Is the memory stick format capable of reading any information other than movies, music and pictures? Do you think that in the near future we are going to be able to load NES, SNES, MAME and other various emulators onto the memory stick to play on the PSP? Or perhaps some of the great homebrew stuff floating around like over at zeldaclassic.com for example? I don't want to debate the ethics or legality of something like this just whether it's possible, I guess...
PSP: Emulation and Homebrew capabilities?
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IMO: I doubt because of the popularity of the device that you'll be seeing anything like this anytime soon. As long as there's legit, revenue-building software coming out, Sony would probably quelch any type of homebrew/emulation development.
Look at Nintendo with the GBA, it's possible, but hard to get around (the Lik-Sang suit, et al), but then you can look at the NGage and the post-death Dreamcast, where such development has become commonplace.
Look at Nintendo with the GBA, it's possible, but hard to get around (the Lik-Sang suit, et al), but then you can look at the NGage and the post-death Dreamcast, where such development has become commonplace.
I actually asked Banky about that last night.. I asked him how long before someone made a third party program to rip entire games onto a memory stick.. he says two weeks, I say a week and a half.
The Dreamcast had absolutely no piracy detection. You can literally burn a game on a CD-R, pop it in, and play. No mod chip needed, no boot disk, nothing. I heard rumors that they fixed it later in the run, though. I have a first generation DC ($199.99, baby!) and it plays burned games (Half-Life~!) and my NES rom CD.
The Dreamcast had absolutely no piracy detection. You can literally burn a game on a CD-R, pop it in, and play. No mod chip needed, no boot disk, nothing. I heard rumors that they fixed it later in the run, though. I have a first generation DC ($199.99, baby!) and it plays burned games (Half-Life~!) and my NES rom CD.
DreamSymphony
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Scorch: you can't just burn a DC game and play it on the system.... there are special boot programs needed for the game to work...
DreamSymphony
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Or a self bootable program burned onto the disk with the game.
little_krampy
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Anything's possible. I'd be surprised if (1) no one ever found a way to run emulators off of the PSP (without having to mod even) and (2) if we saw anything along these lines in the first several months. I think it will take some time.
Someone found a way to have the xbox run linux without any modifications...never under-estimate the power of the mod scene programmers and hackers. There's some pretty creative people out there.
Someone found a way to have the xbox run linux without any modifications...never under-estimate the power of the mod scene programmers and hackers. There's some pretty creative people out there.
Michaellvortega
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I read that the memory stick reader/usb is setup apart from the game cpu so that it cant read games from a memory stick.
WhipSmartBanky
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Yeah, Scorch asked me about this yesterday. While I'm not advocating it, there are people who live for the thrill of cracking new hardware/software. I think it'll be just a matter of weeks before someone breaks it.
Then again, also like I told Scorch, if it's been out in Japan this long and it hasn't been done yet, it may not be done so quickly.
Then again, also like I told Scorch, if it's been out in Japan this long and it hasn't been done yet, it may not be done so quickly.
little_krampy
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[quote name='WhipSmartBanky']Yeah, Scorch asked me about this yesterday. While I'm not advocating it, there are people who live for the thrill of cracking new hardware/software. I think it'll be just a matter of weeks before someone breaks it.
Then again, also like I told Scorch, if it's been out in Japan this long and it hasn't been done yet, it may not be done so quickly.[/quote]
Good point, maybe it won't be that surprising if someone cracks it close to the US launch.
Then again, also like I told Scorch, if it's been out in Japan this long and it hasn't been done yet, it may not be done so quickly.[/quote]
Good point, maybe it won't be that surprising if someone cracks it close to the US launch.
WhipSmartBanky
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[quote name='Kayden']It took years to crack the Xbox[/quote]
Years? The Xbox has only been out like 3.5...how many years are you talking about?
Years? The Xbox has only been out like 3.5...how many years are you talking about?
[quote name='Michaellvortega']I read that the memory stick reader/usb is setup apart from the game cpu so that it cant read games from a memory stick.[/quote]
There's got to be a way around this since you must use the PSP buttons and stuff to navigate the memory card. I don't even think you would need the game cpu to run an emulator but then again I don't know what I'm talking about.
