As a big handheld gamer, I've always wanted one these! I almost got one when I was in college but ended up getting a regular PSP-3000 instead. Such a neat piece of gaming history. Fun unboxing!
I bought a PSP Go the moment I got out of boot camp (it was the only version available at the nearest store). I needed some Playstation. While I'll always prefer the 3DS, the Go did me good while I was at sea for months. Gotta love Hot Shots Golf.
I get the feeling they are done with handheld consoles even after seeing the Switch's success. Sony felt burned by the Vita (even though it was their fault it failed) and don't think they can compete with mobile gaming. I think Sony's answer to on-the-go gaming is remote play and a possible mobile version of PSNow.
Its a sad thing to think about. There have even been polls on reddit r/psp that were full of hundreds of people who would happily pledge $350 for a new handheld companion console for the ps5. Sadly though, I do believe they are done with this venture. The PS Vita came out just a few years too early if you ask me. What would the handheld gaming market look like in a world where Sony still had a champion in that arena?
I picked up mine super cheap a couple of years ago and as a bonus it came with a free charging cradle. The cradle ended up being almost or even more valuable than the console itself lol
The thing is Sony put out an official cable that did the same exact thing as the cradle. I have the cable (I believe it's still sealed in the original package) it was a cool thing and a feature well ahead of its time.
@AIVaneer 3 hours ago 2024 here need help. I found my pspGO, plugged it in and it didn’t keep the charge. So i bought a new battery, installed it then this happens. Every time i turn it on it goes straight to clock mode. It worked perfectly fine before i changed the battery. So it boots up fine and everything but goes straight to clock mode as if I closed it.
My PSP Go has had such heavy use. Well worth it for me! It stopped charging recently but it turned out to be one of fuses and it's still going strong now after I'd replaced it.
I remember seeing this back in 2011, where this and the PSP-3000 was being reduced to clear and while this was tempting, being the neater kit, I went with the 3000 for two major reasons. The Go required ANOTHER different (and yet again highly expensive) memory card format, making the ones I had for the original PSP redundant, and it had no UMD drive so I couldn't play all the physical games I already amassed during my time with the original PSP model.
I remembered getting one of those cards for my phone, even at 1GB it felt pretty expensive. The Go was a luxury product though, so it was probably not much a concern in the design.
@@antiquefuturistic I was so happy when adapters and stuff started showing up for PSP memory. The memory was just ridiculous price wise even for the time. I loved how they seem to learn nothing from the PSP and double down with the Vita. And as we know it turned out exactly like you would have thought it would.
@@JohnDoe-wq5eu The Memory Stick on PSP was expensive but now it has become quite affordable , at least the used ones. The M2 format is still expensive because it was least used and now thus is rare . The PS vita cards are on another level. But sony always was into proprietorship on Memory modules
Back when "MemorySticks" were first introduced there was still the race to become THE (proprietary) standard. And "SD" cards did not yet exist. The market leader at the time was ironically Toshiba (which Sony cooperated with for the PS3 CPU) :) and their "SmartMedia" cards. The largerl MemorySticks had fairly good prices as far as I remember, because they were licenced out to many other brands. M2 just never gained enough interest for that. But had it become THE standard, then it would probably be another situation.
I bought a PSP Go some few months earlier, modded it and it's now one of my daily handheld system. It's still amazing how many emulators this thing can handle. I have a Vita as well that can do better but I just love the portability of this thing. The sliding mechanic definitely helped with storage and I just its overall design. I just wish it's not that hard to find a memory card for this thing. 16gb just doesn't cut it anymore and I had to delete some games if I wanted to play another game.
As I remember one of the benefits of modding a PSP is that you can use a memory stick to SD adapter, although I think the PSP Go uses the micro memory stick, so might also be harder to find. If you can get one, that would definitely be the way to, err.. Go. At least Memory Stick was a standard used in a range of devices, unlike the ridiculously expensive and impossible to buy Vita memory cards.
I think the micro memory sticks are actually a marginal bit physically smaller than micro SD cards, so an adapter seem an unlikely design to find at all. Unless maybe it is possible to cut off the excess design parts of the SD card. Like trimming a SIM. ;)
Use YACC to compress your games and fit them in the entire 16 gigs bud. I've managed to fit 27 games in those 16 gigs, although Games like GTA LCS & VCS and God of War dont handle compression really well, being accompanied by lag spikes and stuttering.
@@yurisv7315 There are adapters available that allow for placement of a Micro SD card (inside an SD card adapter) inside the PS Go, mine is now rocking 128GB which is all the space you ever need. Needs some advanced level soldering skills though as essentially you are soldering the contacts on the SD card adapter via wires to the contacts of a M2 card.
Same! Yesterday I went to my friend's house and his brother grabbed his PSP Go and wanted to sell it so today the entirety of the time I was thinking about the system
I found mine at a goodwill for 40 bucks because they didn't realize what it was. It was still in the original box, with the charger, but the documentation was gone. This was many years ago, but it was around the time when psp gos were going for well over 200 dollars on Amazon. They also thought it was broken because it wouldn't turn on, so I bought it, and plugged in the charger after I got near an outlet and about 5 minutes later it started charging and turned on and its been trouble free ever since.
I actually went to a store to buy one of these when they first appeared. I didn't realise it was digital only, so I didn't buy one. Never fear though the fabulous Vita wasn't far away!
Even though the vita would become notorious due to Sony cutting it loose so early officially it is still such a phenomenal device. I hope it will live on for decades with collectors and in the modding community. It was the true pinnacle of Sony portable gaming goodness.
I picked up a PSP Go from Gamestop for $50 years ago when they were getting rid of them. After installing custom firmware, that thing was an awesome emulator.
GameStop was the place to get PSPs when they were practically giving them away. Now the only thing more valuable than a PSP is a Vita. And both are quite expensive at this point.
@@JohnDoe-wq5eu i see psp's going for $150 which is literally the cost if not less than when they originally launched but this is from a dude who mods them with a cfw and sells them
I remember using Skype both on the PSP Go and the PS Vita. The PSP versions doesn't support the camera though. It's just voice call. Also, I like that little feature where it greets you "Happy New Year!" and "Happy birthday!" lol. Back then, the PSP is the first one to greet me a happy birthday lol.
