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Post subject: NDS or PSP: Which Is Better?
PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2011 3:40 pm 
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PSP, for me, hands down.

I have played quite a few NDS games, notably DQ-IV, V, VI, and IX, and also Luminous Arc I and II and even a few SNES games such as Mystic Ark.

My PSP is a recent acquisition. I found a used one for $75 in January, and I have played Lunar Silver Star, Final Fantasy-I, and Final Fantasy-II. I also (re)played Destiny of an Emperor-II on an NES emulator in my PSP.

PSP wins with me for four reasons.

1. Single screen (I really dislike the split screen and split FMV cut scene graphics)
2. Wide screen
3. Bigger screen
4. Plugs directly into a TV set

I really can't believe the dual screen NDS "caught on". I felt I was getting used to it when I got my PSP, that has now spoiled me.

BTW, the SNES9x emulators for NDS and PSP seem to work equally well or equally bad for the same games. This means that certain games that play lousy on one handheld emulator - such as Feda - are about as glitched in the other. Feda's problem has mainly to do with battle scenes grinding nearly to a halt at times and laboring (running at uneven slower speeds) throughout. Feda's countryside, dungeon, and town scenes, however, work just fine. Oh, what I wouldn't give for a good SNES/NES/Sega handheld console the size of the PSP!

And, let me put in a good world for FF-II on the PSP. For me, that turned out to be an amazing game. Squeenix added a side quest, compressed-time bonus game after beating it that was amazing in both game play and plot. It required character development the same as the main story, but advancement went much faster. Grinding was fine because monsters dropped many high level items that could be used and equipped right away or sold to provide capital for building resources. In the second ending that came at the conclusion of the bonus game, both resolutions were integrated into its final scene seamlessly.

I was actually a minor player on the NDF team that translated FF-II years ago. Using my Japanese contacts and own small skills in Hawaii, I provided some item names and helped re-write a few narrative scenes. Well, the writing in the PSP's FF-II was superb. Even if the NDS team had asked me to write their entire FF-II story years ago, I couldn't have matched the PSP's version for two reasons. One, we were limited by the small NES ROM size. Two, back then, many people seemed obsessed with literal translations versus what we now call localizations. In my opinion, story writing is a huge part of what makes these games both enjoyable and successful in the West, and I believe the companies that are re-releasing these games have caught on to that fact.

What was most interesting to me about Final Fantasy-I and II for the PSP is that I can choose to play the game in English, Japanese, and Japanese Kana - all three options on one media device! Also, FF-II's statistical and "leveling" system was roundly criticized by Western players years ago, offered up as an excuse for not porting it on the NES, but I found it a welcome diversion from the usual. I hope Squeenix does as many FF's as possible for the PSP, not to mention the rest of the DQ's, adding bonus games and dungeon and such. I would buy through at least FF #7, I'm sure.

Finally, maybe someone can help me out with something. My used PSP came loaded with firmware set up for running 8 and 16-bit console emulators that were already installed on the chip. When I loaded Luna, however, the system required me to update the firmware with a newer version that was apparently included on Lunar's little UMD thingy. Later, I noted that the emulators no longer functioned with the more recent firmware. Does anyone have a copy of the old firmware that makes the emulators work and instructions on how to (re)load it. I can't seem to locate any clear guidance on the net, and I don't want to break the daggone PSP permanently!


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Post subject: Re: NDS or PSP: Which Is Better?
PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2011 4:41 pm 
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Ahh, you never should have updated your firmware. I'm not up to date on updating a PSP's firmware for games much anymore as I haven't touched my PSP in some time, but you should have gotten the patched firmware off the net that allows newer games to play and never used an official firmware. Sony was working hard to fix those bugs that let you downgrade and then load a custom firmware. It could now be impossible to reload a custom firmware back into the unit. You'd have to go look at guides at places like psp-hacks.com. The last I knew though, the newest firmwares are not hackable. As for the PSP getting any more square games. Don't count on it. The PSP is at the end of its lifespan. Sony is nearly guaranteed to showcase the PSP's replacement at this years E3 conference in June and there are already many things known about the new console. Which means that developers are going to abandon the PSP in droves (what few are left because the system never sold well). About the only RPG I know of still coming on PSP (assuming it wasn't cancelled) is the Legend of Heroes collection with supposedly new better translation. I don't trust Xseed to do a "Better" translation of anything though.

Oh and how could you play that Lunar? Xseed is not Working Designs and it shows.


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Post subject: Re: NDS or PSP: Which Is Better?
PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2011 5:06 pm 
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taskforce wrote:
Oh and how could you play that Lunar? Xseed is not Working Designs and it shows.
Heh, I already knew you disliked XSeed's work and was expecting that! Well, it was handy and cheap. BTW, is there some means to load a PSx or PS2 game ISO on the chip and play it through the PSP?


