PSP Launch

Paddybhoy said:
I'm considering whether or not to invest in a handheld console and I can't really decide, The PSP looks pretty sweet since it can play ps2 games but the DS is made by Nintendo and there is still a lot of loyalty towards the company amongst most of the hardcore gamers overhere not to mention that Nintendo have a knack for making wee silly games that are fun, origianl and addictive!
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The PSP DOES NOT play PS2 games. I spend all day squashing that rumor. A PS2 disc would be a couple inches too large to fit inside.

Pedro said:
No such plans
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Actually, in Japan the PS2 hybrid PSX will be getting an upgrade soon to gain the ability to wirelessly transfer encoded television content to the PSP.

Pedro said:
The real question is how do they expect people to wait 20 seconds per load screen when most portable gaming sessions only last 5mins?
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Eh, that's not too much of a real question. The load times aren't noticeable, and I seriously challenge the idea that "most portable gaming sessions only last 5 mins." It's easy to spend six hours in a nonstop session in an RPG or strategy game. If gaming sessions were typically only five minutes, then there's be an inherent problem with the vast majority of handheld games being incredibly simplistic. You don't go out and kill a Tiamat or rescue Maniac's squadron in five minutes. Once you get going in an Advance Wars map, individual turns take longer than that.

Sarty said:
How is it that the handheld cost more than what I payed for PS2 when it first came out? Thats not cool.
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PS2s launched in North America at US$299.99.

Pedro said:
'll be getting the Gameboy Evolution which is supposed to use Gamecube hardware which implies faster, lower cost, shorter loading times. Ofcourse none of this is proveable but with the PSP at that price I'm content to wait and see before choosing.
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They've pretty much said they don't anticipate any announcement of a future Nintendo handheld at this year's E3. They will be showing off their new home console this year. The rumors about GBA2 coming in 2005 are mostly silly (and "details" about its technology base unfounded), since the primary game manufacturers make a point NOT to overlap their products whenever possible. I would expect zero information on a new Nintendo handheld until their home console is out the door. Similarly, Sony has been very tight lipped on the PS3 because of the PSP. Now that that's getting out, they can move on to their next focus.
 
ChrisReid said:
Eh, that's not too much of a real question. The load times aren't noticeable, and I seriously challenge the idea that "most portable gaming sessions only last 5 mins." It's easy to spend six hours in a nonstop session in an RPG or strategy game. If gaming sessions were typically only five minutes, then there's be an inherent problem with the vast majority of handheld games being incredibly simplistic. You don't go out and kill a Tiamat or rescue Maniac's squadron in five minutes. Once you get going in an Advance Wars map, individual turns take longer than that.
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a) from what I hear they're very noticeable but then I sold my PS2 due to loading times only.
b) Gaming sessions typically are 5mins, 5mins a star in mario 64 or a level of mario world, 5 mins to bash through one set of mini games in wario ware, 5 mins to blast at tetris, pokemon you can save anywhere. Generally titles like WC:Prophecy don't sell well on portables.
 
TopGun said:
The point is you can play anywhere
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Exactly, you pull them out and play, when at uni I spend on any given day about an hour queing and on a bus. On the occassions theres no one there I know thats pretty dull and makes for good gameage time.
 
Pedro said:
a) from what I hear they're very noticeable but then I sold my PS2 due to loading times only.
b) Gaming sessions typically are 5mins, 5mins a star in mario 64 or a level of mario world, 5 mins to bash through one set of mini games in wario ware, 5 mins to blast at tetris, pokemon you can save anywhere. Generally titles like WC:Prophecy don't sell well on portables.
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Five minutes isn't long enough to clear out a dungeon in Zelda or a Gym in Pokemon. Even if the games had the ability to save anywhere, I'd find such activity incredibly disjointed and too bothersome to play. Sure, you *can* save after every turn in Advance Wars, but splitting up a map (15-90 minutes) into multiple play sessions really screws up your strategy. I've already had Lumines levels that go on for 40 minutes without a break to breathe. With people suggesting that handheld gaming is meant for the tiny 5 minutes waits in the bank line or classroom before the teacher shows, it's no wonder that Nuclear Penguin doesn't see the point. I wouldn't either. There are games you can play in short bursts, but there are many great and popular games that are quite epic in scope. I typically play because they're more relaxing than the style of games I play on consoles. I can do do so for an hour in bed after the lights are off or while at a party or gathering that's gotten boring. If all I ever used the thing for was 5 minute mini-games, I'd just play the crap on my cell phone.
 
For me, the value of handhelds is that there's still a huge limit on what game developers can do. One of the reasons Wing Commander (the original) is so great is because they had to squeeze amazing gameplay out of three disks and a 386... a lot of games these days can ignore gameplay in terms of pretty pretty graphics. Handhelds force the developer to make games a little more fun, on average. I'm happy to play Pokemon on my TV instead of on the bus, because it's more fun than Tom Clancy's Rainbox 6.
 
I hope nintendo's follows through with her plans of implementing a world wide wi-fi free network for ds players. It would be a really big breakthrough. Omnipresent wireless poortable Online play...
 
Edfilho said:
I hope nintendo's follows through with her plans of implementing a world wide wi-fi free network for ds players. It would be a really big breakthrough. Omnipresent wireless poortable Online play...
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How would that work? Unless the DS can make use of cell networks, I doubt Nintendo would be willing to spend the millions/billions of dollars to put up the infrastructure for a global net just for DS players. If there was somekind of multi-company endeavor with more use than just DS play, maybe. Or maybe if there will be somekind of plug-in adapter that makes use of existing infrastructure.
 
