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Games Entertainment

PlayStation Portable 184

Posted by michael from the why-ask-why dept.
King Kool writes: "Apparently, some guy decided it would be cool to try to take apart his PSX and make it portable - and it worked. It has about 2 hours of batterylife (with screen and everything) and runs on a Sony Lithium battery. Pictures and documentation are included. Cool."
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PlayStation Portable More

PlayStation Portable

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  • wow (Score:2, Interesting)

    by kochsr ( 144988 )
    that is some awesome craftsmanship... i can't believe that the cd spinning in the open like that is stable enough to keep the game going!
    • I suspect that it isn't necessarily :-) - I bet someone's been fairly annoyed when he bumped it into something and he lost his game!

      That said, CD error recovery is so good that quite possibly you could have a brief slowdown or wobble and recover from it. Any CD gurus out there?
    • PSXen don't fail as soon as they get some kind of error reading the CD, they just try again ad infinitum. As such, you can usually even remove the CD and put it back in while the game is going on and it will just pause while it is out. Besides, the drives are only 2x (are a PSOne's faster?, so it would take no time at all to spin back up.
    • In fact, the reason there is NO consumer device out there with a CD uncovered like that, is because it allows you to look straight into the laser when there is no CD in the drive.

      I hope the guy thought of that...

  • Dreamcast (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Guillaume Ross ( 517391 )
    Hey! Someone glue a dreamcast keyboard, make a trackball out of the mouse and plug an LCD with the VGA adapter and we'd have a cool game Laptop! :)
  • Actually, I already have a 32-bit gaming system in the palm of my hand: the Game Boy Advance. :) Has no 3-D chip, but the majority of the rest of the hardware is equal or better than the original Playstation.
    • Yeah, but what good is the hardware if you can't see the graphics...well, that is unless you're playing on the planet Mercury, which should have *just about* enough brightness to light-up the GBA's screen ;-)
    • Even if that was true, which it isnt.

      I think you will find that there is way more content for the playstation. Plus the games are way better and more playable then any of the crap nintendo has produced.
    • Let's see: The GBA has a 16MHz ARM CPU, the PSX has a 33MHz MIPS. The GBA has 288Kb system RAM, the PSX has 2Mb. The PSX has a vector/matrix coprocessor, the GBA has none. The PSX can draw Gourad-shaded, textured polygons, the GBA can draw rotated/scales unshaded sprites. The PSX ships with an 8-button controller with 2 analogue sticks and a dpadas standard. The GBA has a dpad and 4 buttons. And so on.
      The GBA is a fantastic little system but it's nowhere near the playstation in terms of capabilities.

  • Why? (Score:1, Flamebait)

    by bryan1945 ( 301828 )
    Really, why would you need this to be portable? You already have Gameboy, laptops, PDAs- what is PS1 going to give you that you need so badly? And where are you going to take it? In the car- power adapter. Plane- not real likely now. The train- they have power outlets in them. So that leaves the bathroom and foreign countries, I guess.

    I agree that it's cool, but has zero utility. I'm sure that serveral of you will come up with all kinds of arguments against this (why this IS usefull), but, I don't know, errrgg! Dumb, dumb...
    • I'm not sure why you'd ask that question on Slashdot. Most of us run an OS that we like to tinker with for practical reasons, or, yes, just for the hell of it.
      • Yes, but tinkering with an OS does something for you- faster printing, more grepping power, whatever. I could probably make my dancing monkey toy talk to me like a Furby doll, but why would I?
    • I don't think that anyone really thinks of this as useful, just very, very cool indeed :^)

      That said, doesn't one of the more famous quotes about the microship go something like "But what is it useful for?"

      We shall have to see...
    • Why?

      The real question is, why do you care?
      People do what they want to do, not
      what you want them to do. Most people don't bother degrading other peoples lives, but you seem to like it. Good for you.

