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Alucard · 03-24-2005

This is what I posted on Zodiacgamer, as I own one of these. But this is fitting for here. By the way, first 'official' post. I posted before as guest.

Hey All,

Well, here is the day, I finally got my grubby little hands on the PSP. This is not a review, but just my adventures with the PSP today. So I am going to give you the Good, The Bad, The Dead, The Ugly and The Beautiful.

The Good:
I got my PSP with a 2 year warannty with Wipeout Pure, and Tony Hawk Remix 2 for a total of $50 out of my pocket.

How you ask, well I had a $188 gift certifacate to Best Buy for a duplicate present I got on Christmas. Then I won my oscar pool at work and recieved a $75 American Express gift certifacte. On top of that, I won the Computer Unplugged Advertising contest for the Zodiac Ad I did, which gave me Warefare Inc. and a copy of Ulead VideoStudio 8. I proceeded to return the Ulead video studio and got another $85 out of the deal.

So PSP ($250) + 2 Year warranty ($40) + Wipeout Pure ($35.99) + THUGR2 ($49.99) + Tax ($30 roughly)=$405.99 roughly

Best Buy Card ($188) + AMEX ($75) + Ulead ($85)=$348

So I personally think that is pretty damm good!

The Bad:
I had to get up at 7AM to get to my nearest Best Buy. When I got there at 8AM, I got #143 meaning there 143 people in front of me. In fact some guy was there from 2AM (I think thats rediculous).

In addition, no store had Ridge Racer, it was all sold out. I ended up walking back and forth between 5 stores to find it and to try to exchange my VideoStudio to a store that sold it. All together I walked at least 4-5 miles today as the New York MTA trains were not running again!

The Ugly:
After waiting for 1+ Hours I am about to pay for my PSP, and the Best Buy employeed anounce that Best Buy will no longer be selling individual units, they will only be selling the Best Buy Bundle Packages. Now that was ugly, there is no way in gods green earth I was going for one of their rip off packages.

I quickly asked to speak to their manager, who began giving me a hard time and telling me I would not get the unit if I did not buy the bundle. I then asked for the managers name. When he asked why, I told him so I could report him and Best Buy to the BBB. When he asked why I would do that, I said

"Well, here is the problem. You advertised that you sold PSP bundle packs, but you also advertised that you sold regular PSP packs. Now the Bundle packs which you guys have are not packaged together, they are just miscellanious items you are forcing people to buy in addition to the PSP. Since you did not package it in a single container, you are doing what it is called a Bait and Switch. You in fact are not out of PSPs which are all over your store, you are just forcing people to buy extra items. In addition, if you don't start selling individual units, I will just start causing a fuss and let the people in here know that Target upstairs also sells the PSP and has it in stock with no Bait and Switch ploys."

Unfortunately some people before me got scammed into it, but after I let them know that, the manager made an announcement stating that all units will be sold individually. So it was ugly, but it came out nice.

The Dead:
As in the dead pixels that were on my PSP. Now ask me how pissed I was about that. I couldn't notice at first, however, when I put in Wipeout Pure, I could see the dead pixels on the screen. When I say pixels I mean pixels. It basically looked like a scratch, but it was 5 or so dead pixels.

So I had to walk all the way back to Best Buy (about a mile). Best Buy gave me absolutely no problems, and exchanged my system. They actually let me know they had gotten in a bunch of systems with dead pixels, and that Sony had recalled 5,000 Japanese made units from different US stores because of that same issue.

When they gave me my new PSP, I opened it up and tested it. All was fine, and the trains going back were working again. However, my legs and my old PSP's pixels were both dead.

The Beautiful
OK, first off I would like to say that I love my Zodiac. Having said that, there is absolutely no comparison between the Zodiac and the PSP. None.

No picture can really do the PSP justice. It is just beautiful. Speaking of Beautiful, the screen on the PSP is amazing! The widecreen and the way it is designed makes you feel engulfed by the game. It's kind of hard to explain it, however, some serious thought went into this screen.

