32 replies to this topic

[MegaManFan]

Forever the skeptic, I question the feasibility of the whole thing in the first place, Nintendo's dominance aside. I mean, they can't even make a portable CD player with 10 seconds of skip that doesn't drain a few AA batteries in under an hour. How would a portable disc based gaming system react to the far more violent action of mashing buttons for any fighter or action game without the disc going skip skip skip, let alone the batteries support the size of the screen (you know it'd have to be a full window the size of the disc itself) and provide sound without being drained in a flash? Even if this thing can be built, my feeling is that a disc based portable gaming system will be a horrid abomination. There are hundreds of good reasons for a portable to be small and cartridge based, and the PS-whatever will fail this test on all levels. They can win the console war, but the handheld division belongs squarely to NOJ.

[Happy_Dude]

Minidisks are actually pretty good when it comes to anti-skiping.
A friend had a MD player and you could drop it off a table and it wouldn't skip.

If sony has any brains at all this PSP will have a rechargable lithium-ion battery

At the very least this should get Nintendo off their arse's.
They've had it too easy for too long.
Lets see some inovation Nintendo.

[liveinabin]

Happy_Dude said:

If sony has any brains at all this PSP will have a rechargable lithium-ion battery

Apparently it does (or rather will).

[cryptik76]

MegaManFan said:

Forever the skeptic, I question the feasibility of the whole thing in the first place, Nintendo's dominance aside.  I mean, they can't even make a portable CD player with 10 seconds of skip that doesn't drain a few AA batteries in under an hour

Actually I have a personal CD player from Panasonic (SL-S261C) with 10 second skip protection which can operate for roughly 25 hours on two AA batteries, with skip protection on the entire time. So I don't think it's entirely unlikely.

[ElectricTroy]

I can just imagine all the mindiscs laying on the back floors of SUVs and getting trampled upon by muddy sneakers. They won't last long.

But, I don't see that they have any choice. Cartridges with gigabytes of ROM are too expensive to build.

[MegaManFan]

ElectricTroy said:

But, I don't see that they have any choice.  Cartridges with gigabytes of ROM are too expensive to build.

If history has proved anything, it's that the size of memory you can buy for the same amount of money steadily increases over time. The only possible reason for that can be that the more mass-produced a format is, the more they find ways to cut costs and sell the same thing to wholesale at a lower price, which even at the retail end results in cheaper memory since there's so much competition. They might be too expensive now, but if there was enough demand the prices would eventually drop - and of course a newer format with even more memory would take it's place at the top of the price scale.

[Ze_ro]

Regarding the question of battery life, I'd like to relay a quote from the creator of the VCSp and the PSp (Not to be confused with the PSP, note the case)

Ben Heckendorn said:

Initial tests showed this setup consumes an average of 840mA, which is about the same as a VCSp! Despite the spinning disc & motors, the Playstation circuitry, this is going to come as a shock, is much more advanced than an Atari, thereby resulting in better power efficiency. Running non-stop on a fully charged NP-550 battery, the unit will operate for about 1.45 hours, or long enough to perform 3 spells in Final Fantasy VII.

Of course, 1.45 hours isn't that great... but I'm sure Sony can redesign things better than Ben has. I used to think that all this would consume a small hydro plant as well, but I guess things aren't that bad after all.

I don't think skipping will be that big of a problem either. Most of the load times for games don't occur while you're in the heat of battle anyways.

As for the discs themselves, people will just have to learn to be more careful. Frankly, I can't understand how people even have CD's with scratches on them at all... as long as you put them back in the cases when you aren't using them, then there shouldn't be any problems with scratches. 95% of my discs are in perfect condition, and most of that other 5% is from buying used Saturn and Dreamcast games.

However, I still think some sort of caddy system could be put to good use on this thing. At least, if they want kids to use it, they'll have to do something.

--Zero

[cryptik76]

Ze_ro said:

...Of course, 1.45 hours isn't that great... but I'm sure Sony can redesign things better than Ben has. I used to think that all this would consume a small hydro plant as well, but I guess things aren't that bad after all.

I don't think skipping will be that big of a problem either. Most of the load times for games don't occur while you're in the heat of battle anyways.

As for the discs themselves, people will just have to learn to be more careful. Frankly, I can't understand how people even have CD's with scratches on them at all... as long as you put them back in the cases when you aren't using them, then there shouldn't be any problems with scratches. 95% of my discs are in perfect condition, and most of that other 5% is from buying used Saturn and Dreamcast games...

Two comments...
1. I think the battery which got 1.45 hours on the portable Playstation is a camcorder battery (someone correct me if I'm wrong), which I believe is NiCad. A fully-charged Lithium-Ion battery, like what is in the Game Boy Advance SP, would last much longer, I think.

2. I agree with your statement about scratched CD's. I take very good care of my CD's, DVD's, and game cartridges (except in those rare cases when I get so mad at a game that I toss it across the room), so most of my CD's are entirely scratch-free, except those that I either tossed across the room (there's probably two or three of those) or bought used.

I always get mad when I rent a DVD and the movie won't play correctly because of all the scratches on it. What do people do with these things, anyway? I can't imagine how someone can be so careless.