PlayStation Portable

I dismissed the system way back, mostly coming off as a vanity handheld mirror. Hence I never owned one at some point. Yet some of my faves dropped some entries exclusively. Japanese-developed single player action, somehow getting a last huzzah. Many never re-released, and I never got PSN to gain some downloads. So I am now playing with the idea to go get some. That is the system and a few games. I think now is the time to go, before it blows up. Can you help a sucker out? (The vanity...)

Which model is the "best"? A lot of information about UMD-drives, the display, battery,etc. If you or your sister ever owned one model I would like to hear about your experience with it. The GO model being digital is an easy never, though.

The games I am after are: Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles; Tenchu: Time of the Assassins, Mega Man: Powered Up!; Mega Man X: Maverick Hunter; Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins; Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions.

You know...for fun.

Thanks!

I have an old 1000 from years and years ago that I'm gonna try to hack soon, I'll report back.

The emulator (PPSSPP) is also an option, extremely high quality and runs on basically anything.

My main experience is with Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. I play it at least once a week (on PPSSPP, that game is really improved by emulation). Portable 3rd is also great.

The library seems like it could have a lot of good stuff. Whenever I get around to Castlevania, I'll check out the Rondo of Blood port on Dracula X. As a kid I played the two Mega Man remakes, no idea how they hold up.

I'll probably try and poke around the library at some point myself, mainly to investigate the more obscure "Monster Hunter clones."

HotPocketHPE wrote: Whenever I get around to Castlevania, I'll check out the Rondo of Blood port on Dracula X.

I read that the port is incompetent and inconsequential, and no match for the PCE Chi no Rondo. I read, too, that the whole Dracula X Chronicles as a remake is not recommandable. I'm just curious. Even if they failed, they don't fail now like they used to do, you know?  

I have the original 1000 model, too. D-pad is a little worn down, but it still works, as far as I know. I had it softmodded (was too young to have a job/pay for games back then) and it was amazing being able to play the entire PS1 library on it, as well as the native games. I think there was a revision (maybe the "2000"?) that had a new d-pad, and the UMD drive was changed, so inserting discs was slightly different. I'm not sure if this was supposed to be a cost-cutting model (like the 2nd gen Vita), or an improved one.

Let's see... what can I remember putting the most time into. I'll just list handheld exclusives, as big-brother console ports were much likely better on other platforms:

- Persona 3 Portable
- MGS Portable Ops
- MGS Peace Walker
- Metal Gear Ac!d 2
- Tekken Dark Resurrection (had a watered-down PS3 port, but started out handheld exclusive)
- Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy
- Ridge Racer 2
- Burnout Legends
- Virtua Tennis World Tour

Funny how I wasn't in to any of the games you guys mentioned! It was a great system though, plenty of good titles in most genres you could think of. If I were to revisit PSP games now, I'd either go for PPSSPP (as mentioned above) or use my softmodded Vita, which is an improvement on the original PSP in almost every way.

How fairs the battery? Assuming you had to change the original at some point, what replacement did you get?

With modern systems like Switch I am sometimes puzzled about the endurance compared to the charge time. 3D games suck a whole lot more than 2D. Yes, not 8-bit systems anymore, I get it loud and clear. I had a SEGA Game Gear as a kid, and I had to run it mostly with the power supply from my Master System (so much for being mobile). Too much of an AA sucker for any allowance.

I don't think I ever did replace the battery, but if I turned my PSP on today I reckon it'd be in need of a replacement. From memory, I probably got somewhere in the region of 5 hours out of it.

I haven't used much of the Switch in handheld mode, but I remember being unimpressed with the battery. How long do you get with a demanding game? Maybe 4 hours if you keep the brightness down? It's not awful, but I'd have liked a bigger battery.