Emulation Arrives On the PS3 169
YokimaSun writes "Following the recent exploit that allows you to jailbreak your PS3, the homebrew community have now breached the console with the first homebrew game, which is the classic Pong. Also released is the first emulator for the system in the shape of a SNES Emulator great for those 16-bit games. Finally drk||Raziel, the coder of the Dreamcast Emulator NullDC, has posted screenshots of his Dreamcast emulator working on the PS3 (albeit at a very early stage). The PS3 is building up to be the Dream Console for emulation."
Re:Does anyone else find it interesting... (Score:2, Insightful)
...that Microsoft's Xbox 360 *still* has not been exploited? PS3 has had a number of exploits over the years, but Xbox 360 is still locked down tight. Too bad desktop Windows still has remote code execution vulnerabilities discovered every month...
Probably an economic issue. Microsoft (and Sony, for that matter) doesn't make money from console hardware sales ... they need game sales to make a profit. So there's a clear incentive to make the Xbox hard to crack. Perhaps Microsoft is just better at that than Sony.
Re:Sweet. Maybe we can get PS2 emulation next... (Score:3, Insightful)
The first generation played PS2 disks perfectly, the second quite well and subsequent generations not at all. Though honestly, since there are now some very good PS3 titles at cheap prices, it becomes less and less relevant, this is Sony's thinking also I believe.
I have a backwards compatible PS3 and I think I last put a PS2 disk in there maybe two years ago, the scope of the current generation just allows for so much more in a game and my sense of nostalgia is not strong enough to persuade me to turn back. This may be a great place for the homebrew community to shine since frankly I think Sony's engineering efforts would be better spent elsewhere.
Why would it be the dream console for emulation? (Score:4, Insightful)
There are already emulators for the 360, and have been for some time. The 360 also has the advantage of being a more computer-like architecture and thus taking less effort to make an efficient emu port.
However really, if emulation is your thing, a cheap media PC/netbook is the way to go. For anything that is, say, Playstation 1 or older, you need very little hardware to emulate it. Current PCs are plenty fast enough, even at the low end. Also, there are tons of emulators that are out and available and well developed. So to me, that seems to be the "dream system." If you have a media PC, just load up the emulators on it.
I don't see anything about the PS3 that makes it particularly suited to emulation as opposed to the 360.
Re:Well, is this a good thing? (Score:3, Insightful)
The thing is that this _is_ a great demonstration of the PS3's versatility or more specifically a hacked PS3's versatility. Just a few months ago, we would have all shrugged this off as something that they could have done under Linux far more easily, but now, it is enough to really pique one's interest. Linux on PS3 was really a great idea, give the people a fair slice of the freeom they want without exposing the platform to piracy. I think it contributed to the PS3's unhacked status for so long, since in general it gave home brew people something to do that didn't involve cracking the DRM, now Linux is gone and the PS3 is hacked.
Though to be honest, I am a little bit sad. Living for a year in China has brought me from the slashdot consensus about piracy to a more conservative position. With the absence of people spending huge amounts on a boxed game, developers must cover costs in other ways, think Farmville. Pay to Play has lead to the creation of some great games in the west and Japan with no other focus than delivering an experience worth the money. Without this system, commercial games really need to be designed around an alternative revenue stream that encourages players to spend as they play, which limits the directions a game can go in immersion and creativity. I still don't think piracy is stealing, but it is not harmless at all, it does reduce the amount of money available to be invested in good, fun games and that harms every single gamer out there.
Bringing this all back to the PS3, I am saddened because there are a few very specialised PS3 game shops in China that sell official copies. XBox360 games however are near universally pirate versions. I am saddened because the reason for this is that the PS3 was until recently uncracked. I fear this will limit the availability of official games even more.
To summarise: I have some sympathetic feelings, but damnit Sony, why did you have to get rid of Linux and give us all a good reason to crack our PS3s?
Re:Well, is this a good thing? (Score:5, Insightful)
PSN is already a moot point.
Sony mooted themselves when they decided to remove the other OS feature. I did not apply that nor I will never apply another update from them to my PS3. As you can imagine, that also means I won't be buying any more new games for it either.
Good Job Sony!
Bottom line, MY HARDWARE, I paid for it. Deal.
When the day comes that I can use all the hardware without it, I will HAPPILY remove all traces of the sony OS from my machine. With the way things are going it won't be too much longer.
Re:Sweet. Maybe we can get PS2 emulation next... (Score:2, Insightful)
You did know that the different models of PS3's have different capabilites/hardware and are identified by their model numbers? A la CECHA, CECHEB, and so forth?
For example, mine is a CECHE01 MGS4 model, which means: North American Deluxe model PS3 (with the chrome trim), built in card reader, 4 USB ports, backwards compatible with PS2 games using a combination hardware and software solution, SACD support, built in wifi, bundled with Dual Shock 3 and Metal Gear Solid 4, released on June 12 of 2008.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_3#Model_comparison [wikipedia.org]
Says right on the back of the box whether it was or wasn't, can't miss it. Also it's been in all the gaming press that SCEfoo stopped making backwards compatible PS3's when the Slim PS3 became the standard model.
Re:Sweet. Maybe we can get PS2 emulation next... (Score:3, Insightful)
The original, japanese run had the full set of PS2 hardware built-in, and didn't so much emulate as switch systems. Then came a nice series for US and EU, that has software emulation. That emulation is not perfect, but pretty good; and we still play ps2 games from time to time.
Only about the time the slims were starting to get mentioned, iirc, did the PS2 emulation also vanish. Do your homework and have a look on ebay for the right model, then sell your newer one. I seem to recall Wikipedia having a quite exhaustive list of all the models.