[Question] NDS Lite vs PSP?

Well, as an owner of both, I can say they are both great machines, but one suffers from lack of support, while the other doesn't. It really comes down to what you want from your portable.

If you buy one to play games, get a DS Lite. No ifs or maybes, that's what any reasonable player should buy. It's simply a brilliant machine. Brilliant design (barring the volume slide), brilliant features, brilliant games.

The PSP has a few completely excellent games (Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins, Lumines, Wipeout Pure), but as a games machine, it's lacking in proper great titles. There's many games that are "good PSP games", but are not the kind you buy the machine for. Most of them are the kind you buy because you want games for a machine you bought (see, PS3).

On the plus side, it has a lot of non-gaming going for it. MP3 playback is great, video playback is great even if you have to separately convert every single video you want to use. Easy to hack, easy to pirate for. The PS1 emulation is fun for 10 minutes and portable Vagrant Story has its appeal, but it's again down to what you want from a machine. I for one don't think it's worth buying the machine since I can and want to get those same PS1 games for my modded PS2.

Same way SNES and GBA emulation on the PSP is fun, but you could just as well emulate GBA games on the DS if you so wish, and SNES emulation fares far better on an Xbox (I've recently discovered).

So again, if you want a portable for great games, get a DS. A fantastic library of DS games AND GBA games make for a stunning selection of gems.

If you want a neat yuppie toy for fiddling with, that also plays host to a small number of unique and great titles, get a PSP.

And if you intend to emulate on the PSP, I suggest you wait for the upcoming Slim & Lite model, which comes with double the memory.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

To be fair, softmodding a PSP IS relatively easy once you have everything you need gathered up (a big hassle) and know what you're doing (tutorials range from helpful to downright uselessly vague and unclear). But before that, it's all pretty impenetrable. Being able to do it all in software, without any need for physical add-ons or modifcations was a big plus for me.

On the other hand, all this pandora's battery stuff isn't nearly as all-solving as PSP enthusiasts are making it seem. You will still need a hacked PSP to make use of it, so if you brick your PSP and you don't know anyone with a hacked PSP (very likely, for instance I'm the only one in my group of friends with a PSP altogether), you're just as screwed as you were before the exploit was discovered.

And to give perspective, I have a hacked PSP, but my DS is untouched. And I own more bought (good) DS games than I have downloaded PSP games.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by espressivo

is the PSP capable of GBA emulation? and how good is the PSone emulation?
I'm also debating whether to get a DS or PSP, right now I'm more inclined to buy a DS, the only thing that really makes me want to get a PSP is FF tactics and maybe portable ops, and the ability to play psone games on-the-go.

The PS1 emulation was stunning, at least when I last tried it. I don't know if further firmware updates and custom firmwares have improved or worsened compatibility, but I - as a large opposer of emulation - was deeply impressed. Converting PS1 games to working form for PSP was simple and easy (again, once you had what you needed gathered up). There were minor sound and graphical effects the PSP couldn't replicate (the blur effect you got in FF7 whenever a fight started and the consequent swish sound, for instance), but it was still amazing. Sony's own emulator and all that, but hey.

As for GBA emulation, I'm fairly sure it's capable, but I personally never got it to work. All the emulators I found at the time were crippled WIP and one that apparently was supposed to be working wasn't actually a proper program, just parts of it. The readme that came with it was too much linux speak, but I deduced I should have apparently looked up a bunch of other pieces and files they gave no info where to find, at which point I gave up and figured I'd see if some of the other projects get finished.

But since the PSP can emulate SNES, I'm sure it can do GBA decently.

Game Boy emulation on the other hand I got to work. There was one Game Boy emulator (black and white graphics and all) that did an absolutely beautiful resize of the picture, but would lose sound whenever you went to the emulator's menu (to change configuration, for instance). This was a problem, because the emulator never saved button configuration and always started with default settings. The other emulator I had did a wonderful job of emulating a bunch of consoles (GB, Famicom, NGPC), but its resize wasn't nearly as good. But it saved settings, so I ended up using that a lot instead.

How ya doing, buddy?

It's depressingly obvious Southjag has no actual clue what kind of games are out for DS (since he doesn't own one). And fair enough, I guess. I've no clue what's out for Vectrex and can easily claim right now I can't think of a single title on it I'd want. If you paid more attention to a console, you're bound to see how much variety the game library has.

To give more perspective, I own 14 DS games plus about 15 GBA games, 8 of the DS games I personally consider as unmissable, the rest are "great". For GBA, the numbers would be 9 unmissables. None of them are puzzle games, nor brain training. I don't even own Nintendogs.

I'm counting I have 12 PSP titles and one of them is puzzle (unless you also count Exit and Locoroco). Three of these titles I'd count as completely excellent, the kind that make the machine worth buying.

If you're going to claim "DS only has puzzles and brain training" based on finding 47 (or 60) games listed as puzzle (if you think the likes of Ultimate Mortal Kombat and Rainbow Islands count as puzzle), then using that logic one would claim "PSP only has bad games" because a good number of its titles are ports ill fit for a portable console and/or rated poorly. But the PSP has great titles and any sensible person can see that. If you've played nothing but PS2 games all your life and have never really owned a portable system, you're bound to be impressed by the system.

The other idea, to berate many DS games as the type you only play on the bus, aka on the go, is absurd. That's like complaining PS2 (another console with massive crap to classic ratio) only has games you play on the TV. A portable system is supposed to be played on the go, is it not? A game doesn't need to be short and throwaway to be fit for a portable device (or on the DS, as you seem to think). That's been the beauty of the best GBA and DS games (and PSP for that matter). They offer games with considerable depth that you play at home as well, but see no reason not to structure them to fit shorter play sessions as well.

And as a little head's up, the N-Gage was designed with games in mind. It's proof that intent alone doesn't get you far. It's also proof that your knowledge on N-Gage is limited to seeing the funny photos of sidetalking and probably having heard about its commercial flop.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by SouthJag

But...I never said it only has puzzle and brain-training games. I said it comprised a good portion of the DS's library, both currently available and coming soon, but I didn't say only. Saying that would, indeed, make it look like I have no idea what kind of games are available on the DS. So, I agree with you there.

If it came off like I said that, my bad. Not what I meant.

Fair enough. I guess it came off that way because you presented it as "DS mostly has puzzle and brain training games and I have no interest in those" and at the same emphasizing the DS has no games that interest you whatsoever.

Which even outside the "not all DS games are puzzle" thing is still a strange claim since the DS has about as many (quality) RPGs available to it as the PSP, especially if GBA titles are counted. If anyone wants to go back to comparing numbers, that is.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Lukage

You can import the games as the DS is region-free.

So is the PSP. I think he meant the same game is therefore counted three times, wrongly increasing the number.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?