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First Sony PSP Pictures Revealed
iamhassi writes "Pictures of the PSP concept design have shown up on The Register. I'm impressed: when I first heard the screen was 4.5" I was afraid the device would be unusually large compared to the GBA with its 2.9" screen. Obviously those worries were unfounded." Update: 11/06 15:28 GMT by S : A section-specific post from yesterday provided the concept pictures from a different source.
Wheee, Anyway, awful design, form factor is o.k. but no raised pad or buttons is awful. Also don't expect this thing to sell for under $300
Ubuntu- Linux for human beings.
just so there's no confusion this is the same story, with the same pictures that was run on Tuesday
Mike
These pictures have no objects that would indicate exactly how big these things are. How big can we expect this to be? I honestly believe the GBA is doing so well mostly because it's so small..
Now they throw this into the picture and fuck everything up. Thanks a lot Sony. Bastards.
P.S.
Don't worry, you'll still probably be getting my parents money.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
So how do you feed those little fish inside the new PSP "concept" aquarium? With a memory stick?
But this thing will inevitably be called the Playboy.
When life gives you crap, Make Crapade.
Sluggy Freelance.
It's also reminiscent of the Megadrive/Genesis "Mars" portable system. At least Sony has the cash to put behind such a product, unlike Sega did.
It's a nice concept design. I really don't like how thin it looks. It looks like it's something that would break by holding it. I think making it a bit bulkier would certainly be an advantage. Ugh... Hope this dosen't turn out to be the flop that the N-Gage was.
And why did you staple the trout to the RAM?
Then I'll buy one.
Maybe tekken 2 as well.
-73, de n1ywb
www.n1ywb.com
Hopefully it's not another device wrapped around a Memory Stick slot. Sony is almost as bad as Microsoft trying to foist a 'standard' on users.
The prototype looks like an expensive toy. Yes, this is definitely not going to be cheap in price.
You sound really upset about this, perhaps you should re-examine your priorities in life. Personally, I'd never seen it before and I'm glad that I did.
I have played extensively with gameboy from the first itteration to the current, and honestly, does sony expect to compete with that?
:) If they release it to be competative with the GBA series price wise, I might pick one up just for the 802 support, whith the assumption that it will be hacked later(probably will wait for it though)
Look at Segas Game Gear way back when. Yea that thing was sweet as a system, but could it hold its own against a plain ol gameboy, even though better gphx, backlit, and color?
hell no, it got clobbered. Same with Nomad, and there the difference was even greater SYSTEM wise.
I look at this, and I see a cell phone. No raised buttons... I like the screen though.
I also like the integrated 802, meaning it will be easy to get a web browser on it
7.1 surround? MP3 Playback? Is it just me, or are these things unnecessary on a PORTABLE device that will only accept proprietary discs (no burning MP3's and playing them).
My Sig Beat up your Honor Roll Sig
but will it feature Toy Story quality graphics?
Mother, do you think they'll like this sig?
I know, I know. This is conceptual work only. But it looks damned sweet. I love this formfactor. Give me a way to put ebooks on it and maybe a map/reference work and I'll be one happy traveller.
2 MIPS CPU's, LCD backlit screen + oodles of other things, my guess is that you might be able to squeeze about 5 minutes from a quad of AA's..
A portable game machine with a crappy battery life won't go too far.... I hope they have something up their sleeve, because even if they go battery-pak route, my experience with their laptop batteries is that they pretty much suck, too.
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
I was afraid the device would be unusually large compared to the GBA with it's 2.9" screen. Obviously those worries were unfounded."
/. would do more content proofreading but oviously those worries continue to be founded and unaddressed.
As the article states, this is only a concept design, and that the final product may be less sleek. I wish people would pay attention, this is not the final PSP and its not coming out next week.
I also wish
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
hopefully it will support bluetooth and IR and firewire and all sorts of other useless standards
Anyone know if it's a launch game?
Mother, do you think they'll like this sig?
> The machine's UMD media can hold up to two hours' of DVD-quality video or four hours 'standard' quality,
And that is oh-so-important on a 4.5" screen...
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
big deal. a concept design image from a company that is renowned for spouting marketing rot (recall the 'Cell' or 'Emotion Engine' hype?).
272 lines of horizontal resolution.
.. what's Nintendo?
That sucks.
They need a higher res screen, for sure.
480 x 272
Oh well, maybe gen 2. Or we'll see what the next gameboy is.
-Johan
Am I the only one appalled by the design of this thing? It looks real slick, don't get me wrong, but hear me out.
