Cheapest of Test Units

Let me be more specific (I've asked similar things before, leading to confusion).

I've always had a fascination with betas, and I figure it's about time I own some. But I have almost no money, so I'm looking for some info as to which test units are the cheapest (i.e. original Xbox, PS2 TESTs, etc.). I don't particularly care about which company it is, as I'll be able to get discs I'll enjoy for any one of them. As far as I know, only PSPs can play their respective betas. If I'm wrong in that, someone please correct me.

I apologize for being pretty ignorant about these sort of things.

Any info and average prices would be appreciated.

 

Your right in the PSP UMD beta will play in a retail machine; rule of thumb is that all handhelds will allow this.

Cheapest TEST consoles would be last gen so, PS2 TEST, Xbox debug and Gamecube NR Reader. You can pick the up for around £100 each fairly easily and they are always readily available in some shape or form (I have a few of each for sale in my current sales thread around this price).

If you're just looking for a console to play around with then I would suggest an Xbox debug kit. There has been a lot of data released in the past 12 months (good stuff too) so you have a head start and they also have a hard-drive so you can run data directly from there saving the need to find decent media to burn releases on. They will also run any beta discs that come up for sale!

Good luck finding what you want!

 

I'd agree that ps2 test is definitely on the cheap side these days (~150$ or so shipped in the us), but ps1 test are pretty cheap as well as you aren't overly picky about the exact model.

Both have upsides and downsides- PS2 test can play retail and custom burnt discs (research master disks), but has no dvd support, and in the case of some models, will only play games of that region (and master disks for that region). In the end, a modded PS2 is more versatile, but not as durable for general play. PS1 should play just about any game thrown at it- generic copy or official from any region, but a 5$ modchip can do the same, and a few anti-mod games still will not work on debugs iirc- but MM3 should play them fine. In both cases, legit betas will run on modded systems without issue unless by some crazy chance a beta is using the FULL ram of a TOOL (never heard of such a case), but a TEST doesn't have that much ram anyway.

Xbox debugs have been cheap for a while, but without patching them, they won't boot retail games, and again, a modchip, softmod, or tsop reflash is just as good, as no official game supports the full ram.

just my opinions.

 

You can patch some Xbox games to use the RAM available in a debug kit.

And remember, not all PSP betas come on a UMD Not that you cant make a modded PSP play the games ripped from a DVD though.

 

User friendly would be the XBOX Debug Kit

 

Not really true anymore.

3DS flash cart requires a 3DS debug unit.
Vita code also requires a Vita debug unit.