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Specs for Sony PSP Handheld
doctor_no writes "Sony has announced the specs for its upcoming handheld gaming device,
the PSP, at their PlayStation Meeting 2003. Most interesting is that this device promises Playstation 2 level graphics, a compact 1.8GB media, Wireless 802.11, USB 2.0, 7.1 channel Audio, and a
24bit 16x9 screen TFT LCD screen. Sony has called this device the 'Walkman for the 21st Century', and plans to allow the user to enjoy
movies and music for the device, along with games. Full specs can be found at ZDNet Japan. The PSP will debut at next year's E3."
when this thing was first announced, there were a lot of naysayers, "Nintendo rules the market, and it's going to be hard to beat them." but these were some of the same comments that were being made in 1995 when the PSX was introduced. the specs on these thing are unbelievable.
the reason Sony does as well as it does in the videogame market is because it tries to find out what it's competitor does well, and improves upon it. I'm not saying this is going to be a GBA killer, (price is going to be a big factor) but it looks as if there is finally going to be a viable GBA competitor. (N-Gage eat your heart-out.)
but as we all know, it all comes down to software. personally, I'd love to be able to play Vice-City whenever and wherever I want.
Mike
Out of a handheld?
if it costs the same as a walkman........ WOOT !
So Sony say there new hand held console will have Playstation 2 level graphics?
Well after what they said about the Playstation 2 itself and its "Toy Story" graphics I would have to see it to believe it.
Mother, do you think they'll like this sig?
They get all the cool stuff...
This just looks incredibly cool. Miniturization has a benefit. Once they shrink it down for a handheld, you can cram more of it into a normal sized box. It does look better than gameboys as well. Maybe it's time to let Sony rule the world?
Does it have an OS?
I just need one more OS to reach the "21+ - We don't believe you." level of the latest poll...
20 mil and I will! Learn Esperanto with 20M others.
I'll shit my pants if this thing costs less than 300 bucks.
7.1 channel Audio on a handheld? Why? Seems like this thing is just over engineered and will be a monster.
Vincent J. Murphy
Spandex Justice
a laptop.
It will require the user to lug around a car battery to run, and the 10,000 RPM disk drive will generate enough inertial warping fields such that turning a corner while walking will take major effort...
....you'll have to rebuy all your PS2 games you know and love, even though they'll be exactly the same on this.
Would it have been possible to make something that can take PS2 discs? I remember that portable PSX that guy made, it didn't seem too bad. Another idea would be to make a discman-like device you put in your pocket but it has a cable running to a screen/control pad thing. I saw a portable DVD player made by Sony at the Metreon last year based on that idea (although it was just a screen, no control pad).
I belong to the ______ generation.
Most interesting is that this device promises Playstation 2 level graphics
Don't they relise that if they do this sales in Playstation 2s will drop to near zero?
I have over 70 freaks, do you?
This is the same Sony who claimed that they'd build a P2P network for the Playstation 3 whereby other people's PS's not in use would do all of the processing grunt work.
Completely ignoring the fact that with broadband, you're typically 30ms minimum from your nearest neighbor, and good gaming requires a guarantee of 16ms max.
They're a bunch of liars. Fool me once, shame on me. Except they didn't fool anyone the first time.
Coming soon - pyrogyra
7.1 audio on a handheld? With headphones like that, you'll look like a cyborg.
i think it might take a while to catch on....it will prorbaly have its major drawbacks such as short battery life and few games at the start but like xbox it may be the best in its feild but the first attempt by a company to put something into the market is always a struggle it willb e interesting to notice how this turns out
Cool stuff is done by idiots........thats why its cool
While the PS2 may not have the best graphics out there, they should be fine for the size of screen this device will have.
Makes me think back to replaying Wolf 3D on the GBA, having a tiny screen sure helps make those low-res graphics more palatable...
"There are people who do not love their fellow human being, and I _hate_ people like that!" - Tom Lehrer
DIVX?? I need my pr0n portable, and I need it now!
... 7.1 channel Audio
Why?
It's a HANDHELD!!!
I can just imagine the proprietary headphone now... it's a wrap around band for your whole head, with a subwoofer on top.
Oh and the name... PSP?
I hate to say that this guy is already using the name....
Oh and in case I haven't karma whored enough?
Here's pics of the presentation
I am disrespectful to dirt! Can you see that I am serious?!
There are perfectly good open, royalty-free media options such as mini DVDs that store 1.8 GB.
I will never understand why Sony went with this proprietary medium. They are denying me as a consumer my fair use right to duplicate the media that I buy with my money. They are also denying me the right to burn copies of any disc I want, so that I can evaluate the media beforehand.
In conclusion, I predict that this device will fail miserably. Superior competitors such as the Nokia N-Gage (which uses MultiMediaCards) will emerge victorious.
Sincerely,
Seth "Expert" Finklestein
I wonder if they will connect to Playstation 3s like Neo Geos connected to the Gamecube...
I have over 70 freaks, do you?
No word on how this will be powered..
The feature I find most interesting on this list is the 802.11. With that we can finally play multiplayer games with handhelds without tangles of wires! Perhaps it could also be used as a wireless controller for your playstation. And I'd bet money there'll be a web browser.
I have suffered from being misunderstood, but I would have suffered a hell of a lot more if I had been understood.
will it have MD (MiniDisc) support? I've got to have that.
This is really fucking funny.
Sony has a real knack for convergence amongst devices. If proplerly implemented, this device could be an excellent multimedia/gaming/internet system capable of eroding futher nintendo market share and challenging the pocket pcs growing presence. As always, software will be the factor that will decide this devices fate. Certainly will be interesting to watch though, Im sure Nintendo wont take this lying down.....
Is that you?
7.1 audio from my handheld!
Happy Happy Joy Joy!
"There are people who do not love their fellow human being, and I _hate_ people like that!" - Tom Lehrer
Here is an article where this is all more clearly explained (and no Shift-JIS encoding, either):
http://pocket.ign.com/articles/430/430939p1.html
I had but a simple dream, to destroy all humans.
Will Sony be the next Sega? This appears to be a really innovative product, assuming all these "specs" aren't just marketing hype. Surround sound out of a handheld? PS2 GFX on a 1.25" screen? Riiiight...
