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Portables (Games)

PSP Developer Interview 192

Posted by michael from the sore-thumbs dept.
zmcnulty writes "Over at TechJapan, we've finished our three part translation of Game Watch's interview of Mr. Izumi Kawanishi, one of the PSP's lead designers. New details revealed include a few about the USB interfacing (with both PS2 and PC), a small hint about the elusive battery life, and best of all, that game saves can indeed be copied from Memory Stick to PC by using the PSP's USB interface. Here's part one, part two, part three, and the original Japanese interview."
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PSP Developer Interview More

PSP Developer Interview

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  • dvd's in pocket... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by gl4ss ( 559668 ) on Friday October 22, 2004 @06:39PM (#10605095) Homepage Journal
    "Q: Getting back to the UMD - there isn't a cover on the read section on the reverse side and one section is completely exposed. Will the production discs be the same? Will the discs be OK?

    Kawanishi: The production discs are the same. DVD and other media are already handled in an uncovered state. It will be OK."

    dunno. strangely enough the cd's and dvd's i just have lying around on bags or in pockets seem to get pretty banged up(just imagine sand getting in there.. then you smack it in to the device *screech*)..

    • My God! (Score:2, Funny)

      by Pan T. Hose ( 707794 )
      This baby is going to be great! Transferring saves with USB is cool, but have you read the specs? The gorgeous 4.3" widescreen (yes, 16:9!) LCD alone is worth buying it, let alone the extended battery life!

      • Re:My God! (Score:2, Insightful)

        by FuzzyBad-Mofo ( 184327 )
        Extended battery life? My GBA-SP lasts weeks between charges (Granted, I don't play it every day). Still, I find it hard to consider buying a gaming portable that relies on rotational media which inherently draws *much* more power than solid state media. 3D graphic capability is nice, but battery life is king when it comes to portables.

    • Wait, *what*? (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      When I go out with my game boy, I wind up with four or five games getting strapped together with a hairband and dropped into my pocket next to the pens, cellphone, and KEYS.

      They're expecting exposed optical media to survive sitting next to keys???

      Wow.
    • I would assume each game will have a small, plastic case. Just like the ones Gameboy games (used to?) ship with.
      • Or, I dunno...like sony's own Minidiscs.

        Christ on a crutch, look at sony recently. That's what happens when one company controls a format...you get a new, at least partly incompatible format every year or two. At least with their memory sticks they've tried to put them in all their products. You'd think they could use something they already had on hand, which IS rugged, and capacious, and doesn't really suck the batteries, instead of coming up with something new, probably more expensive because of it, a
        • Funny, proprietary formats haven't hurt *any* of the other game companies. In case you haven't noticed, the Gamecube, Gameboy, Gameboy Advance, and Gameboy DS all use proprietary storage. As did Sega's offerings, SNK's, Phillips, etc.

          As for the "capacious" argument; How the heck else are you going to put a gigabyte of storage in a portable cheaper than optical media? ROM cartridges? Don't make me laugh.
          • None of the others are touting media playback, and then requiring you to rebuy that media in a new format. As for capacity- if you can't get a gigabyte into a low power storage method cheaply, don't release gigabyte large games. That simple.
          • They sure didn:t help the N64. Manufacturing costs on every variation of optical media used for games at the time or since, proprietary or non, have been lower.

            And MD *IS* optical. And Sony just released a "gigabyte MD" format. (With which they are apparantly determined to do nothing)

      • yes, but do people keep them in them? gameboy cartridges don't really care that much how you throw them around in the bag.

        umd's seem MORE vulnurable than cd's or dvd's..

        or would you have liked to have your 3.25" floppy discs to have come WITHOUT THE PROTECTIVE SLIDER????

  • Battery life... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by FrYGuY101 ( 770432 ) on Friday October 22, 2004 @06:43PM (#10605126) Journal
    It seems as though their aim is at making the battery last about two hours... which I suppose IS an improvement over the previously reported 90 minute battery life, but it's still nowhere near the Nintendo DS' 11 hours or so.

    Considering the biggest failing of the Sega Game Gear and the Sega Nomad were the pitiful battery lives, why on earth would Sony have such a relatively short battery life?
    • Where did you get NDS has 11 hours of battery life? Last I see some info it was 6-8 or somewhere.

