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Defect in PSPs Turns Disks Into Throwing Stars
Headcase88 writes "Gamespot has confirmed a rumour in which if you twist a PSP in the right (wrong?) way, the UMD will go flying out of the portable. To quote the article: "...we were brave enough to use one of our precious PSP units to test the theory. Amazingly, with just the right touch, out it popped". I guess you could do this on purpose and pull off some pretty unexpected pranks."
3... 2... 1... Go!
UMD Guillotine o' Death
Now if somebody with more bandwidth than me wants to mirror it... Pretty please!
heres a video
and another, this time attacking a teddybear
and yet another, of a psps assaulting a defenseless nintendo ds!
this guy cracks me up.
Maybe paint the PSP discs to look like ninja stars and shoot them at your friends/enemies?
..you'd better save your game often!
I'm not stressed. I'm just terribly, terribly alert.
...Sony will license a PSP version of Ninja Gaiden, and integrate this feature into the mini-game.
Don't sweat the petty things. Don't pet the sweaty things. --Stephen J. Simmons
Redundant, but still (if you don't want to download a movie file):
http://oohhhh.com/psp_ninja.gif
- Agilo
Sony's Playstation Portable, or pocket, or whatever.
A UMD is a Universal Media Disk, the format the PSP uses for games. It's basically a small DVD.
Maybe I say this cause I've been burned one too many times by shody Sony products, but this doesn't bode well for Sony's new handheld gaming business. Say what you want about Nintendo, but the quality of their hardware is first rate.
Yea, I read about that too!
Strange this is, this is a dupe by the SAME EDITOR of the SAME STORY in 4 days time! Wow!
Zonk, are you trying to out Taco the big Taco?
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
Yes, "3, 2, 1, go" was what the narrator in the game said before the disc flew out.
Wouldn't be surprised.
Look at the _bones_!
Definitely a good idea to not import a PSP at this time. Wait for the US release; hopefully they'll have it fixed by then.
Still, it _could_ make a handy concealed weapon...hmmm...
is funny until it hits someones eye. no joke. stuff like this should not be in the market.
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
This is Sony's plan to take out the competition, the Nintendo DS. PSP users will go to their friends who have a DS and then will have their UMD shoot out at the DS and thereby breaking it.
Mirror: http://markrose.ca/mirrors/fly_004.avi
Enjoy =)
Be relentless!
Wow.
Thats unbelievable.
Wow, I spelt unbelievable right.
That's amaezing.
I'm a big retard who forgot to log out of Slashdot on Mike's computer! LOOK AT ME.
Put yourselves in check, fellow nerds. As much as I'm amused that Sony's decided to continue their institutionalized tradition of poor design and quality control with the PSP, and as earnestly as I believe that the PSP is doomed for third place in the handheld "wars," let's put things in perspective.
First off, about the twisting motion. My friend studying in Japan received a PSP from her fiance. She tells me that it's possible for the twisting motion to be done accidentally, but it's not very likely. General consensus among the Japanese is that you have to treat a PSP more delicately than cell phones (of course), PDAs, or any portable system that's ever come out before, including the Nintendo DS. Apparently it doesn't feel safe to just toss it on the sofa or bed when you're done playing with it. That doesn't speak well for the durability of the PSP, although people do carry it around. It's better suited for use at home, where people already have home consoles, but anyway.
Second, about the screen. It smudges as easily as any plastic screen smudges, and it's even easier to notice than on things like cell phones and computer monitors, because you're supposed to look at the thing all the time, but your hands have to be on it all the time too. Also, it scratches more easily than Sony wants people to think. My friend has already put a faint scratch on her screen by putting it uncovered in her backpack along with a ballpoint pen and other small crap. She said the pocket clip on the pen is what probably did it, so the early press from Sony that announced that it was scratch-resistant was only partially true. Apparently the plastic that Sony used to make the PSP's front face is about the same as what they use on non-folding cell phones, but that's still not very hard. That plastic covers the whole front of the PSP in one single piece, so PSP users have to use something as a case at all times, and most PSP owners apparently are in the habit of wiping off the face of the unit before putting it away. Apparently it's common for the PSP to have thumbprints and small scratches all over the front, if you're not paying a lot of attention to it. If you wipe it off religiously, keep it in some kind of soft non-scratchy case, and don't move your arms while it's reading a disc, you should be okay.
