Should I Buy a PSP?

So I got it into my head earlier that I wanted to buy a PSP. Went around to game and game.stop in Galway trying to find the best offers. Game had a phat PSP for €100 (including game) 2nd hand. Game.stop had a 150€ slimline PSP 2nd hand.

Should I get a PSP?

Also, someone told me that if you buy the phat PSP, there is an issue with playing some of the newer games on it. Is this true?

Retr0gamer

I think the only issues between the phat and slimis that the phat has more ram but thats only taken advantage of by the browser.

Those prices are good, I'd get one, plenty of excellent games on it and a very nice back catalogue but it kind of gets neglected for the almighty DS.

I read both stickeys (Charter and Read Before Posting) and there was no mention of not being able to speak about jailbreaking. Mods, feel free to delete this if it's in breach of rules.

The main reason I want to get a phat PSP is so that I can use it to jailbreak; just as an experiment really.

Anyways, refering to phat again; what is the battery life like? Are there any known issues with regards to lifespan, screen etc. etc. A digital camera of mine and an MP3 player both stopped working due to silly glitches and problems with hardware. So I would like to know about these before purchase, and I'm guessing the shops are unlikely to tell me.

Thanks.

Also, I'm not sure why the DS is winning. The DS is good, there's no questioning that, but it just seems that there's more functionality with the PSP (i.e. UMD's, MP3's, WiFi) - I know the DS does have some of these but at a cost (i.e. DSi is very expensive and you need to buy an additional card to store MP3's). And the one thing that got me off the Nintendo DS was the lack of .. adult games. If that makes sense? They all seemed to be very - child or family orientated games.

Is the PSP different?

CutzEr

You can do most of the things you can do with a PSP with a DS if you have a DS card (R4/M3/TTDS) available off www.dealextreme.com

However, the PSP does have better games and.. DS SUCKS.

I have both, but I have to say the PSP is better.

Retr0gamer

CutzEr wrote: »

However, the PSP does have better games and.. DS SUCKS.

Strange, I'd say the opposite. I think the DS for the amount of quality games on it is one of the best systems ever made although I couldn't say the PSP is crap.

As for why the DS is winning, it has the better games and better selection. Doesn't matter how much functionality the PSP has people buy these systems for the games.

IsMiseConor

I would wait a while if I were you, new "PSP Go" is supposed to come out this winter. Wait until E3 in June and you will hear news on it.

I'm really not into the latest gadgets. The only reason I'm tempted to buy a PSP is for the ability to jailbreak them.

kaiser soza

Go for the phat one if you want to hack it as some of the slim are unhackable,ie the 3000 series.

TPD

I have a PSP, with custom firmware on it. Very handy device, can emulate everything from n64 downwards quite comfortably. Well, only a few n64 games are really playable, but everything else is fine. The homebrew scene is quite big with the PSP, some of the functionality includes universal TV remote, GPS (with a dongle), secondary PC display etc.

Also, the PSP has the most widely avaliable internal components of any console I've ever seen. Practically any part of the PSP can be taken out and replaced with a part ordered online. In fact, if you're handy with a screwdriver, you might be better off buying one with a broken screen from ebay and replacing it yourself.

I haven't used mine for watching videos or listening to music, but I'd say its alright. Spare batteries or external portable battery packs can solve any battery life woes.

Oh, mines a psp1000 (fat) - I actually think these are more comfortable to hold than the slim, and they feel a lot sturdier. The screens on the newer ones are brighter though.

Gummy Panda

Deleted User wrote: »

I'm really not into the latest gadgets. The only reason I'm tempted to buy a PSP is for the ability to jailbreak them.

I have a psp slim. CFW is easy but you need a tool to make a pandora battery (the battery puts it into debug mode). CFW is easy to install then.

This is the tool i use. I didn't hack mine for piracy. I did it to stop using UMDs and rip the games to the memory card. Also i wanted to put my psone collection on the memory card.

Another benefit i discovered was that if you have different PSN accounts and bought games from them, unless the psp had cfw you couldn't play your US PSN games with the EU PSN games there.

Excluding the abilities to hack, what are the main differences between the fat and the 3000 series?

Soulja boy

I got the PSP way back for liberty city stories which was a bit anticlimactic.

It was two years before I got another game (metal gear portable ops).
I'm not a fan of the selection of games.

However: If you are willing to take the risk to put custom firmware on it is really worth it. I've got a load of old snes and megadrive games on it.
Some Psone games will work on the newer firmware but as far as i know stuff like metal gear solid or final fantasy wont work because of the multi disc.

Kintarō Hattori

If you can get one for a €100 bucks go for it. There is a great selection of games that can be bought cheap and it's a nifty little multimedia machine. Well worth the investment.

TPD

Deleted User wrote: »

Excluding the abilities to hack, what are the main differences between the fat and the 3000 series?

3000 has a brighter screen, and is slimmer. However, there is a terrible scanline issue with the screen which has been touted as a 'feature' as far as I recall.

Here is an example: http://pspslimhacks.com/psp-3000-screen-issues/

The fat/1000 is chunkier, heavier, more durable case (The standard case has 2 layers of plastic compared to later versions single layer), dimmer screen and possibly longer battery life due to less being used to light up the screen, but I'm not 100% on that. The 1000 also seems to be the easiest to install custom firmware onto, not requiring a pandora battery for one. You should try and get one with a firmware version as low as possible.

chamlis

I have a fat with custom firmware, mainly I use it as a portable media player and SNES/Megadrive emulator.

The slims can output video with a composite cable but the phat can't.

Putting video on the PSP used to be a nightmare, but now it's pretty much one-click easy depending on the app you use.

If you want to create the pandora yourself (if you can't get a secondhand phat that hasn't been updated) there is a pretty good chance the battery will be useless after, so buy a replacement. Doesn't need to be official, but the pandora does.
There may also be sparks!

So it would seem that even though the Slimer model is newer, the older phat version is still better? (eg. longer supposed battery life, more durable case + the abilitiy to jailbreak).

As you can see, it takes a long time for me to decide on buying anything :P

TPD

No guarantee on the battery life, I'm only guessing. And it's a pain to jailbreak if the firmware is too high when you buy it.

pasta-solo

PSP is only worth buying if you jailbreak really, the DS has much better games. I'd recomment getting a PSP-2000 or 2001, which is a slim but can take custom firmware as easily as the phat. It also has double ram and a better screen. It can also play almost any PSone game, including multi-disk titles such as Final Fantasy or Metal Gear Solid. They're good machines, but DS is considerably more fun in my opinion. It all comes down to the games you want to play.

Ostrom

Deleted User wrote: »

So I got it into my head earlier that I wanted to buy a PSP. Went around to game and game.stop in Galway trying to find the best offers. Game had a phat PSP for €100 (including game) 2nd hand. Game.stop had a 150€ slimline PSP 2nd hand.

Should I get a PSP?

Also, someone told me that if you buy the phat PSP, there is an issue with playing some of the newer games on it. Is this true?

I picked one up around christmas and have had great fun, plenty of decent games to work through

Limited number of classics/essentials, but well worth the asking to experience

Sephiroth_dude

Ya you should def buy one,its worth for fifa 09 alone .

Grayditch

pasta-solo wrote: »

PSP is only worth buying if you jailbreak really,

Yip.

Retr0gamer

When did hacking become 'jailbreaking' Thats my new least favourite word since podcast.

TPD

Retr0gamer wrote: »

When did hacking become 'jailbreaking' Thats my new least favourite word since podcast.

I agree - only used it here because the OP had me confused with his use of it :P