Sony Playstation Portable PSP Omegapost

We’re probably as excited about the Sony PSP as you are (unless you’ve already got one, and then we hate you). To assuage the pain a skotch, we’ve compiled the mother of all round-ups, gathering all the launch titles, peripherals, software, tools, movies, and more, including the history of the PSP product, from rumors to wild speculation. We even have a round-up of other round-ups.

If you’ve got any critical additions, send them in, and we’ll be happy to add them to our index. Otherwise, here’s enough PSP linkage to keep you occupied for at least these last 48 hours.

The Rumors Begin

• The Portable PlayStation [Gizmodo (cached)] May 14th, 2003

• More on Sony

s PlayStation Portable [Gizmodo] July 23rd, 2003

• PSP Can Play PS2 Equivalent Games [Gizmodo] March 5th, 2004

• PSP and PS3 Wireless Plans (Sort of) Revealed [Gizmodo] April 5th, 2004

• E3: Sony PSP High Resolution Shots and Final Specs [Gizmodo] May 11th, 2004

• Sony PSP Accessories, Entertainment-Assisted Cyborgs [Gizmodo] May 19th, 2004. I called it a ‘mobile entertainment parasite,’ because I’m a genius.

• Sony’s PSP: Available in Black, Black, and Black [Gizmodo] May 29th, 2004

• Sony Considering PSP, Cellphone Hybrid [Gizmodo] June 10th, 2004

• More Sony PSP Tech Details, Rumored Late US Launch [Gizmodo] August 25th, 2004

• Sony to Launch Music Download Service for PSP [Gizmodo] January 28th, 2005

https://gizmodo.com/more-on-sonys-playstation-portable-6855

Big Business

• A $550 Sony PlayStation Portable [Gizmodo (cached)] November 20th, 2003

• Analysts Cautious About Sony’s PSP Success [Gizmodo] June 1st, 2004. Suckers.

• Google Buzz Index: Next Gen Portable Game Systems, Possible Xbox 2 Names [Gizmodo] June 15th, 2004. The DS was almost twice as talked about.

• PSP Development Kit [Gizmodo] November 1st, 2004

• PSP Might Not Make March [Kotaku] January 6th, 2005. WTG, n00b.

• Coca-Cola PSP [Gizmodo] March 15th, 2005

• Europe Sony PSP Grey Market Going Strong [Gizmodo] March 18th, 2005

• Cali Taxman Takes on PSP? [Kotaku] March 21st, 2005

https://gizmodo.com/analysts-cautious-about-sonys-psp-success-15463

Pretenders to the Throne

• DIY PS2 Portable [Gizmodo]

• Sony PSP Phone Clone [GIzmodo]

• Post details: A PSP in your pocket, or just a clone? [Portagame]

• Ginormous PSP [Gizmodo]

• Coriolus PSP [Shop]

• PSP: A Self-Improvement Process for Software Engineers [NerdBooks]

https://gizmodo.com/diy-ps2-portable-26262

Peripherals

• Sony Accessories that will be in stores: 32 meg Memory Stick Duo, AC Adapter, Battery Pack, Headphones with Remote Control, Soft Case & Wrist Strap

• Logic 3 Keyboard for Sony PSP [Gizmodo]

• Pelican’s PSP Line Up [PelicanAcc]

• Logitech’s PSP Line Up [Logitech]

• Mad Catz PSP Mobile Kit [PriceGrabber]

• Nyko, including the rechargeable Nyko Theater Experience case and the also rechargeable Charger Case [Nyko]

• Intec plans to release PSP accessories as well. [IntecLink]

• If you’re getting a PSP, you’ll want a USB cable and a Memory Stick Duo (check Dealram)

https://gizmodo.com/logic-3-keyboard-for-sony-psp-34915

Where to Get Your PSP

• Sony PSP Center [I4U]

• Sony PlayStation Portable price watch – UPDATED [Engadget]

• Sony PSP watchlist [BWFlag] A nice list, with retail and online.

• Sony Style PSP Launch Party [Gizmodo] If you’re in NYC or SF tomorrow.

If you have an especially good deal, send it in.

http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-entertainment/psp/index.php#sony-style-psp-launch-party-036770

Launch Titles

• Ape Escape: On The Loose (Sony Computer Entertainment America) (Official) (Gamerankings) (Amazon)

• Archer Maclean’s Mercury (Ignition) (Official) (Gamerankings) (Amazon)

• ATV Offroad Fury: Blazin’ Trails (Sony Computer Entertainment America) (Gamerankings) (Amazon)

• Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower (Capcom) (Official) (Gamerankings) (not yet listed on Amazon)

• Dynasty Warriors (Koei) (Gamerankings) (Amazon)

• FIFA Soccer 2005 (Electronic Arts) (Official) (Gamerankings) (Amazon)

• Gretzky NHL (Sony Computer Entertainment America) (Gamerankings) (Amazon)

• Lumines (Ubi Soft) (Official) (Gamerankings) (Amazon)

• Metal Gear Acid (Konami) (Official) (Gamerankings) (Amazon)

• NBA (Sony Computer Entertainment America) (Gamerankings) (Amazon)

• NBA Street Showdown (Electronic Arts) (Official) (Gamerankings) (not yet listed on Amazon)

• Need For Speed Underground Rivals (Electronic Arts) (Official) (Gamerankings) (Amazon)

• NFL Street 2 Unleashed (Electronic Arts) (Official) (Gamerankings) (Amazon)

