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PlayStation (Games) Portables (Games)

'PalmPSOne' Takes PlayStation Into Handheld Domain 44

Anonymous Coward writes "'Some believe it was brought to Earth in the belly of an asteroid. Some believe it was created in a mad scientist's lab. Some believe Tom Brokaw's name is pronounced Tom Broke-off. These pages contain the real story. The unofficial PalmPSone, a custom-made portable PlayStation, was created over the course of about three months with a few hundred dollars (two units were made). Most would consider the cost of both time and materials to be far too high. Maybe, but it had to be done.'" This project is similar to Ben Heckendorn's PlayStation Portable, and there's an interview with Brian Gardiner, PalmPSOne's creator, over at IGN PS2, in which it's noted: "Gamers shouldn't be too disappointed since the nickel metal hydride batteries that power the PalmPSone provide a whopping one and a half hours of continuous gameplay."
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'PalmPSOne' Takes PlayStation Into Handheld Domain

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  • Cool! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Hank Reardon ( 534417 ) on Thursday August 05, 2004 @01:32AM (#9886287) Homepage Journal

    Two trademark violations in one name!

    That's gotta be a record!

    • I was just working with my Palm OS PDA right before reading this so I was totally confused what it had to do with the Palm.

      Might need to change the name to keep from getting in hot soup!
      • Exactly what popped into my mind at first as well. I figured it was a PSX emulator that worked from a CD rip. After all, there are PSX emulators available for the generally more powerful PocketPC and Linux PDAs. It's only a matter of time (or is it?) until someone gets around the limitations of the PalmOS and ports one. :P
    • Re:Cool! (Score:3, Funny)

      by stienman ( 51024 )
      He may have more serious problems with PETA.

      From disclaimer: [palmpsone.com]
      Several animals were maimed during the production of this website, including this hamster. [picture]

      -Adam
  • by Anonymous Coward
    OK, so it has some tiny feet on the underside, and a "guard rail" to stop things interfering with the spinning, but is anyone else as disturbed as I am at there being no CD-cover for the back of it?

    It only takes one retarded klutz (and let's face it, there's one in almost every home) to push on the CD, and if it doesn't pop off and spin crazily through the air, it's going to get a remarkably circular scratch on the surface.
  • by Cecil ( 37810 ) on Thursday August 05, 2004 @01:50AM (#9886346) Homepage
    Gamers shouldn't be too disappointed since the nickel metal hydride batteries that power the PalmPSone provide a whopping one and a half hours of continuous gameplay

    Is that sarcasm, or does he actually believe this?

    My laptop can do twice that. Don't even think about comparing that battery life to an actual Gameboy, it's not even in the same league.
    • by MMaestro ( 585010 ) on Thursday August 05, 2004 @02:00AM (#9886384)
      This is an UNOFFICIAL project, you're comparing a multimillion dollar company's laptop with a fan made cheap "done just for kicks" handheld.

      If nothing else you can call this project Sony's PSP version 0.1 . The PSP is supposed to have the hardware to match the PS2, if a PS1 hardware config gets 1 1/2 hours of battery life, wouldn't you get concerned about the PSP's battery life?

      • Not really. He's trying to sell them.
        • Umm... kind of. If you actually look at the page, it looks like he is up to selling them, though reluctantly and at a very high cost. He isn't expecting to sell a bunch of these. I could shit in a box and put it up on ebay, but it doesn't make me some professional operation.
    • by Kris_J ( 10111 ) * on Thursday August 05, 2004 @02:28AM (#9886464) Homepage Journal
      But can it do that while running a PSX emulator?

      Interestingly, it was mentioned that 2300mAh AA batteries were used. Assuming that they're NiMH cells, there's some 2500mAh cells [engadget.com] available now. That should add another seven or eight minutes of gameplay.

    • Gamers shouldn't be too disappointed since the nickel metal hydride batteries that power the PalmPSone provide a whopping one and a half hours of continuous gameplay

      Is that sarcasm, or does he actually believe this?


      I think he means that they shouldn't be too disappointed about not having one of their own, because aside from the novelty value, a portable PSOne isn't really worth it.
    • I wonder if it would be possible to mod the playstation to run off an sd card or a compact flash card. The cd is probably one of the bigger, if not the biggest power consumers. However, you can now fit cds onto flash cards, which take up considerably less power than a cd reader.
      Though it would probably require some considerable hacking to get the card to spoof the cd....
  • $500? A bargian at half the price... no wait... Madness I say!
  • by bhima ( 46039 ) <(Bhima.Pandava) (at) (gmail.com)> on Thursday August 05, 2004 @01:55AM (#9886361) Journal
    Seriously, it is!

    If this guy was one these self thought, didn't go to college types or got a degree in some weird liberal arts topic, I'd really consider hiring him anyway having seen this. This sort of thing is very, very similar to the sorts of things we do when developing medical instruments.

