There are so many things wrong with Sony's implementation of what would otherwise be a great idea. I think I should add the emulator they stuck on the PSP is actually pretty good quality stuff. That's at least partially due to the similar design between the PS2 and PSP.
The first and foremost is really publisher support. We're getting Sony's 1st party titles and that's about it! Now, a few of those games are actually pretty good, but we aren't getting Legend of Legaia here, we're getting THIS stuff, and Sony's really good games were few and far between. Where is Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy 7, and Castlevania Chronicles? Well, they belong to other companies that probably have a vested interest in remaking those games for a greater profit instead of selling them cheaper as a download.
The other issues are ALL usability related, but they are significant. First is the way you GET these games. Let's see, you have to download them from the store, right? Well right away there's the idiotic "points for cash" conversion system, but everyone's doing that stupid thing these days so I don't need to elaborate on that.
So you download it, but you can't play it. What?! Here's the thing I don't get. The PS3 can play PS1 games. The games you get from the store aren't ported, they are ISOs embedded in executable files compatible with the PSP! There is NO reason they couldn't work on the PS3 at all, aside from the sheer laziness of not patching the built in support for PS1 games to work off the hard disk as well as the disk drive.
This brings us to the other issue. You can't even play it so what do you do? Well you transfer it to your PSP. Well hey that's great, portable pleasure is better anyway right? Well, then why haven't they added online store access to the PSP through a firmware update? (They have added a LOT, like an ENTIRE web browser, they can easily add that to the system.) That's right, you can't download them from the PSP itself! So here's the entire process. If you have a PSP and you want to play PS1 games, you BUY A PS3, and then you buy the games from the store, then MOVE then to your PSP because you can't play them on the PS3, and there you go!
Well, the last problem is that the emulator has a big limitation. Well, it's the PSP really, the controller is limited. Really for a lot of PS1 games this is fine (except Ape Escape) because you don't really need the control sticks to play a lot of them and R2 and L2 can be mapped to the joystick that is on the system (and are). The problem is this could be resolved if they just let you ALSO play the games on your PS3.
And that brings us to one last thing. The PS3, either model, has more than enough free space to store all manner of old PS1 game disks. The PSP does not. That 8 gig card is coming out soon, for mega bucks, and that would probably do for a number of games, but you are still pretty much stuck with a small amount unless you buy a really expensive memory card, at least a gig. Fortunatly, I have a decent sized one myself.
And so, with selection limited, poor ability to even get the games without a huge investment, and in the end you are getting the very same games you may already own, what's the point? Well, personally I have no reason to go to Sony's online store, since it seems they don't want me there, but I can sure go to pspupdates.com!
You see, the homebrew community fixed ALL of these problems (except, as best I can tell, playing these games on the PS3, which I don't have anyway so that's no big deal to me). First, they hacked the firmware. When I say hacked I don't just mean downgrading to old ones with exploits, I mean they modified the very latest Sony update to get around every single exploit fix they might add. Having cake and eating it too. No matter WHAT fix Sony has tossed out, if you don't bother upgrading until the hacked version comes out, you are golden. The fun thing is, it's totally legal. You download these updates from Sony's own site and the hack is a program that simply alters the install file without using any copywrited code at all. Sony knows about it and has only succeeded in shutting down the sites that go any farther than this (any using hacks that do use Sony's keys). So, it's all great fun. Further, there are plenty of downgraders with existing exploits for those who accidently upgraded too far with the official updates.
This means two things. One, latest firmware can run all the homebrew that's out without any exploits needed to be used. Two, while the emulator used to require a special key that was included, a liscense to play the game, that key is no longer even needed so there isn't even a need to "fake" it, which would be illegal. So, ANY game in the right format can be played in the emulator. Three, and this is the big one, there are a ton of special programs out there that do the trifecta of ripping PS1 games right off the disk into an ISO format, then compressing it, and then formatting it into a PSP executable using the built in emulator. I have FF7 ON MY PSP for FREE and it's frickin' LEGAL because I ripped the thing off my OWN PS1 disks. Since PS1 games (and I think this applies to all console games) never required weird liscense agreements, I just need to know existing copyright law, which basically just limits me to not playing both my disk copy and this backed up copy on my PSP at the same time, and I think I can manage that :D.
So, basically Sony's store and PSP emulator are about as meaninful as this. If they ever stick Vagrant Story, or a limited few other PS1 games I want but missed out on, THEN I will consider buying it, on someone else's PS3 to move over to my lap top for moving onto my PSP when I want to clear up some space. About the only thing is, Sony is mad because I'm doing what I want with their stuff and they aren't getting my money for it, but as we've established, I owe them JACK.
So yeah, Sony screwed up.
http://sony.justgotowned.com/
And yeah, I realize that if it wasn't for Sony I couldn't use my PSP this way, so maybe instead I should say "hey thanks!", which I think cuts DEEPER.