Gaming Worth it for me to get a PSP?

[seren]

1)I can just 'make' the battery though right like it says in the sticky? How hard is that, like for someone with NO soldering experience. From what I read of it, I just need to cut the right wire, and from there it's actually no soldering at all, I only need to get a pencil and rub the graphite on it (One option, probably what I'll go for). If this is the case, I can do it myself with an Exacto knife.

2)My main reason for wanting UMDs is that the pro carts are so much more expensive than per se microSD carts, so a 4GB would cost me around 50 bucks in a store (Target) whereas I can get that much memory on a microSD for 20 bucks (Although I know I shouldn't compare).
In any case, that's my reasoning behind that. I'll probably wait for the next amount of money I get to come through (Aunt and grandma sending money, probably 50 each as usual, leaving way more than enough). ATM I have a 1GB that I bought for basics. Nice to know that 8GB is supported, because I had read earlier it wasn't, but if I have an 8GB I only need one.

3)How significant is the difference between the 2 in battery life? The life overall with the standard battery seems crappy (5 hours? Eww).

I'm sorry for having so many questions, but when you google you never really get a straightforward answer, and sifting through pages and pages in the stickies to find the answer obscurely referenced to would be a nightmare.

1. It's not really worth hardmodding a battery when you can just purchase a "Tool" battery for under $10.

2. With the 8 gig cards, you need to put your homebrew apps in the first 4 gigs and the remaining gigs can be used up for iso's. 4 gigs is plenty if you don't want all your games on at the same time. you can alternate between games easily. There's only a handful of games that are above 1 gig (FF7:CC, GoW and a few others). Usually i find i only want to play those games once anyway.

You can also use the adapter that someone also mentioned. It will work, only difference will be that it doesn't display it's "magic gate" supported, but that doesn't effect you usage.

3. The "tool" battery can only be used to boot your psp into service mode [To put the custom firmware on the psp]. It can's be used to power your psp.

 

[Shyn]

There isn't a lot of risk hardmodding your own battery. Use the solder point method; instead of soldering the wire down to the points, tape the wire to the points. Make sure that you also tape other parts of the wire that may touch something that will cause a problem.

Here's two pictures I took of my rig:

With this method, all you have to do to convert your battery back, is take the wire off.

 

[seren]

The process isn't risky, but for only $10 you get yourself a pandora battery in case you accidentally brick your psp later.

It's also annoying to open the battery case and to glue it back together. It also leaves scratch marks and residue. I know you won't see it when it's inside the PSP, but that's just me. Original PSP batteries are expensive and hard to find after all.

 

[jelbo]

There is a microsd to memory pro stick duo converter for 8 bucks. http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.12177 I haven't tried it though.

I'm pretty sure they don't work on the PSP as they don't have the correct tech in them.

The PSP is totally worth it, the emulation craps all over the DS emulation and once you have a couple of memory sticks you can have several retail PSP games on one and all your homebrew on the other. It's an awesome entertainment device for travelling.

There have been some good games mentioned, there is also Rachet & Clank, Daxter, GTA's, Disgaea, Jeanne D'Arc, and heaps more, all quality games. Don't believe the Nintendo fanboys who will tell you there are no good games on the PSP.

I've got a Transcend MicroSD to MS Pro Duo adapter and it works fine with a 2GB MicroSD (only tried 3 ISO's/CSO's so far).

 

[opcode32]

i am curious about snes emulation. I tried some games on Snes9xTYL 0.4.2 ME this weekend and while some ran good (Bubsy 2) others ran really slow (Maui Mallard in Cold Shadows). I guess it's probably better then DS snes emulation but stil far from perfect. I didn't try Mario/Donkey Kong etc tho, because i rather play these in perfect speed on my gba.

 

[jelbo]

I didn't try Mario/Donkey Kong etc tho, because i rather play these in perfect speed on my gba.

I'd rather play these on perfect speed and original aspect ratio and original music and original sprites on a PSP

Don't they plat at full speed? I think there was a very recent Snes9x TYL revision for Slim&Lites that may run SNES games better. Also running your PSP at 333Mhz could improve speeds (if Snes9x TYL doesn't use that speed automatically already).

I just got my PSP, but sadly won't have time for it the coming few days to test things out.

 

[altorn]

the only thing DS surpasses the PSP in with regards to homebrew is: I SEE MORE HOMEBREW IN DS...

And the PSP's volume is just it. When its in the max volume in the menu, thats it. The DS can still have stronger volume with Moonshell, and PSP's IRSHELL doesnt do that... im more on games than homebrew with my PSP..

And you'll seriously gonna waste more money with buying CHEAP UMDs than just using a 1 time buy Memory Stick duo. I mean, you can buy UMDs but after you played and get bored with them, what, sell them again? As with using a MS Pro duo, you get bored with a game, delete it, download another one. Simple.

 

[hybridkit]

And you'll seriously gonna waste more money with buying CHEAP UMDs than just using a 1 time buy Memory Stick duo. I mean, you can buy UMDs but after you played and get bored with them, what, sell them again? As with using a MS Pro duo, you get bored with a game, delete it, download another one. Simple.

Agreed with you.

 

[altorn]

Yesss..

