Educate me on the merits of the PSP!

[Eggman]

It's also possible to port any PS1 game you want to the PSP, but I've never had any success with it. My friend has, but I haven't. I think it has something to do with the version of CFW I have.

It's really easy to do, at least with the slim. Not every game works though. I backed up and ported over a few games and some stuff like FF7 doesn't work. Games that are also multi-disc don't work if they don't have a save point at the end of the disc (Chrono Cross basically).

Hell, my PSP even looks for the newest hacked firmware when I select the normal system update. It just gets rerouted to Dark Alex's site.

[LunarKeys]

Awesome, thanks for all the replies.

What I'm looking at doing thus far is purchasing, game-wise:

- Final Fantasy Tactics
- Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness
- Lemmings
- Valkyrie Profile
- Lumines
- N+
- Sid Meier's Pirates!
- Jeanne D'Arc

I'll also be installing a SNES and Genesis emulator and probably about fifty games for each, since those two have everything I want, retro-wise.

Then it's just a matter of finding a good game case that can hold the thing and several games. Searches thus far haven't really turned up anything, unfortunately.

Uh...what else am I missing? (again, thanks for all the replies)

[Ridge]

DJ MAX portable 2

[LunarKeys]

DJ MAX portable 2

Oh right!

Add DJ MAX and (maybe) PIU Zero to the list. lolmusicgames

[Ridge]

piu zero loads very slowly off of the UMD unless you overclock your psp to 333mhz or whatever beware

and get street fighter alpha 3 max

[Spectere]

I'll also be installing a SNES and Genesis emulator and probably about fifty games for each, since those two have everything I want, retro-wise.

SNES emulation on the PSP is not full speed for most games.  You'll be fine on earlier, simpler games like Super Mario World, but any game that uses a special chip is definitely a no-no.  SuperFX?  Forget it, not happening.

Earthbound is mostly-playable.  From what I've played of it on my PSP, it runs at between 75 to 95 percent of its normal speed.

Forget about running Super Mario RPG, too.  It runs at half-speed if you're lucky.  I'm going to take a stab and say that anything with an SA-1 chip in the cartridge (such as Kirby's Dream Land) isn't going to work well.

I haven't tried the full assortment of chip-enhanced games, but that's probably one of the main reasons why the PSP can't quite handle it.

The Genesis, on the other hand, runs great, as does the Sega CD (Sonic CD runs extremely well on the PSP).  I don't think I've run into any Genesis games that run at less than full speed.

[LunarKeys]

Shucks, oh well. Originally I wanted PIU Zero for the NX songs (not like I'll ever pass Chimera or Wi-Ex-Doc-Va CZ on pad, so might as well enjoy them on a PSP). If the load times are obscene (and I heard that it's possible to mess up your save file if you do...whatever it was I don't remember) then I might as well just load the MP3s onto the stick instead.

Ian - Unfortunately, I'll be honest and say 'I don't know a damn thing' about most SNES games. Probably the big ones for me were:

- Super Mario Kart
- Kirby Super Star (can skip - after all, we have Ultra for DS now)
- Tetris Attack
- Yoshi's Island
- Earthbound (hooray for it working at reasonable pace)

If I can't get those to work, I'll just skip it and resume looking for the games on my actual SNES. It'll be a shame, but the Genesis has almost all of the games I'm looking for anyway, so I'll survive.

Hundred bucks set aside! Thanks again for all your help, guys.

[Spectere]

Originally I wanted PIU Zero for the NX songs (not like I'll ever pass Chimera or Wi-Ex-Doc-Va CZ on pad, so might as well enjoy them on a PSP). If the load times are obscene (and I heard that it's possible to mess up your save file if you do...whatever it was I don't remember) then I might as well just load the MP3s onto the stick instead.

I ran into some input issues with Exceed (and, from what I've heard, Zero has them as well).  The game just seems to give spurious misses from time to time.  Very frustrating.

Ian - Unfortunately, I'll be honest and say 'I don't know a damn thing' about most SNES games.

S'okay.

Probably the big ones for me were:

- Super Mario Kart

This uses the DSP-1 chip as a math coprocessor.  I'm not sure how well SNES9X on the PSP emulates this particular chip, since I haven't tried to play a game with that chip on it yet.

- Kirby Super Star (can skip - after all, we have Ultra for DS now)

I guess it sort of depends on how much the game uses the chip, but if Kirby Super Star is as cutting edge in the graphics department as its predecessors were there's just no way.

The SA-1 basically acts as a second CPU that functions independently of the SNES's main CPU and has to be emulated separately.  I'm not sure if the PSP simply cannot handle it or if the emulator just isn't as optimized as it could be.  Either way, games that use it don't run well.

