Swapless PSP Exploit Released

YDKCooKiE writes "According to psphacker.com, an updated exploit for PSP 1.5 has been released, allowing PSP 1.5 users to play homebrew software without requiring the swap trick."

Comments

Nothing new...move along.

[mcho]

This was discussed in the 10th espisode of This Week in Tech.

...and you should be able to hack anything you own -- it's yours.

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you sure you *own* it ? More-and-more stuff comes with all kinds of EULA's, of which one-or-the-other could contain that you own the paper the EULA is printed on, but everything else is (some sort of) *rented*, forbidding you to even put a sticker on the casing on a device, as you than violate the companies design ...

You think you *own* the thing (let alone the software), even enough to be permitted to do *anything* with it ? Are you *sure* ? I'm not ...

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[aka_big_wurm]

They were talking about the swap hack on TWIT. This one is even better. They should be able to make some cool apps for PSP now, firefox would be cool or a RSS reader.

Funny so many PSP hack posts but none about TWIT...

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[MightyYar]

Until signing the contract - or at least reading the EULA - is a requirement of sale, it is not a contract at all. EULA's are nothing more than a wish list if they are not a condition of sale.

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[iamhassi]

"This was discussed in the 10th espisode of This Week in Tech."

that epsiode is talking about the swap trick.

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[WwWonka]

...and you should be able to hack anything you own -- it's yours.

Someone should have clued in Lorena Bobbit to that rule!

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree, but should one be allowed to share the hack?

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[ThosLives]

...and you should be able to hack anything you own -- it's yours.

Hrm. It just struck me that the problem with this statement is that most people agree, if you modify it to read (emphasis added):

...and you should be able to hack anything you own as long as it doesn't endanger anyone, deprive them of privacy, deprive them of something else, etc. -- it's yours.

This is part of the issue that the technically savvy face in the modern world. For instance, I could probably hack my car to get better fuel economy and more power, but turn it into something that emits a lot more NOx and CO2. I own the vehicle (it's actually paid for, a 2002 model). Should I have the right to do this? I cannot say that I have an answer to that.

The problem arises because it's hard to define what "endanger someone" or "deprive someone of something" means in most contexts. It's not like everything is simple like murder, theft of physical property, or other 'physical' issues. Take, for instance, the issue of DVD regions. The only reason this exists is political, and it's really unclear as to what damage would result from not having region-coded DVDs. Yes, I know about piracy and the "loss" of revenue, and I can understand the industry arguments, but I don't know that I agree with them. (If 10,000 people pay $10 each for a CD and give me $100,000, and 30,000 other people made copies, listen to the music, what did those 30,000 people "steal" from me anyway? It didn't cost me anything to produce those extra 30,000 CDs, so I didn't lose anything. The extra 30,000 copies didn't deprive anyone else of having a copy either. If, perhaps, I didn't think that $100,000 was enough to make more music I'll do something else, so that original bit of music is the only bit that will ever be out there. It does not make economic sense to continue to derive income from a non-scarce commodity for a lifetime; revenue should be proportional to services rendered or wealth created, not "I gave society this thing once, so keep giving me money forever". But I digress.)

Mostly the reasons for all the "do not hack your own stuff" laws comes from, especially in the United States, the desire to push all liability onto the manufacturers; this necessarily takes away some freedom. If, as a public, we want the freedom to hack our stuff, we have to take the responsibility for the possible consequences back upon ourselves.

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[BlogPope]

I could probably hack my car to get better fuel economy and more power, but turn it into something that emits a lot more NOx and CO2. I own the vehicle (it's actually paid for, a 2002 model). Should I have the right to do this? I cannot say that I have an answer to that.

Yes, you have the right to do that. You do give up the privledge of driving that vehicle on the public roadways, however. This may be acceptable to you if your goal is to race the car in some way.

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[Ironsides]

If, as a public, we want the freedom to hack our stuff, we have to take the responsibility for the possible consequences back upon ourselves.

sarcasm
Preaching personal responsibility? Why you sir must be a right wing religious nut! I'll have you know that no american can make up their mind and be expected to do the right thing without congress telling them what to do. That is, after all, why we have Social Security, medicare, medicaid and all these other programs as people can not be expected to make the right decisions for themselves. /sarcasm

That aside, you are fully right. It seems like every stupid lawsuit I hear about is because some idiot won't take personal responsibility for themselves and/or wasn't using common sense. For example, rear ending someone and sueing the person you rear ended for not having moved. Trimming a hedge with a lawn mower (while wearing sandals no less) sueing when you lose some toes. Couple more I have heard of, but all from people refusing to admit that they were an idiot.

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[OldeTimeGeek]

...and you should be able to hack anything you own -- it's yours.

I agree, but only with the following addition: Hacks place responsiblity completely on your shoulders - if you hack it and break it, too bad. The folks that built it don't have to fix it, take it back or even return your phone call. They do, however, get to point and laugh. Live with it.

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[mcho]

But I digress.

Maybe just a little...

Originally, I was referring to electronics for the purpose of extending their usefulness. For example, assuming you're tech savvy, suppose your computer does not work as expected for some reason. So why would anyone prevent you from fixing -- essentially "hacking" in the loosest of terms -- your own property? Maybe the problem was just a bad power supply...

And, of course, as soon as you start ripping out the insides of your electronic gadget, the manufacturer's warranty does not apply -- they can only guarantee the quality of the product as it was delivered to you. But, overall, imagine where we would be now if way back when nobody could have expanded the usefulness of early Apple computers...

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[Anonymous Coward]

I could probably hack my car to get better fuel economy and more power, but turn it into something that emits a lot more NOx and CO2. I own the vehicle (it's actually paid for, a 2002 model).

I thought only carbon monoxide (CO) was bad and a perfectly efficient engine emitted water(H2O) and carbon dioxide(C02).

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[everphilski]

As long as you meet the federal emission requirements... why not?
If you don't meet federal requirements... you can't.
It's actually quite clear...
-everphilski-

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[Mattcelt]

That's exactly right. Under US law (AFAIK, IANAL), agreements are solidified as soon as an exchange of goods takes place - in this case, software for money. So if an EULA is not presented prior to the Point of Sale, it cannot be enforced.

What's more, the last I heard there was a 9th Circuit Court Ruling applying the "First Sale " doctrine to software, regardless of what the EULA says... Which is why those people at computer shows can legally sell you the OEM copies that have "Not for Resale" stamped in big, bold, (useless) letters on the package.

Downloaded software is much more insidious, because many times the EULA is presented before the download... But with Firefox's "Edit Text Box" extension (or whatever it's called), you can change the EULA to whatever you want... or if it's like Sun's EULA, just rewrite the HTML to reflect terms that are favorable to you before you hit 'submit'.

So far I just write in the box that I reserve all rights and privileges and that's all there is to it... I wonder how far one could push it, legally?

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[Anonymous Coward]

It didn't cost me anything to produce those extra 30,000 CDs, so I didn't lose anything.

What you lost was potential income. If just 1% of those people had bought the CD, thats $3,000. But hey, thats just 3% of your profits, right? Well, its 3% of your gross profits. But it cost you $10,000 to print the CD's, $10,000 for the studio time, $10,000 for the designers and producers, etc. until you have $70,000 in expenses. All of which you had to pay up front. So now that $100,000 gross is $30,000 net, and that 1% of sales you lost meant 10% more money you would have made.

But hey, that was all potential, right? Not real? Is it ok if I call your boss and tell them something that gets you fired tomorrow? 'Cause that paycheck you would have earned in the month it takes you to find a job that pays as well was just potential money. No real loss for you, right?

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[Anonymous Coward]

You know what I find really funny? Those agreements that you suposedly agree to by breaking a tape seal.

I always cut around the seal or cut open from the other side. According to the terms of the manufacturer, I have not broken the seal and thus am not bound by their stupid EULA (not that it really matters - I always ignore EULA's anyway).

I also always wondered how this would apply to me when I was a young teenager. I "agreed" to many EULA's in my time before I turned 18, but legally, I was not bound by them.

I would love to see one of those non-disclosure/non-compete/non-interopterability agreements get broken by some 16 year old programming whiz.. When the company comes around to try to slap him with a suit, they realize he is not bound by any contracts and are pretty much SOL.

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[NemosomeN]

Run pipe through the catalytic converter (Or hell, just take it out), and you will do exactly that.

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[bcmm]

Although they talked mostly about the swap hack, they did mention this one in passing.
From just over 5 minutes into the podcast MP3:

...was talking about what it took to hack it; it takes two memory sticks; you put a loader on one, you put the game on the other... I mean it's the most complicated work-around I've ever seen. Have you tried it?

I haven't done it yet; there's actually, I was just reading this morning, theres a Japanese guy that figured how to do it without having to swap the memory sticks.

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[skelly33]

What you lost was potential income. If just 1% of those people had bought the CD, thats $3,000. But hey, thats just 3% of your profits, right? Well, its 3% of your gross profits. But it cost you $10,000 to print the CD's, $10,000 for the studio time, $10,000 for the designers and producers, etc. until you have $70,000 in expenses. All of which you had to pay up front. So now that $100,000 gross is $30,000 net, and that 1% of sales you lost meant 10% more money you would have made.

Bingo. It's called "lost profits." Americans sue for lost profits every day of every year with the exception of national holidays and possibly Sundays. The problem with the lost profits argument which has been pointed out before in piracy discussions here on /. is the big "if" that goes along with it: IF those 100 pirates had bought the CD rather than downloaded it there would have been X amount of profit which we now consider lost. The trouble is that there is no guarantee that those 100 pirates WOULD purchase the CD in the absence of the free option. The pirates I know, for example, hoarde tens of thousands of MP3 tracks -- $thousnds worth in potential CD purchases -- and there's no way in hell they would have spent that money at a store if the MP3's didn't exist. No way. I expect that the same is true of a lot of pirate activity.

