20th October 2007, 11:23 PM
Well enjoy it. A lot of games are making me pick that thing up for something other than MP3s for the first time in a while.
Check some of my posts here for instructions on hacking the heck out of that thing to play homebrew apps of all stripe.
An ipod can store a lot more music, is smaller, and has longer battery life. An iPhone has a web browser that's actually more easily usable, and can actually be used on the road. Every situation where I am able to use wifi on my PSP to go online, my laptop can do it far better.
Yes, I'd say the iPod is the better MP3 player and the iPhone is the better online navigator. That said, they are too rich for my blood and I have no intention of ever getting them. My PSP has served me perfectly fine for my MP3 needs (a 4 gig stick is more than enough for me), plus it plays games and movies. That's all I need it to do. I know I'm missing out, and I'm not about to pretend I've got a better MP3 player or awesome web browser (that I never use anyway, and it's flash support is limited and very clunky at that, certainly not viable for catching up on Homestar Runner, it can't even download whole cartoons before running out of memory). I'm just able to say that's perfectly fine by me if what I have does what I need it to do. I just set the thing to play some songs, stick it in my pocket, and off I go.
One thing though, since when can a PSP read Word format documents? It can read text files, though there's no normally usable text file reader (or browser for that matter) built into the device and one has to use a round about way via the web browser to do so. I myself use a special homebrew app for viewing text files. It actually can be convenient sometimes to download GameFAQ files and stick them in there that way.
Anyway, if you really want it's "full" feature set to brag about, you'll want to "unlock" it, and ever since they came along with the "pandora battery" hack that actually hacks the BATTERY'S firmware (why it had flashable memory is a mystery to me), every PSP can be unlocked. Note that it requires a rather complicated series of steps. Further, if you have the new model (the so-called "slim", or 2000 model), your battery is unhackable. Also, to even get everything you'll need it requires someone you know with an older PSP, and preferably experience hacking their's. Find someone like that and you're in business. I'd do it (in fact I've got everything prepaired as I've done the steps needed a number of times on various friend's PSPs), but I'm not even remotely close to you. Once it is done though, you can do all manner of tricks like:
-Backing up your PSP games to your memory stick to play them with reduced load times or just to carry a bunch of PSP games around at once.
-Port your PS1 games into an executable game for your PSP's built in emulator to play all manner of those classics on the go (have all the apps you need gathered together that I can send you, them all being freeware, and a link to some sites that give you some custom images and sounds for decorating your app).
-hacking all the visual and audial elements of the interface to your liking
-Playing custom homebrew games from independent game makers like Hexic, a puzzle game that involves "rolling" dice into place and getting combos by making them roll next to each other, in the same number touching each other as appears on the die (6 6's touching, for example), or a fun outer space shooter
-Various utility apps for all sorts of purposes, like directly ripping previous said PSP games, or reading TXT files, or letting you do file transfers wirelessly
-Adding other emulators for playing your old console games on the go without having to buy them AGAIN, for example I found a Super Metroid ROM and a special SNES emulator for the PSP so I could finally play Super Metroid portably. Nintendo dropped the ball, but I don't really mind! Totally legal so long as you own the games in question already (the one caveat being, don't play the console version at the same time as this backup, which honestly I don't see why you'd want to).
-Adding extra apps to play back the media file formats the PSP doesn't support (yet)
-Writing your OWN apps for a portable system. There are a number of homebrew dev kits out there right now. Some have 3D libraries and such. I believe the most common kit is Java based, but there's LUA scripting and other such things available if you want such things.
Check some of my posts here for instructions on hacking the heck out of that thing to play homebrew apps of all stripe.
An ipod can store a lot more music, is smaller, and has longer battery life. An iPhone has a web browser that's actually more easily usable, and can actually be used on the road. Every situation where I am able to use wifi on my PSP to go online, my laptop can do it far better.
Yes, I'd say the iPod is the better MP3 player and the iPhone is the better online navigator. That said, they are too rich for my blood and I have no intention of ever getting them. My PSP has served me perfectly fine for my MP3 needs (a 4 gig stick is more than enough for me), plus it plays games and movies. That's all I need it to do. I know I'm missing out, and I'm not about to pretend I've got a better MP3 player or awesome web browser (that I never use anyway, and it's flash support is limited and very clunky at that, certainly not viable for catching up on Homestar Runner, it can't even download whole cartoons before running out of memory). I'm just able to say that's perfectly fine by me if what I have does what I need it to do. I just set the thing to play some songs, stick it in my pocket, and off I go.
One thing though, since when can a PSP read Word format documents? It can read text files, though there's no normally usable text file reader (or browser for that matter) built into the device and one has to use a round about way via the web browser to do so. I myself use a special homebrew app for viewing text files. It actually can be convenient sometimes to download GameFAQ files and stick them in there that way.
Anyway, if you really want it's "full" feature set to brag about, you'll want to "unlock" it, and ever since they came along with the "pandora battery" hack that actually hacks the BATTERY'S firmware (why it had flashable memory is a mystery to me), every PSP can be unlocked. Note that it requires a rather complicated series of steps. Further, if you have the new model (the so-called "slim", or 2000 model), your battery is unhackable. Also, to even get everything you'll need it requires someone you know with an older PSP, and preferably experience hacking their's. Find someone like that and you're in business. I'd do it (in fact I've got everything prepaired as I've done the steps needed a number of times on various friend's PSPs), but I'm not even remotely close to you. Once it is done though, you can do all manner of tricks like:
-Backing up your PSP games to your memory stick to play them with reduced load times or just to carry a bunch of PSP games around at once.
-Port your PS1 games into an executable game for your PSP's built in emulator to play all manner of those classics on the go (have all the apps you need gathered together that I can send you, them all being freeware, and a link to some sites that give you some custom images and sounds for decorating your app).
-hacking all the visual and audial elements of the interface to your liking
-Playing custom homebrew games from independent game makers like Hexic, a puzzle game that involves "rolling" dice into place and getting combos by making them roll next to each other, in the same number touching each other as appears on the die (6 6's touching, for example), or a fun outer space shooter
-Various utility apps for all sorts of purposes, like directly ripping previous said PSP games, or reading TXT files, or letting you do file transfers wirelessly
-Adding other emulators for playing your old console games on the go without having to buy them AGAIN, for example I found a Super Metroid ROM and a special SNES emulator for the PSP so I could finally play Super Metroid portably. Nintendo dropped the ball, but I don't really mind! Totally legal so long as you own the games in question already (the one caveat being, don't play the console version at the same time as this backup, which honestly I don't see why you'd want to).
-Adding extra apps to play back the media file formats the PSP doesn't support (yet)
-Writing your OWN apps for a portable system. There are a number of homebrew dev kits out there right now. Some have 3D libraries and such. I believe the most common kit is Java based, but there's LUA scripting and other such things available if you want such things.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)