Anyway, it reminds me a lot of sega, when they produced all those incredibly innovative products, like the SegaCD, the Nomad, the 32X followed by the 64X. However, despite the high quality of these products...nobody bought them. They were too ahead of their time. Now Sega's been relegated to the trash heap of gaming history. M$ seems to be where most of the gaming innovation is these days. With M$ gaining more and more market share with their XBOX, how long before Bill Gates introduces a handheld with features people really want, like video monocles and a direct nueral interface?
Consensual sex is boring.
Sorry, the iPod has already claimed that title
-- You see, there would be these conclusions that you could jump to
I think one of the beautiful things about the GBA is the extended battery life. (Where even the storage is solid-state). I fear that this portable device might need a fan *AND* a motor to spin the media to read from it, adding a severe drain to the battery... (Mind you, I'm no fanboy, in fact I'm excited for the PSP, but I'm curious how they can handle the power consumption...)
7.1 channel audio on a handheld device does not make sense. You only need two channels - one for each headphone. Something is awfully inconsistent about this spec, and in fact many of the specs quoted are inconsistent with the fundamental limitations of a handheld device. If true, it implies that it is meant more as a replacement for the PS2, and is designed to be portable in the sense that it can be carried around and hooked up to various A/V systems, or at least is dual use. The only mention about the screen is that it is a 16:9 widescreen tft lcd.
---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?
2 weeks, for me to find you and port you to the realm of the dead!
Didn't the Neo Geo Pocket (and Color) connect to the Dreamcast, not the GameCube?
(For all of like, 6 games, not all of which reached the US?)
"There are people who do not love their fellow human being, and I _hate_ people like that!" - Tom Lehrer
Wow, major troll...announced a new KDE version and linked to Gnome.org....Way to GO!!
"Some things have to be believed to be seen." - Ralph Hodgson
It's never too late for the WONDEROUS GAPING ANUS. Click now!!
Link to portable Atari 2600
;)
http://www.classicgaming.com/vcsp/VCSpStory1.htm
Of course, the gameboy advance looks like a supercomputer in comparison...
if the PSP is going to be successful it must be able to play PS1 and PS2 games. other companies have previously released more technically competent portables, but nintendo's strength lies in its VAST GB and GBA software library.
smd4985
sony needs -games- to compete with nintendo in the portable market.
whereas nintendo basically rolled over and gave up in the console market; the gameboy has fought off hoards of similarly impressive technical specifications.
sony needs a solid price, a solid lineup, and a good darn screen (properly lit the first time would be nice).
nice specs - but how about we hear a list of developers and games planned for the psp? or even the dimensions of the screen, or the battery life/recharge time?
after that 98% dip in revenue last quarter, it'll be interesting to see where sony puts its continued marketing force.
// "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"
...doesn't this sound a bit excessive to anybody?
Wireless 802.11, USB 2.0, 7.1 channel Audio, and a 24bit 16x9 screen TFT LCD screen. Sony has called this device the 'Walkman for the 21st Century', and plans to allow the user to enjoy movies and music for the device, along with games.
wireless internet play... DVD audio and video... y'know, fully half the reason the Nintendo Game Boy series is so successful is because they make all their devices with a target price of $100, give or take. Portable DVD players are selling for $200-$300 these days, regardless of brand, and that's before you wed a powerful gaming engine and $50-$100 worth of wireless networking to it.
With those kinds of specs, I imagine it'll sell for something like $400 minimum, weigh almost as much as a laptop and suck batteries dry faster than James Bond opening a bra clasp. It's either baloney or it's a niche gadget, which is not something you want when you're marketing a gaming device.
Run for cover!! Fart shockwave is coming from Nintendo HQ.
Battery time will be measured in usec.
Looking for people to chat about multicopters, coding, music. skype: gtsiros
Or is all that too much overkill?
DJCC
For a device such as this, wouldn't bluetooth make more sense as a limited transmission medium? Seems odd to user irDA instead...
I have an iPod but half the time it's connected to my stereo system -- dont you realize people will probably connect this to their home systems or friend systems?! If you are paying $300+ for this wouldn't you want the latest in multi-channel sound!? Also, if you can play movies on this device then the ability to know how to deliver the sound is very important even if being down converted to stereo. They have headphones for 5.1 and read this review for a 2.0 vs 5.1 headphone comparison. No, for games it might not be as important but for watching movies on a flight it could make a difference because to me audio is just as important as visuals.
No VGA port for external video, or internal DVD burner, or full-size keyboard??? How the hell am I supposed to get any work done on this thing?
"And this is my boy, Sherman. Speak, Sherman." "Hello." "Good boy."
a cluster of knuckles running teethos?
Check out the IGN article on the specs as well.
The device looks great, but how in the world will you power it all? Plus by including all the original buttons (although only one analog stick) this isn't going to be small by any means. This seems to be sized more like a micro laptop than anything else. However, using all the original controls lets them make it PSOne port friendly. In an ideal world you'd be able to rip PSOne cd's to this new format disc and just play them directly, but no way Sony would give up that much money in licensing.
Serious audio though, which hopefully will spur Nintendo to finally add dedicated audio hardware to future GBA's.
Impressive stats, we'll have to see how much they can deliver. But, hey, if they build a great portable with the same sort of size as my GBA SP, with a 10 hour battery, backlit screen, etc., I'd be glad to get one.
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. - Anais Nin
There's no way that this is meant to be used while playing games on the handheld. No sir.
As sony as mentioned, this will be an all in one media device. Let's compare it with somewhat similar media devices like the portable Archos video jukebox. It plays videos on a tiny little screen but you can plug it to your tv and enjoy the full experience.
My guess is that the PSP will have audio and video out to. Problem with 7.1 Audio is that you need an optical audio out cable, and it's not like many people even have 5.1 audio, or even receivers that have an easily accessible dolby digital input.
Anyhow, I am betting that this feature won't actually be used, they are probably just using Ps2 compatible hardware that's CAPABLE of processing 7.1 audio, but will not actually do it or output it. It's just ridiculous.
