurt her feelings). But I think I can do it, as one of my boys had a PSP and only one game (Texas Hold Em) and I thought it was dope. If I can figure out a way to connect it to my TIVO then that would be awesome. I could watch Sportscenter on the shuttle to work. If anyone has any good links to get PSP'd out, please let me know.

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zero2dash

Just doing a quick Google search, I came across this site
http://psp-news.dcemu.co.uk/
scroll down some and you'll notice emulators and apps for the PSP on the left side of the screen...browsers, picture/movie viewers, etc all kinds of stuff.

eSDee

Cool thanks for the link zero2dash. I found this website which says that I can sync the PSP with a Mac. I have a Mac and a PC at both my work and home, but would prefer to use my Mac if possible since I might be getting a new one soon. Do you think I would be able to use some of this emulation software even if I was synching to a Mac? I do not have a grasp yet of how the emulation software works. Will I have to run a .exe on a PC first in order to install the emulation software, or is it like a palm where you have conduits that transfer info to the handheld. I guess I will probably figure it out eventually. Once I do I will post it here.