PSP UMD Format Cracked 392
slewfo0t writes "PS2info.com user Paradox has found a way to read the files off of the new UMD disks for the PSP. Good to know that those files aren't completely locked. "
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PSP UMD Format Cracked
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8 Catfish = 1 Octo-puss
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Mobile Gaming (Score:3, Interesting)
Has anyone had a chance to compare the PSP with the other gaming systems out there? I'm seriously considering picking up *something* to occupy my attention on the flights I'm going to start taking over the next couple of months (somehow I've fallen into the business-travel trap).
I'd like to get a decent system. The ability to watch movies is a big draw, but obviously nothing's out in Sony's proprietary format and I imagine I'd need one hell of a memory stick to watch anything from one, and it hurts my black little soul to think seriously about rewarding Sony for their shitty proprietary memory format.
Played a little bit of Metroid on the Nintendo DS and it was okay. Not so sure I liken the approach that much -- I suspect that touchscreen would get scratched all to hell eventually like the screen on my Palm V did.
I've browsed around the web a bit but haven't been able to find a comparison or even a real decent set of reviews from anywhere I'd trust (note to most gaming websites: Yeah, we've figured out you're whores. The ads for the product on the same page as the review was a tip-off).
Opinions/Assistance? Is it even worth it, or should I just buy a nice book and charge up my iPod?
Read the thread (Score:5, Interesting)
So when are we going to get a Linux port? (Score:4, Interesting)
Got list? (Score:3, Interesting)
- PSP UMB [engadget.com]
- N Gage [interesting-people.org]
- DVD [videohelp.com]
- Audio CD [cdfreaks.com]
- DVD Audio [cnn.com]
all have been visited by hackers
Re:Wow (Score:1, Interesting)
20+ years with endless popularity and still protected.
Viva la 1980s (Score:2, Interesting)
By that, I mean the idea that you should only be able to do things with your device that licensed developers have been blessed enough to be allowed to do. If you want to make your own games or software, pony up a few Gs and sign an NDA for a 'development kit'.
Minidisc, Memory Stick, UMD, Sony just doesn't get it. Why go through all the trouble to put such promising power in the palms of your hands, only to lock up its capabilities in proprietary media formats, in the year 2005 when it's no longer technically or economically necessary to do so?
I can understand Sony's motivations to do this: protecting their image, preventing piracy, etc, but the PSP seems to me to be more than the simple game consoles of old. Why block out developers who could do amazing things for your platform (make it more attractive!) because your content division gets to make all the decisions...
Actually... (Score:2, Interesting)
Although the appearance of blank media is likely, it would be much more expensive to produce and sold at a higher price than a standard one, hence diminishing its appeal.
Sony might have something here.
Re:Mobile Gaming (Score:3, Interesting)
This is just a light opinion post...
My brother bought a Nintendo DS the day it came out. I've had a lot of opportunities to play it including a flight to Switzerland and 2 round trip train rides to Boston (4 hours each way).
The battery life was pretty good and it felt really solid. However it was hard getting used to the "thumb" attachment which lets you use the touchpad for directional-control instead of the directional pads.
The experience was alright but not that great; I grew tired of it pretty quickly. Mario 64 was cool (as were the mini games) but his 2 other games weren't that captivating. After a while I was only playing it because I was bored and forgot to bring a book.
I bought a PSP a week or 2 after they came out since I was travelling again and didn't want to bring my brother's DS. I now have Lumines, Wipeout, and Mercury.
Before getting to the "experience," I will give 2 words of warning. I had to exchange my first unit because it had about 15 dead pixels, the store people were shocked and helped me out ASAP. My replacement now has none. Also it "feels" flimsy, but only where the mini-disc compartment is. It flips out like a book (almost like a top-loading VCR from the 80's) and that "door" has a little play. But everything else feels really sturdy.
The battery life is pretty good too. My experience is it lasts only a little less (maybe 20%) than a Nintendo DS.
The games are pretty fun. Lumines has become my new "Tetris," and I play it constantly. It started slow but I'm addicted. Wipeout is like F-Zero (for SNES users), it's a hoot. Mercury is great... frustrating... but a great puzzle game.
For pure fun both my brother and I recommend the PSP. In fact he now regrets getting the DS and wants a PSP. However it's more expensive than the DS and the games usually cost $10USD more than Nintendo DS games.
