The Sony PocketStation 52
The PlayStation Portable (PSP), which was launched in March 2005, was not Sony’s first attempt to create a portable gaming device. Sony had launched another device called the “PocketStation” in December 1998 to compete with Sega’s VMU for the DreamCast. The unit was originally released in Japan, but because of its unpopularity it was never released in the United States or other countries. The main reason the unit failed might be the fact that the PocketStation never had any type of game cartridge media to insert into the unit. To play games on the unit you were required to own a PlayStation One. Then to get games onto the Pocket Station you had to plug the unit into the memory card slot on the PS1 then transfer games over. (also serves as a Memory Card) Another reason for failure was the fact that there were only a handful of PS1 games that actually included “mini-games” for the Pocket Station. Because of this design, the unit was absolutely pointless for the majority to purchase.
[Thanks for the pics, lipanz]
Other things Sony had intended for Pocket Station to be a tool to “train” characters and unlock new features in the full game editions. This was pretty much a rip off of Sega’s Virtual Memory Unit they released to go along with the DreamCast, which was eventually another failure because of the buggy parent unit. The Pocket Station also had speakers, a clock, infrared (for multiplayer), and once again served as a memory card. Pocket Stations are now “rare” novelty items and can only be purchased for high prices on sites such as eBay. This might have also been a plan to compete with Tamagotchi, but Sony obviously never came through.
Technical Specs:
- CPU : ARM7T (32 bit RISC Processor)
- Memory : SRAM 2K bytes & Flash RAM 128K bytes
- Graphics : 32 x 32 dot Monochrome LCD
- Sound : Mini Speaker (12 bit PCM) x 1 unit
- Switches : 5 input buttons + 1 reset button
- Infrared : Bi-directional (IrDA based)
- LED : 1 indicator
- Battery : Lithium battery (CR 2032)
- Other functions : Calendar & Identification #
- Dimensions : 64 x 42 x 13.5 mm (L x W x H)
- Weight : Approx. 30g (w/ battery)
Links: PlayStation | Sony | SCEA
Related: Free PS3 Conga | 8GB MS Duo
tags: japan, playstation, ps1, ps2, psp, sony
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I own one. How is it PSP-like?
“but because of its unpopularity it was never released in the United States or other countries”
What? Bull****. They sold like mad, they couldn’t keep them in stores.
http://www.dealtime.com/xPR-Final_Fantasy_VIII~RD-28717649540
“And Since Sony had trouble meeting demand for that PDA device, it never made it’s way over to this side of the swamp”
“The main reason the unit failed might be the fact that the PocketStation never had any type of game cartridge media to insert into the unit”
Failed? Again, it sold like mad. It did not fail. Japan has over 2 dozen games supporting the thing
“Another reason for failure was the fact that there were only a handful of PS1 games that actually included “mini-games” for the Pocket Station.”
This article is full of **.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocketstation
Compatible games [list]^^^
And Pocket MuuMuu had over a hundred minigames in it
“Very similar to Sega’s portable unit they released to go along with the DreamCast, which was another failure”
VMU wasn’t a failure either. It was a lot more supported, and even games without minigames supported it.
Hey everyone just wanted to post some more facts. The Pocket Station was sold out only for a period of time because of the sudden demand, but as soon as the reviews came out, it became very unpopular. The game that had made it popular for a few weeks was the Final Fantasy VIII Game. It allowed unlocking special content that wasn’t normally available in the game. This made the unit popular to all FFVII fans. Sony never sent out a second shipment of units because they still had a lot of bugs to deal with. And since they decided to stop the unit they never got to shipping the item to the U.S. Also only people who owned PS1s could utilize this therefore it only was targeted at a small range of customers. The Sega VMU may have been a good product, but the reason it FAILED was mainly because the Dream Cast was too buggy and it got discontinued.
“Sony never sent out a second shipment of units because they still had a lot of bugs to deal with”
Like? Keep in mind I own one.
“Also only people who owned PS1s could utilize this”
And PS2s. It even shows u int he menu as a Pocketstation instead of a memory card.
