Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

PSP Hackers Go Retro

Posted by Zonk on from the hi-mom dept.

ByteWoopy writes "Hello World!' That's the traditional phrase that programmers display when they create their first piece of software for an unfamiliar operating system. Owners of Sony's handheld PSP game system were delighted to hear May 5 that a hacker had managed to write a small program that displayed those words on a PSP. They wondered what would be next. As it turned out, it only took hackers five days to go from 'Hello World' to Mario World. On May 10, sites like PSP Hacker reported that a Japanese hacker known only by the name Mr. Mirakichi had developed a program called RIN that let the PSP play software written for the original black-and-white Nintendo Game Boy system.'"

4 of 69 comments (clear)

  1. Hello World, Goodbye Gameboy by alvinrod · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Is it just me or does anyone else think that if you could emulate and play Gameboy (and eventually Gameboy color and advance) games on a PSP that it really negates any reason for buying a Gameboy Advance or DS?

    It's like buying a PSP and getting a gameboy for free. Granted it is illegal, and the ROMs won't play as well as the originals, but how much will people notice or care?

    1. Re:Hello World, Goodbye Gameboy by FLAGGR · · Score: 3, Insightful

      1. It's illegal
      2. It only works on Jap 1.0 firmware
      3. PSP is teh ghey
      4. PSP is *not* powerful enough to emulate the DS and all its hardware, emulation isn't easy at all, even pentium 4's cant emualte DS at fullspeed (not implying DS is anywhere close to the power of a P4, just explaining how difficult emulation is)
      5. You couldn't control/view DS games properly.

      I know I loose any chance at getting modded anything but troll for the 3rd reason, but oh well, at least im still 80% imformative :)

  2. Re:But can everyone benefit from this? by pnice · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is the point I was trying to make. I would love to see a slashdot article that points us towards downgrading the firmware to an older version so we can all benefit from the advances in PSP homebrew. I honestly didn't think it was possible yet. Can you point me towards any information?

    --
    My Xbox Live Gamer Card
  3. Here's the current list... by wheresdrew · · Score: 4, Informative
    ...of emulators that'll run on a J1.0 PSP:

    Gameboy/Gameboy Colour - Rin, Rin Unnoficial
    GameGear - SMS PSP
    Genesis (Megadrive) - Megadrive for PSP, Generator/PSP
    MAME (Arcade) - XMame PSP
    Master System - SMS PSP
    MSX - fMSX, Hitbit
    Neo Geo Pocket - NGPSP
    Neo Geo CD - NEOGEO CD
    Nes - InfoNes, Famicontest, Nes for PSP, Nesterj PSP
    PC Engine - PCEP
    Snes - UO Snes9x PSP, Snes9x PSP, Snes9x Optimised
    Wonderswan - Oswan PSP

    They're not all running at full speed, but some of them are great pieces of work. Rin, for instance, is damned near perfect (and getting better with each release). I use it to play the Zelda GBC games and they look (and sound, and play) great.

    The work on them is continuing at a rapid pace - a lot of the emulators are getting updated several times a week - and they're just going to get better.

    The one I'm waiting for (that hasn't shown up yet) is a GBA emulator. I think that's the one that's really going to get people's attention.