Personally I'm quite pleased with my purchase. But your mileage may vary.
They can already boot homebrew code from memstick (Score:3, Interesting)
Elf to PBP convertor v0.3 - homebrew now possible!
Internal Reality have released Elf to PBP convertor which is a program that allows you to convert a ELF file compiled for the PSP and convert it into a PBP file which is runnable on a PSP via the memory stick. This means that homebrew is now possible but there is one limitation to this which is you will need a Japanese v1.00 firmware to run the converted file, a v1.50 Japanese PSP or US PSP (any version) will not work.
If you are a developer and are lucky enough to have a v1.00 Japanese PSP then visit the homepage at http://www.internalreality.com/ [internalreality.com] for more information. You can discuss this news on the forum post here started by gbafan.
http://emuholic.emuboards.com/modules.php?name=Ne
Re:Wow (Score:2, Interesting)
As to why they don't make it open source, they really have no reason to. Why should they care if people can't make ISO copies without having to reverse engineer the hardware?
Re:Still can't download games (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Emus! (Score:2, Interesting)
Sounds like nonsense to me. I don't see why Sony would see any harm in playing around with the included web browser. Kiddies who go around creating portals for it and touting as a "hack" need to settle down.
Re:Great. So when can we start warezing games? (Score:3, Interesting)
Me, I just want to be able to reverse-engineer and twiddle my legitimately-purchased games... disable the %$#$@ timed minigames, that sort of thing. (Not that I own a PSP -- just a PS2 -- and I consider the timed minigames in FFX2 annoying enough to prevent me from playing more than ~15 minutes in, when the first one [a race to a summit?] exists).
Re:Fascinating device. (Score:3, Interesting)
Saying the words 'cheaper' and 'book' in the same sentence is pretty funny. Have you priced books lately? Even paperbacks are like $7! Crazy.
Re:A bit of a rant on UMD's (Score:4, Interesting)
A typical full-length movie with H.264 video encoding and stereo sound will fit on a 512MB CompactFlash-type card easily. Using plain old ROM in them instead of Flash memory would bring the sale price down, and be cheaper to manufacture.
Too late now, I guess.
Re:A bit of a rant on UMD's (Score:3, Interesting)
I agree that they are too stiffly priced. Some UMD movies are decently priced but even those should be cheaper.
To me, the convenience of portability doesn't balance out the lower resolution (little better than VCD), fewer features and the complete inability to display them on a screen other than a PSP's is pretty limiting.
Paradox isnt a person. (Score:2, Interesting)
UMD movies (Score:3, Interesting)
Most DVDs here retail for about $20 or slightly more. It would be foolhardy to market the UMD versions of these movies for more than the DVD version, considering that DVD gives you extra bonus features as well as higher resolution. (This, despite Sony's claim on the UMD movie packaging that these movies are DVD quality.)
Re:Viva la 1980s (Score:2, Interesting)
NetMD players (at least) will only play ATRAC files. If you have a library of music in MP3/OGG/WMA/whatever, you actually had to transcode the files to ATRAC to play them. Once they're transcoded, the (horribly designed and hard to use) software (OpenMG/Sonic Stage) will only let you upload any given file to your player 3 times....unless you delete the files and transcode them again. You have to go through elabroate "check in" and "check out" rituals just to transfer music to the device. Of course you can't use a NetMD in Mac OS or Linux, or even in Windows as a usb mass storage device (bypassing the horrible software for the simplicity of drag and drop), because none of the lawyers at Sony wanted you to be able to freely move files on and off! of the thing.
It's possible to use RealOne to get files on the thing without these restrictions, but you still have to have OpenMG or SonicStage installed in the first place, you also have to trudge through the RealOne install, incessantly telling it that you don't want to be advertised at, and this option is completely non-obvious (unless you actually use RealOne to interface with your portable music players, but who does that anyway?)
The MiniDisc's huge success is a testament to the popularity of formats like this.
I know about all this because I impulsively purchased a NetMD about 2 years ago and it's heard its fair share of obscenities in its day. Maybe that's why I'm so predjudiced against Sony...
The latest players actually have MP3 support, but Sony missed the opportunity and now they're irrelevant compared to the iPod.