They say that with any TV, the way to tell if your standing far enough back from it, is by closing one eye and sticking a fist in front of you. Then you should start to move back from the TV. Once the Fist fills up TV screen (your view area), you know that you are at a good distance.

Well with the PSP, I think they used a similar concept. Since you hold any game system at least 5-6 inches from your face, the size of the screen can really make the difference. With the way the PSP and the PSP screen is designed, you feel like this little screen is a lot bigger then it is. I have a 50" TV at home which I sit rougly 12-15' away from. It ecompasses a lot of my possible vision/view area. Holding the PSP 5-6" from me, gives me the same effect as watching my TV.

Speaking of watching. Forget about Zodiac+MMplayer. The video on this is amazing. While the UMD movies are not worth it, Spiderman 2 looks amazing. All I need to say is 24.97FPS. However, thats not where it ends. If you convert your own vdieo you can get video at 24.97FPS with a killer bit rate and sound! Also, check out some of the sites out there, it seems that the stretch feature for encoded movies through the PSP maybe a thing of the past, they already found ways to trick the PSP so this doesn't happen. In either case a video playing on the PSP is much better then a video on the Zodiac with anything that is out there currently.

Now the Graphics! SICK SICK SICK. You played a PS2? Well then you played a PSP. That's how good the graphics are. That is not an over exageration, those are the graphics.

I mean look at this link for codewarrior for the PSP. It says, port your PS2 code to the PSP:
http://www.metrowerks.com/MW/Develop/Games/PSP.htm

That says it all. Hopefully the trend will be that the games that come out for the PS2 will come out for the PSP at the same time. It should be easy enough.

Conclusion:
So overall this day was a pain with all the walking, the Best Buy bullshit, and the dead pixels. However, for $50 I don't think I could have gone wrong. I mean I worked for it, but this PSP is a great buy at any price. I really recommend any of you to get it if you want games or movies on the go. The Zodiac will always have a place in my bag for emulation, but other then that, it will not see much use.

