Say Goodbye To The Notion That You're Not A Geek

Author's Rating:

Pros: Your Playstation Is Now PORTABLE (!), Outstanding Clarity

Cons: Very High Price Tag, Needs An Expensive Battery, Tinny Sound

The Bottom Line: 
Playing high-quality games with great graphics OUTSIDE OF YOUR HOME is now possible!

Author's Review
I used to cling to a little fragment of a notion that despite obvious evidence to the contrary, I wasn't a geek. I mean, I love playing RPG's, I like putzing around on the internet all day, I even own a pair of Docker's, for God's sake. Despite this mountain of evidence that I am in fact, a complete tool, I still used Johnny Cochrane-like logic to state that not only was I not a geek, but I was in fact pretty damn cool. Well, my friends, I now have nothing to back this up at all. You see, I recently purchased InterAct's Mobile Monitor for my PS One.

What is this device that only Satan himself could of devised to shake me into Loser Reality? It's a little 5' screen that attaches to your PS One, and with the aid of an attached battery, makes your Playstation totally portable. With the demise of Playstation gaming pretty clear on the horizon these days, it seems that moving into the portable area might actually give a little more life to this dying console. Granted, you must go through a world of hurt to make your Playstation portable; the device only works with the PS One model of Playstation, so you must get that first, and the Mobile Monitor and Mobile One Battery (not included) will cost you an arm and a leg. However, once everything is in place, you will be in gamer geek bliss as you can take your previously home-only games EVERYWHERE!

You see, the problem with portable gaming over the years is this: portable systems just haven't been powerful enough to really compete with the pumped-up home consoles. Portable systems were nice for being on the bus and riding in the car, but they just didn't compare. It's like saying that Taco Bell is great at 3 am when you're drunk, but that's only because Taco Bell is the only place that's open at 3 am, so it's either a taco or an empty stomach. Portables like the Game Boy and the new Game Boy Advance do what they do very well, but the greatest GBA game in the world can't hold a candle to the crappiest Playstation game. Gamers everywhere were resigned to the fact that you simply couldn't get Playstation quality in a portable system, so they quickly became content with the gaming equivalent of Taco Bell. Indeed, it would have been quite the quandary to make a high quality portable with the power of the Playstation, so InterAct side-stepped the problem altogether by not making an entirely new portable, but making the PS One itself portable. And the by-product of this stroke of genius, the Mobile Monitor, is a gamer's dream come true.

So how does it work, you ask? Like a charm. The screen on the Mobile Monitor is 5 inches, which to some may be too small (get your mind out of the gutter), especially for gaming where little details can mean the difference between moving on and starting over from the beginning of a level, but the screen is so clear that the size actually doesn't matter much (I say this ALL the time). Like I said before, I like to play RPG's, and RPG's tend to have a ton of tiny little text that I feared would be very hard to read on such a small screen. I am happy to say that they picture on the Mobile Monitor is so crisp and sharp, however, that I have actually had no problem at all reading all of the text. The colors are vibrant and bright, and there doesn't appear to be any sort of "ghosting" or blurriness associated with small screens such as this. The screen is also backlit, like your TV, so playing in the dark is not a problem, like with other portables (::cough, Game Boy! ::cough::).

The Mobile Monitor does have some controls on its face, including a volume control, brightness and color, as well as a little switch to flip between playing games on the screen, and using it for videos/DVD's. I'm not really sure why there is even an option for watching videos or DVD's on this little thing; why in the world would you unhook your DVD player from your big home television and hook it up to a 5" screen? Well, whatever floats your boat; if that's your thing, the Mobile Monitor gives you the option to do just that. The sound for the screen comes from two little speakers on each side of the monitor, and really, the sound isn't that great. It tends to be a little tinny on its own, with not a lot of depth or volume. When you plug headphones into the available jack, however, the sound is crystal clear and is actually very good. This really isn't much of an issue, anyway; one must only play a Game Boy for a while to see just how bad portable gaming sound has been in the past.

The Mobile Monitor attaches to the back of the PS One using little metal screws that snap it securely into place. Once on the console, the monitor can fold down over the PS One like a laptop screen, and it can fold back the other way to get the best viewing angle. The casing itself seems to be fairly sturdy, which is important for a unit that's going to see more than it's fair share of road trips.

As I mentioned, the Mobile Monitor is really only one piece of the puzzle in order to take your PS One on the road. The other, just as vital piece is the Mobile One battery that fuels the monitor and Playstation. For no reason apparent to me, except to make more money, of course, the battery is sold separately from the Mobile Monitor. The battery itself is small and slim, and fits compactly underneath the smooth design of the PS One, with a small cord plugging into the back of the console. An outlet plug is included with the battery for charging, and a small light on the front glows red while charging, and turns green when the battery is full (a full charge takes about 3-4 hours). When fully charged, you can expect this little beauty to drive the PS One and Mobile Monitor for about 2.5 hours. If you get caught in a bind, there is also a cigarette lighter adapter to provide further gaming fun.

The downside of this setup is probably starting to dawn on you right about now, so I'll lay it all out for you: PRICE. The Mobile Monitor is going to set you back a whopping $149.99, and it's absolutely useless without the Mobile One battery, which will make you $49.99 lighter. The PS One console itself only costs $100 these days, so you're spending twice as much just to make the damn thing mobile. If you don't have the PS One to begin with (the Mobile Monitor will only work with the PS One), you're looking at spending over $300 on a portable gaming system. Game Boy geeks all over the nation will scream in horror at this fact, but is there really that huge a difference between getting a Game Boy Advance setup and taking your Plystation on the road? Let's look at the numbers, shall we?

A Game Boy Advance will currently cost you about $100. Add in there that you will need some sort of lighting device, since the screen is not backlit, and that's another $10-$20. Games for the GBA are currently about $40, and you will probably want to start off with at least two, right? So right now, we're looking at spending at least $200 on a portable system that is roughly as powerful as the Super Nintendo from 10 years ago.

* Note - I don't want to sound like I'm bashing the GBA, because I actually think it's really cool, and plan on getting one.

On the other hand, getting your Playstation converted to a portable system will cost you $200 for the monitor and battery. If you don't have a PS One, that will set you back $100. However, if you're at all interested in having a portable Playstation, it's probably because you've been playing with the console for years, so you probably also have a library of Playstation games already. In this case, you don't have the added expense of stocking up a whole new library of new games.

So we're looking at $200-$300 for a portable Playstation system that has a simply VAST library of great games, and still some new ones continuing to come out regularly, and $200 for a GBA that has nowhere near the same power, and as of yet doesn't have a ton of games to choose from. I'm not trying to be judgemental here, just giving out the facts so you can make an informed buying decision.

If InterAct can somehow bring the price of this combo down to sane standards, like about $99-$130 for both the monitor and the battery, I think we might actually see a boom for the Playstation as a portable. I know it's crazy to believe that someone else could muscle in on the hallowed territory of the Game Boy, but with a lower entry price, there's no reason why people wouldn't start to take their PS One on the road. It's not nearly as compact as the Game Boy, but I believe that's a small price to pay for having a more powerful system. I know that people definitely like the idea because I get lingering glances at the Playstation while I'm playing, and many "Damn! That's cool!" type comments. Now if only they'd say I was cool...::sniff::