.5"-1" on each side for the buttons, we'd be up to 7.5" - 8.5" for the entire unit, which is too big to fit in most people's pockets.
It has a 4.5" screen, with like 1" on each side of the screen for buttons. I have small hands and I imagine that would be a tight fit for me. Unless their target audience is Japan only, they've got some redesigning to do. And on that 1" of buttons, it's curved down to make it look less like an original NES control, which I would imagine would make it harder to use. But if they added an extra
I'm looking forward to it, but hopefully it'll go through some better designs before we get the first prototype build.
It's like sex, except I'm having it!
Maybe you should visit the Games Section more, there are alot of good articles that simoniker posts.
and what kind of games controller has 2/3 of a D-Pad on it?
Mother, do you think they'll like this sig?
only 8MB? That doesn't bode well to me for doing much more than playing games...how will this be the next Walkman again?
This thing looks/sounds awesome... but will it require a miniaturized nuclear power plant to power? How long could a battery small enough to fit in this thing possibly last?!
All Your Memory Are Belong To Java
This link has some pics that soh the psp side by side with the GBA.... http://www.outerspace.com.br/news/2003/novembro/06 a.asp
... that this mockup (and it's just a mockup) appears just as the NGage goes on sale. Personally I reckon the NGage is bulky crap having seen it working, but Sony looks like it is sowing a little FUD here.
I wish Sony would quit with the proprietary media. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person who looks at this and thinks, "neato, but if I can't use the disc elewhere slese it is just eyecandy"
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
Diablo is an excellent RPG because it has swords, archery, dungeons and monsters. MK II is the epitome of finesse and balance in a fighting game, mixed with plot and characterization.
Chronno Trigger is a bunch of balloon-heads wandering around on a bland landscape that looks like a gameboard. yawn. The only think Tekken has going for it is that it's 3D. But 3D does not make a good game, there just isn't any quality and moves there like in Mortal Kombat.
Japan is a country where you can buy used girl's underpants from a vending machine! I'd rather waste food and gasoline that promote that depraved society.
Here is a larger image of it.
Ok, so this will replace my cell phone, my gameboy, my MP3 playing Walkman, and maybe my PDA, that's great. But, if I have to carry extra battery packs, headphones, speakers, a screen magnifier for my tired eyes, and a bunch of disks to play games,music and applications, I may as well keep lugging everything around in a briefcase like I do now. I really, really want ONE, (count 'em, 1) portable device. Even with my big pants, there aren't enough belt loops for all this geek crap.
does it run Linux. Its got a MIPS chip so it might do. Then again it might even run an old copy of IRIX :)
Rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
Based on how much time they spend touting the security features of their proprietary disc format, this might be a clue that the eventual PS3 will also include DRM and heavy copy-protection as key design factor.
It probably *shouldn't* matter for a gaming system, but somehow it always seems to...
DC
The USB Port;
HDD Size;
Headphone jack;
Battery
All these things will take up a great deal of space, that their design hasn't incorporated. That design looks AWEFULLY hopeful...
0110100100100000011000010110110100100000011000100
Well I know what I want when it comes out, I just hope that I have a job that I can pay for it.
It will support MP3, AAC and Sony's own ATRAC3 sound formats.
Anyone notice the lack of WMA support? Obviously Sony is out to compete hard against Microsoft (who recently dropped to #3 in the console wars. Sony's still #1). And with the PS3 slated to include Linux support, maybe the PSP will be hackable too.
Ruby on Rails Screencast
This isn't no where near a final design -- this is just a prototype made by some fancy desginer. The final version will have ergonomics and other considerations in mind.
;)
Maybe you didn't read the articles on el reg and the -magicbox, and are thinking about the 'Nokia N-NANE'.
Or am I all alone? O_o
Yes, you are all alone. Not because you get a headache looking at small screens, but because you are a loser in life that nobody wants to be around. You stink to high heaven, you're fat and ugly, and you're an adult who bought a Gameboy at some point. Maybe you should clean yourself up, get out from behind the computer a little bit, and go out and meet some people. You are pathetic. Do you think this is the life your parents dreamed about for you? A slob who plays video games and pecks away at a keyboard all day? Hell, you even make me sick and I don't even know you.