So lost profits is highly speculative and the court tends to give them the benefit of the doubt every time a verdict is in their favor.

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[mOdQuArK!]

Why you sir must be a right wing religious nut!

That's odd, I associate the right-wing religious nuts with the people who want laws passed to control everyone else's behavior. Maybe you were thinking of libertarian nuts?

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[Blakey Rat]

I agree you should be able to hack into things you own. I don't agree that you should be able to rent or download games, them permanently install them onto the device (or burn a DVD of them) like the vast majority of people with hacked Xboxes are doing. So the situation isn't as simple as you make it seem.

The reason Sony puts in protection is to prevent piracy, not people wanting to run their own demo apps.

(Oh, and yes, the vast majority of emulated games that people are installing on their PSPs are pirated, too.)

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[Blakey Rat]

But the vast vast majority of people who hack Xboxes or PSPs do so so they can play pirated games. It's kind of like the P2P argument... sure P2P has valid uses, but 95% or more of its use is for pirated material. Therefore, is it ethical to outlaw P2P? Well, people have different opinions. But modding game machines is pretty much the same problem. Even these people running Nintendo or Genesis emulators on their PSP are more likely than not using pirated ROMs.

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[Andrew Cady]

He was talking about using N2O in his fuel. However, I don't think, as the OP suggested, it has negative environment impact, except that your car may not last as long, so society will have to produce and dispose of more cars.

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[LS]

I don't think you need to add your complication to this statement. Leave out the part about "as long as it doesn't endanger anyone, deprive them of privacy, deprive them of something else, etc".

Let's change the term hack to "modify", making the statement: ...and you should be able to modify anything you own -- it's yours

Now, the statement doesn't need to be more complicated. Using your car example, you don't own the air, so you aren't allowed to modify it outside of legal bounds. If you want to get into details and say you do own the air above your property, then you can emit anything you want as long as it doesn't escape your property.

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[Propaganda13]

Like Mark Cuban said, the damages should only be $5 a month since you could have got all that Music from Yahoo for that price.

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[Rirath.com]

Except I'm quite sure he's not Japanese, the team is Spanish I believe. He's probably talking about the useless .bat memory stick reader trick that came out. I hate to say it, but TWIT always has been and probably always will be a week late on everything they talk about. I remember Leo ranting in some of the early eps about how BitTorrent is flawed in ways that it's not, (he doesn't understand the concept it would seem), and also ranting that a phone of his couldn't be customized, which it certainly could easily enough.

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[Anonymous Coward]

For instance, I could probably hack my car to get better fuel economy and more power, but turn it into something that emits a lot more NOx and CO2

No, you couldn't. I'm surprised that no on else has called you on your ignorance. If you were able to 'hack' your car to get BOTH better fuel economy **and** more power, then you have increased the thermodynamic efficiency of your engine. Better, more complete combustion, or more efficient conversion of chemical energy into heat into mechanical energy.

The key word in your claim is 'and'. Meaning BOTH, at the same time.

So, amongst the outcomes:

+ at any given power level, you will burn less fuel (thus lowering overall emissions)
+ Complete combustion results in low CO and NOX, with more CO2 and N2 (and H2...) What do you think the catalytic converter does, anyway? Hint: more completely combusts the exhaust gasses from the engine.

You should really choose a better example next time. For naysayers- cite a counterexample. A pipe through the catalytic converter will fail this test, as doing so will actually -hurt- both power output and fuel economy of a modern computer-controlled vehicle.

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[Anonymous Coward]

Your perception is based on your bias. Left-wing lunatics are just as much control freaks, you just happen to agree.

Both sides suck. Stay out of my life.

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[Vermifax]

Some courts have upheld that notification on the box counts as being presented.

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[markwalling]

in that case they could go after the legal gaurdian:

"mommy, some guy in a suit is here. he says he has a suit for you."

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[rpdillon]

You should probably check out the Bnetd case over at eff.org. The last ruling handed down (30 Sept 2004) stated that not only does first sale doctrine not apply to software (since the software isn't sold, it is licensed), but also that the EULA does not have to be present at point of sale to be enforceable. All it has to do is make you click "OK" at some point during the install. Despite being widely regarded as a form of adhesion contract, this setup has been validated in a few court cases.

Hopefully the judge for the appeal will not be so myopic in his ruling.

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[KDR_11k]

Notification on the box? Where? The only company that notifies you of that is Microsoft. I haven't seen a single game published by another company that mentions the EULA on the box, HL2 didn't even mention Steam.

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[KDR_11k]

There are earlier examples of courts saying EULAs apply and first sale doesn't and courts saying the opposite. It's kinda random, when they take you to court you better hope you get a judge that favours the "EULA is BS/licensing is sale" interpretation.

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[Vermifax]

Blizzard does, they won a lawsuit vs bnetd on this fact.

Additionally blizzard will refund your cash if the retailer won't take it back because you don't agree.

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[bert.cl]

I believe that the bnetd ruling was all about a EULA that was presented (in theory at last) every time you wanted to exercise your subscription. So everytime you wanted to play online, you had to respect the term of service. As opposed to offline software.

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[MightyYar]

Do you have the name of the "Edit Text Box" extension? I've been looking all over... Thanks!

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[aug24]

But with Firefox's "Edit Text Box" extension (or whatever it's called), you can change the EULA to whatever you want...

Hell, I could change the wording on the sales slip in Tescos with a pen, but that wouldn't mean the manager of the branch selling me my copy of Halo 2 has to give me their firstborn daughter as soon as she turns 19.

I think unless you make the vendor aware of your changes, you're just pissing in the wind. Course, IANRemotelyAL...

Justin.

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[pigscanfly.ca]

But your makeing them aware when you post the form back to them :-)

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[Mattcelt]

It's called "External Editor". (You have to use Firefox to use the link.)

Enjoy! :-)

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[Mattcelt]

Actually, I do this all the time. I mark changes in my rental car contracts, my sales contracts, anything. If I don't like the language, I change it, in pen, and mark it with my initials. If the store takes my money, it's a binding contract.

I even completely rewrote my AT&T wireless contract from scratch, because I didn't like the language that said, "You (the customer) authorize anyone who can provide us with the last four digits of your social security number to make changes to your account." I sent the new language in with a cashier's check for my first payment, with a note on the check that said, "By accepting this payment, you accept the terms and conditions outlined in the attached document." They took it without complaint.

I'd say I get questions about 10% of the time, but I've only had my changes rejected once, ever. A lot of people are impressed b/c they didn't know it was possible... and most of them agree that the original language sucks anyway.

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[aug24]

Indeed - I am a contractor and the same deal applies. Often the client needs to run it past their in-house lawyers, but that's it.

However, both of us are making the other party aware of the changes before clinching the deal. The original post was suggesting that changing the text *and not letting the other party know* was legally valid. Somehow I doubt that.

Mind you, it does demonstate that any sale with conditions is not necessarily enforceable as the sellor is assuming compliance but not getting documentation of the agreement.

J.

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[squiggleslash]

Cuban's argument was flawed. He argued it should be $5 per month, but said this should replace lawsuits against uploaders.

If the logic is to remain internally consistant, Cuban should have argued that the fines against uploaders were $5 per individual who downloaded music in any month. So if in any month 1,000 people obtain music from a particular node, that node operator should be fined $5,000 per month he or she was operating. Say, $60,000 for someone who got away with doing this for a year.

That would actually be worse than many RIAA fines were in practice!

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[rpdillon]

Actually, the judge distinguishes quite clearly between the Terms of Service an the End User License Agreement. The ToS are stated to be relating to Battle.net, whereas the EULA is the click-through "OK" during install. Neither was available at point of sale, and the judge found both to be binding.

While the case does focus on games that go online through battle.net, nothing about his discussion of EULAs is unique to online software.

I'll admit it is a pain, but if you care about this stuff, I highly recommend reading the court's memo and order. The ramifications of it are enourmous. I'm watching the appeal very closely. There are already some great amicus briefs on the case website at the EFF that point out numerous flaws in the judges reasoning. I haven't done ay background research on this judge, but he seemed biased in his memo, to say the least.

For example, what I said was accurate - he found that doctrine of first sale doesn't apply to software, since solfware isn't sold, it is licensed. This would mean that copyright holders continue to retain their copyright rights over copies that are already in the hands of buyers. This would make it illegal to sell your used PS2, XBox or Gamecube games back to a "trade-in" store, for example.

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[coopex]

It's pretty sad that good satire such as this is modded down, even with freakin psuedohtml sarcasm tags.

Re:Nothing new...move along.

[Your_Master527]

yes, but atleast hl2 mentioned that you needed an internet connection for play. Since they included a general statement that was not limited to online multiplayer mode, they can include whatever weird internet systems they want inside the box. But on the issue of EULA's, there was an article in PcGamer a few months back which discussed the validity of EULA's, and while some courts upheald the validity of a eula that is presented in the box or on launch of the software, all of the cases that did not include either a eula visible before purchasing the product, or a means of getting a refund from the company if a user decides upon seeing the eula that they do not agree with it, have been overturned by a higher court. Only a few exceptions exist, one of which is World of Warcraft's in game EULA and Terms of Service Agreement that you must agree to in order to log into the the game when you purchase, and every time the game is patched. Since these are not related to the product, but rather rules for the privlidge of connecting to and using blizzard's own servers. In other words, you are not bound by a Eula, unless you decide to take the game online (which is required for play).

Hehe...

[Anonymous Coward]

"Homebrewed"... yeah, that's it. ;)

Re:Hehe...

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, homebrew is all it will play. Commercial games still won't play, unless you know how to crack the encrypted executables.

This is the best thing for the homebrew scene. You can't run pirated stuff, but you can develop and run your own app on the PSP! How cool is that? I'm playing Rick Dangerous on my PSP! Woohoo!

