• popcar2@programming.dev
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    29
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 day ago

    with the most shitass graphics and games

    Man what, the PSP was the most advanced handheld of its time. The DS had a worse screen and was much weaker but got away with it because games were really simple visually. PSP games look great.

    • mindbleach@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      19 hours ago

      Seriously. The PSP was a portable PS2, while the PS2 was still on top of the world. The DS was a gimmicky toy that sold better because it was priced and designed for play.

      One aspect of that which seems obscure: the original DS used scanline graphics… for 3D. It could draw exactly 1000 triangles, row by row, at 60 Hz. This made low-poly games dead easy to optimize, and high-poly games an absolute nightmare. This also only worked on one screen at a time, which is why the second screen was always a map or a menu or something. The easy way to do 3D on both screens was to alternate, but that drops the framerate to 30 Hz.