Psp Downloading - Games Download On Psp Easy, Cheap And Legal If You Know Where
The Play Station Portable (PSP) gaming console has been on the market for a number of years, and is still as popular as ever - if not more so.
There are many reasons and while portability is often stated as being the main one, I personally think that it is the ability to download games onto it. As UMD disc based games are expensive, the games download on PSP makes it very attractive, as it will be hard to run out of games to play. Also, this cool functionality is not limited to games. Movies and music can also be downloaded, which definitely in my mind sets the PSP above all the rest.
If you haven't yet used this feature because you are worried about the technical aspects or legality, this article aims to highlight some important points.
The main technical consideration for playing downloaded games on your PSP is it's firmware.
A PSP's firmware is it's operating system, much like OSX is to the Mac and Windows is to a PC. It is very important to note that newer versions of the firmware do not play downloaded games. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I think that it's a trick to sell more UMD based games. Only earlier firmware versions are able to play downloaded games for psp. Make sure you have 1.50 or older. Don't worry, it's very easy to downgrade and your PSP will be perfectly OK.
As for downloading, installing and running the games, it's real child's play - and I mean that literally. My 8 year old son can do it in his sleep.
Let's take a look at the legal aspects of game download on PSP:
As happens with every major gaming console, emulators have been developed for the PSP to enable it to play games from other consoles. These are mostly the older ones, but since their games are also freely available and/or cheap, this is a fantastic feature. I know I have my favorite games from many years ago that will never make it to a PSP UMD, so I love this.
This is, however, where the legality of downloadable games becomes a bit 'grey area', since the games from the other consoles are being used outside of their original license agreement. However, since you will probably not be reselling them, you don't really have anything to worry about. If you're uncomfortable, just avoid them and only download legal copies of true PSP games.
A bigger legal threat comes in the shape of the actual PSP downloading sites.
As can be expected, a number of illegal sites have made an appearance on the Web. I advocate using only those sites that have their payments processed by a large online reseller, since the reseller would force them to get all the legal stuff in place. While they require a small once off lifetime subscription fee, they also help you to keep your finger on the pulse of the gaming industry. You'll never be left bored with old games, nor will you have to worry about whether you're infringing any copyright laws.