The device in the top right corner is the PSP Universal Media Disc (UMD), a DVD-like dual-layer medium offering 1.8GB of storage. UMD comes with DVD-style region coding and copy-protection mechanism based on the Advanced Encryption System (AES). Each disc has a unique ID number too.
unless they are planning on making the discs even more expensive, this is nothing but FUD.
when you make CD's you have them pressed, and you cant make a sequential serial number in the discs as you press them.
they can do it in printing, and maybe have the laser read a barcode, but in the pressing process? no way.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
This is my PSP
This is my phone
This is for being lazy
This is for work bugging me at home
Why must we throw so many different appliances together, make one awesome at what it does and leave good enough alone. I can understand blackberry/phone or PDA/phone, but phone/handheld gaming system are completely different ends of the spectrum.
Remember: The old adage "fight fire with fire" does not apply to non-metaphorical fires.
Actually, they use controlled fires to clear areas that the uncontrolled fires are heading towards, using up all the fuel so the uncontrolled fires have nothing to burn there and can't pass. So it does apply!
Seriously, why in the world do you need dolby 7.1 on a hand held device. I'd be happy with stereo. Hell, I can't get over dolby pro logic in my home theater. What am I going to do? Wear a halo thats got 7 speakers w/ a sub strapped to my ass?
I do security
But geez, you'd think someone at Sony would eventually get a clue. No, guys, you're not doing well in the market because you've got your own funky formats that don't play well with others. It's the whole design and form thing that gets people to buy it. Think Walkman: uses the same cassettes in a "form factor" that nobody else has done. That's what Sony's good at. Duuuuh.
Their design department must just shake its collective head when the next newest-best format comes down the pike. Man.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
Diablo is an excellent RPG because it has swords, archery, dungeons and monsters.
Diablo and its ilk are hack-and-slash. You kill stuff, you get money, you get experience, you buy better equipment, you kill bigger things, you level up. Not that there is anything wrong with this, its just not roleplaying.
Real RPGs allow you to actually assume a role and play it out. Play Neverwinter Nights online some time with a good DM. Hell, play any decent tabletop RPG system, such as GURPS, D&D, possibly even Warhammer.
I suspect you're a troll, but that's OK.
Cut them some slack, have you TRIED the search functionality on this site? It has to be the WORST search engine EVER.
Your source for 2 day old information!
I'll be first in line to sell my 50" widescreen TV to pick up one of these new devices. Why have a large in house home theatre, when you call actually leave your confines and watch TV _outside_ instead? I'm there. I'm sick of watching TV in my dull surroundings. And the damn screen takes up too much room.
2 hours of DVD quality video at less than DVD resolution. Sweet. I'm there.
We just need to slap a camera on this so that I can do videoconferencing so that I never have to interact with another person while I'm outside watching TV again.
The parent comment was posted BEFORE the update was.
It is not redundant.
The key to the enjoyment of pop music is to replace any instance of "love" with "C.H.U.D."
Coming out with these new systems is really just a way for them to sell you copies of games they have already sold you in the past for double the amount that they're actually worth like GBA did.
Don't get me wrong, it's cool that they'll be handheld, but I really don't feel like shelling out $30 again for Resident Evil or Final Fantasy VII (assuming it's coming out with all the other big hits of the PSX) when the games have already been written and only need to be ported to the new system.
I'm sure there are costs involved in porting, but nowhere near the millions invested during initial development. $15-20, fine. But not $29-$39. If it's a new game, great, charge away... but man.. have you seen Super Mario Advance 4 (Super Mario 3)? It's $29!!! FOR MARIO 3!
And they have the nerve to complain when people mod their systems and copy games...
We have secretly replaced these Slashdot mods' sense of humor with a rusty nail. Let's see if they notice!!
Not that anyone REALLY needs to be discouraged from the N-gage, it seems to be doing just fine on its own, but for the 5 dorks who said "yeah, I just might buy this thing" at least 4 of the have been dissuaded by Papa Sony's mention of making something, someday, that might be portable. Even if its "portable" like the original Macintosh (luggable, actually).
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
Umm, my guess would be they're going to go with some form of Lithium-ion battery that holds a decent charge, perhaps a type of NiMh. How many high-end devices do you know nowadays that take standard nicad batteries?
looks like a atari lynx ripoff .. ..
released around 1990 it had 2x16Mhz dsps, 4096 colors on some 140x80 or so display
well sony i hate to tell you but arent you somewhat late ?
That's probably all it comes down to. Whatever sound chip they chose was probably capable of 7.1 as a side effect (seems even cheapie chips do that these days) so they advertise it. Does it matter? No, but like much else in the consumer world, what matters doesn't always drive sales. It's another feature they can claim never mind if it's useful or not.
I suspect you're a troll, but that's OK.
I think he's just role playing a troll.
If I had something intelligent to say, I would have said it.