About battery life. My friend only has Minna no Golf, and it goes for a pretty long time. Everybody there has heard about the battery life for big games, but she can't test it.
About the off-center square button. My friend's unit luckily doesn't have a serious problem with the square button not registering, but she does tell me that it feels different, and she has to press on the right side of the square button to be sure that it's being pressed. Hers stil pops up okay as well. But the diagrams of the connection point on the mainboard where the square button is off-center have been circulating in the Japanese gaming press, so everybody in Japan is aware that the controls of the PSP are a little wonky and unreliable.
Next, every shot of the PSP firing a projectile is taken with the unit oriented downward or horizontally. Many people have noticed this about those videos. When the PSP is facing up, UMDs don't normally fire out of the unit. The mechanism that opens the PSP isn't strong enough to propel the disc that hard, although all the throwing star jokes in Japan are based on the belief that it does.
Next, MP3 playback. My friend borrowed a memory stick duo and headphones/remote from a friend, since she only has the base unit. She could only put five songs on the memory stick, because she didn't want to erase her friend's game saves. Apparently it sounds pretty good, but she's no audiophile, and never had any other kind of portable MP3 player. I sent her a test signal file to use with the Koss headphones she brought from the States (because I have the same ones, and I know how it should sound using that test file on a good playback source), but hell if she wanted to bother
What defect are you talking about? This is a hidden feature!
Legions of fanboys didn't believe that the rumor was true. They didn't trust the website that was reporting it, they didn't trust the people reporting it.
This is confirmation by Gamespot, which is a website clueless fanboys read regularly.
If there's a story one day that says "Yokels report seeing yogi levitate", then it's hardly a dupe to post four days later "Scientific American confirms yogic levitation." The level of credibility jump is about the same.
I suppose the equivalent of "American Physics Society confirms yogic levitation" would be "Penny Arcade confirms PSP defect."
Gamespot confirms it: *PSPs are causing things to die.
The best part of the gamespot commentary is the line that describes where this rumor comes from ..."According to dozens of forum posts and lower-end game sites". In other words, sites run by game fans as opposed to Gamespot which is owned by the conglomerate, CNet networks.
If you look at the bear video frame by frame, you'll see the UMD magically disappear after it "hits" the bear. Also, the blurring in the frame where the bear gets hit is clearly artificial.
I own a PSP and have been playing Ridge Racers since last Sunday (well, not non-stop, of course). I have yet to have the UMD pop out because I'm not a frickin' moron who abuses an expensive piece of electronics. Is the PSP a NeGcon? NO! So don't twist it!
The PSP is a lot more solid than people are giving it credit for. The "flying UMD" thing started as a forum joke on several Japanese message boards and has spread from there. It's not "news" in any sense of the word.
What's next? Flawed window breaks when hit with brick?
funny ngage ws too hard to get a game out and the psp cant keep it in.. funny how thats really hard.
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
Finally:
It's not as if this guy was applying a whole lot of torque to the thing. It's not a 90 degree bend, he's putting a slight amount of pressure in just the right(wrong) spot and pow!
For reference, iPod's are designed to withstand being dropped from heights of up to 5ft (and I can tell you from experience that they can... repeatedly). This is to ensure that the product can withstand the realities of everyday use. So, wouldn't you expect that Sony would ruggedize this device so as to withstand your occasional button-mashing gamer? Apparently not if you want to get your product to market at the same time as your competitor.
If you are REALLY good, you can swing the UMD through the air and land it back in the PSP, just like one of those ball-on-a-string-on-a-cup games. Man, it is like having a whole new game built into every PSP!