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'As the PS Vita™ is the successor of the PSP™, which was the most popular handheld back then' [citation needed] I'm seeing 154.02 million Nintendo DS units vs

'As the PS Vita™ is the successor of the PSP™, which was the most popular handheld back then' [citation needed] I'm seeing 154.02 million Nintendo DS units vs. 80–82 million PSP's. AFAIK the DS was much more popular 'back then'...

CoolGuySteve 7y ago
Your comment is not relevant to this article.
- TehCorwiz 7y ago
  Sure the parent's comment is pedantic, but it does address a factual inaccuracy. Although, you could argue that the article's phrasing was hyperbolic. Either way it highlights the tone of the article.
p1necone 7y ago
Might have been referring to it's popularity within the homebrew scene.
- lostgame 7y ago
  I'd say at the time, certainly, but since flash carts like the R4 have become more common, the amount of DS home-brew and the quality of the scene, at least, as a home-brew dev for both over the years, seems to have exceeded it, especially in terms of longevity. But that could totally be my own experience. I didn't pick up a PSP-1000 until maybe two years after it came out? Emulation on that was fantastic, minus the ghosting on the screen. It's still one of my favourite ways to play Sega Genesis games on the go, and even handled GBA titles like a champ.
- leggomylibro 7y ago
  The DS was pretty popular for homebrew; the microSD card adapter cartridges were impressive feats of engineering which made it very easy to load custom code. I remember ebook and graphic novel readers, paint apps, Linux, emulators for a few simple systems like the SNES, a C SDK, the whole nine yards. It wasn't as fast as the PSP, but there were still some pretty amazing projects, like this homage to Portal: https://web.archive.org/web/20160203155724/http://smealum.net/ASDS/ https://web.archive.org/web/20160203155724/http://smealum.ne... Sad to see that link rot is starting to set in with many of the projects that I mentioned above. For example, the SNES emulator: http://snemul.com/ds/ http://snemul.com/ds/
  - baroffoos 7y ago
    That portal homebrew sounds very interesting but my memory of the time remembers that DS homebrew was used almost exclusively for piracy but from what I have heard PSP homebrew was used a lot for stuff like playing music and running actual custom tools.
    - saagarjha 7y ago
      The DS has both of these. Source: I had one of these cards and may have used it for both ;)
    - Vanit 7y ago
      I used my PSP to read lecture slides on the way to uni. :)
      - bpye 7y ago
        My PSP is still the best device I have for running emulators on a portable. The physical controls beat anything else I've tried - without being nearly as bulky as strapping your phone into an Xbox controller.
    - jacobush 7y ago
      And recoding movies into low-bitrate mp4 of a flavour the PSP could play. Nice for watching movies on the train and such things, before that was really feasible on mobile phones.
    - kop316 7y ago
      Yes it was, I was one of those folks who did that. I had a PSP when I was in college and couldn't afford a smartphone/smartphone plan(2007-2009, this was before unlimited calls/texts, and data was obscenely expensive), but the college was blanketed in WiFi so I could use my PSP essentially as a smartphone to browse the internet, listen to music, play games, etc. The PSP could also play PS1 games (natively IIRC), so I was able to play a bunch of PS1 games on the go too. I sold it off when I got a smartphone, but I do miss that PSP from time to time.
    - 7y ago
lwansbrough 7y ago
Citation is definitely needed, but I would suggest that it depends on your definition of popularity. I think the PSP was king at least in terms of desirability. (I may be biased though as my web development career started with making PSP portals ) PSP was substantially more expensive than the DS which would have affected the sales (especially when the DS was such a worthwhile console to own.)

CoolGuySteve 7y ago

Your comment is not relevant to this article.

TehCorwiz 7y ago
Sure the parent's comment is pedantic, but it does address a factual inaccuracy. Although, you could argue that the article's phrasing was hyperbolic. Either way it highlights the tone of the article.

p1necone 7y ago

Might have been referring to it's popularity within the homebrew scene.

lostgame 7y ago
I'd say at the time, certainly, but since flash carts like the R4 have become more common, the amount of DS home-brew and the quality of the scene, at least, as a home-brew dev for both over the years, seems to have exceeded it, especially in terms of longevity. But that could totally be my own experience. I didn't pick up a PSP-1000 until maybe two years after it came out? Emulation on that was fantastic, minus the ghosting on the screen. It's still one of my favourite ways to play Sega Genesis games on the go, and even handled GBA titles like a champ.
leggomylibro 7y ago
The DS was pretty popular for homebrew; the microSD card adapter cartridges were impressive feats of engineering which made it very easy to load custom code. I remember ebook and graphic novel readers, paint apps, Linux, emulators for a few simple systems like the SNES, a C SDK, the whole nine yards. It wasn't as fast as the PSP, but there were still some pretty amazing projects, like this homage to Portal: https://web.archive.org/web/20160203155724/http://smealum.net/ASDS/ https://web.archive.org/web/20160203155724/http://smealum.ne... Sad to see that link rot is starting to set in with many of the projects that I mentioned above. For example, the SNES emulator: http://snemul.com/ds/ http://snemul.com/ds/
- baroffoos 7y ago
  That portal homebrew sounds very interesting but my memory of the time remembers that DS homebrew was used almost exclusively for piracy but from what I have heard PSP homebrew was used a lot for stuff like playing music and running actual custom tools.
  - saagarjha 7y ago
    The DS has both of these. Source: I had one of these cards and may have used it for both ;)
  - Vanit 7y ago
    I used my PSP to read lecture slides on the way to uni. :)
    - bpye 7y ago
      My PSP is still the best device I have for running emulators on a portable. The physical controls beat anything else I've tried - without being nearly as bulky as strapping your phone into an Xbox controller.
  - jacobush 7y ago
    And recoding movies into low-bitrate mp4 of a flavour the PSP could play. Nice for watching movies on the train and such things, before that was really feasible on mobile phones.
  - kop316 7y ago
    Yes it was, I was one of those folks who did that. I had a PSP when I was in college and couldn't afford a smartphone/smartphone plan(2007-2009, this was before unlimited calls/texts, and data was obscenely expensive), but the college was blanketed in WiFi so I could use my PSP essentially as a smartphone to browse the internet, listen to music, play games, etc. The PSP could also play PS1 games (natively IIRC), so I was able to play a bunch of PS1 games on the go too. I sold it off when I got a smartphone, but I do miss that PSP from time to time.
  - 7y ago

lwansbrough 7y ago

Citation is definitely needed, but I would suggest that it depends on your definition of popularity. I think the PSP was king at least in terms of desirability. (I may be biased though as my web development career started with making PSP portals ) PSP was substantially more expensive than the DS which would have affected the sales (especially when the DS was such a worthwhile console to own.)