"The PSP will feature Dolby 7.1 multi-channel audio, with 3D sound"
7 speakers and a sub-woofer kinda defeats the definition of portable.
"Failure is not an option, it's part of the standard package"
twat
http://www.i4u.com/article799.html
Although the GP32 is now not getting a launch in Europe, it still has a nice following, with a ton of emus available for it. And who needs to pay again for a copy of Super Mario 3 when you can use the rom on an emu for a handheld machine which is already available?
Besides, the Zodiac Tapwave (info about the system) looks likely to be the next hackable, multi-purpose handheld...
This thing will be cool, briefly, and be the "cool" thing to have. Briefly.
Honestly, people are willing to pay for a $300 mp3 player because it plays mp3s REALLY well. It's also pretty slick and sports cool design.
I don't think enough people will want to pay for this device, which seems to want to do a lot. (DVD player, phone, game console, mp3 player, etc.) The price for including all those functions will be enormous, even if Sony's willing to take a loss on the unit itself (and make it back on licensing fees.)
Plus, what happens if you don't WANT this as your cell phone. Or you don't WANT to watch mini-movies in low-res? You'll end up paying for a lot of functionality you won't use.
Perhaps it just me, but aside from a cool-looking game console, I don't see anything exciting. (And they say it won't look as cool when it's done.)
Umm... That's the same photo ... just cropped as individual shots.
Nintendo a distant third? Are you living on some wierdo bizzaro planet?
UMD comes with DVD-style region coding
Fopr me, one of the great things about the gameboy range is taht it doesn't have region coding - so if I travel round the world with it, I know I can buy new games anywhere that will work on it.
Stick region coding on it and you've not only cut down your library of games considerably, but it's no longr a universal travelling games machine...
----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
Only during breakfast hours.
I hate liberals. If you are a liberal, do not reply.
Here are the estimated measurements extrapolated from the picture with a known screen size (just compared by pixel ratios) Screen = 4.5 in in Diag. Width = 7 in Height = 3 in Buttons = .35 in
Thumb Pad = 1.125 in
-Izrun
-Izrun
there are two new technologies that could improve a lot battery life. perhaps Sony have a card in the pocket;
OLED screens, instead of TFT, (lower comsumption), and Fuel-cell batteries of alcohol (announced by motorola for a cellphone charge lasting months). the combination of both would drive to the next generation of pocket gadchets.
At least, I thought of the Lynx first. My Lynx always felt cooler than my GameGear, to me anyway.
R David Francis
i really don't know about technology; but there's still nintendo, just play yoshi's island on the gameboy and you'll see that no amount of specs-on-steroids can beat a beautifully designed game that's immensely fun. It's the cutest ever and most entertaining game i ever played and it doesn't need all that technology of the PSP.
Anyone know how the media for this thing will be managed? More precisely, how the rights to use the media.
With the UMD discs holding 1.8 GB and a CPU(s) to handle it easily, it seems like the PSP could make an awesome portable MP3 player. I'd love to be able to burn my whole collection on a few UMD discs, and have one or two with me when I want to listen to some tunes. I use my PDA these days, but with newer PDAs no longer having PCMCIA slots, it'll be a while until I can have a couple GB or more on a card. I used to have a 2 GB PCMCIA HD (and could've had up to 30!) in my PDA, which was sweet.
From the Register article:
UMD comes with DVD-style region coding and copy-protection mechanism based on the Advanced Encryption System (AES). Each disc has a unique ID number too.
It don't sound too hot, at least for schmuck consumers like us.
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
You must have some pretty thick thumbs...wait...
I'm curious how long the battery will last in such a device. Packaging in all of these features such as 802.11 support looks like it's going to drain the battery pretty quickly.
Any guesses as to how much this thing will cost though? It seems to offer more than what we see on most PDA's.
Heres a link showing it next to several game units and a hand for comparison. Looks like a good, manageable size to me.
/ 06 a.asp
http://www.outerspace.com.br/news/2003/novembro
I posted this story a day ago and /. would not allow it buy they allowed someone else to post it? I deserve credit as well.
The one you fear is fear itself.
continuous motion would make their game loads more responsive, but would also drain the battery faster. Even with a smaller diameter, the spin-up for an optical drive is measured in seconds.
Here's how to spin up an optical drive. When the player enters the room before the game is about to load something (such as in the room before the boss, or in the victory celebration at the end of a level), begin to spin up the disc. That way, the disc is spun up by the time the "now loading" screen shows.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Are there any handheld systems that don't use proprietary storage?