Re:Hehe...

[Anonymous Coward]

I will buy a PSP, if someone ports Linley Henzell's Dungeon Crawl to it...

And yes, I am serious.

Re:Hehe...

[Anonymous Coward]

Would you settle for nethack or lincity? ;-)

Re:Hehe...

[GTRacer]

Commercial games still won't play...You can't run pirated stuff

Ummm...you can't play pirated PSP UMD's (yet) but the main focus of these exploits is to allow users to run code from memory stick and not UMD.

Guess what everyone wants to run. ROMs. Lots of ROMs. Genesis, NeoGeo, SNES, Gameboy, etc. And I bet a majority of those ROMs are "unauthorised copies".

GTRacer
- Can't download PSMame at work

Re:Hehe...

[Anonymous Coward]

But ROMs obviously don't play by themselves, so the emulators are still "homebrew", even if many are / start as ports from the PC versions. :)

Right now emulation is just easier as a quick port and a few months of tweaks can get a very big payoff. A lot of people are interested in it. Good, quality homebrew games and software will take more time.

Also, don't forget these emulators can run homebrew too. There's a 0.01 alpha release of a GBA emulator for PSP now, which does run although slowly. When that gets fixed up, much of the GBA homebrew scene will be opened as well. Try places like gbadev.org

Re:Hehe...

[KDR_11k]

Sure, the emulator itself is legal as long as the PSP doesn't count as a limited device (Nintendo has a patent on that). Feel free to run your emulator. Just don't use any illegally copied ROMs. That'll be the hardest part for most people.

Besides, why would you want an emulator for homebrew stuff? Couldn't they port or write it for the PSP in first place? Saves a lot of hassle and gives better performance.

Just tried it

[pjameson]

I just tried this yesterday, and finally I get to see what I was missing by having the 1.5 firmware. They really did a great job on this release, but it's going to suck when you have to update to play new commercial games

Re:Just tried it

[sagekoala06]

I heard this off the radio waves I can tune into with my teeth. Perhaps the group that came out with the exploit is actually a secret sony group that is trying to boost psp sales. That way you own your 1.5 ... but there is no way you will give up your mame ... therefore you must buy a second psp to play that next huge game that you want (gta anyone?) ... think about it. As a side note: Yeah this exploit is great! Kind of annoying that i went out and bought a new ms the day the first exploit came out ... oh well. (perhaps on that day they just wanted to boost ms sales!)

Re:Just tried it

[PhoenixOne]

Depending on how cool this hack is (I haven't used it, but I'm interested in programming for my PSP) it may stop me from buying any software that includes a firmware upgrade.

Not a big lose, I already own Lumines! ;)

Re:Just tried it

[Rirath.com]

Keep in mind what you were missing, you haven't been missing for very long. Hello World was only a few months back, and the software has been in a steady but swift climb upward since. You're in at a good time, when the software is largely advanced enough to be usuable, but still in the exciting early stages.

Time

[michrech]

It was only a matter of time before it happened.

I don't think it'd be too long before other operating systems are running on the PSP.

--
telnet://sinep.gotdns.com -- TW2002 and LORD registered! :)

Re:Time

[mesach]

As much as people think that this is ONLY for pirating psp games, getting mame on the psp is the one thing that is keeping me from owning one. As soon as a good mame emulator for the psp is out, im all over it. In addition to using normal psp games.

Re:Time

[Anonymous Coward]

So you want to use it to pirate non-PSP games as well?

Re:Time

[ChrisF79]

WHat games do you usually play on Mame? I had it for a while and the only game I could find that I remembered was "Tapper." What else is good for it? I'd like to give it a second chance.

Re:Time

[Wordsmith]

So it's not just for pirating PSP games ... it's also for pirating old carts :)

Actually, there's only so much benefit to being able to pirate PSP games, at least for now. Memory cards large enough to store them are more expensive than the games in many cases. Sure, you could have just one card and constantly swap new games to it, but that's somewhat inconvenient.

Re:Time

[Digital Vomit]

It sure must have been a long time since you've looked at MAME. It emulates over 3100 games now (5661 various rom sets, many of which are clones).

You can look through the list of all emulated games here:http://www.mame.net/gamelist.html

If you remember an old game, but don't remember the name, you can try finding it in the Killer List of Video Games. This is also a great resource for looking up information about various games.

When you know what you want, you can either look for the roms on eDonkey/eMule (if you know the rom set names), try to find a good roms site (there are some, but you have to wade through a lot of crap sites to find them), or you can find (and request) roms on Usenet at alt.binaries.emulators.mame (probably your best bet).

If you want some good old school games, try Ms. Pac-man, Frogger, Q*Bert (or the fun, but rare sequel Q*Bert's Qubes) for starters. Vector games like Asteroids work well, too. One of my favorites is Liquid Kids (I can't believe that game is 15 years old). Bank Panic - another old one -- is a fun *twitch* game. The original Rampage is great. Oh man, what is MAME not good for?!

Re:Time

[superpulpsicle]

In what store can you buy a Genesis, SNES game in Rom format that plays on the PSP? None. Therefore it's NOT pirating. It does not translate to a loss in sale.

Re:Time

[Total_Wimp]

Geez, is pirating all people want with this? I was hoping to be able to get some freeware games, or maybe some cheap homebrew games.

I'm a computer gamer. I loved FarCry and Half-Life 2, but I still play solitare and computer pinball. My daughter likes Mahjong. We both play internet Flash games. One thing I dislike about consoles is that that simple games are rarely made because they'd cost too much for the consumer after the manufacturer is done with licensing.

If the PSP were Free, as in speach, I'd be able to enjoy a wide variety of games. As it is now, all I get are blockbusters.

TW

Re:Time

[Wordsmith]

I actually oppose IP as a concept, but from a legal standpoint, you still remain unauthorized to distribute or recieve an unauthorized copy -- so it IS still pirating.

(unless you want to be pedantic and talk about how you're not wearing an eyepatch or carrying around a parrot when you do it).

Re:Time

[irc.goatse.cx troll]

They're usually sold in collections, either Greatest Hits or Arcade Classics. Copyright infringement is copyright infringement. If my computer doesn't have a cdrom drive, is it not piracy to download music/games/apps/movies in a format my computer can play because they don't sell it like that?
It might be more ethical to you, but that doesn't matter, the only person whos ethical views matter are those who produce the content and those who write the laws.

Re:Time

[Anti_zeitgeist]

MAME on a 333Mhz (which is over the regular 300) wouldnt be exaclty great. I mean i thought it was all dependant on the processor and there are quite a few games which need a good pcu. But i could be wrong, can anyone shed some light on this?

Re:Time

[Blakey Rat]

You're in denial. Pretty much all of copyright law can be summed up like this:

If you produce a work, you have exclusive right to decide who else gets to use that work.

It's really that simple. If the person who produced the game doesn't give you permission to play it, you can't play it legally. Period. It doesn't matter whether the game is on sale or not. Hell, if that person wanted, they could lock up all the existing copies in a vault and never let ANYBODY play it, and he's still entirely within his rights.

So, you see, your argument means exactly squat.

If you want to change the laws, well, lobby to change the laws. But pretending that they don't exist isn't going to get you very far towards your goal of being able to (legally) play Robotron 2084 for free.

Re:Time

[superpulpsicle]

The consumer has the right to buy a PSP and turn it into a machine gun if he/she so please.

You are denying the right of the consumer true ownership of the purchased PSP over a non-purchaseable piece of software. Then calling he/she a pirate... it's not right. This is the norm, but I do understand where everyone's view is coming from.

Re:Time

[Anonymous Coward]

Those collections (assuming you are talking about the mame collections) are just as illegal as downloading the ROMS. They didn't pay royalties for the 1500 or more games on those CDs. If they did you wouldn't be able to afford the CD, and besides for many of the games noone knows who actually owns the copyright anymore.

Re:Time

[FrostedChaos]

I've played MAME on 75 MHz power PCs. It wasn't a problem. Considering that most of these MAME consoles had CPUs slower than 1 MHz, even a clumsy emulator should be fine.
And yes, you may also have to emulate the graphics coprocessors, but those were also pretty wimpy.

Re:Time

[irc.goatse.cx troll]

I was refering to where they shove 5 old arcade games on a dvd sized disk(such a waste) and sell it as {Namco|Williams|Nintendo|Sega|Atari}'s greatest hits.

Example: http://www.neoseeker.com/Games/Products/PSX/willia ms_greatest/

They're just emulators and the same roms you'd download online, as proven by some kgen guys that hacked up one of the dreamcast greatest hits packages by swapping out the rom with another one and getting it to work fine

Re:Time

[KDR_11k]

unless you want to be pedantic and talk about how you're not wearing an eyepatch or carrying around a parrot when you do it

Get a boat and an anti-air missile plus launcher (or an AA gun if that's your fancy), rudder out of the 3 mile zone, wait until a plane comes by, shoot it down. Now you're a pirate. No eyepatch necessary.

Re:Time

[KDR_11k]

If you produce a work, you have exclusive right to decide who else gets to use that work.

Copy, not use. You can only enforce usage restrictions on what you own (and in case of an idea you own the copyright), first sale prohibits anything else. If you don't sell it it's obviously your property (physically) and you can tell people to keep their wretched hands off it. A sold copy however is outside of your control, all copyright gives you is the right to decide who can make a copy of it.

Re:Time

[KDR_11k]

You aren't denying it, you are merely designing your device in a way that it's less fit to be used for another purpose. You might be denied your rights by the DMCA but that's law and law can take rights.

Re:Time

[steve_bryan]

Pretty much all of copyright law can be summed up like this:

If you produce a work, you have exclusive right to decide who else gets to use that work.

Congratulations! You've just served up a hot steaming cup of FUD. Offer that as your summary of copyright law and you would get your deserved failing grade.

