racketboy wrote:Side newbie question -- is there any way to easily rip UMD games?
If playing on original hardware kinda sucks, is there much point in owning original games other than the collectability? Although, walking backward, is the load time any worse than something like the Sega Saturn or even the Sega CD?
To rip a game from the disc drive (using a modded psp):
1- On the home screen press select and change your USB device to UMD 2- Connect your console to a pc and enable a USB connection on the system. 3- Copy and paste the iso. That's it.
Just remember to swap back the USB mode to memory stick so you can load from it.
I've never really had issues with load times. Maybe someone can point out some egregious examples but for the most part games load fairly quickly. I use a 2000 model and load the games from storage.
You can also rip them straight to the memory card the through the VSH menu (select button when on the XMB.) Again, you need a PSP running CFW for that too.
I'm totally with AJ on the build quality being a major weakness of the PSP. I never super liked how they fit in my hands, but damn if I didn't know *so* many people growing up who had a PSP broken in some way. I was a bit young for the target demographic, but it seemed like damn near anyone I knew who had one once I was a bit older had something broken with theirs (whether it was a button, the disc-reading mechanism, or what have you). It's a system I'd really love to get more into, but I just dislike playing games on that machine too much to make the plunge :/
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I've never had an issue with loads times either. Compared to it's competitor, the DS which had solid state media for games, I guess it's slower to load stuff on average. But knowing that it's an optical disc, my expectations were set, so I never took an issue with load times.
The memory card can be looked at as a negative I guess, but it really wasn't an issue. It wasn't proprietary. Sony had their Memory Stick Pro Duo or whatever it was called. They were trying to push it as a mainstream memory card format, but Sony were the only ones to support it on their devices. So pretty much just the PSP and Sony cameras at the time used them. Sony would have loved for other companies to adopt the format, but SD just ruled. It's certainly not the first time Sony has done this.
When I bought my PSP 2000 new at retail, I seem to remember paying around $25 for a 2 GB Pro Duo card. But this was back in 2007 or so, and that was just the going price for a 2 GB card, IIRC SD cards were around the same price. And you didn't have to worry about not having a card reader for the Memory Stick. The PSP (or a Sony digital camera) has a USB port that you can connect to your computer, then the PSP acts as a card reader.
Although I will admit, the memory card became a little bit of a pain in the ass in the years following this. SD cards kept getting larger and cheaper, but Sony's Memory Stick was not getting the same love. Sony never made very large sizes before it was discontinued. The larger sizes were kind of pricey, but then they were unavailable due to it's decline and lack of support. But these days, it's really no issue at all. Just get a $5 micro SD to Pro Duo adapter. IIRC, you don't want to go over 32 or 64 GB, but otherwise you can use almost any micro SD card.
When I got my PSP, I remember thinking how awesome it was that it was a sort of all-in-one multimedia on-the-go type of thing. It played PSP games, but also select PS1 games via PSN. And then there were movies on the UMD format. Personally, I didn't want to start a UMD movie collection, but I know a lot of people really liked this. Then there was the memory card that you could dump music and videos on to. If you had an internet connection, there was even a web browser. So if you had a long car, train or plane ride, the PSP was a perfect machine to bring along. You could use it as an mp3 player, watch movies on it, and play games. In 2022, it might be easy to overlook how awesome this was. Now that our phones can do all of those things, it's no big deal. But back when the PSP launched, it was simply amazing that you could do so much on such a little device.
Being able to hack the PSP is such a huge strength, and should be more than just a footnote. It's not just about pirating games, it opens up your console to using homebrew apps. Namely, emulators. Add emulators for classic consoles to the above list of things you can use your PSP for, making it an even better device to bring on a long trip. Are there other homebrew apps available aside form emulators?
You can easily rip games to the memory card, but it's also dead simple to download a game and transfer it to the card. Again, you can use the PSP as a card reader. You just have to drop the game image in the ISO folder on your memory card, then you can launch it from your games list in the main menu. This is great in case you have a busted drive, you can still easily play PSP games.
I hacked my PSP a long time ago. It wasn't hard at all. But from what I understand it's even easier now.