If we take a look at this picture the main unit is pretty much the same size as the PSOne. Just add a few buttons on the bottom of that nifty little screen and you basically have a portable, full size DVD reading, games machine
Mother, do you think they'll like this sig?
Something I've observed between Sony and Nintendo.
Playstation 2:
Plays DVD movies
Plays Audio CDs
Plays games
Gamecube:
Plays games
There are people who think that part of the reason why the Gamecube hasn't been doing so well is that it doesn't fill multiple niches. And after a *lot* of thought - I have to agree. If you're going to pay $150 for a game system, or $199 for a game/dvd player/cd player - which will you go for? I've often told people who ask me which console is the "best" that:
Playstation 2 has the most games.
Xbox has the nicest looking games.
Gamecube has the best games.
But - that's not enough. And if you look at the PSP versus Gameboy Advance, notice an interesting trend:
PSP:
Plays games
1.8 G cartridge - could play MPEG-4 movies (more than enough space for that + subtitle/language track at MPEG-4)
Plays music (again - at 1.8 G, more than enough space)
802.11 - can play games via network, possibly Internet
Playstation 2 graphics - I'll say "Playstation 1.5", which means that we could get Final Fantasy VII on the PSP (would not surprise me as a "launch title" - that would ensure a million sales right there), or Suikoden I & II Collectors PSP game
Gameboy Advance:
Plays games
Sony's may be more expensive, but if they get the price at around $150 (yeah, I'm stretching, but you never know), and if they start to offer movies, I can see myself getting one. Perfect for riding the train, flying on a long plane flight (and I don't have to pay the annoying $5 for a set of headphones), I can be sitting in the living room while my wife watches TV, my kids are playing at my feet, and I'm weeping as Aerith gets killed again. (Hey - I'm a sensitive guy!)
What will be interesting to see is what "other uses" Sony has for the PSP. Nintendo's "Connectivity" between the GBA/Gamecube has been pretty good at times (Zelda being the best, and at least the Metroid additions were worth buying both games). If Sony can play up the memory stick issue, you could have a game you could have 2 copies of - one for the road, when you get home, stick in the memory stick and play on the "big screen".
At least it's competition - and most of you know how much I like to see that happen.
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
but I don't think it will be Playstation 2 level graphics... initially it was announced that it would be PSX level graphics... plus, despite the fact that Nintendo claims SNES level graphics on the GBA, the resolution is smaller and squatter than television so even if the programming for the game is on par with a port, the GBA gfx will be altered (smaller viewing screen or reduced graphical detail, take your pick)...
Now I will finally have somewhere to use my 7-channel headphones and my mobile, solar-powered subwoofer. Everyone thought I was a moron when I got those headphones, "You only have two ears, you dumbass!" they would say, but who's laughing now!?!?
this is from the same people who thought they could use distributed computing to render real time high detail 3d graphics.
There's still atleast 2 years until this puppy comes out, things are gonna change.
A major feature of that device will also have DRM through-and-through. And Sony makes this sort of thing stick: look at how tightly they have controlled the PS2 and MiniDISC. And their versions of the Palm handhelds are full of proprietary, undocumented APIs (e.g., many (all?) third party MP3 players for Palm don't work on Clies).
Sony has shown signs of openness with some of their efforts, but I think they are just so powerful and like to control things so much that if we end up with a world where Sony controls a significant part of the compute infrastructure, we are in real trouble. Microsoft's dabbling in DRM and proprietary architectures will seem like child's play in comparison.
your eggs in the same basket is not wise. psp is overkill for this market.
I do not like this. Sony is vestibly going to attempt to own the videogames industry, and possibly turn it into the monopoly that Atari (and then Nintendo) had in the 1980's. That's not a good thing. Sony had a bit of justifiable reason to releasing the Playstation and using the early marketing tactics that it did (Nintendo literally backstabbed them when creating their vaporware CD addon, choosing Phillips over Sony while the system was well into development.). But they do not have a reason to overtake Nintendo. Gunpei Yokoi's death should not be more vain than it was.
Whoops!
Perhaps Sony can pull of a miracle and make this thing successful, but I think it'll be too much, too soon, for too much money and without enough software to challenge the GBA's expanding library.
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
I sure hope that the PSP is as great as it sounds, because Nintendo needs a good slap in the face to bring them around. I understand that there is a nitch for cheap, long lasting portable gaming devices, but surely there are plenty of people who will by a slightly more expensive but much more capable device.
Sounds like a cool toy!
I hope that Duke Nukem Forever will come bundled with it.
What I want to know is how universal is the universal media disk. Minidisk was a great technology when it came out, but Sony's proprietary licensing kept it from widespread adoption. UMD looks like it could be a great new format, but will they open it up?
A wireless 4 player Contra clone! *drools*
Now what was it again...
Up, Up, Down, Up, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, A, B, A, B, Select, Start?
Mother, do you think they'll like this sig?
How will it be copy locked? Information will be free!
-Libertarian secular transhumanist
Do you know that in order to use Dolby you have to pay about $10k to the patent holder, Dobly Surround Inc?
I mean, Ok with that, it's not like dobly is an invention like the quantum theory or something, but some consider it an invention anyway.
But NO CINEMA in the world will play your movie if it doesn't have dolby!
Talk about fair play and the american economy..
That's quite some time for Nintendo to get serious with its Gameboy.
Wow, that's bleeding edge technology! And I mean that literally...
*cuts self on razor sharp jaggy*
Mother, do you think they'll like this sig?
1. If Sony claims this handheld will have PS2 quality graphics, why would anyone buy a PS2 when this comes to market? The handheld would cannibalize PS2 sales. This was exactly the reason why Sega brought out the Game Gear first instead of the Nomad, because the Nomad would've eaten into Genesis (cough cough, Mega Drive) console sales. 2. Price. The Gameboy has always been popular because of its price, not because of killer features. Nintendo's Gameboy series has always been inferior to each of its competitors (Atari Lynx, NEC TurboExpress, Sega GameGear, Sega Nomad) but price, combined with long battery life and a lock-up of third-party developers have slain all of the Gameboy's challengers. 3. Unit manufacturing cost. This handheld is going to cost a pretty penny to manufacture and it will definitely be a loss-leader throughout its life. Compare that to Nintendo making money on the Gameboy machines themselves (or with Sony making a profit on the PS2 console). Sony will not shout-out "ramming speed" and tell Scotty to set the engines to Warp9 while losing money hand-over-fist trying to drive Nintendo from the marketplace. Only Microsoft has shown courage (some courage when you have $50 billion in the bank) to execute such a normally suicidal temporary business model losing so much money per console sold. If Sony wants to put the nails into the coffin of Nintendo, they should go at this in a joint-venture with Microsoft. That way they both can shoulder the burden of driving Nintendo into the category where it should be; a third-party developer.