“The Sega VMU may have been a good product, but the reason it FAILED”
Actually it didnt fail
“was mainly because the Dream Cast was too buggy”
Howso? Again keep in mind I own one
“and it got discontinued”
Not because of bugs. Because Sega was in debt
“Hey everyone just wanted to post some more facts”
If they were posting facts it wouldn’t be an issue. But I’m finding many things wrong with these “facts” that don’t agree with reality
“but as soon as the reviews came out, it became very unpopular”
No. It was extremely popular
Ok this story is wrong on so many levels. 1.the pocketstation was realeased in the US, in very limited quantities. Hell I bought mine at Babbages (now gamestop). It also had suport on american games, Although very limited support. FFVIII and Street Fighter Alpha 2 are all that I can remember. It failed in the us due to a lack of support by sony just like the ps2 hdd. Whoever wrote this article really needs to do some fact checking before he posts his work.
[Comment ID #486 Will Be Quoted Here]
The facts should also be checked before they’re submitted for a dig too.
Guys (and gals)- It doesnt matter if the pocketstation was successful or not. Its outdated and no one cares anymore. Techni just because you own one doesnt mean it was successful. And actually it was buggy, but you never saw it because all the games that supported it were fully tested before they were shipped. There may not have been bugs with the actual pocketstation itself but compatibility with games. Notice how many games there are for ps1 and how many games support it. Do the math, it was buggy and for that reason it failed…
“Techni just because you own one doesnt mean it was successful. ”
No, I was saying since Sony couldn’t keep up with demand it was a success
“And actually it was buggy”
No, it wasnt. Please tell me the bug(s) and how to reproduce it
“There may not have been bugs with the actual pocketstation itself but compatibility with games”
Thats not a bug.
“Notice how many games there are for ps1 and how many games support it”
The math doesnt say its buggy
“it was buggy”
No, it wasnt. Prove it, tell me these bugs and how to reproduce them
“and for that reason it failed… ”
It didnt fail, so your reasoning is flawed. Much like this article
A few comments first off as a lot of people are mentioning, this story has a lot of flaws.
Also while Babbages and other US game stores did carry Pocketstations, they were imported in small quantities for Final Fantasy VIII.
Also there were problems with the Pocketstation due to battery life which is why after a quick sell out interest died down rather quickly. This must have been what he meant by “bugs” which wasn’t a bug as much as it was a limitation of the batteries.
[Comment ID #489 Will Be Quoted Here]
haha this entire comment form is hillarious!
FACT: PocketStation was a failure read the quoted comment.
FACT: Dreamcast was a failure. & the VMU thing
READ THIS: All models released in Japan were all in English edition. They didn’t make a special NA or JP edition like they do for all other consoles. Therefore it was compatible with all PS1s as long as they can read english and they have games with the PocketStation Game on them.
Important: Sony didn’t ship PocketStations to retailers in the US. Only speciality stores such as Babbages (now GameStop) specially imported units for customers that owned FFVIII. (pretty much the only game that the unit was popular with)
And anyways don’t critizice the post, not a bad job. just depends on your point of view.
there is a reason why this one failed, and they are starting to show some signs of the psp failing just like it. If it wasnt for gta for it, i think it sux and is way over priced.
“FACT: PocketStation was a failure read the quoted comment”
Thats not a fact. Systems don’t have to be alive now to be a success. Fact: Pocketstation sold better than Sony had hoped, it succeeded
“FACT: Dreamcast was a failure”
Like hell it was
“there is a reason why this one failed”
It didnt fail
“and they are starting to show some signs of the psp failing just like it”
No, they arent. PSP has succeeded.
techni, youre an idiot
Ok,
Everyone here is saying one thing or the other. I never saw or heard of the PocketStation until I saw one in Japan on display and not for sale about 3 years ago. Never saw it in the states. If you want us to believe you get real stats from Sony or the stores that sold them and post them here with bibliography.
Hey this is sahas. (admin)
There has been a lot of spamming of the comments by Techni as most of you can see. I didn’t remove the comments because I want comments to be open to all opinions. Anyways Techni has made a fool of himself as he has been submitting comments as himself and reposting in other names to support himself. He apparently didn’t read the line below the submit comments button that states that IP logs are ON. So any ways he posted this:
With the IP 24.150.38.xxx which is the same one Techni uses. And he has offically been banned from Skatter Tech.
Update: Techni has hit again with another 3 comments acting as though he is another viewer “diggviewer” claiming that the IP could be being used by someone else in the same network such as a school. First off no school on weekends in the United States. Second the IP is not a school domain, but instead a residential Cable Internet service. And finally he uses the same grammar and has the same gramatical errors.