Re:Actually (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm going to go out on a limb here and make a few bold assumptions:
1. The developers of the PSP launch titles needed a way to easily QA many different beta builds of their games.
2. Sony, wanting to keep a tight lid on the UMD format, refused to give any developers a desktop UMD burner to burn beta builds.
3. Instead, Sony gave each developer a code-signing certificate that allowed them to sign beta builds, write them to a memory stick, and run through QA.
You know what made me jump to these conclusions?
The size of the games...
At the time the launch titles were being developed, the largest Memory Stick Duo available was 512MB, which would explain the small size of all the launch titles. Even now the 1GB memory stick duos are just barely becoming available, and are in such short supply that I'm still wondering if they have been released or not (I have one on pre-order through Amazon).
What makes this really interesting is that if the game developers knew how to write games to Memory Stick and play them for QA and testing purposes, that means the modders are going to figure out how to do it to... It's going to get real interesting when 4GB sticks are ~$50 US and plentiful and games are still only max ~1.8GB...
Re:Mobile Gaming (Score:3, Interesting)
That's not the distinction I'm drawing. A game that requires you to whip through hairpin turns in an airship, or fight through a dungeon of monsters and solve difficult puzzles just seems a little more mature than one where you are required to draw basic shapes around a falling baby, or pull boogers out of someone's nose with a stylus. The kind of games I've seen on DS are not just basic, they're pedestrian and gimmicky, and most lack the substance required to compensate.
I agree that most "mature" games are about as juvenile as it gets. I have the same problem with the MPAA ratings system sometimes. My point was that games for the DS have all seemed like they were intended for a 6-year old that never saw a Palm PDA, or someone with ADD. Profanity and obscenity aren't what make games more mature, but rather precise control, polished visuals, and engaging (and often very difficult!) gameplay. However, filling a game with crappy MIDI music, cartoon characters, and too-cute dialog written to amuse small children sure can dumb it down.
It's a more difficult distinction, but oftentimes a certain level of violence does make a game more mature. Not because violence is 'kewl', but because violence fits into the scenario. To a point, it helps make the game more real, and less like an antiseptic playground for our vapid youth who can't yet distinguish between real and simulated violence.
Jasin NataelRe:Mobile Gaming (Score:2, Interesting)
15FPS on an LCD screen is reasonable and fine by just about anyone. If you search around, you'll find some research on video framerates. Granted, it's not the 24-30 we're all used to seeing on television and at movie theaters.
Staring at something at one foot away wreaks all kinds of hell on your eyes' focusing abilities. I'd be careful with that... I could have avoided needing glasses now by sitting farther away from the screen in my youth. Don't do it. I repeat, don't do it. I don't care if you think you've got some special exercise for your eyes, or if your vision is already legally blind. Stop!
The Nintendo DS was supposed to be marketed at the 18+ crowds, and have pseudo-PDA functionality for later titles.
Performance *of the new software releases* for any platform will improve as any system matures. I expect the PSP and Nintendo DS to have much better software available over time, just as Gameboy Advance, N64, Playstation, Palm and Windows Mobile did. (It's not like the system is made out of cheese or wine. It doesn't get better with age... it just ages and devalues like technology has a way of doing.)
My major gripe about the PSP is the memory stick. I hate Sony for inventing it. Just about as much as I hate Olympia for using xD memory technology. It's just another non-innovative format Sony invented for the sake of having their own special format with their name on it. Not to mention that there are a few incompatible and various size flavors of Memory Stick. My customers come to me in their confusion looking for answers sometimes. I'll find the right part for them, but Sony needs to stop confusing people. It's not supported by anything non-Sony other than card readers and it costs twice as much as competing technologies. I can get a much more reliable 1GB *Lexar* or *Sandisk* SD or CF card for the $70 you paid for your 512MB Sony MS. Sony!! I don't trust my data to Sony products, do you seriously? Imagine if this happened: 45 hours into a game, the memory stick gets scrambled for no reason, and there goes 45 hours of work. I've never observed it on a PSP, but I've seen it with cheapo memory cards in cameras.
Using a memory stick for "secure" data in this time of card readers coming in almost every computer and all-in-one machine you buy is
That's about it. I wrote too much. Intelligent replies are welcome, one-liners are not.