Following the launch of the PLAYSTATION 3 (PS3), Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) today announced the availability of new downloadable gaming content that bridges the past with the future.

SCEA has launched an initial lineup of five classic PlayStation titles that can be downloaded via the PlayStation Network and played on the PSP (PlayStationPortable) system.

The following first and third-party PlayStation titles can now be purchased for $5.99 from the PlayStation Store accessed through the PS3 system and played on the PSP system: Cool Boarders, Crash Bandicoot, Hot Shots Golf 2, Syphon Filter, and Tekken 2.

"Downloadable PlayStation emulated games on the PSP is just the beginning, but it underscores our vision for leveraging the wide breadth of content that?s available from the PlayStation brand, and delivers value to gamers well beyond the initial purchase of their PS3 and PSP," said Peter Dille, Senior Vice-President Marketing of SCEA. "We built every system with a hard disk drive and offer every customer free access to the PlayStation Store so they can experience the full extent of the PlayStation library. We?ll offer additional PlayStation games to the PlayStation Store on a regular basis."

Since the PS3 launched in the US and Japan last month, a number of issues have emerged, including incompatibilities with some older PS2 and PSOne games, and problems driving HD TVs that support the 1080i resolution rather than the 720p and 1080p resolutions the PS3 favours. Sony has hinted that fixes for these glitches are in the works, but provided no indication when a patch might be made available.