Also: Skatter Tech is not against Sony or any company in any way. We have written 100x of articles on Sony products and infact we are a huge fan of Sony products. We have wrote many tutorials and hacks you can do with the PSP and other products.
I’d say Techni made a few good points, along with several bad ones.
The article´s reasoning _is_ a little bit jumpy: a) owners of ps1 were not a small range of customers and b) units without cartridges (provided they are cheap enough) are not inmediate failures. The VMU and the PocketStation are a lot more close to a regular memory unit and a Tamagotchi, which you mention, and not to a PSP.
But this is a very nice find. Thank you for it.
Remember a friend of mine bought one imported into the UK back circa ‘99. He went for an interview @ Sony, where the panel showed off their GOLD PocketStations :o)
I loved it… all the people who I’ve known that’ve owned them, loved them!
Grand Turismo 2, car trade :o)
FF VII
How many more games were there @ the time that meant anything?
Well not to me anyway.
I’m off to see if I can pick up another as a replacement for my wrist watch :o)
Long live pocket power
I basically agree with Techni (though not his belligerent methods). I’m stil interesed in what bugs PocketStation and Dreamcast had. Dreamcast failed because of lack of support and poor sales. And PocketStation was shown to be what it was: a cheap gimmick. How were either of these buggy?
Wow…funny stuff. I JUST ordered a pocketstation because I have loved FFVIII for years & confess that it’s still my favorite game even after all the PS2 games and all the XBOX amazing graphics , blah blah blah… but I never was able to play the game entirely without this device. So, for me it will be worth it (as a FFVII fan) to own the thing. After reading all the “facts” I almost forgot why I came here anyway…
Wait, how was the Dreamcast head unit buggy? I’ve got one, never had any bugs at all. The only Dreamcast-related problem I’ve ever had with mine is one single game title that wouldn’t work: Dead or Alive 4, which I ended up returning to Babbage’s.
Also, you people that were talking about the PS2 HDD: It’s interesting to note that EA games since the HDD came out seem to support it almost universally. To this day, if you rent God of War, all you can save to is a Memory Card; if you rent The Urbz or The Sims 2, you can save to the HDD.
As many bad things people have said about EA, that’s something really interesting they have done merely to support their customers. They do not at all have to include HDD support in every new sports title like they do, especially since any PS2 that has been manufactured for the past two years or so (every slimline PS2) doesn’t support the HDD at all.
When FF8 came out, I had my younger brother pick one up for me while he was stationed in Korea & I was leaving the Army. I liked it, & bought a gameshark to unlock the SFA pocketstation minigame. My only complaint with the unit, using it for the mini games or not, It does have a short battery life. (Same battery is used in a good chunk of PC motherboards, for saving CMOS data, last 3-5 years or more.)
I still place a new battery in it every so often when I get an urge to replay FF8. & Yes, when attached to PS2 it notices that it’s more than just a PS1 Memorycard, showing it as a pocketstation complete with name. No other PS2/Pocketstation interaction seems to work. I save my FF8 games onto it.
hey dude, u got the pic from my site.. i dont see anywhere in this site stating where did u get the pic.. grrrr…
Buggy? Funny, I own one and never had problems with it. But then again when has the truth mattered what with idiots like Mitch spewing crap like PSP failed when by the end of it’s third year it will probably have outsold the Gamecube after 5 years
Korensky obviously either a.Cant read or b.knows nothing about video game history, because Sony released 2 hand held Devices the Sony PocketStation, which is what this article is about, and the PlaySation Portable, aka The PSP. PSP did not fail. The pocket station, which was released in 1998, did fail. now let me explain what I mean by fail. It hit the market and died with in 6 months and was only rememberd by hard core gamers and game historians(IE me). It was never released in the US. Only imported. to a few specific game stores.
Also I’m sorry to inform all of you the Dreamcast did fail market wise. Don’t get insulted b/c a system you like failed. Being a failed system dosen’t mean it was bad it just meant it didn’t sell well, had bugs or the company didn’t support it properly. Sega going bankrupt made the Dreamcast fail. It didn’t mean it was a poorly designed system.
LinuxManScott: We know the system failed. However, the article specifically says “DreamCast, which was eventually another failure because of the buggy parent unit.” That’s what people were questioning.
