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Post by bonesnapdeez on Aug 3, 2018 6:25:42 GMT -5
I enjoy this system. Mainly for the JRPGs, of course.
Y'all will have to help me hack this thing someday. I'd like to play Nayuta no Kiseki in English, among other things.
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Post by Ex on Aug 3, 2018 10:27:57 GMT -5
I'd like to play Nayuta no Kiseki in English, among other things. As someone who's played and finished Nayuta no Kiseki (AKA Trails of Nayuta), I'll say the PSP is absolutely worth hacking if only to play it alone. Very underrated and joyful action-JRPG. Too new for me to say more on HRG though. Two more of Falcom's high quality JRPGs in this series were also fully fan translated into English as well; Eiyū Densetsu Sero no Kiseki (AKA The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Zero), itself the direct sequel to The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd. And Eiyū Densetsu: Ao no Kiseki (AKA The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Azure), this one being the sequel to Trails of Zero. Both of those games are now playable to the credits in English.
There are many, many more English fan translated PSP games of note available as well. It's an active scene thankfully.
As far as hacking your PSP to use CFW, this is the guide I used years ago:
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Post by Sarge on Aug 3, 2018 11:05:30 GMT -5
Yes, hacking it is absolutely the way to go. I'm spoiled on high-capacity memory cards and running things from there. Who needs a crusty old UMD drive anyway? (Beyond ripping the game, of course.)
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Post by Ex on Aug 5, 2018 11:47:08 GMT -5
Way back in 2005 one of my co-workers told me he'd recently bought a PSP and I was all, "Huh what's that?" He then explained what a PSP was. He said the game he was currently playing was Burnout Legends, a new release he'd just bought. I remembering him saying explicitly; "It's sssooooo fun." I recall feeling a twinge of jealously, because there was no way I could have afforded a PSP at that point in time. But because I do remember the game he'd just bought, that lets me know I first heard of the PSP in September of 2005.
Yep it wasn't until 2005 that I even knew the PSP existed. How is that possible? A combination of factors, but the primary one being I was purely a PC gamer at that time. From 1997-2007 I was almost exclusively a PC gamer (outside retro emulation, and occasionally GBA games), thus you now see me playing a lot fifth and sixth gen console stuff these days. (I have a long way to go to catch up, especially in the realm of SRPGs/JRPGs). Shortly after learning about the PSP, I promptly forgot about it, and went along my merry PC gaming ways.
Years later in 2011, I was talking to a guy on Romhacking.net's forums, and he found out I'd never played a PSP. He then explained how great of an emulator machine it was. I said I had no interest in using a PSP for something my PC already did. However, he offered me (what I thought was) a good deal on a pre-hacked PSP-1000. I was interested, as I was keen to try the the PSP for its exclusives. And so in June of 2011, I bought a pre-hacked PSP-1000 from him for $100. He claimed the PSP-1000 was in mint condition.
A short while later said PSP-1000 arrives loosely packaged in a cardboard box. As I opened the box the smell of marijuana immediately blasted my nose. It turned out this dude was a major pothead, so apparently everything in his room (dude was late 20s but still lived with his mom) reeked like weed. I was honestly surprised the box made it through USPS without being opened for inspection. Finally I unearthed the PSP from a shroud of newspaper and a cotton shirt, and immediately realized the PSP was not in "mint" condition. Its body, face shield, and buttons had scratches all over it, and the d-pad was damaged (he'd taped a quarter over the d-pad for playing fighting games... yeah). However, the PSP powered up, and was indeed hacked with CFW. Unfortunately its screen had a semi-dead pixel, but that was in the bottom left corner, so not too big of a deal. And the PSP itself smelled like weed. No matter how hard I cleaned it, that weed smell persisted. That dope was baked into the plastic.
So I decided I'd replace the PSP's shell, face shield, and buttons. At that time OEM PSP parts were inexpensive and easy to obtain online. For about $20, I was able to buy the parts I needed, and by using a Youtube video, was able to replace the used hardware with said new parts. And then indeed I had a mint condition PSP-1000. And it no longer smelled like a stoner's basement. Within a year's time, I had purchased two more PSP-1000s, and also replaced their parts. (I still have a stockpile of PSP parts today from back then.) By June of 2012, I had three PSP-1000 units in mint shape. (The other two did not cost me $100 each, more like $50 each. I later realized I'd paid way too much for a used PSP.) Why PSP-1000s, and not the later models? Well there's pros and cons to all three different PSP units. But I decided to stick with the PSP-1000 because at that time it was the easiest to hack (Pandora battery trick) and I was familiar with its hardware and firmware.
So that's how I learned about the PSP and I how obtained it. Next time I'll post a few happy memories from this platform, and list some PSP games I think kick ass.
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Post by Sarge on Aug 5, 2018 21:09:40 GMT -5
That is freaking hilarious. I'm sure it wasn't to you at the time, but man. That is quite a story you can tell folks!
Yeah, PSP-2000s tend to be a bit dicier to hack. I was lucky in that when I bought mine, it was a new release, so the motherboard was still very hackable via the Pandora battery trick. Later versions of the motherboard, however, blocked this exploit, and for some time, couldn't be permanently hacked. I think it's the ones with the TA-088 V3 motherboard. I set up a friend of mine with the hack on that one, where you had to load a specific image through the image viewer, and it would kick off unsigned code... if you were lucky. Most of the time, it'd just lock up and you had to try again. Still, got it going, and as long as it was kept in sleep mode, it was good to go. I believe they've gotten past that now, though.
