PSP Homebrew Channel

[UserUnknown]

I got a crazy idea, it might not work, but what the hell.


Ok, a hacked Wii has a Homebrew Channel, correct?

Well, what if someone were to come up with a Homebrew Channel for PSP?

What are your thoughts?

 

[Hellcat]

One question: WHY?

You dont need any channels to run HB on the PSP, just copy them onto the memstick....
All the rest, the websites take care of (news, downloads and w/e).

 

[Zero]

You mean like a one-stop area to download games? Been done, most failed when they didn't get updated, or developers got angry over how they were mirrored.

And if you're talking about a homebrew loader, the XMB's really tough to beat.

 

[Spiros]

Yeah completely unnecessary, if you'd really like to just see "Homebrew Channel" on your PSP for the sake of it, use Bubbletune's Game Categories v12, and just put your HB in "CAT_Homebrew Channel".

 

[NoEffex]

Yeah completely unnecessary, if you'd really like to just see "Homebrew Channel" on your PSP for the sake of it, use Bubbletune's Game Categories v12, and just put your HB in "CAT_Homebrew Channel".

I'm pretty sure he meant like a repository.

 

[Organized_Chaos]

This idea was brought up at PSP-Hacks a few weeks ago. Actually, I was the one who made that topic. There is a forum for people to use if they want to start working on it. It gives them a place to collaborate and share ideas.

The goal: To make it easier for noobs to install homebrew. To make it easier to install homebrew apps without using a PC.

psp-homebrewbrowser.thinksubject.com/

This browser would be open source so if the main developer left the project wouldn't die. There will be a way for everyone to update and add more apps to the repository.

 

[seifer69er]

Is it me or am i the only one that remembers an old topic on this forum, that had the creator of the wii homebrew channel "try" to make a psp homebrew channel. Only issue was, the developer had no idea how to code for the PSP (using C) so he ditched the idea.
all he wanted to do was make a port of the wii version.

on a side note, the idea of a homebrew channel resembles that of eloader. (in my opinion). If you made it the channel look like the PS STORE or SENSE ME channels, that would be awesome.

 

[slicer4ever]

tbh, i believe their have been several attempts, most are just crappy browser versions, but i do believe their were a couple that actually had a server and everything, just their's not any content, or devs don't think of uploading their stuff to the store servers

 

[wololo]

I have a huge interest in this subject actually.

Even the best devs have failed at this task, who remembers the install-o-tron? Yet it was linked to the biggest homebrew database at the time...

Oh, and open-sourcing a project doesn't mean it will survive. Often, it is even a sign that the opposite is happening...

Anyways, it would be a nice idea, but in order for it to work, the system would have to:

0) Have a documented and freely available series of APIs (structure of the Database and how to access it being probably the major task and most important thing to come up with). Based on this documentation, anybody should be able to write a DB server and/or a client (all of them following the same protocol of course)

1) scripts that allow to update automatically and regularly the database with a crawler that would visit the major sites (psp-hacks, pspgen, qj.net, psp-ita, etc...)

2)Have at least one instance of a server and a client that is open source

These alone represent several months of work to be done correctly.
Any "personal/closed source" attempt will fail unless the lead programmer dedicates years to the project.

So far, as it's been mentioned, the problem has been the non openness of the protocols, the crapyness of the clients or the lack of flexibility of the underlying database (there are few good programmers who would want to waste months on writing such an app just so that noobs can play homebrew).

 

[UserUnknown]

I'd be interested in trying to at least make something helpful to people instead of listening to/reading "HOW DO I PUT A ONTO B AND C INTO D?"

 

[FrozenIpaq]

Didn't we already have something similar way back with the eLoader days from Fanjita/Ditlew? There's an online repository of homebrew already, thought it was on the PSP as well: PSP-Homebrew Info Site

 

[x3sphere]

Wouldn't it be easier to just make an app that scans the PSP's download directory for homebrew then unpacks it accordingly?

This way the user is free to download from whichever site they wish and no messing about with external databases.

It'd still require quite a bit of work, though.

 

[UserUnknown]

x3: i was thinking an app that ran much like the 360s store, or psn. When the person chooses something it would unpack directly where it should (if you wanted an app that uses prx files then it would unpack the prx/vsh.txt to ms0:/seplugins) be unpacked.

 

[explosions]

x3: i was thinking an app that ran much like the 360s store, or psn. When the person chooses something it would unpack directly where it should (if you wanted an app that uses prx files then it would unpack the prx/vsh.txt to ms0:/seplugins) be unpacked.

Which would require a very complex database. I doubt anyone would be willing to do this now.

 

[UserUnknown]

If i can manage to buckle down and learn c++ then im sure id take up my own app and try to make something useful for the community.

 

[MenaceInc]

If i can manage to buckle down and learn c++ then im sure id take up my own app and try to make something useful for the community.

Well, the biggest challenge for this would be making your database. I would chose something like a XML base since it would make it easier to work with as strings.

Hell, you could probably make it in LUA if you were so inclined and were put off by C/C++

 

[UserUnknown]

That is if i can get to a computer.

 

[UserUnknown]

Gah, we need a full "edit" thing on here( ie, press "edit" and you can edit the title, as well). /rant

Anyways! I will be posting a POC of this, but I'm unsure when it will be. I've given up on the fancy-shmancy GUI and gone with a classic text-base for it.