that smartphones can emulate pretty much anything till Dreamcast, does it worth to buy a gba sp (no the 101 model) ? I have a smartphone that can emulate gba but the whole process is cumbersome and i get bored until i play the game. With a gba sp, you put the game in and you start playing, no bugs no nothing. On the other hand my budget is extremely low! But the unit i have found is 20€, pretty cheap from what i have seen in ebay. Also if you have any game recommendations would be helpful.
Definitely mate. I had a very similar idea a few months ago and was somewhat bummed to find out used SPs have actually gone up in price! To me, using a smartphone without real buttons just doesn't cut it. In the end I went for a PSP Go - sure, not quite the real thing still, but part of the way there and affordable, too.
Emulators on phones are ok, but having your fingers blocking the screen most the time is quite annoying. A PSP would even be a better idea.
Well i thought that a psp would be nice but it's pretty expensive to buy locally. Also the gba sp is foldable which i really like. I have bought a bluetooth controller for my phone but the apps that are needed to run anything is killing my ram pretty quick. Does the gba emulator on PSP run smoothly or has bugs/slowdowns/problems?
In my opinion, PSP is the best handheld emulation device. It can pretty much support most systems until the 6th gen, the screen is a nice size and the buttons are comfortable.
I would do it, but I have no idea how the games market is in Greece. Here GBA carts are dirt cheap unless you're looking for a select few games (like every Pokemon game).
Well games here are pretty expensive, i was thinking to buy a flash card but after the suggestions from other users i might consider a psp if the gba emulation is easy and without major problems.
Reminds me of that stupid Commodore phone that was announced recently...no matter what brand you slap on an Android phone, it'll still be a crappy Android phone.
Apple user I take it? Android phones are not crappy. They've stopped being crappy for the last 3 years. Time to move on from that BS. The phone I use is powerful, has an excellent camera and has never crashed and it's completely open. I can do what I want with it without having to follow some company's rules. Oh, and the battery lasts 2 whole days with normal use or 3.5 days if I don't use the net or WiFi. I'm not sure what is crappy about that.
I'm going to have to go with the PSP. I still have a used 1001 I picked up whenever they first came out and it works splendidly, jus as good as it did initially. Hmm, how expensive? Would you be restricted to only buying locally? While ultimately it's going to depend on the game, I don't remember there being any issues with any of the games I tried. Hell, Super Mario 64 works next to perfectly on a PSP with the right settings configured for the emulator. SPs aren't bad, though. I personally never had one but I remember most of my friends did whenever they were released and nobody had any issues with them.
SPs are pretty great (especially if you can track down a 101), but since the OP said that getting carts is expensive in Greece, yeah a PSP would be a good choice. If you can find a 2000 or 3000 those have video out too (if that's important to you), but a 1000 doesn't. Also I'd avoid the Go, especially since Micro SD to Memory Stick converters are easy to get, but I haven't seen anything for the M2 card the Go uses.
@MBMM Well for the time being i cannot use Paypal to buy anything because there are capital controls at the banking system so i cannot send money outside of Greece. Also if i buy a psp from ebay cheap enough, the p&p fee is too high to make it worth purchasing. Also i am starting to think that if i buy the gba sp, i want also a flash card and the total cost is near a psp. So, i have found some cheap ones through local fb groups, any suggestions to what models should I consider for emulation purposes (meaning easy modding, custom firmware etc)
For the best support would be the PSP-1001. Can go all the way up to a PSP-GO I believe, but you're best to stick with the older models. Slims are fine as well.
I would say that the early PSP 2000 models before the TA-088v3 motherboard revision are the best ones. If I would have to pick any PSP, I would pick an early 2000. Although I understand why many people prefer the 1000, it feels better and more substantial. The PSP 3000 is also a great choice.
The better LCD is well worth it with the 2000 series. Just, support might be better with the 1000 series - last time I checked anyway which was years ago.
I've used a lot of phones over the years. My iphone just broke AGAIN. (MOBO issue that is un-fixable.) Switched back to Android and couldn't be happier. My iphone wouldn't even last a day. Droid goes for 2 no problem. So sick of apples proprietary BS and 20 dollar cables.
