Gadget attack

I recently acquired this sleek and stylish-looking piece of technology called Sony Playstation Portable. It's one of those hand-held thingies that are supposed to let you game on the go. When Sony launched this, they had big plans for raking in massive amounts of money. They had movie deals lined up for it, games, and even music. But unfortunately they could not harness the full potential of their creation.

As I soon discovered, the circuit board behind its brilliantly bright mini-widescreen is capable of much, much more than Sony credits it for. All thanks to a bunch of PSP enthusiasts, who don't think it too much to program for it on their spare time.

Basically, it can emulate almost every gaming system up to and including Sony Playstation. Yes, that includes consoles such as the good old Famicom or NES, Super Nintendo, Sega Saturn etc. Also, it can emulate a lot of stuff that was all the rage when I was about 4 years old - Colecovision and ZX80 for example. Basically, it's a retro-gamer's wet dream come true. My wet dream came true when I installed the latest hacked firmware and fired up Gran Turismo, a legendary driving/tuning game for Playstation One.

Emulation is fun, but what about when you're not gaming? Well, there's a host of options available - you can use it to read books, watch movies and anime, listen to music, and surf the net in WiFi areas. I have to say that it beats an iPod or any other glorified media player by lightyears, mostly due to its extremely well-lit and beautiful LCD screen. And the funniest bit - it costs about the same.

I must say I've been spoiled by it and can no longer imagine going on a longer-than-15-minute trip without it. The pure joy I feel on a bus or on a train when I'm watching my favourite TV-shows or a new movie is incredible. It's like I've broken free from boredom - forever. No more 2,5 hour bus rides that you just barely get through. And the best bit - it's battery lasts for 6-7 hours of film watching. That beats laptops by a mile. And the whole package fits snugly in your breast pocket or the palm of your hand without making you squint at the screen because the display is too small.

Of course I'm just scratching the surface of its possible uses. I frequent a forum that has about a hundred homebrew applications for the PSP, ranging from very useful to very nutty. In the end, I can't but admire this little piece of technology that left it's corporate creators behind to become one of the best homebrew platforms of its time.