Those were some of the best years in handheld gaming, I remember being hyped about whether to save up for a DS a PSP GO or an N-Gage. Kind of sad nowadays that the only one competing with Nintendo in the handheld scene is Nintendo.
@@dovic2293I do hope their first one sells well enough for future and more polished versions to come out. I really think they have something going with it but I just wish it was smaller
@@yogigbear Yeah it's not good. The DS and original PSP are still pretty pretty fun to revisit but the N-gage is basically the worst parts of a cell phone and a portable gaming device. I had forgotten just how bad it was until I saw a video of somebody revisiting it, it was real bad. Worse now than back then but it wasn't much better back then either.
@@JohnDoe-wq5eu basically if they could make a real Switch pro before Nintendo would minus the Nintendo games that would be awesome. Think of the the Steam Deck as the 'Surface pro 1' cause man, look at Surface pro 8 now 🔥
The PSP Go and the PS Vita are the best videogame handheld systems ever made, it's very sad to see them "fail" (in terms of sales vs their competition)
That sliding mechanism felt so satisfying, and that PSP UI is still my favorite out of any game system. I was so peeved when I found out I couldnt use my UMDs on it as I liked the form factor. I really miss unique designs like this... well handhelds in general, RIP first party handhelds you will be missed.
@@bretthake7713 the last of its kind, pretty chunky unless you got the lite but even that is a chunky monster too compared to the PSP and 3ds. Pocket systems are something I wish could make a return into the market.
I never found UMDs to be a hassle, but now that everything on the planet can easily be modded, it wouldn't be a bad thing to have one of these units considering you can pair a DS3 with it. I'm fine with my PSP2k that I've had since 2007 going forward, but picking one of these up at this point is a solid idea.
This is the best handheld in my opinion in terms of emulation and playing of course psp and ps1 games natively on the system. You can also do video out with component cables. It also has 16gb I believe onboard storage.
@@SidNightWalker vita’s are also good options. I am not familiar with soft modding them. I believe it is as easy as modding a psp. Back when I got my psp go the vita was still relatively new so psp go was cheaper.
@@Bo_Knows_Tecmo The irony is I would say they've gone up to if not surpassed original prices. The secondary market for Vita has literally exploded in the last couple years. Once the PS store (Vita) goes down for good it's going to be even more significant considering modding and the ROM scene and stuff are going to be the only place in town to get games onto this thing.
People chuckle these days about the tiny disks that the PSP used- but one has to remember that back in the mid 2000s when it was released, the cost of memory was in a far different place than it is today. The disks held 1.8GB of data; at that point in time a 1GB SD card, barely over half the capacity of a UMD, ran at approximately *$500* to a consumer. Yes, it's no longer 2005 and yes, prices are lower *now*. But when the PSP was released, the UMD really was the best option for the consumer.
Pulled mine out from my drawer recently. I Had to swap out the analog stick due to drifting and then tighten the top part since it came loose from one side. Excellent emulation device!
@@gamerrap23 There was one Reddit post that mentioned that it’s only one maybe two (like on mine) screws that are loose. I then watched a full tear down of a psp go on TH-cam. You’ll have to lift and remove the mother board from the rest of the body to access the screws, but be careful because one of my screws were so loose that I ended up finding it where the R button is. Lmk if you need more help after you watch a tear down video. Although I didn’t record the entire process I took pictures of the tear down and video of the screws that caused the issue.
I still have my white one that thing never left my pockets back in the day. When u hacked it it was the most convenient on the go emulator. Mater a fact when i get home imma power it up and play around with it. Thanks John.
I picked one of these up when it launched. I remember Gamestop being not too happy to sell an all digital system at the time. I was literally criticized by the employee for buying it.
So weird but this is my favorite version of the PSP. I even have both the black and white colors of it. Never bothered buying that expensive M2 Memory Card though.
I wish I could say I'm surprised but of course Sony doubled down on proprietary memory formats. In fact if you consider the fact that the original PSP and the GO had different formats than they actually tripled down with the Vita. Either way I would say it was one of the two or three huge contributing factors of the decline of the Vita itself. The other two being the extreme success of the PS4/sony not wanting to waste time on two consoles when they could just focus on the most successful one. And of course them not really giving any compelling software for the console and dropping first party support so fast.
@@JohnDoe-wq5eu true. All of Sony’s handhelds had different formats. I don’t know what they were thinking with that. Well, aside from the sales of the games, the memory card was probably their way to turn profit for the Vita since it was sold as a loss. Not a very good strategy though, considering the PSP Go had 16 GB of internal storage, while the 2nd revision of the Vita only had 1 GB. Plus the fact that even though the Vita went down in price, I never saw it’s memory card being in sale.
@@CaptVitaGamer Yeah memory never went on sale unless it was used at like a GameStop and even then it was minimally less. Meanwhile both the DS and 3DS lines completely supported SD/micro SD cards. I mean now that the two divisions of Nintendo are a one (that being portable and home console) I'd say it was probably the right call it was a losing battle and unfortunately Sony got out of getting was good now it would be near impossible to reenter the portable market. Between them abandoning the Vita and the absolute domination of Nintendo in the handheld market I can't imagine anyone (with the possible exception of the steam deck) making any inroads at all.
I got this thanks to my badass brother for my birthday at the time. Legit my favorite PSP. I put hundreds of hours playing MGS: Peace Walker on it. Arguably the most portable handheld console ever made. Always had it on my person.
I bought a used PSP Go two years ago for like 25 bucks. Still play it from time to time. The built in memory makes it a good choice If you wanna softmod it. Great buy for me.
I really enjoyed the PSP Go. I used to play that in HS, it was pretty cool watching movies and playing MGS at lunch or in between classes. I really wish I kept it...
Well you were forced to use the 16GB as downloads was mandatory on the PSP Go and had no alternative option as there's no UMD drive; sure the Switch isn't much better but at least you can still buy the games physically and not eat into the storage as much.
16GB was actually quite generous for the time. UMDs have a max capacity of 1.8GB, but most of the system's biggest blockbuster titles only top out at 1.5GB. The majority of games are under a gig.
@@MmntechCa Oh yeah that's fair enough, just awkward when I already had a lot of games and couldn't play ANY of them on this unless I rebought everything all over again. Just a shame the PSP Go came out just too late into the lifecycle, but maybe it wasn't possible to make it at the time in 2005. The PSP family of handhelds were really neat pieces of kit with the odd quirk here and there; though the rather expensive memory cards really burned.
