Playing PSP Games on your PC with a PSP Emulator
Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) is one of the two most popular handheld gaming consoles today, and many people love having all of its rich features like the ability to connect to the Internet and watch movies on it. However when at home, some people might prefer to have a larger screen because they can easily use their computer with a 20" (or larger) monitor. To play your favorite PSP titles on your computer, you'll need to download a PSP emulator which will allow you to do just that.
Emulators and Roms
Many people don't know the difference between an emulator and a Rom, but they're both required to play PSP games on your PC. First off, a PSP emulator works as a sort of PSP operating system on your computer. All computing electronics have operating systems that tell the hardware how to act, and then individual programs (in this case they're called Roms) are specific sets of instructions that work through the operating system to use your hardware. Simply put, Roms are synonymous with PSP games in this case, but you won't need your game disc to play on a PSP emulator because all of the files will already be on your computer's hard drive.
When using emulators for the PSP (and other systems) on your computer, many people immediately cite legal concerns dealing with copyright laws. These are valid concerns, but fortunately there are many legal, free to play Roms for your PSP emulator. You'll just need to make sure that you don't download or share copyrighted files on your computer from or with other people.
When you download the PSP emulator, the file won't be too large, but it will be a bit larger than previous emulators you might have downloaded because of the PSP's increased complexity over systems of older generations, like Sony's PlayStation or even older consoles. With that said, even dial up users could download PSP emulators in a matter of an hour or two, although the individual Roms will likely be much larger depending on their level of content.
Also, these programs are a great way for interested or prospective buyers to get to know how the PSP works without having to test it out (by purchasing it). In a few hours, you can make the best informed decision about how much fun you'd have with a PSP over other offerings by testing out many of the games on your computer for free with a PSP emulator.
