The Rise and Fall of the PSP(more of a fan appreciation story/rant)

[Leo_A]

It never had a spectacular game that wowed me (Although it certainly had games that did that for many people, such as the Monster Hunter franchise in Japan and the God of War franchise for many other gamers; I just never encountered something like Ocarina of Time was for me on the Nintendo 64).

But I'm glad I've owned a PSP. It had a solid library of good games that I've enjoyed playing over the years. I'll be enjoying it for years to come and might still stumble across that game that reaches the A+ mark for me personally that I've yet to encounter.

My biggest regret with the system is the lousy analog nub design that they used. If they had just gone with something better, my enjoyment of the PSP would've benefited greatly. I didn't mind the lack of double analog control nearly as much as I did that the single analog nub that was there just wasn't very good. And on my 1000, the d-pad wasn't a heck of a lot better than the analog nub (Thankfully that was remedied at least on later revisions).

My 1000 doesn't get much use these days, but my 3000 regularly is used for my UMD collection and I'm playing various PSP downloads frequently on my Go hooked up to my television with my old SixAxis PS3 controller.

I remember when the system first came out, most people who wanted one just used it for emulation.

I always felt this like was exagerrated. While I'm sure a healthy number of people purchased one with emulation in mind, I'd be shocked to find out that the percentage of PSP owners that bought it for emulation purposes came anywhere close to even approaching 1% of the systems sold.

The average PSP owner wasn't even aware that the system could be hacked, let alone that you could install emulators on it. And most of those that did hack the system did it with piracy of PSP software in mind, not because they could do something like fire up a NES emulator on it.

Agreed. It's the 7th best video game system of all time (73 million), above NES, Xbox 360, PS3, Genesis, and SNES. Not as much as the DS, but still quite popular.

It possibly might even be above the Game Boy and in 6th place. The 118.69 million figure from Nintendo that is commonly cited combined the sales of both the Game Boy and Game Boy Color.

[Leo_A]

Sorry for the double post.

[SparTonberry]

I bought a DS first because well, the PSP software library had a slow start (I thought I remembered reading that even one of Nintendo's VIPs was complaining about the lack of games O_o) and the first image many had was UMD movies.

But the first PSP game I did buy was Star Ocean: First Departure. Actually bought it before getting a system to play it on. Yeah, I think that's about the time more RPGs started to get released on it, making me more interested.

[Press_Start]

PSP = PS1 handheld, in my mind.

Being an RPG powerhouse stateside will be the PSP's most understated characteristic to the general gaming public for this gen, it already exceeds its console cousin (PSX) in numbers alone and providing double the content than PS3. Heck, news on Black Rock Shooter and Fate/Extra US debuts blindsided me cause the chance the skies rain down beer had a better shot than these two. Now the skies is the limit, who knows how far it'll go in its lifetime?

[Edmond Dantes]

If you already own a PSP then show your appreciation for this amazing system. What were your first games? When did you purchase it?

Last April, and my firsts were Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, Star Ocean: First Departure and Star Ocean: Second Evolution.

I agree the PSP is a hella underrated portable. When I got one I basically stopped playing my GBA SP (I never was interested in the DS). I'll probably still be playing PSP long after it officially dies.

[The 1 2 P]

You can already get plenty of great games for $10 or under at national chains if you look. For example, I know I got Castlevania Drac X and Jeanne d'Arc for less than $10 at Walmart and Kmart, I think. They were already in the clearance sections.

Yeah I already picked up a few for $10, including the Dracula X Chronicles. But I was more hoping for $5 or less. I bought the Aeon Flux Complete Collection at Sears for 97 cents and they had a few $5 and $6 Psp games but nothing that really interested me.

[Gameguy]

I always felt this like was exagerrated. While I'm sure a healthy number of people purchased one with emulation in mind, I'd be shocked to find out that the percentage of PSP owners that bought it for emulation purposes came anywhere close to even approaching 1% of the systems sold.

The average PSP owner wasn't even aware that the system could be hacked, let alone that you could install emulators on it. And most of those that did hack the system did it with piracy of PSP software in mind, not because they could do something like fire up a NES emulator on it.

It was more common than you think. Every review online back then basically said to get a DS if you want exclusive games, or get a PSP if you want a portable emulator. That's what I remember when I looked up various reviews at the time.

