PSP-N1000

The Trials and Tribulations of the PSP GO and I

Back in spring or summer 2015, I went to my local game shop, like I always do, to walk around and not buy anything. 2018 and nothing has changed. That day something in one of the cases caught my eye. I had, and still have a couple of PSP 1000's in my desk that collect dust, because of their varying conditions. One with the analog ripped out of the board and case, one that can't hold a battery itself and a huge scratch on the screen. I saw a little black PSP. I recognized it as the GO, but didn't know much about it. I went home did some research, since it's been around 3 or 4 years since I even updated the CFW on those old PSPs. I learn that CFW is the easiest it's ever been. I go back the next day and get someone to open the case and I look at it and I didn't understand the price tag. It was $25.

Sidebar: That was 2015, so before anyone freaks out, that MyLifeInGameing channel didn't make the video about Component PSP GO PS1 games yet and at that point, the GO was basically useless since the PSN was gonna run out soon and no one cared about a PSP with no cheap expandable memory.

The guy working there, like most employees, didn't know anything about it and told me if it didn't work, just return it. Alright, I'll grab it. Might as well. The only issue is the L shoulder button has a chunk missing, but it's not sharp or affecting the button.

I take it home, see there are some paid games on it, so I move them to the computer and proceed to install 6.60 CFW. Took all of 5 minutes. Seriously, if anyone out there reading this wants to do PSP stuff, get one and everything you'd ever want is 5 minutes away.
I put some games that I was already playing years ago on it, mainly racers and puzzles, along with some PS1 titles, like Front Mission 3. That I did put over 200 hours into on the PSP and like 100 on the PS3. Sadly, not that many on my actual PS1 disc.

Fast forward a year or so, my friend Kevin is redpilling me on CRTs and analog video signals. Composite is shit, S-Video is good, Component is great, etc. He shows me a video of MyLifeInGaming explaining the ways to get the best picture for PS1 games. He says, wait 'till the end, you'll be really happy. Alright. PSP GO, Component Cables for the PSP GO, the cradle to charge, and a Dual Shock 3 for the most comfy experience. I was real happy, 'cause I actually have a GO. (I haven't seen one locally since I bought mine, so keep that in mind)
I had him get me a Component Cable at a local Gamestop for $3 and I had a DS3 from my PS3, that I hadn't sold yet, and I was off playing fucking Forbidden Memories like a fucking idiot. But, it was casually, so it was comfy. I had to charge the GO twice a day, 'cause the battery isn't big, and with Bluetooth going, life isn't long, but I liked it.

Around fall 2016, I decide to sell my PS3 since I didn't play it. The money I got from it, I bought my first neGcon (the black one), which I used for a long time, as you all should know by now. I have a better white one, but still own the black one for backup. The DS3 had to go with the PS3, so that meant no comfy setup anymore. It was fine, 'cause the GO was back to collecting dust, since I was doing more speedruns more often. I got the GO before I was into speedrunning. Soon after, my cable was giving me an all red tint. It was fucked. I'll learn way more about that in the coming 2 years, just wait. I figured the cable just died since it had to have been old and got some use. I was wrong.

2017 was a big year for the PSP GO, 'cause I decided to go find the PSP-N340. The cradle. It was a launch accessory with the GO back in 2009 and is the only real way to charge the GO and use the Composite/Component cable. The GO only has 1 proprietary port for everything. Data transfer, AV out, and charging. The 1000, 2000, and 3000 had 3 ports for that. Even worse, the GO uses Memory Stick Micro, which is even more proprietary. Doesn't go higher than 16GB and was only used for a select few Sony cameras at the time.
The cradle skyrockted since the MyLifeInGaming video and went from being on clearance at Walmart years ago for $10 sealed, to over $100 on ebay, amazon, and yahoo auctions. Along with that, the Component and Composite cables were getting difficult to find. Them being anywhere from $15 to $30. The GO, at that time, was peaking at over $100.

There was one exception to all this, which was Gamestop. I mentioned earlier that Kevin got me a Component cable pretty easily. We checked the site for both the cradle and the cable and there were none in the area. Luckily, the site lets us search all over America and see what stores have it. We searched everywhere. It took a long time, but 2 stores said they have it.

Sidebar: The way Gamestop's site works with items that are not available to be bought, but can be in store, is you need to go to a store and have someone call that store and check in their store if they have it. It can be sent to a different store to be picked up, which is the only way we could've even attempted this.

One of the two stores said they found what it was labeled as, which was a case, not a dock. Disappointment set in, like always when we were dealing with this. After a few weeks, we went back to looking, and found the other store that had it, and behold, the cradle. I checked if the PSP-N340 was there, and it was. I was uncontrollably happy and tried to not say anything in the Gamestop. Kevin payed for it, and I was gonna PayPal him later, but he didn't care, 'cause it was $3. Yes, $3 for a potentially $100 accessory.
We also managed to get 2 Component cables to go with it, just to clean out what was left of the stock anywhere in America, that has been labeled correctly in the store. So, if anyone was looking for a cradle last year, I got the very last known PSP GO Cradle at any Gamestop.

