Article - The State of Homebrew On All Consoles

**sabernet** · June 11th, 2006, 18:11

Originally Posted by jimjamjahaa

what are you blithering about?

im highly interested in this claim.... could you provide a source for that statment?

While I agree the claim was with more certainty then is possible at this point, let us observe the track record of Sony:

1) The rootkit fiasco:
http://www.boingboing.net/2005/11/21...t_drm_rou.html

2) The PSP:
http://www.askdavetaylor.com/should_..._firmware.html

3) The PS2
(I won't post a link, but there are over 20 microsolder points required for the modchip and Sony, like MS, has heavily enforced the illegality of modchips via the DMCA)

4) The RIAA lawsuits(Sony is the biggest player in the RIAA)
http://www.riaa.com/default.asp

5) BlueRay DRM(Sony can remotely destroy your player on suspicion of piracy)
http://www.drmwatch.com/drmtech/article.php/3526796
http://www.blu-ray.com/

**scorpei** · June 11th, 2006, 18:20

Originally Posted by Pico

The GBA is not defunked yet, so go buy one and stop pirating GBA games.

There is no need for pirating.
Lets say I have a gba game, and a psp.
I do not want to carry both around.
Then the emu comes in handy.

**DamienG** · June 11th, 2006, 18:56

The Xbox360 may well have a legal homebrew future using something called XNA Framework.

Basically as part of Microsoft's XNA strategy they want to release a specialised version of the .NET 2.0 framework with managed DirectX components, XACL etc. for both PC and Xbox360.

With .NET being a sandboxed VM style environment with good performance they could open up the system to third party dev's without fear of people being able to boot pirated games, mess with save games or screw up gamerpoints.

They haven't confirmed whether the 360 will run unsigned bytecode yet but a big announcement is planned for August 18th.

More at my blog, http://www.damieng.com/blog/archive/...gPlatform.aspx

[)amien

**SSaxdude** · June 11th, 2006, 19:05

I highly doubt that the Wii will be a homebrew fans dream becasue you have to pay to play the retro games. Homebrew is supposed to be free for all, not have a charge. As for the linux on PS3, I doubt this would be used mainly for running unsigned code.

**scorpei** · June 11th, 2006, 19:25

Homebrew is legal.

**sabernet** · June 11th, 2006, 19:44

Originally Posted by SSaxdude

I highly doubt that the Wii will be a homebrew fans dream becasue you have to pay to play the retro games. Homebrew is supposed to be free for all, not have a charge. As for the linux on PS3, I doubt this would be used mainly for running unsigned code.

Iwata did say that someone developping games for the Virtual Console(he explicitly said new gamesnot old ones, but he probably meant using older frameworks for the NES-N64) would cost on average about 50$(he said 5000yen).

It may not be free homebrew, but it may be damn cheap homebrew

**Briggzy11** · June 11th, 2006, 20:45

I learned much about the homebrew scene I did not expect...

...Thank you wraggster

**scorpei** · June 11th, 2006, 20:52

Originally Posted by sabernet

Iwata did say that someone developping games for the Virtual Console(he explicitly said new gamesnot old ones, but he probably meant using older frameworks for the NES-N64) would cost on average about 50$(he said 5000yen).

It may not be free homebrew, but it may be damn cheap homebrew

Would the developers have to pay that or every customer?
I think hacking the thing would make us all a lot happier

.

**sabernet** · June 11th, 2006, 21:17

Originally Posted by scorpei

Would the developers have to pay that or every customer?
I think hacking the thing would make us all a lot happier

.

As I understand it(based off a translation of an Iwata interview, grain of salts at front door), the developers would pay for it, but could sell it on the VC network through Nintendo's online service.

Hacking would still have a place for those who do not want to go that route.

However, seeing as they said that some third parties would be welcome in giving out their retro collections if they saw fit(consider that the pricing debate on now is for Nintendo content, not third party content, Reggie already said third parties can set their own prices), I imagine it may very well be possible to hand it out for free. Maybe the Opera browser will allow someone to download and run a VC app.

VC = Virtual Console

In retrospect, it would make sense in a way as something running off a N64 SDK would not have the same level access to the system as the official Wii SDK and they probably have the VC memory usage very well partitioned similar to how well locked away Kernal mode on the PSP is. Their licensing future would still be secured even if they handed out the VC SDKs for free(while I doubt the GC SDK will be, at least for now, as they still plan on making games for it for a bit and it's supposedly real similar to the Wii)