"Right now, somewhere in this world, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love," - Peter Griffin, *Family Guy*
With specs like those, this PSP is guaranteed to be:
1) Only available in Japan, or
2) WAY too expensive
3) Hidden from the light of day forever. My nerd instincts tell me something like this is simply far too good to be true. And the sad thing is I don't need a justification other than that, and I'll probably still be right.
Erring on the side of pessimism with things like this is almost always the safe course to take. Why?
+++ATH0
What gaming innovation has Microsoft done exactly?
That would be cool!
Has Linux been ported to the PSP yet?
No electrons were harmed creating this post, though some may have been subjected to electrical and/or magnetic fields.
This is really, really cool. However: I seem to remember PS3 specs leaking out quite awhile ago... and then eventually changing to be marginally less impressive. I'll believe this when it comes to e3 next year. I have no doubt whatever Sony has at E3 next year will be rediculously impressive, of course; I'm just not going to listen to specs until they have a prototype working.
Now, let me tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a thing called a Game Boy. The Game Boy was a complete and total hunk of junk. It had an unlit screen that displayed four shades of burnt yellow, unspeakably tinny sound, a limited processor, and limited ability to display large or numerous sprites at any given moment. After the Game Boy had been out a while, a couple of competitors were released: the Sega Whatsit, the Atari Lynx, and the Whatsit By Whoever Made the TurboGraphics 16. Now, these were really impressive little machines. They had lighted LCDs with bright, eye-catching colors. They had the ability to have large things moving. They had deep sound. The Sega handheld had a Sonic game that was almost as impressive as what you might find on the genesis at that time.
The Sega, Atari, and TG16 handhelds all crashed and burned violently, and the 4-shades-of-yellow hunk of junk went on to be one of the most successful video game consoles of all time. Why? Because everyone but the Game Boy tried to do too much. All the more powerful handhelds were bulky as hell, didn't fit in your hand or pocket as easily, cost twice as much (bad for something like a handheld, which is usually an impulse purchase), and most damning of all SUCKED BATTERIES LIKE THERE WAS NO TOMORROW. Meanwhile, the 4-color, dinky, tinny games for the gameboy just somehow wound up being really fun.
Now, is the point of me bringing this up to say that the PSP is going to crash and burn, or that I think Nintendo will crush Sony mercilessly because I am a nintendo fanboy and think Sony can do nothing good? No. Not at all. Sony is smart, and what they are describing is a kick-ass little machine. However, I do really have to wonder about what kinds of tradeoffs they're making to fit this in there-- because there WILL be some. How expensive is it going to be? Most importantly, how much *battery life* will this thing have?? I really have to wonder about the minidiscy optical drive; if ANYONE could pull off a CD-based handheld game system, it would be sony, but is that going to have any impact on the battery?
Basically the only reason i'm going on about all this is to counteract the inevitable group of people that (i'm guessing; there's probably like a hundred more comments in this story right now then there were when I started typing) are going to say this is going to be Nintendo's doom. Unless Sony does the x-box thing and dumps on the market to kill Nintendo, I don't quite think so. Better is not always better with handhelds, and in terms of Games, Sony has a rediculously uphill battle. The Game Boy game library is one of the biggest and best ever, rivalling even the PS1's, and the fact you can hop on ebay and get a bunch of dinky but fun gameboy-1 games for $5 a pop is nice. Moreover, Nintendo *really* understands how to build a good game library, the same way Sony *really* understands how to build gaming hardware. Sony is still mostly dependent on third-parties. And note that despite LOTS of talk about specs, Sony's said *nothing* about games. I predict that the first we hear about the GBA2, the first thing we're going to see, before we hear about polygons or anything else, is videos of games.
Here is my prediction: all the golden ages of video games have happened when there was healthy competition between two big consoles. Not like today, when the PS2 is all-owning and the other two are fighting over the "distant second" title; real, healthy competition. I think the PSP and the GBA/GBA2 (whenever and whatever that is; hopefully nintendo's been working on such a thing since well before the PSP announcement) are going to have one such healt
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
Am I thonly one to notice that the wifi it uses sems to Be 802.11j?
This may be an error in my browser rendering the page, but the 802.11 on the ZDNet has a j next to it, and given that there is an 802.11J standard (or at least there are allusions to one which was brought up to address 4.9 to 5Ghz operationof 802.11 in Japan) and givent aht sony are a japanese company, this could be annoying as one good thing about handhelds is due them being used by travelers they have been exempt from region coding but since 802.11J is a Japanese standard then...
Curses!
--
It's all fun and games til somone looses an eye,
then it's fun and games without depth perception.
I think that Sony is kicking butt with these specs cause they think that Nintendo might be considering making a pocket gamecube. I mean whats to stop Nintendo?
Small media format - Check
Low power processor - Check
graphics processors made mobile (ATI) - check
pre-existing developer base - check
legacy (GBA) support - check
maybe i'm oversimplifying this thing, but Nintendo could seriously extend the life of the gamecube by making it their next portable, and creating and focusing on a new next-gen console.
there are FOUR lights!!
How often are GBAs dropped? Alot.
How often are GBAs given to young kids? Most of the time they are.
How often do young kids take care of thier stuff? Consider that I NEVER give my GBA to a young kid, and I cringe as I hand them a PS2 contoller...
Take this device that has a rotating optical media. Take it for a drop. Is the head still going to be aligned? If yes, repeat 200 times. You just simulated a weeks worth of use. Also, what parent is going to buy thier kids this thing? That's like sending your kid to school with a laptop.
PS2 quality graphics are nice, but when they're applied to such a tiny screen, who's going to be able to read anything?
