Ape Escape remake PSP - mega load times

[recipher]

Video.

[Kotatsu Neko]

Video.

Doesn't really justify it. I would say handheld video is also pointless. It's a completely different thing to handheld audio - iPods etc.

I dunno, I wouldn't be surprised if 1gb of flash memory was pretty affordable by the end of the year, making UMD (which is 1.5gb isn't it?) a little redundant.

MS are rumoured to be going with flash mem in Xbox 360 instead of an HD. It may be the future.

[Ady]

Ah, yes by video you mean to facillitate those UMD movies that are going to be ever so popular.

[ChrisF]

If Sony were to bring out a DVD player that played DVDs and UMDs, then I'd *consider* buying them Assuming the price of them dropped, and they somehow manage to start encoding 5.1 audio on them...

Wouldn't be surprised if the PS3 had some kind of UMD interface...

[Kotatsu Neko]

If Sony were to bring out a DVD player that played DVDs and UMDs, then I'd *consider* buying them Assuming the price of them dropped, and they somehow manage to start encoding 5.1 audio on them...

Wouldn't be surprised if the PS3 had some kind of UMD interface...

I doubt they would look good on a TV screen. The resolution is much lower than a DVD. More akin to video CD than DVD.

[Mayhem]

Isn't the PSP media essentially a Gamecube disc in a plastic case? If so, why does the cube have 2 second load times max?

Gamecube uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) as opposed to the traditional disc handling system; this means that the rate of data transfer is constant regardless of where the laser is on the disc. Whereas with PS2, Xbox etc, the rate of transfer depends on where the laser is; slower on the inside of the disc and quicker on the outside.

And as discs tends to be burnt from the inside out, then the data for the PSP is likely to be on the inside of the disc, whereas it would be better for it to be on the outside.

[NeilMcRae]

UMD per 1.5gb costs Sony about $1.50 to make. Distributing 1.5gb on flash will cost atleast $60 (and that doesn't include the actual duplication costs which is liable). Looks like a no brainer to me.

The load times nearly all PSP games is more than ok. Ape Acadamy is one of the worst offenders.

Neil.

[Kotatsu Neko]

UMD per 1.5gb costs Sony about $1.50 to make. Distributing 1.5gb on flash will cost atleast $60 (and that doesn't include the actual duplication costs which is liable). Looks like a no brainer to me.

The load times nearly all PSP games is more than ok. Ape Acadamy is one of the worst offenders.

Neil.

That will come down though. And 1.5gb is really too much. .5gb should be enough for virtually all games.

[C']

In terms of current titles nothing on the PSP yet has bothered me regarding load times. In fact I've barely noticed them at all (mostly thanks to the Sleep mode).

However it sounds like Ape Escape is a particularly bad example and loading times of that length are simply unacceptable even in the days Saturn/Playstation and their 2X CD drives.

Hopefully these will be isolated examples.

Also is this just a long loading period at the start of the game or are their protracted loading times mid-game too?

[Madjock]

I dislike the idea of disc based portables, I think its overkill. We don't need flash intros to games, cd quality soundtracks are nice but with decent encoding surely this would be possible on a flash based card?

I've only got Ridge Racers for the PSP so far, one thing I don't get is the Rally-X game, I assumed it loaded and was there to play whilst the game loads, but select is available straight away and the game seems to be ready when I press it immediately. The rest of the loading in RR is a lot better than I read by the early adopters back in Dec.

[Ady]

In terms of loading, it'll be interesting to see what happens when they eventually port GTA...

[Tom Salter]

But GTA streams off the disc constantly, so I'd imagine it won't be a problem.

Battery life however....that could be a thorny issue :P

[Ady]

Hmm, I imagine that might be too.

What I meant though was that GTA begins with a long loader before the game starts proper (the one with the loading bar that literally creeps and stutters its way across the screen). You don't want to be dealing with that on a handheld...

[Tom Salter]

But because it's a 'mature' game they can just show pictures of tits on the main screen while it's loading.

Oh man, I could make so much money with that idea.

[Concept]

I doubt they would look good on a TV screen. The resolution is much lower than a DVD. More akin to video CD than DVD.

I've got to agree. Watching UMD PSP movies does seem kind of pointless on a big screen. Also, on a (potential) PSP-to-TV convertor, the resolution limitations on the games themselves are going to really show up again the PS2.