• Rengoku: Tower of Purgatory (Konami) (Official) (Gamerankings) (Amazon)

• Ridge Racer (Namco) (Official) (Gamerankings) (Amazon)

• Smart Bomb (Eidos) (Gamerankings) (Amazon)

• Spider-Man 2 (Activision) (Official) (Gamerankings) (Amazon)

• Tiger Woods PGA Tour (Electronic Arts) (Official) (Gamerankings) (Amazon)

• Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 Remix (Activision) (Official) (Gamerankings) (Amazon)

• Twisted Metal: Head-On (Sony Computer Entertainment America) (Gamerankings) (Amazon)

• Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade (Sony Online Entertainment) (Official) (Gamerankings) (Amazon)

• Wipeout Pure (Sony Computer Entertainment America) (Official) (Gamerankings) (Amazon)

• World Soccer Tour (Sony Computer Entertainment America) (Gamerankings) (Amazon)

Delayed (Later Than April)

• Hot Shots Golf (Sony Computer Entertainment America) (Gamerankings) (Amazon)

• MLB (Sony Computer Entertainment America) (Gamerankings) (Amazon)

• MVP Baseball (Electronic Arts) (Official) (Gamerankings) (Amazon)

MLB, NBA, Gretzky NHL, ATV Offroad Fury: Blazin’ Trails and Twisted Metal: Head-On will feature online play, and (at an as-of-yet unspecified date) Wipeout Pure will have downloadable content. (More info on the latter at PSP411.com.)

UMD Movies

• Spider-man 2 – Included

• Hellboy (Director’s Cut)

• Resident Evil: Apocalypse

• House of Flying Daggers

• XXX

• Once Upon A Time In Mexico

• Buena Vista: National Treasure, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Reign of Fire, Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Hero in the North America this Spring.

• Lion’s Gate: House of the Dead, Saw, Step Into Liquid, and Total Recall

• Square Enix: Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

Software and Media Tools

Games and UMD movies are easy to use, just stick them in and turn the PSP on. Taking advantage of the PSP’s ability to play movies or music or view pictures off of the Memory Stick isn’t quite as easy, though. Sony sells a program to convert and transfer movies and pictures, but it’s only for sale on the Japanese site, and it doesn’t deal with music or game saves. Sony’s SonicStage software will deal with your music for you…as long as you don’t mind converting them to ATRAC3. All in all, it’s a mess.

Before you do anything, you’ll want a USB cable (here‘s a link, if you really need one) and a Memory Stick Duo. There’s a 32meg MS Duo included with every US PSP, but dealram is the place to check if you want a larger one. You’ll also want to have the latest version of QuickTime installed, as all of the movie conversion tools use it.

If you want to do the transferring by hand (and already know how to convert your movies), PSP-Vault has a handy, if somewhat Windows-centric, guide here. The video guide, in particular, uses 3GPP Converter, but ffmpeg X will fill its role nicely for the Mac-inclined, and it even has a PSP preset since version 0.0.9r.

You don’t have to do it the hard way, though, as not a few utilities to do all the work for you have sprung up.

• Sony Image Converter 2 (1500 yen, Windows-only) – Converts and installs videos and pictures only.

• Sony Connect / SonicStage (free, Windows-only) – Sony’s equivalent to iTunes and the iTunes Music Store, only ugly and even more proprietary. The worst choice for getting music onto your PSP, but the only online music store that works (besides AllOfmp3, anyway.) Post-launch, Sony Connect has an official page up with videos and instructions about how to use their service here.

• iPSP (free to try and $20 to buy, Mac/Win) – Converts/installs/backups movies, music, pictures, and game saves. Expensive compared to the others and glitchy when converting movies, but very slick, including iTunes (and iPhoto, on Mac) integration.

• PSP Multimedia Extender (free as in speech, Windows-only) – A kludged-together converter/installer/sync program that does game saves, movies, music, and images.

• PSP Video 9 (free, Windows-only) – Converts and installs movies only, but works with Videora to allow broadsnatching/PSPcasting (downloading movies from RSS feeds, like podcasting.)

• PSPWare (free to try and $10 to buy) – Converts/installs/backups movies, music, pictures, and game saves. Integrates with iTunes and iPhoto. One of the best choices, but Mac-only.

• PSPhoto (free, Windows-only, right click link and choose “Save file as…”) – Image batch converter utility. Saves you the trouble of converting by hand, I guess.

• PSP411 has a round-up of several PSP sync tools, with handy mini-reviews. Don’t mind their “proprietary” claptrap about Sony’s choice to use industry-standard open formats (H.264 in an MPEG-4 layer-10 .mp4 container) for the video, though.

• MobileDeviant has a guide to take you all the way from DVD to PSP-ready movie file.

• Mobile Media Maker (PSP) – Makayama just launched this $35 tool that takes DVDs (and any other media file) and coverts it to PSP format, as small as 100 minutes in 128MB. Trial version is free.

• Move TiVo To Go to Your PSP [ZatzNotFunny]

Other Round-ups

• Reviews Round-Up [Engadget]

• Sony’s useless FAQ [Playstation]

• Sony’s Much-Improved Official Site

• GAF Launch thread [Gaming-Age] Just keep in mind that GAF is a hive of scum and villainy, so post there at your own risk.

Dedicated PSP Sites

• PSPWorld [PSPWorld]

• PSP.IGN [IGN]

• Portagame’s PSP Section [PSP]

• PSP Home [PSPHome]

• Gamespot’s PSP Section [Gamespot]