Any PSPC/PPC with gamepad style buttons but more powerful than the Casio E-100?

The Casio E-100 is great to play Nintendo games but they run a bit slow. What would be a good device to run NES games at full speed but that have buttons laid out in a way that you can play games? The Casio E-series had the best game button layout but they abandoned that design after the E-100 series.

Thanks

Back in 2005, before I bought my PSP, one of the other devices I was looking at was the Tapwave Zodiac: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapwave_Zodiac <-- 200mhz Palm device with gamepad style buttons.

Of course I'm really glad I settled on the PSP. So much software support and emulators. I still use it even 7 years later

Why not just get an actual gaming device? You can put emulators on the PSP, and also Nintendo DS

I wouldn't want a Palm OS device, I had and still have one and they crash every 5 minutes plus I highly doubt they can emulate NES, they could barely emulate a gameboy with no sound, plus you need to convert every single file you want to put on a palm OS device which is a PITA.

Ironically I hadn't considered an actual gaming device, I didn't know they could emulate NES. Does the PSP work with the memory cartridge type games like the gameboy used? The last portable gaming device I saw or used was the gameboy original, I know absolutely nothing about any gaming device after that one. How do you put NES ROMs on a PSP? Which is the best portable gaming device I could get under $100 that can emulate NES?

Thanks

I wonder if the E-125 would be any better...it was a little faster and the CE3 was a little better optimized than CE2.11

I had an E-115, is the E-125 the same with 32 MB RAM? I know they had one model with a 150 Mhz CPU instead of 131 but I think it would need at the very least a 206 Mhz CPU if not 400.

Anyway the idea of an actual gaming device is interesting but I know absolutely nothing about them, I need to read about the PSP, I want to know if it uses came cartridges like the original GameBoy or what.

Thanks

The original PSP has 2 main methods of inputting data: The Memory stick pro duo slot, and the "UMD" Slot. UMD are just Sony's proprietary format for PSP games and movies. Memory stick pro duo is just another competing memory card format similar to SD, but used primarily (exclusively?) by Sony devices such as the PSP and cameras.

Used PSP can now be obtained for just under $100. It runs at 333mhz clockspeed and can emulate a large number of systems at fullspeed with sound, including NES, Gameboy, Gameboy Advance, SNES, Genesis, Sega CD, Sega Master system, MSX, Turbografx 16, Arcade games, lots of older computers such as C64, Atari ST, etc, and even Playstation 1 (yes, for real) <---- All these emulators can run most games fullspeed with sound with no frameskip. The only way the Playstation 1 support is possible is because the emulator was actually developed by Sony... Of course then the hackers got to work and made it compatible with most any PS1 game ISO. There are lots of other emulators too, although some are not quite as fast as the ones I listed (such as Dosbox, N64, etc) . And of course there is the entire catalog of PSP games... And there are some really good ones.

So to run any of these emulators, all you have to do is get the emulator, put the ROMs and the emulator on the memory stick and you're ready to go.

This is of course after you've "unlocked" the system to work with unsigned code (i.e. emulators). You do this by flashing the firmware version to one of the various "custom firmwares".
Since it is a closed-source system, the original intent was just to run Sony approved games/applications. As it is with most video game consoles. So it is always a battle between the hackers and the game companies to see who can stay ahead for a few months.

One of the best resources for emulators, homebrew applications, and custom firmwares is probably qj.net : http://www.qj.net/psp.html

I have been out of the loop for the past couple of years so I'm not completely sure the best way to install custom firmware on a PSP anymore... But probably the most reliable way is to obtain what is called a "Pandora's battery" which will first let you downgrade your official firmware to an older official version, and then upgrade to a newer custom firmware version from there.

You can find more info here:
http://pspcustomfirmware.com

or many other sites. I would caution you to be careful and do some research before you buy your PSP, make sure what motherboard revision it has before you buy it and make sure it is compatible with the method you choose to flash it (i.e. pandora's battery). There have been several hardware revisions since the original PSP, and each has several motherboard revisions and I'm not sure all of them are compatible with the process, so just make sure to do your research!

Just let me know if you need any help with this kind of stuff, I could even send you a "Pandora battery" in the mail for you to borrow to flash the PSP if you promise to send the battery back Pandora battery is just a regular battery with one bit changed on the chip so it kickstarts the PSP into action.. It was originally a developer tool used by Sony to recover systems which had been bricked. But of course when the hackers got wind of it.....You know how it goes.

Anyway. Just send me a PM or respond to this thread if you need more info/help.... But I can promise if you are wanting to play some games in emulators, you won't regret buying a PSP. It was one of the best purchases I've ever made.

Peace
-Scott

Edited by indstr 2012-05-14 2:45 AM