There's got to be a way around this since you must use the PSP buttons and stuff to navigate the memory card. I don't even think you would need the game cpu to run an emulator but then again I don't know what I'm talking about.
Kayden
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[quote name='WhipSmartBanky'][quote name='Kayden']It took years to crack the Xbox[/quote]
Years? The Xbox has only been out like 3.5...how many years are you talking about?[/quote]
Somewhere between 1.1 and 3.5 years....
i don't know exactly how long because I didn't give half a damn about the xbox until recently... and even now its only .75 of a damn... but I do remember there being a large competition for cracking the xbox with a 1 million dollar reward.
Years? The Xbox has only been out like 3.5...how many years are you talking about?[/quote]
Somewhere between 1.1 and 3.5 years....
i don't know exactly how long because I didn't give half a damn about the xbox until recently... and even now its only .75 of a damn... but I do remember there being a large competition for cracking the xbox with a 1 million dollar reward.
[quote name='Kayden'][quote name='WhipSmartBanky'][quote name='Kayden']It took years to crack the Xbox[/quote]
Years? The Xbox has only been out like 3.5...how many years are you talking about?[/quote]
Somewhere between 1.1 and 3.5 years....
i don't know exactly how long because I didn't give half a damn about the xbox until recently... and even now its only .75 of a damn... but I do remember there being a large competition for cracking the xbox with a 1 million dollar reward.[/quote]
That was a contest to get linux running on an Xbox without any modifications.
Years? The Xbox has only been out like 3.5...how many years are you talking about?[/quote]
Somewhere between 1.1 and 3.5 years....
i don't know exactly how long because I didn't give half a damn about the xbox until recently... and even now its only .75 of a damn... but I do remember there being a large competition for cracking the xbox with a 1 million dollar reward.[/quote]
That was a contest to get linux running on an Xbox without any modifications.
[quote name='Kayden'][quote name='WhipSmartBanky'][quote name='Kayden']It took years to crack the Xbox[/quote]
Years? The Xbox has only been out like 3.5...how many years are you talking about?[/quote]
Somewhere between 1.1 and 3.5 years....
i don't know exactly how long because I didn't give half a damn about the xbox until recently... and even now its only .75 of a damn... but I do remember there being a large competition for cracking the xbox with a 1 million dollar reward.[/quote]
That was for a means to run unauthorized software without modifying the hardware. Modchips for Xbox were out within months.
The PSP is a bigger challenge. Going inside and doing any surgery is non-trivial, especially if you need space for an additional chip.
The primary problem is similar to getting the full screen resolution from video files on Memory Stick. Sony has puposely crippled the function. Unlike the codec that sees UMD data, the codec available for Memory Stick use is limited in its profile support to only supporting file formatted to 320x240. The PSP is set up to treat anything on Mem. Stick as data only. If you can't get it to look at stuff as code you cannot get applications running.
This is almost certainly just in the firmware. It would be a lot of added hassle to make it enforced by the hardware itself. This opens the door for hacked firmware but Sony games will likely scan for such and refuse to run on altered PSPs or even 'fix' the firmware was an approved version.
Years? The Xbox has only been out like 3.5...how many years are you talking about?[/quote]
Somewhere between 1.1 and 3.5 years....
i don't know exactly how long because I didn't give half a damn about the xbox until recently... and even now its only .75 of a damn... but I do remember there being a large competition for cracking the xbox with a 1 million dollar reward.[/quote]
That was for a means to run unauthorized software without modifying the hardware. Modchips for Xbox were out within months.
The PSP is a bigger challenge. Going inside and doing any surgery is non-trivial, especially if you need space for an additional chip.
The primary problem is similar to getting the full screen resolution from video files on Memory Stick. Sony has puposely crippled the function. Unlike the codec that sees UMD data, the codec available for Memory Stick use is limited in its profile support to only supporting file formatted to 320x240. The PSP is set up to treat anything on Mem. Stick as data only. If you can't get it to look at stuff as code you cannot get applications running.
This is almost certainly just in the firmware. It would be a lot of added hassle to make it enforced by the hardware itself. This opens the door for hacked firmware but Sony games will likely scan for such and refuse to run on altered PSPs or even 'fix' the firmware was an approved version.