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Post subject: Re: NDS or PSP: Which Is Better?
PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2011 7:17 pm 
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I have a DS but I regret having bought it honestly. Its lifecycle is already ending and in retrospect the PSP had much better titles.
Nowadays the DS can easily be reasonably emulated if you have a dual core system so there's no real reason to own it.
I'm not commiting the same mistake though, when the NGP comes out, I'll try and get it, hopefully it will be backwards compatible with the PSP.
The DS, like the Wii, is largely a "gimmicky" system, while the PSP had a more hardcore approach to it all, much like the 360 and PS3 console side. I never liked gimmicks, and despite having a 360 I'm not even considering getting kinect at all.


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Post subject: Re: NDS or PSP: Which Is Better?
PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2011 8:37 pm 
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Wildbill wrote:
BTW, is there some means to load a PSx or PS2 game ISO on the chip and play it through the PSP?


Look up Popstation and Popsloader. Depending on what firmware you're running, you should be able to run PS1 games on your PSP, but the loading method might be different. I'm on 5.50 Prometheus, and I can run popsloader which will boot pretty much anything that Popstation generates right from the xmb, but if you're on 6.3something you might have to sign your ISOs, and I don't know anything about doing that.


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Post subject: Re: NDS or PSP: Which Is Better?
PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2011 9:01 pm 
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PSX games are possible if you can get a hacked firmware back onto the PSP. PS2 isn't possible. The PSP just isn't beefy enough to emulate the PS2 and the hardware isn't directly compatible with PS2 software. Without a hacked firmware. I'm not sure how to go about loading PS1 games.


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Post subject: Re: NDS or PSP: Which Is Better?
PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2011 11:23 pm 
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Gideon Zhi wrote:
Wildbill wrote:
BTW, is there some means to load a PSx or PS2 game ISO on the chip and play it through the PSP?


Look up Popstation and Popsloader. Depending on what firmware you're running, you should be able to run PS1 games on your PSP, but the loading method might be different. I'm on 5.50 Prometheus, and I can run popsloader which will boot pretty much anything that Popstation generates right from the xmb, but if you're on 6.3something you might have to sign your ISOs, and I don't know anything about doing that.
Heh, Gid, I'm running 6.20 now, the automatic upgrade from 3.71 m 33-2 that was perfect for emulators. This afternoon, I've been looking at half byte loaders (HEN) for 6.2, but the more I read, the more confused I become. It seems that homebrews and ISOs are mentioned the most in these releases, but not much is said about emulators. New SNES emulator hacks are out there now that supposedly tweak the speed problems, but the one I loaded won't work in the factory 6.2 either.

I'm really scared of bricking his thing and wondering if I should just shop for another old 1000 or 2000 thin series that has the older CFW to support emulators and keep it just for that. As for that signing thing, supposedly, someone has designed a patch that works around that issue now. It's a crazy world in there!


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Post subject: Re: NDS or PSP: Which Is Better?
PostPosted: Tue May 17, 2011 12:21 am 
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Good news Wildbill, your PSP is still able to be fixed to load homebrow and ISO's again. I don't keep up with this anymore.

http://www.psp-hacks.com/psp-hacks-is-y ... -hackable/


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Post subject: Re: NDS or PSP: Which Is Better?
PostPosted: Wed May 18, 2011 2:13 pm 
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Master Chen wrote:
I take both.
None of them are better or worse, each has it's own flaws.

About emulation:
PSP has integrated PSOne emulator that runs finely almost 98% of every PSOne game ever released, but you must use soft like POPSTATION2 to convert PSOne game images to the needed format.

I've completed full walkthroughs of Parasite Eve, Dino Crisis and Dino Crisis 2, Star Ocean II, Dewprism/Threads of Fate, Vagrant Story, Persona 2 Tsumi (Devil Hackers's Translation, of course), Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII, Tekken 3, Guilty Gear, The King of Fighters '96, '98 and '99, Silent Hill, Slayers Royal, Eretzvaju, Volfoss, Xenogears (Undub), Soul Edge, Oddworld's Abe's Odyssey, Metal Slug, Chrono Trigger (PSOne version, of course), Chrono Cross (kinda hard to make a good working image, and even then it freezes from time to time - but it can be completed), Omega Boost, Bust A Move 2 Dance Tengoku Mix, Soul of The Samurai, Tenchu Birth of The Stealth Assassins, Tenchu Stealth Assassins and Tenchu Shinobi Hayakusen, Resident Evil 2 Dual Shock (LOL, on PSP) Edition, Kensei Sacred Fist, Arc The Lad II, Suikoden and Suikoden II, Alundra 2, Samurai Spirits Warrior's Rage, Rhapsody A Musical Adventure AND Marl Oukoku No Ningyou Hime+1 (Japanese version of Rhapsody) - all those I did while playing on PSP.

