The PlayStation Network Store has returned in the US, Europe and some other territories, although it remains offline in Japan. Content which had been scheduled to go on sale during its six-week absence is being gradually added to the storefront.

However, the free games and PSN Plus membership being offered to customers as part of the 'Welcome Back' compensation package are yet to become available, with Sony saying that the offer is in "the final stages of testing".

Nonetheless, a large list of new content has been published on the US and EU PlayStation blogs, with a further round of content becoming available tomorrow.

Some UK users have been experiencing problems with accessing PSN, receiving an 807 error code when trying to reset passwords or download content. Sony has attempted to allay those concerns by explaining that the problem has been caused by enormous demand, rather than any remaining technical issues.

"There are so many of you accessing the store at the moment that due to the excessive load, it is a little slow," wrote Nick Caplin on the EU PlayStation Blog.

"We are improving it as I write this, so you will see improvements in speed as the day progresses."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-hitting-store ...

Sony has candidly admitted that it got PSPgo wrong. No ifs, no buts.

According to SCE Worldwide studios boss Shuhei Yoshida, the platform holder has learnt from its catalogue of mistakes with the ill-fated digital-only console - and NGP is reaping all the benefits.

Speaking to OPM's Leon Hurley, reporting for CVG, a bold Yoshida admitted: "I could spend 30 minutes talking about what was wrong with PSPgo".

The console's launch in November 2009 was met with respectable reviews, but the price - just $50 less than the PS3 at the time - was widely criticised. The system struggled to sell, despite a relaunch last May that saw the hardware bundled with 10 free games in the UK.


Reports emerged in April this year that production of the device had ceased in Japan.

"There are lots of lessons we learned from the PSPgo," Yoshida told us. "Definitely we didn't do something right with [it]. So there are lots of things like the hardware didn't have the compatibility with the UMD library and not all the PSP games were sold on the PSN store.

"Hardware wise we made it our highest priority to make it small and portable but that's not what people really wanted. Because when we made it too small the screen was smaller, the buttons were thinner. It's kind of difficult, cramped into a smaller body.

"That's one of the things we learned when making the decision about large we want the screen for NGP. The five inch OLED screen and the size of the body meant we can fit the real analogue sticks."

Yoshida added that Sony was "not trying to replace smartphones" with NGP.

"We cannot make calls on NGP," he commented. "So we have to provide enough reason why, in addition to smartphone, they would want to purchase something else.

"Another analogy is that these days smartphones have pretty good camera, but they can also use an SLR and when they see the kind of pictures they can take with larger, more expensive devices they still prepared to spend the money to buy them. So it's all about what unique things you are doing with NGP."

NGP is due for launch in at least one global territory in the fourth quarter of this year. It's looking increasingly likely that the hardware will carry the name 'PS Vita'.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...VG-General-RSS ...

News via http://www.psp-ita.com/?i=4357

The developer shall submit to SikeWS his homebrew PSP Genesis Competition entitled p0rtal 2d: maker. As the name suggests it is a 2D clone of the highly popular first-person puzzler Portal, which is distributed by Valve and now in its second chapter testify.

The game mechanics are almost unchanged, except for the "limitation" to the two dimensions. The goal is to reach the level exit by overcoming the obstacles with the help of a gun only shoots portals. A simple gameplay that is the basis of a game / puzzle not easy. Welcome addition concerns the level editor through which we delight in creating and sharing levels with friends.
The project is totally open source, so that SikeWS decided to make available the source code (found at the end of news).
More info about the commands and download link after the screen

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New release from Hardhat

Time for a battle royale with a bit of online fun.

Post compo version 1.10: http://www.adamcon.org/~dmwick/psp/pspftw2d110.zip (unsigned)
pspftw2d110 signed (and shrinked) pspftw2d110 signed (and shrinked).rar - http://wololo.net/
- many improvements to move the frame rate from 25 fps to 75 fps (a much smoother experience)
- should fix the initial "Choose your network" dialog a bit (although it is still flickery for some reason).
- replaced the little squares with animated characters by Trent Gamblin (Modified BSD) to improve the frame rate
- changed the hud from drawn text to graphical (to improve the fps) with graphics from NightStar3
- changed the background to a light color and the text to a dark color to elimainate draws a drop shadow (to improve the fps)

PSP FTW is an online game where you use fireballs, collect mana, and visit waypoints to win the game. The twist is that the rules can be changed by the players, who vote on the change.

- Chat online with other players from the lobby
- Join games created by other players
- Create your own game, and have others join

Players take turns to have 30 seconds to propose a new win condition. If you create a new rule, all players vote on it, a majority changes the win condition.

- barriers are bright green.
- players are red, orange and yellow
- waypoints are blue
- mana is dark green and always appears on waypoints

Initially the goal is to collect 3 mana. Shooting a fireball uses up 1 mana, if you have any.

Across the bottom are the stats for all participating players:
M: mana collected
H: hits you've made to another player with a fireball
B: fireballs that you've successfully blocked
W: waypoints touched in the game so far.

I also am willing to release the server with source. It has been tested on Windows, Linux and Mac OS, but I'm unclear from the rules about whether it is allowed to be posted here or not. Currently it connects by default to my server (the Team Sushi PSP FTW! server) which is hosted in the US at AdamCon - Coleco Adam Convention News and Adam News Archives so if you want to check your ping times you can.

For this version the screen updates only when the server transmits an update, so eventually we will want to have multiple servers with low ping times for different parts of the world. Eventually I will release a version with smoothing, so that that FPS rate is fully used (instead of having the server update 10 times per second with chunky movement on the client side).

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The PSP retains its lead on the Japanese hardware charts this week, with the 3DS finally starting to show signs of life in two.

