Pocketstation

Now I've got an ikkle PSone, I thought I'd get a cute ikkle Pocketstation to use as a memory card. Any of you guys have one?

Just wondering what actual use they are? Is the memory card larger than a standard PSone memcard; and what games work with it? I know the Japanese versions of GT, Crash Bandicoot and FF8 had minigames, were there any others? I assume the games are about the same quality as VMU games? I've also seen some homebrew games available. Not sure if these are only playable on the PS emu, or if you can burn them to disk and upload through the PSone?

There's some wireless messaging software for the PS on Ebay atm. Looks interesting.

I'm really just wondering whether the PS is a useful device, worth getting, or a pointless gimmick, that i'll never use.

Cheers.

 

It couldn't have been that good if SCEE never even bothered their asses releasing it in Europe! Ridge Racer Type 4 was the last PAL release I recall having support for it, and I remember in the manual for either that of FFVIII saying something like "the PocketStation may not be released outside of Japan". Yes, really optimistic...

 

If you like the VMU minigames you will probably like the PocketStation.
I found it useless(at least the VMU could give you info while playing a real game) and after mucking around with a few minigames(SFZ3 is the only one I can remember) I just started using it as a normal memory card.
Plenty of minigames released in Japan for it.

That's what I never understood. I remember reading that they couldn't meet demand and the first few shipment soldout as well as a "game", that was just minigames for the PocketStation, selling 1mill+(pretty good for just one region).
I thought Sony were goint to push it as a Tamagotchi beater in the US and Europe.

 

Just flipped through an old GameFan and they had a little tidbit on the PocketStation. It listed these games as having minigames;

FF8
SFA3
Monster Farm 2(JAP)
Crash 3(JAP)
Spyro(JAP)

There is also mention of a speical save that lets you use the PS as a remote control for Sony TV's.
Apparently they had a lot of fun around the office turning off everyones TV's at "key moments" :smt043

 

While browsing around the PS sections of Japanese gamestores I noticed quite a lot of games sported Pocketstation support according to the logo's on the back. Just for the heck of it, I bought Pocket Muu Muu (featuring that weird cat) and Doko Demo Issyo (also with the cat, but came with a cell-phone link cable too!) because they were so cheap :smt042
However, I have no PocketStation so they're pretty useless right now.
As far as PAL games, I think FF8 does, and SFA3 can with an AR code.

And this reminds me of something, a friend of mine once bought a Pocketstation for 60 euros from a Dutch website, but there's no mention of Sony on the box or the thing itself! It says "PocketPDA" in a fake-looking font, and "SCDA" in the Sony font. Could it be that there are counterfeit units produced?

 

SFNYK, the Pocketstation holds the same amount of game saves - 15 blocks - as a normal memory card. I'm not sure if this is counting or excluding the room for minigames.

As everyone mentioned, there were games that had Pocketstation functionality, but another one of the things that never made it out of Japan were games created exclusively for the Pocketstation, like Anti's Pocket Muu Muu. The ones I can think of off the top of my head are Pocket Dungeon and Pocket Jiman, the former being a maze/RPG game and the latter being an RPG Maker-esque RPG design game/program.

 

Each game in the Rockman complete works series had a few pocketstation mini games, they're pretty good too. For example, in Rockman 6 you could earn points to purchase moon jump and other cool powerups.

 

How do you put these standalone games onto the PocketStation?

 

If I remember correctly, a few Digimon games had Pocketstation support....that or the wonderswan...

 

Power up the Playstation with the PS in the memcard socket, and this PSgamedisk in the drive. Does anyone know if you can burn the homebrew games to a PSone bootable disk that you can download the games from to PS?

Seems there's damn loads of special/ltd edition PocketStation versions in Japan. Some matey on Ebay has a load atm.

I was really hoping that there was PS support in one of the Japan-only PSone shmups. But I am qute impressed how much PS support that there was in Japan. I thought there was only 6 games that worked with it!

What's the score with it's battery life? I assume it uses the same type of CR2032 as a VMU? Does the unit have a proper on/off switch, or do the batteries drain just as quick as a VMU?

I reckon the PS and VMU were seriously undervalued. Both Sega, Sony and all the game dev companies could have done so much more with them. Oh well....

 

Rival Schools 2 looks to use it a fair amount, might be worth checking.

 

Isn't Project Justice Rival Schools 2? Was there a PSX version?

 

Non.

Rival Schools 2 is on PSOne, though really its more just Rival Schools Plus, 2 new charas, a simulation style rpg & expanded character edit n pocket station features.

 

I would like to get a PocketStation. But for the price most people sell it, it's just too much for a memory card + small new functionalities

 

PSX is in my mind the same as the PS1 and not the DVD recording machine

 

Who knows, maybe it's just normal PSX savefiles as far as the system is concerned... I would take a look at it but I have no Pocketstation, if anyone can send me a dumped minigame (and a PocketStation) I could try writing a program to upload games :smt042

 

At least in the case of Street Fighter Alpha 3 and Final Fantasy VIII, there is an option in-game that you select to download the Pocketstation software to said device, I'd imagine the other games worked the same as well.

Does anyone know if the US version of Rival Schools (which I believe includes the Japanese 'Rival Schools 2' expansions as well) has Pocketstation code hidden in it, much like SFA3?

 

It could well do. The western RS is the original game, but on the evolution disk notice a missing "option block" on the game select screen. On the Japanese original this is the character edit mode, one of the main ideas for the game.

Why they took it out beggars belief :drinkers:

 

Those bloody CR2032's made the VMUs one of the most annoying and impractical things in the world! The batteries go so quickly, and then you go to the shop to find out how much they cost - they're like €6 each, and the VMU needs two of them! Aaaarg!

I don't know anyone who bothered getting more batteries for theirs - you should hear the BEEPS OF DOOM my friend's 4 VMUs make together when he turns his Dreamcast on. It's painful. Very painful.

 

That's why you buy the batteries in bulk or open up all your VMU's and cut their beeper wires. :-D