The imperial right which you attribute to the person who produces a work only extends until that work is published. Then all sorts of things happen which depend on the specific nature of the work.

For instance if the work is an audio recording then you cannot forbid a radio station from playing it. That station pays a fee but it is not directly to the producer and it does not need to seek any sort of clearance for the right to play it. If the work is a composition then peformers can pay a standard fee to perform the work. Again the producer has no magical powers to pick and choose who is allowed to perform the work.

If a game publishing company no longer sells a particular title but you find someone who owns a copy you can buy that copy. It has been repeatedly established in court that after selling a copyrighted work it can be resold regardless of the wishes of the publisher.

Now comes the tricky part that could theoretically be resolved in court. Assuming you have legitimately purchased a game title either new or used. Could you claim the right to play it on an emulator rather than the original equipment? Well, audio CD publishers have seen their rights limited in the Roxio decision that established that owners of CD's had the right to alter (compress) and transfer the content of the CD to an MP3 player without seeking the permission of the original publisher. I don't think it would be a difficult stretch to claim this is analogous to playing older game titles on an emulator.

Of course I am assuming the consumer has purchased a copy of the game rather than just downloading it. Maybe that makes the argument less than entirely compelling but even if I agree that the original poster was engaging in wishful thinking I still think it is important to maintain some sense of reality about how much is conferred by copyright law. It is not a blank check (yet).

Methinks...

[systemic chaos]

It's about time to require a new firmware version for all new games

Re:Methinks...

[michrech]

Won't matter. It'll get hacked just like the current firmware. It's all a matter of time.

--
telnet://sinep.gotdns.com -- TW2002 and LORD!

Re:Methinks...

[systemic chaos]

True. Isn't this game of cat and mouse what keeps many of us interested?

Re:Methinks...

[michrech]

I'd think the ability to concentrate on making interesting things that work would be much more fun than trying to hack the latest attempt at locking a user OUT of hardware (s)he OWNS.

--
telnet://sinep.gotdns.com -- TW2002 and LORD!

Re:Methinks...

[Anonymous Coward]

This isn't so much a hack as it is an exploit in the filesystem and the signature checking. There's no hacking going on that disables or in any other way turns off the protection, they just simply found a way around it.

This has been fixed in 1.51 and 1.52. While many users do certainly hope they'll find another exploit, or actually disable the protection, it's too early to say it "won't matter". So far, no proof has been shown that it will ever be hackable, though odds are it will.

Of course

[Anonymous Coward]

Why didn't I think of that?.........

Exploit?

[moz25]

I'm not so sure the term "exploit" is the appropriate one. It's more often associates with programs with malicious intent or gaining higher privileges on another person's system. Surely, making full use of the hardware you own is not "exploiting" it?

Re:Exploit?

[GigsVT]

Only to people that buy crippled hardware for some stupid reason, and then want to "hack" into their own stuff.

Re:Exploit?

[TheRealMindChild]

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=mozclient&ie =utf-8&oe=utf-8&q=define%3Aexploit

# use or manipulate to one's advantage; "He exploit the new taxation system"; "She knows how to work the system"; "he works his parents for sympathy" # draw from; make good use of; "we must exploit the resources we are given wisely"


Still think it is used unwisely?

Re:Exploit?

[iamhassi]

"Still think it is used unwisely?"

then I'm sure you don't mind if I exploit your wife ;)

Re:Exploit?

[linguae]

From dictionary.com:

1. To employ to the greatest possible advantage: exploit one's talents.
2. To make use of selfishly or unethically: a country that exploited peasant labor. See Synonyms at manipulate.
3. To advertise; promote.

Well, installing this exploit does employ the PSP to the greatest possible advantage, IMO, so that definition of the word works fine. Of course, exploit has ta negative definition, but I see nothing negative about using your PSP to play homebrew games, Linux, and other "unsupported" stuff, so I guess the definition of exploit is relative to the speaker/listener.

Re:Exploit?

[Winterblink]

Surely, making full use of the hardware you own is not "exploiting" it?

Is that not what you're doing when you elevate your privileges on another person's system? :)

Re:Exploit?

[tepples]

What comparable uncrippled hardware exists? What PDA has an acceptable D-pad and buttons?

Re:Exploit?

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.tapwave.com/

Re:Exploit?

[wgaryhas]

But those "exploiting" the PSP are the owners of the system. That is just a bit different from giving yourself full privileges on someone else's system.

Re:Exploit?

[tepples]

The Tapwave NDA prohibits free software or even freely redistributable software from being released for the platform. In addition, I could not find any Tapwave Zodiac hardware or software on the shelf at any retailer in Fort Wayne, Indiana, that I've visited, so it'll be tough to find partners for multiplayer games.

Re:Exploit?

[David Gould]

He said "own", not "0wn". It makes a big difference, you know.

Re:Exploit?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think he means Sony is "exploit-ing" "their" customers.

Re:Exploit?

[Winterblink]

Well at least someone got my pun. :)

Re:Exploit?

[poot_rootbeer]

Only to people that buy crippled hardware for some stupid reason, and then want to "hack" into their own stuff.

O please, tell me what the "non-crippled" equivalent to the PSP is, and much performance $250 will get you with it.

Re:Exploit?

[karnal]

Would that be a "root" exploit?

Re:Exploit?

[KDR_11k]

It runs standard Palm apps so you don't need a Tapwave SDK.

How?

[mynickwastaken]

With a Marker Pen?! Oh, not again!

Damn

[Foolomon]

Damn, this must be so sensitive to Sony that my corporate firewall blocks access to the site describing the hack. :(

Re:Damn

[Anonymous Coward]

Corporate firewalls block all the good stuff

and I believe you have my stapler

Old News for Nerds

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone who cares enough about this would have already found out about this now. It's just a new version of the old "swaploit" that works with different folders one one memory stick instead of a folder on seperate sticks with the same name. Move along

Linux Inside?

[mislam]

Can it run linux? I can then add all homebrewed software I like.

Re:Linux Inside?

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Can it run linux? I can then add all homebrewed software I like.

including this one. I wonder if you can run the exploit on the emulator too...

nice

[Anonymous Coward]

Let the avalanche of coolness...what now?

Heh

[Auckerman]

As was shown with the xbox, the secret to entering a new hardware/software market is to create a machine that allows piracy, but discourages it. While there are valid reasons to allowing homebrew software on the PSP, and hacks like this shouldn't be illegal, research like this will lead to hacked games (on to very expensive memory sticks).

Genious on Sony's part. Get an installed base at any price, while paying lip service to piracy. Even at $250, the PSP will be a hit.

Re:Heh

[doombob]

One instance of Sony "paying lip service to piracy"?

Sony BMG DRM Strives to Eliminate "Schoolyard Piracy"

Re:Heh

[rob123]

On the contary, watson.. this is an example of microsoft just being a bit crappy at stopping piracy.

Microsoft make a loss on each Xbox sale and make the cash back from the games.. they don't want people to be able to pirate the games.. there's no cash in it for them then!

Re:Heh

[tmbg37]

You don't understand, Sony has to prevent piracy at all costs, and that's because they make money off of software, not hardware. I'd be surprised if the "expensive" PSP costs as little as $250 to make, it wouldn't be surprising if it cost twice that. Rather, their revenue stream comes from game sales, as well as licensing the right to make games to developers. People buying PSPs soley to run free homebrew apps or pirated games destroys this model.

Re:Heh

[bluk]

MSFT takes a loss on each sale and they expect it. MSFT isn't dumb. They weren't going to win the console wars with the first Xbox (and some at MSFT realistically say they won't win the next generation either). They came in expecting losses against Nintendo and Sony because these are giants. They want to grab more and more marketshare until they have enough and then they start their real antipiracy measures. The Xbox would not be as popular if it wasn't mod friendly.

Re:Heh

[Anonymous Coward]

Sony is seriously schizophrenic.

BMG is all hog wild and crazy or DRM.

The hardware side understands that DRM hurts sales.

They almost never see eye to eye.

Re:Heh

[joelanders]

But if they make it too easy to do, won't the creators of the pirated games shy away from developing on the PSP platform? What if the developers try to sue Sony? It seems like if a bank left the vault door open and got robbed, the customers should be able to be reimbursed...

this isn't the tech you're looking for

[paulsgre]

games? i still have "swap" my pr0n to finish a single scene... This isn't the tech you're looking for. move along, move along

I didn't see that coming

[Mille Mots]

I read that as 'Swapless P2P Exploit...'

Must be time to wipe eMule off the Windows box again.

Re:I didn't see that coming

[Anonymous Coward]

So it wasnt just me?

Re:I didn't see that coming

[Anonymous Coward]

I read this as a "Swapless PHP Exploit" and I was afraid I'd have to update all my scripts or have them hacked -- then I read that it only applied to verson 1.5. Who uses PHP 1.5 anyway?

Oh, pSp. That's very different.

Re:...does this need comments?

[Nom du Keyboard]

I guess i'm just saying that just because you can comment on a story doesn't mean you have to.

But is it okay to comment on your comment?

Re:...does this need comments?

[Momoru]

Thats just like you dirty liberals, always trying to tell us which portable is better....obviously the PSP sucks...why would i buy one when I have old NES ROMS?

It's all about platform control

[Anonymous Coward]

This shouldn't be a surprise; after all, Sony does want the "geek" section of the market, but it doesn't want to give up control of the platform completely. So, Sony makes it difficult but not impossible to run arbitrary code on the thing. More importantly it's probably technically illegal, which means that if Sony doesn't like what you're doing with their PSP, they can sue you easily into oblivion.

Better terminology

[Anonymous Coward]

I prefer to call this and related techniques to remove unrequested locks from my systems "Digital Rights Management." :)

Because the whole page is basically an ad...

[Tuxedo Jack]

Here's the text and the link it links to.