My comment was directed twards koreansky who thought this was about the psp. and techni who got all disgruntled b/c one of the systems he/she liked faild.
i Looooove FF8 Even though ive never completed it (ultimecia I sooo hard). i went on ebay to get a pocket station and they where all dead dear anyone now where to get a cheap one cos if you like ff8 even if the platforms bull it worth it just to pley the game.
Why does everyone care about some little piece of crap? There is a new generation of games people, so why be arsed about some little money making scheme by sony? D**k Heads!
Whatever, PSP succeeded it and that’s that. By the way, by the sounds of it, FAILED, by the sounds of it. Look at the way you had to put a game on it! you had to own a PS1 to get the games on to it. Failure in my books.
I have 2 pocketstations. A white one and a pink one from a PS1 Tomeki Memmorial game. I had a clear one but lost it. Someone mentioned the PS1 game Pocket MUUMUU. It is like going to an amusement park and you can download games for the Pocketstation… when I first got it I couldn’t find any games but it is dependent on the time of day which games are available. Someone wrote a FAQ at Gamefaqs.com that is at least 10 pages long. The Pocketstation was successful in Japan and the reason it never came over here was SONY couldn’t produce them fast enough in Japan and figured that it wasn’t worth the trouble of selling them in the U.S. and trying to keep up with the demand.
I have a special screwdriver that used to be available in Japan that would hold a spare battery and also allow the owner to open the battery case with ease. If left alone the batteries always die. Does anybody know how to turn the Pocketstation on and off? I have the same problem with the Dreamcast VMU since they both use the same batteries.
The Dreamcast was discontinued because Sega was bleeding money by making them and had to stop before they went bankrupt. The Japanese CEO at the time had to deposit thousands of yen just to keep the company afloat. That’s why they got out of the hardware business. I still play my Dreamcast every day and intend to get the last 2 games that may be available, Trigger Heart Excelcia and Karous. If you want a real challenge buy Last Hope for the Dreamcast. It’s as hard as Pulstar and R-Type.
I’ve had a pocketstation for a really long time, and a bit ago I was on wikipedia and read that you can download your pets from legend of mana to it to raise. I cant find any site that says whether its only for the japanese version or not. The only thing that they say is that the pocket station was only released in japan. If it IS possible in the US version of LOM, I havent been able to figure out how to do it, and I cant find any sites that TELL me how to do it! I would really appreciate it if someone could email me, and tell me if its compatible with the US version, and if so, how to activate it.
Thank You.
LadyAshley
ive been surching for a pocketstation
could someone tell me where i can bye one
i couldnt find any sites or something where i can get it
please, help me someone
thanks
i got mine off of ebay.
Holy crap, there’s a tons of errors in the article. And I can’t beleive the webasster was retarded enough to ban someone for pointing them out. I own one and it was not faulty. These sold like hotcakes when they came out, Sony couldn’t keep up with japan
Its interesting people view the Dreamcast as a Failure when I would say the opposite. Not only did it inspire some of the greatest games of the last generation (Shenmue, Jet Set Radio, Samba Di Amigo etc) but a tiny minority of publishers carried on releasing games for it up until April of this year (2007) and a few years back the DC garnered enough attention for Sega to manufacture some more in small quantities.
Nowadays there is still a hardcore following for the DC (mainly due to its shmup credentials) but with a lifespan of 9 years based on published software it actually managed to outlast both the GameCube and the Original Xbox.
Some failure.
ive been searchin for a pocketstation for years as my fave game of all time is FF8, and here in england they werent released at all, not even in specialty shops, so i finally looked up on ebay and it should arrive soon, gonna help me whoop some backside on ff8, if i can get disc 3 to work now, as for some reason it wont :( which means i may need to get the game again, the pocketstation sold out in japan, and they couldnt keep up with demand so they never released here (big shame, coz as a little kid i would have gotten one) so now mines been imported and its in mint condition, and i can finally say i own a pocketstation, also the PSP was very expensive for what it is, and it needs more games that are only released for it, for the PSP to become a good system, battery life is dissapointing mind, considering the Nintendo DS can last up to 10 hours, and the PSP lasts on average 2.5 hours, bit of a bummer but its still good, but the older consoles r still the better ones, i still own a sega master system that works, although i dont play on it much, its novelty value now really.
I don’t know what you did to your PSP, but they last on average of 5 hours.
