Gardiner Bryant4d ago

Why Everyone’s Picking Up a PSP Again in 2026

> Over the past few months, I've spotted something a little odd and unexpected happening to Sony's old PlayStation Portable. There's been no corporate push, no announcement of the truly portable Sony handheld we used to hope for (sorry, Portal). Instead, through something far less predictable, considering it's 2026, people are...

#Retrospectives #PSP #RetroGaming #BryantReview

https://gardinerbryant.com/psp-in-2026/?utm_campaign=widget&utm_source=mastodon

Why Everyone’s Picking Up a PSP Again in 2026

Over the past few months, I've spotted something a little odd and unexpected happening to Sony's old PlayStation Portable. There's been no corporate push, no announcement of the truly portable Sony handheld we used to hope for (sorry, Portal). Instead, through something far less predictable, considering it's 2026, people are

The Bryant Review
Show threadThad
@gardiner_bryant I keep meaning to test my PSP against my Vita to see which one I should be playing PSP games on. The Vita does non-integer scaling on PSP games but I haven't done a side-by-side comparison to see how noticeable it is.
Mar 23 at 6:48pmWeb
Show threadNazo4d ago

@Thad @gardiner_bryant I don't know since I don't have a Vita myself, but I can think of two factors that might make it not matter.

First, I can tell you from playing NDS games on the 3DS that it's honestly not that bad if you're not a bit obsessive about bit-exact rendering (some people legitimately are.) To be clear, I think the 3DS originally had bad scaling and I remember hearing a lot of that, but I think they fixed it with an update, so be careful if you search that.

The second thing is the PSP for reasons wildly unknowable to me used interlacing on the screen. It's a LCD, yet it did interlacing as if it was a CRT. I can't, for the life of me figure out why, but I always hated it. If the Vita doesn't do interlacing you're probably better off just by default...

Show threadThad4d ago
@nazokiyoubinbou I do find the fractional scaling noticeable on the 3DSXL, but that could be because it's an XL. @gardiner_bryant
Show threadNazo4d ago

@Thad @gardiner_bryant Yes that is because it is a XL. The DPI works out very badly on the XL/LL models. It looks fine on a normal sized 3DS.

I always found it a shame that the normal size was pretty much discontinued even in Japan long before the death of the 3DS. The normal model is smaller, lighter, has a better finish, and even looks nicer (except I guess shiny was in.) At that size, the DPI comes out pretty much ok.

I know people like that it's easier to see a XL/LL, but without more resolution that makes for very large individual pixels.