PSP (PlayStation Portable) Game System
From LoveToKnow VideoGames
The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is the slickest piece of handheld gaming to come out since…well the original Game Boy of 1988. If you think Nintendo has a confident hold on this market, you’d be surprised to find it’s grip slowly being chipped away. If Sony broke Nintendo’s hold on the console market with the PS1, then they can do it with the PSP. They’ve already got an excellent start.
First Look at the PSP (PlayStation Portable) Game System
It’s black and sleek. The design jumps out at you with it’s glassy stare and skinny body. When you pick it up, you realize that this isn’t for your five year old.
If it didn’t have the screen, you’d figure this to be a PS2 controller. The standard button layout (X,O, Square, Triangle) on the right and a digital and analog pad on the left and a left and right shoulder button. Along the bottom are your buttons you’ll use to control volume, change screen format during movies and preset equalizer settings for Mp3s. On the backside is the pop out tray where you put the UMD (Universal Media Disc) games and movies. It’s a natural layout you can easily get use to. The analog stick is a bit different. Instead of rotating on a axis, the knob slides in any direction. Handy for shooters and sports games; not-so-handy for racers.
Nerds, You are here
Clock speed: 333 mhz. Screen: 4.3”, 16:9 widescreen LCD. 2MB Video Dram. Memory storage: Memory stick Duo available from 32 MB to 1 Gig. UMD disc capacity: 1.8 GB.
How pretty thy graphics, how sweet thy sound
The important part of the PSP is the graphics. Imagine a PS1 or PS2 that you can fit in your pocket and you’re on the right track to visualizing the graphics. I’ve played 7 games on the system and the graphics have all been somewhere between the PS1 and PS2. The racers edged out towards the PS2 and the sports games leaned toward the PS1. Either way, it’s still pretty. With the crystal clear LCD, you don’t even notice pixels or jagged lines, though you may notice a slight slowdown on some games where lots of action is going on.
The stereo sound is great. Don’t rely on the built in speakers to give you that ‘home theatre’ experience though. They are stereo, but perform poorly (read, not so loud) when playing games and watching movies. I recommend the supplied headphones, or even your own favorite headphones for superb sound.
Swiss army system
“Play games? I do more than that,” the PSP will tell you. Upload or favorite Mp3s via a USB cord, or watch MP4s that you can download from the Internet. Actually you can download any type of video file; you just have to convert to MP4 with a program. Sony sells one for $24.99 or you can grab the 3GP Converter off of virtually any freeware site. The program will convert pretty much any video file (WMV, AVI, RM) to MP4 to view on your PSP. What I really like about this program is that it compresses very well. I had a 85 MB video that it shrunk down to 13 MB. Since I am still using the 32 MB Duo stick, this was great. The PSP can also be used as a JPEG photo viewer. You can zoom, crop and rotate photos with ease.
Also available are UMD movies. New movies are being release the same days as their DVD counterparts and most of the major movie companies have signed on to release older movies like Ghostbusters and Napoleon Dynamite…sweet. Prices are very competitive ranging from $9.99 to $19.99 for new releases.
The race for space
Who will win the space on gamer’s shelves for best handheld system? Time will tell, but with excellent graphics that developers will no doubt improve on and the versatility of a media player, the $249.99 price tag gives you a lot more than the Nintendo DS and tons more than the Gameboy Advance. Anybody remember the WonderSwan? It’s been blown out of the water.
Resources
This page has been accessed 2,522 times. This page was last modified 20:23, 5 April 2006.
© 2006-2008 LoveToKnow Corp.