I'd actually like to get my hands on a PSP Go. I know it got slammed back in the day (and in a lot of ways, rightfully so), but my understanding is that it has one of the best screens in the PSP lineup.
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Post by Ex on Aug 5, 2018 21:29:56 GMT -5
my understanding is that it has one of the best screens in the PSP lineup. A normal PSP screen is 4.3" but the PSP Go's is 3.8". The smaller size condenses the PPI and likely does create a sharper looking screen as a result, at the cost of size unfortunately.
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Post by Sarge on Aug 5, 2018 21:48:07 GMT -5
Ah, didn't know it was smaller. Don't need that. Actually, might be better to start hunting a spare Vita instead, hack it with Henkaku, and get one of those SD2Vita adapters. (I have enough legit stuff purchased on my current Vita that I don't want to risk a ban.)
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Post by Ex on Aug 6, 2018 10:13:43 GMT -5
hack it with Henkaku, and get one of those SD2Vita adapters Well good luck with doing so. After my immense piracy fest with the DS and PSP, I decided I would not hack my 3DS and Vita this go around. Keeping it legit for multiple reasons (mainly ethical and constraint). Nowadays I have the money to buy all the games I want anyway, so it's all good. I suppose I'll miss out on fan translations for a bit, but emulators are coming. - My first reaction to holding a powered on PSP in my hands was, "Wow that screen is BIG." I was used to the DS Lite's rather humble screen sizes, the PSP seemed gargantuan in comparison. My next reaction was, "The d-pad's not so hot... and this analog nub thing kinda sucks." Yes indeed my one big complaint about the PSP was its analog nub. To this day I still think that analog nub is crap. But I liked the form factor of the PSP, and I liked its OS, and the screen was gorgeous for its time. The first game I can remember playing through on PSP was:
MGS: Portable Ops blew me away with its graphical fidelity and console-like experience. I'd read the PSP promised console level gameplay on a portable system, and this MGS entry made me a believer. One of the reasons I wanted a PSP was because of its exclusive Metal Gear games, and Portable Ops was a great start. I remember just sitting in a warehouse level panning the camera around and looking at the sky. In 2011 this was still prime portable gaming.
The next game I remember beating on PSP:
Now The 3rd Birthday is still too new to go into a lot of detail about on HRG. So I'll keep this brief. I was already a fan of this series, so playing the third entry was a must for me. This game itself blew my mind from a graphical standpoint for its platform, and the gameplay was tough but exciting. (The plot and voice acting are terrible though.)
And the next PSP game I remember beating was Brave Story. This JRPG gets a lot of flak for being "too vanilla" or "too short" or "bland"... none of which I agree with. Outside the main character's creepy baby face, I really enjoyed the rest of the package. Brave Story is a well made, well executed JRPG that does not overstay its welcome. It cemented for me the hope that the PSP would have quality RPG exclusives in its stable.
The next PSP game I beat was Valkyria Chronicles II. Again, this one's not quite old enough for detailed discussion on HRG. I'll just say that I adored its gameplay, but the plot was kinda meh. Very solid SRPG overall.
Well I could post a lot more cover art photos, as I've beaten quite a few games on PSP. But I guess that's not really necessary (I have a fetish for cover art). I didn't start capturing my game beats on HLTB until 2013, so there's two years of PSP gaming (2011, 2012) where I'm not sure everything I beat. But from what all I can remember...
PSP games Ex recommends strongly
Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception
Brandish: The Dark Revenant Brave Story Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
Metal Gear AC!D
Metal Gear AC!D 2 Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker The 3rd Birthday Valkyria Chronicles II
Ys Seven
PSP imports Ex recommends in general
Nayuta no Kiseki (AKA English fan translated as Nayuta: Endless Trails) <-Sarge you should play this, seriously man. Soreyuke! BurunyanMan Portable Strike Witches: Silver Wing
I have not beaten nearly as many PSP games as I have DS. But like the DS, there are still many more games I'd like to play/beat in the PSP library. Especially in its SRPG stable. The PSP was an SRPG king!
Probably my best memory of the PSP was co-op beating Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker with my wife. I bought her a PSP just for co-op'ing PSP games with me, and this one was the entry I was most excited about. I was afraid she wouldn't be able to handle it, because the PSP controls are... well, they'd make an octopus feel contorted. But she pulled through, and carried her weight, and definitely was a big help in beating Peace Walker. We had a good time with it.
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Post by Sarge on Aug 6, 2018 10:31:48 GMT -5
The analog nub on the PSP-1000s is terrible, no doubt. Better on the 2000, though. And yes, I do have Nayuta no Kiseki installed, although I have some other Falcom joints I need to play first. I bought Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection, for instance. I also need to not play modern games... I might have done so this weekend. Regarding piracy, I've stayed legit, too, which is why I referred to picking up a spare. I actually would like to play all my PSX titles on that Vita screen, but between the insane storage prices and the fact that I don't want to rebuy those titles on PSN (or can't!), it'd be nice to have something like that. Of course, I could also just look into emulating, although I really don't have a good alternative for PSX on a handheld. My phone chews through battery too fast as it is, and I don't want to sap the battery with lots of gaming. I do have a PSTV that is hacked, but that removes the portability factor.
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Post by Ex on Aug 6, 2018 10:42:22 GMT -5
Nayuta no Kiseki / Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection I honestly think you would enjoy both of those games a lot. I believe bonesnapdeez would as well. Both are very well made action-RPGs, imbibed with that colorful joie de vivre spirit such entries as Threads of Fate and Mega Man Legends exude.
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