How To Choose a Handheld Video Game Console

Wondering what kind of handheld console to buy? Well, there are two up to date ones on the market and this is a simple test to find out which one is right for you.

Step 1 Know your options

• The DS is a portable gaming console made by Nintendo. It features 2 screens in a clam shell design, the bottom screen being a touch screen. It has a 67 MHz ARM946E-S processor, a secondary 33 MHz ARM7TDMI coprocessor, and 4MB of RAM. It can utilise Wi-Fi connections. It uses GBA cartridges and DS game cards. It has a D-pad, A B X and Y buttons, Start and Select buttons, 2 triggers, and a power button. It has two separate 3 inch TFT LCD screens, each with a resolution of 256 × 192 pixels. DS game cards can currently support up to 128MB of data, with a little space left for saves. The system is theoretically capable of rendering 120,000 triangles per second at 30 frames per second.
• The PSP is a portable multimedia console made by Sony. It features a standard design with a D-pad, an analogue stick, the PlayStation face buttons, Start and Select, and 2 triggers. Unlike the DS, it only has one screen. It features a 4.3 inch TFT LCD screen, with a 480×272 resolution, and capable of 16.77 million colours. It has 32 MB main RAM and 4 MB embedded DRAM. It is is supposedly capable of rendering 33 million flat-shaded polygons per second, with a 664 million pixel per second fill rate. The PSP uses UMD (Universal Media Disks) which can hold up to 1.8GB of data. It has a MagicGate Memory Stick Duo slot for save games, movies, music, and photos.

Step 2 Think about what type of games you might want

• The PSP's games are usually popular games that may be specially made for the PSP or ports of popular PS2 games. They usually take advantage of the PSP's superior processing power and media.
• The DS has many games appearing only on DS, many utilising the DS's touch screen, microphone, and/or dual screens. They are mostly simple and user friendly, offering new gamers a chance to start. They are also mostly child-friendly.
• The DS's games mostly use interactivity and uniqueness to make up for its less powerful specifications. This is good if you're a new gamer, or you're buying a portable console for children. Games continue popular series' like Zelda, Pokemon, Mario, and Advance Wars.
• The PSP's games most often try to take advantage of its 1.8GB UMD disks, and its CPU that is 3 times more powerful than that of the DS, and it's memory, which there is 8 times more of. Many games use the full extent of the PSP's processing capabilities for graphics rivalling that of the PS2, however they do suffer on interactivity.

Step 3 Consider your own creativity

• The PSP has good, but unofficial support for homebrew (homemade games). There are many homebrew applications and games that can be accessed by placing them on a Memory Stick Duo and running them from the PSP.
• The DS also has support for homebrew, but one must first purchase a flash cart in order to use it. However, it does not have such a striving homebrew community.

Step 4 Mull over multimedia

• The PSP has some good multimedia functions. It can play mp3 and mp4 files placed on the Memory Stick Duo, as well as show images in several popular formats. You also have the option of setting a background.
• The NDS also has potential for multimedia, but one must also utilise a flash cart.

Tips

• Remember that the NDS and PSP are two different consoles, each suited to a different target market.
• The PSP is more expensive than the NDS. The difference varies by geographical location, but it is usually 25-50%.

Warnings

• Some PSPs are unable to run homebrew applications due to a firmware fix.