First couple of days, the first cable works just fine, and it looked amazing on my Sony Trinitron FV300 (which I gave to a friend). I was pretty happy, but I didn't end up playing that often, because a couple days after, the cable gave me only black and white. No color at all. I couldn't believe a cable could die that fast. Luckily it was $2 and I had a backup. That cable died in 2 days. I didn't understand what happened at all. They were official Sony cables. I've owned my PS2 Component cable for around 7 years, with no issue, but these PSP cables die so fast. I didn't play the GO much after that.

Months later in the fall of 2017, before Tabby had passed, I noticed my GO was turning itself on and off while in the cradle. I left the lock switch down accidentally, but why would it go through a power loop. It was all the time. I had to take it off the cradle 'cause it was so bad. I was also on the lookout for more Component cables to see what the issue was, and nothing. No cables left at Gamestop, and on ebay they were a minimum of $25. I was no paying that, and I'm still not going to. At that point, I gave up doing anything with the "perfect" PS1 setup. I wanted it so bad, but it was not worth the effort.

Spring 2018, I think, I decide to sell the cradle, 'cause I wasn't finding cables and the cradle was kinda dipping in price. They could be bought for around $80. It took me a week to finally give it up for $70. I surprisingly don't regret it. In the end, it was the journey, right? (It isn't and it fucking sucks that I can't just have everything work) In the meantime, I finally got a PVM. Kevin's PVM 20M2MDU. RGB, Component, 2 S-Video, 2 Composite, 600 lines, looks great. He gave it to me since I found him a 14 inch PVM on Facebook for, I think it was $50 and a SEGA Saturn Model 2 Pad. Both our PVMs need new capacitors, but that's a different story for another day. (We don't wanna die to try to fix monitors, see. CRT flyback) As much as it would've been nice to have the "perfect" PS1 on a PVM, no less, I just had to stop thinking about it.

August 27th 2018. I get my chinese PSP GO Composite cable 'cause I want to run some PSP and PS1 games that were released on PSN, which makes them a viable way to run them. Anything on PSN is legal for speedrunning, since it's an official way to play those games. PS2 games through a PS2 HDD isn't, by the way. Sony never made a way to play games through a Hard Drive. All homebrew. Games like Pac-Man Arrangement 2005, SEGA Rally Revo, Motor Toon Grand Prix, Ridge Racer 4 (curious about loads), etc. All I wanted is a cable to be captured with my Dazzle. It worked. Very shitty, but it was functional. I never knew there could be checkerboarding and motion blur through Composite. It's almost like, whoever made the cable, tried to get Composite out of Component. It looked so fucking terrible.
Regardless, it was functional. I ask my friend Bangerra about PSP capture and make fun of how bad the cable is and he mentions something about capture through USB. I find RemoteJoyLite, and decide to try it.

As I'm typing this, it has been an hour since I've given up on the PSP GO. All of it. RemoteJoyLite was not working with OBS, as much as I tried, since whenever I go into a game on the PSP, it disconnects itself and reconnects, so the program shits itself. That and recording audio is done with the 3.5mm port. My computer is pretty terrible, mainly, my 3.5mm ports mess with Windows audio too often and when anything gets plugged in or out, I lose all audio and have to restart everything. Line In was a terrible idea, and when I finally got it working, the connection issue started. All I wanted to do is run some games on PSP. I had an easier time with Gameboy capture than this.

What is causing all these problems? Is it my impatience? Is it my access to only S-Video and Composite capture? None of the above.
Could you believe it's the GO itself? Today I learned that even the brand new Composite cable that was working hours ago, wouldn't connect. The same fate that bestowed all those Component cables, until they connected with a bad signal and couldn't be recovered.
The proprietary port is causing all the problems. The cables going bad, no connections, the power loop with the cradle. I thought it was the cables and the cradle, but no. The fucking GO. In hindsight, if I got a new GO, all this would be fine, in theory.
At 1:47AM on August 28, 2018, I'm considering selling my GO for a 3000 just so I don't have to deal with this anymore. Right now, the only appeal to me with the GO is how unique it is. Like, honestly, who really owns a GO. It's like a Gameboy Micro.

I love PSPs. They are my favorite handheld, and I love handhelds so much. The PSP library is so massive, I haven't delved into nearly any of it, even though I've owned PSPs since 2009. The GO luckily hasn't killed my love for the console, but it caused me too much stress.

I haven't been around, but I've tried to do things, but shit like this happens and it sets me back 2 steps. I still want to do PSP runs, but I'm not gonna do emulator. I'll figure this out sometime. If 3000s weren't upwards of $80, I'd move the GO right now, but I need to bide my time and see what I can do. It's either a 3000 or a PSTV, which aren't cheap either, and I'd need a new capture card, but gain the Vita support to play the Lumines on Vita. I love Lumines.