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PlayStation (Games) Portables (Games) Entertainment Games

Sony PSP Concept Revealed, PS2 Colors Diversified 55

Posted by simoniker from the say-hello-to-mini-me dept.
An anonymous reader writes "1UP.com has posted a concept image of Sony's PSP handheld, as shown at a presentation about Sony's transformation and restructuring plan." The article analyzes the in-progress design: "Most conceptions of the PSP have envisioned a clamshell design like that of the Game Boy Advance SP, but this concept obviously favors a simpler, one-piece, horizontally arranged design. The Universal Media Disc loads into the back, and there's a loop for a handy carrying strap in one corner." Another article on 1UP shows new PlayStation 2 colors as part of a Japanese-only price drop/bundle announcement, including a special-edition "ceramic white" PS2 bundled with Gran Turismo 4 Prologue, and a Gundam bundle that includes a gold-colored PS2.
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Sony PSP Concept Revealed, PS2 Colors Diversified More

Sony PSP Concept Revealed, PS2 Colors Diversified

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  • here is a link to the picture [mac.com] [mac.com] Call it Karma whoring if you will, but I have been damn curious about this for awhile...

  • Thoughts of an Avid Gamer (Score:5, Interesting)

    by MBCook ( 132727 ) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Tuesday November 04, 2003 @09:41PM (#7392719) Homepage
    I don't know about the rest of you, but the FIRST thing that popped into my head when I saw that thing was the Atari Lynx [atarilynx.com].

    With the screen exposed like that, and not even recessed, I would be worried that it would get scratched easily. I'm worried about the power button's placement, and I hope that it has to be held for a half second to turn the thing off so you won't hit it accidently.

    My guess is that the directional buttons/pad is/are analog, because I would think that putting an analog stick on a handheld would tend to break off or get damaged. There also don't seem to be any shoulder buttons, so if they plan to port PS1 games, some might not be easy (although some games never even used 'em).

    Putting the discs in cartridges is a good idea, and they have expirence (MiniDiscs) and it being Sony I bet it will have good battery life (unlike, IIRC, the Lynx), but I wonder if it will be built in rechargable or AA(A)s (my guess is LithIon).

    I guess my last comment is the screen. It's widescreen, very cool. I think that will play well with many types of games and if their "watch movies on it" idea ever takes off, that holds good.

    OK, this is the REAL last comment. Wouldn't it be cool if they released a rewriteable disc for the thing and some kind of little DVD->PSP conversion unit or software or something so that you could "copy" your DVDs to it to watch on the go, so you wouldn't have to buy movies twice? It will never happen, but maybe some 3rd party will do it!

  • It could be the angle or the lighting... but do those buttons look touch sensitive, like the iPod? I hope not. My iPod's buttons are WAY too sensitive. I'd think it would be very difficult to play games with buttons like that.

  • Technical specifications (Score:4, Informative)

    by MMaestro ( 585010 ) on Tuesday November 04, 2003 @10:28PM (#7392973)
    Gamespot also has a report on the PSP, as well as the listing of the PSP's specs.

    http://www.gamespot.com/all/news/news_6078 174.html

    Woo! Lithium ion battery! I guess the days of having battery eating handheld systems are finally gone. But 'regional code system'? Uh oh.. 'Shock proof'? I don't think they understand the kind of stress gamers put their handhelds' through.. 'Expansion port'!? Uh oh, this means they'll end up releasing some kind of add-on(s) in the future. Maybe a mini-hard drive?

    Based on the specs, Nintendo is gonna have a run for its money, but I'm not laying any bets down until I see the games and play them myself.

    • Woo! Lithium ion battery! I guess the days of having battery eating handheld systems are finally gone. But 'regional code system'? Uh oh.. 'Shock proof'? I don't think they understand the kind of stress gamers put their handhelds' through.. 'Expansion port'!? Uh oh, this means they'll end up releasing some kind of add-on(s) in the future. Maybe a mini-hard drive?

      An expansion port is needed if the PSP is going to be able to compete with the unique little gizmos that Nintendo can put on GBA cartridges, like
      • True the add-on system would be nice to play unique games like Boktai and Kirby Tilt and Tumble, BUT heres the kicker. Who do you think is going to pay for these extra add-on gizmos? The consumer. I donno about you but the idea of having to buy a Bluetooth adaptor, a sun sensor adaptor, or a 'tilt and tumble' adaptor doesn't make me very happy at all. And I was pissed when I had to buy a headphone adaptor for my GBA-SP.
        • True the add-on system would be nice to play unique games like Boktai and Kirby Tilt and Tumble, BUT heres the kicker. Who do you think is going to pay for these extra add-on gizmos? The consumer. I donno about you but the idea of having to buy a Bluetooth adaptor, a sun sensor adaptor, or a 'tilt and tumble' adaptor doesn't make me very happy at all. And I was pissed when I had to buy a headphone adaptor for my GBA-SP.

          Why is that a "kicker"? You don't HAVE to buy it, just like you don't have to buy a gam
          • Considering this is Sony we're talking about, I can't play FFXI on my PS2 when it comes out since I don't want to buy a network adaptor (I bought my PS2 before the PS2+network adaptor package), I don't want to buy a hard drive, nor do I want to buy a headset or an extra keyboard. Seeing as both my Xbox and my PC already have a hard drive and network adaptor already plugged in and set up, upgrading my PS2 for a few games is a rip-off.
            • Considering this is Sony we're talking about, I can't play FFXI on my PS2 when it comes out since I don't want to buy a network adaptor (I bought my PS2 before the PS2+network adaptor package), I don't want to buy a hard drive, nor do I want to buy a headset or an extra keyboard. Seeing as both my Xbox and my PC already have a hard drive and network adaptor already plugged in and set up, upgrading my PS2 for a few games is a rip-off.