      • Re:NDS (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Svenheim ( 723925 )
        Actually, Nintendo has stated 6-10 hours of battery life for the DS. I would guess that it will be 6 hours when doing wireless multiplayer, and up to 10-11 for singleplayer games. The GBA SP had slightly better battery life than Nintendo said it would have, and Nintendo doesn't have a history for exaggerating when it comes to hardware specs. I am thinking it's more likely that 6-10 is an understatement rather than an overstatement.
      • Where did you get NDS has 11 hours of battery life? Last I see some info it was 6-8 or somewhere.

        From Nintendo's web site:

        "Battery & Power Management: Lithium ion battery delivering 6 to 10 hours of play on a four-hour charge, depending on use. The battery is rechargeable and the unit features a low-energy-consumption design. The DS also has Power Management functions of Sleep mode and Standby mode. In Sleep mode, players can stop and resume game play whenever they like. AC adapter."

        So low end is s
        • OK, this is getting annoying. RTFA.

          He said that 2 hours was the design *minimum* for playing movies (i.e. apps that spin the disk constantly). He said:

          "Of course, that's the mimimum requirement. The battery will last quite a bit longer than that."

          OK, so interpret "quite a bit longer" however you want, but its certainly not "shooting for two hours" no matter how you slice it.

          Of course, the next bit of the analysis is that watching movies will be by far the most battery consuming of the applications, wi
          • If I were a betting man, I would put playing movies as EASIER on the battery than rendering thousands of polygons and processing AI. Sure, the motor to spin the disc for movies uses some juice, but not nearly as much as processing 3D games and sound. It's also been said in other articles that they were telling developers to use the least amount of 3D rendering as possible to conserve battery life. You know something is screwed up when they're not wanting people to use the best the system has to offer. Not o
            • Sure, the motor to spin the disc for movies uses some juice, but not nearly as much as processing 3D games and sound.

              Fair enough. I was going to disagree, but when looking for sources (you helpfully didn't provide any), I found a nice paper [uiuc.edu] (Google HTML version [64.233.183.104]) on laptop power usage. The Pentium M they tested used 1 to 3W in idle, and 3 to 14W underload. The optical drive used 2.8W when just spinning and 5.31W when reading. When running 3DMark, the system used about 30W, during playback of an audio CD it
              • he optical drive used 2.8W when just spinning and 5.31W when reading. When running 3DMark, the system used about 30W, during playback of an audio CD it used about 19W, the largest single component draw coming from the optical drive. Sadly they did not test the power consumption during DVD playback.

                Don't forgot that involves spinning the disc in a nice, smooth, horizontal fashion. Imagine how much more power you need to keep the thing stable while moving it around, at all sorts of angles to gravity? I'd gu
    • Um, did you bother reading for content?

      Q: For example, the PSP will also be able to deal with video content - will you be able to watch at least one movie?

      Kawanishi: Of course, that's the mimimum requirement. The battery will last quite a bit longer than that.

      Did full length movies all of a sudden get shorter in your world, becausing I'm seeing "quite a bite longer than two hours" here.
      • Did full length movies all of a sudden get shorter in your world, becausing I'm seeing "quite a bit longer than two hours" here.
        I'm seeing quite a bit longer than 90+ minutes, as the typical 'feature-length' film runs between 90-100 minute. I'm sorry but 90 minutes is not 2 hours, in fact 2 hours is 'quite a bit longer' than 90 minutes...

  • Battery life? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ihavnoid ( 749312 ) on Friday October 22, 2004 @06:46PM (#10605151)
    Able to play a movie, and 'quite a bit longer'? Does that translates to something like 2hrs + 30 minuites of movie playing? hmmmmmmmm............. What do you think?
    • Massive LCD, spinning media and fast memory/cpu's - not really a suprise. A portable device is a compromise. In this case sony compromised the battery life to get high enough specs to get the nerds to drool.

  • Can't beat the Gameboy (Score:5, Interesting)

    by nate nice ( 672391 ) on Friday October 22, 2004 @06:50PM (#10605192) Journal
    I just don't see this as a smart move on Soney's behalf. The PS had appeal because it tore down Nintendo's more chilidish marketing and development. Adults liked it. I do not see the same effect in a portable.