Battery life? Consider that the day they release this thing is the day that Duracell and Energizer's stock split 3 times in one day.
I think they're missing the market.
If you think education is expensive, you should try ignorance -- Derek Bok, president of Harvard
If they can easily port old PS1/PS2 games to this it should do well. Some of the most successful games on the GBA are Mario and Zelda ported over from older systems. This would be cheap and a lot of people would be interested in playing these on a portable. Games like Gran Turismo, Grand Theft Auto, Final Fantasy etc.
http://www.kubuntu.org/
Can you picture those headphones?
Since they were going to need all the space for the other stuff anyway, I'm glad they opted to tack on the massive 16x9 inch screen.
(I know, I know. RTFA.)
Am I the only one who has noticed the j at the end of the 802.11 in the japaneses ZDnet article? it may well have been a browser glitch but it does make sense since 802.11j is a protocol designed to allow certain stuff to be done in the authorised radio band in Japan, the IGN articel seems to have knocked off the j but it the wifi has to operate to a standard and given that sony is a japanese company 802.11j seems reasonable.
more info on 802.11 whatever can be found at:
This is mildly annoying as handhelds have normally not suffered from regionisation due to them being used by travelers, and to have the networking protocol regionise them would be a bitch. either that or the whole world would have to on a whim switch to 802.11j from 802.11b (or a or g or whatever) which might no work in some countries where the frequency range it works in (4.9 to 5GHz) is restricted.
curses!
more info on 802.11 whatever can be found here.
--
It's all fun and games till somone looses an eye,
then it's fun and games without depth perception.
I still have one of these.
"There are people who do not love their fellow human being, and I _hate_ people like that!" - Tom Lehrer
I miss borahbands.com already.
... does it support ogg vorbis and linux? I'm sticking with my classic handheld until it does! ;)
This way you could use the PSP to offload pictures and do more serious editing. Editing on the camera is a pain in the ass. What it needs is much, much larger storage. It sounds like it doesn't have a harddrive, since it's only got 1.8G storage. If it did, like the iPod variety, then you could listen to a truckload of music and store hours of video and hundreds of thousands of shots from a camera; all without lugging around a laptop.
Unfortunately I haven't seen any palmtop that could did this as cheaply, or laptop that would be as light. Anyone else heard of such a thing?
Ever stop to think they're just reusing a small enough chip?
Will this require headphones with 7 speakers and a subwoofer? Will I need to grow five more ears???
This side up.
Don't know how much this thing will cost, but I am willing to pay up to $500 if:
1. It hooks up to the TV and surround speakers
2. It plays standard DVD's
3. Stores and plays MP3's
4. Allows file sharing trough that wireless LAN
5. Has > 1GB storage space
6. Acts like a portable hard drive when plugged into USB
7. It plays PS and PS2 games with no need to buy them in new format
Other nice stuff would be a learning remote control, cell phone, organizer, calendar, calculator, digital camera, fax, dialup, flashlight and a stun gun but I think that they'd have to come up with an extra button for that...
(rrrring, rrrring Heloooooooouch!!
The screen could be 16" x 9"
or 1.7" x 1"
If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
Sorry, I forgot that <a href=""> business. So sue me.
I had but a simple dream, to destroy all humans.
This is the Minidisc Player of the 21st century, NOT the walkman of the 21st century.
Y to the O to the U FAIL IT!
Nothing like toting around 7 speakers and a subwoofer for a handheld game.
Seriously, I think that the majority of people using these things are going to be wearing headphones. So why not devote some time to that, and make this the first handheld device designed to be binaural (with all the spooky positional audio that entails)? Make a really great feature instead of a buzzterm that'll need to get downmixed.
I'm worried that this gadget's going to be too big, too expensive, and too unwieldy. Remember the Lynx? The turbo express? The game gear? They all failed because they ignored the basic features that make nintendo handhelds so successful: they're small and cheap, so parents can hand them to whining children without worrying that they'll break. And kids will play anything, regardless of specs...my brother still plays Tiger handhelds from when I was a kid.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
Would fit real nice into a mobile system to compete...and they would already have 200 games ready to ship...
Looks like Sony's industrial design team is slipping - this thing needs a bit of work: Sony PSP Prototype
I don't doubt the claim of PS2 quality graphics, although I cant see it being a reality without a hefty price tag to match. Other things that I wonder about are..
-Theres no mention of any video out ports. 7.1 surround while looking at a little 4 inch screen just doesnt seem to have that "surround" effect. A multi out like the PS* would be nice, so component or svideo out could be a reality.
-After my last comment, I think... Does PS2 graphics mean it looks that sharp when scaled down to the little LCD screen, and if its output to a TV is it going to be Super Game Boy all over again?
-And what im really interested in, is how they are going to get around disk skipping. Buffering linear data such as audio or video from a music CD or DVD isnt too hard (hence anti-skip portable cd players), however many games tend to seek to many various locations on a cd/dvd, which would make buffering a challange. As long as their choice of media is read optically, they face problems such as this......Then again, jogging while playing any game offers more risks then simply disk skipping.
I for one look forward to seeing console quality games seeing portablity, and I beleive sony is the best choice for this move. Until now (well, until sony gets this baby released), portable games have always had worse graphics, less gameplay time, and in the case of RPG's (my fav time of game), worse story.
I would much rather see the system remain backwords compatable as the PS2 did for PS1 games. If the system isnt backwords compatable, im sure mod chips and copying solutions will become available soon after its release. (Who wants to pay another $50+ for a game U already own 1+ copies of?).
Oh, and this is my first post here on slashdot. Yay. I brought a bucket of water with me in case anyone is in the mood for flaming.
Does this seem a little ridiculous to anyone else? What is the target market for this thing, Smurfs or Lilliputians who can sit in the middle of and get a full listening experience?
This space for rent. Call 1-800-STEAK4U
So why doesn't Nintendo release the GameCube in a similar form factor? It's already tiny, uses "pocket" sized DVD data...
Heck, I just wish that my GameCube could play music and video on "Pocket CDR" or "Pocket DVD" media. Then it would already be the center of my "digital world".
MORTAR COMBAT!
