Hacking Worth buying a PSP as an emulation device?

ng7apoc

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Hi,

I know I'm a bit late to the party (just a little lol :lol:) but I'm only just starting to love the benefits of handhelds! previously I was a home console guy I had lots of (mostly) older consoles many with RGB video output mods or 60Hz mods etc. but a lack of space (main reason :(), TV inputs, power sockets and older games on big LCD not looking so hot has seen me box most of it up and store it in the loft :(

Still its not all bad news as doing so has led me to fully appreciate handheld gaming! Can't believe I actually had a GBA 10 years ago and sold it without playing all those great games for instance.

So anyway yeah I'm rambling on I know so to the point I do miss those old consoles so I was looking into emulation on the PSP and it for the most part seems pretty good as far as I can tell but I really want to make sure from those who use them daily how well they really run :)

But to get to the point (at last!) my question is really this: is it worth getting a PSP now as mostly an emulation device? I assume its good enough to run Master System/NES/TurboGrafx-16/Atari Lynx/Game Gear/ Game boy/ Game Boy Colour and probably even Mega Drive with almost full compatibility, good sound and at full speed?

Also seems to be excellent for PlayStation games is this correct?

But what about everything else - Is SNES emulation good enough for even most games at full speed and then there is Mega-CD/32X and I'd assume that CPS/CPS2/MAME/Neo-Geo are probably hit and miss also? Then there is GBA - not such an issue as I have a Micro, SP and DS Lite but I'd love to know how well the emulator runs just out of interest

Sorry for long rambling post but would be grateful for any opinions :)
 

ng7apoc

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Hi,

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I should have added that I'm looking for a handheld not a PC and that while I have tried emulators on my phone and the performance is pretty good the lack of buttons is a killer :(

Also I am in on the kickstarter for a GCW zero but was looking at the PSP as they can be had very cheaply and I'm going to be on a trip before the Zero arrives
 

xist

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YES!

Master System/NES/TurboGrafx-16/Atari Lynx/Game Gear/ Game boy/ Game Boy Colour and probably even Mega Drive with almost full compatibility, good sound and at full speed?

But what about everything else - Is SNES emulation good enough for even most games at full speed and then there is Mega-CD/32X and I'd assume that CPS/CPS2/MAME/Neo-Geo are probably hit and miss also? Then there is GBA - not such an issue as I have a Micro, SP and DS Lite but I'd love to know how well the emulator runs just out of interest

YES! SNES is pretty good with a bit of tinkering (as in fine bar some of the more complex games) , plus the Neo Geo and CPS1 and 2 essentially run perfectly. GBA is fine too. You really need to check the emulation wiki (ScummVM ftw!)

Also seems to be excellent for PlayStation games is this correct?
Close to perfect with an older PSP. There will always be some problem games but they number in the tiny minority, and remember Sony put the emulator together so it didn't need to be reverse engineered from scratch.

http://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/Emulation_on_PSP
http://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/Game_Engines_on_PSP


Grab a 1000 for peanuts and enjoy the good times! Or hunt down an older 2000.
 

ng7apoc

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Thanks sounds good :) I don't have any unrealistic expectations I realise its 8 year old hardware but the PSP homebrew & development community seems to have done wonders with the hardware available much respect to all :)

Have enough on a GAME gift card after some recent trade ins to get either a new PSP street (all they sell new I believe, now) or any pre-owned console. Will see what pre-owned consoles they have in stock when I get the chance to go to the shop - hopefully they have a slim

xist you say PlayStation emulation is "Close to perfect with an older PSP" does it not work well on the newer revisions?

Also I have heard of Micro-SD to Memory Stick Pro Duo adaptors as I already have lots of Micro-SD cards this intrigues me but I'd guess they are probably to be avoided?

Thanks again everyone :)
 

rcs0926

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Hi,

I know I'm a bit late to the party (just a little lol :lol:) but I'm only just starting to love the benefits of handhelds! previously I was a home console guy I had lots of (mostly) older consoles many with RGB video output mods or 60Hz mods etc. but a lack of space (main reason :(), TV inputs, power sockets and older games on big LCD not looking so hot has seen me box most of it up and store it in the loft :(

Still its not all bad news as doing so has led me to fully appreciate handheld gaming! Can't believe I actually had a GBA 10 years ago and sold it without playing all those great games for instance.