    Sure, some adults will buy this thing, but I would argue, with no data to back me up, that adults by and large want nothing to do with such a system as a cell phone is already enough to lug around and it isn't easy to get a date while playing a portable game system.

    Kids buy these things and Nintendo has the market square. They are constantly reinventing the system and the parents who buy these things for kids will buy Nintendo.

    Good chance I'm wrong as I'm sure similar things were said about the PS, although my initial reaction to the PS was this was going to rock everything as it went beyond the types of games, but rather the media type, etc.

    Is there really room for 2 portable systems? It has proven time and time again there is not. Ask SNK, Sega, Turbo Graphix, those Wonder Swan people and the resounding answer has been no. Sony's only chance here is if there is enough room for two markets. My initial reaction is many developers are having cold feet about it as they feel this too.

    Either way I don't care. I don't own stock in either company or work for them or own a portable system nor do I plan on buying one. I don't think many other people plan on buying one too.

    • Re:Can't beat the Gameboy (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Adults buy Game Boy's too, you insensitive clod! I know, I am one.
      • Yeah, my roomate has one but he's not your typical adult that plays games since the PS came out. He's a game nUrd so of course he owns one of everything. The PS hit it so big because so many adults who didn't play games started playing them. Those same adults are turned off by portables. The Castlevania on Gameboy is cool though.

        • The PS hit it so big because so many adults who didn't play games started playing them. Those same adults are turned off by portables.

          It's probably more accurate to say that all the teens who grew up playing Super Nintendo grew into college-aged kids and moved to the Playstation. Now they're all adults and have moved to the Playstation 2. Given the sales figures, it's likely this same group also owns a lot of Gameboys. Whether they'd gravitate toward the PSP instead remains to be seen. But given tha

    • Re:Can't beat the Gameboy (Score:5, Insightful)

      by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Friday October 22, 2004 @07:23PM (#10605467) Homepage Journal
      "Is there really room for 2 portable systems? It has proven time and time again there is not."

      I wouldn't say it's been 'proven'. In ANY of those examples, one could point out reasons other than 'can the market support it?' to explain their failures.

      I think two portables could end up coexisting if a strategy were put into place. Right now (i.e. pre DS or PSP), portable gaming is pretty much "short simple fun little games". To put it another way, it's difficult to imagine many people playing a Game Boy for as much time as they'd play a PS2, GameCube, or XBOX. The DS seems like a perfect next gen platform for that style of market. Question is, though, would anybody buy a GBA or DS in lieu of having a home console like the PS2/3 etc? Probably not. However, I'd say the PSP has some potential to do just that. There are a lot of ifs here that'd have to work out for this to happen, but who knows?

      To put it another way, so long as both systems fulfill gaming needs, they can coexist.

      • Re:Can't beat the Gameboy (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Pxtl ( 151020 ) on Friday October 22, 2004 @07:55PM (#10605695) Homepage
        Unfortunately, with a PC-like pointing device, it seems like the DS interface is more suitable for more sophisticated games anyways. The Metroid FPS on the DS is getting rave reviews for finally being a good way to aim instead of stupid analog sticks. I fully expect to see a glut of strategy games (maybe even we'll finally get a handheld RTS?) on the DS. The PSP, on the other hand, looks to be just a big-screen version of the same old stuff. The PSP will have the usual Playstation 2 games (now wireless and handheld) while the DS will have some real potential to explore new directions.

        Of course, I say that now, but styli tend to make my hand cramp so I might not be good with the DS.
        • "Of course, I say that now, but styli tend to make my hand cramp so I might not be good with the DS."

          I assume you don't use a tiny wooden pencil to write with, right? The styli that come with PDA's and the like are basic no-frills versions. You can go and buy a nicer one for $10-15 or so, one that's thicker so your hand doesn't cramp.

        • Unfortunately, with a PC-like pointing device, it seems like the DS interface is more suitable for more sophisticated games anyways. The Metroid FPS on the DS is getting rave reviews for finally being a good way to aim instead of stupid analog sticks.

          Mmm, nowadays, deathmatch is more on the side of "simple, short, fun games", than on the sophisticated side...If they tried to do a realistic FPS, something like CounterStrike I would understand.