    Recent college grads take note! This is more effective than a Résumé

    • i hate to do this but: Step 1: Make a project post pictures on the web Step 2: Wait 3-4 years for your project to get popular and have people rip you off and make better websites Step 3: ????? Step 4: Get job offers
      • Man, you've been on Slashdot too long, go out at get some fresh air!

        I was thinking of the object!.

        Everyone in my department (except the intern) is completely disinterested in web design or web pages. Come to interview with a laptop showing off a web site and you'd be greeted with blank stares. Come in with hacked device with a custom case, custom controls, a bunch of discrete wires hand soldered and half the department would be in the interview showing you their custom hacks (or at least pictures) and the

        • yea but this guy: http://www.classicgaming.com/vcsp/ does all the work and someone else gets the glory?
          • So your are saying that he bought a device from these guys. then ripped their website off for some contruction photos. then passed the whole thing off as his brain child and evidence of his l33t hacking skillz?

            Or are you saying that these (2nd) guys had the idea first and he just copied it?

            Or some wierd combination of the two?

          • What work?

            Assume that this guy did all the physical labour and didn't buy it off of someone.

            You walk in and put it on the table. Show it works and open it up.

            Talk about how you saw something similar and how they did it, then how you learned from them and used it into your project. What did you use exactly from them. What problems you had and the solutions you came up with. What would you do to improve it to make things better if you had the time and the money.

            It would be a damned impressive intervie
        • Seeing this made me want to go and, I don't know, send off a few of the billions of dumb things I made in Rhino (improved GBA gullwings with a link cable AND a GC cable AND headphones AND extended battery built in...) off to a prototype shop.

          Thing is, that polymer's fuckin' expensive. I'd spend more on the item than I would buying a couple of new GBA SPs to mangle with a dremel tool.

          But it would still be GODDAMN elite.
  • This guy [classicgaming.com] has converted several different consoles into handheld units, including a PS1. My favorite is the wooden VCSp "Special edition" portable atari 2600. Very cool!
  • I wrote about Tom Brokaw on the free-response section of my AP Bio test! Dude has crazy eyebrows! My god! And like, I wrote about how terrorists send him anthrax and shit. I got a 5 (the highest grade).
  • I ask myself why? Half an hour isn't worth the effort it'd take to do this. For the money I can pick up a GBA, several games and a recharger set/lots of gameboy batteries.

    Plus I can't think of anything more fun then Mario world to jam with :D
  • I like how he complains about the GBA's 'antiquated' technology, then displays his laughable 12-battery $500+ novelty item.

    Seriously, I got a big kick out of the whole thing.
    • I must agree with you there. It's really amazing how long an SP can go without a charge with just the stock battery. I charge mine maybe once a week and it's done before I know it.

      It's really a shame that Nintendo didn't use the SP design from the very start.. it would have really blown people away.
  • emachineshop (Score:4, Informative)

    by Hadlock ( 143607 ) on Thursday August 05, 2004 @03:56AM (#9886798) Homepage Journal
    I believe he used emachineshop.com for the machining of the case. Pretty slick. Some other people have used their services to make bits and pieces for their automated telescope mounts.
  • ever since I started travelling with my PS1 + Portable DVD player... put them both in 1 unit, and wile away the hours on the bus/plane/train playing Suikoden, Vagrant Story, etc... there are hundreds of PSX games that STILL kick ass to this day.

    Screw the PSP. If Sony made one of these things, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
  • I almost didnt read this article since i imagined it was going to be some lame psone with a screen + battery stuck together with duct tape, but DAMN! thats the nicest looking mod I've even seen. very professional looking, although with such short battery life, not particularly useful. I guess with a 12v adaptor it would be nice for long car trips
  • That device has the worst ergonomics I've ever seen. A person operating it gets to hold on to nothing if they want to use the analog sticks. I think it could only be played if it was laying on a table, and then, just barely. Another way to play it would be if you held it upside down and looked in a mirror or something.

    Oh well, still have to give him props for the overal fit and finish.
  • I have read articles about how the new Sony PSP is supposed to incorporate new features, support PS2-quality gameplay, watch movies, and be really cool to use. However, I look at projects like this one and wonder why Sony didn't decide to make a portable PlayStation long ago. Ben Heckendorn [classicgaming.com] certainly proved the concept, and I had this thought at the time:

    There's already a huge library of PS1 games. I loved playing them. Developers know how to write for them. Wouldn't it have been a great idea to cre

  • OK, if you're gonna make and sell these, do it for the right reason. This is not a better portable console than GBA, other than its graphics capabilities. It is, however, extremely cool.

    You want to run on the look-what-I-can-do-isn't-it-cool ticket, I'm right behind you. You want to take swings at Nintendo with a really cool brick? You're on your own, buddy.

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