So anyway yeah I'm rambling on I know so to the point I do miss those old consoles so I was looking into emulation on the PSP and it for the most part seems pretty good as far as I can tell but I really want to make sure from those who use them daily how well they really run :)

But to get to the point (at last!) my question is really this: is it worth getting a PSP now as mostly an emulation device? I assume its good enough to run Master System/NES/TurboGrafx-16/Atari Lynx/Game Gear/ Game boy/ Game Boy Colour and probably even Mega Drive with almost full compatibility, good sound and at full speed?

Also seems to be excellent for PlayStation games is this correct?

But what about everything else - Is SNES emulation good enough for even most games at full speed and then there is Mega-CD/32X and I'd assume that CPS/CPS2/MAME/Neo-Geo are probably hit and miss also? Then there is GBA - not such an issue as I have a Micro, SP and DS Lite but I'd love to know how well the emulator runs just out of interest

Sorry for long rambling post but would be grateful for any opinions :)

The PSP is easily the best handheld emulation device out there. I think there are a handful of games that run slow with the SNES emulator (i.e. Donkey Kong Country series), but the PSP basically has that generation of hardware (SNES, Genesis) and older covered. I haven't tried out too many Sega CD games, but I was able to play Snatcher just fine on my PSP. I don't think the PSP has a 32X emulator though. Gameboy Advance emulation is also excellent, and there are even a few N64 games that do OK on the PSP. If you're looking to get your PSX fix, then the PSP has you covered there as well. The only real issue there is that the PSP doesn't have all the buttons/controls that were utilized by some PSX games. If arcade gaming is your thing, the PSP basically has all CPS1, CPS2 and NeoGeo games covered. There are several MAME emulators available, but I don't think there's one that covers all the bases. Overall, the PSP is easily superior as a portable emulator when compared to smartphones because of the fact that the device itself has physical buttons. I know there's a way to use controllers with your smartphone to play emulated games, but that obviously requires you to carry around a controller when you want to play games on your smartphone.
 

rcs0926

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Thanks sounds good :) I don't have any unrealistic expectations I realise its 8 year old hardware but the PSP homebrew & development community seems to have done wonders with the hardware available much respect to all :)

Have enough on a GAME gift card after some recent trade ins to get either a new PSP street (all they sell new I believe, now) or any pre-owned console. Will see what pre-owned consoles they have in stock when I get the chance to go to the shop - hopefully they have a slim

xist you say PlayStation emulation is "Close to perfect with an older PSP" does it not work well on the newer revisions?

Also I have heard of Micro-SD to Memory Stick Pro Duo adaptors as I already have lots of Micro-SD cards this intrigues me but I'd guess they are probably to be avoided?

Thanks again everyone :)

By older, I think he means that you want the traditional PSP (1000-3000) vs the PSPGo. I have a PSP 3000 and have had no trouble with all the main emulators. I think there may be some obscure emulators or custom firmware that only works on a PSP 1000 or 2000, but based on what you're looking for, a PSP 3000 will more than fit the bill. As for the Micro-SD adapter, I use one that houses two 16GB cards and have had no problems with it at all. You can actually use two 32GB cards (64GB total) if you want more memory, but 32GB of total memory is more than enough for me. You can basically put every single cartridge game (SNES, Genesis, GBA, NES, etc.) and arcade game (CPS1/2, NeoGeo, MAME) and still have plenty of room for PSP/PSX ROMs. I believe I have 15-20 PSP/PSX games on my memory card. Anyway, here's the link to the adapter I bought on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004GXKI04/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 

Ergo

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I find the SNES emu on PSP very hit and miss and/or it requires lots of tweaking--on lots of games--to get them to run at full speed, but maybe I'm just playing a lot of oddball games.

As for Android, what controller are you guys playing these with?? Surely you're not suggesting an Android phone provides a better experience than a PSP with actual buttons, right?
 

Hadrian

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PSP is quite stable, better controls (compared to Android), great PSX emulation AND it plays PSP games. Never had any issues with emulation.
 
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Delta517

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Hi,

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I should have added that I'm looking for a handheld not a PC and that while I have tried emulators on my phone and the performance is pretty good the lack of buttons is a killer :(

Also I am in on the kickstarter for a GCW zero but was looking at the PSP as they can be had very cheaply and I'm going to be on a trip before the Zero arrives

Get this phone then ;)

Sony-Ericsson-Xperia-Play.jpg


I got it just for emulation and it works great! :D Except that N64 emulators is a little slow, its awesome :D Even have it's own Playstation 1 emulator made by Sony ^^
 

xist

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xist you say PlayStation emulation is "Close to perfect with an older PSP" does it not work well on the newer revisions?

Firstly, don't get a MicroSD adapter...get a Sandisk Ultra II Pro Duo. Trust me on that.

