Hell has frozen over -- daroga bought a PSP!

daroga

daroga

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UPDATE: Bought the PSP. Got the fancy firmware on it and am really enjoying just playing with it. :)

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Hey all!

I know, I know. At best, this sound kinda 2-faced, but I'm thinking about picking up a PSP. Here's the story:

My birthday is coming up and my Dad loves to get me gadgety things. He got me my iPod, digital camera, some Wii games, etc. There's not much out on the DS/360/Wii right now that I want that I don't have, so I'm thinking about asking for the system, but I've got a few quick questions.

1) I love messing with homebrew stuff via my M3 card on the DS. I know to do homebrew stuff on a brand-new system, I'm going to need to get a copy of LCS that is unpatched. Is that right? I've read about the process a little bit; is there a high-risk of bricking?

2) For memory has anyone tried a device like this: http://cgi.ebay.com/MicroSD-Micro-SD-Memory-Card-to-MS-Pro-Duo-Adapter-NEW_W0QQitemZ150124233184QQihZ005QQcategoryZ15215QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem ? I already use Micro SD memory in several devices and would like to not have to buy a whole new media type. SD cards are far cheaper than MS. Would a 2GB card be sufficient for game saves and/or homebrew (should I get #1 working)?

3) What size are the PS1 games for the PSP? Can you get PS1 games on the PSP without the PS3 yet or is that still to come?

4) I don't really want PSP apologetics here, but I wouldn't mind some game recommendations (or derecommendations) for the system. Currently on my list to watch are Lumines (1? 2?), Daxter, Ratchet & Clank, Mega Man Powered Up, Burnout (Legends? Dominator?) & Wipeout. Really looking for games that use the system well (in other words, no games that struggle in not having all the buttons / sticks of the PS2, have horrid [or even console-length] load times, etc.)

5) What games offer online play? Any of them good?

Anyway, my birthday's a few weeks away, but any advice anyone can offer at this point would be great. :) Thanks!
 
1. You need to downgrade and install the custom firmware to use homebrew. The chance of bricking is very small if you follow direction. Zero if the homebrew does not write to flash.
2. Personally I would just get a pro duo for PSP. 2 GB should be fine.
3. Legally you need PS3, but if you are using custom firmware you can ripped your own games.
4. the game you listed are a good place to start.
5. Metal Gear Solid Portable and Syphon Filter.
 
And get yourself a copy of Loco Roco, especially as it will be on sale for $9.99 from CC soon... Let's put it this way - Much like Katamari, Loco Roco should have been a Nintendo game (in that it feels very Nintendo-y), so I know you'll like it ;).
 
[quote name='io']And get yourself a copy of Loco Roco, especially as it will be on sale for $9.99 from CC soon... Let's put it this way - Much like Katamari, Loco Roco should have been a Nintendo game (in that it feels very Nintendo-y), so I know you'll like it ;).[/quote]hehe, that was actually on my list too, forgot to include it.

Is online play with the PSP more or less a foregone conclusion like with most 360 games, or is it kind of random?
 
[quote name='daroga']1) I love messing with homebrew stuff via my M3 card on the DS. I know to do homebrew stuff on a brand-new system, I'm going to need to get a copy of LCS that is unpatched. Is that right? I've read about the process a little bit; is there a high-risk of bricking?[/quote]

No, you don't even need LCS. There's downgrade instructions everywhere on the net, just google for them. I bought mine and it was a 2.5 version, upgraded to 2.71, then downgraded to 1.5. There's a very, very low risk of bricking if you follow the instructions exactly.

2) For memory has anyone tried a device like this: http://cgi.ebay.com/MicroSD-Micro-SD-Memory-Card-to-MS-Pro-Duo-Adapter-NEW_W0QQitemZ150124233184QQihZ005QQcategoryZ15215QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem ? I already use Micro SD memory in several devices and would like to not have to buy a whole new media type. SD cards are far cheaper than MS. Would a 2GB card be sufficient for game saves and/or homebrew (should I get #1 working)?
Click to expand...

Roms are literally copied over from the PC, there's no formatting or anything, it's literally copy and paste.. easiest transfer ever. NES games are anywhere from 10kb to 2000kb, SNES anywhere from 2mb to 8mb. I have a 1gb stick and I have a PS1 game (Parasite Eve, both discs) as well as an NES and SNES emulators on there

3) What size are the PS1 games for the PSP? Can you get PS1 games on the PSP without the PS3 yet or is that still to come?
Click to expand...

#A - Depends on the game. Usually around 300mb per disc.
#B - Yes. (Without a PS3)[/quote]
 
If you buy a retail PSP, make sure the letter code is K or below. K is 2.71 (easily downgraded). I went from 2.71, to 1.5, to 3.40 OE-A and it was a breeze. Now I'm running NES, SNES, ScummVM, and all kinds of cool programs on my PSP. As for storage, don't get the hard drive, lots of stuff isn't compatible with it.

