My son recently turned 8. Time to get him a handheld. The PSP e1003 was on sale for $109AUD with 2 games. I ditched those as they were for MA15+. Anyway, as soon as I could I looked at a custom firmware solution. Found a good one and put it on, very easy to do. Best thing I ever did to advance the handheld emulation experience. What a fine little machine. C64, SNES, Genesis/Megadrive, NES and other if I want them. The controls are perfectly sized and arranged. I dont know how long the production run will last on the PSPS, so I think I will buy another 4 os so of these. 2 for my twin girls when they turn 8. And 2 for me, 1 as as a spare.

I have used a small laptop, not very handheld. I have also used a jailbroken iPhone (terrible) and a few Android smartphones (not much better). I have also used a Nook Color that has been rooted with CyanogenMod7. It was better than the Android smarthpones, if only because of the bigger screen. But the PSP blows them all away. The next phone I get will probably be Sony Xperia Play. It will be interesting to see how this goes if the emaulation uses the built in control pad.

Anyone found better than the PSP for handheld emulation?

game park 32, its the best!
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Probably the PSP, yeah. Battery life might not be the best, though. Nintendo DS would be second. GP32 way behind...useless except for 8-bit consoles, it's even pretty useless for C64 emulation, plus it uses Smart Media cards which don't come larger than 128MB and cost more than a 32GB USB stick! :/

I really liked my PSP, I don't use it much these days. The one thing that used to drive me nuts with it, they have a volume limit on the headphone output, even hacked to get higher it's still quite low. Now, when I talk low, on a plane you almost can't hear the music (or game) you are playing. Other than that it was a great thing.
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Well, the best is the Pandora, but it's unbelievable expensive(440€). There are also a lot of chinese android handhelds like the JXD S601 or the Yinlips ydpg16, which are quite good in terms of emulation(and you might like to play games like angry birds, as well). They are about as powerful as the Xperia play and are way cheaper.

i have a psp but i still prefer my gp32
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I have a GP2X but it's only a dust magnet now really. The stick sucks for gaming too. Swapping batteries was probably the killer for it.
I'd take the cheapo Android option now if I was in the market for something similar.

Forgive my ignorance, but with the PSP, won't it update the firmware and lock it down if/when you put a more recent PSP game in?

The only problem I found with handhelds is a keyboard. If it does not have a keyboard it kinda sucks for Older Emulation. I have a PSP with a C= 64 Emulator, Android Smartphone with a C= 64 Emulator, and I have a Nintendo DS with a C=64 Emulator. My PSP is a 1000 series with a keyboard. However, the C=64 emulator doesn't seem to recognize the keyboard. My Android Smartphone has no keyboard and kind of sucks due to this unless you play games that do not have keyboard support. Not really for C= Emulation, the best I think out of the three of these is a nintendo DS. I have a AceKard 2i. I like it since the MicroSD holds all the games I need, has a cheat engine in it, and skins you can change. Also, there is no hacking firmware to get it to work. As well as you can play back ups of DS games. Even DSi and 3DS games. Just if you have a DSi or a 3DS you got to watch to make sure they release a firmware for the AceKard 2i before installing the DSi or 3DS firmware. Heard they tend to brick. BTW, there is a pretty good size homebrew seen for the DS.

Also, our Mr.SID has ported two games for the 64 over to it. They are IK+ and The Great Giana Sisters. Nice that I can get my daughter to play Giana Sisters so she can experience it.

The AceKard 2i has one BIG difference from the rest, besides not needing anything else besides it and a MicroSD card. I found most others seem to have a battery and save high-scores on the cartridge. The AceKard 2i actually does saves directly to the microSD card which makes it so nice.

With your son turning 8, I think he'll love having everything new and old on it. PSP tend to be made for the old teens and above. Nintendo DS tends to fit your son's age group. My son is 17 and he still plays the latest Pokemon and he has the ability to play homebrews and what not. My son has a PSP which he tends not to touch even though there are hacks for it. The best part is this AceKard 2i card is only like $20-some dollars so it won't break the budget.
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I have the Pandora and it works very well for emulation, but it certainly comes at a huge premium. I had pre-ordered mine about three years ago and they never sent it to me until I "upgraded" my order and paid a bunch of extra money. Very disappointed about the initial offering.

Even though the keyboard is there, it still takes a while to get used to it since the layout of the non-alphanumeric keys is very odd. Using a fast-load cartridge image makes it much more useable and I created a keymap for VICE on the Pandora that works great and the overall emulation is spot on.

Heather

If you're going down that path, you could look into the old Sony Vaio UX UMPCs as well, I guess. Decent specs, tiny, built-in everything. Slightly heavier and thicker, but it depends on how you use it or if that even matters.

@mistermsk, the DS sounds interesting. Maybe in the future after my wife finishes her degree. I have been researching how to convert PSX games to work on the PSP. My next project is to move alot of them onto the PSP. He loves Tomb Raider, so the first three of those will be on it soon. Then he will get a good grounding in some shoot em ups. I wish I could get Radiant Sivlergun working on it. There is a Sturn emulator. I havent tried it but I would think it is incompelte and the PSP would struggle with emulating the Saturn's custom chips.

I don't think any handheld will see a decent Saturn emulator in the near future, but there's no need for crying. There were some excellent shmups for the Playstation, as well. Have a look here: http://www.racketboy.com/retro...ps-library

I had a machine that looks like a DS, has a full keyboard and 6" TFT SVGA resolution screen and plays classic DOS/C64/Spectrum/VIC20 games on the go

Only cost me £2.50 each