As for explaining what i meant.....the Playstation emulator is called pops. It has slightly different compatibilities for each firmware version (so a 3.72 firmware has a different set of pops compatibilities compared to a 5.00 firmware). However, there is a plugin called popsloader that does what the name implies - it loads different versions of pops to allow access to those varying compatibility settings. In basic terms, this plugin performs differently dependent on how vulnerable your PSP is to hacking (which is effectively related to the PSP's motherboard). Older PSP's which can run custom IPL's (this means run permanent CFW's through flashing a set of loading instructions to it's internal memory, and not a workaround exploit that attacks the power routines which is found on the 6.20 exploits) can access every version of pops allowing a full range of compatibility options. Newer PSP's such as the 3000 and Go just won't work properly with the full range of popsloader options.

Therefore if you want to run CUSTOM PSX conversions (Not PSN downloads - they work across the board) you want access to a PSP that'll run every pops version available.

Note 1 - Game ID's used in the conversion of PSX games to PSP format are also important for compatibility.
Note 2 - The extra RAM in the slimmer consoles is nice but not really that noticeable. It has very little impact on the broad range of PSP usage.
Note 3 - Don't get a Go....16GB of internal memory does not make up for lousy controls and a non swappable battery, plus the sense of fragility.

I love my 2000's, but the 1000 has a reassuring heft to it.
 

ng7apoc

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Thanks for the input everyone. Have definitely decided to get a pre-owned one from GAME using my gift voucher.

I'm under no illusions as to what it can do. Its an old machine at the end of its life cycle not likely to get any further updates but it is a very cheap device with good physical controls and a good sized, good quality screen with pretty decent battery life capable of emulating a wide variety of older systems plus there are a few interesting looking PSP games I'll get to try out :)

xist thank you thats a very good explanation of PlayStation on PSP for a newbie :)
 

tbgtbg

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SNES emulation is kinda iffy, but most of the rest of the systems listed in the OP are pretty good on PSP. Well, other than Lynx, which I haven't tried.
 

Foxi4

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Buying an Android Mobile phone will get you better Emulation than a PSP
or you can use a PC to emulate
Buying a PC is generally more expensive and obviously not portable enough, buying an Android smartphone or any other smartphone entails a lack of any buttons whatsoever unless it's an Xperia Play which is expensive compared to the PSP.

As far as low-cost emulation-oriented machines are concerned, the PSP is "way up there" on the list and I can recommend it for that purpose.
 

ng7apoc

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As much as I love so many SNES games if the PSP can't really emulate the SNES well I'm happy enough with the other systems as the GCW Zero will (hopefully) sort me out with SNES gaming :) but I would like to play some Atari Lynx games on the PSP its a strange one as searching on YouTube etc. for gameplay videos there are loads for any emulator on PSP but only a few from around 2006/2007 for Lynx which seems really odd to me given I see from the very helpful link given above by xist that there are 3 Lynx emulators available I hope thats not a sign that they are not any good as I'd love to play the likes of California Games, Crystal Mines II and Todd's Adventures in Slime World again!
 

Foxi4

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As much as I love so many SNES games if the PSP can't really emulate the SNES well I'm happy enough with the other systems as the GCW Zero will (hopefully) sort me out with SNES gaming :) but I would like to play some Atari Lynx games on the PSP its a strange one as searching on YouTube etc. for gameplay videos there are loads for any emulator on PSP but only a few from around 2006/2007 for Lynx which seems really odd to me given I see from the very helpful link given above by xist that there are 3 Lynx emulators available I hope thats not a sign that they are not any good as I'd love to play the likes of California Games, Crystal Mines II and Todd's Adventures in Slime World again!
SNES emulation is alright unless you're a purist. As for the LYNX videos, it's just not a very popular machine to begin with.
 

ng7apoc

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I'll certainly give SNES emulation a try but I won't be upset or disappointed if it doesn't run well enough for my liking :)

Shame the Lynx doesn't get much love its actually as a system one that I have always liked and (bar the terrible battery life I'll give) never saw why so many hated on it
 

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I'll certainly give SNES emulation a try but I won't be upset or disappointed if it doesn't run well enough for my liking :)

Shame the Lynx doesn't get much love its actually as a system one that I have always liked and (bar the terrible battery life I'll give) never saw why so many hated on it
...perhaps because the screen turns into a blur within microseconds making a lot of games unplayable? :P

Playing on an emulator is much easier than playing on the actual system though since there's MUCH less ghosting going on. ;)
 

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