I wouldn't be a good person to comment on the reliability of the hardware, I guess. I bought mine new at retail, so it was only ever adult owned. I never really took it out of the bedroom, to be honest. I might have taken it out of the house once or twice, but I can't even recall doing it. So it's only seen light use. That said, I've never had any issues with mine.
Although, I've always noted the battery life. Not so much the runtime, but the shelf life. For Nintendo handhelds and wireless controllers, if I charge them up they seem to last a really long time, Even if I leave them off for many months, they retain their battery life. Sony batteries on the other hand, such as the PSP or my PS3 controllers, the batteries don't last on the shelf. If I charge them up, if I don't use them for month they will still die. I always found that kind of annoying.
Just to talk a little bit about the TV output of the PSP...
I was excited to hear that the (then current) PSP 2000 "Slim" had a TV output via component cables. But in practice, it's really not all that great. For starters, to use it requires a 480p output, and doesn't allow you to use 480i (I've read that the model 3000 allows you to use composite cables, but the 2000 only allows you to play PSP games via component cables with a 480p output). Meaning I can't use it on my CRT, only an HDTV. The problem there is that the image is very small on the screen (480 × 272). You can blow it up, but then it doesn't look very good. I've used recommended settings with the Framemeister, but I didn't at all like how it looks. I can't imagine it looking much better with any other (more recent) scaler. PS1 games and movies are apparently fullscreen. The other thing I don't like is that the AV cable comes out the bottom of the PSP and I find it a little uncomfortable.
The original 1000 model doesn't have TV output like the 2000 and 3000 does. However, I've read that with CFW and PC software you can use the PSP to play games on a PC.
Of course, if emulation is good, that would probably be the better option if you want to play games on a big screen.
Excellent stuff! Anybody else have anything to add about the strengths and weaknesses? This thread has already reminded me of a handful of things and will be a good foundation for an additional outline.
I figure we'll do another thread or two later for other PSP Beginner Guide sub-conversations, but we've done well here! Thank you!
I guess sound quality might be an advantage? As mentioned before, PSP was trying to be a multimedia device. Up until then handheld games were on cartridge and werent able to do CD quality audio. Even most phones of the time didn't have good audio capabilities.
alienjesus wrote:I guess sound quality might be an advantage? As mentioned before, PSP was trying to be a multimedia device. Up until then handheld games were on cartridge and werent able to do CD quality audio. Even most phones of the time didn't have good audio capabilities.
On that note, I was gonna mention... It's been a while since I've seriously gamed on a PSP, but I remember the speakers being lackluster. Now, I know that no handheld console has speakers that are especially good, but the PSP just came across as extra tinny to me. Maybe it's simply because the types of games on the PSP come off as sounding worse on tiny speakers compared to the types of games that are typical on a Nintendo handheld? I've found that headphones are pretty much required for proper immersion.
opa wrote:I think the biggest weakness at this point is that you will have difficulty finding decent aftermarket batteries. My stock battery is still good so I personally haven't purchased any yet; but I've heard mixed things about the replacements you find on ebay.
A note on aftermarket batteries-
I *just* soldered in a new battery to my DS lite. That was super easy. Got a lipo battery- stripped the ends of the wires, and soldered it in.
It is apparently a little more complex with the PSP. The PSP has a battery component in it, and something that regulates power (I think?). So if you want to replace the battery in modern times, you need to open it up and pull the regulator out. And attach that regulator to the new lipo battery. Then it'll work. I haven't done it with mine yet, but I plan to at some point.
Generally any good solution for the battery is going to be the above. Anything that is a "new psp battery" now is probably new old stock and lost its charge long ago. ALSO- check your batteries if you haven't looked in a while. Some DS batteries are starting to bulge. Keep an eye on em.
I've seen some videos floating around online of people who pull the UMD disk drive out completely (and run games form mem card), and jam a HUGE battery into the unit. Tons of battery hours on that thing, but I'm not sure how that is on heat...
Interesting! These notes will be great to include. And if I can't find more details, I can always invite people to share their experiences or whatever. THanks!