Most of the older console emulators (like SNES and Genesis) for PSP work quite fine, but it's a matter of choosing good emulator (since there's tons of them), and most of them are used with old firmwares (POPSLOADER should help) only.

PSP is very good for emulation of PSOne, emulation of older consoles and for playing several PSP games (like Crisis Core, for example). It has better graphics, bigger screen and comfortable controls (for the most part). But it lacks good internet service, has ugly Wi-Fi, it is heavy and it's analog stick is just horrible, also no L2 or R2 (during emulation you'll have to macros them on some of the simultaneous inputs, like for example - if you're playing PSOne game, you can map L2 on Analog stick's "Down" movement+L1 input and etc. - kinda ugly, IMHO).

NDS has kind of a bad sound, graphics, screen and controls, and it's very bad with emulation - but it has great library of games (not like PSP, where you have to choose carefully, almost every 2-nd NDS game is absolutely playable and enjoyable), the materials it's made off are WAY better than PSP (more durable, lighter and nicer to touch - I'm talking about NDS Lite of course, which I had for some time now) and the Wi-Fi internet is just AWESOME.

Also, PSP looses it's battery charge VERY fast, especially when you play something as graphically cool and resource-eating as Crisis Core or Silent Hill Shattered Memories, or watching video.

Where you can play on NDS without re-charging over than 7 hours without stopping, you will play only 3~4 hours on PSP.

ALSO, NDS can be charged by SIMPLY plugging it into ANY USB 1.0/1.1/1.3 or 2.0 (Must find and buy special connector, first. I has two).
By "any" I really mean ANY. You can charge it from a PC (even if it's turned off), you can charge it from a PS 2 (EVEN IF IT'S TURNED OFF!) and EVEN FROM A DREAMCAST (But it takes quite a trouble to do so - first you need to buy a special Dreamcast keyboard model rev.2, which has an integrated special port FOR USB connectors (not the USB itself, but a port to connect the USB connector), which is VERY HARD TO FIND these days, but I have one - second you need to to get an USB 1.0/1.1 connector hub that merges with this keyboard and ONLY THEN you can connect NDS to it, and besides - unlike PS 2, Dreamcast will charge your NDS when it's only turned ON)!, you can charge it at any doc-station that offers charging of mobile phones (through special USB-to-Phone connector...also this way you can charge NDS from a MOBILE PHONE ITSELF!...killing that phone's charge, of course, lol). PSP offers only charging by plugging the DC into the electric socket...thus, PSP sucks hard, spiky balls in this means.

To sum it all up:
If you plan to play only greatest classics and some new PSP games like Crisis Core or Parasite Eve III, with good graphics, awesome sound, comfortable controls and big screen - use PSP.
If you plan to play original, cool and awesome games, for a long time, with an option to charge from almost anywhere, dual screen effects, microphone and touch screen, enjoy new unknown gameplay experience - use NDS.

My opinion: use both and be cool. Let them console-war oozing macaques deal with it. Wear cool shades and a nice suit. And look at them spitting and crying fanboys, with a contempt look, while standing on the top, lol.
This is what I do, and feel absolutely fine. Console Wars? Ecstatic Fanboyism? Meh, I'm waaaay above and beyond all that. Only games matter. Not the platforms they are released on.
So, you basically give them a tie.

Well, I still wish the super games I have for the NDS had been done for the PSP and not in dual screen so I could plug them into a 50-inch HDTV. The WIFI thing I don't use, except one NDS game I played allowed me to temporarily download and purchase some additional and occasionally useful items in the shop as the game progressed, an interesting innovation.

Speaking of portable game consoles with WIFI, it's a good thing I have a wireless broadband signal, but it doesn't carry over the entirely of our acreage. That's something else I need help engineering where I live most of the time, an elevated wireless router antenna that provides a stronger private network signal that will allow connectivity to all three home sites my family occupies, a span of about ten acres of land plus part of the adjoining waterway where we have docks and beaches (and sometimes kids who like to have an internet connection for their gadgets while lounging on the boats).

Oh, and I special-ordered a PSP aftermarket cable for about $2 that has USB on one end and dual leads on the other. One of the duals is a mini USB that fits into the PSP for data transfer. The other dual is a power jack that recharges the PSP battery, but it is much slower than the factory charger, and the juice flow is not strong enough to power the PSP as you play if the battery has run down all the way. It's useful to have when the charger is left in one place, then I carry the PSP to different buildings or floor levels in our home complex. The USB attachment works fine for leaving the unit to charge all day or night during work and sleep.


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Post subject: Re: NDS or PSP: Which Is Better?
PostPosted: Wed May 18, 2011 7:25 pm 
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I see your point, but sadly some of us can't really afford the luxury of having several systems, so the difficulty is choosing which has most games one would find interesting.


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