- - - - -

Just when your fingers are getting sore and your friends keep asking 'Why do you have to switch memory sticks?' Killer-X and the PSP-Dev team have answered our prayers with KXploit, a way to run homebrew on 1.5's... Minus the memory stick swap!

The predecessor of Swaploit, users will now enjoy no more jammed fingers or broken nails with the introduction of "Direct Loader", and 1.5 users can now pretend they own a 1.0.

One of our users, Gavin King (Thanks), posted a comment on how to do this in its simplest form:

"If any of this confused you.... just do the same thing you did with swaploit, but put both folders on the same memory.

Let's use your NES folder as an example.

Your MS1 folder name "NES%" and your MS2 folder leave it the same, naming it "NES".

And that's all you need to do... a simple rename and move."

(I myself tested and verified this to work.)

You can get it in our PSP Download section here.

- - - - -

The file they're referring to is here:

http://files.psphacker.com/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi?0,0, 0,0,38,469

yay finally some new games!

[napa1m]

Maybe if Sony actually released some new games for the PSP after launch people wouldn't be so eager to hack it up! Did they expect us to play the same 3 decent games for 5 months straight? Well, I guess all those GBA games I'll be able to run now will count as new games!

psphacker.com

[Anonymous Coward]

psphacker is a pretty crap site run by a bunch of kids.

Technical Details

[hansendc]

Has anyone seen any details about how these hacks work, or what they exploit? I remember reading in gritty detail about the xbox font hacks, but I haven't seen any technical details on the PSP hacking.

Re:Technical Details

[nathanh]

Has anyone seen any details about how these hacks work, or what they exploit? I remember reading in gritty detail about the xbox font hacks, but I haven't seen any technical details on the PSP hacking.

The PSP bootloader checks the folder on the memory card (FAT format) for signed code. If it finds unsigned code, it refuses to boot.

The PSP OS does not check for signed code. It assumes the bootloader has done its job. It just runs whatever code it finds.

Fortunately the PSP bootloader FAT driver and the PSP OS FAT driver don't work the same. The bootloader ignores % signs in folder names. So if you create a folder "FOO" containing NO code, as well as a folder "FOO%" containing homebrew code, then the PSP will happily boot and run your code from the "FOO%" directory. Simply place both the directories on the card and try to play the code in "FOO%".

NB: bootloader in this context isn't quite the same thing as bootloaders on PCs.

Re:Technical Details

[binarytoaster]

It's the other way around.

The driver can't see the %, so the OS runs FOO% and the bootloader interprets that as FOO.

DRM

[headkase]

I wish companies would just drop DRM - it only hurts their legitimate customers. The warez pirates crack the protection within hours or days and then the pirates don't have to mess around with finding the CD when they want to play a game, etc. Sure DRM stops casual piracy but still there should be some limitations like what Id software does: CD protection at first but then remove it in some later patch to the game. This stops casual piracy for the immediate term while later on removing the annoyances for customers.

Re:DRM

[Anonymous Coward]

Companies will drop DRM like a hot potato the moment people stop buying things that have it built in.

Re:DRM

[Anonymous Coward]

In the end, the only people that DRM in games hardware has killed off are the bedroom programmers who don't have the resources to circumvent it.
That's why I love my linux PC. It's mine and you can't retroactively change that.

sale

[stagl]

This release has convinced me to purchase a PSP. I don't want to hack the commercial games...I could care less of those. I just want a portable movie/nes/snes/mame box! Come tomorrow I will be a PSP owner.

Re:sale

[Anonymous Coward]

Could you care less? Really? OK, I dare you. Please, care less. You said you could! I wanna see it. Go for it. Care less.

OH, I get it. You meant that you count NOT care less, as in your level of concern is the lowest possible value already.

Damn, I wish people would say what they mean and actually think about what they're saying. Is that so wrong?

Re:sale

[Blakey Rat]

So you don't want to pirate PSP games, you just want to pirate movies, NES games, SNES games, and arcade games? What an upstanding citizen you are.

Re:sale

[Anonymous Coward]

Except that because you waited, you will likely end up with a 1.51 or 1.52 psp where the hack doesn't work.

Sony's really missing an opportunity here

[Dark Paladin]

Now, I know why they don't allow the homebrew software:

Less game sales
Loss of control (possibility of viruses, malware, etc)

But - I think they could really do something with the homebrew if done right. I had put out some of these in a column I wrote up a couple of weeks ago, and still feel its true.

Sony could:

1. Offer a homebrew kit to developers for $100 - $200 dollars to be used for non-commercial use only.
2. Include big ass disclaimers "You break-a yo' PSP, not our fault".
3. If an application starts getting big, add it to an online PSP App Center and charge for it. 75% of the profits go to the devs, 25% to Sony. Everybody wins, as Sony could built up a library of applications and make some money off of it.

Is this as good as, say, just developing Palm Pilot applications and not getting a developers hard work appropriated by Sony? Naturally not - but half a loaf, as they say, is better than none. In this scenario, more apps for the PSP make it a more attractive device, which means more sales, which means more developers develop for it. At the moment, the Nintendo DS is looking like a better system (I've got two PSP games that look interesting to me, and about 15 DS games on my list for the future).

Of course, this is all just my opinion. I could be wrong. If nothing else, I'm enjoying having a Genesis emulator on my PSP - and the irony that I can play Game Boy Color games on my PSP but not on my DS ;).

Re:Sony's really missing an opportunity here

[Gotung]

Do you really think Sony is making a profit on PSP's at $250? They have to combat homebrew because people that buy the PSP solely for homebrew/hacks generate zero (maybe even negative) dollars for Sony. These days game system manufacturers sell their systems for very little profit or even a loss to get the system into peoples hands. They then make the money back by selling games. If they sold a "hackable" version for $400 (so as to actually *GASP* make a profit) would you still buy it?

Re:Sony's really missing an opportunity here

[Medevo]

I heard from a "friend" in the industry that PSP production costs at the very start were around $500 USD + ship. They have managed to pull them down to around $400 but there is still a pretty big loss leader on those $250 units.

I though the whole point of the value pack was to make the loss less to Sony. Also PSP games/movies the margins are pretty good for Sony and I think there PSP division isn't loosing too much money overall.

As for the "Hack-Able" unit idea, the unit would either include different firmware that would have the differences be reverse-engineered and integrated into the regular units. They could change the hardware (perhaps use a different BIOS) but different hardware almost always means compatibility issues, which "Console Style" game have to avoid to survive. For Sony those hack-able units are loose-loose, and go figure we don't see them.

Sony has avoided units hacks in almost all there products (Aibo no) because that's not who they are selling to. They want people to buy PSP's for the train ride or car trip, when somebody wants to charge the unit, turn it on and go. Sure $25 movies and $50 games are expensive, but they will work irregardless of when you bought the PSP, and the convenience/quality factor is what Sony is selling

Medevo

Re:Sony's really missing an opportunity here

[fishbowl]

" Do you really think Sony is making a profit on PSP's at $250?"

If manufacturing and distribution cost is higher than that per unit, then they don't deserve to make a profit!

Re:Sony's really missing an opportunity here

[Anonymous Coward]

I didn't read your posting but the best way I have thought of to allow homebrew and independent projects (for any platform) would be to construct a stable, secure and efficient virtual machine that would run practically any program given to it. This idea was thought up specifically in the context of next generation consoles because you could obtain better than current generation performance on a next-gen platform running a java virtual machine; in the context of the PSP, I would suspect that you could still outperform the GBA and might be able to get similar performance to the Nintendo DS while running on top of a virutal machine.

Re:Sony's really missing an opportunity here

[cybpunks3]

Nobody forced Sony to sell the PSP at a loss. There is no law that says if you buy a PSP you have to buy even a single game, only an expectation on their part that they will make the money back in software sales.

Re:Sony's really missing an opportunity here

[Jackie_Chan_Fan]

Sony should just work with the MAME team and work on a nice free MAME version for PSP right from sony (or any other coder working on it publically) that is open source of course.

MAME on PSP is such a desirable item.

I really want MAME on my PSP. I dont care too much about copying games. You can only fit maybe 2 PSP UMD games on a 1gig stick anyways.

I really just want an opened up PSP without a region code for videos, and teh ability to run homebrewed software/os.

MAME is great... but also there is the possibility of new applications that hackers could make. We could beam back and forth music on psps... or how about GAIM on PSP?

There is so much that could be done, and SONY may or may not be planning on it, and that is why i want the PSP open. I want the scene to have the ability to improve on the PSP where Sony wont.

Piracy may be an issue, but the real benefit is not running copied UMD's of expensive 1 gig memsticks.... but instead, the possibilities of the hardware in combination with software from inventive coders.

Re:Sony's really missing an opportunity here

[Khashishi]

I assume that includes some non-recurring engineering costs.

Re:Sony's really missing an opportunity here

[tepples]

or how about GAIM on PSP?

How would the control on that work? The PSP has no QWERTY keyboard, nor does it have a touch screen, unlike the Nintendo DS.

Re:Sony's really missing an opportunity here

[sznupi]

Sony did something like that: Net Yaroze.

Re:Sony's really missing an opportunity here

[Jackie_Chan_Fan]

USB keyboard (there is one for sale)

Also analogue nub could be used as mouse.

MemoryStick Purchase Reciept

[Anonymous Coward]

Hope you kept your reciept.

Re:MemoryStick Purchase Reciept

[Anonymous Coward]

... I don't think i did ... but it was on sale ... i needed it anyways ... its not like you can have much fun with the 32meg anyways

"Their PSP?"

[kdark1701]

If I buy a PSP, it becomes my property. If I choose to unlock the full potential of my hardware, I can.

Re:"Their PSP?"

[Anonymous Coward]

The law is not on your side there (at least on in the US). Not that our laws make any sense.

Cat and mouse

[tepples]

Come tomorrow I will be a PSP owner.