          By the way, analog sticks are much more comfortable than mouse
      • I think two portables could end up coexisting if a strategy were put into place. Right now (i.e. pre DS or PSP), portable gaming is pretty much "short simple fun little games".

        No, that's not always the case. Gameboy Advance games have approximately the same length as SNES games, which weren't necessarily simple at all. The Advance Wars games, for example, are extremely challenging and lengthy, and kept my friends occupied for many months.
        • "The Advance Wars games, for example, are extremely challenging and lengthy, and kept my friends occupied for many months."

          The Advance Wars games can also be easily and quickly put down. That's the only reason I've been able to play them. If I had to sit in front of my GB for an hour or risk losing progress, I wouldn't play them.
          • The Advance Wars games can also be easily and quickly put down. That's the only reason I've been able to play them. If I had to sit in front of my GB for an hour or risk losing progress, I wouldn't play them.

            But that has nothing to do with the style of game, and everything to do with the care in which they were implemented.

            Almost all Gameboy Advance games are made like this, even the NES ports tend to have more save points than the original versions. Zelda: Link to the Past lets you continue from just a
            • Let me clarify before some smart aleck does it for me, by NES ports, I did NOT mean the recent NES Classics collection, which are basically unchanged and thus not really worth it to anyone with ready access to flea markets. I was referring, specifically, to Super Mario Advance 1 and 4.
        • Beyond Advance Wars, you've got Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Tactics Ogre, heck, even F-Zero took a while to get through. With the GBA, portable gaming has definitely branched out into absorbing, long-lasting gameplay (the pokemon series notwithstanding).
          • You (and I, for that matter), forgot Fire Emblem, possibly the best strategy game for the system in the US.

            In fact, I don't think there's been another recent system with as many strategy games for it. There's also Onimusha Tactics and Shining Force Resurrection of Dark Dragon (a game I've never seen to buy, but would love to get my hands on).

            And while I didn't want to mention it before because I was arguing against the system's reputation for quick, fun games, and the title is absolutely known for them,

            • it's got a full single-player port of Dr. Mario in it

              I've tried Dr. Wario, but its playfield size wasn't near regulation. Good thing I had written and posted my own version of Dr. M [pineight.com] before Made In Wario had even come out... IN JAPAN.

              That said, once somebody cracks the PSP, I can guarantee that the first thing people will work on is a GBA emulator. Something capable of running basic GBA demos on the PSP will show up even before you start seeing dumps of commercial games on the P2P sites.

      • To put it another way, it's difficult to imagine many people playing a Game Boy for as much time as they'd play a PS2, GameCube, or XBOX.


        Try a CRPG like Final Fantasy Tactics or Fire Emblem, or a strategy game like Advance Wars II. All of these, and other CRPGs, are both highly rated and top selling on the GBA.

    • Game Marketing Theory - The PSP (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Mulletproof ( 513805 ) on Saturday October 23, 2004 @01:57AM (#10607231) Homepage Journal
      "I just don't see this as a smart move on Soney's behalf. The PS had appeal because it tore down Nintendo's more chilidish marketing and development. Adults liked it. I do not see the same effect in a portable."

      You're not taking into account all the variables. First, their home market is Japan. If you don't think the Japanese will eat something like this up, you're kidding yourself. We're talking nifty-cool gadget capital of the world where gaming reigns supreme. And nubile Geisha girls. But mainly gaming. It sounds powerful and flexible enough to perform a variety of tasks, and it just so happens Sony has been the king of gaming worldwide for the last decade, which means absolutely no shortage of titles. This thing is a license to print money, plain and simple.

      While the same can't nessisarily be said about markets abroad, I'm warning you right now that this thing as 'status symbol' written all over it. To borrow from an over-abused analogy, it is quite literally the iPod of gaming. The SP has made great strides in design, but the PSP is sexy as hell. It's all but guaranteed to have a massive library of games, more horsepower, strong wireless lan capabilities and the flexibility to do way more than just game. And it's Sony. The status symbol aspect of this product cannot be overstate. More than some adults picked up an iPod and I see the same happening here. Speaking of which, have you put a PSP (especially the white one) side by side with an iPod? And then there is the hip new generation marketing featuring these things hanging from everybodies wrists. Sony may have been late on the digital music bandwagon, but they've taken marketing notes strait from Apple's playbook on this one.

