hi,

i'm playing with the thought to get a psp. i have some questions though,

1. i don't want to use it primarily for playing games, but to experiment with it. are hardware mods necessary to execute own code?
2. do there exist any umd recorders, or is it all memorystick-based?
3. does there exist a small keyboard as extension, in case i want to surf with the psp?
4. is it a good idea to get a psp at all? i mean, it's a rather dated piece of hardware. will there be a psp2 or comparable in the near (1, 2 years) future?

and no, i don't want to port dx-games to the psp, nor 3dgs games, no need to tell me that it's not possible.

what about Pandora, psp3000, and the gp2x?

Well it's not dated as far as handhelds go.. it's the best there currently is. :p

I do expect Sony to come with a successor someday, but probably not anytime soon. Perhaps in a year or two, three, perhaps even later when the PS4 comes out.



No hardware mods, but you do have to install a different OS version. Something that theoretically could screw up your PSP. If you have the unofficial homebrew capable OS installed, you won't be able to play the games you've bought though.

So either you'll be switching between OS versions a lot, or you could buy two PSPs. One for homebrew and one for official games.

Trying out your own stuff on the PSP is cool though, but for me not worth screwing around with the OS so much,



Not that I know off, but don't worry.. you can type in a sort of pseudo-sms style, that works incredibly fast actually.



I have no doubt that you could burn a UMD disc, as it's similar to a mini-disc / mini-dvd kind of format... but I do not think such burners are available for the general public.

Not really an issue though, as the memory stick is what you'd want to use anyways. Things on the memory stick usually run a lot faster.

Cheers

ah, thanks.
i couldn't afford 2 PSPs, and it's really a setback if i had to switch OSes constantly.
no keyboard for the psp, i already feared that. i tried the in-psp-browser today, and beside the fact that it's extremely unhandy due to the small resolution (some smartphones reduce the website size by 50 or more per cent, why doesn't the psp do that?), i didn't like the mobile phone style input much. maybe just because i'm not accustomed to it.

and for the "official games" - is it worth getting the psp?

Not sure which version of the OS that PSP you've tried had, but with the latest versions you can set it to 'smart view' or something. It will then use the size (width) of the screen then for viewing sites and scales them appropriately. Works much better that way. There are some other options you have to scale the screen though.

Still, I can agree with anyone who claims that the PSP isn't exactly the perfect thing for browsing.

As far as the official games go, well there's quite a bunch I really like;

Must-play games:

God of War, Metal Gear Portable Ops, Final Fantasy Crisis Core, FieldCommander, Syphon Filter:Logan's Shadow (and also Dark Mirror), Patapon, Killzone:Liberation, both Metal Gear Ac!d 1 and 2, FlatOut:Head On, Tekken: Dark Resurrection, N+, Crush, Mercury Meltdown, Sid Meier's Pirates, Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles, Monster Hunter 2, Daxter, Pursuit Force:Extreme Justice.

I probably missed some other good ones, but this list should give you an idea at least.

Upcoming games:

Star Wars Force Unleashed (looking great and wicked physics)
Parasite Eve: The Third Birthday

and more... (I hope, lol)

Cheers

There is a new PSP out soon, wait for that one, it has a lot of updates.

As far as I know there are no psp emulators that you can run without having a psp. So you need the console to run any homebrew games.

I can not answer the other questions, as I do not know alot about the psp, but I do know a toolchain that helps alot with developping (also for the NDS (which I use it for), GBA and wii): devkitpro. And here (which you may already found out) are the main psp dev forums: http://forums.ps2dev.org/viewforum.php?f=14

In #dsdev channel at irc.blitzed.org are many people who know alot about the psp, ds, gba, wii and probably alot more, as well the home chatroom of the developper of devkitpro .

PSPs are great once you get the hacked firmware. you can do anything with em after that. way cooler than any other handheld ever. its practically a tiny ps2style-pocketpc once you hack it. ie: dont buy the newer models and google for "determine PSP model type by SKU" so you can even check the box at the store to make sure its hackable by current firmware hacks. I have one and its got two 4GB sticks packed with movies and videos and music i encoded with imtoo. if this thing had bigger storage capacity it would put ipod out of business. well, it is still kinda homebrewy and functions poorly but if it were done right and sony made it an openly hackable/moddable device and just sold the device and let us put linux or winmob on it.. wooo boy.. u'd be crazy to buy an ipod if they did that. but still.. its pretty cool as is. best choice. hands down. thats my advice.

o yea and NEVER use sonys updates. They will make it harder to hack the firmware and ie: homebrew wont work. when you want to update for a game or something wait for the version you need to be hacked/emulated and then get that one.. so basically ur just updating from a different source... when i last updated my hacked firmware it was like 3.10 open edition. I dont play games on it at all i just use it for portable porn basically (gimme a break I was in the navy at the time). o yea.. and music..

For a proper hackable version you will probably need php version 1000, which is the original one released in Japan.

what's holding me from getting one is the missing keyboard and the fact that everyone would need a hacked psp who wanted to play my games, which i seriously don't like. as long as my code has no chance to run on a retail psp, it's not worth the effort.

i'll wait for the 3000 series for sure, and decide afterwards.