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OffTopic > I hate it how PSP fans put down DS players...

#116522 - Dox-999 - Fri Jan 26, 2007 3:37 pm

I hate it how PSP fans put down DS players, why do they do this? I like DS and psp and in my opinion a good moded DS better then a psp but I hardly ever see DS fans going on psp websites saying how much they hate psp...

#116533 - Dan2552 - Fri Jan 26, 2007 4:28 pm

they're noobs ^^.

#116538 - Vich - Fri Jan 26, 2007 4:59 pm

I bought about 6 games for each platform, but I only really like Animal Crossing for the DS. I like most of my PSP games very much. So it's just about taste.
On the other hand: I like my DS better than my PSP for homebrewn, because the DS platform is more easily accessible and less closed down for homebrewn software.

[edit] omgimnotawake
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#116666 - DiscoStew - Sun Jan 28, 2007 1:42 am

It probably isn't just a PSP vs DS thing. It could be more of Sony vs Nintendo, which also includes both handhelds.
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#116667 - chishm - Sun Jan 28, 2007 1:57 am

I think this xkcd comic is appropriate to the conversation.
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#116682 - Dox-999 - Sun Jan 28, 2007 9:46 am

lol

#116933 - thegamefreak0134 - Wed Jan 31, 2007 3:34 am

It really comes down to style. People assume that the PSP has better graphic and media capabilities. Although this is probably true hardware wise, every game that I have ever played on the PSP has had a rather choppy framerate, because the game designer apparently tries to push the system too hard.

What I like about the DS is that even though you may not be seeing as many polygons on the screen at once, the game designers know how to make the visuals look good without them. Every commercial DS game, 2D or 3D, seems to run at a good solid 60 fps, which does a lot by the way of gaming. (I think a few exceptions to this are scenes like in MKDS where 3D is used on both screens at once, which requires the game to drop down to 30 fps.) Where the PSP excels in number of successfully drawn polygons per frame, the DS excels at the number of successfully drawn frames per second. When it comes to a game requiring good timing, which would you choose?

In the end, it's still a matter of taste. You have to weigh the DS's raw gameplay advantage with the PSP's untimate media advantage. (Although whoever invented UMD was insane, the batteries on that thing die very quickly...) Not to mention that the PSP seems to have a much broader homebrew development community, despite attempts to stop homebrew on sony's part. So in the end, it is a pure matter of taste. Good looking, fun to play, good looking, fun to play, PSP, DS... You decide.

-thegamefreak
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#116939 - Firon - Wed Jan 31, 2007 4:41 am

thegamefreak0134 wrote:


What I like about the DS is that even though you may not be seeing as many polygons on the screen at once, the game designers know how to make the visuals look good without them. Every commercial DS game, 2D or 3D, seems to run at a good solid 60 fps, which does a lot by the way of gaming. (I think a few exceptions to this are scenes like in MKDS where 3D is used on both screens at once, which requires the game to drop down to 30 fps.) Where the PSP excels in number of successfully drawn polygons per frame, the DS excels at the number of successfully drawn frames per second.
-thegamefreak


A good example of that was Need for Speed: Carbon on the DS. 60 frame per second racing with pretty much no dips at any point. THe PSP version was not the same, though.

#116967 - keldon - Wed Jan 31, 2007 12:26 pm

This xkcd comic is funny!

#118505 - HyperHacker - Wed Feb 14, 2007 12:18 am

If you look only at commercial games, then PSP and DS are pretty much even. DS has the Nintendo games everyone loves like New Super Mario Bros, Mario Kart DS and Animal Crossing, while PSP has some sweet racing games to say the least (I don't buy from Sony ever since that rootkit incident, so I don't pay attention to the PSP's library, but there are some nice games there). Then DS wins in battery life and screens (less dead pixels, folding design prevents scratches, touch screen is cool) while PSP wins in media (built-in music/movie players, web browser, image viewer, PSX emulator etc) and resolution. It mainly boils down to whether you want a variety of fun games, good battery life, and good screens versus an assortment of intense games, media capabilities, and high-res screen).