I doubt any emulators will show without the need for modding or hacked firmware, as serious as Sony is about digital rights I'm suprised they backed down on playing MP3s on the PSP..
There will probably be an XBlive style system of checking where by you wont be allowed to download game updates if your firmware has been altered to fix movie playback or play emulators.
There will probably be an XBlive style system of checking where by you wont be allowed to download game updates if your firmware has been altered to fix movie playback or play emulators.
Grave_Addiction
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[quote name='epobirs'][quote name='Kayden'][quote name='WhipSmartBanky'][quote name='Kayden']It took years to crack the Xbox[/quote]
Years? The Xbox has only been out like 3.5...how many years are you talking about?[/quote]
Somewhere between 1.1 and 3.5 years....
i don't know exactly how long because I didn't give half a damn about the xbox until recently... and even now its only .75 of a damn... but I do remember there being a large competition for cracking the xbox with a 1 million dollar reward.[/quote]
That was for a means to run unauthorized software without modifying the hardware. Modchips for Xbox were out within months.
The PSP is a bigger challenge. Going inside and doing any surgery is non-trivial, especially if you need space for an additional chip.
The primary problem is similar to getting the full screen resolution from video files on Memory Stick. Sony has puposely crippled the function. Unlike the codec that sees UMD data, the codec available for Memory Stick use is limited in its profile support to only supporting file formatted to 320x240. The PSP is set up to treat anything on Mem. Stick as data only. If you can't get it to look at stuff as code you cannot get applications running.
This is almost certainly just in the firmware. It would be a lot of added hassle to make it enforced by the hardware itself. This opens the door for hacked firmware but Sony games will likely scan for such and refuse to run on altered PSPs or even 'fix' the firmware was an approved version.[/quote]
Epo, thank you again for showering us with your wisdom. I'm always interested in your posts because you know what you're talking about. Even if I understand about 10-20% of your post, I still enjoy reading it.
Years? The Xbox has only been out like 3.5...how many years are you talking about?[/quote]
Somewhere between 1.1 and 3.5 years....
i don't know exactly how long because I didn't give half a damn about the xbox until recently... and even now its only .75 of a damn... but I do remember there being a large competition for cracking the xbox with a 1 million dollar reward.[/quote]
That was for a means to run unauthorized software without modifying the hardware. Modchips for Xbox were out within months.
The PSP is a bigger challenge. Going inside and doing any surgery is non-trivial, especially if you need space for an additional chip.
The primary problem is similar to getting the full screen resolution from video files on Memory Stick. Sony has puposely crippled the function. Unlike the codec that sees UMD data, the codec available for Memory Stick use is limited in its profile support to only supporting file formatted to 320x240. The PSP is set up to treat anything on Mem. Stick as data only. If you can't get it to look at stuff as code you cannot get applications running.
This is almost certainly just in the firmware. It would be a lot of added hassle to make it enforced by the hardware itself. This opens the door for hacked firmware but Sony games will likely scan for such and refuse to run on altered PSPs or even 'fix' the firmware was an approved version.[/quote]
Epo, thank you again for showering us with your wisdom. I'm always interested in your posts because you know what you're talking about. Even if I understand about 10-20% of your post, I still enjoy reading it.
[quote name='DreamSymphony']Or a self bootable program burned onto the disk with the game.[/quote]
Or even, a two minute audio track, followed by the rest of the disc in data format.
As far as cracking and such, it may just be another gamecube (out the longest and JUST getting onto the mod scene within the past six months). Nintendo was smart to keep the system's primary functions gaming and gaming only, as this makes it more difficult to recode. When you have a multi-platform device (DVD, Music CD, Games, et al), you have a familiar platform somewhere in there to springboard from. Alot of people are familiar with the features and setup of the PSP, but to actually dissect it will take a little longer. Not much, though, given Sony's plans for firmware updates. With the first one of those, I'd say plan on the hacking to really commence. I mean, that's essentially handing modders the plate of food, they just have to get their noses into it to find out what spices were used, and re-tweak it a bit with things like Genesis and SNES emulators.
So, my answer: Within two weeks of the first firmware upgrade.
Or even, a two minute audio track, followed by the rest of the disc in data format.
