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Emulation Explosion On the PS3 Via Linux

Marty writes "The PlayStation 3 has recently seen an explosion of releases of emulators and games for the Yellow Dog Linux distro for PS3; once you have installed Yellow Dog Linux you then have the ability to try out MAME, SNES, Amiga, Dos, Commodore and Atari emulators (that's the tip of the iceberg) and such games as Quake 2, Duke Nukem 3D, Hexen 2 and Alephone. Time to start installing Linux on your PS3?"

9 of 425 comments (clear)

  1. Oblig. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yo, Dawg! I herd you like playin' consoles so I put a console in yo console so you can play while you play!

    I now feel somewhat happier.

  2. Why do they always forget Freespace? by Vu1turEMaN · · Score: 5, Informative

    I cry everytime people don't remember the hardworking folks over at the Freespace SCP when it comes to Linux gaming....
    http://scp.indiegames.us/
    and
    http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php
    for more info.

    Over a million posts in their forum debugging an amazing game.

  3. Re:Linux on PS3? by palegray.net · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm wasting mod points I used earlier in this story just to correct your idiotic point of view (I've seen this before, mostly from kids who have no clue that there's a world beyond gaming).

    Linux on PS3 clusters, used for scientific computing, is a huge success. Sony openly supported Linux from the start on their console with precisely this sort of work in mind.

    Get off the couch and go do something productive.

  4. Re:Linux on PS3? by Tokerat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    but why? why put yourself through the trouble of making it run, when you could run Linux on a computer way easier and keep playing games on the PS3?

    This is the fucking problem with geeks today, and why the dot-com boom ruined the tech scene.

    Why? Because you fucking CAN! There doesn't need to be a point. It's INTERESTING, and you can learn about a new system by doing it. Hell, maybe you'll even find a way to unlock the graphics hardware instead of waiting for someone else to do it so you can just download the patch and be all l33t.

    Now we've got all these lazy pseudo-geeks running around like "Oh, Linux on the PS3 is stupid, why not just use a PC?" and "Oh, pattern-recognition technology in video cameras is stupid, why not just use a bar-code scanner?" etc. Not sure if it applies to parent poster here or not (either way, shame on you, parent) but this is a result of all the people who went to school for computer science because it was the "hot new thing" and you could "get rich and retire when you're 30!". Now we have clusters of lazy, jaded nerds who resist change and new technology because they had a hard time leaning what little they know in the first place.

    </rant>

    --
    CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
  5. Re:No by Elementalor · · Score: 5, Informative

    No, PS3 has not made any money and it may never make any.

    http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/financial/fr/index.html
    Sony videogames division in the past three years (PS3 era+R&D, including PS2 and PSP):

    2006 ===== 75 (positive)
    2007 = -1,969 (negative)
    2008 = -1,265 (negative)
    2009 ===== 51 (positive)

    Total 2006-09 === -3,108

    (in million US$)
    http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=111003

  6. Re:Linux on PS3? by DemonBeaver · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think you are confusing actual research with "lets run Linux on everything including a toaster powered by a grandma on a hamster wheel". The PS3 is a gaming console. It was designed to run a specific type of software as smooth as (arguably) possible. You want to research it? Crack it? Fine. Have fun. Don't get all worked up over me buying it to play games on it. There are amazing technologies being developed as we argue here, but I doubt having emacs on a PS3 is creating the next great breakthrough.

    --
    This message was brought to you by Sarcasm and Troll Feeders United (STFU)
  7. Re:Linux on PS3? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Dude, I would so love a Beowulf-Cluster of Linux Grandma powered toasters. Grandma would get her exercise. I would be able to start my toaster from my cellphone. Everyone would get toast. There could be toast preference presets that auto adjust with biometrics, I could sell my toast data to Google Trends and eat it too. EVERYONE WINS WITH GRANDMA POWERED LINUX TOASTERS!

  8. Re:No by supernova_hq · · Score: 5, Informative
    You mean like:
    • Raw Power
    • Linux install in the freaking menu (no cracking required)
    • Standard USB cable for controller charging
    • Free online play (no subscription BS)
    • Nearly flawless upnp video/music/image viewer (no need to install xmbc, etc)
    • Power adapter is BUILT IN (standard desktop power cord goes straight in the back)
    • Very low failure rate (unline some other console out there)
    • Can be run 24/7 without heat issues (I do folding@home CONSTANTLY while not playing games on it with no problems)
    • card reader built into the front (5 or 6 in one)
    • Folding at home (sponsored by sony themselves) as a native app

    Remember, some of us actually have REASONS for picking a particular console!

  9. Re:Sweet! by Phasma+Felis · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Only" 256MB RAM? Accurate or not, what do you think we're emulating here? The SNES had a total of 256 kilobytes of RAM, with cartridge ROMs topping at 6MB. Quake 2 ran on a Pentium/90 with 16MB.

    The PS3's specs might be a problem for a Windows box that demands half a gig for OS overhead, but Linux isn't supposed to have those problems.