The place where this all changes is homebrew. On the DS, running homebrew can be as simple as buying a card with built-in flash ROM, putting your files on it, and booting it like any other DS card. On the PSP, depending on your firmware version, you may be able to use a convenient exploit in this component or that game, or you may be screwed. Sony makes an effort to prevent any form of homebrew, forcing firmware updates with new games and patching holes wherever possible. Nintendo seems to only care about preventing piracy by making their games check for signs that they're not running from an authentic DS card, while not bothering to prevent homebrew at all (only occasionally plugging some holes such as WifiMe, and usually only when they're being used for piracy).

Now once you have homebrew on your DS, you can get Moonshell, which adds music/movie playing and image/text viewing, without the proprietary format PSP uses for movies. (Can PSP play movies off a memory stick, or UMD only?) That leaves Internet browsing and emulation of PSX and (through homebrew) NES, SNES, and other consoles around that era. We all know Nintendo released Opera DS, which (albeit poorly) covers web browsing, and I remain confident that a homebrew browser will eventually become even better. (Do any graphical browsers run yet in DSLinux? I don't have the RAM to try them.) And of course there are emulators for many consoles available on the DS as well.
(And if you don't like Moonshell, LMP and DSOrganize both play music as well.)

So after you factor in homebrew, the DS can do just about everything the PSP can do, save for playing games designed for the SNES (at any reasonable frame rate, though that may change), PSX, possibly some other consoles around that era, and of course PSP. (I know of the N64 emulator, but given the PSP hardware, I doubt it's really any good for playing actual games.)

Finally, compare the prices. A DS plus the necessary hardware to run homebrew is quite a bit cheaper than a PSP, and does almost everything PSP can. Now which looks more attractive?

(And if you want a PSP purely for its emulation capabilities, consider GP2X. ;-))
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#118516 - tepples - Wed Feb 14, 2007 1:14 am

HyperHacker wrote:
Finally, compare the prices. A DS plus the necessary hardware to run homebrew is quite a bit cheaper than a PSP

Not anymore, at least in the United States after the PSP price cut. If you're interested only in commercial games, music, and movies:
  • DS Lite: $130. SuperCard SD with SuperKey: $70. Total: $200 plus memory cards.
  • PSP Value Pack: $200 plus memory cards.

Backward compatibility out of the box: DS plays almost all GBA Game Paks, except for a few titles that can't be played single player. Without the questionably legal "popstation", PS1 titles can be played on PSP only if 1. the publisher authorizes the emulation, including negotiations with parties that may be entitled to residuals, 2. the player lives in North America or Japan, 3. the player purchases a PLAYSTATION 3 console on which to run the online store interface, and 4. the player re-purchases the game.
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#118529 - dantheman - Wed Feb 14, 2007 2:42 am

HyperHacker wrote:
save for playing games designed for the SNES (at any reasonable frame rate, though that may change)


Just wanted to point out that speed is not necessarily the issue. SNES DS and SnezziDS usually run games at fullspeed with sound. It's just the relatively low compatibility that kills them. SNEmulDS runs games slowly because it's a port of an SNES emulator for DOS.

#118645 - HyperHacker - Thu Feb 15, 2007 2:16 am

Thanks for that, Tepples. I wasn't aware of the price cut or emulator limitations. However, there are cheaper cards out there; GBAMP + Max Media Launcher is only $40.
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#118648 - tepples - Thu Feb 15, 2007 3:01 am

HyperHacker wrote:
However, there are cheaper cards out there; GBAMP + Max Media Launcher is only $40.

Is GBA Movie Player (CompactFlash version) still manufactured? I was under the impression that the CF versions of GBAMP and SuperCard were no longer manufactured. Shipping is also an issue, especially with a discount for shipping the SuperKey along with the SuperCard that you don't get if you order a MAX Media Launcher from the manufacturer and a GBAMP from some random eBay seller.
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#118690 - Dracker - Thu Feb 15, 2007 4:24 pm

Also, Sony's Memory Stick cards are quite a bit more expensive per megabyte than SD Cards.