But I would like to hear about a MicroSD to Pro Duo adapter. MicroSD memory is so much cheaper.
 
[quote name='TekkenMaster']If you buy a retail PSP, make sure the letter code is K or below. K is 2.71 (easily downgraded). I went from 2.71, to 1.5, to 3.40 OE-A and it was a breeze. Now I'm running NES, SNES, ScummVM, and all kinds of cool programs on my PSP. As for storage, don't get the hard drive, lots of stuff isn't compatible with it.

But I would like to hear about a MicroSD to Pro Duo adapter. MicroSD memory is so much cheaper.[/quote]Where is that marked on the box (K)?
 
Especially with the square announcements and gamers day stuff, I am kinda looking forward to getting a PSP soon. I just have to scrounge some stuff to sell/trade to get it. I think the PSP will be picking up some steam this summer/fall.
 
Stay far away from Syphon Filter for online play. It's full of blatant campers and AIM rejects that just ruin it. MGS:pO has a better online experience, just like MGO.

I'd recommend Daxter, Exit, Loco Roco, Lumines, MPO, Ratchet and Clank, and Burnout Legends.
 
[quote name='daroga']2) For memory has anyone tried a device like this: http://cgi.ebay.com/MicroSD-Micro-SD-Memory-Card-to-MS-Pro-Duo-Adapter-NEW_W0QQitemZ150124233184QQihZ005QQcategoryZ15215QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem ? I already use Micro SD memory in several devices and would like to not have to buy a whole new media type. SD cards are far cheaper than MS. Would a 2GB card be sufficient for game saves and/or homebrew (should I get #1 working)?
[/quote]
Eh, by the time you buy the adapter, mini-SD is going to cost you the same as a memory stick, and might give you compatibility problems as well.

3) What size are the PS1 games for the PSP? Can you get PS1 games on the PSP without the PS3 yet or is that still to come?
Click to expand...

If you want official PS1 games, you need a PS3, although that's just for now. But the officially available games aren't that great, so you probably won't want those for the time being anyway. PS1 games can go up to 500-600MB (although they can be compressed), so if you're going to be using them a lot, you'll want as much storage as possible. And don't forget that being able to copy your PSP games to the memory stick is very useful as well. I keep 5 or 6 games on my PSP at all times, in addition to classic 8 and 16-bit games.
 
Hmmm... so strange. I dunno if it's a trend, but it seems like more and more people are getting PSPs now. Just yesterday, while I was at a car wash, some dad saw me playing the PSP and asked about it since he wanted to get his son a DS or a PSP, despite my recommendation to get a DS since his son was only 7, he still decided to get a PSP. Also I'm finally starting to see PSPs out in public quite often now.

Oh yeah and if you are into RPGs I would suggest Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth. Also you can get Hot Shots Golf for about 10 bucks and I find that very enjoyable as a pick up and play game as well.
 
[quote name='daroga']hehe, that was actually on my list too, forgot to include it.

Is online play with the PSP more or less a foregone conclusion like with most 360 games, or is it kind of random?[/quote]

It's not quite to the point yet where it's a foregone conclusion.

Like what was said earlier, I've read that it's difficult for newbies to get into Dark Mirror online b/c of teamstacking and the ranking system.

Eh, I'd say not to hold your breath on MPO. As one who put dozens of hours into MGO, the whole experience just seems kinda barebones and bleh. Plus, a few of the new wrinkles Kojipro put in to change the online don't work as well as they were designed. Who knows? You might like it.

As far as FPS, MoH: Heroes I've heard is pretty decent. Coded Arms: Contagion should have online later this year too.

The SOCOMs are pretty good online- but if you can't stand lock-on, then stay away. I don't think the lock-on ruins the game at all, though. Thousands of players still play both SOCOMs.

Allow me to add another one to the list. Once the Killzone Ch5/online patch is finally released (cross your fingers for tomorrow), it should be one of the top, if not the top, online experiences for the PSP. WipeOut Pulse later this year should have awesome online as well.
 
[quote name='jling84']Hmmm... so strange. I dunno if it's a trend, but it seems like more and more people are getting PSPs now. [/quote]

Price drop. :D
 
[quote name='Thomas96']Daroga... are you going to do an unboxing video.... ?[/quote]I don't think so... not even sure I'm getting one yet. Why would I do such a thing? ;)

Is Liberty City Stories vastly inferior to Vice City Stories? How are the load times on those games? (I seem to recall the PS2 GTA games being horrid loading your saved game or moving from island to island.) Are they the same Sandbox games that they are on the consoles, or are they more narrowly confined? Sometimes I liks just cruising around in those games.
 
Just got back from looking at my local Kmart. They've got the K model units in there. If I end up with one of those, I can do the custom firmware without a problem with an unpatched VCS, right?

