Vita Starter Guide

1) How much is a Vita?
Sony's official prices are still $250 for the wi-fi only and $350 for the 3G enabled version. However, most major retailers have been having on-and-off deals for Vita with free games, memory cards, or gift cards. If you're patient enough and keep an eye out, you could get a new Vita for a decent price or bundled with some nice extras.

The console was officially discontinued in March, 2019, so your options are limited to ebay or your country's best similar option. As of 2021, you can find a complete one for around 40~100 USD on ebay, for reference.

The console is also region-free, which means you can get an european or japanese model that the only difference will be the power plug.

You can even get the weird Playstation TV (or Vita TV in Japan), which is basically a consolized Vita that you plug on your TV (no shit?). Some games don't work on it since it doesn't have any touch or gyro input, but hacking it solve some of these issues.

2) Is 3G worth it?
Short story: No.

Long story: The 3G model only comes with two extra things, 3G and a built-in GPS. The wi-fi version can find your position if you have a wi-fi signal, so essentially the only thing different is the 3G. Unfortunately, 3G can't be used for online games, so it's only good for the Vita's browser, social media apps or for watching YouTube on the go. Not only that, but currently AT&T is the only 3G provider for the Vita (if you're in the US), so you're stuck getting their shitty service.

So yeah, not worth the extra $100.

Also, it's 202X and any shitty phone you have will work better for these functions.

3) Do I need a memory card? How big should I get?
It depends if you want to go all digital (or pirate) or stick to physical media.

If you're gonna stick to game cards, just buy a small memory card, because even physical games need storage space to save games and download updates/DLC. The smallest card can hold 4 GB of data and it's around 15~30 USD nowadays. It may sound cheap, but it's only 4 freaking nyggabytes for 15 bucks. Yikes.

And, as you may have notice, you'll need a bigger memory card if you're just gonna storage all your games on the console. A 64GB Vita card costs around 50 USD on ebay.

It's important to note that Vita games are occupy around 1~2 GB of space, while PSP games gets around 600 MB of total space.

4) Why are the memory cards so expensive?
It's a proprietary format so, Sony can and does charge out the ass for them. One of the downsides of all digital is that you're gonna get raped on this side of things. Although many digital games are ~$5 cheaper, so you'll save a bit there. But yeah, currently there really isn't an alternative to paying out the ass for the memory cards. Pucker up.

As of 2021, this format proved to be obsolete, so it's price got down on resellers, but it's a question of time for this shit get rare as hell, so I'd recommend buying at least one or two for the sake of preservation.

If you're gonna pirate, you can use an SD2Vita, which is basically a normal microSD adapter to be used in the same slot as the game card. More on that later.

5) Can I play my PSP games?
Yes. Kinda. Basically, there's no UMD slot, so you can't play any physical PSP games you may own, but many digitally released PSP games work, using the Vita's official PSP emulator. Alas, not every PSP game released digitally is supported. There are some lists online that will tell you if the PSP game you want to play is supported by Vita. Some PSP games require that you download it to a PS3 first and then transfer it to Vita, but the games on Sony's official list can be downloaded directly to the Vita.

The PSP games that do run on Vita get some nice benefits though. The Vita's second analog stick can be configured to be mapped to the PSP's d-pad, the face buttons (X,O, triangle, square) or as a copy of the left analog stick. Also, the Vita can apply a filter to the PSP game that's being played to make it look a bit smoother on the Vita's larger screen. Not to mention benefiting from the brighter, more contrasty screen that the Vita has.

Vita pretty much kicks the shit out of any of the PSP models for playing PSP games.

6) IS IT HACKED!?!
Completely. Every Vita model, be it 1000, 2000 or the Playstation/Vita TV can be hacked if the system firmware is between 1.03 to 3.73 (which is the latest firmware as of February 2021). Since this introduction guide isn't updated frequently, just check this ultimate Vita hacking guide. Read everything before trying to do anything with your console. It's totally safe if you know what you're doing and can be done in less than 30 minutes. Yes, it's that simple.

You can even play online or download games straight from Sony servers with the correct homebrew. They don't care and, as a personal note, I must say that I've being using my main PSN account for two years on Vita, downloading games from Sony's servers and playing online and never got nuked. That mentality seems to be shared by the community but if you want to be on the safe side, just create a new account when you hack your console.

Oh, about homebrew...

7) I want to hack my console just to use homebrew! Are there any on Vita?
Plenty. Check this database to see what people are doing to our portable console recently: https://vitadb.rinnegatamante.it/

8) Can I import my weeaboo games from Japan? Can I download games from other regions?
Yes, Vita is region free for retail games so import away. Although, you may not be able to use DLC for foreign games if you're playing the game on an account from the wrong region.

You can switch the Vita over to a different region, but it takes about 5 minutes (essentially you have to restore the system to factory defaults). However, any content bought on that account cannot be played on any other account, so when you switch back you'll be locked out of it. Free content can be played though, so demos and apps are okay to go between accounts/ regions.

8) What kind of non-gaming options does Vita have?
Well, like PSP you can put music, videos, and photos onto the system and play them on the go. The Vita can access the PSN's video store if you want to buy movies or TV shows to watch on the go. In addition to that, there are some free apps available on the PSN such as: Youtube, NicoNico, Facebook, Netflix and Twitter. Some other apps like Hulu are going to be available in the future.

All those apps were discontinued, but some of their websites can still be accessed through the browser, although you'll probably need to hack your console and install a small homebrew that updates the browser's certificates.

9) Should I buy a Vita?
That's really not a question that can be answered with a blanket answer. Pretty much it comes down to games, if you see a few games on the system that you think you'll enjoy, then you might want to consider it. Most people who have owned one (even a lot of the people who ended up selling it) said that they felt like the hardware was good. So the question is more if you think you'll enjoy the games that are on it or not.

10) Where do I go if I have more questions?
Look up the Vita General thread on /vg/. There are usually some helpful folks around there if you have a question that wasn't answered here.

If you're not used to 4chan's environment, just go to /r/VitaHacks, /r/VitaPiracy or /r/Vita. The first two are obviously focused on hacking but people there tend to discuss Vita in general.

GBAtemp is also resourceful, but since it's not entirely focused on the console, help and answers can take a while to come.

You can also find me, Tony Horo who revamped this section in 2021, on twitter. Don't be afraid to DM me.