      Please realise that I do know this post is hypocritical, or self-parodying for the pretentious. That was the intention.
      • I am not degrading the guy, I think it's great that he has some hobby that he likes. Shit, I worked on my Mac for a week just to make it play a game from 1985 or so. I was just amazed that this guy did all this work for no reason I could fathom. Maybe he did have a good reason; maybe he just wanted to do it for the hell of it; the web page just seemed to make it look like it was the best thing since sliced cheese.

        I'm sorry if I came off sounding like a jerk, I really didn't mean to offend this guy, or you.
        • He seemed pretty happy sitting on his couch playing his play station without a TV or controller or wires or anything :-P

          Jeremy
        • I did the same thing... had a go at you for doing something I couldn't see the point in. I think its a natural human response, but probably not a good one.
        • the web page just seemed to make it look like it was the best thing since sliced cheese.

          Well if the page did that it is better than most web pages i've seen.

    • Re:Why? (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Because we can... You are dumb, dumb.

    • Really, why would you need this to be portable? You already have Gameboy, laptops, PDAs- what is PS1 going to give you that you need so badly?

      Squaresoft games, especially fighting games such as Tobal and Ehrgeiz. After the Mana 3 and Mario RPG debacles, nintendo and Square refuse to talk to each other. This portable PlayStation console is an attempt to break nintendo's portable monopoly [portablemonopoly.com].

      And where are you going to take it? In the car- power adapter.

      As if. The average family car doesn't have enough juice to power both a TV and a PS1 console. (No, I'm not talking the WB edition SUVs and vans with an integrated TV either.)

      • This portable PlayStation console is an attempt to break nintendo's portable monopoly.

        Umm.. no it isn't. It's a guy who thought it would be cool to have a portable playstation. He has nothing to do with Sony. He's not going to produce the unit at all, mostly because he thinks Sony would sue him.

        The average family car doesn't have enough juice to power both a TV and a PS1 console.

        I ran a Dreamcast and a 19" TV off of a power inverter plugged into my car a few months ago. No problems at all, just had to start the car once in a while.
      • if you're going to go to the effort of installing a tv of any size, semi-permantly into your vehicle, it might be wise to look into a 100 amp alternator, avalible for all chevy/gmc cars, standard on any '72 caddy or newer, and all conversion vans (obviously). i'm sure ford sells them too, you can probably pull one off of a f250 of 350 in a junkyard for ~20 bucks. altenators are pretty interchangable. be sure to have your battery completely charged before replacing the alternator; as with alot of mechanical things that move, 90% of the damage done in the object's life is done in the first 2 seconds of operation
    • When you're a parent taking your kids on a trip across the country to meet their grandparents or whatever you need to something to keep them occupied. Sure you have a car adapter, but car adapters
      1) get in the way (especially when the kids are in the back of a minivan)
      2) what happens when you've got two (or more) kids with discmans, portable game machines, or whatever...most cars don't have that many ciggarette lighter sockets, and additionally do you want that many wires around the car.

      Sure there's the Gameboy. But using that logic, you could say why would anyone make a new console machine since there's already a number of them.

      The parent could just buy a PSp (Playstation Portable) and use the same games for both the PS and PSp or possible even just hook the PSp up to the TV and use it as a normal gaming system. One thing I'm -really- wondering about is if Sony is willing to license the PSp to sell as an official item. Would be VERY cool if they did.
      • This is probably gonna sound silly, but you could do what my parents did- "read your book and shut up!"

        And we did.
        • This is probably gonna sound silly, but you could do what my parents did- "read your book and shut up!"

          That worked for me and my younger brother, but our older brother and sister couldn't...reading in the car makes them terribly carsick.
          I think they learned to sleep on demand, though.
          And I hate the idea of kids (people) having yet another piece of electronic garbage swallow every free moment.
          I realize we *must* constantly be entertained, but damn, get a grip. There's an actual world out there.
    • Building stuff like this is fun, man. It's that simple. Also, a portable PSX is a great way to pick up women. "Hey baby, I'm a guy who can squeeze a PSX into a chassis that will turn you one. Want me to...solder anything for you?"