I loved my PSP Go. When I played it public a lot of people thought it was a phone. I also loved the save state feature where you could create a temporary save anywhere and any game and turn off your system. It made playing long games like Persona 3 easier.
I still have mine in white, works great and with custom firmware, its a fantastic portable emulator. My PSP Go is the white one and I can confirm that discoloration issue but overall its on great shape… I recall buying it off for $50 from a friend like back in 2012 because he wanted to buy a game for his Vita. Right now that PSP and my Aqua Blue PS Vita, fill me with nostalgic play throughs. I also recall my fist PSP (2000), that thing was amazing.
Thankful to the dude who traded my broken ipod touch for a psp go with the dock and tv cords cause he really saved my current self a lot of money for my favorite psp and the memories of sitting in the back of class playing thps2 throughout high school lol
I feel like even though the PS3/PSP time was pretty contentious it was also one of the best times for gaming ever especially sony. Compare it to the PS4/Vita days and it's a little different. The Kevin Butler days I think will always be considered when Sony fought it's way back from the absolute mess that was the launch of the PS3. They just feel like a very different company. And not in a good way.
I had one originally and got a lot of play out of it for a couple of years. I eventually sold it, but as is always the case, I now regret getting rid of it. It was a lovely little machine with some great games.
I love my old Go. I soldered a microSD hardmod into mine, so I can put mSD cards in the system instead of the M2s. The Go is mostly retired in favor of a modded 3G Vita now though.
@@SoukaDeezNutz It's a thing. There's no real "all-in-one" kit for it that I've ever seen, though, just some custom ribbon cables. Basically what you have to do is get one of those regular PSP mSD adapters, de-solder the M2 slot off the Go's board, then wire up the pads there to the right pinouts on the adapter. I used to have all the info for the pinouts and things bookmarked, but that was a while ago now. TH-cam also isn't letting me put links here anyway, even if it's to a Google photo album lol. You should be able to search up the pinouts and everything with enough looking.
This is super cool, if I would have had the money back then, I would of gotten one for sure! I think the PSP was such a cool and innovative idea through it's iterations.
Funny little quirk with the launch models in Canada. Sony included a trial of Rock Band which had like 4-5 songs. HOWEVER, they literally did not have a digital version of the full game available for the Go. As a teenager, it felt like Sony was taunting me for buying their digital only system lol. One positive is that you could still buy songs for the trial if you really wanted to
@@jonathansoko1085 yeah, with a plastic grip, second digital stick and a non-proprietary charger/sd card. They could even go with swappable face plates like with the gameboy micro to protect the screen from scratches.
It was more the poor awkward timing of the PSP Go, cos it came out four years after the original PSP released, where during that time we already bought a lot of the games physically via the UMDs, which couldn't be used for this Go model as it didn't have the UMD drive. So it gated out everyone who had the previous models and a large collection of physical PSP games, unless they decided to rebuy everything digitally again.
I have both the black and white versions boxed, I have also used the m2 ribbon cable adapter so you can use a micro sd card to pro duo adapter, well worth making a video about in my opinion
I only had a psp 2000 and it was for kingdom hearts birth by sleep outside of that I didn't play other games. the guy tried selling me on this glad to see you cover it.
I have mine in white for years now. Years back I had a PSP 1000 and switching to the go was strange. I also have 2000 model with over 60 games. Love the PSP.
As a kid who lived in the super country part of Kentucky I got one of these for Christmas as my first system and was so disappointed when I had to download games but I had to act like I loved it and play with the menu for a hour on Christmas Day
At this size, no other device was capable to do what PSP Go could do back in 2009, i owned both Black & Pearl White variant, but right now i have only Pearl one, PSP Go is way more futuristic even now
I had one of these, loved it. I had a bunch of ps1 games and played a lot of Patapon 2 at the time, so it was nice to just carry around. It was the only handheld I owned that is convenient to carry
I remember i bought one in 2010 because my older brother have one. then a year later i bought one again for my little brother. I use it until the flex cable destroyed then i fix it by myself 4 years ago. it still run really great even until now
oh god ... the psp go was such a fancy topic gaming news when i was in school , i was that nintendo guy with his gba and cant afford a psp and upgrade to a DS ... damn ...:(
I have 3 PSP go's. 2 white and one black. I've never had any problems with the ribbon cable and I've been playing them since they came out. It still has better battery life than my switch.
I remember when the PSP Go was announced. People friggen hated the idea of an all-digital system. I guess it was just too ahead of its time. It didn't help that there were some PSP games that didn't even have digital releases. Looking back now, the Go was pretty sleek looking. Much more modern in design than the other versions of that system.
A great example of what is ultimately a form over function design. That reminds me of a much more recent piece of hardware. People actually think this was well thought out? Good fucking god....
I bought my psp go like 2 years ago. Love it to death along with my vita. Both modded. Love playing psp go anywhere! Especially on my breaks at work! They’re both modded too!
I have 2. A modded black one with a 16GB card (32GB total) that I use for PSP & PSX games and a stock white pearl one that is near mint and it lives in the box.
To be fair, the PSP Go wasn't the final version of PSP released, that one would be the budget redesign PSP E1004 aka PSP Street that was released couple years after Go.
Ok, for once I actually have a story to tell about this thing. I got one in my town centre for whatever the equivalent of £30 is in USD, and it was my go to for games for YEARS on end, since I hacked it. I've never been able to find a 16GB M2 card at a reasonable price, so I was always moving different games between this and my computer. Fast forward a couple years, and my battery is starting to wear and my slider mechanism is really shaky. I thought I was gonna have to put this down and get something else, but my uncle who also liked PSPs ended up getting a dead PSP Go from a friend of his, and because he prefers the standard PSP and didn't want to bother with trying to fix it, he gave it to me for free and I was able to use it as a parts bin for all the stuff I needed to replace. This was my first genuine teardown/repair of a device, and I was about 15-16. I managed to get a battery and the other parts I needed to fix the slider (which eventually became a full screen replacement). To this day, I still think this is one of the most difficult things to tear down to the screen, since the parts are very small and ham hands like mine found it really fiddly. But in the end, it was fixed and was still in my pocket until I got a Vita. But I might end up buying a 16GB M2 if I can find one at all and go back to my PSP Go because there's still no experience that's quite like it today. In terms of *pocketable* devices as opposed to portable devices, this is still one of the all time greats in my opinion.
