This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
PSA for anyone that might have a PSP sitting in a box somewhere:
Go and check on the battery and make sure it hasn't turned into a spicy pillow. Out of a sample size of 3 between mine and a couple friends, 2 of 3 were bursting out of the shell and required disposal.
If your PSP battery is still good, look into charging it and playing some PS1 games on the go. It was the best feature of the console.
And a PSA for anyone who has a terribly dead or spicy pillow battery, OSTENT make great batteries which do an even better job than the originals. I opt for the 1,400 mAh ones, which give you more capacity with the same size!
Yup, I've had all 3 batteries get thiccc on me in the drawer. Funny enough, my old phones that were stored in the most horid conditions were fine.
I have a white Darth Vader PSP 2000 and the battery was absolutely a spicy pillow when I checked it. I would suggest to judt replace it if you still have the original battery as its at minimum 12 years old now.
I swear I bought a replacement battery for mine but have no idea where its at.
The other thing to look for is a damaged screen. Somehow over the years of sitting on a shelf, mine looks like shitty car window tint thats bubbled up and peeling off.
why is a darth vader version of anything white?
It was the design on the back battery cover. Technically Vader is the black part!
Me in 2004: "The PSP 3000 can connect to the tv using HDMI. But who actually has an HDTV??? I have no use for this...."
Me today: "Huh.....I actually DO have an HDTV now. I just don't have a PSP".
Funny how life works....
No better time than now to pick one up!
I went from being amazed that anyone would opt for native hardware for older gaming (I am a huge fan of retro handhelds!) to being amazed anyone would not want one. There's something to be said about the original games on the PSP, it just feels 'right'.
And they're relatively inexpensive (if you buy from Japan) to get one in nice shape these days. I've got another on the way from Tokyo right now:
4690 yen is about $30
That's junk. It doesn't work.
Edit: wait, you seem like you know what you're doing. $30, if you can get it to work, would be a great buy.
The word 'junk' on Buyee/Japan's online marketplaces doesn't mean what it does elsewhere. It can mean anything:
Junk absolutely doesn't mean they're broken! Listings tend to go into a little detail on what is wrong with the consoles :)
I've bought a TON of handheld consoles through Buyee. DSi's (I got a great DSi LL in box with all the bits, barely used for $52 AUD), GBA SPs, I even got a launch Switch to jailbreak from Japan!
I actually wrote a article on a 'junk' PSP from Japan, you can read more on it here:
https://gardinerbryant.com/i-bought-a-junk-psp-from-japan-heres-how-it-went/
Ah, the PSP.... First personal device I owned that had a web browser.
So much porn, lol.
It was made for gaming, btw
😂 Yeah, it was pretty good for that too. I always thought it was really cool being able to play multiplayer games like SOCOM via AD-HOC networking. No server, no internet/wifi, not even a link cable you had to remember to bring; just two devices talking to eachother and creating great memories.
I just sold mine recently.
Steamdeck makes it obsolete.
Also, the psp controls were not very good. The stick is tiring to use, the movement buttons are a bit far apart. I did like the mp3 player when traveling and the movie on a umd gimic was interesting.
I did like it overall at the time, but being able to choose to be not bothered with online services (as the article suggests) is just as viable with a steam deck. Except when I DO want to use an online service such as my plex or jellyfin, I can do that too. Movies on a plane streaming from home, amazing.
I gave mine away after hacking my Switch, which itself has now been superseded by the Steam Deck. Aren't there similar form factor retro handhelds that can run PSP games now? Seems that would be a better purchase than an actual PSP if cost and size are a factor.
I don't know anyone picking up a PSP again in 2026. I also don't know anyone.
This is one of the comments of all time.
I had one. It was great.
As far as hardware design goes, I think Sony just nailed it with this PSP
I love my PSP and all the games on it, but the Vita with it's two analog sticks was 100% the better design.
Rose tinted glasses. Psp was cool but flawed and completely irrelevant today outside from nostalgia farming.
I never has an original psp, but I had a psp-go. It was great! I primarily used it to emulate the nes and Genesis. Not many people liked the other slide out screen aesthetic but it was one of my favorite parts of the design. It reminded me of the Motorola sidekick.
I had the PSP-1001 a few months after launch & felt like a huge tech upgrade over the DS at the time.
I was wayyy into modifying it, (just going from memory) downgrading to firmware 1.50 & running games off of the magicgate pro duo to get faster load times & better battery life cuz that UMD drive sucked down juice fast.
The modded in web browser was very cool, of course it was basic but neat. Typing was a pain.
The custom firmwares were amazing.
It was way ahead of its time.👍
felt like a huge tech upgrade over the DS at the time
There's a post somewhere on the internet comparing a racing game available on the DS and PSP, and the gap is HUGE between what they were both capable of. What that game was escapes me now, but it was an interesting time!
Absolutely.
My battery bloated & was desposed at the time where I was still actively using the thing.
I just dug mine out of the closet & it won't fully boot into the xmb for some reason, but the custom M33 VSH Menu comes up.
... I don't remember how to work the custom firmware any more lol it's been too long.
The UMD drive no longer works either.
Bleach Heat The Soul 3 & 4 I think was the last game I bought, but was crazy the pirated games could be played online.
Time to update that firmware and get yourself some new tricks! I saw someone has ported Spotify (or some version of it) to the PSP a little while ago.
Definitely time for you to jump back into the PSP!
You know, I'll check out that sort of port of GTA III to Liberty City Stories.
I am not really a fan of GTA III but after reading that write up about it does sound worth while to check out.
I'll try to get it running on real hardware but I'll likely play it within PPSSPP because my psp unit has been opened multiple times & has grime plus bubbles on/in the screen.
Just checking out custom firmware now is crazy how dated the software I currently have installed. Like another world
I picked one up today and then put it back down. I was cleaning and organizing.
I recently (a year ago) bought my first portable PS system, a Vita. Fantastic console, thriving 'underground' community. Just caught the tail end of all its online services working ~~before they'll be shut down this year~~.
They'll be shut down this year? Have you got a source I could look at, cause that's news to me.
I just love the PSP. I have a 2000, but I rarely use it. But I use my 1000 quite a bit. Other than being re-shelled, it has a glass lens and an IPS screen. I think I might remove the UMD drive to do a big battery mod. Don't think I've used the UMD drive once since modding it.
Ys Seven and Midnight Club are my faves on the console. But Ace Combat X and Me & My Katamari are also way up there.
I'm not picking up a psp.
I'm just emulating it on my steam deck.
I'm not everyone, it seems.
Now, if I weren't a big retro fan.. but I am. I am also aware that all the Sony batteries turn into spicy pillows, that's why I got rid of them and was happy stuff was re-released on the switch.
Right. I still kept a psp go. And I liked Sonys portables.
cant remember what ever happened to mine. It was such an amazing device, I remember I had a lot of fun with it as a little kid. idk if its nostalgia but I feel like i would appreciate it even more nowadays if I still had it. :(
Sorry for your (PSP) loss :(
Me and my wife both have PSPs, we brought them with us when we got married. We now have steamdecks so the poor PSPs have sat in a box for a few years. Much better battery life than my deck lol
