I felt weird/guilty using mine in public, like staring down at a little rectangle was unsocial or bad for you or something…

Turns out, it’s more like digital detox! It would be cool these days.

Ugh, where is it!? I know I still have mine.

Last year I bought a PS Vita and I'd highly recommend that instead if you can find one for cheap! The Vita can natively run PSP games via Adrenaline, and you get the advantage of Vita games and homebrew (and a better screen).

That said, I'm a long time PSP Go lover. It's basically the PSP in a smaller, pocketable form factor. I would absolutely get that if you can get your hands on one.

Man, I gotta check how the battery for my PSP3000 is, and the microSD card on it. The internals work perfectly, those two things are the only ones that seem likely to give out anytime soon. My little buddy is 14yo now. I don't think I ever played any of the 3 UMD games that came with it, I immediately jailbroke it after purchase

It’s not “retro” in the same way a much older console is. It’s closer, more relatable, and maybe more importantly, more usable. It still fits into modern life without needing to be explained.

I think this is something extremely important. Looking at stuff from 20 years ago was much different when the current year was 2006 - we'd be looking at the mid 80s. Computers of the 80s and even the early 90s became obsolete fast, whatever you had in 2006, even if it was 4 years old at the time, felt light years ahead of anything from 1986 and would be internet capable.

Games from the 80s were also comparably "archaic", as the hardware limitations were much more significant and several then current games could never happen in that old hardware (NES, C64, ZX Spectrum, Amiga 500), and that's ignoring graphical complexity. Meanwhile, a number of current day games could exist in 2006, so long as the graphics were appropriately scaled down (Total War games being a perfect example).

PSP is such a cool console but had the worst lineup of games.

The Vita also rips (arguably more) ass, as it does everything the PSP does and more, it’s also the easiest console to hack there has ever been. I picked up a Japanese one for like 90 bucks and it’s one of the best all around devices there is.

This but PS Vita*

Yeah I have a psp. It's an impressive little console that's almost like a ps2 on the go. Plus it's very easy to jailbreak. The funniest thing about the psp is the marketing video with one guy singing about wanting a psp for Christmas.

PPSSPP because I can't trust second hand dealers anymore.

This inspired me to go dig out my old PSP only to discover that I have no battery… I threw it out when it pillowed years ago and forgot about it. I’ll have to play on Retrodeck for now!

EVERYONE is getting one? Bruh, that is simply not the case, don't make stuff up just to sensationalize for clicks and engagement just because your TikTok algorithm started showing you more PSP stuff. You're literally just spreading your TikTok garbage over to here now trying to "make fetch happen." Be better man, you're doing their work for nothing. For real.

I should really get replacement batteries for my two PSPs.

I've always wanted one. From when they first came out, to now. I just don't know which one I want to eventually get, or in what color.

I’m someone who played on Nintendo handhelds growing up, but I always admired the design of the PSP. It felt so much sleeker than the DS at the time, and it’s remarkable how impressive it looks even today.

What are the most interesting hacks and tinkering projects that you can get up to with a PSP or Vita today? I’m considering getting one now.

I still got my original 1001 model from 2005 that still works some how. It was built like a goddamn tank because I abused the absolute shit out of it.

Funny. Just today I installed a CFW on a PSP Phat. Not for personal use, though; I've never liked what was available on the PSP, and I have a Steam Deck I can emulate on.

But my younger brother bought a second hand PSP.

Bro I being thinking of jailbreaking my pspp after I did my Nintendo Wii, but laziness keeps me back.

Touching on the burnout section of the article, it's not quite as cool as the PSP but I've been playing a lot on my Switch 2 as a form of digital detox as well. I put limits on all the addictive apps on my phone, and downright uninstalled most of them, so when I'm itching for dopamine my phone can't give me it's nice to turn to a game console. The switch 2 also doesn't have notifications or egregious game updates. Currently playing through factorio and having a blast just kinda ... ignoring the state of the world.

Designers Republic art detected.

I love my old psp! I still enjoy playing it. I feel like, in a time where things aren't made to last, things that do hold up, really deserve reverence. So even though I've never stopped loving my psp, I gain more respect for it over time.

As far as I'm aware it's impossible to get a decent quality battery replacement for PSP these days

Oh man I loved my PSP back in the day, I played a ton in it. I had a modded one and I also installed PSX and GBA emulators.

I remember that when I bought it, it came already modded but it wasn't a permanent mod. To activate the mod after rebooting I had to navigate to the images folder and load up a PNG (I think?) image that was called Chicken or something like that. The most annoying part was that it didn't work consistently, so often times it would cause the console to hang and I had to try again. It always blew my mind how an image could trigger the hack like that, looking back I guess it was a malicious payload or something and some race condition somewhere idk.

If I remember correctly, after a couple years I was able to change the mod to a permanent one. I sold it like 10 years ago

I went down this rabbit hole last year. Modded PSP is/was great, but modded PS Vita is SO much better..and easier.

Some thoughts on why i might like a vita but have not:

i like emulating older consoles, but i can do so on my phone. i just have to make sure the phone and the old controller are charged, which can be a small hassle.

i guess that's just one thought. i liked the article!

PSP was great, some stand out games were crush (2/3d puzzle), jrpgs like the final fantasy tactics remake and Joan of arc, rhythm games like loco roco and patapon, and easy to install custom firmware to play emulated games PSP or some others like Gameboy or snes.

I was looking for a handheld and seriously looked at the PSP. looked at all the mods for it. even found one where you could stick a RP4 compute board inside for the guts.

finally settled on a retroid pocket 5 and honestly couldn't be happier. it does everything I want and then some.

I mean, probably cheaper than a modern pi for a server...

https://www.techradar.com/...

I don't want to be that guy, but I always felt that any PlayStation controls were clunky, and only PS5 controller is comforotable to me. I much prefer Nintendo consoles for this reason, including 3DS, heck I even played Minecraft on 3DS and even though it is objectively the worst version, controls were fine to me. But playing Minecraft on Vita? Just horrible experience.

"Everyone"

I got a PSP in 2012 when I found out how easy they were to jailbreak. It was great, but my Steam Deck made it obsolete. I gave it away.

Hacked my Vita somewhat recently and wondered why I hadn’t done so sooner. It was really the easiest thing ever and now I can just download basically everything directly onto the thing, it’s great! It doesn’t actually have everything but most of it and it’s easy enough to get whatever else onto it.

As far as "official" handhelds go - Vita 2000 is the absolute god, especially with the SD2Vita adapter.

If you don't want to waste money on things you can be getting for free, the PSP emulator PPSSPP is fantastic and doesn't cost a dime!

Can i run linux on it?

This is making me want to go dig out my PSP.