@@bryanobrien2726 I'm gonna keep looking, but if it comes down to it, maybe I'll just import it from over there then. Exchange rate shouldn't be too harsh on my wallet, but I don't think any adapters for the M2 form factor exist, because I would've found it by now.
I got lucky a few years ago. Got the black one, a 16gb m2, a case, and the elusive dock. For $150. All in box. I’ve since moved on to a hacked Vita with 256gb with everything I could want.
Fyi, audio visual out cables were not new to the PSP go, the original model PSPs had their own propriety cable that could do exactly the same thing, only the dock was a new thing. I have the cables buried somewhere, but I never really used them back in the day because even back then it really, really, looked like ass... Like 280p in a tiny box in the middle of the screen, and blurry as hell. Still, it was a thing, and I find a lot of people weren't aware and think the go did it first.
I had one of these back in 2012. When I went to go sell it none of my local game shops wanted these things they were avoided like the plague. I managed to only sell it for $40. Now these things are up in value lol.
Smaller game shops tend to avoid digital only systems as much as they can, lol. Ones in my city do not sell systems like Xbox One S and Series S at all and if someone is bringing one of these, they value it very low and then sell at the price they paid for it to get it out of the door ASAP. I've spoken with owner of one of these shops and he told me that no one in business want anything to do with them, because a customer who will buy one won't ever come back to buy games for it from them. Which is a bit silly, seeing that I have PS3 and PS4 I'm buying the games for from time to time at this very shop, but plan to get myself Series S console and would rather leave money in hands of small business than some big chain store.
I picked up the PSP Go recently myself. Not much I can do with just 16 GB of space but I made good use of it. I installed custom firmware, Pro-C2 Infinity, then put on the God of Wars, the Grand Theft Autos, Hot Shots Golf, Lumines, Little Big Planet, and a GBA emulator with all of the Pokémon games and more. It's a great little system. I have the white version, and yes the curved pads on the back are starting to tan. Is there a way to bring back its original color or close to it, safely?
I remember my mom bought me and my older brother a psp go. I wanted a DSI so i was kind of sad about it, but feel in love with the device. For the longest time we only had demos to play. Patapon was the first game i bought, dissida was the next. Phantasy Star Portable was my absolute favorite tho. So many characters made, i even made a JP account to get the exclusive items. My brother got some army/shooter games and we shared our accounts to play each others games. The biggest thing was the movies, comics and internet. That web browser..... lots of R rated content was consumed lmao. Bought one two years ago to mod it but couldnt get it to work. Might try it out again.
*QUICK TIP:* When on the watchface, press both shoulder buttons to get a calendar, also use shoulder buttons to scroll through the months
As a big handheld gamer, I've always wanted one these! I almost got one when I was in college but ended up getting a regular PSP-3000 instead. Such a neat piece of gaming history. Fun unboxing!
hey Roger 😁
the psp 3000 had that terrible interlaced screen though
It was a pretty good little device, especially when soft mods for it were released and allowed homebrew, emulators, etc
@@SebHighDef Wish I knew that at the time, lol
@@SebHighDef 2000 is better
I bought a PSP Go the moment I got out of boot camp (it was the only version available at the nearest store). I needed some Playstation. While I'll always prefer the 3DS, the Go did me good while I was at sea for months. Gotta love Hot Shots Golf.
Golf? But im trying to REDUCE my boredome.
Haha jk. Thank u for ur service
@@xCoffeeNWeedx hotshot/everybody's tennis is also a great game for the psp
Can we just give a moment of silence for his service 🇺🇸 respects to you sir
This wasn’t actually the last revision of the PSP, they released a less known about PSP Street after the Vita came out
yeh I believe that came out late 2011 primarily in europe
I had this one when I was in high school. Sucks that it was stolen.
Wasn't the PSP Street really bad. Like they cut most of it's features and didn't even have wifi?
@@fattiger6957 i mean now wifi is kinda useless and also the disk tray sucks it's all cheap plastic
@@ombrenoirdekiri7274 Wifi is useless??
I really hope Sony hasn't given up completely on making handhelds, would love to see a new handheld from them.
They probably won’t make any. They believe it’s hard to compete with mobile gaming.
I get the feeling they are done with handheld consoles even after seeing the Switch's success. Sony felt burned by the Vita (even though it was their fault it failed) and don't think they can compete with mobile gaming. I think Sony's answer to on-the-go gaming is remote play and a possible mobile version of PSNow.
Its a sad thing to think about. There have even been polls on reddit r/psp that were full of hundreds of people who would happily pledge $350 for a new handheld companion console for the ps5. Sadly though, I do believe they are done with this venture. The PS Vita came out just a few years too early if you ask me. What would the handheld gaming market look like in a world where Sony still had a champion in that arena?
So how do you like the playstation portal?
Yeah mate they botched it.
I picked up mine super cheap a couple of years ago and as a bonus it came with a free charging cradle. The cradle ended up being almost or even more valuable than the console itself lol
I paid 70 bucks for mines the white Boxed.
The thing is Sony put out an official cable that did the same exact thing as the cradle. I have the cable (I believe it's still sealed in the original package) it was a cool thing and a feature well ahead of its time.
That's the dock. The switch copied it. You can.dock it and play on tv with dualshock 3
@@nonyabizz3533
No, there is literally just a cable that goes directly from the PSP into a TV.
There is a dock but this is just a cable.
Sell me that cradle 🙏
Wow I quite literally just finished putting a new battery in my PSPgo about 10 minutes ago. Thanks for the content John
I just got a new battery for mine yesterday it’s a 3430 mah battery it’s really good so far
Same.
Mind you, the connector for the battery is very delicate
Can i ask which battery precisely you used? Refound my old one and might need a new battery.
@AIVaneer
3 hours ago
2024 here need help. I found my pspGO, plugged it in and it didn’t keep the charge. So i bought a new battery, installed it then this happens. Every time i turn it on it goes straight to clock mode. It worked perfectly fine before i changed the battery. So it boots up fine and everything but goes straight to clock mode as if I closed it.
These were $99 in Macy’s electronic vending machines back in 2011. Thats when I snagged mine.
Ahhh memories
My PSP Go has had such heavy use. Well worth it for me! It stopped charging recently but it turned out to be one of fuses and it's still going strong now after I'd replaced it.