03-24-2005	#3 (permalink)
Alucard GamingCrazy Newbie Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 27 Credits: 175	This is what I posted on Zodiacgamer, as I own one of these. But this is fitting for here. By the way, first 'official' post. I posted before as guest. Hey All, Well, here is the day, I finally got my grubby little hands on the PSP. This is not a review, but just my adventures with the PSP today. So I am going to give you the Good, The Bad, The Dead, The Ugly and The Beautiful. The Good: I got my PSP with a 2 year warannty with Wipeout Pure, and Tony Hawk Remix 2 for a total of $50 out of my pocket. How you ask, well I had a $188 gift certifacate to Best Buy for a duplicate present I got on Christmas. Then I won my oscar pool at work and recieved a $75 American Express gift certifacte. On top of that, I won the Computer Unplugged Advertising contest for the Zodiac Ad I did, which gave me Warefare Inc. and a copy of Ulead VideoStudio 8. I proceeded to return the Ulead video studio and got another $85 out of the deal. So PSP ($250) + 2 Year warranty ($40) + Wipeout Pure ($35.99) + THUGR2 ($49.99) + Tax ($30 roughly)=$405.99 roughly Best Buy Card ($188) + AMEX ($75) + Ulead ($85)=$348 So I personally think that is pretty damm good! The Bad: I had to get up at 7AM to get to my nearest Best Buy. When I got there at 8AM, I got #143 meaning there 143 people in front of me. In fact some guy was there from 2AM (I think thats rediculous). In addition, no store had Ridge Racer, it was all sold out. I ended up walking back and forth between 5 stores to find it and to try to exchange my VideoStudio to a store that sold it. All together I walked at least 4-5 miles today as the New York MTA trains were not running again! The Ugly: After waiting for 1+ Hours I am about to pay for my PSP, and the Best Buy employeed anounce that Best Buy will no longer be selling individual units, they will only be selling the Best Buy Bundle Packages. Now that was ugly, there is no way in gods green earth I was going for one of their rip off packages. I quickly asked to speak to their manager, who began giving me a hard time and telling me I would not get the unit if I did not buy the bundle. I then asked for the managers name. When he asked why, I told him so I could report him and Best Buy to the BBB. When he asked why I would do that, I said "Well, here is the problem. You advertised that you sold PSP bundle packs, but you also advertised that you sold regular PSP packs. Now the Bundle packs which you guys have are not packaged together, they are just miscellanious items you are forcing people to buy in addition to the PSP. Since you did not package it in a single container, you are doing what it is called a Bait and Switch. You in fact are not out of PSPs which are all over your store, you are just forcing people to buy extra items. In addition, if you don't start selling individual units, I will just start causing a fuss and let the people in here know that Target upstairs also sells the PSP and has it in stock with no Bait and Switch ploys." Unfortunately some people before me got scammed into it, but after I let them know that, the manager made an announcement stating that all units will be sold individually. So it was ugly, but it came out nice. The Dead: As in the dead pixels that were on my PSP. Now ask me how pissed I was about that. I couldn't notice at first, however, when I put in Wipeout Pure, I could see the dead pixels on the screen. When I say pixels I mean pixels. It basically looked like a scratch, but it was 5 or so dead pixels. So I had to walk all the way back to Best Buy (about a mile). Best Buy gave me absolutely no problems, and exchanged my system. They actually let me know they had gotten in a bunch of systems with dead pixels, and that Sony had recalled 5,000 Japanese made units from different US stores because of that same issue. When they gave me my new PSP, I opened it up and tested it. All was fine, and the trains going back were working again. However, my legs and my old PSP's pixels were both dead. The Beautiful OK, first off I would like to say that I love my Zodiac. Having said that, there is absolutely no comparison between the Zodiac and the PSP. None. No picture can really do the PSP justice. It is just beautiful. Speaking of Beautiful, the screen on the PSP is amazing! The widecreen and the way it is designed makes you feel engulfed by the game. It's kind of hard to explain it, however, some serious thought went into this screen. They say that with any TV, the way to tell if your standing far enough back from it, is by closing one eye and sticking a fist in front of you. Then you should start to move back from the TV. Once the Fist fills up TV screen (your view area), you know that you are at a good distance. Well with the PSP, I think they used a similar concept. Since you hold any game system at least 5-6 inches from your face, the size of the screen can really make the difference. With the way the PSP and the PSP screen is designed, you feel like this little screen is a lot bigger then it is. I have a 50" TV at home which I sit rougly 12-15' away from. It ecompasses a lot of my possible vision/view area. Holding the PSP 5-6" from me, gives me the same effect as watching my TV. Speaking of watching. Forget about Zodiac+MMplayer. The video on this is amazing. While the UMD movies are not worth it, Spiderman 2 looks amazing. All I need to say is 24.97FPS. However, thats not where it ends. If you convert your own vdieo you can get video at 24.97FPS with a killer bit rate and sound! Also, check out some of the sites out there, it seems that the stretch feature for encoded movies through the PSP maybe a thing of the past, they already found ways to trick the PSP so this doesn't happen. In either case a video playing on the PSP is much better then a video on the Zodiac with anything that is out there currently. Now the Graphics! SICK SICK SICK. You played a PS2? Well then you played a PSP. That's how good the graphics are. That is not an over exageration, those are the graphics. I mean look at this link for codewarrior for the PSP. It says, port your PS2 code to the PSP: http://www.metrowerks.com/MW/Develop/Games/PSP.htm That says it all. Hopefully the trend will be that the games that come out for the PS2 will come out for the PSP at the same time. It should be easy enough. Conclusion: So overall this day was a pain with all the walking, the Best Buy bullshit, and the dead pixels. However, for $50 I don't think I could have gone wrong. I mean I worked for it, but this PSP is a great buy at any price. I really recommend any of you to get it if you want games or movies on the go. The Zodiac will always have a place in my bag for emulation, but other then that, it will not see much use.