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Sony PSP Concept Revealed, PS2 Colors Diversified
An anonymous reader writes "1UP.com has posted a concept image of Sony's PSP handheld, as shown at a presentation about Sony's transformation and restructuring plan." The article analyzes the in-progress design: "Most conceptions of the PSP have envisioned a clamshell design like that of the Game Boy Advance SP, but this concept obviously favors a simpler, one-piece, horizontally arranged design. The Universal Media Disc loads into the back, and there's a loop for a handy carrying strap in one corner." Another article on 1UP shows new PlayStation 2 colors as part of a Japanese-only price drop/bundle announcement, including a special-edition "ceramic white" PS2 bundled with Gran Turismo 4 Prologue, and a Gundam bundle that includes a gold-colored PS2.
here is a link to the picture [mac.com] Call it Karma whoring if you will, but I have been damn curious about this for awhile...
Are you secure enough in your masculinity to run 'man touch'?
With the screen exposed like that, and not even recessed, I would be worried that it would get scratched easily. I'm worried about the power button's placement, and I hope that it has to be held for a half second to turn the thing off so you won't hit it accidently.
My guess is that the directional buttons/pad is/are analog, because I would think that putting an analog stick on a handheld would tend to break off or get damaged. There also don't seem to be any shoulder buttons, so if they plan to port PS1 games, some might not be easy (although some games never even used 'em).
Putting the discs in cartridges is a good idea, and they have expirence (MiniDiscs) and it being Sony I bet it will have good battery life (unlike, IIRC, the Lynx), but I wonder if it will be built in rechargable or AA(A)s (my guess is LithIon).
I guess my last comment is the screen. It's widescreen, very cool. I think that will play well with many types of games and if their "watch movies on it" idea ever takes off, that holds good.
OK, this is the REAL last comment. Wouldn't it be cool if they released a rewriteable disc for the thing and some kind of little DVD->PSP conversion unit or software or something so that you could "copy" your DVDs to it to watch on the go, so you wouldn't have to buy movies twice? It will never happen, but maybe some 3rd party will do it!
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
But here's a much larger fucking picture.
They made is in Adobe Photoshop 7.0
I really hate Dan Patrick.
It could be the angle or the lighting... but do those buttons look touch sensitive, like the iPod? I hope not. My iPod's buttons are WAY too sensitive. I'd think it would be very difficult to play games with buttons like that.
http://www.gamespot.com/all/news/news_6078 174.html
Woo! Lithium ion battery! I guess the days of having battery eating handheld systems are finally gone. But 'regional code system'? Uh oh.. 'Shock proof'? I don't think they understand the kind of stress gamers put their handhelds' through.. 'Expansion port'!? Uh oh, this means they'll end up releasing some kind of add-on(s) in the future. Maybe a mini-hard drive?
Based on the specs, Nintendo is gonna have a run for its money, but I'm not laying any bets down until I see the games and play them myself.
download this pdf and view page 13. its about the CELL and there is the word petaflop on the page. it appears as if sony wants to get into enterprise computing now, things could get interesting. and multi csll home computers, im drooling.
I want 2D games back.
Now, the Universal Media Disc looks extremely cool. Nice protective case like Mini Disks and 1.8gb of data. I'd love to have that in my laptop. It would be great for bringing dvd's with me on trips. I can deal with DVD to DivX so taht it fits on the 1.8 gb disk.
It could easily be the next floppy if the prices are low enough.
I want one.
Anyone know whether they will be (are already) available for the PC?
then again, as concepts go, we won't know till its out, or at least until a Prototype model is released
/. is overrun by bed-wetting elitist nerds
let it be known, for anything other than servers, a *nix OS sucks
I just saw the bundles at the local MediaMarkt.
... then again ... I'm not one to match my decor to my Playstation.
Doesn't really seem like a positive move, to me... but
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
The Neo Geo Pocket had one with no problems.
The tech specs claim PSP to have a 4.5" (that should be more or less 11.5 cm) 16:9 display, that would mean more or less a 10x5.7cm (3.9"x2.2") screen, according to the images the screen width should be roughly the half of the overrall console length, while being the media radius 6cm (2.36") an overrall height between 6 and 6.5cm (2.36" - 2.56") is to be expected.
So aside form the mistakes I did with the numbers the PSP size should be more or less 20x.6.5cm (7.9"x2.5")... is either that I have a way too much limited idea of portability or that I werar trousers with far to short pockets, but I fear that it'll be not incredibly confortable to carry this console around.
Because with such awful looking rubber buttons (any fans of the rubber keyboards of the 80's?) no-one would want to play with it. And if they manage to put all those chips and that disc drive into it, how many minutes will the batteries last? GameBoy, even though its different incarnations have had the worst hardware (don't get me wrong, I'm a Nintedo-freak!) in every generation, they have always been the least hungry machines when it comes to battery usage. Perhaps that has been one reason why GameBoy is so popular even today (not forgetting the high number of games). But if the batteries last, say 10 hours, and fix those buttons, I'll be getting one ASAP! ;)
Hasn't everyone been bitching about how the handle on the GameCube makes it look "kiddy"? :)
(And yes, i can see that it's not the same kind of handle, but it's still amusing.)
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
Knowing what I carry around with me all the time, it should be any bigger or heavier than an iPod or N-Gage. And for me to find it worth buying it would need to be a perfect replacement for my iPod, as well as a games machine.
Disc format, which as I said elsewhere means moving parts. Also means certain tricks won't be easily doable(like rumble) and there's a chance the device will screw up during travel. We'll see if they can work around that.
New format, which means I'd have to buy all new games for it. Not that big a deal, and I haven't been following it, but the GBA is backwards compatable. How many people own gameboy games and gameboy color games?
Large size, just to accomidate everything.
Going to be high cost next to it's competition. Simply because it's more advanced and will be newer.
Probably memory cards, rather than on-cartridge memory.
Will need to swap expansions rather than just swapping carts. The neo-geo stayed in existance for years because of the amount of hardware you could shove onto the cart.
Slower load times, cart over disc usage. We'll see if they can work around that.
Sony's console hardware has a history of breaking, oh, around just after warranty. I don't expect this to be different.
The key to the enjoyment of pop music is to replace any instance of "love" with "C.H.U.D."
Why the hell would Sony "transform and restructure" itself? Sony freaking OWNS the console market (maybe expect in North America, but then again they still are #1 there).
They pretty much own the console market here too. What you forget is that the PlayStation 2 has been over one hundred percent of their profits (that's right) for more than two years now. They *need* to restructure because they're losing ground as the untouchables of the consumer electronics market. They're not trying to upgrade their console presence; they're trying to fold their console presence back into a domination of the portable market.
There's a reason Kutaragi has been calling this the Walkman of the future. Music, Video, Games, Portable. If it's what it wants to be, it's five years of automatic Sony dominance, and Nintendo's death knell.
StoneCypher is Full of BS
Just a thought. Haven't got the time to consider the feasibility of it all.