I saw this on ebay....

LINK

$169.95 + $10 for shipping. I don't know....sounds like a scam to me. He's already got a bunch of people buying them up too.

I just placed my order from playasia. I'm getting the system, NFS Underground, and Dark Stalkers. I'll post impressions when I get it next month.

Any ideas what Lumines, Dokodemo Issyo or Moji Pittan are like? Otherwise, the release list looks mostly like total shovelware to me. No doubt there will be some awesome games appearing on the system eventually with as many developers supporting it though. I heard a rumor that Konami was going to port Symphony of the Night to PSP, did that fizzle out?

A port of SOTN would kick ass. I've played through that game 3 times already, and would gladly pay to have a portable version to play again. I'm not sure if there are still plans to release it though.

3? Heh, I've beaten it at least 20 times. Yeah a port of SOTN with some decent added features (ie: NOT the hack job they put out on the Sega Saturn) would definitely hasten my purchase of a PSP.

I think I'll get one as well. My Wife wanted to know what to get me for Christmas.......I just ordered it.

Two games I'll be getting are Ridge Racer and Hot Shots Golf. Simple enough games where I don't need to understand Japanese to play them.

Is SOTN really that good? My roomate in college bought the game for my PS1 just so he could play it. IT looked fun but people talk about it like it's the be all and end all.

Best Castlevania game in the series, imo.

Holy crap! Yes I know the batteries will only last long enough for one lap around the track but what a pretty lap it will be!

Ridge Racer is one of the games I have pre-ordered with my import. I can't wait to try it out. Hopefully I'll be able to let you all know how it is on or around Dec 13th.

Lumines is a puzzle game developed by the guy who did Rez. Dokodemo Issyo is a digital character game that won't make it out of Japan. Moji Pittan, I believe is Japanese board game or something.

Sure, a bunch of those games have been on other systems, but so what? I know what the game is going to be and don't have to worry how it will play. I mean, Nintendo is doing the exact same thing. Mario Kart 64 DS? I mean, way to bring back a game from many years ago to launch a system. At least Sony isn't republishing from PS1.

All, check out the 10 min demo video PSINext has. It has a bunch of footage from all hot games at TGS.

Play-Asia.com got their hands on a PSP today and posted pics and movies at their web site. Here's a link to the images:

LINK

They even did some comparison shots, which I thought was kinda cool. The demo disc that was included with the unit contained only movies - no playables. I can't wait to get my hands on this thing, hopefully they get enough units to fill pre-orders.

Thanks for the link. That looks amazing! The screen resolution is really high. Also the games and demos seem to load really fast.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=5804

Sony confirms MPEG-4 playback on PSP

Rob Fahey 08:00 06/12/2004

New handheld will offer H.264 video playback from Memory Stick

Japanese electronics giant Sony has clarified one of the less well-understood aspects of the functionality of the forthcoming PlayStation Portable, revealing on its Japanese website that the console will be able to play back MP4 video from Memory Sticks.

The MP4 video standard, which Sony also supports with some of its camcorders and other devices, is also known as H.264 and is closely related to (although not entirely compatible with) the popular DiVX and Xvid video formats.

Earlier this year, Sony confirmed that the system would be able to play back H.264 video, along with MP3 and ATRAC encoded audio files, but didn't explain whether this referred to video on UMD discs or also to files on Memory Sticks.

Now the company has updated its PSP website to reveal that video files on Memory Sticks will also work, and that users will be able to convert their video files to the MP4 standard using Windows-based software called Image Converter 2, a trial version of which is expected to ship with the PSP console.

While Sony has previously trumpeted the abilities of the PSP as a video player, the company has been surprisingly silent on the topic of which commercial movies will be available on UMD, leading to suspicions that the launch line-up may be devoid of movie content.

As yet, the only confirmed UMD movie title is Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, which Square Enix is expected to ship simultaneously on DVD and on UMD when it finally arrives - expected to be in the middle of next year.


Chris

That would be great.... saves you money from buying a movie on UMD format and it saves on battery life! That would be sweet to have a movie recorded on a memory stick.

A nice hand's on report with lots of pics. Man that screen looks great!
So far it seems like the good points are the screen, fit and finish, wi-fi gaming, and interface. Loading time seems like an issue. No reports on battery life yet which is kind of weird.

No games have been released yet. The only report you would get would be on playing MP3s off of the memory stick, and that is sort of a moot point as it probably last longer than an iPod.

Only a few more days though... I can't wait.

Unfortunately it only accepts the Memory stick Duo which costs quite a bit more than a regular memory stick let alone SD or CF

I got a 512MB Pro Duo for $70. Where is this extra cost you speak of?

Thats a lot more then other memory types, its that simple. Sony's memory stick format is their own and is not supported elsewhere, thus higher cost for lower volume production compared to competing medium types.

How much video does a memory stick realistically hold though? I wouldn't think it's a very good format for video, maybe mp3's but video requires a lot of space.

My 1GB SD card was only $50. Memory stick is about double the cost of SD and CF. That is the only downside of Memory stick right now.

You can put about 5-6 hours of video on a 512MB stick by the way. The Sony Image Converter compresses the video to the resolution of the PSP screen so you can fit quite a bit on one stick.

What video formats can the sony image converter process? For example can I use it to convert dvds or divxs (assuming the appropriate codec is installed)?

Also what is the biggest sized memory stick you can buy?

Chris

I can get a CF for about half that. But that really is a great price on a Mem stick duo. Where did you get it at? They are usually around $90.

I have 1.5 and it can convert divx and xvid encodes with no problems. 2.0 is supposed to be even better. I think as long as you have the codecs installed on your PC Sony IC can convert the video.

For DVDs it won't work directly due to the encryption.