      And honestly, the Gameboy and kids thing is based on a flawed premise. The only thing that makes the gameboy a popular kids item is less mario and more price, because it's the parent who ultimately shell out for these things. If the SP can't hit that magic price point, I guarantee you that the DS kids market will begin evaporating while parents will keep right on buying them cheaper GBA hardware. And in a world where a SP costs you nearly as much as a gamecube, it's will be a tough sell. Not saying impossible, but tough and a potentially reduced market share among the actual buyers, not their 8 year old gamers. Unlike Nintendo, Sony has some leeway here. Sony is known for cutting edge electronics and can, like the iPod, demand a higher price (within reason). Also, they aren't targeting the kids, they're targeting actual buyers who are looking not only for a portable gaming/video/whatever unit, but want to look cool doing so.

      Sure there is room for two systems, expecially given the target audiences of each. It will all come down to whether they can make the intelligent decisions that will keep them alive in the face of competition. Unfortuantely, Nintendo has bled alot over the last decade, and their console share is wearing razor thin. So much so that the only thing keeping them afloat is the handheld. Sony has the advantage in market position, consumer base, 3rd parties and a substantial cash reserve. Nintendo can do it, they just have to play it smarter than they have been for the last decade.

  • just more vague answers and a bad attempt at hype (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 22, 2004 @06:51PM (#10605195)
    He skips around questions regarding the processing power of the unit, indicates that they had to stick with an analog controller as that's what PS2 users are used to (i.e. they can't just re-port all their same old games to the portable without it). He then mentions however that two analog control sticks (like the PS2) would look too complex for the user, yet then they throw USB connectivity into the mix (so someone is too stupid to know what to do with a second analog stick, yet can play around with USB?).

    The fact of the matter is, this is just going to be a shrunk playstation 1.5 with a great screen, horrible battery life and a library of titles that already exist for that "other" playstation you already have sitting in front of your TV.

    It's nothing but a cash grab, they're reselling you the same crap you already have (but now portable!) use your heads/wallets and get a DS. You won't regret it.

    Seriously, do you want a system from someone who thinks you're too stupid to handle the controls?

    "...it would be troubling if the face was littered with buttons and users did not know which one to press."

    Yeah, that's trouble alright.....
    • >The fact of the matter is, this is just going
      >to be a shrunk playstation 1.5 with a great
      > screen, horrible battery life and a library of
      > titles that already exist for that "other"
      >playstation you already have sitting in front
      >of your TV.

      Yeah, riiiiight...

      The fact of the matter is, this is just going to be a shrunk SNES with a tiny screen, modest battery life and a library of titles that already exist for that "other" SNES you already have sitting in front of your TV.

      Do you know wha

    • It's nothing but a cash grab, they're reselling you the same crap you already have (but now portable!) use your heads/wallets and get a DS. You won't regret it.

      There is a lot more revolutionairy stuff about this PSP than there was in the Game Boy Color, the Virtual Boy, The Game boy Advanced, and the Gameboy Advanced Advanced. I think that the PSP is speced to be an awsome contender in the portable market.

      It's not just 7 year olds that play game boy(ish portables). The market goes all the way up to co

      • There is a lot more revolutionairy stuff about this PSP than there was in the Game Boy Color, the Virtual Boy, The Game boy Advanced, and the Gameboy Advanced Advanced. I think that the PSP is speced to be an awsome contender in the portable market.

        I have to disagree, the DS has an amazing number of cool features, and wireless is just the top of the list, and PSP's battery life will likely be a major problem for it. The fact that it's a rechargable, and doesn't run on AAs, will help a bit in order to sav
        • If, by "*types* of games", you are refering to the second screen, then I laugh at you and Nintendo. The types of games that would benefit from a secondary display are few and far between. Also, game developers have learned to display every kind of game quite nicely from one screen. Those that *might* benefit from the secondary screen have no absolute need for it.
          • I said the same thing to my aunt about the eye-toy for playstation, having taken some time to think about it, I can see benefits to using it as an input device. My main beef was it won't make games better by using it, and it won't, but it won't necessarily make them worse. Having said that apparently the reviewers of games disagree with you. Apparently there's already one game that benefits from the touch screen (see a comment above for the name).
          • Amen.