The DS uses WiFi in a slightly modified form for its wireless communications (WiFi is used as the physical medium, with short preambles). All they need is to run a gaming server and sell a $40 "DS Wireless"-to-Internet adapter (it has to encapsulate the DS packets into a UDP/IP or TCP/IP packet). Worldwide gaming.
 
I just have a hard time getting into the portable gaming world, its just not the same. Especially when they go for $250 a pop.
 
Not really.

The DS uses WiFi as the physical transport medium, but there's a lot embodied inside Physical layer in the OSI model. Just like Ethernet is more than a bunch of Cat5 cables strung around a building, so is WiFi.

I can wire up two computers with Ethernet adapters and cables (and a hub/switch). However, just because I do that, doesn't mean I have to use TCP/IP, IPX, or other established network protocol. I can send 64 byte packets (smallest Ethernet packet available) sent to the broadcast address and have it reach the other side. I can make this its own protocol, e.g, "WorfNet" (sounds like my domain). Of course, since only my devices run WorfNet, you can plug them into any Ethernet network and they work. However, you can't route it through the Internet because I didn't design it to be routable. If I wanted to do it, I'd have to make a WorfNet-to-TCP/IP (or UDP/IP) encapsulator.

Similarly, the DS uses its own networking protocol that doesn't appear to be inherently routable, just mostly 802.11b (I believe) compatible. You can capture DS packets with a standard WiFi adapter using a 802.11-compatible sniffer, like Ethereal.

So... all Nintendo has to do is make a small box that encapsulates DS-protocol packets into a standard routable protocol for the Internet (TCP or UDP/IP), and setup a gaming server, and there you go - online gaming for the DS.

Of course, the main problem is that the game has to be programmed for this sort of thing to happen - local WiFi latency is nothing compared to potential Internet latency. How that affects gameplay depends a lot on the game.
 
Worf said:
Similarly, the DS uses its own networking protocol that doesn't appear to be inherently routable, just mostly 802.11b (I believe) compatible. You can capture DS packets with a standard WiFi adapter using a 802.11-compatible sniffer, like Ethereal.

So... all Nintendo has to do is make a small box that encapsulates DS-protocol packets into a standard routable protocol for the Internet (TCP or UDP/IP), and setup a gaming server, and there you go - online gaming for the DS.

Of course, the main problem is that the game has to be programmed for this sort of thing to happen - local WiFi latency is nothing compared to potential Internet latency. How that affects gameplay depends a lot on the game.
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I'm not sure what you're going on about.. Nintendo has already announced that games like Animal Crossing DS will go online via your regular home routers this fall. What is this protocol encapsulating box stuff?

Edfilho said:
I hope nintendo's follows through with her plans of implementing a world wide wi-fi free network for ds players. It would be a really big breakthrough. Omnipresent wireless poortable Online play...
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Err Nintendo has no plans to deploy billions of dollars in reception towers/satellites so you could play your DS online for free. :) What they announced plans for was a regular internet service to connect gamers playing DS games over regular 802.11b wifi hotspot connections. They are building no infrastructure, just providing a regular internet gaming service.
 
ChrisReid said:
I'm not sure what you're going on about.. Nintendo has already announced that games like Animal Crossing DS will go online via your regular home routers this fall. What is this protocol encapsulating box stuff?
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The default DS WiFi networking protocol is is specific to the DS-only. It's possible, with a bit of ingenuity, to capture those packets and transmit them over the Internet to another similar configured system, and use it to establish a nice long multiplayer link. Of course, while possible, it doesn't mean it's not without problems - the extreme latency being one of them. It's identical to how people played Halo on the Xbox through the Internet (though, that was slightly easier, as it was just regular Ethernet and TCP/IP).

Now, if a game specifically implements TCP/IP, that's a per-game thing. The normal DS wireless-download won't work through a router, for example.

The PSP has the advantage here in that by default it can handle TCP/IP communications natively for its wireless, so games can be played online quite easily.
 
Now I learnt a LOT. true, Wifi is obviously more akin to ethernet (am I the only one who thinks this nbame is really cool) than telephone and electrical wires being used as physical support for broad band.

Whatever it is that they do, I hope it works well. And I hope they support it better than they did the Cube online thing.
 
It's an issue with TFT (active) LCD displays. Because each pixel has a transistor behind it (I'm assuming monochrome - for color, you have 3 subpixels (red, green, blue) for every pixel, but that's an unnecessary complication at the moment - each subpixel has its own transistor). However, sometimes not all the transistors work properly. So you can get stuck with a display with nonfunctioning pixels - typically their either stuck off (black), stuck on (full intensity), but sometimes they're stuck in the middle (rare, though - and hard to notice).

With a color screen, this means that if you have some stuck on pixels, a black screen will have red, green, blue, cyan (green+blue), magenta (blue+red), yellow (red+green) or even white dots that are permanent. With stuck off pixels, you'll have either black, or one of the above colors (except white) depending on which subpixels are nonfunctional.

These dead pixels are stuck at whatever level they are, and will remain that way until the end of the unit's life. Sometimes it can be quite distracting (one smack in the center), or you can get a lot of them (a few clustered together isn't uncommon).

OTOH, since the PSP display is of such low resolution (480x270), there really is no excuse for dead pixels on the display, since you can get perfect VGA (640x480) displays quite readily. Now, backtrack over a decade when color active displays came out and yes, you'd get dead pixels quite often. But modern displays have advanced so greatly in technology that only the higher resolution displays typically may have 1 or 2, though even that's more or a rarity.
 
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