[The MfM Analysis] The PSP Homebrew Scene

[KezraPlanes]

In the second installment of my series of articles, I've decided to tackle something a little more different, the PSP Homebrew Scene. This was motivated by the surgence of a thread here at MfM during the day. This is an analysis of the scene in the past and now. Don't expect an history lesson Also, this article will not be as good as the last one, it's just something I had to get out of my system.

Introduction:

Subject to a lot of love and hatred, the most controversial thing about the PSP isn't its marketing or its games, or even the way Sony has neglected it's own portable platform in the past. It's the Homebrew Scene.

Still, one cannot talk about the Homebrew Scene without first explaining what homebrew is. According to Wikipedia:

Homebrew is a term frequently applied to video games or other software produced by consumers to target proprietary hardware platforms not typically user-programmable or that use proprietary storage methods. This might include games developed with official development kits, such as Net Yaroze or Linux for PlayStation 2. Some more frequently used labels, such as freeware, are often applied as well.

When it comes to the PSP, Homebrew has been developed in the form of games and applications, but I'll get into that later. Now it's time for a history lesson.

A Brief History of the PSP Homebrew Scene

With the release of the PSP, is wasn't too long before fans recognized all the untapped potential of the small handheld powerhouse and quickly found that the console could run unsigned code on it (only on firmware 1.00) and a SDK for homebrew development purposes.

But Sony quickly striked back with the release of FW 1.50 and so homebrew developers quickly had to find new ways to crack the firmwares so they could keep on having homebrew on the PSP and this is still going on nowadays, but others intentions and a more advanced SDK.

The usefulness of Homebrew in the past

Soon after the PSP's launch it seemed like Sony wasn't going to support the system as well as it could. Efforts were put more into supporting the PS2 and the creation of the PS3 and vaporware like Gran Turismo made lots of people think they had invested $250/250

 

[Hellcat]

Great one!

Good summary of the corner stones of the PSP HB past, present and some of it's future IMO.
Good read, newcommers should be pointed to this to be able to make up a rough picture of what's going on at all....

 

[FrozenIpaq]

It's a nice overview, I may dive into this and contribute my own "analysis" of the scene, or at least an overview. Ah the good memories the early days bring me...Musical Eboots! PSPersonalize (think that was the name)!

 

[Adiuvo]

Very good summary. All of the newcomers to the 'scene' or for the most part horrible, and sadly Pandora was a part of that. It opened the way for people who like instant gratification to get what they wanted, and it's those people who end up being pirates.

 

[afteralter]

Great words. +rep.

 

[Noriyuke]

Nice article, sad to read tho. I mean i see some of the psp community still moving, but updates and homebrew has been coming in at a crawl lately. What should really happen is a group of people need to get together and catalog the history of the psp scene and its homebrew. So maybe someone else can come in and overhaul some of the old software for the newer psps or something. that would be lovely.

 

[NoEffex]

Being a PSP developer regardless of what you do is not a fun thing, usually. From what I can tell from other people(I'm out of this picture just because of the field I "programmed" for), if there is a SINGLE bug then SHIT GOES DOWN.

User 1:

OMFG THIS BUG MEANS THIS APP IS FAILWARE AND FUXORING SUCKS WAHHH
*goes to blow off Richard Simmons*

User 2:

OMFG THIS PROGRAM FUXORING SUCKS CUZ IT HAS (one) BUG THAT CAN BE CAUSED BY ANYTHING!

User 3:

I agree fellow chaps, let us begin flaming this application publicly strictly based on one bug that can and will be fixed in moments time. See, reporting a bug is useless because developers who develop for free never care about their applications, they are strictly doing it for money. Wait, shit. Regardless, this application sucks because the programmer is too incompetent to sort through x-thousand lines one byte at a time, all the while picking up dumb bugs. So, fellow chaps, let us do the exact OPPOSITE of helping and make a big ass deal about a small ass bug that can be fixed if we just EMAIL the goddam developer!! YEAH!!! God I'm smart.

The fact of that matter is that people don't appreciate what they have. You still have people flaming IRShell because of dumb(as in don't matter, they're so minor I'd care more about the color of my drinking cup) bugs, when I guess that snapshot feature just isn't good enough. You have people flaming HEN because it doesn't load first time, or their dumbasses can't figure it out.

/endrant

 

[KezraPlanes]

Glad to see my article still lives after all this time and all comments are welcome... =)

Now some answers:

So maybe someone else can come in and overhaul some of the old software for the newer psps or something. that would be lovely.

Someone on DCEmu.co.uk offered to do that last year (I think...) but guess what? Nothing ever came out (that I know of).
But yes it would be a brilliant idea, and I couldn't agree more.

Being a PSP developer regardless of what you do is not a fun thing, usually.