- Tetris Attack

This doesn't use any enhancement chips.  I'd have to try it for myself to be sure, but I can't see why there would be a problem running this at a good speed.

- Yoshi's Island

No way in hell.

This game uses the SuperFX 2 chip, the more powerful successor to the version that's used in Star Fox and some other games.  It, like the SA-2, is a separate processor that runs independently of the SNES's main CPU, but this thing goes way beyond what the SA-1 can do.  I think my framerate was in the single digits when I tried to play Yoshi's Island on my PSP.

On the bright side, you can always grab gpSP -- a GameBoy Advance emulator -- and use your PERFECTLY LEGITIMATE ROM image of Super Mario Advance 3.  Almost the same game, slightly reduced resolution, at full speed.

- Earthbound (hooray for it working at reasonable pace)

Earthbound doesn't seem to utilize any enhancement chips, so it's very possible that other games that lack them will be unable to run at full speed.  You'll have to try them out for yourself.

[Eggman]

Pretty much anything with Mode 7 or transparencies will destroy the PSP. Earthbound does run fairly well though.

Super Mario Kart runs at something like 5fps.

KSS is slightly better.

Yoshi's Island will destroy the PSP.

As for PIU (or DJMAX), it's very easy to rip and transfer your games onto the memstick (once you have it capable of doing so). Load times are probably cut in half.

[Bobbias]

Seems to be more or less on a game by game basis. From the sounds of things, Star Ocean probably won't run, and Tales of Phantasia won't likely run well either.

IIRC SO at least used a chip to decompress graphics on the fly, since I believe they were compressed to save space (It was already a 48mbit cart). I dunno if ToP uses the same system, but they both do some funky things as far as sound is concerned, and won't likely run very well, if they are even playable.

[Spectere]

Yoshi's Island will destroy the PSP.

Literally.

I think mine melted a bit when I tried it.

Seems to be more or less on a game by game basis. From the sounds of things, Star Ocean probably won't run, and Tales of Phantasia won't likely run well either.

It depends mostly on what's inside the cartridge.  If there are any expansion chips in the cartridge, forget it.  Like Eggman said, Mode 7 is a real killer as well and transparencies are also on the slow side.

The SNES emulator of choice, SNES9X TTL (or something like that), does have some game-specific optimization profiles built into it, so the game running well sort of rides on whether there's a profile available for it.  Even games that are optimized sometimes don't run at full speed (I believe Super Metroid is an example of that, though I don't remember for sure if that game has a profile for it).

IIRC SO at least used a chip to decompress graphics on the fly, since I believe they were compressed to save space (It was already a 48mbit cart). I dunno if ToP uses the same system, but they both do some funky things as far as sound is concerned, and won't likely run very well, if they are even playable.

Yeah, both of those games do a lot of on-the-fly decompression to get around the SNES's limitations.  That's why it took so long for emulators to actually support those games.

[Bobbias]

And even longer for a translation patch, lol.

[Ridge]

I ran into some input issues with Exceed (and, from what I've heard, Zero has them as well).  The game just seems to give spurious misses from time to time.  Very frustrating.

PAD MISSES

except you're not on a pad

(opinion down here lols)

and its not even the input, its the LAGS from loading a bga + music + steps at the same time lols

more specifically, Moonlight CZ, it is impossible to FC this song because of all of the streams and the big slowdown stream part that the psp cant handle

also get a NES emulator and play Duck tales ( i would give a list of games, but that would take long to type)

[Spectere]

and its not even the input, its the LAGS from loading a bga + music + steps at the same time lols

Thing is, when I ran Exceed the game did that even when it was running smoothly.  It was very random about it, too.  Very annoying in Sudden Death mode.

DJ MAX Portable is definitely fun, though.  The hard charts are a little dumb, to be honest, but pretty much all of the charts that have a 12 rating or lower in DJMP2 are well done.

[LunarKeys]

Hooray, posts!

Alright, I can do without most of the stuff. I'll stick with Tetris Attack and Earthbound for now, especially since I've never played the latter and am long overdue. Couldn't hurt too much to only have a few games. And, well, if they don't work, they did invent 'delete' for a reason.

And definitely adding DJ MAX Portable to the list. I watched a few videos on YouTube and it looks fantastic. Sucks that I can't have portable IIDX, but oh well, I'm getting an import PS2 soon enough.

Also, I can live without PIU. If all else fails, I'll find a simulator and play that way. (Or just wait until I move up to PA and play on Vyhd's machine, haha)

It's starting to look like that I'll need a good $300 or so for the legit games, haha. This is gonna be an expensive purchase!

Thanks for your help! Any kinds of accessories I should take a look at?