Via Fanjita's Rants

Fanjita of the Noobz team is stopping all exploit/hacking developments.


It's a sad loss to the scene - Good luck Fanjita, with fatherhood and whatever you persue in life

Discuss via comments

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Hi all, no real news of releases this weekend but hey its not surprising after the madness of Neoflash and Pandora its settling down now and hey we all need a break now and again.

This is my chance to detail the good and the Bad of the PSP Homebrew Scene a scene that more than any other is in the mainstream eye, sure we have had the Dreamcast, the GP32, GBA, GP2X and the Nintendo DS Scenes and all are good in their own way but never has a scene got the attention of the mainstream press like the PSP Scene.

When Nem released Hello World and the realisation that the PSP was open to homebrew in a way that no one could dream of it opened the eyes of every hardcore homebrew fan. Any system that doesnt need Modding or additional hardware is a fantastic one to enjoy homebrew on.

The releases that followed Nems release was amazing, most of them coming from some excellent Japanese coders who were releasing mostly emulators at anything up to 15 releases per day, trying to be a newsposter then was a bloody hard job.

When the japanese slowed down it was the rest of the worlds coders who took over releasing hundreds upon hundreds of games, demos, applications and emulators.

The scene did slow down a trifle until the release of the first downgrader, that release was absolutly massive, it gave the DCEmu server such a pounding that only a few releases since have matched it.

Other high points of the scene are the masses of releases by Deniska (famous for MapThis) and Zx-81, the GBA Emulator from Exophase stunned us with its near full speed on first release, StrmnNrmn`s Nintendo64 Emulator, PSmonkeys Iris, PS1P the playstation emulator, infact theres so many great releases that you would be hard pressed to remember them all.

Then we moved onto the Custom Firmwares which gave you the ability to play new games and region free umd films on much lower firmware, the real major Custom firmware release was the one with the full speed Playstation Emulator that was amazing, to see games at such speed on the PSP was an emulation fans dream. Releases such as Eloader opened up a world of homebrew to more users but the biggest release was to happen a few days ago, Pandora by Team C+D a collection of many of the worlds best PSP Hackers gave us the ability to downgrade and unbrick PSP Consoles at Will and for the cost of a Battery and a PSP Memstick.

Sony who never managed to stop homebrew were dealt a serious blow with Pandora, yes they will somehow stop homebrew again with future firmwares but the PSP Scene is sure to crack them someday.

The list of good releases and happenings in the PSP Scene is a very long one and something that every hacker, coder and fan should be pleased with.

With the PSP Scene being mainstream and you could tell is was going to be massive early on it brought a few things to the table that homebrew could do without, there was incidents of sites putting their own readmes into releases so confusing people into thinking that the release was from them. Sites poaching coders to release on their forums, Some coders were offered money for exclusive releases and one sad occasion was the release of software featuring GPLed work and people were being asked to pay for it, all very sad.

The release of Devhook and other ISO loaders brought in sites who hadnt been interested in the PSP Scene but because they had piracy backgrounds they dived into the scene, the release of Devhook was the killing of the interest of Japanese coders who had released so much for the scene, a friend on IRC who translated for us at times told me that none of the coders wanted their releases next to a piracy release. Which any hardcore homebrewer can understand.

With the PSP Scene becoming such a massive concern it became apparent that it wasnt just homebrewers running sites, infact 3 of todays PSP Sites are ran by backers with millions at their fingers (i wont name names but its not hard to guess). One of the worst of the rogue PSP Scene sites is a site that cover every release to make it appear that all is released there, sadly they stole the source to a custom firmware and in the melee that ensued ended up bricking a lot of PSP Consoles. Thankfully Team C+D released the unbricker which came at a great time for all those hurt by the brickings, even that release was forced by some idiot who had leaked the release to make money its presumed.

So theres my little run through of some of the good and some of the bad of the worlds first mainstream homebrew scene. Its been a great ride so far with so many great coders and hackers supplying so many great releases and with the PSP Slim and the extra 32MB of ram around the corner and not to mention all the new features for PSP on the horizon its going to be an awesome time.

Lets remember that theres still so much to achieve and so much that can be hacked on the PSP that theres always a chance of a killer release soon.

Wraggy out

...

via wired

When you're waiting for a panel to begin at PAX, or hanging around the beanbag chairs that litter the hallways, you notice something: practically everyone here has a handheld video game system. This is impressive enough, to turn on your DS and notice that every Pictochat room is full. But soon you notice something else: there's not a single PSP here. Eventually, after looking really really hard and finally asking somebody, I saw one solitary PSP at PAX.

