PSP Emulation Madness

An anonymous reader writes "The PSP is now the ultimate in handheld emulation consoles, already it boasts Full Speed Gameboy Colour Emulation and improving Snes & Master System but added today it also has NeoGeo CD and Sega Genesis emulators added to the impressive list of homebrew releases."

The advance of Technology.

[the_xaqster]

This really proves Moors Law. A handheld unit now has the ability to play the previous generation of console games, through an emulator layer!

I can remember when you needed a top of the range PC to play Doom. Now I can install it on my Phone.

PIM Suite?

[macemoneta]

Has anyone ported a PIM (Personal Information Management) suite and user interface (like Opie) to it yet (or are there any projects in progress)? That would make the PSP attractive as a PDA as well.

Hopefully Homebrew Will Run Soon..

[Mean_Nishka]

I will add my voice to the choir on homebrew software.. I bought a PSP at launch and haven't picked it up in weeks.. There's simply no decent software out for this thing, with very little on the horizon.

Sony would be wise to open the machine up - it'll drive hardware sales certainly more than UMD movies will. Existing homebrew apps like PSPVideo 9 are probably driving more sales than software :).

Just say MAME...

[bbzzdd]

...and I am sold. I'd love to lay in bed playing the Capcom classics on the PSP. I can do it now on the PC and modded Xbox, but the portable angle would be killer.

Re:Living under the law

[CastrTroy]

That's why I don't really get why platforms like Palm don't catch on more. With anybody being able to create and load programs on them, its suprising they don't get more attention. I think they could just as easily create all these emulators for Palm, and not have to worry about being sued. I realize that PSP has a better interface, but couldn't they make something like a keyboard attachment that has a game pad and 4 or 5 buttons?

Re:Hopefully Homebrew Will Run Soon..

[LWATCDR]

What would make more sense for Sony would be to get sega to make a commercial version of the emulator for the PSP. The question then would be... How many people would pay for the games.

Erm, no

[Mwongozi]

Anyone who thinks the PSP is "the ultimate in handheld emulation consoles" clearly hasn't heard of the GP32 [wikipedia.org].

Re:This is SWEET...

[aliquis]

I don't think they block unencrypted binaries to kill the homebrew games & apps scene, I rather think they do it to stop piracy.

Re:Truly awesome

[Aero Leviathan]

This is the kind of thing I wish Sony would hear. They actually stand to profit from giving us what we want and opening up 1.5 to homebrew, via sales of memory cards and probably more systems, yet they don't!

Tycho of Penny Arcade [penny-arcade.com] had a little rant [penny-arcade.com] the other day that I thought was quite succinct. Here's an excerpt:

How would I distinguish the PSP from full platforms? Let me count the ways:

* Full platforms can play any audio type, or allow applications to do so. . . .

* Full platforms can play any type of video, or allow applications to do so, and these videos should be able to use the entire resolution of the screen. . . .

* Executable code

I'm willing to bend on this one if you give me the other two. But letting people expand the functionality and value of your hardware isn't some imaginary thing. People write whole browsers and operating systems and every other Goddamn contraption, just because it's there. They'll make your product the kind of phenomenon you couldn't pay someone to create.