No. Flash memory is patented. If, on the other hand, you're looking for handhelds that use published-but-patented media, many PDAs can use MMC or SmartMedia flash.
Will I retire or break 10K?
You feed them enough food to be able to eat them.
Will I retire or break 10K?
GBA was claiming 20 going in, and the amount I abuse/reuse rechargable batteries, it's more like 6. So that means 1-2 hours...when it takes about 5 hours to regarge batteries on the puny little recharger I own.
or each pixel can be refreshed 5,000+ times a second
Rendering volumetric shadows, bump mapping, etc. sometimes requires multiple passes over the frame buffer. For example, Doom 3, each pixel is composed from up to seven texels. In addition, there is sometimes a compromise between transformation complexity and overdraw. Besides, console makers' advertised specs often refer to theoretical peaks, possibly with flat shading rather than Phong bump-mapping.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Speaking of proprietary disks, the description of the UMD includes this nugget (along with a bevy of crypto/parental locking/drm)
"Repeat ordering system"
So my money's on a system that only allows you to play the game for a set time, and then you have to pay again. Interesting. If the original price point was low enough, it might even be worthwhile...particularly for things like trying out games. Maybe they'll learn from those self-destructing DVDs - rights-managed content has to be really really cheap.
The PSP looks pretty cool, the processor specs are impressive and the UMD disk sounds very interesting. Much discussion has centered on the DRM and serial # imposed on the UMD and many are discussing the MP3 or general storage capabilities. But I have seen no mention if the UMD are pressed (ROM) or read/write I assume that they are indeed like DVD's and can't be written, this seems to fit with Sony's copy protection interests. There is way too much hardare and capabilities in the PSP that Sony wouldn't put significant efforts into protecting thier investment and blocking all copying efforts. The games will not be cheap and they will probably set the console(handheld) at a loss to get sales of the game disks at what I would guess to be ~$50.
These are nice renderings of a nice design, but not photographs of a physical thing. What is exciting is that screens on everything will be getting as big as possible...
But... will Linux run on it? :-)
all they need to do is build in GPS and hack a browser for that 801 chip and they've got my money!
Knowing the way Sony marketing operates, they probably forgot to mention that "6 hours" is when the thing is used to play music, while the screen is off. Game play run time would probably fall near the lower end.
Where are my mod point? That was hilarious.
and I can hold that with one hand.
I remember when I was a kid, I had one of those sets of binoculars, that also act as a telescope and a flashlight, and have a built in compass and magnifying glass!
subscribers are losers. yes, it is true.
Properly set backfires can also deprive the uncontrolled fire of oxygen, as well.
Chris Mattern
Diablo (II) might not be a role playing game, but here are some tips on how to role play anyways...
Atari Lynx. 160x96 pixel graphics. Even the original black and white Game Boy had a sharper display (160x144) and more battery life to boot.
Will I retire or break 10K?
The Finding Nemo game is already available for Game Boy Advance.
However, I'd suggest that you get a copy of Little Nemo the Dream Master for NES (90 percent less fishy than Disney's version) and run that in PocketNES instead.
I'd like to see a game for PSP based on Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Okay so 'olden days' games were a lot smaller than that, but my question is: Why all the serious 3D hardware without enough RAM to store all the things that go into a 3D game?
Was Abe Bigoda and Mark Twain found with him????
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
Paint Shop Pro had the "PSP" acronym long before Play Station Portable did. I'm guessing a lawsuit like the WWF (World Wildlife Fund made the World Wrestling Federation become the WWE).
Mod "Overrated" instead of replying "I disagree with you," you coward.
you cant make a sequential serial number in the discs as you press them. they can do it in printing, and maybe have the laser read a barcode, but in the pressing process? no way.
With DIVX discs, GameCube discs, and some DVD-ROM titles, the barcode is put in between pressing and printing. Learn more about the Burst Cutting Area
Will I retire or break 10K?
Maybe because SMB3 for the GBA has completely updated graphics and bonus features?
I'll grant you the bonus features of Super Mario Advance 4, but others will claim that the bonus features reduce the game's "purity", as had happened to a great extent with Super Mario Advance's copy of Super Mario Bros. 2 that completely changed the 1-Up mechanism. From what I've played of it on a GBA SP in Best Buy, the graphics and sound haven't been updated since Super Mario All*Stars. Assuming that SMB3 covered half of the 16 Mbit SMA*S cart (given the relative sizes of the corresponding NES ROMs, it seems likely), I wonder where the other 24 Mbits of the 32-Mbit SMA4 cart went.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Just a thought. Haven't got the time to consider the feasibility of it all.