      "Oh yes."

      Love is in the air...everytime spare parts lie around...

    • Why? For the same reason that I bought a Sega Nomad back in the day. It's a portable system, but it plays all the old games that you already own. It has about the same utility as many portable systems out there. There's just something to be said for having an entire gaming system, screen and all, in the palm of your hand. This thing is just eminately(sp?) more portable then the PSOne and screen and controllers and...

      • Re:Why? (Score:2)

        by Eil ( 82413 )

        The Nomad! I forgot all about that one. I think still want one...

        • Heh. I actually sold mine about a year and a half ago. It was just collecting dust, so I sold it to this guy who collects video game systems. I figured that he would get more use out of it then I was getting out of it.

    • Why NOT?

  • Awesome! (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I certainly want to buy this! Anybody know it's weight? And when (if?) it will ever be sold? I bet it would be a smash hit! I'm still amazed by it's beauty! Awesome work!

  • Is it just me, or .... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by zensonic ( 82242 )
    ... have everybody besides me been born without 10 thumbs? Every time I take something apart, I end up with just that: Parts. This guy not only took a PSOne apart, he turned it into lego and built something new with it! What a wonderfull way of saying: "I've got the skills, money and time to something totally cool, but utterly cool". Me too, gime powers :)
  • I just hope he doesn't play games while driving.


    on the games periphary: I was checking out M.U.L.E. sites this morning and was stunned when I went over the eBay to see if anyone had an old copies for sale. See what some sell for here [ebay.com], here, [ebay.com] and here [ebay.com].

  • Whats the lifetime of the batteries?

    Wonder what an XBox portable would be like.

    • Wonder what an XBox portable would be like.

      Ah, I would wager it looks a lot like that IBM Thinkpad sitting over there at my other desk.
    • Wonder what an XBox portable would be like.

      Heh, if you'd ever tried to lift an actual XBox you wouldn't be asking that question. Remember the original 'mobile' phones, the brick-sized ones you had to carry a suitcase-sized battery around with? That's the ballpark a portable XBox would be in.
      • Well since there is an HD in the XBox, cant that be replaced by laptop HDs for space saving and power reduction, same for the CD drive too.

        All this is based on the assumption that its comprised of common PC components. Except the XBox specific boards.

        What would be the potential market for portable versions of every console or a console form factor that has both functionality, plug it into the TV for home use and take it in the car and caravan for the kids on holiday.

        Surely it would be quite large.
    • Whats the lifetime of the batteries?

      1 hour 45 minutes. Or, as the creator of the system puts it, long enough to cast two spells in Final Fantasy VII. :)

      Footnote for the anal: Yes, I am aware that FFVII's spells had relatively short animations. I'm sure he meant GFs.

  • ...this is a geek with waaaay too much time on his hands. Then again, I'm posting at slashdot, so I guess we've both got the same problems. ;)

    Still trying to find a use for it though, playing PSX games on a screen that small. If he wanted to do something portable and cool, he could have tried rigging up a GBA with a back-lit screen. Now THAT would have been something useful.
  • The idea is all fine and dandy, but it's not very practical and I kindof wonder how long the system will last after being taken apart like that. For that matter you can make the system into a portable without taking it apart. Sony and some other third party vendors make a LCD screen that can be hooked up to the back of the PSOne (the two can be hooked up as well) and it also has speakers on it. Plus Sony is releasing, or has released, a rechargeable NiMH (could be Lithium Ion, not sure) battery that hooks up to the back of the PSOne as well. So if you wanted a cleaner looking PSOne portable that didn't void your warranty it would be the way to go.
    • Well, if you want to lug around a PS1, screen, controller, batterypack and all the cables to hook them together then you're right. However, if you want it all in one compact, light package that you don't have to plug together every time you want to use use it... also, you don't need a table to put it all on.
  • Iirc the PSOne was designed to be portable, you can get an LCD screen for it which attaches to the back, and there probably is an external battery available.
    • Interact has a LI battery that attaches to the bottom of the PS and powers the PS and their portable screen.
    • I think the concept of "handheld" wins the PSp in this case.. Sure u can load up the LCD TV and controllers and batter, but it takes a lot more space and lots more wires...

