PSP Reception Lukewarm in US? 594
There are plenty of interesting takes available on Sony's new media/game console. The neat tricks seem to be the most popular. An Anonymous Coward writes "A blogger figured out how to batch convert e-books so they can be read on your PSP. Check out the guide here for a complete walkthrough on this method." Meanwhile, RyuuzakiTetsuya writes "PSP Vault has a great story on how to Use Non-Duo Memory Sticks on a PSP! The process involves using an adapter that's meant for a Sony Ericcson phone." Via Joystiq, a way to get Tivo content on your PSP. Out in the real world there is already talk of the opening weekend sales. Doomstalk writes "According to IGN sales of the PSP have been lukewarm, with many outlets selling as little as 10 out of the 80 units they received." The PSP is currently burning up the charts in Japan, though, where the console has been out for a while. Early adopters on a holiday weekend may not be the best yardstick. Official numbers from the first weekend of sales likely available on Monday.
Re:Am I the only one getting tired of... (Score:1, Informative)
Re:More tools (Score:5, Informative)
For Mac OS X, I tried the two major Mac PSP sync apps, iPSP [kaisakura.com] and PSPWare [nullriver.com].
After testing the two, I preferred PSPWare -- and immediately paid the US$10 to register. It synced up my iTunes mp3 playlists and iPhoto libraries easily, and has a dead-simple movie conversion and sync function.
Very elegant software, nice work.
~jeff
Re:I myself was dissintrested... (Score:4, Informative)
It is called Meteos. It was made by the same guy who made Lumines, Rez, and Space Channel. You can order it from Lik-Sang [lik-sang.com] for about $50 USD w/ free shipping at the moment. It can play on the US NDS's too. And supports Download Play so you and your friends can play each other in mini-renditions of the game.
My friend ordered it last week, and he's been going bonkers on me waiting for it to show up.
A few places to mine when looking for games (Score:4, Informative)
Another great place to look is Sears. Yes, Sears. Yes, most Sears sell games. Generally Sears has a random assortment of games that are old and frequently out of print. Not intentionally, mind you, it's just that nobody buys games at Sears. Hence, if you want a copy of, say, Ikaruga for the Game Cube, the chance that it will be at Sears is much higher than other places with a real software sales department and turn over rate.
Costco was also good for this reason, though I haven't been in one in years.
If you're willing to pay full price, a lot of big music chains decided to get into games, not realizing that there wasn't as much crossover as they thought. Many of their game departments are disused, and full of little gems that went out of print a long time ago. They're generally not cheap: full price or more, but if you're really looking for a copy of something out of print, they're a great place to pop in.
Newberry Comics also has very cheap games. Generally, look for stores that have no business selling games, but who might have thought games were "hip" and decided to try and sell them. Or big chains that have all departments, therefore electronics departments, therefore they sell games. Some of these cater exclusively to a 50+ crowd who by and large don't buy many games, and as such are frequently overstocked.
Like It, Needs More Games (Score:5, Informative)
I got my PSP on launch day and have a few things to day about it. First it needs more games. And no matter what people say, I think it's safe to bet that the system will be BIG once more titles (like the announced GTA game, for example) come out. There are many A list titles that are supposed to come out in a while or be in development.
That said, I bought 3 games. Lumines, Wipeout, and Twisted Metal. Lumines is fantastic. It should be bundled with every PSP. It should be built into the firmware. It should be a required purchase for anyone. The game is so simple and yet so fun. Wipeout is fun (not that good at it right now once you get past the first two difficulty levels) and Twisted Metal isn't bad.
Now there are some games I would like to see on the system. I'd love to have a PaRappa or Amplitude to carry with me. The PSP should be able to run a game like Gish without any problem too.
As for the hardware it's self there are a few things to say. First is the screen is AMAZING. Absolutly amazing. I looked at the pack in copy of Spider Man 2 and I can definatly see my self using the PSP to watch movies on an airplane or something. It looks better than most (all?) portable DVD players that I've seen. The only problem is that the screen (actually the whole front of the unit) are very receptive to fingerprints/smudges and such. Just a minor thing. My only other hardware comments are the WiFi and the analog nub. The WiFi doesn't support WPA encryption, which suprises me. I hope they add it in a future update of the firmware. As for the analog nub, it is VERY hard to make small movements from center, and very easy to make larger movements like around the outside of it's range. In short doing things like pushing the stick a little bit (like in Mario 64 to tiptoe) would be very tough.
As for the other features, they intrigue me. The music playing is interesting, but I don't think I'll use it for that. Most of my music is in AAC (ripped it myself, so it's unprotected) so without being able to listen to that the feature doesn't hold much use to me. Being able to watch videos that I make (say download off the 'net and put them on there) looks quite nice (although the 32mb memory stick would obviously have to be replaced). I can't quite tell but it looks to me like it is possible to run programs off the memory stick. If that is true it would be great for the hacker community. I would love to be able to program the PSP. Even if they charged $50 or $100 for the dev kit. This would not be out of the question as Sony has done it twice in the past (the Net Yahorzee PS1 and the Linux Kit for the PS2).
