30 Day PSP Coding Contest

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Posted by Zonk on Sunday October 9, 2005 @09:20AM from the good-luck-coders dept.

Busshy writes "Lik Sang and PSP News have tonight announced the start of the first 30 day Coding competition for the PSP. The competition can have entries such as Games, Demos, Emulators and Applications for any version PSP. Full details and prizes (which is a complete range of essential PSP accessories) are available on the site."

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Development software.. by Andares · 2005-10-09 09:33 · Score: 3, Interesting

If the Sony guys are still charging 10k for the PSP SDK, then lots of qualified possible winners are going to be weeded out. However, from Sony's perspective, if they released the SDK to the public people would use the emulator that it comes with to play roms and not buy their product. Perhaps they should offer copies to people who they think might do well but can't afford the software.
1. Re:Development software.. by Anonymous Coward · 2005-10-09 09:48 · Score: 1, Insightful
  
  Something tells me that a lot of people are going to develop software for the contest using the various hacked methods of getting code to run, and not using the offical "SDK" that you mention. In fact, I'd be sure of it.
2. Re:Development software.. by tepples · 2005-10-09 09:57 · Score: 1
  
  Something tells me that a lot of people are going to develop software for the contest using the various hacked methods of getting code to run
  
  None of these methods run on PSP firmware version 2.01, which has fixed the exploit that allowed the downgrader to run.
3. Re:Development software.. by phase_9 · 2005-10-09 09:58 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  There is already a strong 'homebrew' scene for the PSP which has churned out plenty of emulators from SNES to the mighty Amiga 500(!), all of these using exploits and haxies found on the version 1.0 and version 1.50 firmware (hence the recent kerfuffle over the 1.5 downgrade) IMHO, Sony are very unlikley to release the SDK to the public (at a resonable price) anytime soon, therefore practically all the entries are likley to be of equal running - still, the Doom and Quake ports are very impressive! I'm eager to see the results of this compo!
4. Re:Development software.. by NanoGator · 2005-10-09 16:11 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  "IMHO, Sony are very unlikley to release the SDK to the public (at a resonable price) anytime soon"
  
  They won't. They're losing money on the system and making it up through the sale of games. They want people buying PSPs to play the games they make royalties off of. In some ways it's sad, in some ways it's understandable. Can't say I agree much with their business model, but they did pack a lot of hardware into that price range.
  
  --
  "Derp de derp."
5. Re:Development software.. by whizzter · 2005-10-09 22:04 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  true, but i bought my psp last weekend and it came with a 1.52 firmware + 2.0 upgrade disc. considering lead-times,etc i think that most psps over the holiday season will still be 2.0. 2.01 and higher firmwares will prolly not be in retail machines until next year (altho some batches for the holidays might be have it aswell).
6. Re:Development software.. by ivan256 · 2005-10-10 01:30 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  They won't. They're losing money on the system and making it up through the sale of games.
  
  Do you have any proof of this, or are you just speculating? I mean, they're charging $249 for the thing, and there are handheld computers out there that aren't much more expensive that are on a 40%+ profit margin. I would bet they're selling these things exactly at cost.
  
  The only thing I see out there is speculation though. Even the Official Playstation Magazine can only speculate. And Sony isn't going to come out and deny it, because they'd love for you to think you were getting something that was worth more than what you paid for it. Even if the screen and the UMD drive cost $100 each though (they probably don't in quantity), I can't imagine the PSP costs more than $249 to build.
7. Re:Development software.. by aliquis · 2005-10-10 06:42 · Score: 1
  
  An emulator running on the PSP and an emulator which runs PSP code isn't the same thing. He where talking about the PSP-emulator as in the emulator which emulates PSP program.
8. Re:Development software.. by aliquis · 2005-10-10 06:46 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Remember you've got distributors and retail stores atop of that to thought.
9. Re:Development software.. by ivan256 · 2005-10-10 08:33 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah, but from what I've heard from people I know in retail management, the retail margin on the hardware is really tiny. As little as $5 per unit even. Less at product launch time and during the holidays, when having hardware on hand draws enough customers into the store that the retailer doesn't mind selling a unit at no profit in order to make money on tie-ins. Also, Sony doesn't pay a distributor. They are their own distributor, (SCEA, SCEE, etc, depending on which part of the world you live in.) so they get all of the wholesale price.
Hmm by AirRaven · 2005-10-09 09:43 · Score: 1

What's the betting that one of the entries will be a "ZOMG FP!11!!11!!!1!!shift+elevenimanidiot" generator?

