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"The Sony Handheld IS coming!"

Remember last year when we all heard the sad news: SNK, makers of the Neo Geo Pocket Colour, and developers of some brilliant games, had gone bust, and pulled out of the West.

Well, although it wasn't well publicised, Sony bought the company... and with it, all their expertise in handheld gaming (as well as some great licences like King of Fighters and Metal Slug).

So, how long do you think it is that Ninty see a cometitor on the hamdheld scene... it must have been in development for some time already!

Sonic

www.classicgaming.com/vcsp/PSp/ pSp1.htm

don't forget to remove the space.

Whats the link?

I remember around the ps2 launch, there was a mockup photo of a colour pda 'running' ridge racer. at the time I thought yeah right, but it would be kinda cool to have a ps2 on the move.

Sure it'd need a portable dvd drive and lcd screen, but these are things which are available now, just a case of squishing the electronics.

a few months ago I posted a link to a wbsite where an american loony showed off his hobby of squishing consoles into mobile casings along with an lcd tv screen. maybe its just a matter of waiting.

Yes, bu if they made a handheld it would not be based on a PSX... because that would require you to use CDs... which are not convenient for portable gaming..

Anyone remember the Sega Nomad? It was a handheld that played all MegaDrive and Master System games. You could even plug controllers into it (useful for a handheld console??).

Then came the Multi-mega, which played MD, MS and Mega CD games! All in one CD player sized unit!

sonic

My unit records via a USB cable for control data and an digital optical cable for the sound.

True, the recording does have to be done in real time which is a moinor drawback, but then I leave my PC recording a disk while I'm on my PS2, so it's not really a problem for me.

Ah sod MD, wouldnt it have really bad loading times anyway? Compared to CDs MDs take much longer to load a track. WOuld this be the same with games?

As for the MD for storing music, i dont like it becasue all the recording is done in real time. I seen one sony recorder which does it with a USB cable. HOw long does that take?

With the MP3CD player I can record my tracks much quicker, and and i cant really notice the difference in quality. As for the size issue, well i dont really listen to music that much on the move. Mainly will be used in my car.

===SONICRAV---> wrote:
> And why would u put games on MDs! You can
> link MD players to PCs, they all record anyway, and they'd be sod easy to
> pirate! CD's/DVDs are convinient for handheld gaming, and that leaves
> carts...


Well, I personally never said anything about the games issue, but still... CD's are just as easily copied these days, so there's little to distinguish between them on the piracy front. People copy-protect CD's by tinkering with the format and recording deliberate bad sectors etc., so no doubt something similar could be acheived on MD if the techy bods put their minds to it.

The one thing we can all be sure of is that Sony are an extremely innovative company; I'm sure that if they thought it was a viable option and decided to make a handheld system which operated from MD, they'd acheive it somehow.

As the PS1 market begins to fade out, think how cool it would be if they came out with an MD-based handheld based on the PS1, with a 4 or 5-inch 640x480 LCD screen, and introduced a special MD-recorder unit for about £50 which copied all of your PS1 games onto MD and let you play them anywhere! It would certainly breathe more life into the PS1 market. My only question would be how they'd fit all the buttons of a PS1 controller onto a handheld!

Okay, it's pure fantasy, but if anyone could do it, Sony could - they're masters at miniaturisation.

WòókieeMøn§†€® wrote:
It's not the next thing 'after' G3, it's in place now (since Feb 99)
> and is the default system for all mobile phone networks in Japan.
> http://imodelinks.com/desktop/faq.html

Well, next for us...
Right after everyone here has G3 phones, then we'll get imode, making it the next thing after G3 is you see what I mean...

And why would u put games on MDs! You can link MD players to PCs, they all record anyway, and they'd be sod easy to pirate! CD's/DVDs are convinient for handheld gaming, and that leaves carts...

Sonic

a handheld console with a minidisc games is a good idea but i think its the drive etc would be far to large and the minidiscs are far to fragile. a new type of a media would be better maybe a cross breed between a dvd and a cartridge that is small would be better. and maybe the abilite for developers to add hardware to the cartriges so you could save games and add special effects to games.

IMHO, MDs are much better than CDs and MP3s. The quality lost on a standard MP3 is too much for me, maybe because I'm an audiophile.