According to the latest Media create figures, reported by Andriasang, the PSP sold 33,609 units during the week beginning 23rd May, up slightly on the 30,463 it managed the week prior.

Buoyed by the release of One Piece Unlimited Cruise Special, the 3DS came in second with 24,283 sales, well up on last week's 17,240. With Resident Evil: Mercenaries out in Japan this week and Ocarina of Time following on the 16th, Nintendo will no doubt be hoping its slow-off-the-blocks portable can maintain that forward momentum.

Elsewhere, there was hardware growth across the board following last week's dismal numbers. Here's how things shaped up:

PSP: 33,609 (Last week: 30,463)
3DS: 24,283 (17,240)
PS3: 15,987 (12,935)
Wii: 7,438 (6,269)
DSi LL: 5,197 (5,176)
DSi: 5,106 (4,938)
X360: 2,303 (2,186)
PS2: 1,274 (1,129)
DS Lite: 139 (158)
PSP go: 76 (65)
The aforementioned One Piece title took the top spot in the software chart, and by some margin. The Nintendo-published Wii action adventure Pandora's Tower debuted at three, one ahead of last week's number one Akiba's Trip.

The full top 10 looked like this:

One Piece Unlimited Cruise Special (Namco Bandai, 3DS): 80,488 NEW!
Troy Musou (Koei, PS3): 31,428 NEW!
Pandora's Tower (Nintendo, Wii): 21,445 NEW!
Akiba's Trip (Acquire, PSP): 16,582 (LTD: 74,732)
Nobunaga no Yabou Tendou with Power Up Kit (Koei, PS3): 15,456 NEW!
Treasure Report: Kikai Jikake no Isan (Namco Bandai, DS): 14,304 NEW!
Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2 Professional (Square Enix, DS): 13,974 (508,767)
Patapon 3 (SCEJ, PSP): 9,134 (104,475)
Iza Shutsujin! Koi Ikusa (QuinRose, PSP): 9,008 NEW!
Pro Baseball Spirits 2011 (Konami, PSP): 8,394 (168,460)

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...s-gathers-pace ...

Sony has confirmed the current PSN maintenance downtime is to help prepare the system for the imminent return of the PlayStation Store.

A new post from communications director Nick Caplin on the PlayStation Blog explained that the temporary outage represented a vital part of restoring the rest of PSN's services following the massive security breach last month.

"Starting soon, the PlayStation Network will be inaccessible for several hours for maintenance," he wrote. "The server maintenance performed at this time represents a crucial step in the full restoration for PSN, including the PlayStation Store.

"During this maintenance period, users will be unable to sign in to PSN, though those that are already logged in should be able to remain online.

"Resumption of full PlayStation Network service is still on track for this week in most regions. Thank you once again for your patience as we work to return PSN to the highest level of service."

PSN is due back online tomorrow morning at 7.00am, though it's unclear whether the Store will be back up and running then too.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...r-store-return ...

News via http://www.psp-ita.com/?i=4351

New game to the PSP homebrew proposed by the developer Lauman Genesis Competition. This is PSP Jump, Jump Clone Doodle that we play with our PSP being in a different position than usual, ie vertically.



The purpose of PSP Jump , as the original iPhone, will be to take advantage of the fixed and mobile platforms, and other special devices such as springs and screws and, rising as much as possible in the upper level, so that it totals more and more locations.
The graphics that homebrew is and what a Doodle Jump, then that recalls the colorful children's drawings. The developer has not been spared in creating homebrew because of the possibility of selecting the theme of the game, the increasing difficulty, upload your record online and as a last treat, some features have been developed specifically for owners TiltFX, the accelerometer be able to connect to the console, even if only for the D-TN 6.20


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News via http://www.psp-ita.com/?i=4348

After a long absence from the scene, the developer releases a new version of ne0h Xplora, convenient alternative shell to install on your PSP equipped with CF and will allow us to have a more clear and appropriate for the content of your Memory Stick.



Xplora 2 includes an image viewer, a media player, a text editor, a PMF player, allows you to read ZIP archive, back up your UMD games and easily launch applications, manage plugins, and more. The entire project was completed in the C language to ensure the best performance.
Currently the list of compatibility of the new shell are excluded PSP and PSP Go generally upright CF 6.xx ME . While everything has been successfully tested on CF from 4:01 onwards.
For more information please consult the source (developer blog)


[Additional Information: Functions and download]

.: Features:.
- AUTOBOOT
- Desktop
- Image Viewer -> (JPG, BMP and PNG files are supported)
- Music Player -> (MP3 and OGG formats supported)
- Text Editor
- Arc Manager -> (ZIP files are supported)
- PMF Player -> (PMF Every file is supported)
- Homebrew Sorter
- Games & Applications
- UMD Dumper
- Nand Dumper
- Plugins Manager
- Internet & Home Xplora

.: Compatibility:.
SI: x000 PSP with CF 4.01 or higher
NO: Go PSP
NO: PSP with CF 6.xx ME

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News via http://www.psp-ita.com/?i=4346

After PSPTube and GoTube, a new addition to the list of homebrew PSP applications dedicated to streaming video playback. The developer biscottealacrevette (former author of GoTube) released today OpenTube , a new video player for PSP that, unlike the previous player, use the web browser-like GUI and save the cache to Memory Stick. Another notable OpenTube the name implies: the project is completely open-source and in fact in the homebrew Attached you will find not only but also the sources of the same.
More information and a link to download below.

FOOTNOTES
There are problems with displaying videos in 4:3
Cache management is still not optimal
Homebrew tested on CF 5.00M33-6 / 5.50GEN


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