      I would take the handheld version done by this guy over the corporate sony releases anyday. (Who says that a corporate's way is the best way?? We'd all love microsoft if that was the case!)
    • As others have already mentioned this, but this is cool because it's HANDHELD. Sure the standard psOne is portable, but I don't know how convenient it is to carry around controllers, batteries, AC adapter, etc--not to mention the extensive wires. Which one would you choose? I know what I want.

      Jinushaun
  • And if your mother/girlfriend/wife tries to get you to stop playing and to wash the dishes, you just turn towards her with the openly spinning CD and...well, go wash the dishes.
  • I don't want to register with fileplanet =P
  • I do think this is really cool, but I never saw mention of how well it handles shocks. I can remember the PS1s skipping or halting every time the room shook even briefly. I imagine that the normal shakes and movements of your hands while playing a game are probably enough to make this handheld unreliable. CDs just aren't that great for movement, hence 'hacks' on protable CD players that amount to merely reading data ahead.

    • Re:Skipping? (Score:4, Funny)

      by Eil ( 82413 ) on Sunday September 23, 2001 @04:56PM (#2338665) Homepage Journal

      or halting every time the room shook even briefly

      What the hell? For the record, I've never had my room shake, even briefly. We don't all live in California, buddy. :P

      j/k, no terrible flames please. :)

      BTW, my PSX takes shocks rather well. If you bump it while it's loading, sometimes it takes a few seconds to recover, but rarely does a PSX game read the disc continuously for something like this to cause a huge problem. Also remember that under most circumstances, you aren't jamming buttons while the disc is being read... you're waiting for the game to load.

      The only time I can get a game to crash is to actually reach in and stop the disk from spinning. (No, not a good practice, I know. I've only done it twice.)
    • A person's hands are one of the best shock absorbers available. If you jog with a portable CD player in your hands, it will hardly skip, even with ith anti-skip turned off. (This won't work if you strap it to your belt. That's why anti-skip was invented.) He should be fine.
  • Just a thought, but if that CD isn't shielded by anything, what happens if you're the type who likes to set the portable down on a table/your legs/etc when you play? Seems like perhaps that CD shouldn't have been exposed, IMHO.
  • Yes it is expensive, but they have head-mounted screens that either are two individual small screens(one for each eye) or project directly on to the retna in the eye. Either way, they can successfully simulate a 52 inch projection TV. If you hooked one of those up to the PSp, you could forget about the LCD(and the power it takes) and have a decent screen size to boot. I would love to be able to play Chrono Cross, Resident Evil, and others from the PS's vast library(1000s of games) on plane flights, car rides, other countries etc. The PS is a very mature platform with many great games. I hope Sony takes this into consideration, as they could suddenly have something that is a serious threat to the Gameboy Advance!
  • I'd love to see a similar device for the c64 (but I can run c64 games on my laptop...) with a built in joystick, and perhaps a ramdisk... or 5 1/4 floppy?
  • Do you think he'd take requests for a Playsation 2 Portable?

    Now *that* I would like.

    I wonder what the consumption is like for the PS2's circuitry... :)
  • Is it just me or does anyone else get extremely annoyed with the stupid fileplanet download system. If I want to look at the video that guy has about his PS I shouldn't have to go make an account with those damn GameSpy/Fileplanet bastards. It annoys me because more and more gaming sites are moving to that crap.
    • Well if you can figure out how to provide what amounts to a 2GB/sec pipe without some sort of revenue generation then have at it, I'm sure we would all love the service. Registration brings them the combined benefits of targetted advertising and demographics, which happen to be two of the only 4 ways I know of to support a web site right now.
    • I hate fileplanet but I thought I would try it - the result was it crashed opera repeatedly until I gave up.
  • That guy in the photo looks like Langly from the Lone gunmen.
  • How could he miss out on the best name to call it?