And watch the PSP that you buy come with firmware 1.51 or 1.52, possibly rendering 1.5 hacks useless. Unlike Nintendo, Sony has shown itself willing to update the firmware several times in a row, even putting code in new UMD games that requires the user to flash a new version of the firmware before the game will play.

Re:Cat and mouse

[neuroking]

"even putting code in new UMD games that requires the user to flash a new version of the firmware before the game will play"

You mean on those games I'll be downloading off bit torrent that have had that procedure removed?

Oooooo.... scary.... wait. no.

your mom

[Anonymous Coward]

your mom is a promiscuous aids infested whore cumbucket

Re:your mom

[Anonymous Coward]

Point proved?

Uncrippled portable game device

[ReverendLoki]

What comparable uncrippled hardware exists? What PDA has an acceptable D-pad and buttons?

As I understand it, the GP32 seems to fit the bill. I'm only passingly familiar with it, though.

ARRR!!! Abandonware off the port mizzencastle!

[Thud457]

Law of salvage. Any abandoned vessel belongs to whoever recovers it.

Re:ARRR!!! Abandonware off the port mizzencastle!

[Total_Wimp]

Things I've seen recently:

At Best Buy: PS2 classics game consisting of Dig Dug, Pole Position, Galaga and Pac Man.

At EBX games: Cartridge for Game Boy advanced with same games.

Under my Xmas tree six months ago: Similar games in a joystick that plugs into my TV.

At Target: A lot of other plug in joysticks with more classic games.

I agree with the abandonware argument, but a lot of these games are no longer abandonware. I'd agree with lowering copyright time periods, but the 20-25 years since most of these games were made doesn't even touch the surface of current copyright law.

Heck, I'd love a good argument to play these games free, but considering they cost less than 5 bucks apiece and are redily available, I can't help but think the ethical thing to do is to pay to play.

TW

Re:ARRR!!! Abandonware off the port mizzencastle!

[halltk1983]

ahh... just put em on iTunes for $.99 and make an emulation handheld. Reverse engineer the old tech.
That way people will buy them.

Re:ARRR!!! Abandonware off the port mizzencastle!

[KDR_11k]

It's called the Nintendo Revolution and will release next year. Of course it's not handheld but close enough. You can probably attach a battery and LCD and carry it around.

Re:ARRR!!! Abandonware off the port mizzencastle!

[Thud457]

Good points.
(Just to be clear, I was half joking, half trying to get people to look at the issues from another perspective.)

But.... AFAICT, 1) these games were for all purposes abandoned by their creators, 2) the retrogaming community resurrected them (there's your right of salvage being exercised there) 3) the companies saw this and realized there was a market so they : 4) released versions of these old games (in a new format).

If we're going to stretch the "law of the sea" metaphor until it breaks here, these companies gave up any rights to these titles when they abandoned them. (Of course, you have the question of what is the "vessel" in these cases -- a particular set of bits of an implementation or the copyright itself.) If we were talking real ships, the original owner's only recourse is to buy the salvaged vessel back.

The point I want to stress is that there would be no market except for the actions of the retrogamer community. These companies should respect that fact.

Now, putting retroroms on iTunes would be something I'd be interested in. But it'd be a licensing nightmare.

Re:ARRR!!! Abandonware off the port mizzencastle!

[coopex]

Hilarious! Let's see how long we can keep the nautical theme going as applied to software/music and movies.

copy-protection solution for PSP

[Spy der Mann]

Add a copy-protecting function in the bios. It's up to the game vendor to call that function or not.

Ta-da, problem solved.

in the history of portables...

[sinner0423]

You would be hard pressed to find a manufacturer with a 'go ahead and play' policy on the hardware. I don't understand this at all, history has shown that software which has been open to developers has more staying power and versatility.

Why is this such a huge problem for Sony? They would still sell the fucking things for people to tinker with / modify them, why not bother to release a dev kit or SOMETHING for us geeks to play with?

A good parallel to this is the Xbox, do you know how many people I know bought one for the sole purpose of modifying them? Lots. I understand Microsoft still took a bite on the sale of the console, but not on the fact that these people still :

1) Bought games (secondhand or otherwise)
2) Bought accessories
3) Spent money they otherwise wouldn't have if they didnt own an Xbox.

Does Sony not realize that catering to the geek crowd could actually bolster sales and help with software development for the PSP? I guess not, and I hate to say it, but I have a feeling this portable is going to go the way of the Minidisc - another complete & total failure by Sony to actually let consumers use devices the way they see fit.

Re:in the history of portables...

[mlorentz]

do you know how many people I know bought one for the sole purpose of modifying them?

I did, and I'm very happy with my Xbox.

Microsoft sold the xbox consoles at a loss to get them out there. They planned to make that money back on game sales. The last I heard Microsoft still hasn't profited a dime on the xbox.

Microsoft doesn't make any money if you buy an Xbox and then mod it to play games you copy over from a friend. So why would they allow it?

Re:in the history of portables...

[Waruwaru]

You would be hard pressed to find a manufacturer with a 'go ahead and play' policy on the hardware. For PS1, Sony offered a ~$300 black Playstation (Yaroze) with complete API and documentations. For PS2, Sony offered the PS2 Linux with complete documentations for the home-brew crowd. Sony also gave its European customers a version of YaBasic. For console manufacturers, Sony probably offers the best official support for the people who wants to tinker with the console but without the bucks. If I was an official developer who spend $10k per deveopment box/SDK/libraries, I would be slightly pissed off if everyone can get the same capability for something under $500.

Re:in the history of portables...

[fireboy1919]

I don't know what kind of history you're talking about. The console seller with the strictest control over it's system has historically been Nintendo, and their most popular system ever - gameboy - has not been opened up to developers much at all.

I can't think of a single company that had a loss-lead product that was very hackable and also very successful. I-opener springs to mind as a counterexample of such a thing. They don't want the "buying it to modify it" market. Feel free to expound on your theories. I'd very much like to know of a hackable loss-lead console that did better because it was hackable.

Buying it to modify it=not buying it to play games, or even to make games. Tinkerers don't really have the resources to make games. It takes hundreds of man-hours, and lots and lots of work.
They have the resources to make the PSP into something other than a gaming console, which might hurt it's sales of games. Remeber that it doesn't matter how many PSPs they sell. Only how many games they sell.

Unlike Xbox, which is basically a PC, PSP is a very custom box sold at a loss. If MS took a loss, they didn't take much, and even if they did, they've got cash to spare. If it gets hacked and used primarily in ways that have nothing to do with selling games, then they won't recoup their money in game sales.

I'm sure that Sony will be more than happy to let you hack their system as soon as they aren't losing money on the sales of consoles - so in about two years or so, when production costs have leveled off. But right now, they really want to make sure that people are buying games.

Re:in the history of portables...

[Blakey Rat]

Microsoft only cared about Xbox exploits to prevent cheating on Xbox Live... to be frank, I don't think they really cared about game piracy. (At least, no more than Nintendo or Sony does.) But Live has a reputation to retain, and so far they've done an excellent job keeping cheaters out.

Re:in the history of portables...

[petermgreen]

the gameboys mainly relied on the fact that its difficult to make unofficial carts for them because the things are so damn small

but there wasn't much in the way of copy protection. the original GB and the GBC didn't have any at all and the GBA had the ability to use encrypted carts but i don't think any such carts were ever made.

now the DS is a totally different matter they got pretty serious on protecting that one although in the end thier systems were worked arround by the homebrew guys

Re:in the history of portables...

[mumblestheclown]

Does Sony not realize that catering to the geek crowd could actually bolster sales and help with software development for the PSP?

Do you work for Sony? Do you know the actual sales drivers? Do you know anything about brand and product integrity issues? No? Well then STFU with your wild suppositions. I am sure that the people at Sony are not dumb, and they took all the factors into account and decided that this was not something they wanted to do. Vote with your dollars - take your money to another vendor or, if you see a new market opportunity, start your own damn company.

Re:in the history of portables...

[AnyNoMouse]

Maybe it dropped in price, but when I requested the materials and application form when it was first released, the Yaroze was $700. Of course, at the time, the PS1 was around $300...

What loser hacks Paint Shop Pro?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why hack a graphics program? What mad skillz could you possibly acquire from this?

Lack of a network effect

[tepples]

As I understand it, the GP32 seems to fit the bill.

Unlike Game Boy Advance SP, Nintendo DS, and Sony PSP, How can I develop and share GP32 games if I can't find anybody else in town that has a GP32 to test on? Especially with multiplayer games, how can I test multiplayer gameplay if nobody else in Fort Wayne, Indiana, has a GP32?

OK, I'll modify my question. What portable game hardware:

1. is not crippled,
2. has decent controls for handheld gaming, and
3. has a decent chance at an installed base in the United States of America?

Or is it a "good, fast, cheap, pick two, tough shit" situation?

Re:Lack of a network effect

[HishamMuhammad]

Or is it a "good, fast, cheap, pick two, tough shit" situation?

Yes, but it's more like a "open, popular -- pick one" situation. A friend of mine is a GP32 developer. The architecture is completely open, he bought it to hack on it more than to play with it. In fact, he's now maintaining the Linux kernel port for the specific ARM architecture of the GP32 port.

And yes, nobody else had a GP32 in his town when he bought it (or in his state, maybe even country(!), for that matter). But he found a very exciting user and developer community on the internet. So the installer base in [whatever specific place you are] is not that relevant.

Still, after seeing the GP32, I was almost tempted to buy one for myself (but I was broke at the time). Chances are, if you buy one, your friends might follow suit.

