[h4ch1]

I mean a PSP is great, but in 2026 I'd rather go for a 2nd hand Android that can not just emulate PSP but a plethora of other platforms as well with much better performance and usecases.

Pair that with a 30-40$ controller extension like the Razer Kishi and you have a really powerful retro gaming device.

[lxgr]

Sure, but it’ll feel nothing like the actual PSP.

It will be missing the haptics, the original display, the small UMD drive loading noises and vibrations – all that stuff was part of the experience as well.

For example, it took me a wrong time to realize why emulated Game Boy Color games felt so “off” until I learned that the original display had such an extremely narrow color gamut that mapping the GBC display output to full RGB is completely wrong. The same applies to the DMG and its shades-of-green (not grey!) display with its absurdly slow LCD ghosting that needs to be accurately emulated to see anything at all in a few games that made very clever use of the constraint as a feature.

There are some good shaders these days that try to approximate all that, but it’s still just that: An approximation.

[netbioserror]

A creative's best work is born from constraints. It's why PICO-8 exists for people nostalgic for that specific olden era. I think the PSP could make a fantastic target for meatier handheld-focused games that put design first, as many of its second-tier games did. Lots of great strategy, platforming, and racing. A beautiful wide-screen with just enough resolution, just enough horsepower to drive it with rich, saturated 2D and some 3D, and a basic enough control scheme to rule out the lame tech-demo category of 3D action games. I cannot describe how much WipeOut, Namco Museum, and Tactics Ogre time I had on my PSP.

[h4ch1]

I didn't quite get the point of this comment, there's no denying any of it, actually I wholeheartedly agree with you, but what I was saying wrt practicality of playing PSP games.

You can of course buy that device, but from personal experience the novelty doesn't last very long and then it just becomes just another device in the drawer graveyard. Also no one's really making new PSP games anymore? so the novelty of the PSP remains in its construction and the software; which becomes limiting as time goes on.

The joystick, buttons all tend to break or stick after 20 years, replacements may or may not be easy to come by for most, so it just makes more sense into building your own retro game device that supports PSP emulation among others.

[rmunn]

And the PICO-8 has produced some impressive projects, such as UnDUNE II (https://liquidream.itch.io/undune2) which reimplements the old Dune II game (which started the entire RTS genre). Yes, within the PICO-8's constraints. I loved Dune II, and while I don't plan to pick up a PICO-8 just to play it, I love that this exists.

[AdityaAnuragi]

That's a valid point ngl

But there's something quite nostalgic about holding the console you had as a kid and going down a good old happy memory lane

[nine_k]

This only works if you had it as a kid. At the very least, you have to be old enough to have had it as a kid.

[h4ch1]

+1 to this point, I really wanted a PSP my entire childhood but never got one, bought one back in 2022 purely because of the memories I had of 4-5 of us huddled around the community (read pampered friend's) PSP.

[zargon]

s/old/young