In the early days of home consoles backwards compatibility wasn’t something companies considered. If you wanted to play old games you just held onto your older system. With time though all things electronic break and there are still gamers who cling to favorites from outdated systems. An avenue that many go is simply to download an emulator and ROM files. That has two disadvantages: firstly ROM files are only legal if you have them as an electronic backup to a physical cartridge; secondly unless you bring a laptop on your travels it’s hard to bring these games with you, since getting them onto a PSP or other handheld requires modding it, which many of us are loathe to do.

Sony is currently in talks to allow many titles to be brought to the PSP. Currently a range of PSOne titles are available for download via the PSN store, but they are pursuing companies whose back catalog of games have in some cases never been seen on a Sony system: “We look for some of those big hits from all of the past games in their history and look for ways we can bring them over. It’s not always easy. There’s obviously technical areas that need to be bridged. But when those are solved, consumers will see a wide variety of retro games and brand new games coming to PSN,” said John Koller, SCEA marketing boss to MTV Multiplayer. Judging from the success of Nintendo’s Virtual Console this could be a great move for Sony, especially if they get their hands on some popular titles.