Hi everyone!
It’s been a long year of articles for me. I’ve shared so many now, but as things wrap up and I’ve only got a handful more to share, this one’s a…minimal effort one.
If you know me well enough by now, you’ll know that the Sony PSP is one of my fav handhelds. Maybe not entirely for the library of games (they’ve aged in varying degrees of goodishness), but instead for how beautiful it is from a hardware design stance. It is such a nice looking device. Sleek, functional and industrial, in a very early 2000’s kinda way.
Anyway, to break up what I’ve been writing (in the next couple days I’ll be sharing both an interview with my friends who make PortMaster, and then a review on the trimui Smart Pro S), I thought I’d throw together a scrappy collection of videos and images of the Sony PSP.
Think of it as a giant gallery/scrapbook/collection of PSP images and clips :)
I had a GBA and DS growing up but a used PSP was my very first purchase with my first day cheque. The idea of playing PS1 games on the go still seemed so revolutionary to me. What a fun little device to tinker with.
Yup, I was mostly a Nintendo kid growing up and loved my GBCs, GBAs, and DSs, but the PSP was the perfect handheld. Truly a magnificent piece of hardware. Its value proposition hasn’t been beat until the Steam Deck. It hit at that perfect moment when technology and the Internet intersected into the mainstream and were affordable.
A fantastic gaming machine, but also functional for general computing, not to mention that it was a great media player. I remember browsing the Internet frequently, watching movies, using it as an mp3 player, emulating my favorite classic Nintendo games. The homebrew scene was insanely vibrant. I certainly don’t miss the Memory Stick format though. I’m glad that died.
S tier hardware.
@PerfectDark I don’t know about “art” or whatever, lol. I did love the PSP to death for a long time though. While the NDS had more games, some of the stuff exclusive to the PSP was really amazing. (The way so many devs saw the NDS and 3DS as “mini” systems to make less full games on really hobbled some things sometimes. The NDS and 3DS had some truly amazing games in their time, but it’s sad how many with potential were brought down to a smaller game level just because they saw the platform as not serious. The PSP didn’t have that problem much.)
I only ever had a handful of games (and POPS conversions) but I absolutely got so much enjoyment out of my PSP for a long time. Definite nostalgia for those days spent waiting and just pulling out my PSP and playing Pop’n Music or whatever.
@PerfectDark Maybe I should find a picture of my PSP mod where I use an external 18650 battery. 😁
It’s not pretty!
Sure gets a lot more run time though!
I loved the PSP Go.
It was so easy to exploit, it made a great little emulation machine.
It was funny seeing Anbernic do their own (very) chunky take on the PSP Go recently, for a retro handheld.
I saw that on a tech dweeb video like 2 days ago, and it looks cool, but I just play everything on my phone now.
It’s one of my current favourite devices.
Although funnily enough I now mostly play Monster Hunter Freedom Unite instead of any emulation.
Love the PSP! Grew up with it and loved the more mature titles available compared to Nintendo’s handheld game library. A couple years ago I purchased a faulty PSP for dirt cheap and replaced the display, shell, and UMD drive. Unfortunately the clear analog stick I purchased is quite rubbish and needs to be replaced, but I haven’t gotten around to it.
This looks amazing!
But yes, the aftermarket replacement shells are often quite good (or, equally often not good at all - they’re a gamble whether they’ll be a nice one or not!) But the sticks are known to be bad. People tend to stick with original sticks, from what I recall.
Though your effort looks amazing, I love the transparent shell!
Fix it up completely!!! Consider this your reminder to do so
The shell I got was mediocre. It all comes together, but there are definitely some weird gaps and bad tolerances. I had to trim down some plastic to get everything to line up half-decently.
I’m glad you like the transparent shell as well, as I was a bit on the fence about it at first.
I should get some new batteries for mine.
For me the PSP is a story of squandered potential. There were some great games but so few seemed to really embrace the potential of the format.