I remember seeing this back in 2011, where this and the PSP-3000 was being reduced to clear and while this was tempting, being the neater kit, I went with the 3000 for two major reasons. The Go required ANOTHER different (and yet again highly expensive) memory card format, making the ones I had for the original PSP redundant, and it had no UMD drive so I couldn't play all the physical games I already amassed during my time with the original PSP model.
I remembered getting one of those cards for my phone, even at 1GB it felt pretty expensive.
The Go was a luxury product though, so it was probably not much a concern in the design.
I guess PSP go used M2 format of Sony? If yes, then yeah they were quiet expensive and even more now at least the original ones.
@@antiquefuturistic
I was so happy when adapters and stuff started showing up for PSP memory.
The memory was just ridiculous price wise even for the time.
I loved how they seem to learn nothing from the PSP and double down with the Vita. And as we know it turned out exactly like you would have thought it would.
@@JohnDoe-wq5eu The Memory Stick on PSP was expensive but now it has become quite affordable , at least the used ones.
The M2 format is still expensive because it was least used and now thus is rare .
The PS vita cards are on another level.
But sony always was into proprietorship on Memory modules
Back when "MemorySticks" were first introduced there was still the race to become THE (proprietary) standard. And "SD" cards did not yet exist.
The market leader at the time was ironically Toshiba (which Sony cooperated with for the PS3 CPU) :) and their "SmartMedia" cards.
The largerl MemorySticks had fairly good prices as far as I remember, because they were licenced out to many other brands. M2 just never gained enough interest for that. But had it become THE standard, then it would probably be another situation.
I bought a PSP Go some few months earlier, modded it and it's now one of my daily handheld system. It's still amazing how many emulators this thing can handle. I have a Vita as well that can do better but I just love the portability of this thing. The sliding mechanic definitely helped with storage and I just its overall design. I just wish it's not that hard to find a memory card for this thing. 16gb just doesn't cut it anymore and I had to delete some games if I wanted to play another game.
As I remember one of the benefits of modding a PSP is that you can use a memory stick to SD adapter, although I think the PSP Go uses the micro memory stick, so might also be harder to find. If you can get one, that would definitely be the way to, err.. Go. At least Memory Stick was a standard used in a range of devices, unlike the ridiculously expensive and impossible to buy Vita memory cards.
I think the micro memory sticks are actually a marginal bit physically smaller than micro SD cards, so an adapter seem an unlikely design to find at all.
Unless maybe it is possible to cut off the excess design parts of the SD card. Like trimming a SIM. ;)
Use YACC to compress your games and fit them in the entire 16 gigs bud. I've managed to fit 27 games in those 16 gigs, although Games like GTA LCS & VCS and God of War dont handle compression really well, being accompanied by lag spikes and stuttering.
@@yurisv7315 There are adapters available that allow for placement of a Micro SD card (inside an SD card adapter) inside the PS Go, mine is now rocking 128GB which is all the space you ever need. Needs some advanced level soldering skills though as essentially you are soldering the contacts on the SD card adapter via wires to the contacts of a M2 card.
got this back in 2009 and still have it inside my drawer. awesome vid ty!
Sometimes I just think Spawn Wave is following me. I've been searching for PSP GO lately and all of a sudden, boom! Spawn Wave came with the review.
Same! Yesterday I went to my friend's house and his brother grabbed his PSP Go and wanted to sell it so today the entirety of the time I was thinking about the system
I found mine at a goodwill for 40 bucks because they didn't realize what it was. It was still in the original box, with the charger, but the documentation was gone. This was many years ago, but it was around the time when psp gos were going for well over 200 dollars on Amazon. They also thought it was broken because it wouldn't turn on, so I bought it, and plugged in the charger after I got near an outlet and about 5 minutes later it started charging and turned on and its been trouble free ever since.
I actually went to a store to buy one of these when they first appeared. I didn't realise it was digital only, so I didn't buy one. Never fear though the fabulous Vita wasn't far away!
Even though the vita would become notorious due to Sony cutting it loose so early officially it is still such a phenomenal device. I hope it will live on for decades with collectors and in the modding community.
It was the true pinnacle of Sony portable gaming goodness.
@@JohnDoe-wq5eu It is the Pinnacle of portables - hacked or straight - I have four!
I picked up a PSP Go from Gamestop for $50 years ago when they were getting rid of them. After installing custom firmware, that thing was an awesome emulator.
GameStop was the place to get PSPs when they were practically giving them away. Now the only thing more valuable than a PSP is a Vita. And both are quite expensive at this point.
@@JohnDoe-wq5eu i see psp's going for $150 which is literally the cost if not less than when they originally launched but this is from a dude who mods them with a cfw and sells them
@@andrewsmith7115 6.61 infinity.
This was my favorite psp I had. Easier to carry around and the sliding was cool asf. I felt like it was ahead of it’s time.
same, i used to fidget by lifting up the screen all the time 😁😁
I remember using Skype both on the PSP Go and the PS Vita. The PSP versions doesn't support the camera though. It's just voice call.
Also, I like that little feature where it greets you "Happy New Year!" and "Happy birthday!" lol. Back then, the PSP is the first one to greet me a happy birthday lol.
Those were some of the best years in handheld gaming, I remember being hyped about whether to save up for a DS a PSP GO or an N-Gage. Kind of sad nowadays that the only one competing with Nintendo in the handheld scene is Nintendo.
well i mean there is the Steam Deck which could compete well against Nintendo......well if they don't mess it up with dumb ideas anyway LoL
@@dovic2293I do hope their first one sells well enough for future and more polished versions to come out. I really think they have something going with it but I just wish it was smaller
N-Gage, damn. I remember that, I have one layin around somewhere gonna search for it right now hahaha
@@yogigbear
Yeah it's not good.
The DS and original PSP are still pretty pretty fun to revisit but the N-gage is basically the worst parts of a cell phone and a portable gaming device. I had forgotten just how bad it was until I saw a video of somebody revisiting it, it was real bad. Worse now than back then but it wasn't much better back then either.
@@JohnDoe-wq5eu basically if they could make a real Switch pro before Nintendo would minus the Nintendo games that would be awesome. Think of the the Steam Deck as the 'Surface pro 1' cause man, look at Surface pro 8 now 🔥
The PSP Go and the PS Vita are the best videogame handheld systems ever made, it's very sad to see them "fail" (in terms of sales vs their competition)
That sliding mechanism felt so satisfying, and that PSP UI is still my favorite out of any game system. I was so peeved when I found out I couldnt use my UMDs on it as I liked the form factor. I really miss unique designs like this... well handhelds in general, RIP first party handhelds you will be missed.
