Josh H

We'll see. I have the impression that nintendo will do something goofy that will annoy people to simply do things there own way, but I have no idea how.

There were rumors that the DSs will be able to make their own nework by communicating with one another if enough of them get out there, but even with my lack of knowledge I wrote that off as a fanboy rumor/wet dream.

Darknight

They already did, which is how the wireless network play works now.

Josh H

Oh I know, but the rumor was that the range was greater and a nationwide (i.e. you could play against people spanning the country) network for online gaming could work this way, which is BS, as the range is limited and only supports a limited number of DS's at once.

indy2029

As Darkknight stated, it seems Ds's WiFi capabilities are more complex possibly limiting it to many users.
As for the links you provided:

"Movie playback supports ASF MPEG-4 files at up to CIF (352x288) resolutions. The maximum data rate is 1.5 Megabits per second. Sound drops to single channel when viewing movies."

"Battery life seems to take somewhat of a hit depending on how your use this device. When viewing movies, the GBASP lasts four hours. Music playback lasts for fifteen hours if the screen backlight is off and eight hours if it's on."

"It's unclear just how far Nintendo intends to take Play-chan in the market. While pricing is expected to be in the 5,000 yen range, distribution will initially be limited to Nintendo's Online sales site, with no current plans for retail distribution. The Japan-based few who are interested in the product will want to make reservations at Nintendo Japan's site in mid-January for shipment in mid February."

BeckysBoy

Ah yes. Another sparkling example of the PSP as a bastion of originality and the sworn enemy of ports.

Cedrock

dunno if someone said it already but, the pics arent working for your first post. If someone said it already and you tried fixing it its still noy working, im just realy interested in how the nonmarketing pics look. Thanks

PixyJunket

Um, not really. There are 6 ports and 4 new games.

Josh H

Bah, the 4 new ones are just rearranged versions of old games. Nothing "new."

I just can't get into those games, I'm not that old school. NES is as far back as I can go and still have fun for more than 5 minutes.

PixyJunket

If they're anything CLOSE to how good the last arranged versions of their old arcade games Namco did (half of which made it to the PS2/GC/Xbox Namco Museum), it's A LOT new. Do you consider Metroid Zero Mission nothing "new" over NES Metroid?

Josh H

That's why I put new in quotes. They are new, but hardly innovative or something we haven't seen before.

Zero Mission I bought in a second, but say it was a PSP game rather than a GBA game (where I already had a GBA and GB player), it's not something that would make me buy it just to play it.

BeckysBoy

Actually, I have nothing against ports in general. It just irks me when people suggest that everything coming out on the DS is a port or remake and somehow everything coming for the PSP is wholly original. A port of a PS2 game is still a port, and I'd certainly say Namco Museum falls firmly into the port/remake camp.

_tony_

http://www.kurnspatrick.com/movies/psp.wmv

here's a video review of the PSP some guy made. if you can get past the creepy voice and hands, it's pretty good. it's also nice if you have only seen pictures of it yet.

cheapskate

Thanks for the link! Before I saw that video... I hadn't even THOUGHT of where the UMD's actually went! What I did notice, was that every time one of his zombie fingers touched the PSP, it left behind a big ol' greasy fingerprint. That's one of the things I don't like about the "shiny" design... oh well - it's pretty minor.

sofdec

Yeah, I had a feeling that was gonna happen

About 15 minutes after posting this, the thread had about 150 views (its now 2,905), and my bandwidth limit was 1,500MB (The pictures came out to about 4-5 MB alone, and my bandwidth went way over in no time ), they cut me off when it hit 2051.04 Mb.

Here are all of the pictures again though, for anyone interested:
http://photobucket.com/albums/v230/sofdec7

Edison

Here's a video of some guys who decided to take out their frustrations on that shiny little PSP. See what happens with a car, bat, and feet of destruction.

http://mga.sorobangeeks.com//news_pi...psp_cassee.mpg

Joe1086

Is there anywhere to pre-order this online?

edstein

Will the PSP recognize an external storage device like a USB hard drive or thumb drive?

Darknight

It doesn't at the moment, but that can easily be fixed with software as they're planning to use the usb port as an interface to external hardware.

edstein

If I could plug in my 20gb Zen, this would be one awesome media player.

filmerp

Whoa! It's been a few years since I've bothered with any gaming consoles at all, but I'll preorder this thing ASAP.

TripWire

Sony PSP 'update' adds office apps, browser, email
Link

Sony may be preparing to release its first PlayStation Portable (PSP) update, if a file that briefly appeared on the web this weekend is what it purports to be: a leaked copy of an early version of the update code.

Whatever its provenance, the software certainly includes some interesting features. In addition to the usual bug fixes, the update is said to add not only a web browser and an email program, but a word processor and a spreadsheet.

At this stage, the translations from the original Japanese exploration of the alleged PSP update file doesn't make it clear whether these are fully functioning office apps - or simply readers put in place to handle emailed attachments. Given the device's nature, we suspect that latter, but early talk of a PSP keyboard accessory has led some observers to suggest they're the real thing.

The update also adds an on-screen calculator utility, three games and an automatic software update feature along the lines of the utilities found in desktop operating systems.

Early looks at the update suggest it is not complete, with the update process failing some way in. If by any chance you find yourself with a copy - don't ask us where to get it, we don't know - it's probably not a good idea to run it. Quite apart from being potentially incomplete, it has not yet been verified that the file has even come from Sony, and could in fact be something more malign.

If the file does represent an early build of an official update, then it seems likely Sony will release it ahead of the PSP's US and European launches, expected to in March. So far, the PSP is on sale in Japan only.

As Sony demonstrated with the launch of the PSX PS2-based PVR in December 2003, it is willing to ship a number of updates, each adding extra functionality that was originally planned for the machine but dropped in order to get it to market on schedule. Given Sony's rush to get the PSP out the door, it's entirely plausible that components such as the browser and email app were cut at the eleventh hour.

edstein

Is this really a patch or, just some homebrew code?

Darknight

It was a dummy patch that doesn't quite work yet. It was up on Sony's servers and it was probably something they were using as a test for upgrading the PSP. It's definitely official, but it doesn't work quite yet except starts the install process and gives you some info about it. Once it installs though, it has corrupted your bios since its not working yet.

Get Me Coffee

These are the multimedia applications Sony is considering for the handheld:

Artificial voice engine for reading text
SonicStage music download system
News download system
Calculator function
Voice chat function
Three internal PSP games
Shougi [Japanese chess game]
Big Bang Bang [alien-shooting game]
PSP e-mail software
PSP word processor
PSP Web browser
PSP schedule software
Bug fix 000
Bug fix 002

All those apps were on the patch that was leaked.

Get Me Coffee

FYI...we will possible be able to play games off the memory stick....

Taken from IGN:

"The presence of a Game folder on the Memory Stick, and the appearance of the folder under the Game section of the XMB interface suggests one thing: PSP will be able to play games directly off Memory Stick. Of course, we didn't actually have any game files in the directory to try this out, but it looks like SCE is planning something in the way of non-UMD game content for the PSP. Downloadable demos? Fully downloadable games? Homemade application support that allows the young generation to flex its budding creative muscle on the cutting edge of portable hardware? We'll have to wait for further clarification from SCE on the matter."

http://psp.ign.com/articles/571/571166p1.html?fromint=1