The CPU core listed in the article is quoted to be a 333 mhz dual R4000 - this sounds suspiciously close to the Broadcom/Sibyte SB-1 dual core.. for CPU power, this would be roughly the same as an Octane 1 class SGI workstation with dual CPUs (MIPS hardware floating point, even).
Linux already runs on the SB-1 core(s).
Plus the MIPS CPUs have very low power consumption compared to most of Intel's chips.. comparable to or better than Transmeta's offerings.
I don't own any game consoles, but I may actually buy one of these =)
Erik
As with the MiniDisc technology, Sony will make the music and video (non-game) functionality of this device completely unusable and inconvenient. Has anyone used one of the Sony NetMD MiniDisc recorders? They are gorgeous devices, but almost a complete write-off as a result of the slow, buggy, and extremely crippling DRM layer. This same technology (OpenMG) was also rolled out in their MP3 players and in their consumer PCs. There is no reason why they won't use the same thing on the PSP.
I always save my last mod point to mod up a good troll. You people are too serious.
Yes... but the dimension has more to do than the resolution, sincerely. If you have a screen the same size as a GBA but twice the resolution, it won't give any advantages for the type of games that are best to be played. I can't imagine play vice-city over a 3.5" per 2"... no matter what the resolution is. Worse is, if they have 3D graphics, I wonder what will be the quality of those graphics in small environment. Sprites are ok because you can draw them so that they are easy to see, but if the PSP doesn't include built-in anti-aliasing, then it will be the worst graphics ever seen on a handheld, at least for the first generation games/software.
Of Code And Men
If Sony is able to make a device that:
Is Affordable
Doesn't break
Has decent battery life (we're talking 2 processors here, plus wifi and all the original buttons)
The only way Nintendo can compete is creating the handeld equivalent of the Gamecube
One minute. It'll probably burn your hands too with the heat from a ps2 class graphics processor alone...
An expensive, oversized handheld will NOT be desirable even if it plays like a dream.
I remember how great the Sega Nomad was, but it was big and sucked battery juice like an intern. Never caught on. I owned one and I didn't use it as much as I would have liked, because of these reasons (and it was still the best playing handheld until the GBA came out).
No matter how nice it looks, large amounts of people won't pay top dollars for a gigantic "handheld" that can't stay charged.
So the specs are out... where can I download the
emulator, and is the NetBSD port done yet?
Saying this is the 21st Century Walkman is like saying the Walkman was hot stuff back in 1903. I have a feeling we'll be more likely to start rating our favorite 21st century gear around 2099, not 2003. We've just started this century, don't get so excited yet.
I am sorry but I will not have space in my pockets for this extra box. Nor do I wish to reward sony for making me buy two handhelds from them instead of one.
The PSP screen is 4.5"5 9.html
http://www.gamespot.com/all/news/news_60726
The GBA screen is 2.9"
Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way...
I agree that this device is getting enourmous featurewise. I wonder if this is truely a handheld device as the media (and headline) says, or if its simply a portable ps2 just like the psOne, as the PlayStation Portable title suggests.
Given that, the psOne had a negligiable impact on the sales of the GBC or GBA. Very few people bought the psOne for its portability. But perhaps Sony is amending the mistakes that made this so by including a fliptop screen that was a popular bundle with the psOne.
I Browse at +4 Flamebait
Open Source Sysadmin
he refers to it as a "16x9 screen TFT LCD screen" while his linked article clearly describes it as "16:9" (i.e. aspect ratio), that colon has a far different meaning than an "x"
it is in reality a 4.5" TFT LCD with a 16:9 aspect ratio.
less confusing display specs here
I don't have enough ears for that many channels in a portable. What do the headphones look like?
Something has to give if Sony wants to introduce the PSP with said specs in the $100-200 ballpark. Either something has to give or Sony is going to go bankrupt (or I'm gonna wet my pants if Sony can really pull this off for under $200). More realistically, the PSP will probably be priced $200-400 at launch if most specs make it into the final production unit. In that case, don't even think about the beginning demise of the GBA -- the PSP and GBA won't even be in the same market.
Don't hold your breath, but do start to save money because the future will be pretty damn exciting for portable gaming.
With about 1 ghz of total processing power, it's also a portable heater.
eclecti.cc
This is the same thing that killed the Dreamcast!
Everyone was "waiting for Playstation2" and were happy denying the current hardware.
The buzz of PS2 made the DC die. (well, it certainly helped sega lose market share)
Sony has always been in the vaporware business, and we always fall for it. Remember the Playstation-9- commercials when PS2 was released? Parody sure, but it wasn't long until rumors of PS3 were buzzing about. This is fairly underhanded marketing....In the minds of the audience you are comparing the competition's current system to the proposed specs of your as-yet-unbuilt next generation system.
PSP will be in -PROTOTYPE- form at -NEXT YEARS- E3! This "accouncment" is far too early to be of real interest and can only be viewed as propaganda and/or a way to artificially boost share prices.
Fits in a bag, not in a pocket...
Of Code And Men
What an awful link in the article! I don't even mean it's awful because it's a Japanese link posted on the English slashdot site. It's awful because 99 percent of the gaming public would find it unintelligable (regardless of the language it's written in OR the primary language of the reader).
Honestly--I have an engineering degree and a fair bit of electronics knowledge under my belt and the stats made MY eyes glaze over. Dual MIPS4000 cores? 660nm laser diode to read a 60mm dual layer 1.8GB media disc? Hardware tesselator and surface mapper? Reconfigrable multi-channel sound DSP? Jeeeeezus who the hell cares (or even understands) besides the most hardcore geeks and hardware engineers in the videogame industry?
While all that is front and centre, why didn't the editors (of either ZDNet or Slashdot) include specs "real" people find important. What are the overall physical dimensions (not just screen size--and including the weight), amount of playing time from fully charged? How long can you play on a full charge? Can you toss in AA cells or does it use an expensive, cellphone-like battery pack? Are the discs enclosed in protective sleeves a-la 3.5" disks (being it will be used in a portable environment)? Can you connect it to an external monitor or television (I presume with "7.1" sound you could hitch it to your stereo being that 7-channel headphones or 7 tiny little speakers jammed in there would be silly)? How many and what games will be initially released?
