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Gameboy Emulator Released for PSP

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the let-the-hackalanche-continue dept.

HelloGamer writes "The first real Gameboy emulator has just been released for the PSP. It currently only works with the Japanese 1.0 PSP and doesn't have sound support - but it's amazing how quickly these homebrew apps are being developed."

10 of 212 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Thanks for the crap blog link editors! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I notice the submitter is linked to his own blog, more ad revenue for him.

  2. Nice! by georgep77 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sony should be encouraging "home brew" apps for the PSP as much as possible. I believe that much of the early success of the Palm Pilot was due to the community of developers that flocked to the device.

    There are *free* roms available for GBA so I guess the GBA emulator isn't TOTALLY copywrite infringment facilitating software.... :-)

    Cheers,
    _GP_

    1. Re:Nice! by r_benchley · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Sony could give a rat's ass about the homebrew market. If it sells a few more units, they would be pleased, but they need people to buy games. Palm actually made money when they sold their PDAs, so things like homebrew software was a great selling point. Sony (and other video game hardware makers) lose money on the console and generate profits from game royalties. The Dreamcast has a wonderful homebrew/emulation scene, but that didn't help Sega's financial position. If you can't sell licensed software for a video game console, you're dead in the water.

    2. Re:Nice! by MoonBuggy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      There are *free* roms available for GBA so I guess the GBA emulator isn't TOTALLY copywrite infringment facilitating software.... :-)

      Even if there weren't free ROMs, it's perfectly possible to use an emulator legally - say I have a whole stack of old Gameboy games but my Gameboy broke and now I only carry my shiny new PSP around. AFAIK it's fair use for me to shift the games from separate GB carts to a folder of ROM dumps that run on my PSP.

  3. Re:we are this much closer by KarmaMB84 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You know damn well that people are going to be pirating most if not all of the games they run on their emulated GB....

  4. There goes the DS, eh? by dextration · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I am both ridiculously amused by this, and also deeply saddened. While the DS is not particularly great right now, at the least it had the 'Full library of GBA games' to go along with it. Now the PSP does too. Nintendo's made some pretty dumb moves with the DS, but if they let something like this slip pass their radar, I'll have lost all hope for them. I don't expect this to last very long with both Sony AND Nintendo gunning for it.

    --
    http://www.mushoo.net/
    1. Re:There goes the DS, eh? by M.C.+Hampster · · Score: 2, Insightful
      However, the main thrust of what you say will probably turn out to be true. GBA back-compatibility on the DS was a big plus for the system, particularly given that its native games lineup is still looking pretty weak, even by comparison with the newly released PSP. If there is a well-known, easily accessible GBA emulator for the PSP, this could be a significant factor in deciding the overall result of this particular round of the console wars.

      No, no, no, no. Unless the GBA emulator comes preinstalled on the PSP, or can be purchased like another game, this will have close to 0 impact on the portable wars (I'm guess you meant portable, not console). Except for an extremely small portion of people who keep up with this stuff, no one buys a system to run emulators, Linux, chickens, etc. on it. They buy it for the capabilities that are built into the system and the games that come out for it. Period.

      --
      Forget the whales - save the babies.
  5. Then explain... by Paradox · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If Sony doesn't care, then why exactly did they allow PSPs to run applications off of memory sticks at all? Why does the PSP have so many extra little features?

    I've talked about this before. I suspect that Sony wants to generate an underground development movement with the PSP to help draw people to it. Handheld platform competition is brutal, but the hackability of the PSP really makes it stand out compared to the DS (and previous consoles).

    Sony will still make money with licensed games, the UMD format is closed (albeit hacked) and the physical media is difficult to reproduce. Their model is safe, while at the same time allowing for an underground community to exist.

    --
    Slashdot. It's Not For Common Sense
  6. Re:Sony will keep putting out patches... by garcia · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Until a new PSP game comes out and patches it for you.

  7. Re:Ironic- Sony Needs Nintendo To Succeed by DJNephilim · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Ah, but Sony thought of this already. Say I'm tooling along on a long-arse RPG game and suddenly find that I need to stop playing to do something or go somewhere. I can just turn off the psp and come back later. It automatically goes into a standby mode. I can come back at any time, turn it back on and pick up right where I left off without the need to save.

    --
    Enemy of the Sun