Journal

How Cool Am I? I’m PSP Cool.

12 Comments

The Toffa guys at BrainShare gave away a Sony PSP today at 4pm. I was there for the give-away, and had I been eligible, I would have walked away with the device.

The device, by the way, is really, really nifty. The graphics in the driving game I played for 5 minutes or so were amazing — this is NOT what handheld gaming has been for the last few years — not by a longshot. It seemed to me to be at least as realistic as Playstation graphics.

The Toffa guys imported the device from Japan, followed somebody’s instructions on getting it to display interface in English, and then gave it away here in the U.S… and the winner had only to answer a pretty simple tech-trivia question before anybody else did. The answer, by the way, was “SyncML,” and there was time enough before the answer was shouted out for me to turn to Chris and say “Okay, I know this one. Are you SURE I’m not eligible for the device?”

So yeah, I held, played, and helped* give away a Sony PSP today. Does any of that device’s inherent coolness transfer onto me?

–Howard

(*Note: by “helped” I mean “failed to interfere with.”)

12 thoughts on “How Cool Am I? I’m PSP Cool.”

  1. I venture to suggest that you don’t need to get any coolness second-hand from a piece of electronic-entertainment bling-bling. You generate your own, and speaking strictly for myself, I wouldn’t trade.

  2. Helped – I mean really helped

    Yeah like you were so passive you didn’t help, you were immensely helpful, thanks again. They say timing is everything, I imported two Japanese PSP’s as marketing giveaways, my son would only let me bring one to Brainshare, It received little resistance as I have so enjoyed playing the PSP over the last two weeks, it launches here in the US at midnight, us Europeans have to wait another 4-6 weeks. I purchased 4 games and a car charger for Software Etc at crossroads, I got each game for $US35, that’s about £19, I would pay around £40 a game in the UK. The Dollar/Pound is rubbish when selling software but great when purchasing PSP games.
    The PSP is really cool, and yes Howard I think some has rubbed off, the coolest thing is WiFi support, we were playing two player Ridge Racer over WiFi – Awesome.

  3. Well, the only problem with that is that the battery life currently lies between 2.5 hours and 3 hours if you’re playing a graphics-intensive game.. and 2 hours if you’re watching a movie or using something that hits the UMD drive a lot. Considering that the bundled-in movie (Spiderman 2) is 2.5 hours long….

    Well, maybe the 2nd Generation of PSP will fix the problem. But of course, Sony being Sony, they’ll make you pay for the improvements which should’ve been in the original unit, just as they did the Japanese and the Square-button Issue. 😀

    1. Pay for improvements that should have been in the original unit? Like the Gameboy Advance SP? 😛

      And the square button, it was designed that way. >:) J/k

      I’m sure the battery life is better than 2.5 hours for most things. Unlike my Tapwave Zodiac which seems to wear out after about 3 hours when playing emulators.

      Howard is cooler than a PSP however. It is nice though that they put a little analog nub in as well as a D pad, I really miss the D-pad on my zodiac.

      1. Eh, the REAL big improvement in the SP was the lithium battery… which, considering that it was released about two years after the original GBA, was only fair. Heck, given the way the SP’s backlight sucks battery power (I usually get an extra 5-6 hours without it on), I can see why they didn’t put it into the unit powered by NiMH or Alkalines; they’d be getting a similar battery life to that of the PSP right now. Besides, how can you call the removal of the headphone jack an upgrade? Even they didn’t call the new slim PS2 an upgrade, and they removed the hard drive slot. 😀

        If I’m playing something like Lumines which doesn’t hit the UMD often, and which doesn’t have impressive uber-cool 3D graphics, then the battery life is about 4-5 hours or so. Unfortunately, if you’re talking a game with good 3D graphics, the general consensus based on experience with the unit suggests you’re lucky to get 3 hours. If you turn off the WiFi (a main selling point of the unit), the battery life improves quite a bit… but then there’s no way to do multiplayer, which AGAIN is a key feature of the PSP, along with the multimedia capabilities.

        Basically, if I turn on the WiFi and start playing Ridge Racer with a friend, I’ll probably get two hours of life before the game just quits. Maybe less. Also, watch out for the UMD slot – the thing has a habit of popping open and shooting discs if held incorrectly, from what I’ve heard from sales people who are supposed to be PUSHING the thing. Also, reviews suggest the analog pad can be a paid if your hands are bigger than the average Japanese.

        As it is, I’m looking forward to revision 2 or 3 of the unit… and Howard with a PSP would be kinda cool, but then we’d never see Schlock again, especially if he had a power adapter for it. 😀

  4. I have not owned a handheld since I bought a few of those Mattel handhelds back in the early 80s. I think that is about to change. Is there an AC adapter for this thing so you can plug directly into a wall?

    From the reviews I’ve read, the battery life is 4 to 10 hours, depending on what you do with it. 2.5 hours is selling it a bit short.

    1. 4-10 hours is if you’re playing a game which doesn’t hit the UMD and doesn’t push the graphics unit very hard; Lumines is one example of this. Also, you have to turn off the WiFi to ensure that it’s not sucking juice… and it sucks down power pretty quickly. Once you turn on the WiFi and pull up the really good games which show off the GPU and screen, battery life goes downhill. Yes, the Value Pack does come with an adapter – just remember, this is $250, so it’d better come with one. 😀

      Basically, each time you hit the UMD for a cutscene or a zone load, or if you use multiplayer, the battery life decreases substantially. The screen, the WiFi unit, the UMD drive, and the WiFi unit are the most substantial power drains on that device. If you cut out the latter two, then 8 hours is possible. If you’re using all three, then 3 hours is more your playtime. You -can- hotswap batteries… if you’re plugged into a wall, in which case the only reason you’d do that is to charge the spare battery.

      Again, I’m waiting either for the revision or else for an external Lithium battery pack to make it worth my while. Sony says they’re looking at a better battery, but that’s going to be some time in coming, like maybe the end of the year.

  5. You don’t need second hand coolness Howard, you exude it first hand!
    I’m just glade I can soak up some of it through your Schlock webcomic and journal, as I seem to having a shortage. :/

    BTW: If SJ ever decides to roll out a GURPS supplement based upon the Schlock universe, I’ll definitely snap it up faster than a starved seagull to GM myself. 8D

    – White Wolf

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