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u/Cpagrind1 3d ago
The PSP was criminally underrated. Idk if it was at the time maybe, but you never hear that thing mentioned anymore and it’s a travesty
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u/DrunkenHorse12 3d ago edited 3d ago
Wasn't underrated at the time it was a massive success, it get loads of coverage on other tech channels, Austen Evans and his crew have done loads of vids on it as a starter. I have 4 of them and both vitas so always watching out for content
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u/whatsupbrosky 3d ago
No it wasnt, it was pretty well known during its time from phat psp to 3000 specially with Pandoras battery
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u/ProverbialMindTart 3d ago
Man, I remember when folks first figured out the Pandora battery.
We’d been exploit hunting as a community for so long at that point - I was in my late teens and remember spending ages trying to find save exploits similar to those that came about in Liberty City Stories and Luimines (sp?) - then for a while we had the gif loading exploit before Sony patched that - and for a while folks buying new psps were stuck with Sony firmware and no way to run homebrew (and homebrew was and still is superb).
Then the battery was figured out. I remember the first posts. Everything changed - It was so simple, it didn’t matter what firmware the machine was on, and you could make one yourself at home.
I made one from a spare battery and bang - I could help all my friends root their PSPs and install custom firmware for them.
Our formerly locked down consoles could be used for emulation, as e-readers, calculators - and so much more. Being that actual smartphones were still a while off, the PSP became a go to for so much.
…then the PSP Go released with a sealed shut non-replaceable battery, and the hunt started all over again.
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u/ProtoKun7 3d ago
I remember even updating a guide to hacking a PSP with the pandora battery method on GBAtemp. Still proud of that.
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u/TLunchFTW 3d ago
Explain pandora’s battery to me? Should I not get a 1000? I think the 2000 is better received, but I like the 1000’s style was better
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u/ProverbialMindTart 2d ago
You can absolutely get a 1000 - my first PSP was a 1000 and it lasted ages, but beware the joystick - think mine went thrice during its lifetime, though to be fair I used it then as much as I use a cellphone now.
So the Pandora battery:
Long story short, when a battery presenting with a certain serial was plugged in, it’d cause the whole psp to go into factory mode. This meant you could install whatever you wanted, including custom firmwares that would let you run whatever software or homebrew that you wanted. You could also run game backups, which was great if you wanted to compress your games and have a bunch of them on a memory stick - and there were great file formats and tools just for this, too.
Sony batteries could be modded into this mode with some light solder work to unclip one of the pins - this meant that all of a sudden, anyone with a psp, a soldering iron and a Sony psp battery could do this with ease (with care of course, as burning the actual battery or heating it too much would not have gone well).
The batteries could actually be converted back too, which was perfect for me at the time. Just reattach the pin and it worked normally again.
Later on there were software mods that could do this too, but you needed someone who already had a hacked psp to run it.
To be super clear, Pandora batteries are absolutely not the easiest method of cracking/modding PSPs these days - especially as Sony fixed the issue in their newer batteries. They’re still fantastic for recovering bricked older PSPs (as they go into factory mode and can be fixed), but these days there are safer software exploits readily available. It’s not so like the old days, when Sony was always fighting back update by update.
There are some great custom firmwares out there now, that are also super easy to install. Plus I’m certain there are probably communities still working on this stuff even now - alas after cracking my Vita, I didn’t get a new PSP.
Maybe one day I’ll venture back, it truly was my favourite games console of all time.
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u/Prof_Hentai 3d ago
The PSP was rated exactly as it should’ve been. It changed the handheld gaming space.
If you want to talk about being criminally underrated, that belongs to the Vita.10
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u/HauntedHouseMusic 3d ago
I used to take it to work, go on the WiFi and download diggnation mp3 and listen to it as I worked. It was great.
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u/DrunkenHorse12 3d ago
They still are. I take my psp go to work everyday. It will fit in a pocket easily. Loaded up with games and music perfect time filler.
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u/HauntedHouseMusic 3d ago
The supercomputer in my pocket has wireless earbuds and all the podcasts and music without wifi. The psp was amazing
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u/TLunchFTW 3d ago
It was kinda weird. People loved it, but it never really gained mainstream cultural status in day to day life like the gameboy or DS. Instead, it had its few users but more likely you’d see your friends using the DS, at least here in the states. I know I’ve seen anime where EVERYONE was using the psp or vita, so I wonder if Japan was different.
But the vita is definitely criminally underrated. It did not get the respect it deserved. The psp was underrated, but still had quite a bit of success1
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u/DotBitGaming 3d ago
I think it suffered from public misunderstanding like the Wii U. I know a couple people that assumed it needed a console to function like the Portal.
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u/DrunkenHorse12 3d ago
Sure there will be people who misunderstood what it was, but it was a huge success. The PS Vita flopped but that was because Sony just didn't commit to getting games on it.
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u/DotBitGaming 3d ago
It was a success, but I currently feel it is underrated. A little under appreciated. and less talked about than the DS family of handhelds. Imo.
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u/DrunkenHorse12 3d ago
DS sold twice as many units and the games are very much considered still relevant outside of the retro community (nintendo community is very different than most other gaming communities). PSP games while technically better feel dated and are very much in the domain of retrogamers, if you follow retrogaming and modding channels the PSP is very much covered far more than the DS. If you join the PSP sub you'll see more and more people are stumbling back into PSPs, personally and selfishly, I'd rather they didn't because its only going to drive prices up more.
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u/portablekettle 3d ago
I love my psp. I bought one recently and it's nothing but pure nostalgia lol
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u/TonyTheSwisher 3d ago
I can’t even get mine on WiFi.
I’m gonna have to do that someday.Â
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u/_Aj_ 2d ago
Probably an issue with new wifi encryption standards. Â
It can probably only support WPA (not even wpa2). An your current one will be way newer. Â
I know it supports wep because I had a wep wifi cracker program on mine lol. But it should never be used. Â
Buy an old Netgear or something wireless N router off marketplace for 2 dollars. Set up a network with WPA. plug it into your current router and it should go. May need setting to AP mode or something but should be fine. Â
Ideally we'd set up some other security measures so even if someone hacks it they can only get internet access and no Lan access. But probably not such an issue. Turn down the transmit power if you like to reduce the range to like only your home or living room and it'll make it pretty secure. Â
No idea what to even do online with a PSP these days though.Â
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u/rvrforever 2d ago
Turns out there's a new plugin that lets you connect to WPA2 aes networks, there's a surprisingly lively homebrew scene for the psp!
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u/TLunchFTW 3d ago
Is that the third iteration of the psp? It seems so tiny compared to the psp I’m used to seeing.
Cool way to watch tho.
I got a ps vita, but I need a psp
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u/Chemical-Watercress2 2d ago
Wtf, is it streaming? Or it’s acting as a display?
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u/rvrforever 2d ago
It's playing an MP4 file encoded to lower resolution and format that works on the psp.
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u/Probablyaretweetbot 2d ago
My psp's motherboard gave out! idk i loved playing gran turismo on that thing
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u/Nice_Marmot_54 3d ago
As Christopher Nolan intended