You speak like this is the only handheld in the world
@@AJ-dx6bn some people know nothing but psp
@@AJ-dx6bn yes because handhelds in general means Sony handhelds only 🙄, are you a bit dense?
Is the Switch a first party handheld?
@@bretthake7713 the last of its kind, pretty chunky unless you got the lite but even that is a chunky monster too compared to the PSP and 3ds. Pocket systems are something I wish could make a return into the market.
I remember seeing PSP Go on store shelves bundled with Crash Tag Team Racing and Jak & Daxter back in 2011.
I never found UMDs to be a hassle, but now that everything on the planet can easily be modded, it wouldn't be a bad thing to have one of these units considering you can pair a DS3 with it. I'm fine with my PSP2k that I've had since 2007 going forward, but picking one of these up at this point is a solid idea.
My hands cramp more with psp go. But for some reason, it's my favorite of all psps. I was so excited when it came out.
This is the best handheld in my opinion in terms of emulation and playing of course psp and ps1 games natively on the system. You can also do video out with component cables. It also has 16gb I believe onboard storage.
I'd rather have a Vita for that.
@The tricky tick if you are playing psone classics then these are native ports.
@@SidNightWalker vita’s are also good options. I am not familiar with soft modding them. I believe it is as easy as modding a psp. Back when I got my psp go the vita was still relatively new so psp go was cheaper.
@@Bo_Knows_Tecmo
The irony is I would say they've gone up to if not surpassed original prices. The secondary market for Vita has literally exploded in the last couple years. Once the PS store (Vita) goes down for good it's going to be even more significant considering modding and the ROM scene and stuff are going to be the only place in town to get games onto this thing.
@@SidNightWalker my only problem with vita is how expensive they're memory stick is
People chuckle these days about the tiny disks that the PSP used- but one has to remember that back in the mid 2000s when it was released, the cost of memory was in a far different place than it is today. The disks held 1.8GB of data; at that point in time a 1GB SD card, barely over half the capacity of a UMD, ran at approximately *$500* to a consumer.
Yes, it's no longer 2005 and yes, prices are lower *now*. But when the PSP was released, the UMD really was the best option for the consumer.
Legit, I’ve never owned a ps go but am looking into getting one, thanks for the content on it since I’ve been looking
Sony was so ahead of the time with their handhelds
Me an my brothers had these when we were younger, the memories loved these.
Pulled mine out from my drawer recently. I Had to swap out the analog stick due to drifting and then tighten the top part since it came loose from one side. Excellent emulation device!
How did your tighten the top part? 👀
@@gamerrap23 There was one Reddit post that mentioned that it’s only one maybe two (like on mine) screws that are loose. I then watched a full tear down of a psp go on TH-cam. You’ll have to lift and remove the mother board from the rest of the body to access the screws, but be careful because one of my screws were so loose that I ended up finding it where the R button is. Lmk if you need more help after you watch a tear down video. Although I didn’t record the entire process I took pictures of the tear down and video of the screws that caused the issue.
I still have my white one that thing never left my pockets back in the day. When u hacked it it was the most convenient on the go emulator. Mater a fact when i get home imma power it up and play around with it. Thanks John.
Great Video! I Still Have The PSP Go & It Still Works. I Regularly Play Games On This System To This Day.
I picked one of these up when it launched. I remember Gamestop being not too happy to sell an all digital system at the time. I was literally criticized by the employee for buying it.
Lmao that’s stupid why tf would they care 😂
So weird but this is my favorite version of the PSP. I even have both the black and white colors of it. Never bothered buying that expensive M2 Memory Card though.
I wish I could say I'm surprised but of course Sony doubled down on proprietary memory formats.
In fact if you consider the fact that the original PSP and the GO had different formats than they actually tripled down with the Vita. Either way I would say it was one of the two or three huge contributing factors of the decline of the Vita itself. The other two being the extreme success of the PS4/sony not wanting to waste time on two consoles when they could just focus on the most successful one.
And of course them not really giving any compelling software for the console and dropping first party support so fast.
@@JohnDoe-wq5eu true. All of Sony’s handhelds had different formats. I don’t know what they were thinking with that.
Well, aside from the sales of the games, the memory card was probably their way to turn profit for the Vita since it was sold as a loss. Not a very good strategy though, considering the PSP Go had 16 GB of internal storage, while the 2nd revision of the Vita only had 1 GB. Plus the fact that even though the Vita went down in price, I never saw it’s memory card being in sale.
@@CaptVitaGamer
Yeah memory never went on sale unless it was used at like a GameStop and even then it was minimally less. Meanwhile both the DS and 3DS lines completely supported SD/micro SD cards.
I mean now that the two divisions of Nintendo are a one (that being portable and home console) I'd say it was probably the right call it was a losing battle and unfortunately Sony got out of getting was good now it would be near impossible to reenter the portable market. Between them abandoning the Vita and the absolute domination of Nintendo in the handheld market I can't imagine anyone (with the possible exception of the steam deck) making any inroads at all.
I got this thanks to my badass brother for my birthday at the time. Legit my favorite PSP. I put hundreds of hours playing MGS: Peace Walker on it. Arguably the most portable handheld console ever made. Always had it on my person.
I bought a used PSP Go two years ago for like 25 bucks. Still play it from time to time. The built in memory makes it a good choice If you wanna softmod it. Great buy for me.
I really enjoyed the PSP Go. I used to play that in HS, it was pretty cool watching movies and playing MGS at lunch or in between classes. I really wish I kept it...
First I thought that 16 GB of storage was laughably bad. Then I realised that my Switch only has double that amount, while coming out 8 years later.
Well you were forced to use the 16GB as downloads was mandatory on the PSP Go and had no alternative option as there's no UMD drive; sure the Switch isn't much better but at least you can still buy the games physically and not eat into the storage as much.
16GB was actually quite generous for the time. UMDs have a max capacity of 1.8GB, but most of the system's biggest blockbuster titles only top out at 1.5GB. The majority of games are under a gig.