Wow, Techni is still posting false Sony facts. I wonder if he’s admitted that the PSP is a P.O.S. and the DS completely pwns it.
Curious, I don’t see anything false about Techni’s statements. And I can back them up myself as I too own a Pocketstation. And calling PSP a POS makes you a lying troll. Though you won’t hear me say PSP owns DS as that also would be trolling.
We own pocketstation, DS, and PSP. All three seem to be good systems so far. DS is much better as far as load time and battery life, but the PSP is a decent system itself! And lots of good games are getting ready to be released on both systems. I think DS will end up bettering the PSP but really not by much. The fact that you can play movies, and download stuff to PSP scores points though; especially if you are traveling and you buy a speaker system for it ^^. I find it amazing that game systems are as durable as they are in all honesty. It makes me look at laptops and think about how their battery life is only like 2 hours, and if you keep them plugged in and on for over that time period you risk burning up your system -_-;. Wish I would have known that sooner before I burnt mine up =(.
Raijin, i didnt do anyhting to my psp, but if u sit there solidly playing gmaes or watching films, with the sound over half way at a decent level, u should find that the battery runs out after about 2.5 – 3 hours, n i hear crisis core comes out very soon, and thats psp only, im so gonna get it on release day, should be an excellent addition to my ff games :P
Techni is an Internet stalker who goes around posting pro-Sony BS on a number of websites and fighting with people who disagree. Some people think she’s a Sony plant, others think she’s simply deranged. She’ll go so far as to contact people and make threats. You were wise to ban her, as many have done before, before it got out of hand.
Call me crazy, but it looks more like you guys are stalking Techni, and other people have backed up Techni’s claims further showing how much of a liar both you and this page are. I’ve done some research and found no mention of the flaws this page mentions. And even finding what someone said above about Pocketstation selling so well in japan they couldn’t keep up with demand.
In short, you guys (ModernMan and Wok7) are obviously the stalkers. And your responses seem more like someone prone to threats.
Could this go back to being a Pocketstation discussion? Why are people like Wok7 and ModernMan not being banned? Surely their BS is far more distruptive and disgusting.
I wasn’t saying she was right or wrong here only that she’s a predator who will take things to far over time. If you knew the number of sites she’s been banned from and the threats she’s made you wouldn’t say that. All I was sayng was that it’s good to stop her before she goes all crazy on you.
And I’m saying your comments, and the way you’re harassing this person on this site, seems to point to you being the stalker. I seriously doubt you’re telling the truth about the threats as well. More than likely it’s some pathetically immature attempt at slander. Which does not belong here, and I hope the mods are going to erase both your comments, and my replies to keep this on topic.
I hope one day you grow up.
I’ve considered closing this post, but it has been quite amusing reading these comments. (People are still fighting even though this article will be about 2-years-old in about 2 months.) It doesn’t look like this has gotten dangerous or heinous just yet, so I think i’ll keep it open for a bit longer. :-)
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, I’ve been getting response emails, so randomly form this article..
i keep checking in to see if anyone has answered my very first post on the LOM thing. i still havent found the answer anywhere!
Sahas Katta, I think one of the reasons people are still commenting is that you never gave a source for your unverified claims that the Pocketstation was unpopular and that the Dreamcast was buggy. Honestly though, I also wouldn’t want to give the satisfaction of an answer to someone who was so brash as Techni.
Lady Ashley, I remember looking this up when you first asked, but I never figured it out. In the Japanese version, the option is at the Monster Corral and is one of the options that you can select in the Menu Ring. Unfortunately, I don’t have a save of the game anymore so I couldn’t check. I did look in my manual and saw that they list the options for the Monster Corral, and don’t talk about the Pocketstation one. That might mean that they took it out (but that would be surprising because Square didn’t take out Pocketstation functions from the American FF8 and Saga Frontier 2). All I can suggest is that you go to the Monster Corral with the Pocketstation plugged in, and hope the option shows up.
http://maru-chang.com/hard/scph/index.php/english/
SCPH-4000 PocketStation It’s the MemoryCard with monochrome LCD-screen. It can be playing “Doko Demo Issyo” etc.. January 23, 1999 for ¥3000. Shipment finished at July 19, 2002. It was shipped 4.9 million units in Japan.
4.9 million is a failure? At least we can put this disgusting argument to bed what with this failure talk being complete bs.