You just said the real harsh truth... They not only are they rude and unappriciative, but also a bunch of hungry turncoats. Look at Davee's example, after he successfully made an HEN out of Matiaz's exploit, CFWe/GEN came out and everyone started cussing him out and saying how he sucked because he didn't include a ISO loader (and a very small minority because of plugins) when he had done all the hard work and the other just copied code off D_A and each other... From what I know, Davee is twice the coder all the members of those two teams put together... But that's just me...

Again thanks for the replies and I hope you look forward to my next analysis

 

[rileysnotz]

This is one of the most interesting threads I've read in a while. I only started using a PSP this April (birthday gift )and it's a pity that the scene seems so dead. The handheld itself is really great and I've been digging around and from everything I've found the homebrew scene WAS effing awesome. Too bad I found this world so late.

And you're right there is no appreciation! Just a bunch of ingrates!

 

[afteralter]

I'm a noob.
Are PSP Minis solely based from HB games? o_o
I'm planning to buy one later
And are they worth it? I'm deciding on buying an UMD or a mini...

---------- Post added at 09:39 PM EST ---------- Previous post was at 09:36 PM EST ----------

Look at Davee's example, after he successfully made an HEN out of Matiaz's exploit, CFWe/GEN came out and everyone started cussing him out and saying how he sucked because he didn't include a ISO loader (and a very small minority because of plugins) when he had done all the hard work and the other just copied code off D_A and each other... From what I know, Davee is twice the coder all the members of those two teams put together... But that's just me...

I understand why Davee DID NOT include ISO loader for his exploit. I just wished he included a PSX Emulator before xD (My phat ps1 broke D:, I know, sad.) and also some plugin compatibility. ChickHEN was one of the greatest outbreak, IMO.

 

[KezraPlanes]

I'm a noob.
Are PSP Minis solely based from HB games? o_o
I'm planning to buy one later
And are they worth it? I'm deciding on buying an UMD or a mini...

---------- Post added at 09:39 PM EST ---------- Previous post was at 09:36 PM EST ----------



I understand why Davee DID NOT include ISO loader for his exploit. I just wished he included a PSX Emulator before xD (My phat ps1 broke D:, I know, sad.) and also some plugin compatibility. ChickHEN was one of the greatest outbreak, IMO.

PSP Minis are small downloadable games that are cheaper. They have their own section on the PS Store and some of them are quite fun: Tetris, Pinball Fantasies...

They are not related to Homebrew, but people like myself and Hellcat consider that the Minis are the successors of the PSP HomeBrew games...

 

[Hellcat]

They are not related to Homebrew, but people like myself and Hellcat consider that the Minis are the successors of the PSP HomeBrew games...

Indeed we do

And if you ask youself about "buy minis or UMD", you can get like 5 to 10 minis for the price of one UMD.

 

[afteralter]

you can get like 5 to 10 minis for the price of one UMD.

Really? :huh:
I need my credit card -.-

 

[Noriyuke]

This is one of the most interesting threads I've read in a while. I only started using a PSP this April (birthday gift )and it's a pity that the scene seems so dead. The hand held itself is really great and I've been digging around and from everything I've found the home brew scene WAS effing awesome. Too bad I found this world so late.

And you're right there is no appreciation! Just a bunch of ingrates!

You know what I've got to say to you, try to dig as deeply into the PSP's scene as you can with the PSP you have, from the old games, to the older home brew, to the old emulators and the new ones, the old custom firmwares, everything, you'll find some awesome stuff.

 

[z2442]

i hope the sene doesnt die

i have been around in the sene since 06 when i got my first psp it was a ta-79 original model and i was like 12 and thought it was amazing that i could get my psp todo other things like turn on my tv with irshell and then i felt to look into how it all worked and started to learn some cpp and alittle lua i was like whoa i can make my own games and ever since then i have been fascinated by the psp and hb sene i just hope it does'nt go down any time soon and i think it can be brought back me and other devs would for shure start working on every thing again just because we lost dev and hb legends such as dax,fantjia"idk if spelled it right,booster and ahman , i know if we come togther to save it it can be done

 

[Hellcat]

z2442:

First off, all the kids going haywire at the moment must calm down and stop being to greedy and demanding.
If "they" continue as they are, every new dev will loose fun quite soon again.

There's more that must change in ppl's mentality, but I'm not going to bitch about that ATM.


Apart from that, you got a good point there. IMHO.

 

[z2442]

k

imho? what does that mean ? and yea every thing kinda died after pandora when hacking the psp had no risk what so ever any more so all the noobs could come right in

 

[KezraPlanes]

"imho" = in my honest opinion

xD

 

[z2442]

thax

 

[Noriyuke]

I feel old knowing what IMHO is and younger people dont...