@@MmntechCa Oh yeah that's fair enough, just awkward when I already had a lot of games and couldn't play ANY of them on this unless I rebought everything all over again. Just a shame the PSP Go came out just too late into the lifecycle, but maybe it wasn't possible to make it at the time in 2005. The PSP family of handhelds were really neat pieces of kit with the odd quirk here and there; though the rather expensive memory cards really burned.
Cant forget the UMD movies. They were pretty awesome as well.
I loved my PSP Go. When I played it public a lot of people thought it was a phone. I also loved the save state feature where you could create a temporary save anywhere and any game and turn off your system. It made playing long games like Persona 3 easier.
I wouldn't mind a PSP go but with vita performance, OLED screen, two joystick, and SD card slot, oh and a huge store of games
I still have mine in white, works great and with custom firmware, its a fantastic portable emulator. My PSP Go is the white one and I can confirm that discoloration issue but overall its on great shape… I recall buying it off for $50 from a friend like back in 2012 because he wanted to buy a game for his Vita. Right now that PSP and my Aqua Blue PS Vita, fill me with nostalgic play throughs. I also recall my fist PSP (2000), that thing was amazing.
Thankful to the dude who traded my broken ipod touch for a psp go with the dock and tv cords cause he really saved my current self a lot of money for my favorite psp and the memories of sitting in the back of class playing thps2 throughout high school lol
I miss Kevin Butler, former VP of Everything Sony. He would've appreciated John's video.
I feel like even though the PS3/PSP time was pretty contentious it was also one of the best times for gaming ever especially sony.
Compare it to the PS4/Vita days and it's a little different. The Kevin Butler days I think will always be considered when Sony fought it's way back from the absolute mess that was the launch of the PS3.
They just feel like a very different company. And not in a good way.
That's a name I haven't heard in a while.
I have currently 5 PSP-Go. I am happy with the system.
I have two of these, boxed, one white one black, and I don't regret a single thing!!
I had one originally and got a lot of play out of it for a couple of years. I eventually sold it, but as is always the case, I now regret getting rid of it. It was a lovely little machine with some great games.
I love my old Go. I soldered a microSD hardmod into mine, so I can put mSD cards in the system instead of the M2s. The Go is mostly retired in favor of a modded 3G Vita now though.
That's a thing? Is that mod still available?
@@SoukaDeezNutz It's a thing. There's no real "all-in-one" kit for it that I've ever seen, though, just some custom ribbon cables. Basically what you have to do is get one of those regular PSP mSD adapters, de-solder the M2 slot off the Go's board, then wire up the pads there to the right pinouts on the adapter.
I used to have all the info for the pinouts and things bookmarked, but that was a while ago now. TH-cam also isn't letting me put links here anyway, even if it's to a Google photo album lol. You should be able to search up the pinouts and everything with enough looking.
This is super cool, if I would have had the money back then, I would of gotten one for sure! I think the PSP was such a cool and innovative idea through it's iterations.
Funny little quirk with the launch models in Canada. Sony included a trial of Rock Band which had like 4-5 songs.
HOWEVER, they literally did not have a digital version of the full game available for the Go. As a teenager, it felt like Sony was taunting me for buying their digital only system lol. One positive is that you could still buy songs for the trial if you really wanted to
I’ve always love handheld console specially its unique slide design, which you dont often see on a console. Psp go is ahead of its time.
I used to have one of these like 10 years ago. With custom firmware and a psp 3000 to rip UMDs its an amazing system. I even had the m2 memory card.
This feels like Sony wanted to do something similar to what the DSI was to the DS.
Except this smashes the dsi idea. This was ahead of its time, if it was released today it would be a success.
@@jonathansoko1085 yeah, with a plastic grip, second digital stick and a non-proprietary charger/sd card. They could even go with swappable face plates like with the gameboy micro to protect the screen from scratches.
@@user-pq4by2rq9y Id buy 3 of them right now. Im still using my fat old psp on a daily basis
@@jonathansoko1085 LOL PONY. DS smashed psp in sales, psp was a failure even sony admit it sucked, keep drinking that delicious copium
I love that the psp go tell you happy birthday when it’s your birthday and the device is closed
I still got my white japanese psp go that I use to play playstation 1 classics, best handheld ever and still looks very modern today
I loved my PSPGO when I had mine 9-10 years back. Phantasy Star Portable got me through some long nights at my job back then.
It's my favorite one. There's so much that I love about it.
There was a lot of controversy about a digital-only gaming device in certain circles back in 2009. Funny how things are now
It was more the poor awkward timing of the PSP Go, cos it came out four years after the original PSP released, where during that time we already bought a lot of the games physically via the UMDs, which couldn't be used for this Go model as it didn't have the UMD drive.
So it gated out everyone who had the previous models and a large collection of physical PSP games, unless they decided to rebuy everything digitally again.
I have both the black and white versions boxed, I have also used the m2 ribbon cable adapter so you can use a micro sd card to pro duo adapter, well worth making a video about in my opinion
i still need that dock, i love to play my psp on tv, especially since homebrew allowed me to load all my umd games on that tiny beast
Have you seen how much the dock is going for? It's crazy expensive 😬
It's easier to try to find that cable.
I know I have at least one I think still in the package too.
@@GoatV8 yeah, that's why I still need it
I only had a psp 2000 and it was for kingdom hearts birth by sleep outside of that I didn't play other games. the guy tried selling me on this glad to see you cover it.
I have mine in white for years now. Years back I had a PSP 1000 and switching to the go was strange. I also have 2000 model with over 60 games. Love the PSP.
As a kid who lived in the super country part of Kentucky I got one of these for Christmas as my first system and was so disappointed when I had to download games but I had to act like I loved it and play with the menu for a hour on Christmas Day
still got mine since day1 launch. one of my fav handhelds (keeping a hold of my ps3 so i can download and switch out games etc)
Awesome video🔥👌keep it up
And the ribbon cable on psp go is much more durable than on xperia play at least from my experience but it defo is an issue
At this size, no other device was capable to do what PSP Go could do back in 2009, i owned both Black & Pearl White variant, but right now i have only Pearl one, PSP Go is way more futuristic even now
Man I remember my mom bringing me this to my job when it came out
Ayyyeee the psp go video. You should try to get your hands on a psp street.
Whoever thought about digital only consoles without a disk drive should sit in the corner and think about what they did
Sony needs to bring out a new Playstation handheld.