And emulators work like a charm, so there's no shortage of games, especially if you're into the classics. ;)

Re:Lack of a network effect

[rhuntley12]

GP32 looked pretty interesting, I looked into getting one a few months back. I eventually ended up getting a pocketpc, but still keeping up with where the GP32 is going.(Asus mypal 620, it looks less curious when I'm using it at work, the GP32 woulda been obvious)

Technical Explanation

[Bri3D]

This is really old news...anyway...here's the technical explanation of how this works.
The original Japanese PSPs would run unencrypted code straight off of memory sticks. Then Sony released firmware 1.50. Firmware 1.50 required ALL code it ran to be encrypted. But there was a flaw. Some people from a group called psp-dev discovered that the PSP firmware only checked for unencrypted code ONCE, when it read the archive with the name of the application, the icon, etc. They determined that by making an archive with NO code in it, the psp would give it the OK because there was NO code in it whatsoever. Then the memory sticks would be swapped, and the PSP code loader would run the code off the second stick. But that wasn't good enough for PSP-DEV. Using a flaw in the FAT driver on PSP they were able to make this work with ONE memory stick. Why? When two folders are placed on the memory stick, one with a percent sign after it containing the archive and one without a percent sign containing the code, the PSP would allow you to select the archive, then the PSP bootstrapper would read the directory without the %, because the PSP bootstrap and FAT driver do not understand % signs.

The first site that reported this

[alias420]

PSP Hacks was the first site that had this news posted.

Re:The first site that reported this

[Formula420]

Sorry bud, but PS2nfo.com is the first place that reported this, and the previous Swaploit as well. If you look at most of the links on PSP-hacks.com, they mostly link to news at PS2nfo.com. Both are good sites, but nfo always has this stuff first, you should check it out.

Re:DRM or why I learned to love Copy II Plus

[WillAffleckUW]

I wish companies would just drop DRM - it only hurts their legitimate customers. The warez pirates crack the protection within hours or days and then the pirates don't have to mess around with finding the CD when they want to play a game, etc. Sure DRM stops casual piracy but still there should be some limitations like what Id software does: CD protection at first but then remove it in some later patch to the game. This stops casual piracy for the immediate term while later on removing the annoyances for customers.

Same thing happened with the whole copy-protection nightmare a lot of software manufacturers used to use back in the 80's - people just got so fed up that they stopped buying legit software - why bother, since it had all that copy protection cruft?

Mod Parent Up Informative!

[Abcd1234]

That was an excellent explanation, thank you. The question now, is, how long will Sony take to fix this flaw and release a firmware upgrade...

Re:Mod Parent Up Informative!

[trekstar25]

They already have. The only firmwares that can be exploited are 1.0 and 1.50. Since, they've released 1.51 and 1.52. They are planning on making upgrades compulsory with new PSP games coming out soon. I'm trying to decide which I want more - a portable NES SNES jukebox (and DOOM, too!), or a portable GTA game. Luckily, I have a while to decide.

Re:Mod Parent Up Informative!

[SigNick]

This exploit has been already fixed in the 1.51 and 1.52 firmware releases. Thanks to grandparent for good explanation though!

...and best of all it's free.

[cmstar]

You can get them for free at:

http://www.psps4free.com/default.aspx?r=286409

Re:...and best of all it's free.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm actually suprised that everyone doesn't already know about these pseudo-scam pyramid schemes; the impressive thing is that these companies neither have to be dishonest nor loose any money.

For the few people who don't know how this works, this is how it goes (regardless of the company you're dealing with):

1)You sign up with the company by giving them your email and mailing adress and what not.

2)You complete a certain number of 'free advertized programs' that typically require you to give them your credit card number; they are infact free BUT you usually will have to jump through some hoops to cancel your account before they charge you.

3)You get a small number of people to sign up and say that you refered them to the program.

Why these programs work is because a large portion of the population will sign up to their 'free' programs and forget to cancel prior to being charged; and most people will not be able to actually get the necessary number of people to sign up. In the end what ends up happening is that 1 in 50 (or quite possibly 100) people actually complete the requirements and recieve their gift.

Basically if you know enough people, or can convince enough strangers, these programs will work for you; if not you can enjoy your 'free' sample of male enhancement cream that comes to your front door with a big "You can have the Penis you always dreamed of!" on the envelope.

Re:...and best of all it's free.

[Jackie_Chan_Fan]

NICE TRY! ;)

That wouldn't work...

[MS-06FZ]

If it's up to the program to perform copy-protect checks, then people could modify the program code to remove the check. Besides which, Sony's top priority with regard to copy protection is to enforce it on commercial releases - they don't care about allowing it to be bypassed on homebrew stuff, because 1: they're selling it as a game console, a toy, and not a programmable computer (and the two are not the same thing these days) 2: any level of access people have to the machine weakens the copy-protection somewhat So the simplest solution is for them to run the copy-protect check unconditionally, any time a program is run.

GBA

[xtal]

Game Boy Advance... not bad hadware, not broke, and last time I checked widely sold.

Region code, short answer

[charlieo88]

Take, for instance, the issue of DVD regions. The only reason this exists is political, and it's really unclear as to what damage would result from not having region-coded DVDs. Yes, I know about piracy and the "loss" of revenue,

It's not political, it's economic. Region coding was made so that DVDs release in one market, aren't playable in a different region where the first run has yet to occur. Many movies aren't release simultaneously. Region coding is an attempt by the industry to maximize profit. Not to prevent piracy. Just to get the most money out of the consumer possible.

Re:Region code, short answer

[Anonymous Coward]

I draw your attention to "Paint your Wagon". Released on DVD as region locked and region coding enhanced to enforce region coding.

Where is that NOT released?

Re:Region code, short answer

[squiggleslash]

Region coding was made so that DVDs release in one market, aren't playable in a different region where the first run has yet to occur. Many movies aren't release simultaneously.

While this might be a reason why region encoding was invented, that's not actually the case as to why it's used in practice, the vast majority of DVD releases are region encoded, despite being releases of movies that came out in the cinemas years ago.

There are two reasons here, one of which is "Why was this invented?" and "Why is it used?" Invented has really to do with shoring up the already existing distribution system across the world. Different companies typically own the rights to distribute movies in different countries. For example, for the movie Brazil, Fox owns the worldwide rights, with the exeception of North America, which belongs to Universal.

The argument goes that one distributor can undercut the other if people can just import whichever version is cheaper for their respective market, but the reasons for DVDs being cheaper in one market compared to another may vary. For example: people in Malaysia are unlikely to have the same disposable income as people in Britain. People in the US may have more disposable income than those in Britain but this may work in American's favour, they may be willing to buy more DVDs if the cost is slightly less.

As you can imagine, this creates a second reason which may, or may not, have been in the minds of the scumbags who invented the region encoding system: to try to maximise the price in areas where more revenue per unit can be obtained. This works, after a fashion, as long as the areas are politically separated and unlikely to end up with anti-marketrigging laws that straddle international boundaries. At the moment, that seems to be the case. The EU is entirely located within region 2. The US is entirely located within region 1, as are all the members of NAFTA.

For the most part, I believe the major reason most DVDs are region encoded is the second, price differentiation based, reason. I don't think the major timing differences that once meant, for example, the original Star Wars appeared in 1977 for Americans and was watched in 1978 by most British people I know, myself included, are as big a factor as they once were. There are staggered releases, but there are also many worldwide simultaneous releases. The gaps aren't that huge. And once a movie has been shown everywhere, continuing to region-encode DVDs would appear to be silly without additional reasons. So it really isn't to do with staggered release dates, just regional price maximization.

gameboy tetris!

[knowles420]

i've been running this since the swap hack was announced. truly the greatest thing about my psp is the fact that i can play gameboy tetris again.

also, check out the kxploit homebrew pack for a one stop solution to the emulators and homebrew games available.

File mirror

[coolnicks]

File is berried inside the site

Mirror here : http://data.coolnicks.co.uk/kxploit_1%5B1%5D.5_psp -dev.rar

CoolNicks

Re:File mirror

[Ryan Monster]

I'm berry happy you pointed that out!

Re:File mirror

[coolnicks]

Whats that? did someone say i cant speeel? awwwww :

Need popularity for multiplayer

[tepples]

But he found a very exciting user and developer community on the internet. So the installer base in [whatever specific place you are] is not that relevant.

But does GP32 multiplayer play work over the Internet? If not, then the players have to be in the same room, and you need popularity to produce that.

Re:Need popularity for multiplayer

[Anonymous Coward]

This is why there are "scene parties", for instance there's a handheld-hacking party in Durham in the UK this summer, organised by GBAX.com. Should be 100-or-so GP32 owners there and ready to play, plus plenty of PSP/DS/GBA/whatever-weird-handhelds-you-can-import .

Not as convenient as meeting random DS owners at the shopping mall though.

they make a profit at $250.

[Cryptnotic]

You have no idea how little displays, memory, plastic, and batteries cost in large quantities.

That'll teach you to teach us

[vga_init]

If we're just going to circumvent it, why do companies even bother to try and engineer their product to prevent people from USING IT [in a way they don't want]. It just makes the PSP less appealing as a platform (we buy gadgets because of what they can do for us).

Take a handheld console like the GP32. Excellent design and capability, open firmware and open development. Gamepark has made a console for consumers and has basically said, "Here, it's yours. Have fun!"

As a nerd, I find the GP32 much more attractive than any more powerful console on the market (I drool every time I see one). This is what consumer electronics are supposed to be. What Sony and their ilk do is a huge turnoff, and I hope they know I have no intentions of buying their overpriced gadgetry!

In the end, isn't it smarter to do it this way? You win the esteem of your customers if you treat them like you value them, and if you treat them with nothing but suspicion and contempt is no way to do business; every time they push against us, we push right back (and we win every time).

Re:That'll teach you to teach us

[eraserewind]

Because they want to make money selling you *new* games or at least new versions of old games, not enable you to play already *paid for* (ahem) games.

Re:That'll teach you to teach us

[MikeBabcock]

How do you think Sony makes all the licensing money? By selling the platform rights for games/movies. How do you think they do that? By showing that their users probably won't pirate the media in question.

