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Mame Working on the PSP

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the oh-glorious-day dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The PSP Wiki site has posted a release of Mame the arcade emulator for the Sony PSP, heres an english site with Screenshots of the Emulator in action." I guess I won't need to go to such great lengths to play Pac-Man next time.

28 of 118 comments (clear)

  1. Wow! by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Funny

    People have started maming their PSPs.

    What a cruel world we live in. :-P

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  2. Great... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Now if only I had an original japanese PSP...

    Any news on a way into the new PSPs?

    1. Re:Great... by m4g02 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Seems like 1.5.x will soon run homebrew applications, the warez group Dynarox did dump UMD games and released promising a loader soon... Wouldn't like if piracy hit the PSP market but homebrew is way cool, can't wait until someone makes a Linux diestrum that runs from the memory stick :)

      More info: http://www.psphacker.com/2005/05/loader-in-near-fu ture.html

      --
      Sigs are for morons... Wait a minute...
  3. Uninspiring by Icephreak1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    What is emulation without games to emulate?

    Let us know when this thing can run more than one game.

    - IP

    1. Re:Uninspiring by runlvl0 · · Score: 4, Informative

      I'm pretty sure it can run any mame game.
      Per the Fine Article:

      "Only works with Omega Fighter at this time. Left and Right on Dpad is OK :)
      ...
      [NOTES]
      There is no sound. Any games with a bit-depth not equal to 8 will not work. This emulator has the drivers for: omegaf, darius, nova2001, and vanguard."

      So, it looks like CmdrTaco still needs "to go to such great lengths to play Pac-Man next time." (Or he can just put regulara MAME on his notebook.)

      --

      Carthago delenda est!
  4. In soviet Russia... by Phantombantam · · Score: 2, Informative

    In soviet russia, Linux.. awe forget it heres my damn link. PSP Linux

    --
    42
  5. Useless waste of time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Considering the PSP has less CPU power than PS2 and PS2 can barely play Pac Man in MAME. What's the point of this, really?

    To play Mortal Kombat 2 in MAME you need about a 1.2 GHz processor. To play Cruisn USA you need a top-of-the-line CPU and still won't get perfect framerate. Heck, even to play Neo-Geo full-speed takes a 2-ALU CPU about 600 MHz, and PSP is nowhere near that!

    1. Re:Useless waste of time by Registered+Coward+v2 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Considering the PSP has less CPU power than PS2 and PS2 can barely play Pac Man in MAME. What's the point of this, really?

      To play Mortal Kombat 2 in MAME you need about a 1.2 GHz processor. To play Cruisn USA you need a top-of-the-line CPU and still won't get perfect framerate. Heck, even to play Neo-Geo full-speed takes a 2-ALU CPU about 600 MHz, and PSP is nowhere near that!

      Well, my Zodiac does a decent job with xarcade ( a pre-mame emulator) playing various games, so I doubt processor speed is the limiting factor.

      --
      I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
    2. Re:Useless waste of time by FidelCatsro · · Score: 3, Informative

      I was playing Mortal Kombat 2 the other day rather well on my 400mhzs g3 with Mame .The reason the ps2 can barely play pacman is simply because the ps2 mame is not refined enough , it ran perfectly on the dreamcast which by all accounts had lesser procesing power .
      I would say the psp shoudl be able to handle most mame games rather admirably if its programed to the hardware , it does have alot of power beneth the hood(it can do alot more in hardware than the ps2 iirc , not that that would effect 2d games that much though)

      --
      The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
  6. Re:ugh by blixel · · Score: 5, Funny

    reason #21 why i hate myself for upgrading my Jap PSPs firmware :(

    Just out of curiosity, what where the other 20 reasons?

  7. Nice photos! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Were they taken at high speed with a telescopic lens?

  8. Hold on a sec by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 2, Funny

    Lemme send these photos over to Chloe at CTU to be decrypted, and then we'll see what we have.

  9. What the hell is wrong with Sony by delicious · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The DS has a huge advantage over the PSP. Namely, there are thousands of Game Boy games compatible with the system at launch. The PSP has a dreadfully small amount of games for it, and if they opened up the firm ware, they could have the entire cataloge of MAME games available just like that. DS's advantage completely wiped out. Sony is killing their own system, IM not so HO.

    --
    8hop.com
    1. Re:What the hell is wrong with Sony by TomHandy · · Score: 4, Interesting
      I'm not sure the horsepower is such a big deal though. Remember that the original Game Boy and the Game Boy Color were both dramatically underpowered compared to some of the competition they faced throughout the years (Lynx, GameGear, TurboGrafix Express, Nomad, NeoGeo Pocket, etc.).

      It's pretty clear that horsepower can certainly garner some attention, but what it comes down to is the games, and the GBA and DS still have a huge and amazing library (I think the point the parent poster was making was that even though the DS's software library isn't quite that impressive yet, it still benefits from being able to play all the great GBA games).

      As far as the DS is concerned, it seems to be doing ok so far (which is pretty impressive when you do think how lackluster most of the lineup of DS games is), and seems to be in good shape for some of the DS titles coming out later (Animal Crossing DS, Mario Kart DS, Advance Wars DS, that surgery game, that attorney sim game, Trace Memory, Lost in Blue, Nintendogs, etc.)

      The PSP almost seems to have the opposite problem. And first, just to clarify, I bought a PSP on launch day, and have also bought a number of games for it (Lumines, Wipeout Pure, Twisted Metal Head On, NBA Street Showdown, MVP Baseball, Untold Legends and Hot Shots Golf). It had a really excellent launch lineup with a lot of variety, and it seemed to really drive a dagger into the DS, which looked absolutely pathetic in comparison.

