right, i've been looking on ebay at the PSP's as you do and a lot of them talk about the firmware etc etc... (most of them saying 1.5)

they say multilanguage handset etc etc and they are from japan....

some of them say they play anything from any country etc etc

what i wanna know is would it matter where the psp comes from if i do buy one off ebay? cause i dont wanna end up having a japanese console

what games would people recommend also

Thanks

no idea about the region stuff but for recommended games, World Championship Snooker 2005

i never thought snooker could be so damn addictive, its so amazingly suited to psp as well

PSP games are not region coded. You can import games or a PSP from anywhere and they will work together.

The UMD movies are region coded in a similar fasion to DVD-Videos, but unless you will actually use UMD Video, this won't affect you. IMO UMD Video is stupid. You could buy a DVD-Video edition of a movie for less, and in much higher quality, with more playability.

The Japanese PSPs are made using a TFT screen manufactured by Sharp. PSPs for AU and US regions are made using a cheaper screen from Samsung, which is reportedly lower quality.

All PSPs are multi language. When you turn it on for the first time, it asks you which language you would like to use, and the language option is always available in the settings menu.

Recomended games (with no first hand experience):

• Ridge Racer
  
• Need For Speed Rivals
  
• GTA Liberty City Stories (not released yet)
  
• TOCA Race Driver (V8 Supercars Race Driver)

ouch, so its a choice between running my VBA and Snesz or w.e. its called OR browse the net .... i'll take internet... is there a way round the unsigned code thing though?

There isn't a way around the code signing yet. Hackers are working on it, and also the possibility of downgrading firmware; install 1.5 to use custom apps, and 2.0 when you want better Wifi, AVC Video and a web browser, though the first would be better.

The 2.0 firmware has WPA protection for WiFi (as opposed to the obsolete WEP) and support for AVC video, which is better quality but still not full resolution.

Remember that there is an exploit in the game Wipeout Fusion to access the web, regardless of PSP version. There is a browser only ripkit available for it as well. It removes all the unneccessary data from the game, leaving only what is needed for the web browser exploit, so you put it on a memory stick, and use it to browse the web, without taking the actual game with you (just about 10 MB of files on memory stick).

hmmm i think im just going to use 2.0, im not to bothered about emulators etc, just it would be cool ... my wireless network has WPA on it so i'll just sit browsing the net around the house when i do get one...

sorry to be a pain just i like to know what i'm buying before i spend £200 lol

In case you missed the post by paperless, a downgrader for PSP is almost out.

See http://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=4956 for more (extremely hyped) information.