Where's the Motivation?

[RichiP]

I've heard it sometimes said that game platform manufacturers sell their device at a loss (or at an extremely low profit margin, at least) and intend to make their profits from a percentage of games sold by game devs.

If free games or even non-free games but don't earn the game manufacturer money in royalty proliferate, what's the point in lowering the hardware price? May as well sell it at a better profit. We'll just end up with the situation where competing manufacturers bleed themselves dry or when only the fittest survives ... and then whoever's left would be free to jack up their price.

Re:Where's the Motivation?

[Anonymous Coward]

Market share.

Re:Technical Explanation, no!

[Anonymous Coward]

This is not a flaw in the FAT driver, this is a flaw in the shell. It uses sprintf to copy the filename to a different buffer before it calls open and the %, being a printf format operator, is dropped. If you put %s at the end intead of %, the machine will crash.

Dehydrated Boulder Kit

[headkase]

...In the end, the only people that DRM in games hardware has killed off are the bedroom programmers who don't have the resources to circumvent it.
That's why I love my linux PC. It's mine and you can't retroactively change that...

Your language is English but your meaning is completely unfathomable to me.

What would you say

[Anonymous Coward]

What would you say about this particular case, though?

Mame on PSP? with what processor?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think this could open up the flood gates for utilities and alot of fun homebrew applications thats great! I am a Nintendo DS owner waiting for til XMAS for PSP and this is another good reason!

I think PSP might be a good buy this XMAS once the REAL software finally hits the market but all this MAME talk confuses me. With only a 300mhz processor and limited system ram I can't imagine emulation would be possible for more than a handful of archaic games. My iMac G5 still sputters on some Neo-Geo and later 3-D games like Street Fighter EX. I've encountered PS2 Mame and it can barely run Donkey Kong :)

swapless p2p?

[zenneth]

At first glance I read "Swapless P2P Exploit Released" and I couldn't help but think that with nothing to swap, would there be any users to exploit?

channeling George Carlin

[mbius]

and you should be able to hack anything you own as long as it doesn't endanger anyone, deprive them of privacy, deprive them of something else, etc. -- it's yours.

Protecting the commons (air, water) with regulations on private ownership is one thing. Protecting an industry's business model is quite another, and there's no reason for the law to be involved here. No reason at all.

If you didn't literally sign an EULA, no amount of legislation can create a vicarious contract inked merely by your opening a box. Protectionism might boost the economy, at the price of absurdity.

If the manufacturer didn't intend me to use my purchase a certain way, fuck him. We call that "invention," and we call the purchase "property." It's a pretty groovy invention, property; our entire way of life is erected on it. No shady legal bullshit can make a sale a loan.

I've got a suggestion--let's cut the crap and call "intellectual property" "intangible goods," or how about "immaterial objects." No--"idea things." Make it hip: "yin-yang." "Orrin Hatch lobbies Congress to protect Hollywood's yin-yang."

You can't own a thought--you can have a thought, you can change a thought, you can share a thought, you can lose a whole train of thought. Somebody might have the same thought. You can perish the thought, if it's bothering you, or do thought experiments. Thoughts are delicate creatures, which is why we have food for thought and schools of thought. But owning them is out of the question.

I have the flu--my wife gave it to me. Do I own the flu? She's my wife, do I own her too? Hey pal--that's none of your business. Whose is it, and do they get a tax write-off? This drives me out of my mind, which will go on public auction if nobody claims it in 30 days.

Re:channeling George Carlin

[FrostedChaos]

Protecting the commons (air, water) with regulations on private ownership is one thing. Protecting an industry's business model is quite another, and there's no reason for the law to be involved here. No reason at all.

Exactly.

Re:channeling George Carlin

[KDR_11k]

So I assume you wouldn't consider the implicit sales contract that happens in a store a valid contract either?

Besides, EULAs no longer trigger by opening the box, you have to agree during the install procedure. The open-the-box contract is not legal because you cannot read it before agreeing which makes the contract invalid but you are told to read the EULA before agreeing or declining.

OTOH apparently courts have effectively decided that an EULA is only valid when announced on the box as selling a good that requires additional costs that are not known (not de-facto known but possibly known, i.e. you could have known it if you looked at the good from every angle and knew all applicable laws) at the time of sale is fraud.

Re:channeling George Carlin

[Threni]

> Protecting the commons (air, water) with regulations on private ownership is
> one thing. Protecting an industry's business model is quite another, and
> there's no reason for the law to be involved here. No reason at all.

There's no reason for the law to even exist unless people want it to. Given that they do, then it's probably a good idea to have laws that benefit people, and which cause the least hardship also.

So, there's no reason for the law to `protect an industry's business model`, but if that law generally is used to allow the government to obtain land or property to enhance people's lives, and not at the expense of other people's lives, then you have a starting point to argue that such a law is good.

Sure, this particular use of the law stinks, and is just one more example of how the people who run America have utter contempt for people with no money or power.

Re:Technical Explanation, no!

[springbox]

Which is why it's a good idea to use printf("%s", string); instead of printf(string);

I can't get to Europe, you insensitive clod!

[tepples]

This is why there are "scene parties", for instance there's a handheld-hacking party in Durham in the UK this summer

Apparently all the parties are in Europe. Or is Wikipedia as mistaken as I?

Where's a second player within x miles?

[tepples]

Take a handheld console like the GP32. Excellent design and capability, open firmware and open development.

And no partners for in-person multiplayer action.

Re:Where's a second player within x miles?

[vga_init]

An RF module was one of it's major features upon release. It's a Korean console that most people don't know about...don't expect to find one on your street, but if you got together with a good buddy and learned some Korean, maybe some magic will happy. :-) (p.s. What did that have to do with my post?)

change your psp backgrounds

[knowles420]

since no one's mentioned it yet, to my knowledge, here is a link to pspthemes.com, where you can get all sorts of nifty backgrounds for your psp.

pspersonalize is what you need to make them work.

Yeah, right....

[Anonymous Coward]

Like most modders, they modded them so that they can warze the games. The could care less about running some shitty homebrew, unless it is an emulator that allows them to warze even more games.

Why can't you people just admit the truth that the real reason people mod their systems is to feeload on games?

Re:Technical Explanation, no!

[Bri3D]

Ok, yes, thanks. BTW any sprintf operator works, including %n and the like.

Wrong definition.

[adolf]

You gave three good uses of "exploit" in the form of a transitive verb.

But we're using it as a noun, not a verb. Your definitions are therefore meaningless.

The American Heritage, according to dictionary.com, has these kind words to say about what an exploit (as a downloaded thing) might consist of:

exploit, n. An act or deed, especially a brilliant or heroic one.

The Jargon File, which is certainly a better reference for technical slang, isn't so flowery:

exploit, n. [originally cracker slang]

1. A vulnerability in
software that can be used for breaking security or otherwise
attacking an Internet host over the network. The Ping O' Death is
a famous exploit. 2. More grammatically, a program that exploits an
exploit in sense 1.

Re:Wrong definition.

[Threni]

But that only applies if you're happy limiting the definition of a word to its use as a noun instead of a verb, and if you use a source that has zero credibility. Somehow I think you lost your argument...

Re:Wrong definition.

[adolf]

Zero credibility?

Shucks.

If I want to know what "caster" means in the context of automobile suspension alignment, I refer to an automotive text. The Webster definition is nearly useless in this application.

If I want to know what "exploit" means in the context of a computer program, I refer to the only fucking reference we have, as again, the Webster definition is plainly and obviously useless.

That said, if you wish to discredit the Jargon File, you'll also have to discredit ESR. And, er, well... good luck with that.

Written signatures....wrong.

[Vermifax]

Where have you been. We haven't required written signatures for legal contracts forever.

Japanese games already do this.

[Vermifax]

There are Japanese games out already that refuse to run unless you update.

PSP - P2P

[necromcr]

Anyone else read PSP too quickly and read P2P? I mean, it fits the description..

Re:PSP - P2P

[andersh]

It's always like that... People see what they want :)

well

[ImaLamer]

...and you should be able to hack anything you own -- it's yours.

Yes, some people would say that once you own something... you 0wn it.

PSP 1.5?

[matt me]

Paint Shop Pro 1.5, right?

Re:PSP 1.5?

[Anonymous Coward]

Exactly. I mean, who still uses that version? I think Windows 3.1 was popular back then.

Yes you should

[zaphod_es]

I could probably hack my car to get better fuel economy and more power, but turn it into something that emits a lot more NOx and CO2. I own the vehicle (it's actually paid for, a 2002 model). Should I have the right to do this? I cannot say that I have an answer to that.

THere should be no problem with that, play away to your heart's content. The end result may or may not be legal to use on the roads, may not comply with your insurance policy and may not be safe. That is all besides the point - you should have the right to play around with what you have bought.

Just like soft-modding the Xbox

[Jagasian]

I said in the previous PSP Exploit article that it will be just like soft-modding the Xbox (modding without a mod-chip). At first it will only support a few versions of the PSP and it will be very un-userfriendly. But as time goes on, the soft-mod (i.e. "exploit) will improve and eventually support all versions and will be userfriendly. Why is it this way? The Xbox is already at this level, and since it can be found for cheap, it is worth picking up just to hack, run media players on as well as emulators.

The same will be true for the PSP.

Re:Technical Explanation, no!

[squiggleslash]

Good lord! That's the type of experienced C programmer they have at Sony, one who doesn't understand the *printf() functions?

I'm genuinely amazed at this. This is the type of mistake you make by bluffing your way into a project rather than actually knowing enough about the technologies you're using.

Re:Technical Explanation, no!

[Anonymous Coward]

Lucky for us Sony has some terrible programmers. Acually this bug still exists in the newest firmware revisions, they just fixed the hole at a lower level i.e. the kernel will not boot unencrypted, unrelocatable elf binaries from the memory stick.