What on earth happened? How did Sony manage to not even convert the hardest of the hardcore gamers? I imagine many of these people actually own a PSP. I just don't think they actually sit around and play it. It's really stunning to see. ...

via wired

When you're waiting for a panel to begin at PAX, or hanging around the beanbag chairs that litter the hallways, you notice something: practically everyone here has a handheld video game system. This is impressive enough, to turn on your DS and notice that every Pictochat room is full. But soon you notice something else: there's not a single PSP here. Eventually, after looking really really hard and finally asking somebody, I saw one solitary PSP at PAX.

What on earth happened? How did Sony manage to not even convert the hardest of the hardcore gamers? I imagine many of these people actually own a PSP. I just don't think they actually sit around and play it. It's really stunning to see. ...

Well everyone I finally fixed the loader issues and so here are my final releases and source code.

I updated all the loaders to the default GBAMP loader. GBAMP Multiboot Selector is in perfect working order now.

Downloads are below.

For info on how to compile it look for info on the blog. ...

Here's version 2.1 of DSdiag. Not much has changed I just updated the loader code and released the source.


Look on my blog for info on how to compile the source. ...

Gameparks Linux Based GP2X Console has been out since November 2005 boasting a fully homebrew orientated system and it has been a success with hundreds of emulators and games, applications and Demos released including the only handheld Sega 32X emulator.

Only a few days ago came word of a new revision of the GP2X dubbed F-200 which has a better shell, built in games, a Dpad instead of a joystick and best of all a Touchscreen.

Heres the listing of whats shipped with the console:


More details on the GP2X can be found at GP2X Store/Play Asia with preorders opening soon.

Can the new look GP2X rival the PSP and Nintendo DS for Homebrew and Emulation and even more into commercial gaming, that we will have to see. The touchscreen should make an interesting addition. ...

via psphacks

Extreme Link users, fasten your Internet belts — it’s time for an upgrade! Quake has graced us with v1.5.5 today. The Windows utility aiming to provide it all in a small light-weight interface. Manage your PSP’s memory stick contents, high scores, Ciso/CisoPlus support, USB & NET Host FS integration, you name it…

Download and Give Feedback Via Comments ...

Heres the press release:

In June, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board gave Manhunt 2 an Adults Only rating. The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood had urged the ESRB to give the game an AO rating because of concerns that harmful effects of ultra-violent video games on children would be magnified by playing them on the interactive Nintendo Wii system.

CCFC’s concerns about Manhunt 2 were based, in part, on reviews of the game which described players sawing their enemies’ skulls in half; mutilating them with an axe; castrating them with a pair of pliers; or killing them by bashing their head “into an electrical box, where raw power surges through it and eventually blows his head apart.” CCFC noted that on Wii, players will not merely punch buttons or wield a joy stick, but will actually act out this violence. A reviewer for the gaming website IGN described using a saw blade to “cut upward into a foe's groin and buttocks, motioning forward and backward with the Wii remote as you go.”

Today, Rockstar Games announced that Manhunt 2 had received a revised rating of Mature after they submitted a modified version of the game. On a phone call with CCFC’s Dr. Susan Linn, ESRB President Patricia Vance refused to comment on what changes Rockstar made or whether any of the content described above was still in the game.

Below is the statement of CCFC Director Dr. Susan Linn on the ESRB’s decision to reverse their earlier ruling:

The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood is extremely concerned that the ESRB has downgraded its rating for Manhunt 2 from Adults Only (AO) to Mature (M). Despite industry claims to the contrary, M-rated games continue to be marketed and sold to children under seventeen. The ESRB’s reversal of its earlier decision dramatically increases the likelihood that Manhunt 2 – the most violent game to date produced for the interactive Nintendo Wii platform – will be marketed and sold to children.

Just three months ago, the ESRB felt that Manhunt 2 was so violent that it took the extraordinary step of giving a game an AO rating for violent content for only the second time in its history. We urge the ESRB to make public their rationale for changing Manhunt 2’s rating, including detailing any content that was removed from the game.

We call upon Rockstar Games to allow the content of Manhunt 2 to be reviewed by an independent review board with no ties to the video game industry.

We ask the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the process by which Manhunt 2’s rating was downgraded from AO to M.

CCFC’s initial press release and letter to the ESRB are available at http://www.commercialfreechildhood.o...s/manhunt2.htm. ...