(Hopefully this will make the scene a lot more vibrant. Things like this worked before- the DC coding contests for example. They were pretty good. Nothing can really help the DC scene now, but they helped at the time.)
1. Re:Hmm by Enti · 2005-10-09 09:50 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Seconding this. It's nice to see groups encouraging homebrew, especially given Sony's current attempts to prevent it. I would like to point out that the DC was a bit of an underdog, despite how wonderful it was. The PSP, on the other hand is bound to generate a nice homebrew scene in the coming year or two (I'm amazed by what there is already) simply due to it's mainstream nature and awesome features (portable, powerful, nice screen, decent onboard storage, ect.)
  
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  In these days, bleeps and bloops mean something more
Any application... by oopsdude · 2005-10-09 10:01 · Score: 5, Funny

I think I'll start working on my Nintendo DS emulator right now!
1. Re:Any application... by Doomstalk · 2005-10-09 16:07 · Score: 1
  
  Great idea! I was thinking of making an emulator that lets you play PS2 games on your PSP, but the publishers have beaten me to it.
2. Re:Any application... by Hitto · 2005-10-10 00:28 · Score: 1
  
  You sure showed him, with your biting sarcasm!
finally! by cow_licker · 2005-10-09 10:49 · Score: 4, Funny

Oh good, I was wondering when a new game for the psp was coming out ;)

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$_='while(read+STDIN,$_,2048){$a=29;$b=73;$c=142;$ t=255;@t=map{$_%16or$t^=$c^=($m=(11,10,116,100,
What if by CrazyJim1 · 2005-10-09 16:20 · Score: 1

What if one of the big 3: Sony/Nintendo/M$ decided to give out their SDK for free, and also continuously pushed out free 3d game making tools to the public? Would the additional thousands of games produced by indys give them market leverage?

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God spoke to me.
1. Re:What if by jackbird · 2005-10-09 16:50 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  No control over content is what eventually sank the Atari 2600 and almost brought the whole industry down with it. No console manufacturer since has willingly given up control of what gets released for their platform.
2. Re:What if by Meagermanx · 2005-10-09 16:55 · Score: 1
  
  I agree. Since they're already losing money on the console sales, releasing an SDK to the public to boost sales would be a laughably bad idea.
3. Re:What if by grumbel · 2005-10-10 06:38 · Score: 1
  
  On the other side the lack of content control is what made the C64, Amiga and last not least the PC extremly popular.
4. Re:What if by KDR_11k · 2005-10-10 06:57 · Score: 2
  
  They aren't losing money (except for MS) but the profit margins on the consoles are tiny.
  
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  Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
5. Re:What if by jackbird · 2005-10-10 07:29 · Score: 1
  
  All of which were general-purpose computers and not game consoles.
6. Re:What if by grumbel · 2005-10-10 08:26 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  ### All of which were general-purpose computers and not game consoles.
  
  Well, yes, thats kind of the point, if you remove the content control and let everybody develop for it, every computer becomes a 'general purpose' computer. An XBox or Playstation to which I connect a USB Keyboard and a harddisk is no less a general purpose computer then an Amiga was one, only difference is that Sony/Microsoft don't allow you to develop for it officially, while Commadore did allow you todo exactly that. Only different is really the control, not the hardware.
30 day... by KillShill · 2005-10-09 19:05 · Score: 1

property rights contest.

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Science : Proprietary , Knowledge : Open Source
Re:C64 Emu, dammit! by ALeavitt · 2005-10-10 04:47 · Score: 3, Informative

Try looking for one.
http://pspupdates.qj.net/categories/Emulators.html #Commodore%2064

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This sig has been stolen. Return it to its original user for a reward.
And all of a sudden it costs $2000. by Corngood · 2005-10-11 02:34 · Score: 2, Insightful

The control gives them the ability to manage the up front (hardware) vs. ongoing costs (software) costs for the consumer. Without that control they'd have to sell the hardware for a profit, which would make acceptance lower, and in turn make software less profitable.