      But it seems like the PSP's subsequent lineup has been pretty thin. Hot Shots Golf and MVP Baseball are the only two games I've bought recently (and Hot Shots is excellent), and there honestly isn't a ton of stuff on the horizon. The GTA game is looking pretty good (although I still wonder about battery life while playing it), and the Coded Arms and Ghost in the Shell games look pretty good for handheld FPS's. And GT4 looks good if it ever comes out. But really, beyond that, there isn't a whole lot that is getting me excited about the PSP's future.

      In comparison, even though I own only one DS game (Super Mario 64 DS), along with a lot of GBA games, I'm actually much more interested in some of the stuff coming out for the DS. Are they all groundbreaking games? Do they have better graphics than the PSP? No, not really....... in some cases the games look not that different from GBA games (i.e. Advance Wars) or n64 games (Animal Crossing DS)........ but frankly, those were awesome games before, and I'm looking forward to the idea of being able to play them online against other people. And I'm looking forward to some of the non-games like Nintendogs and Elektroplankton and Band Brothers.

      So anyway, "horsepower" seems like the less relevant issue. I'm impressed by the PSP's horsepower, and it's made for some beautiful and amazing games. But horsepower only gets you so far......... if the PSP is only going to have a handful of compelling games, it is irrelevant how much horsepower it has. The PSP needs to have more interesting games as well.....

    2. Re:What the hell is wrong with Sony by Reaperducer · · Score: 2, Informative

      the US software wouldn't work anyway... Sony love region-locking their stuff.

      This is false. I use American games on my Japanese PSP all the time. It's the movies that are locked. If I try to play an American movie in my Japanese PSP I get an unpleasant message.

      --
      -- I'm old enough to have lived through six different meanings of the word "hacker."
    3. Re:What the hell is wrong with Sony by fr0dicus · · Score: 2, Insightful

      As a disappointed owner, I have to disagree. It doesn't have a single killer title yet.

  10. All well and good but... by Rirath.com · · Score: 4, Informative

    These anonymous readers somehow always fail to mention it still ain't going to run on 1.5 - 1.5.2 yet.

  11. How akward will Sony be about homebrew on PSP? by Omega+Xi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    From what I read here about firmware (it's about the height of my knowledge on how PSP works) I'm guessing Sony is already trying to make it fairly difficult to run unlicensed software on the PSP. Personally I reckon that if there wasn't so much software availabe for x-box it wouldn't have sold nearly as well as it has (though I could well be wrong).

    Do you think a console manufacturer is ever going to embrace homwbrew software, or will they always do their best to stop it?

    --
    Simplicity lies within chaos
    1. Re:How akward will Sony be about homebrew on PSP? by jfaulken · · Score: 2, Insightful

      In all honesty, the number of people that actually go out and buy the hardware simply to run homebrew, even XBMC, software is extremely small. The problem for the manufacturer is two-fold:

      1) If you buy the hardware only to run homebrew games then you're not putting the money into the 'system' the way that you're supposed to. Even now that MS is breaking even or making a little profit on each XBOX sold, the amount is nothing compared to the licensing fees on EVERY game that's sold or the profit on first party games. It's a losing proposition for them. But even more important is the fact that

      2) The same methods that allow you to run homebrew software on a system also allow you to run pirated, published media. In a shareholder-centric company there's no way that you can do anything that jeapordizes your ability to make a profit by enforcing copy protection. If someone could solve this problem it would likely go a long way to making a hardware manufacturer more homebrew-friendly.

  12. On this rate... by ID000001 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I foresee the value of PSP with Japanese Firmware actually go UP.

    1. Re:On this rate... by FidelCatsro · · Score: 2, Funny

      unfortunatly at this time , most shipping units have been upgraded to the 1.5+ firmware . I have a japanese unit from a couple of months ago and it was snet out with 1.5 already installed

      --
      The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
  13. wow, a good reason to buy a PSP! by inteller · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If they do a good job I'll be in line to get one. So sad they could never get one for the Xbox.

  14. Incorrect/trash news post by dostick · · Score: 2, Informative

    All PSPs are sold with 1.5 / 1.5.1 firmware witch does NOT support unauthrized programs like MAME.
    You can say technically you may run it on PSP only if that psp was made in 2004 with old firmware.

    So this story is correct if you talk about 0.01% of PSPs out there.

  15. my hopes by ehershey · · Score: 2, Insightful

    keep getting raised by these stories, yet they're meaningless for most psp owners

  16. Forget Alpha PSP Mame, PalmMAME works now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you want a portable MAME machine, grab a Palm (Treo 650 cell phone is what I use) and get PalmMAME:

    http://www.pocketdimension.com/PalmMAME.html

    Works with most games that will fit the small screen and fits into memory. The classics pretty much all work as well as some smaller Neo-Geo games.

    --Striker

  17. Re:ugh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny
    Just out of curiosity, what where the other 20 reasons?

    That was it. He's counting in base 0.45.

  18. Don't get all excited by M3wThr33 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Unless you want a dedicated Mame machine, don't get too excited.
    These only work on LAUNCH PSPs from Japan, Sony started requiring hardware signing after that. It's not going to be "cracked" for 1.5.x anytime soon.
    On top of that, most games released now won't play unless you update your firmware, meaning you're stuck with a 20 game library of japanese games (5 of which are Mah-jongg), plus old emulated titles.

    1. Re:Don't get all excited by gartogg · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I agree; just like linux was only written for PC's, and so only runs on them, and didn't have support for almost anything at v1.0, so too I will assume that the somtware devolpers on this project have suddenly decided that they have better things to do than continue developing the program, and we will never see a version that's useful.

      Kudo's on the insightful, not to mention original, post. If more people thought like you, people still wouldn't use wheels, because v1.0 kept rolling away.

      --
      I'm a concientious .sig objector.