            People keep talking about the touch screen revolutionizing gameplay, now appealing to RTS gamers and FPS gamers. I call foul:
            1) How many decent RTS games do you see for Palm/PocketPC devices?

            I've tried to play some and the gameplay is horrible. Stylus != mouse

            2) How many decent FPS games have you seen for Palm/PocketPC?

            Again, not only does the stylus suck for FPS games, but its *really* hard to use a stylus and a controller at the same time, so games will have to choose, or you'll be juggling you
          • If, by "*types* of games", you are refering to the second screen, then I laugh at you and Nintendo.

            I'm referring to the stylus and the microphone, in addition to the screen, Mr. Premature Mirth.

            Having two screens, in fact, just may enable different kinds of play that a single large screen might not. The difference is more conceptual, in the player's mind, than technical, but still present.

            But the stylus is the big thing, it allows for intuitive pointer interfaces that make RTS games a lot easier to pul
    • It's nothing but a cash grab, they're reselling you the same crap you already have (but now portable!) use your heads/wallets and get a DS.

      I don't have these games that Sony is allegedly reselling for PSP.

      Personally, I'm not buying either until I can handle them personally, and even then, maybe not. I consider the dual screen thing a gimmick until I can see for myself what it can be useful for. Like, what, it will come in handy for playing Battleship DS? The little handwriting note-passing feature loo

    • He then mentions however that two analog control sticks (like the PS2) would look too complex for the user, yet then they throw USB connectivity into the mix (so someone is too stupid to know what to do with a second analog stick, yet can play around with USB?).

      Why the fuck did this get modded up to insightful? This is stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Having more crap on the front of the unit would affect everyone, all the time. Having USB isn't going to affect anyone except when they use it. It will p

  • Talking alot without saying anything (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Svenheim ( 723925 ) on Friday October 22, 2004 @06:53PM (#10605214)
    Could the developer have been any more vague? Half of the questions were answered with "I think" or "it may" or "possibly".

    Also, still nothing definitive on the battery life, so all evidence still points in the direction that it will suck, or Sony would have been more clear, seeing the bad press they are getting because of it.

    PSP is sweet in theory, but unless it works as well, or close to as well a gameboy (in terms of sturdiness, playability and battery life), I don't seeing being a huge success.

    I am importing my Nintendo DS in November, and I am alot more psyched about is, as Nintendo actually has demonstrated games on it and shown what it can do, and it looks fun! The graphics may not be jaw-dropping like on the PSP, but they are still "good enough" for handheld gaming, which is all that matters.
    • And as usual, I apologize for all typos :)
    • Heh, I was going to ask why you would need to import a DS, then I looked at your username and realized you're probably not in N America.

  • Tapwave Zodiac PSP (Score:1, Informative)

    by maethlin ( 680448 )
    Well, at least for those of us who prefer something that has lots of business utility, as well as gaming utility, and think of Sony as part of the Evil Empire(TM)

    Plus, the Zodiac is out now!

    www.tapwave.com

  • Paint Shop Pro? (Score:4, Funny)

    by QuasiRob ( 134012 ) on Friday October 22, 2004 @06:59PM (#10605271)
    PSP? The graphics package? On a games platform? Hmmmm.
    • That's what I thought too when I read it---what does this have to do with Paint Shop Pro? Could someone fill me in on what exactly this PSP is?

  • Japanese interview? (Score:3, Funny)

    by BillsPetMonkey ( 654200 ) on Friday October 22, 2004 @07:04PM (#10605313)
    Have slashbots suddenly acquired Japanese fluency? Is this for cross-reference?

    Here's the answer:

    うそ付くなあ &# 12540;

    This site doesn't even support UTF-8 or SHIFT-JIS so why the hell should it's readership want a link to the original Japanese article?

  • Load Time (Score:2, Insightful)

    by focitrixilous P ( 690813 )
    I've yet to read this article, but does anyone have any info on load times for these games? With battery life only at 2 hours, waiting more than a few seconds for loading a level could be very annoying.

    Also, i'm guessing the spinning of the disc might be rather noticable if you are holding it in a lose group. I can feel when my laptop spins the cd drive, will this be noticable (if so, will it be annoying) in the PSP?