Over all it is a solid little system and very fun. I didn't have problems with flying UMDs when the system got the littlest twitch, and the square button feels exactly like the others. The design flaws from the Japanese launch have defianatly been fixed.
The system has a good future if you ask me. Sony will put their might behind it (the gaming magazines this month are about half PSP ads from Sony). Great games should be comming, and there are good games out now (plus the amazing Lumines). It has a USB port and Sony is supposed to release stuff for that (a littke keyboard for typing in games, they could make a GPS module, other interesting stuff). It should have a good future.
Note that I also have a DS and I really like that too. I've been playing Yoshi's Touch and Go lately. That is a simplistic game that seems kind of boring at first but after a few plays it becomes very fun as you get the hang of the controlls. It is quite unique in that respect. The DS has a good future too, for what it's worth.
Re:AMSTERDAM VALLON'S N0-SPIN REVIEW OF SONY PSP (Score:1, Informative)
Yes it is a marketing ploy to include a MS that can only realistically store game data. But it's Sony. They do that shit alllll the time. Put a CF slot in the Clie? Great idea! Allow users to use it for storage? Never! It DOES play MP3s right out of the box, and mounts as a drive under WindowsXP, so at least they moved away from proprietary software.
I have a PSP sitting right in front of me. I got my gf one. The head of our web site got one. We all rated it 9/10. Yes, it is that good.
First off, sure it's a little pricey. It's tageted at 20-30-somethings with some disposable income. I can get a portable DVD player for $150-200, then an MP3 player for $100, then a Gameboy DS/Advance for another $70-$150, plus a case big enough to hold all those, plus power cords and maybe a cigarette adapter. That comes out to around $400 for 5 times the bulk. Sure I can't play DVDs, but I rarely find myself wanting to watch movies unless it's a special occassion - in which case, no problem dropping $20 for a UMD. Throw in a 1GB MS Duo and even the price, and you still have an very sleak system next to a pile of bulky junk.
And seeing as that you haven't USED a PSP, 2.5 hours of battery is ridiculous! I played Spider-Man 2 for 2 hours, full brightness, full volume. When it was done the battery was at 60%. My gf played for 4.5 hours (games only, while waiting at work), and had 41% left. The battery lasts as long as claimed, and even more so.
As for games, I've played 4. Loved them all. There's more than the DS launched with...
And you whine about UMDs being proprietary... and the DS uses...???
And the captain seems to think that because it has 802.11b, you MUST bundle a browser. Why? It doesn't come with a keyboard, which makes entering URLs a pain. There is a browser in WipEout Pure, that someone has been able to use, so you know it can be done. When will people understand that media != web browsing? I'm sure it'll come. Jsut doesn't seem like something the unit NEEDS.
God, this guy didn't even get the price right. MIT boy, let's see. $270+$100 = $500? Not unless you're paying 30% sales tax. And it's $250, plus $40-50 for games. Came out to around $370 for me with 2 games.
Yes, it is version 1.0, but I think Sony hit the mark this time. I don't regret getting it for one second, and I have had zero problems with it. Overall the thing is jaw-droppingly gorgeous and sounds amazing. Go get one and prove yourself wrong. I hemmed and hawed over it at first, too. Then I picked it up and played with it for the first time, and I was sold.
Re:EB Games (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Wouldn't it be cool if they released an SDK (Score:3, Informative)
From the system menu, it does appear that one can load games from the MemoryStick... So I assume that provided some SDK, it would be easy to publish small games or other software for the PSP that people could download on the MemoryStick and play/run on the PSP.
The Nintendo Playan uses SD cards (Score:2, Informative)
As compared to the open format on the DS? Or the GBA?
Officially, the Nintendo Playan adapter [motherdigital.info] for GBA lets you play MPEG-1 layer 3 audio and MPEG-4 video stored on common SD memory cards. However, because it has an onboard decoder that draws a significant amount of current, it's recommended for use only in those GBA devices that have a rechargeable battery (GBA SP and Nintendo DS).
Unofficially, GBA has been busted wide open with third-party flash memory devices such as the EFA-Linker and the SuperCard. You can play music on them with the GBA GSM Player [pineight.com], or you can play video with the Meteo codec. Work continues on making the Nintendo DS homebrew-friendly [dspassme.com].
Re:Apparently (Score:4, Informative)
PSP sales in Calgary, Alberta, Canada (Score:1, Informative)
Lumines in Java (save $249+) (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.rit.edu/~jhb4598/jblog/archives/000598
Re:Live At Home Youths Have More Disposable Income (Score:2, Informative)
Hikikomori [chinmusicpress.com].
Re:I myself was dissintrested... (Score:3, Informative)
Meteos should be released in North America "Sometime in 2005." At least we know when we'll get polarium.
Meteos release date in North America (Score:3, Informative)