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The PSP feels surprisingly present right now

gardinerbryant.com

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Re: The PSP feels surprisingly present right now

#5
For years one of my best friends growing up didn't have Internet, and my only communication with him was when he would walk to the McDonald's for the Wi-Fi with his PSP. We would chat over MSN.

I recently got a PSP (along with a special cable that I can use to hook it up to my TV); there is a pretty strong aftermarket ecosystem for them.

Re: The PSP feels surprisingly present right now

#7
I mean a PSP is great, but in 2026 I'd rather go for a 2nd hand Android that can not just emulate PSP but a plethora of other platforms as well with much better performance and usecases.

Pair that with a 30-40$ controller extension like the Razer Kishi and you have a really powerful retro gaming device.

Re: The PSP feels surprisingly present right now

#8
I fondly remember loading up a janky version of MAME that only ran Pac-Man via the newly discovered kxploit on my PSP in ~2005. That sent me down a two-decades-long road of fiddling with so many devices, making them my own.

I have huge respect for the folks who spent countless hours freeing devices like the PSP from the control of the corporations that wanted them locked down. I think we'll need a lot more of that spirit in the years ahead...

Re: The PSP feels surprisingly present right now

#9
post #7

I mean a PSP is great, but in 2026 I'd rather go for a 2nd hand Android that can not just emulate PSP but a plethora of other platforms as well with much better performance and usecases. Pair that with a 30-40$ controller extension like the Razer Kishi and you have a really powerful retro gaming device.

That's a valid point ngl

But there's something quite nostalgic about holding the console you had as a kid and going down a good old happy memory lane

Re: The PSP feels surprisingly present right now

#10
I bought a PSP on my first trip to Japan in 2008. I think it was around 30k yen. I remember the store I was at had used ones labeled with which firmware version they had, and I got a slightly more expensive one with an older firmware (3.4.0?) because it was one that had some vulnerability that involved a specially crafted save file for Lumines that allowed installing a custom firmware.

It was(/is) a great device for playing ps1 and snes games. It doesn't seem so special now that there are so many emulation focused handhelds, but at the time it felt really awesome to be able to play games like that on a plane.

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