PSP Hacks and the Mainstream

pasm writes "The BBC is running article about how "DIY software and hardware experts have been quick to embrace Sony's PlayStation Portable console." Today I have witnessed some colleagues playing a wireless racing game with imported ones in the office. It seems that this will be the gadget of the year for both gamers and programmers with a neat idea and time on their hands."

PSP needs a SD slot

[zardo]

One useful hack would be a sony memory stick to secure digital converter, I have 3 gigs of SD cards laying around I could be loading movies onto. The mpeg4 feature of the PSP is no use to me if I have to go out and buy a bunch of sony memory in order to do it, my 1GB SD card would be perfect (probably faster too).

This sounds great...

[Anonymous Coward]

Now if only the two units I went through before giving up and returning my psp had 100% working screens. I'm sure I would of had great time.

Clarification: GBA homebrew != piracy

[tepples]

GBA pirates, Dreamcast hacks, NES/GB/Sega Genesis home brewed games are all examples.

There also exist GBA homebrew games such as mine [pineight.com]. I hope you didn't intend a subtle slam against the gbadev community.

Re:Aibo

[Superfreaker]

I *think* I recall hearing the same argument when the robotic dog thing came out from Sony. People were hacking it and Sony started shutting down sites. Then they realized the benefit of the 3rd party hacks and began releasing SDKs for the later versions of the wacky lil beast.

Re:Trouble Brewing?

[AnyNoMouse]

Two things:

1) The developments so far have all been browser based. No SKD necessary, just a copy of Wipeout Pure (and later, hopefully, Sony will release firmware with the browser built in).

2) Sony has twice released homebrew SDK's in the past. Yaroze! for the PS1 and the Linux development kit for the PS2. I would not be surprised if they did the same for the PSP (limited, of course, as the other two SDKs were).

In other words, the only problem I forsee Sony having with the "hacks" so far is the multigame "hack" (allowing multiple people to play a wireless game with only one copy of the game). The only thing I expect to happen with this is that developers will either embrace it (explicitly allow this to happen) or code their games so you can't do it.

My thoughts

[SilentChris]

I got my PSP 2 days ago, and got a chance to spend some time late last night going over it. I still don't have any games, so my thoughts are tempered by what I can get out of the hardware. On the whole I'm pretty impressed.

The good stuff:

* Engineering-wise, it's got every piece of hardware you can think of. 802.11, IR, analog stick, USB, memory card -- there really is a "kitchen sink" approach and I like exploring the device to find new stuff. I'm really tempted to take the thing apart. :)
* The screen is phenomenial. I really think this'll be the screen that all portables will aspire to. If Apple ever makes a video iPod, this is the screen to use. I watched Spider Man 2 last night and it looked fantastic.
* I've been "pleasantly surprised" by some extras. For example, Sony packages a wired remote and headphones in the box (something Apple charges an arm and a leg for). The battery life has been better than I expected: after about 120 minutes last night of watching the movie it was only down 20%. The interface is excellent. The USB port is great because Windows sees the device as just another USB drive. System files are stored on the memory card, so they should be easy to hack. The device makes a great Wi-Fi finder (it found 4 networks in my home, and gave a percentage of their strength.

Stuff I don't care for:

* The front of the chassis is well designed and looks beautiful -- the back looks like it was done by a totally different designer. In particular, it feels flimsy. The discs are inserted in a tray mechanism that pops out, similar to a video recorder. I'm going to be careful with mine, but I can easily imagine a kid dropping and breaking it the first day.
* I'm not sold on the media (UMD - Universal Media Discs). They're essentially really tiny DVDs stored in a cartridge, similar to when CDs first came out. Space wise they're fine, as it really looks like you're watching a DVD, but the cartridge looks fragile. In particular, they look like optical disk versions of classic floppies -- without the protective flap that gets pulled away. In other words, it's fairly easy to scratch the disc.
* Certain aspects of the system are gimped. You have 802.11 but no web browser: the system only checks for new firmware (no official one anyway; someone's already hacked together a simple browser -- look through various articles). Video needs to be in a very specific format to play off a memory card: MPEG4, 29.97 fps, exact resolution (the system is much more forgiving playing MP3s and photos). The analog stick could also use a little work.

