¶ Technical data
- Manufacturer: Sony Computer Entertainment
- Year of release: 2004
- Units sold: over 80 millions
- Best-selling game: Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
- CPU: MIPS R4000 32-bit, from 1 to 333 MHz
- RAM: 32 MB (64 MB from the PSP-2000 onwards)
- VRAM: 2 MB
- Video: Graphics Core @ 166 MHz
- Screen: 4.3 inch LCD, 480x272 (16:9)
- Sound: stereo, built-in speakers
- Media: UMD (1.8 GB), Memory Stick PRO Duo
¶ Presentation
The PSP (PlayStation Portable) is the first handheld console from Sony Computer Entertainment. It was released on December 12, 2004 in Japan, on March 24, 2005 in North America and on September 1, 2005 in Europe. It was designed to compete with the Nintendo DS, with a radically different positioning: where Nintendo bet on dual screens and touch input, Sony aimed for raw power and multimedia.
Technically, the PSP is a miniature home console: a MIPS processor clocked up to 333 MHz, a graphics chip capable of textured 3D, and a large 16:9 screen of 480x272 pixels, exceptional for a 2004 handheld. It plays movies and music, displays photos, connects over Wi-Fi and uses a proprietary optical medium, the UMD. Several revisions followed: the slimmer PSP-2000 and PSP-3000, the PSP Go without a UMD drive, and the entry-level PSP Street.
With over 80 million units sold, the PSP carried ambitious adaptations of first-party franchises and a very rich Japanese catalogue: God of War: Chains of Olympus, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, Patapon and LocoRoco. It is also known for its homebrew scene, which appeared very early thanks to firmware exploits.
¶ Emulators
New in Recalbox 10.1: PPSSPP is updated, and the PSP gains support for 480p and 480i modes on CRT displays.
Emulator availability per board:
| Emulator | RPI3/RPI02W | RPI4/400 | RPI5/500 | OGA/OGS/RG351 | PC | RG353 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PPSSPP | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Libretro PPSSPP | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
On RPi3 and RPi Zero 2, only the standalone version of PPSSPP is provided; the libretro core is not available there. Those machines are borderline for the PSP anyway: expect to have to lower the rendering resolution.
By default Recalbox launches PPSSPP in its standalone version, the fastest and most complete, and the only one handling CRT output (480p/480i since 10.1). Libretro PPSSPP embeds the same emulator inside RetroArch and gives access to its common features: shaders, rewind, unified save states. Netplay and softpatching are not available on this system. RetroAchievements are supported. A controller is mandatory; there is no keyboard, mouse or light gun on this system.
No BIOS is required to emulate the PSP.
¶ Roms
Put your games in:
/recalbox/share/roms/psp/
Both emulators accept the same extensions:
.chd .cso .elf .iso .pbp .prx
A raw UMD image (
.iso) weighs up to 1.8 GB. Convert it to CHD or CSO: the space used often halves, with no loss, and both formats are supported directly.
Downloadable games from the PlayStation Store, as well as PS1 games ported to the PSP, come as an EBOOT.PBP file. Rename it after the game (My Game.pbp) rather than keeping dozens of identical EBOOT.PBP files, otherwise the scraper and the game list become unreadable.
.elf and .prx files are homebrew and custom applications, very numerous on this machine. Saves, screenshots and data created by games are written to a virtual memory card managed by PPSSPP, independently of your game images.