Also, I've read a few posts about people copying their games to the memory sticks to improve load times (battery life?). Is that an offically supported option (ala PS3's install feasture for some games) or is it something that's only possible with a custom firmware?
 
Don't need LCS for 2.71 dg.

Most, if not all, aspects that make the PSP more functional is not officially Sony supported. I believe the PS1 games download to stick isn't even out yet through Sony.
 
I'd get a PSP as a gift just to play mega man powered up.

And it's so sad what the above poster said. What the majority of people want the PSP to do, Sony is trying to cut off at every turn.
 
Do stores scan a specific serial number for the hardware on the PSP like they do for the TV consoles? I ask because I'm thinking about just picking one up now, and if I get it for my Birthday that I could just return that one and keep the one I've had for a few weeks. It'd be nice to have a media player for a conference I have in a week and a 1/2.

So, do stores like Kmart or Walmart care about that?
 
[quote name='jer7583']I'd get a PSP as a gift just to play mega man powered up.

And it's so sad what the above poster said. What the majority of people want the PSP to do, Sony is trying to cut off at every turn.[/QUOTE]

With people pirating PSP games it's easy to see why Sony is trying to stop homebrew. They need to you know...sell games to make money.

[quote name='daroga']Do stores scan a specific serial number for the hardware on the PSP like they do for the TV consoles? I ask because I'm thinking about just picking one up now, and if I get it for my Birthday that I could just return that one and keep the one I've had for a few weeks. It'd be nice to have a media player for a conference I have in a week and a 1/2.

So, do stores like Kmart or Walmart care about that?[/QUOTE]
I'm pretty sure they do. Because when I bought a DS a few weeks back the serial number was on the reciept. Of course I bought that from Circuit City, but I'd think other stores would do the same thing.
 
[quote name='jer7583']And it's so sad what the above poster said. What the majority of people want the PSP to do, Sony is trying to cut off at every turn.[/QUOTE]
A lot of people who frequent message boards like this want to do that kind of thing, but the majority of current or prospective PSP owners? Not even close. Do you think even a tiny fraction of a percent of the 7+ million PSP owners worldwide want to use homebrew, etc?

[quote name='daroga']
Also, I've read a few posts about people copying their games to the memory sticks to improve load times (battery life?). Is that an offically supported option (ala PS3's install feasture for some games) or is it something that's only possible with a custom firmware?[/QUOTE]
It's only possible with hacked firmware. Sony doesn't want you to do it, because it enables you to run the game without the game disc at all -- opening the door for piracy.
 
[quote name='daroga']Alright, well if I get one early I just won't mess with it firmware wise lest I brick it and be out $170.[/QUOTE]
Firmware isn't too big of a risk as long as you follow directions exactly.

When it says make sure the battery is at least 75% charged you had better wait til then.

It's not very hard to do and I do recommend the custom firmware. Makes the PSP more fun.
 
[quote name='whoknows']Firmware isn't too big of a risk as long as you follow directions exactly.

When it says make sure the battery is at least 75% charged you had better wait til then.

It's not very hard to do and I do recommend the custom firmware. Makes the PSP more fun.[/quote]Alrighty, I just might. I need to do some reading on the whole process. I take it that Dark_Alex's stuff is the best of the best? I saw a tutorial thread on the playstation.com messageboards for installing custom firmware, which I thought was just kinda odd.

If I end up needing to set the unit I get early back to the original firmware (ie, if I need to return that specific unit), is there an easy way to do that?
 
[quote name='icruise']A lot of people who frequent message boards like this want to do that kind of thing, but the majority of current or prospective PSP owners? Not even close. Do you think even a tiny fraction of a percent of the 7+ million PSP owners worldwide want to use homebrew, etc?
.[/QUOTE]

Yea, I always see this small but very vocal group who make it seem like anyone who buys a PSP only buys it for homebrew, which is kind of ridiculous.

I'd say 90% of PSP owners never even bother.

My gf's brother messed around with homebrew and bricked his PSP :lol:
 
I bought the psp because I wanted to play ROMS... I had some and enjoyed playing Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time... but I gave it up to play more games. I don't want to run any downgraders, cause I can't afford to brick my system. That's why I'm hoping that in the future, you can run a linux OS on the psp, and then play roms via linux. When I got my psp home that was the FIRST thing I tried to do (put roms on the system) .
 
Welp, I did it. And a few heart-beat skips later (what I thought was a bricked machine was actually just the backlight being off), I've got a perfect, deadpixel-free PSP running 3.40 OE-A. Now... what to play with? ;)
 
[quote name='RelentlessRolento']rival schools.[/quote]Well, I only bought Daxter, Lumines, and Mega Man Powered Up.

Playing with Mega Man right now. It's fantastic. Somehow the analog nub thing seems like a better way to control him that the dpad though.
 
