Dex

Big hearted fluffdragon...

...fictional ex-90s platformer mascot, nerd, plural, ΘΔ.



the phrase "the steamdeck is the modern PSP" popped into my head the other day

i've owned a lot of handheld devices over the years, but there's only a select few that meet all the criteria the PSP set down

  • good buttons
  • a device that feels like it comes out of the box doing so much for its era, while being tweakable to do so much more without having to jump through too many hoops to do so
  • a customized, responsive interface that also plays well with the tweaks
  • mainstream support including easy access to accessories

i've said this before, but the PSP quickly became my "everything device". even before homebrew.


it was my main music player to the extent that i regifted an ipod to a family member because i just absolutely hated itunes compared to dragging and dropping folders of albums 1
i used to bring a portable DVD player and a binder of DVDs on family trips, but there was less reason to do that when i could just rip and convert to 480x272 videos

and then once homebrew came along, it's how i first experienced earthbound and sam & max hit the road, how i re-experienced large parts of my PS1 library. there were plugins available for modding games; i remember grand theft auto: liberty city stories getting a map editor mod


and every time i use rsync to grab files off my steam deck - including screenshots that have been filed by lnshot - i get similar vibes. a lot of things the PSP did out of the box are now table stakes for everyone but nintendo 2, but so few things present a consolized interface while making it so trivial to pop the hood; community tools already letting my copy of ratchet & clank 2 appear alongside regular steam games in my library

i know that in a pinch, i could install unity on there if i needed to make a quick tweak to my vrchat avatar
or install handbrake and transcode a DVD
or get a compatible stylus and use krita or aseprite
or install a bunch of non-workshop skyrim mods 3

and then just... go back to the simple interface afterwards, integrating these things in if you'd want to - when other ultra mini PCs feel like they'd kick you fully back to windows


  1. back then my collection was small enough that i didn't need to use playlists for syncing, so this method became more impractical as it grew, eventually leading back to a dedicated player. my only regret about it at that time is the relatively low capacity of memory sticks does mean there's a lot of things I ripped as potato quality WMAs and have never gone back to re-rip.

  2. suddenly reminded of people attempting to watch 3D films in the 3ds photos app by converting them to Motion JPEG

  3. i suspect the main issue with this one would likely be watching out for ones reliant on Windows being case insensitive


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in reply to @Dex's post:

heh

my psp was like that, too; the browser allowed for so much additional stuff, even without homebrew. people made really simple, light-weight web clients for things like AIM, so there were times I was chatting with a friend or two, on AIM, via my PSP

during my first job, it was my music player. i had an ipod nano, too, but the psp -- with homebrew by this point -- let me add on things like gamemusicemu or whatever it was, that let me play a ton of retro formats infinitely

I wish I'd known about MODs at that time, that would have saved a ton of space.

Forgot about the webapp potential as well, though I think that was when most friends had gone to MSN but maybe I chatted to a few with the official Skype support?

it's funny because you think "light web app" back then was "mostly server-side with long-lived sessions because browsers aren't easily capable of talking back without a full page reload" and not "only 1MB of javascript"

i don't think i ever had an official messenger client on mine. i do recall wishing i had the camera, though, to really go for the all-in-one "not a smart phone, but close" aspect.

funnily enough i never had MODs, just nsf/gbs/etc. files. even today my collection of tracker format files is largely just "a friend sent me some of their collection" and it's been getting copied and pasted across machines for years.

god i loved my PSP so much. Even without modding it had so many features like you touched upon. When my Creative Nomad died my PSP became my primary MP3 player and as cool as all the extra features were, the games themselves slapped too. Mindblowing experience playing Near-PS2 ports, on a handheld! Sure the load times weren’t the best but I could play Midnight Club 3 wherever I wanted.

Honestly, I wish the Steam Deck was as portable. I love mine a lot but it tends to stay at home because it’s a Huge thing and is Very Obvious when you’re trying to play games which can be rough in an office environment where they really lean hard on presentability. Gimmie something I can just slam into my pocket on a moment’s notice again.