    The "Playboy".

    (With apologies to Playstation and Gameboy lovers everywhere.)

    CF
  • I seem to be the only one with the immediate reaction of 'how long will it take Sony to sue this person?'

  • It's Already Portable (Score:1, Redundant)

    by Shaheen ( 313 )
    There's a model called the PSOne. It is, in all due respect, a portable Playstation. Sony is even releasing a small LCD screen with speakers that attaches onto the PSOne, so you can actually play on the go. You can see the thing here [sonyweb.com].

  • mine has better battery life (Score:5, Interesting)

    by option8 ( 16509 ) on Sunday September 23, 2001 @05:57PM (#2338817) Homepage
    i already have a portable playstation, and mine has better battery life. plus, it can play SNES, NES, gameboy, genesis, hundreds of arcade games, just about any PC game, and, oh yeah, any game they make for linux or Mac.

    it can emulate just about anything you throw at it, since it has a spiffy, wicked fast processor inside (not the fastest in the world, but it'll do in a pinch), and it has enough keys and buttons in the built-in controller to bind to even the most complicated of game controllers - plus USB to connect additional players if you like. the best part, though, apart from the ~5 hour battery life - and only a little less under heavy load, even spinning CDs, i've found - is the amazing thin, small, high-definition LCD screen. it's a thing of beauty. another perk is that it has the ability to play games over the internet, wirelessly, with 802.11 (though the manufacturer refers to it as "airport")

    yep, it's an iBook.

    a little heavier (but not much!), and more general-purpose than the portable PS1, but infinitely more useful :) through the power of emulation, i have a completely portable machine that i can use to play more games than any other single platform.

    so take these stories about a portable this, a hacked up that, or a MAME the other, and stick them.. well, i don't care where you stick them.

    • Can it play Half-Life / Counter-Strike / DoD???
      I'll order one right off the apple site, right now, if it does... :)
    • yep, it's an iBook.

      a little heavier (but not much!), and more general-purpose than the portable PS1, but infinitely more useful :) through the power of emulation, i have a completely portable machine that i can use to play more games than any other single platform.

      I think you mean any other platform, except the Windows platform, right?

      Ouch!
      • I think you mean any other platform, except the Windows platform, right?

        no. i mean any platform. my logic may be flawed, but it goes like this: i can play any game made for mac - ever (considering i can still play games made for OS 6.0.x, some of which need a mac plus emulator to run on a PPC), any game available via MAME, all the console emulators, and any title made for linux/unix as well (thanks virtualPC and darwin), and almost all the games ever made for DOS or Windows. sure, there are 3D games that are slow (but still play) and some recent titles i can't play in emulation, but those are almost all available in mac native form. so i add it up (of course, i have no actual numbers...) and come up with more games than you.

        this is the point where i stick out my tongue and walk away.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • I bet you yours has a better price too...better for the 'its for the rest of us..' anyway.
  • Its hard to get people to work for free, but he must since he didnt include labor in the cost.
  • I've never seen a handheld that had a mere port for a second player controller to plug in, And I say bravo!
    I wish other hand helds allowed for that, and I also love the concept of this thing in general. it looks great, and I think sony should sell them itself
  • There were a couple of CD-single (8cm) players way back in the beginning of CDs. If you wanted to play a full sized CD it stuck out of the device much like the CD does on this PS project. Does anyone know any model numbers? I'd love to get hold of one.

    BTW: "Innovation" has both a larger-than-Sony LCD screen for the PSone and a battery pack. I just can't find any links at the moment.

  • I'd love to get me a 4" or 5" lcd for custom projects, the prices i found for the ps lcd are around 130 - 140$ / piece but i'm not sure if i could connect em to an analog / pc output could any1 enlighten me on this?
  • go to best buy
    Buy a PS-one
    Buy the screen for it
    Buy the battery pack for it
    Voila. I have it with spending 15 minutes putting things together and using plastic money.

    and the above combo is smaller and prettier.

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