              And again, if you don't want to be "forced" to buy a special peripheral f
      • An expansion port is needed if the PSP is going to be able to compete with the unique little gizmos that Nintendo can put on GBA cartridges

        You mean like the USB port and Memory Stick port?

        Next thing you know, it'll need a screen to compete with those wacky TV gizmos.
    • "Based on the specs, Nintendo is gonna have a run for its money,"

      The Game Boy has never had a competitor that wasn't more technologically advanced than it was. If you want to just look at the specs and at history, the trend seems to be that the PSP will join the Lynx, Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket Color, etc. on the trashheap of forgotten handhelds.

      Ultimately, it all boils down to the games. Unless Sony can make a game for their PSP that is as popular than, say, Pokemon, I don't see it lasting very long.
    • But 'regional code system'?

      Yes, rather like the PSOne, the Saturn, DVDs, and a variety of other things.

      Has this honestly ever impacted you in any way?
  • download this [corporate-ir.net] pdf and view page 13. its about the CELL and there is the word petaflop on the page. it appears as if sony wants to get into enterprise computing now, things could get interesting. and multi csll home computers, im drooling.
  • Now, the Universal Media Disc looks extremely cool. Nice protective case like Mini Disks and 1.8gb of data. I'd love to have that in my laptop. It would be great for bringing dvd's with me on trips. I can deal with DVD to DivX so taht it fits on the 1.8 gb disk.

    It could easily be the next floppy if the prices are low enough.

    I want one.

    Anyone know whether they will be (are already) available for the PC?
    • The only problem is read-write is never mentioned these maybe CD-ROM like, you buy the game and need a memory card for game saves. They haven't mentioned using it a user storage medium, so it maybe pressed at the factory, this has the benifit of removing the risk of copying at least until someone comes up with a PC compatible reader, and if they keep a few specs secret there maybe not copying for quite a while. Sony has been pretty active in protecting their copyrights.
  • I just saw the bundles at the local MediaMarkt.

    Doesn't really seem like a positive move, to me... but ... then again ... I'm not one to match my decor to my Playstation.

  • Portable as a good ol' Lynx (Score:3, Informative)

    by imperator_mundi ( 527413 ) on Wednesday November 05, 2003 @04:27AM (#7394497)
    The tech specs claim PSP to have a 4.5" (that should be more or less 11.5 cm) 16:9 display, that would mean more or less a 10x5.7cm (3.9"x2.2") screen, according to the images [the-magicbox.com] the screen width should be roughly the half of the overrall console length, while being the media radius 6cm (2.36") an overrall height between 6 and 6.5cm (2.36" - 2.56") is to be expected.

    So aside form the mistakes I did with the numbers the PSP size should be more or less 20x.6.5cm (7.9"x2.5")... is either that I have a way too much limited idea of portability or that I werar trousers with far to short pockets, but I fear that it'll be not incredibly confortable to carry this console around.
  • Because with such awful looking rubber buttons (any fans of the rubber keyboards of the 80's?) no-one would want to play with it. And if they manage to put all those chips and that disc drive into it, how many minutes will the batteries last? GameBoy, even though its different incarnations have had the worst hardware (don't get me wrong, I'm a Nintedo-freak!) in every generation, they have always been the least hungry machines when it comes to battery usage. Perhaps that has been one reason why GameBoy is
  • "The Universal Media Disc loads into the back, and there's a loop for a handy carrying strap in one corner.""

    Hasn't everyone been bitching about how the handle on the GameCube makes it look "kiddy"? :)

    (And yes, i can see that it's not the same kind of handle, but it's still amusing.)

    • handle barely. It is just a loop like you would find on most cameras. Not really a part of it more than some thick string to wrap around you wrist and prevent dropping it.

      SuDZ
  • Sony need to think more iPod and less Atari Lynx. The PSP should be a two-part system. The desktop bit should have a disc drive of some sort and be a recharging station. The unit itself should just be a games machine wrapped around a hard drive. You should be able to install games to the hard drive and then store the game media away.

    Knowing what I carry around with me all the time, it should be any bigger or heavier than an iPod or N-Gage. And for me to find it worth buying it would need to be a perfec

  • Disc format, which as I said elsewhere means moving parts. Also means certain tricks won't be easily doable(like rumble) and there's a chance the device will screw up during travel. We'll see if they can work around that.

    New format, which means I'd have to buy all new games for it. Not that big a deal, and I haven't been following it, but the GBA is backwards compatable. How many people own gameboy games and gameboy color games?

    Large size, just to accomidate everything.

    Going to be high cost next to i
  • It would be pretty sweet if Sony released a conversion kit for all those old PS1 games we have sitting around. Granted it would be difficult to develop software to make the ports easy enough for the user, and that it would be open to piracy (PS1 files on P2P, anyone?) but Sony would be able to make a killing on the actual UMD media and conversion kits.

    Just a thought. Haven't got the time to consider the feasibility of it all.

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