I'll have a better idea tonight when I get the games (finally), but so far I likes what I sees.

Re:Aibo

[ackthpt]

I *think* I recall hearing the same argument when the robotic dog thing came out from Sony. People were hacking it and Sony started shutting down sites. Then they realized the benefit of the 3rd party hacks and began releasing SDKs for the later versions of the wacky lil beast.

Possibly Sony relented because the Aibo wasn't a platform for generating money through subsequent sales of software. Remember, PS and PSP are what are called Loss-Leaders. They real money is in selling the games, videos and other enhancements.

Re:Trouble Brewing?

[gnuadam]

Why is this modded up. It's completely wrong. The irc "hack" is not executable code, it's just using a cgi script web page using wipeout pure's web browser.

What's so bad about 240x136 pixels?

[tepples]

That is like a 1 minute clip at 2 megs. I have seen porn like that, and it is awfully fuzzy. ;)

But for a sitcom or an anime, is 256 kbps for video+audio at 240x136 pixels (QPSP resolution) really that distracting?

Besides, erotic films are supposed to be fuzzy in order to hide the blemishes of the actors' skin. It's cheaper to blur the whole thing than to splurge on makeup ;-)

Re:Hacks?

[maxwell demon]

You misunderstand. It's about hacking the Program Segment Prefix. DOS is coming back! :-)

Gibson Quote

[cybergrue]

The Street finds its own uses for things - uses the manufacturers never imagined.
William Gibson [voidspace.org.uk]

Re:My PDA is better than a PSP.

[*BBC*PipTigger]

Hello Mr. Self-Described Non-Troll,

Have you heard of texture-mapped three-dimensional graphics where millions of polygons are rendered at 30 frames-per-second? How about an analog control stick, a direction-pad && familiar action buttons? PDA's && cellular phones are garbage for games. Sure, you can make do if they're all you've got or you barely play anyway. If, however, you are a gamer that's anything beyond casual, PSP is the atom-bomb! Do you see it personally now?

-Pip

Re:Reverse Compatibility

[JackAxe]

I can't argue about the PSPs screen. :) But the option is already here for emulating the SNES on a game portable and that's with a DS through a GBA cart. I've commented on this before, but with the DS you get the "exact" same button configuration and "design" of a SNES's controller.

http://www.snesadvance.org/index.html

http://www.gameboy-advance.net/emulated/snes_rom s_ on_gba.htm

With the DS there are 2 ways right now to get SNES games onto it, one is with a GBA flash rom, the other with a GBA/SD cart.

Here's a Nintendo DS emulator. This is always the first step to home-brew games and emulators.
http://www.ndsemu.com/

Another thing, the games you mention are available for the GBA and some are even being updated for the DS, so I ask why don't you just buy a GBA or DS to go along side your PSP, since they can play these games "right" now? Wouldn't you rather play "Mario Kart DS" this year with network play?

http://ds.ign.com/objects/682/682877.html?ui=cb_ up _03

I wouldn't buy a Nintendo DS to play GT4 or PSOne games, so why go with a PSP to play Zelda or other Nintendo games? I've already played both "Zelda Link to the Past" and "Zelda The Minnish Cap" all the way through on my DS. I didn't need to wait for someone to make an emulator and then for its bugs to be worked out. And that's a "big ify" until it happens.

And you can get Darkstalker's Chronicle for your PSP and I'm sure a new Street Fighter will be released aslo. These games are always much better when they're designed exclusively for your game system.

Cool when a SNES emulator does happens for the PSP, but until then you do have a "real choice" available from Nintendo for these types of games. Tis why I bought a DS, just imagine how great Zelda DS will be with the additional touch-screen. :)