[quote name='daroga']Welp, I did it. And a few heart-beat skips later (what I thought was a bricked machine was actually just the backlight being off), I've got a perfect, deadpixel-free PSP running 3.40 OE-A. Now... what to play with? ;)[/quote]

I hate you. Twice.

j/k
 
For those of you runing a custom firmware, do you set your CPU speed to 333mhz all the time? I was playing around with it and Daxter seemed to really smooth out (not that it was bad before), and it seemed to take the edge off of the screen blur.

I'm sure it drains the battery a tad faster, but I'd give that up to have silky-smooth frame rates.
 
Congrats on your purchase! But seriously make sure you get Loco Roco at CC when it drops down to 9.99, it's absolutely great.
 
[quote name='daroga']Welp, I did it. And a few heart-beat skips later (what I thought was a bricked machine was actually just the backlight being off), I've got a perfect, deadpixel-free PSP running 3.40 OE-A. Now... what to play with? ;)[/quote]

Yeah, that happens ALL the time when you flash to one of Dark Alex's Open Edition firmwares. You think you bricked it, but all you have to do is press the backlight button.

By the way, what firmware did your PSP have on it when you bought it?
 
[quote name='daroga']Well, I only bought Daxter, Lumines, and Mega Man Powered Up.[/quote]

Rival Schools is a PS1 game. I think he's nudging you to get a rom of it.

Good luck unlocking all the characters in Powered Up. Great game.
 
one of us, one of us. I have a ceramic white 3.4 OE-A. it's my baby.


Get Loco Roco...it's not a challenging game but it's an immense pleasure to play. At $9.99 this Sunday, it's a steal.


as for homebrew-- I find I enjoy the process of installing and messing with everything to be more fun than actually playing old nes games. I have to say, installing 3.4OE-A was scary. I actually went back and forth a few times before I finally took the plunge.


and don't forget PSP Revolution (I'm about to make a thread for it)
 
[quote name='TekkenMaster']By the way, what firmware did your PSP have on it when you bought it?[/quote]It was a 2.71 with that TA-082 motherboard. If anyone is looking for one like that, betwen my Walmart and my Kmart there's about 10 units with the 2.71 firmware around here.

Is the PSP region free for games like the DS/GBA? So if I wanted to import a game at some point, I could do so without concern? I tried downloading demos via pspdemostation.com, but when launched, they just left me with a black screen. I wondered if it was a region thing, a running-on-custom-firmware thing, or just a fluke.
 
Is there a good site that is kept up to date on the latest versions of different homebrew programs? It seems a lot of places haven't been updated since 2005.
 
Congrats on the purchase - the custom FW really makes the PSP a great little system. I have played around with the speed - for games like MGS and Ratchet I upped it to 333 to get it to run smooth...
 
[quote name='daroga']Is there a good site that is kept up to date on the latest versions of different homebrew programs? It seems a lot of places haven't been updated since 2005.[/quote]

Last I remember, www.pspupdates.com did a good job of keeping everything together, along with regular homebrew updates.
 
[quote name='daroga']Welp, I did it. And a few heart-beat skips later (what I thought was a bricked machine was actually just the backlight being off), I've got a perfect, deadpixel-free PSP running 3.40 OE-A. Now... what to play with? ;)[/quote]

Hahaha. Same thing happened to me back in February when I did my ceramic white PSP. There needs to be a warning! Or maybe that's just the initiation scare. I've upgraded from 3.10 OE-A' to 3.40 OE-A and it does the same thing. I wasn't too worried this time.

Congrats on getting a PSP. I use to be 100% DS (lite), but I've really grown to enjoy the differences and appreciate them equally (except for that damn analog nub...can't and will not ever stand it).
 
[quote name='yoursisterspretty']Congrats on getting a PSP. I use to be 100% DS (lite), but I've really grown to enjoy the differences and appreciate them equally (except for that damn analog nub...can't and will not ever stand it).[/quote]That's pretty much where I'm at. The PSP is a fantastic piece of hardware, and the games are oh-so cheap. I've gotten the top 5 games that I wanted for $57 total ($20 of which came via a giftcard) thanks to the BB coupons, sales, and EB Edge card.

I like that Nintendo's shift has meant more variety in the game market. I can own a DS and a PSP, a Wii and a 360, and feel like I truly have 4 different game styles to choose from. Oddly enough, there seems to be far more in common between the PSP and the 360 than either of them and their Nintendo-made counterparts.

The nub is kinda obnoxious, but I'm getting used to it in Daxter. I just look at it as not an analog-input, but kinda of a slidly D-pad, not unlike the NES Max controller from days-gone-by. I understand they had to keep the form factor down, but I really think they could've just put a real stick in there and been much better off. Although, then everyone would compain about it being too thick. Lose, Lose I guess.
 
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