MY RETRO LIFE
PORTABLE POWER
Nick explains why he’s a fan of Sony’s debut handheld
PERSONAL STORIES ABOUT OUR SHARED PASSION
Pa rdon my crankiness here, but now and again I get wound up by some of the crap that people spout about the PSP. You’ve probably encountered some of it yourself, from the oft-repeated “it’s only good if you hack it” to the utterly ridiculous claim that it was a “failure”, which would be a spectacular achievement for a console that outsold the NES, SNES and Mega Drive. Maybe we’re just so used to Sony dominating the market that it shocks us when anything else happens? In any case, the reason that I get wound up is that I have a rather strong affinity for Sony’s first handheld.
If you’ve been reading Retro Gamer for a while, you might have a good idea of my history with the console. I was excited for it from the start and loved it in normal circumstances, but it became vital when I was acting as my sister’s live-in carer at university. I couldn’t keep my home consoles with me because it was only meant to be a temporary arrangement, and the PSP’s push for home consolestyle experiences on the go really got me through. I recognise that I’m quite unusual in having a passion for the PSP though. When we ranked the greatest games machines of all time in issue 177, about one in six voters put the PSP in their top ten, but less than ten put it in their top three.