Cheap portable gaming consoles

ItsHoggie

So my sister bought one of those rip off PSP's that have all the old games on them, think she payed around €30 for it. It's a cool enough thing for that price, I've had a look on eBay and I've noticed you can get similar looking ones but some are priced around a tenner while others could be between 30-50€ but they all look the same. So my question is, has anybody bought any of these which they like/use regularly, and where and how much you got them for.

Retr0gamer

They're all bad quality Chinese knock offs so avoid them. The controls are usual awful and the emulation really poor meaning they sound awful compared to original hardware. Saying that even the official Megadrive rereleases are awful as well.

Since they are all Chinese knock offs with varying quality of bad to terrible it's hard to put a price on them.

megaten

Nothing in particular to suggest but if they run android you can put your own emulators from the play store or dev's site on it and most should be able to play up to psx. The GPD XD is meant to be good enough but its also 140-ish.

Tom Mann Centuria

Would you not be better getting a nice 2nd hand psp and putting emulators on it. Huge library of ps1 games available (ones you own obviously as any else can't be discussed here) to play once you've put custom firmware on it, which is ridiculously easy these days, before you even think about emulator options.

ItsHoggie

Tom Mann Centuria wrote: »

Would you not be better getting a nice 2nd hand psp and putting emulators on it. Huge library of ps1 games available (ones you own obviously as any else can't be discussed here) to play once you've put custom firmware on it, which is ridiculously easy these days, before you even think about emulator options.

How much would I be looking at to get one all set up?

I remember a couple of years ago trying to do that on my old psp but I needed some special battery or something.

Tom Mann Centuria

ItsHoggie wrote: »

How much would I be looking at to get one all set up?

I remember a couple of years ago trying to do that on my old psp but I needed some special battery or something.

If you still have your psp it won't cost you anything, apart from a memory card adapter and micro sd card.

Otherwise, it'll cost you as little or as much as you can get a psp for. Local ads, adverts, ebay etc.

Excellent guide here, and there's a link for emulators in it too. (Pretty sure he doesn't link to anything he shouldn't and is all above board)

http://digiex.net/guides-reviews/console-guides/12915-psp-6-61-custom-firmware-install-any-psp-psp-psp-slim-psp-3000-psp-go-e1000.html

I did it no problem, and I'm a plank so you'll be fine I'm sure, it really is foolproof. Good luck with it if that's route you take, there may be some better suggestions than mine incoming though.

ItsHoggie

Tom Mann Centuria wrote: »

If you still have your psp it won't cost you anything, apart from a memory card adapter and micro sd card.

Otherwise, it'll cost you as little or as much as you can get a psp for. Local ads, adverts, ebay etc.

Excellent guide here, and there's a link for emulators in it too. (Pretty sure he doesn't link to anything he shouldn't and is all above board)

http://digiex.net/guides-reviews/console-guides/12915-psp-6-61-custom-firmware-install-any-psp-psp-psp-slim-psp-3000-psp-go-e1000.html

I did it no problem, and I'm a plank so you'll be fine I'm sure, it really is foolproof. Good luck with it if that's route you take, there may be some better suggestions than mine incoming though.

I don't unfortunately, got rid of it a few years back. If it's as easy as you say I might look into it. Is there anyway possible to buy one fully loaded with the custom firmware etc.?

readyletsgo

Get a psp, get a double memory card and watch a couple of YouTube guides on how to softmod a PSP and your set. It's really easy.

Research a tiny little bit first. All the info is online

TerrorFirmer

Some of the chinese ones are good, they vary in price because even though they look the same many of them have different components, be it internal hardware, screen, build quality, etc.

The very cheap ones are pretty rubbish, but some of the ones around €40-50 mark can be very decent for standard GBA/NES/SNES/MD/etc gaming.

I have one somewhere, haven't used it much apart from to play a bit of Advance Wars and Streets of Rage but it works well and the screen and sound quality are decent enough.

Getting a bluetooth controller for your android smartphone is also an option though I find I don't use it often at all, I prefer having the standalone dedicated emulation device.

In terms of comparing different devices, just google the model numbers. Think mine is a JXD something or other and was around €60.

CiDeRmAn

You could pick up a PSP Go, pop the custom firmware on there and, bang, you're off to the races.
I don't think the emulators have been updated in a while but, if you are after a cheap way to play everything from the Playstation One backwards, it's a good buy, it has built in storage and, with some googling, a massive library of converted PS games to be played upon it.
GB/C/A all look good there, as do MD, Snes, GG, MS and NeoGeo.

CiDeRmAn

ItsHoggie wrote: »

I don't unfortunately, got rid of it a few years back. If it's as easy as you say I might look into it. Is there anyway possible to buy one fully loaded with the custom firmware etc.?

Linky Dink

I'd say there's room to haggle as well.

That guy really shouldn't be that blatant about the devices contents, probably will have it taken down for copyright infringement, so I'd get in there with an offer.

ItsHoggie

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Linky Dink

I'd say there's room to haggle as well.

That guy really shouldn't be that blatant about the devices contents, probably will have it taken down for copyright infringement, so I'd get in there with an offer.

That's great tbf but it's a bit steep for what id pay. Was looking to pay under €50, as it wouldn't be something I'd use regularly but just to pass the time etc.

ItsHoggie

Would I still need to go down the route of setting up a Pandora battery? I remember that's where I ran in to trouble before with my old PSP because I had a newer battery that couldn't be used.

Pretty sure I still have it lying around the house somewhere but would have to find :pac:

Retr0gamer

PSPis way easier to hack now. It's a case of downloading a file to the memory card and running it on the PSP

CiDeRmAn

If you are spending small money you are going to have to accept a poor experience or, if a PSP, a little tiny bit of effort.
As Retr0 said, installing the necessary custom firmware is as simple as it gets and, once done, you are set.

s8n

any guides for loading this on newer PsP ?

ItsHoggie

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

If you are spending small money you are going to have to accept a poor experience or, if a PSP, a little tiny bit of effort.
As Retr0 said, installing the necessary custom firmware is as simple as it gets and, once done, you are set.

But how reallly poor is the experience on these knock off consoles? Like I said it wouldn't be something I'd spend hours a day on but just something to pass the time.

CiDeRmAn

They are, at that price point, muck.
And €50 for a preowned PSP seems reasonable for a decent experience.

Ghost Train

Just to mention it, vita is also an option for emulation these days, with something like retroarch. Vita memory cards are not so good though so Psp might still be better option and maybe a bit easier

5rtytry56

Ghost Train wrote: »

JVita memory cards are not so good though so Psp might still be better option and maybe a bit easier

Vita memory cards are also a good bit more expensive than anything else.