Gaming A Few Questions

[SylvWolf]

So, I've been thinking about getting a PSP and modding it for a while, but am now getting more serious. I know how to mod, thanks to some great tutorials found right here on this site, but still question materials and what happens after.

First off, to mod. I'll buy a PSP, a Pandora battery, and a memory stick. The PSP is easy, but I've been wondering about the other two. Would this DealExtreme offer work? If anyone knows anything about the battery, that would be the most helpful. I know I could do better with the mem stick, but I'm trying to save on costs here.

Then, after the custom firmware is installed, how do I play the games? Can you just run PSP/PS1 isos straight from the mem stick or is there some kind of special method? Keep in mind, I have no knowledge of how a PSP works, so I'm not sure if the FW has some kind of browser for the mem stick. I'm also curious about homebrew and emulators, but that can be saved for later. Just, does anyone know any good PSP homebrew sites (sort of the PSP version of GBAtemp)?

Thanks to anyone who answers my n00bish questions. Sorry if this has been asked before, but I would like to have definitive answers to my questions before dropping $200+ on a PSP.

 

[DarkAura]

If you have a friend who has a Pandora battery, borrow it. And for the games, put PSP isos in the ISO folder, which should be created once you get it to CFW. And for memory sticks, a 4 gig costs like 50 bucks at a store.

 

[Shyn]

So, I've been thinking about getting a PSP and modding it for a while, but am now getting more serious. I know how to mod, thanks to some great tutorials found right here on this site, but still question materials and what happens after.

First off, to mod. I'll buy a PSP, a Pandora battery, and a memory stick. The PSP is easy, but I've been wondering about the other two. Would this DealExtreme offer work? If anyone knows anything about the battery, that would be the most helpful. I know I could do better with the mem stick, but I'm trying to save on costs here.

Then, after the custom firmware is installed, how do I play the games? Can you just run PSP/PS1 isos straight from the mem stick or is there some kind of special method? Keep in mind, I have no knowledge of how a PSP works, so I'm not sure if the FW has some kind of browser for the mem stick. I'm also curious about homebrew and emulators, but that can be saved for later. Just, does anyone know any good PSP homebrew sites (sort of the PSP version of GBAtemp)?

Thanks to anyone who answers my n00bish questions. Sorry if this has been asked before, but I would like to have definitive answers to my questions before dropping $200+ on a PSP.

The Pandora combo on dealextreme is pretty good, but don't use that particular memory stick for your magic memory stick. I would advise you to go buy a cheap 512mb branded stick for a dedicated magic memory stick (Sony, Lexar, or Sandisk). You can use that cheap 4gig stick to play some more simple games (not streaming games such as GTA though).

PSP iso/cso's run straight out of the ISO folder on the root of the memory stick, its pretty obvious how to get there once you get your hands on the PSP itself. PS1 games have to be converted to eboot files from their iso versions. There are plenty of programs to convert them, so its not a problem. The PS1 games then go into the PSP>GAME folder, instead of the ISO folder; homebrew is put in the GAME folder as well. I usually get my homebrew news from qj.net or psp-hacks. Once you get your PSP modded, the hard part is done. Picking up the homebrew and emulation stuff is fairly simple compared to that.

 

[altorn]

200+ on a PSP? Got mine for 160+! XD

I also got the bundle from dealextreme and got me disappointed. I dont know about other customers but I got a really crappy mem stick. the pandora battery works but the mem stick is very slow and i cant make a magic mem stick out of it. (note, this is from my experience.)
Id stick to mem sticks from other sellers. Even if you're trying to save costs and buy the deal from DX, you may have to use more.

As for playing ISOs, PSP has a menu right at startup where you can select Music Playing, Video, Internet, Settings, Photos and of course, Games. If you want to play an ISO right off the mem stick, just access it normally, PROVIDED, you put the ISOs in the ISO folder in the root of the mem stick.

Homebrew, its a bit complicated so you better refer to the Readme txt files in each homebrew program.

 

[SylvWolf]

Thanks for the fast replies. Based on the info here and some more poking around, that mem stick seems like a bust. So, I'll probably pick up the battery and a cheaper mem stick to set aside for modding purposes. Might as well splurge for the Sandisk Ultra II Pro Duo mem stick, as that seems to be the best. Anyone know of any sites with good prices on those? The cheapest I've seen is 60.99, trying to find cheaper.

And about the price:

(I'm just updating this list for my own purposes, pay it no mind

)

PSP Slim (NEW) - $169.99
Pandora Battery - $10.50
Sandisk 512 MB Pro Duo Mem Stick - $9.44
Sandisk 4 GB Pro Duo Mem Stick - $24.75

Total ~ $215 + Shipping

EDIT: Oh, and thanks for the info about folders. Will probably help if I decide to go through with it.

 

[Shyn]

Thanks for the fast replies. Based on the info here and some more poking around, that mem stick seems like a bust. So, I'll probably pick up the battery and a cheaper mem stick to set aside for modding purposes. Might as well splurge for the Sandisk Ultra II Pro Duo mem stick, as that seems to be the best. Anyone know of any sites with good prices on those? The cheapest I've seen is 60.99, trying to find cheaper.

And about the price:

PSP Slim (NEW) - $169.99
Pandora Battery - $10.50
Cheap Mem Stick - $7.66
Sandisk Ultra II (4GB) ~ $60.99

Total ~ $250 + Shipping

EDIT: Oh, and thanks for the info about folders. Will probably help if I decide to go through with it.

DON'T get any of the memory sticks from dealextreme for the purpose of a magic memory stick, from what I understand, NONE of them support magicgate, so they will not work.

 

[SylvWolf]

Ah. Any other known, small, cheap mem sticks that would serve the purpose?

 

[Shyn]

Sandisk Ultra II - 512mb
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...p;Tpk=pro%2bduo

 

[SylvWolf]

That will do nicely. Thank you.

 

[solange82200]

The Sandisk Ultra II 4 gig is on sale at best buy for 44.99. Cant beat that. They are normally around 80 bucks. I have one and my brother has one. It's write speed is three times as fast as the regular Sandisk (I have one of those too, which I spent 50 bucks on at newegg.com, before I knew about the bestbuy sale

). Also the games Ive played run flawlessly.

P.S. I wouldnt get memory sticks from Ebay, too much chance of getting fakes.

 

[SylvWolf]

The Sandisk Ultra II 4 gig is on sale at best buy for 44.99. Cant beat that. They are normally around 80 bucks. I have one and my brother has one. It's write speed is three times as fast as the regular Sandisk (I have one of those too, which I spent 50 bucks on at newegg.com, before I knew about the bestbuy sale

). Also the games Ive played run flawlessly.

P.S. I wouldnt get memory sticks from Ebay, too much chance of getting fakes.

The current going rate at BestBuy is $62.99, I have no idea where your price is coming from. The cheapest non-eBay price is still Amazon.com at $51.39.

EDIT: The eBay seller I'm looking at is selling them used and has a great feedback rating, seems credible.

 

[myuusmeow]

http://www.buy.com/prod/sandisk-4gb-memory.../202629242.html
$31.31 shipped, you might get a fake though. I bought from the same link (different seller though) and it wasn't a fake.