It's too late for them
@@AJ-dx6bn Its never too late.
I had one of these, loved it. I had a bunch of ps1 games and played a lot of Patapon 2 at the time, so it was nice to just carry around. It was the only handheld I owned that is convenient to carry
I remember i bought one in 2010 because my older brother have one. then a year later i bought one again for my little brother. I use it until the flex cable destroyed then i fix it by myself 4 years ago. it still run really great even until now
oh god ... the psp go was such a fancy topic gaming news when i was in school , i was that nintendo guy with his gba and cant afford a psp and upgrade to a DS ... damn ...:(
I have 3 PSP go's. 2 white and one black. I've never had any problems with the ribbon cable and I've been playing them since they came out. It still has better battery life than my switch.
I remember very fondly my dad and I attempting to win a white one from a stacked machine in the arcade. Good times.
I got one of those,it was revolutionary in it's time.
Good luck finding a dock if youre looking. I managed to get a whole set plus a component cable.
I remember when the PSP Go was announced. People friggen hated the idea of an all-digital system. I guess it was just too ahead of its time. It didn't help that there were some PSP games that didn't even have digital releases. Looking back now, the Go was pretty sleek looking. Much more modern in design than the other versions of that system.
A great example of what is ultimately a form over function design. That reminds me of a much more recent piece of hardware. People actually think this was well thought out? Good fucking god....
I bought a white psp go a few months ago since I had only owned a psp-1000 back in the day and it is an awesome device. The device is very sleek.
Got this same boxed one for 25 bucks in Suriname. Awesome. Now I need to load and mod it
Looked at these the other day, had one when I was a youngin and enjoyed it.
I bought my psp go like 2 years ago. Love it to death along with my vita. Both modded. Love playing psp go anywhere! Especially on my breaks at work! They’re both modded too!
Once you see the PSP Go as Eric Cartman in shape you will never unsee
I have 2. A modded black one with a 16GB card (32GB total) that I use for PSP & PSX games and a stock white pearl one that is near mint and it lives in the box.
still have one that i bought new. a great device stymied by the general public's unwillingness to let go of their plastic disks
I remember everyone hating this thing on TH-cam.
I still have mines in a 100% great condition.
To be fair, the PSP Go wasn't the final version of PSP released, that one would be the budget redesign PSP E1004 aka PSP Street that was released couple years after Go.
Ok, for once I actually have a story to tell about this thing. I got one in my town centre for whatever the equivalent of £30 is in USD, and it was my go to for games for YEARS on end, since I hacked it. I've never been able to find a 16GB M2 card at a reasonable price, so I was always moving different games between this and my computer. Fast forward a couple years, and my battery is starting to wear and my slider mechanism is really shaky. I thought I was gonna have to put this down and get something else, but my uncle who also liked PSPs ended up getting a dead PSP Go from a friend of his, and because he prefers the standard PSP and didn't want to bother with trying to fix it, he gave it to me for free and I was able to use it as a parts bin for all the stuff I needed to replace. This was my first genuine teardown/repair of a device, and I was about 15-16. I managed to get a battery and the other parts I needed to fix the slider (which eventually became a full screen replacement). To this day, I still think this is one of the most difficult things to tear down to the screen, since the parts are very small and ham hands like mine found it really fiddly. But in the end, it was fixed and was still in my pocket until I got a Vita. But I might end up buying a 16GB M2 if I can find one at all and go back to my PSP Go because there's still no experience that's quite like it today. In terms of *pocketable* devices as opposed to portable devices, this is still one of the all time greats in my opinion.
The 16gb memory card is over $100 in the US . Crazy .
@@bryanobrien2726 I'm gonna keep looking, but if it comes down to it, maybe I'll just import it from over there then. Exchange rate shouldn't be too harsh on my wallet, but I don't think any adapters for the M2 form factor exist, because I would've found it by now.
I got lucky a few years ago. Got the black one, a 16gb m2, a case, and the elusive dock. For $150. All in box. I’ve since moved on to a hacked Vita with 256gb with everything I could want.
Fyi, audio visual out cables were not new to the PSP go, the original model PSPs had their own propriety cable that could do exactly the same thing, only the dock was a new thing.
I have the cables buried somewhere, but I never really used them back in the day because even back then it really, really, looked like ass... Like 280p in a tiny box in the middle of the screen, and blurry as hell.
Still, it was a thing, and I find a lot of people weren't aware and think the go did it first.
Oh man gta liberty city on this. The theme you heard every time you go over the game in the menu. The memories...
I had one of these back in 2012. When I went to go sell it none of my local game shops wanted these things they were avoided like the plague. I managed to only sell it for $40. Now these things are up in value lol.
Smaller game shops tend to avoid digital only systems as much as they can, lol. Ones in my city do not sell systems like Xbox One S and Series S at all and if someone is bringing one of these, they value it very low and then sell at the price they paid for it to get it out of the door ASAP. I've spoken with owner of one of these shops and he told me that no one in business want anything to do with them, because a customer who will buy one won't ever come back to buy games for it from them. Which is a bit silly, seeing that I have PS3 and PS4 I'm buying the games for from time to time at this very shop, but plan to get myself Series S console and would rather leave money in hands of small business than some big chain store.
Not gonna lie, now I want one.
Love the PSP Go and bought one at launch. It was a great handheld.
I picked up the PSP Go recently myself. Not much I can do with just 16 GB of space but I made good use of it. I installed custom firmware, Pro-C2 Infinity, then put on the God of Wars, the Grand Theft Autos, Hot Shots Golf, Lumines, Little Big Planet, and a GBA emulator with all of the Pokémon games and more. It's a great little system. I have the white version, and yes the curved pads on the back are starting to tan. Is there a way to bring back its original color or close to it, safely?
PSP Go is the poster child of “it was before it’s time”
10:24 sounded like Scott the Woz for a second there lol
I remember my mom bought me and my older brother a psp go. I wanted a DSI so i was kind of sad about it, but feel in love with the device. For the longest time we only had demos to play. Patapon was the first game i bought, dissida was the next. Phantasy Star Portable was my absolute favorite tho. So many characters made, i even made a JP account to get the exclusive items. My brother got some army/shooter games and we shared our accounts to play each others games.
The biggest thing was the movies, comics and internet. That web browser..... lots of R rated content was consumed lmao.
Bought one two years ago to mod it but couldnt get it to work. Might try it out again.