    • It was mentioned that the guy "thinks" that the load time should be just like that of the Playstation 2. I have a Playstation 2. The thing takes a good twenty to thirty seconds to boot and load a game, which is all right for a home system, but is insanity for a portable. If the thing has 2 hours of battery life on the optimistic side, and actually requires you to wait thirty seconds for games to start (in contrast to the GBA and DS which start games instantly), then I can't see much hope for the PS2.

    • Re:Load Time (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Jeff DeMaagd ( 2015 )
      The battery life figures being thrown about is speculative. The same about the pricing. There really isn't a whole lot of information about the PSP.

      Anyhow, regarding feeling the disc spin, I would imagine yes but I really didn't think it was annoying when I had a minidisc player. If it is the same then I really don't expect it to be a problem.

  • You've got to be kidding me... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by OneHungLo ( 265284 ) <honkeykong@COFFE ... g minus caffeine> on Friday October 22, 2004 @07:50PM (#10605663) Homepage
    In part one of the article, Kawanishi makes this statement:

    Updates are technically possible using Memory Stick or network transfer. I think firmware and software updates will be done using those methods.

    If he's serious, then I think that Sony is already going to be in deep trouble as far as hacking/piracy goes in this handheld. How long do you think it will be until somebody figures out a way to spoof a firmware update that would have the same essential functions of a modchip, such as booting pirated games or unsigned software?

    Or worse yet, wouldn't this also be a dangerous exploitable security hole if, like he said, firmware updates via network were possible? That could lead to virii similar to the ones that have been created on bluetooth-enabled phones that could disable the PSP completely, and as I'm sure we all know, a botched firmware update can easily turn devices into nothing more than expensive paperweights.

    For Sony's sake, let's hope they're not serious about this.
    • Have you ever heard 'public key cryptosystem'? Sony has a private/public keypair and signs a firmware with its private key. Then PSP checks the validity of the firmware by checking it with the public key of Sony.
      • It's not impossible, however, that someone might come up with a way to attach a programmer directly to the flash of an opened PSP and reprogram it. However, this is going to be expensive. So, it's not a big issue. Besides, what good would it do exactly? Sony has repeatedly told us that UMD-R drives are not part of the plan. You won't actually be able to write any media to go into the device. You'd basically have to write your own OS for it to be able to run anything useful from the Memory Stick and then you
    • Do you really think that the unit isn't going to come up and say "A firmware update blah blah blah is available, would you like to upgrade?"
  • Before now I was holding a shred of hope that perhaps I was looking at the PSP's issues too negatively, that Sony would find a way to compensate for them, that they were just getting their feet wet and might improve now that they have some feedback. That hope is now gone. Time and again he makes comments that indicate they just don't understand the portable market. Users won't be satisfied with sub-PS2 graphics? I realize Sony aims for an older audience, but between the small (though comparatively large fo
    • You are missing the point of what portable gaming is all about. For me, the purpose of portable gaming is being able to play games without being stuck in front of a TV, or when a TV is not available (like family gatherings). So, if you are playing games in the palm of your hand, or anywhere for that matter, you want the system to be as powerful as you can get. The Gameboy, while not the first portable game unit, was the first unit that had the right combination of attributes that made it a success. Nint
  • Oh good, the most overpriced and incompatible memory that there is (with the possible exception of xD, but at least xD is tiny). Now storing save games can be part of the Sony LifeStyle Experience (tm)!

    I don't really understand Sony's plan with this device. Playstation has always been aimed at the late-teen and beyond market, and people over the age of 18 who don't actually read Slashdot would generally not want to be seen playing a portable game anyway. When you add in the complications of having an optic

  • Call me when I should care. For the time being, this looks like an overpriced device without a long term commitment from ISVs. I'm not going to spend $300 or $400 on a device that will allow me to watch a CGI movie based around the characters from FF7 and play a card game version (!?!?) of Metal Gear Solid. I'll save my pennies and go pick up a few more games out of the thousands available for the GBA.

    I should clarify one point, though. I am incredibly excited that Sony's pushing the state of the art i

  • If you connect the PSP to a PC via USB, the Memory Stick will be recognised by the PC as a mass-storage device and you can write directly to the Memory Stick. For example, you can do things such as write JPEG images to the Memory Stick and then view them on the PSP.

    So if the development platform was released or reverse engineered, other people could make games that could be *easily* shared amongst PSP users. Now that's cool.

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