Besides online reviews, there were actually several published books that described how to hack the PSP. These books mostly came out in 2006 and I've found one from 2005, that's not long after the system came out. I can't find any published books on hacking the DS, though you could basically do the same thing with flash cards too.

http://www.amazon.com/Hacking-PSP-Cu...6402371&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/PSP-Hacks-Mobi...6402371&sr=8-5
http://www.amazon.com/Hacks-Mods-Exp...6402371&sr=8-7

If so few PSP owners were aware of the possibility of hacks how could so many books get published on the subject? It's not like everyone who wanted to hack it needed to buy a book, I would think most people just looked up everything online for free as there's tons of free guides posted. I'm also counting playing PS1 games as emulation, I think that's a bigger reason to get the system instead of playing NES games on it. Of course if you've already done that then why bother paying for PSP games when you could also download those for free just like all the other games you're emulating. For those who pirated PSP games I doubt that they never emulated games on it too, emulation was a big appeal of the system.

[kupomogli]

Yeah. Before I even bought a PSP I heard about how you could use emulators and such for it. I downgraded my PSP soon after I got my memory stick. I will say that I've never played a PSP or PSX game on the console that I don't personally own though, where NES, SNES, Genesis, Neo Geo, TG16, GBA, etc, is a whole other story.

[Lothars]

I love my PSP, It's definitely the best handheld of this generation, I feel the DS has a good library, I think the PSP is on another level.

I have two PSP's, a PSP 2000 and a PSP GO, I really like them both and slowly picking up more PSP games on PSN.

I would recommend the PSP to anyone, I just like the system that much.

[Leo_A]

I never argued that it wasn't common, I'm quite sure it was common since I also paid attention to this platform since launch. A miniscule slice of 70 million systems is still an extremely large amount of individuals. But I'd still bet that 99% of them weren't sold with emulation in mind.

Just because there was a small, thriving niche of users that utilized their systems for emulation at communities such as this one doesn't really reflect what the average person off the street that owned a PSP was doing.

I've seen plenty of PSP owners at just this forum state that they've never investigated the emulation capabilities of the thing and I imagine we'd have one of the highest rates of incidence around of users that have the necessary knowledge and the interest to bother with emulation on the PSP, outside of a forum dedicated to PSP emulation. They didn't sell millions of these things just because people wanted one to hack to play classic games on it, lol.

Which reminds me that I really should do something useful with my PSP 1000. I've always said I'd do it tomorrow, but it must be half a decade now since I decided I'd mod it for things like homebrew and emulation and I still haven't. It just sits idle while my 3000 and Go see regularly use.

[Nature Boy]

I know Piracy isn't a good thing, but I can't bring myself to simply agree with the 'piracy killed the PSP' statement.

I don't know about everybody else, but I know *way* more people with pirate DS cards than I do hacked PSPs. And it's a hell of a lot easier to find a site to sell you an R4 than it is to buy a pandora battery and memory stick and hack the firmware on your own.

I own both systems, and love the PSP personally far more than the DS too, but to me it suffers simply because (a) the biggest target market for games are kids and (b) there are *way* more games targeted at kids for the DS.

My kids (5 and 7) aren't even *interested* in a PSP, nobody they know has one, and although I don't have totally adult games for it, they're not interested even in what I have.

Again, not to understate how piracy can and does hurt, but I think the DS dominates because that's the one kids want.

Just my opinion of course.

[Zama]

I got FF7: Crisis Core as my first PSP game

[SpaceHarrier]

I got FF7: Crisis Core as my first PSP game

I bought a PSP as soon as this was announced for the US. While I think it was totally worth it to spend $170 + memory stick (separate at the time) -- I never thought I'd get my money's worth out of the system.. I tend to buy handhelds and then ignore them. My Atari Lynx is still mint from 20 years ago.

I was wrong. I've spent more time with my PSP than on some consoles I own. Dissidia is the game that made me a true PSP fan. I've also put dozens of hours into Gran Turismo (despite the lack of tuning). It's an amazing looking and playing game. I have a small collection of other titles, but there are plenty of games I'm interested in.

Unfortunately I've had to curtail my PSP gametime, as the analog nub aggravates my carpal tunnel.. (this is the only game-related controller to do so)

[goatdan]

I got my first PSP on a whim at Circuit City when they were closing for about $90ish. I honestly think that I was just interested in it, but was really surprised to find a bunch of games I liked. The problem with the PSP was that so many games were console games made like console games. However, no one mentioned the hold button was basically a long term pause, and that made it way more convenient for me to play console-like games where ever, and I ended up playing it a ton.

Got a second one shortly after the first, got it hacked just to play Mother 3 with the fan translation on it -- for the record, I do have a legit copy of Mother 3 too and would buy it in an instant if it came out in the US. I'm very glad I picked up both consoles.