I don’t quite get it. I love my psps, I rocked my hacked psps for years, the but the pocket sized Linux handhelds have gotten so good and cheap. Way smaller, more powerful, and a better screen can be had for like $150.
At this point it’s nostalgia for me. The PSP was my first handheld and it still feels great to use. All you need to do to make it acceptable to use today is change out the battery and put in a better screen.
Oh absolutely. This was exactly me for the longest time. I review retro handhelds, so I’ve had everything from the entry-level to the high power ones (like the Odin 3 Max). I thought you couldn’t get better than upscaled graphics and save states, but when I got a re-obsession semi-recently with the PSP:
https://gardinerbryant.com/tag/psp/
…I’ve realized that native hardware just has magic to it. The handheld is slim, the design is retro futuristic in the best way (in my eyes), the jailbreak and add-ons are invaluable and the experience is just fun. I’ve just reviewed the Retroid Pocket Nova, am reviewing the Anbernic RG SP, and have a couple more on the way, but that isn’t stopping me absolutely loving WipEout on my PSPs :)
I adore my RG SP. I got it in the GameCube Indigo, for that little extra hit of nostalgia. I tinkered for a bit trying to get dolphin to run before giving up and realizing my steam Deck handles that better anyway. My recent obsession has been Emerald Rogue and Pokemon Unbound, two romhacks that have managed to reawaken that childlike sense of wonder I’ve yearned for recently with gaming. There’s just something magical about playing Gameboy Advance games on an SP, original or not.
You’re so right about the “magic.” The way you jailbroke the PSP was just the coolest. You hacked the battery! I remember doing that for the first time and I felt like a hacker—my friends looked at me like I was one too—even though I was just following simple instructions.
20 ish years later, I wanna get my hands on some more consoles but wanna try hardware modding to learn how to solder too.
I did it on mine and it was awesome. I told my brother I could do it for him, sliced the foil and started a lithium fire in the house. Threw the battery on a plate and carried it into the front yard while burning out.
You’re not a true tinkerer until you burn at least one house down.
Link please to theese cheap machines 😅
Retroid Pocket 6 has Android by default, but you can install Rocknix Linux on it.
Aliexpress if you want a good deal, and Amazon if you want fast shipping and easy returns. There are a lot of devices. Solid ones come from companies like Anbernic, Miyoo, Powkiddy, TrimUI, Retroid, Ayn. There’s some bad products from some of those companies too so good idea to do some research. Youtube channels that cover their products include Retro Game Corps and Techdweeb.
RAM sold separately.
Some people prefer retro gaming on the original hardware.
But half of the appeal of the hacked psps is that it is an emulation machine. These folks aren’t so stoked on just psp games.
I don’t know what to tell you. Different people have different preferences.
I remember jailbreaking my psp and throwing on a cfw, used it to play SNES and GBA roms, it was fucking awesome.
Those same people prefer paint in its original lead flavor.
So recently, I spent a fair time chatting with the creator of PSPunk, a website I’m sure many here might have visited. But that chatting (which ended up being an interview) pivoted instead to something a bit different from what I usually end up doing with articles.
Rather than just talking about the website itself, we ended up discussing the people who keep older gaming communities alive. We covered how PSPunk started as a simple custom firmware guide, why preserving guides and community knowledge is just as important as preserving games themselves, the modern PSP homebrew scene, and why the handheld still has such an active community more than 20 years after launch. You might recognize me from a few PSP articles I’ve done these last months, I just…think they’re neat:
It was also interesting hearing from someone who doesn’t consider themselves a developer or a major figure in the scene, just “a helpful user who creates guides.” I think that humility says a lot about projects like this, because every community needs people documenting, organizing and preserving information just as much as it needs people writing the software.
The machine in the picture is too big lol
Sony used these when they announced, launched and advertised the PSP!
I have a gallery of a ton of these giant PSPs they made in this article I did, if you wanna see more:
https://gardinerbryant.com/my-psp-scrapbook-part-retrospective-part-collage/
Nice, thank you
Any love for a PS Vita still? Though tbh, since getting a steam deck it’s not been as appealing.
They are a LOT more expensive and harder to find. Which is why the psp gets more coverage. The ps vita is objectively better in every way.
I absolutely love mine and it lives in my work bag to this day. Killer battery life and unlimited standby.
Once I got my MSI Claw I’ve pretty much stopped using anything else for emulation. It plays everything up to Switch games easily. The Vita and the PSP were massive until that point though.
I should really dig my PSP out and see if it holds a charge still
If it doesn’t, I highly recommend the OSTENT 1,400 mAh batteries. Higher capacity than the original and they work perfectly. 100% the one to choose!
Oh nice I’ll check that out, thank you!
I was able to buy a replacement battery several years ago and it’s worked great!