Hell--there isn't even a picture of the damn thing! Even the folks making that "phantom" game box at least put a computer-generated mock-up out there! Is it going have a notebook-like "clamshell" design like Nintendo has moved to?
Until it's FULLY announced I consider this concept- or vapour-ware (ie. specs subject to change without notice--yes, even if it is from a big, rich outfit like Sony). I have my doubts about a product stuffed with so many processors, a mini laser disc player, USB, memory stick etc being practical from a price or portability standpoint.
I guess we'll see what chance it has when we REALLY get to see it at E3--it could be a great hit or it could merely be just small enough to slide into that shelf full of Betamax tapes that have been collecting dust for the past 15-20 years...
When will the emulators be released for this thing? I wouldn't mind all SNES games on one disc, all NES on another, and all GameBoy on a third. ;)
... that it's a clamshell design. I'm not sure how else they can make it work.
"Derp de derp."
i think the next sony clie will be powered by the same processor. can i have my psp/clie please?
Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
Portables aren't about stunning visuals or immersive games. You want something that you can pick up relatively quickly, have some fun, and be able to stop when something else comes up. The more complex you make a game, the harder it is to play in that fashon. Additionally, I take a "wait and see" stance on all Sony console specs. They have a habit of making things sound far better than they are when they're actually released. A few months ago they were promising cell technology in the PS3. And from all recent reports, that's not going to happen. I bet Sony changes the specs 10 times between now and launch.
They must really have faith in the product; apparently they'll be supporting it for (at least) 96 years.
Does it have wireless earphones? If it doesn't then its pretty much screwed my chance of getting one. Lots of cables and shit otherwise.
A dual R4000 cpu core! OMG!
I used to have an SGI Indy with R4000 mips cpu.
I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
Does anyone think that it may not have been for mere "cuteness" that Nintendo sized the GC discs the way they did? In light of this announcement, it makes me think maybe they did it for future compatibility with a next-generation GameBoy?
BTW, the GC media is 3", about 50% bigger than the announced PSP discs.
Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to red, gold & green)
http://www.digitalbackspin.com/news/get-news.asp?i d=1692&catid=2&cpg=get-news.asp
Newsie, Moderator, www.tauniverse.com
That this thing will do curved surfaces? Read the original specs and it mentions a curved surface GPU.
by the sound of what it will have, I'm thinking it will be the size of the GameGear O_O
Have you looked at the GameBoy Advance games lately? I would says that greater than 75% of them are just horrible. And they're like $35 each, which is almost twice as much as some Playstation 2 games.
Hey! I have one of those! I love playing Panic Bomber and Wario Land on that thing!
<squints to read computer screen at 2 feet away>
With the Playstation 2 Linux Kit, they managed to use a playstation 2 game disc as the runtime environment, where you would boot to whatever kernel you wanted (stored on a memory card). They could easily make a bootloader for the PSP with BOOTP support with the 802.11 interface, or hard drive with the USB 2.0 interface.
The PS2 Linux Kit (which I am a proud owner of) is bundled with a 40 gig hard drive (with mounting brackets). This was a big factor in driving up the price of the kit and thus discouraging more geeks from buying it. The kit includes an ethernet adapter, hard drive (with mounting brackets), usb mouse/keyboard, vga adapter and the linux distribution.) With a $200 price tag, and the decline of hard drive prices, it makes it even less economical to buy one today (as opposed to when I bought mine about a year and a half ago).
I would certainly hope they decide to make linux available, and for a cheaper price. Besides, what could be more cooler than wardriving with kismet on a PSP? :)
Yeah, not to mention the quartly rate for another AAA (or at least AA) title...
I think Nintendo has some great games, and yeah, you could say they wipe the floor "pound for pound." But the sheer number of games on the other platforms easily allow enough great games on them to compete with Nintendo in that respect.
The 2004 delay of Crystal Chronicles doesn't help the GCN's lineup one bit, but hopefully Twin Snakes will pick up some of the slack.
If the gamecube's handheld brother is the gameboy, will the playstation's be the playboy?
When life gives you crap, Make Crapade.
Sluggy Freelance.
Just like the SUV doesn't compete in the same market as "trucks" or "station wagons," the SUV created it's own market. And unlike the in the car industry, the PSP and GBA will not be chasing the same dollars nearly as much.
In fact, there may instead be three classes here as the NGage seems to lie somewhere between the GBA and the PSP in terms of cost and capabilities.
Excuse me while I pull out my power generator, amplifier, 14 inch 1500 watt subwoofer and 7 150 watt midranges so I can play [insert game of the month].
:)
.02...
I'm the king of portability!
[/flaming_and_sarcasm]
The wireless connection would be really nice though. Finally, no more having to pay an extra $20 for a piece of wire to play against friends. Plus it will make it easier to hack and run linux
Unfortunately, it comes with DVD-style region controls, though after someone hacks it, it won't matter much.
USB 2.0? What would that be good for when you have a wireless connection? A portable chunk of FLASH for saves?
subwoofer underpants... which doubles as a bluetooth enabled vibrating alert for your mobile... imagine the possibilities!
Look at Sony's portable Minidisc players. Those things can go for HOURS playing minidiscs on 1 AA BATTERY!! UNO!
I don't think they're going to have a power problem, I think they have it worked out...
Living in oz, the greatest thing about gameboy was the ability to play strange puzzle games from all over the world that would never have seen the light of day on PAL. I couldn't see it in the english specs at ign, but the Japanese specs pay heed to a "Regional Code System". Please tell me these thigs aren't region locked. Or...on the other hand do tell me.
...would be awesome =]
grib.
maybe
Well, congratulations. You named one product in Sony's vast array of electronic innovation that has failed you; where I can tell you that I operated my PSX on the abusive environment of an aircraft carrier where it was played 24/7 (by day and night shifts), moved and manhandled on a regular basis without failing once in my ownership of the console.
Beyond your issues with that one product, I have to say that most of their electronics lines are very well made, from experience no less. I've owned at least three of their portable audio products and an array of headphones and the only times any of them have ever failed me was after I abused them in some extreme way (dropped from height onto a steel deck for instance). Sony isn't the only portable audio hardware I buy (price factors in), but it is on the short list of consideration.