And just ask questions about your PSP here and we'll help you the best we can.

 

[seren]

the only thing DS surpasses the PSP in with regards to homebrew is: I SEE MORE HOMEBREW IN DS...

And the PSP's volume is just it. When its in the max volume in the menu, thats it. The DS can still have stronger volume with Moonshell, and PSP's IRSHELL doesnt do that... im more on games than homebrew with my PSP..

And you'll seriously gonna waste more money with buying CHEAP UMDs than just using a 1 time buy Memory Stick duo. I mean, you can buy UMDs but after you played and get bored with them, what, sell them again? As with using a MS Pro duo, you get bored with a game, delete it, download another one. Simple.

Your kidding right? There's heaps more more homebrew apps on the psp. And more refined in my opinion. You're not looking in the right places.

Have you tried PMP advanced player? that app allows you to increase the volume above the max menu volume.

 

[Flameburst]

but this is a nintendo based forums? Is there a PSP forum like GBATemp?

use pspiso.com

Just check the section where it tells you how to hack the psp. Use the search function, the forum is pretty messy. You can find anything there.

 

[Pyrofyr]

Hurry up and take that link out, someone might report you (Contains ROMs/ISOs on the site)


In any case,I guess I'm against modding my own battery if it's going to look all ugly and crap after.

I know that the TOOL battery only costs 10 dollars, but to be honest I spent just about every dollar I had on the PSP+Patapon+1GB MSProDuo. I could sell the Patapon back and say it was defected, and snice I paid in cash get my money back, but heh.... I mainly bought it to have fun until I could get it modded.

Are there any US stores that sell these batteries? Cause I don't know anyone besides my friends teacher (He only comes over on weekends, so it would mean a week without my PSP... :[). So I'd rather just buy my own and whatever, if someone else I know gets one, that's fine, I'll help 'em do theirs too.

>.

 

[AlexElder]

for buying memory, i would always suggest searching out a smaller computer store either online or in your closest "asian area" if there is one close to you.

Big stores always sell memory at higher prices. 4 GB or 8 GB is what you should be looking into. If you have to bite the bullet and save to get another $20 do it. You will not regret it.

 

[Pyrofyr]

Thanks I'll go for that.

I'm heading to return these (Shouldn't be a problem, I'm going with someone who worked at that target for 10 years xD).

With 70 bucks to spend, I can easily grab that 4GB one (50 bucks), but the 2GB ones being on sale seems good as well, tough choice, but I'll go with the 4 so that it's a one time thing and I don't need to upgrade later. (Made that mistake with my DS microSD's = =

It seems I also need a USB cable, I'll be picking that up as well. o.o;

If they don't sell the tool batteries, I'll probably also end up having to buy one = =;
70
- 50 (4GB)
- 12 (Kinda high... weird)
= 8 left for whatever (I need to cash this 25 dollar check later on @_@; )

Oh well, I might end up trying to cut the trace, but grr... it also turns out that it'll be near impossible for me to get my friend's teacher to do it.

 

[apocalypticvisio]

I would just splurge 11 bucks on DealExtreme for the tool battery. No local store will cary the tool batteries, they hardly carry anything from Datel anymore since they started supporting the use of homebrew on game systems. Since stores want to carry the systems, they are probably scared of carrying anything that can be used to hack a game system.

 

[Pyrofyr]

I see. Yeah I went and didn't see any, I'll just make my own into a tool battery, I'm not gonna wait to get one online, and buying a USB cord (Probably stupid but I prefered the length one, and couldn't find Mini B anywhere else...) put me back quite a bit. :3

I'll make a new thread if I need more help later, but for now I'll read over tuts and then do it.

 

[IBNobody]

If it isn't too late, hold off on buying a memory stick greater than 2GB.

Keep looking at this link.

http://shop1.frys.com/product/5211767

That stick has a tendency to drop to $25, but I've seen it as low as $14 with a mail-in rebate.

It's Lexar, but that particular 4GB Lexar is better (and WAY cheaper) than Sony's or Sandisk's sticks.

 

[Pyrofyr]

Aha! I got a ride tomorrow to meet my friend's teacher before school, so I don't need info on hardmodding anymore, he'll do it all for me (and has a tool battery of his own that he uses for students), and I'll be set to go >w< -starts downloading stuff tonight-

 

[AlexElder]

Just wondering how things turned out for you? What did you end up getting and how are you liking it?

 

[Pyrofyr]

I ended up getting a PSP Slim, and got my teacher to mod it, worked out fine.

Recently I had a problem with it being defected, and took it back, got another one, and luckily my tool battery came in the mail today, so I'm looking to get it modded up and back to norm today.

I just bought a second battery that I might keep as a magic mem stick for cheap as well.
As someone moving from the DS to the PSP, I've found many titles that I've just LOVED... namely Parappa the Rapper, Monster Hunter Freedom, Patapon, and a few others. The system is friggin' great, but for the most part it was the memory being so expensive that turned me off, now that I've found a place to get it cheap, I'm not as put off. :]

Originally I figured just 2GB was fine, but now that I've foudn them for 10 bucks I'll be grabbing another tomorrow/sunday so that I can have my emulators on another stick with choice games.