Sorry, but Sony does produce great hardware in most cases. You seem to have run into problems, but considering the PSX and PS2 have been the best selling consoles world wide for over a decade now should clue you in to the fact they must be doing something right. A lot of something as a matter of fact.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
Just a minor revelation while speculating as to the PSP's size, but I'll bet the damn thing is a clamshell configuration. I figure the screen is the best indication of the unit's overall size, in this case a 16:9-format widescreen TFT LCD (480x272 pixels, 24-bit full color). Kinda beefy if you're thinking of a classic flat gameboy layout. There the PSP was looking not so portable.
:P
Then I remembered my trusty Sharp Wizard organizer that solves the problem nicely. My OZ-9500 (not pictured) is about 4x6 inches and sports a nice wide screen (16:9?). This would provide any gamer with acceptable portablility (albeit not pocket) without sacrificing screen size or hardware. There aren't too many other ways to configue the unit without giving it a large footprint...
Remember, you heard it here first
You need a FREE iPod Nano
Sega GameGear... it was pretty good, it did *not* crash and burn. It survived for quite a while. Moreover, it looks just like a GBA...
TurboGrafix 16 portable used TG16 cartridges, if that's not impressive, what is? It died because TG16 died.
Hmm...
I would have thought the PSP would have PSX level capabilities. That would blow the GBAsp out of the water anyways. If you stuck a 3" CD or a cDVD drive in there... or perhaps MD's
A cDVD drive would let you play full multidisc PS1 games... 1.8GB... isn't that 3" cDVD discs?
200MB == 3" miniCD discs
180MB == MiniDisc (MD)
You could pump VCD quality movies onto a cDVD (both discs of a standard two-disc VCD movie)
Or add MPEG4 capabilities...
Handheld DVD/MP3/CD player, with functionality of a PS2? (including PS1 compatibility?)
That sounds like a hit, if battery life doesn't suck and it doesn't weigh a tonne.
Also doubles as a back massager
Not to mention its *ahem* extra use for the ladies I know all you Slashdot readers are going after.
Sure, the specs posted at ZDNet (Japanese) say that the graphics core is rendering 24-bit RGBA, but there's no mention of the TFT's colour depth.
Sony's official media releases (Japanese)/(English) on the PSP are understandably light on specs. Even they skip over the specs of the graphics core chips.
Unless someone's got a better Sony URL for specs, I'm expecting that the PSP will be released with a 16-bit or 18-bit TFT to keep the costs down.
But it better be durable. Considering that the PSP is going to be spinning a small plastic disk at high speed, I pray that Sony takes the high road and builds the PSP with quality construction. Nothing stupid like plastic rails for the laser pickup (original Playstation + recent portable minidisc players) that warp under heat and stress...
If there is one thing that I love about the Gameboy (other than the retro games) is that it's designed to take abuse. The clamshell of the GBA SP is effective means of protecting screen and lack of moving parts means it can take shock and physical abuse rather well.
I would have been more interested if Sony offered hints about the prices point regarding the system. How much for the base system? How much for games?
Try running something like Quake III in a 400x300 window while your main resolution is at 1280x1024. You'll see it isn't bad at all, just small.
Right.
"Puts out as many triangles as a PS2" does NOT mean "has PS2 quality graphics." Models will have to be poorly textured, with detail coming from beautifully rendered curves out of its 33 million triangles/sec instead. Bizarre.
In any case, right up front, not PS2 graphics. Very different.
sony's method of marketing is annoying as hell. the annoying part isn't that they promise the moon and deliver a pile of rocks. the annoying part is that people buy into the hype. sony, like many electronics companies, promises all sorts of features and then blames the market when they fail to deliver a product that lives up to their claims.
for instance, all this talk about the cell processor for the ps3 seems awefully reminiscent of the talk about the rendering capabilities of the ps2. you can talk about vector capabilities until you are blue in the face, but the fact is that the system is designed by engineers for engineers. most game programmers aren't yet capable of vector programming. sony should have known this, but instead, they used it as a selling point (read: hype). how many games actually take advantage of the ps2's vector processing? very, very few. they should have engineered some full screen antialiasing in there instead. at least it would have gotten used. god knows it needs it...
Large print giveth, and the small print taketh away
It looks simply like sony hype... I looked at the specs over at ign.com (http://pocket.ign.com/articles/430/430939p1.html? fromint=1).
This thing only has 8 mb of system ram and 2 mb of video ram which is significantly less then the ps2's memory. I believe the ps2 has 32 mb of ram and 8 mb of video ram (wow even that sounds small).
I think the size of this will be fine... i have a feeling it will use a minidisc type size using a dvd laser instead of cd. That would be the most cheap manufacturing process for small discs. It would also explain why this thing holds 1.8 gigs of space over the 4.7 gig of a regular dvd.
Hmmm... Pie...
This thing has an MPEG4 decoder and small 1.8GB discs. With MPEG4/DIVX you can fit a good quality film in 0.7GB. With 1.8GB I imagine at least DVD quality. Oh, and it happens to play games as well.
Kid: "Dad, are we there yet? I'm bored..." Dad: "But I just bought you that new Sony PSQ--whatever--thing you wanted..." Kid: "But it's been loading for almost 10 minutes and every time you hit a bump in the road it starts over..." Dad: "Should'a boughta GBA..."
get aGamePark 32 (GP32) . open development, runs loads of older legacy system games (active emulator
scene), Movies, MP3's etc.
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So... wait a second... I'm counting 4 major processors on this thing -- 2 333MHZ processors, a VU, and a GPU. That's assuming that their "Graphics Core 1" and "Graphics Core 2" share the same GPU.
Did they conclude that the parallel nature of the PS2 was an engineering success?!? Do they ever even talk to their software developers?
It's been a while but doesn't the DC have more video ram. I remember back when DC was popular and PS2 was announced that I was surprised that the DC had more vram then the ps2.
Hmmm... Pie...
The screen is 4.5", not 2.9". That's the AGB. My fault.
StoneCypher is Full of BS
WTF is an AGB? Is that an Advanced Game Boy? I can't say I've heard of that...only heard of Game Boy Advance.