As far as cracking and such, it may just be another gamecube (out the longest and JUST getting onto the mod scene within the past six months). Nintendo was smart to keep the system's primary functions gaming and gaming only, as this makes it more difficult to recode. When you have a multi-platform device (DVD, Music CD, Games, et al), you have a familiar platform somewhere in there to springboard from. Alot of people are familiar with the features and setup of the PSP, but to actually dissect it will take a little longer. Not much, though, given Sony's plans for firmware updates. With the first one of those, I'd say plan on the hacking to really commence. I mean, that's essentially handing modders the plate of food, they just have to get their noses into it to find out what spices were used, and re-tweak it a bit with things like Genesis and SNES emulators.
So, my answer: Within two weeks of the first firmware upgrade.
[quote name='starboyk'][quote name='DreamSymphony']Or a self bootable program burned onto the disk with the game.[/quote]
Or even, a two minute audio track, followed by the rest of the disc in data format.
As far as cracking and such, it may just be another gamecube (out the longest and JUST getting onto the mod scene within the past six months). Nintendo was smart to keep the system's primary functions gaming and gaming only, as this makes it more difficult to recode. When you have a multi-platform device (DVD, Music CD, Games, et al), you have a familiar platform somewhere in there to springboard from. Alot of people are familiar with the features and setup of the PSP, but to actually dissect it will take a little longer. Not much, though, given Sony's plans for firmware updates. With the first one of those, I'd say plan on the hacking to really commence. I mean, that's essentially handing modders the plate of food, they just have to get their noses into it to find out what spices were used, and re-tweak it a bit with things like Genesis and SNES emulators.
So, my answer: Within two weeks of the first firmware upgrade.[/quote]
That would be sweet. I'd love to a little Tecmo Bowl on my PSP...
Or even, a two minute audio track, followed by the rest of the disc in data format.
As far as cracking and such, it may just be another gamecube (out the longest and JUST getting onto the mod scene within the past six months). Nintendo was smart to keep the system's primary functions gaming and gaming only, as this makes it more difficult to recode. When you have a multi-platform device (DVD, Music CD, Games, et al), you have a familiar platform somewhere in there to springboard from. Alot of people are familiar with the features and setup of the PSP, but to actually dissect it will take a little longer. Not much, though, given Sony's plans for firmware updates. With the first one of those, I'd say plan on the hacking to really commence. I mean, that's essentially handing modders the plate of food, they just have to get their noses into it to find out what spices were used, and re-tweak it a bit with things like Genesis and SNES emulators.
So, my answer: Within two weeks of the first firmware upgrade.[/quote]
That would be sweet. I'd love to a little Tecmo Bowl on my PSP...
[quote name='starboyk'][quote name='DreamSymphony']Or a self bootable program burned onto the disk with the game.[/quote]
Or even, a two minute audio track, followed by the rest of the disc in data format.
As far as cracking and such, it may just be another gamecube (out the longest and JUST getting onto the mod scene within the past six months). Nintendo was smart to keep the system's primary functions gaming and gaming only, as this makes it more difficult to recode. When you have a multi-platform device (DVD, Music CD, Games, et al), you have a familiar platform somewhere in there to springboard from. Alot of people are familiar with the features and setup of the PSP, but to actually dissect it will take a little longer. Not much, though, given Sony's plans for firmware updates. With the first one of those, I'd say plan on the hacking to really commence. I mean, that's essentially handing modders the plate of food, they just have to get their noses into it to find out what spices were used, and re-tweak it a bit with things like Genesis and SNES emulators.
So, my answer: Within two weeks of the first firmware upgrade.[/quote]
The GameCube had less modding action because there was the least interest in that platform from the sorts who pursue that. It wasn't a technical issue so much as lack of opportunity for those seeking to do commercial modding ventures and a lack of aesthetic interest for those do it just for the sake of doing it.
PSP firmware modders are going to face the same problem as Xbox modders if they want to play online. It will be a simple task to set up the servers to query PSPs for their firmware details and perform a checksum against all existing official versions. Fail the test and your PSP could be banned or immediately 'fixed' for you. Xbox modders get around this by having a switch to go between the normal Xbox firmware and that supporting the mods. The trick on the PSP is where would you install the secondary chip to hold the alternate firmware?
Or even, a two minute audio track, followed by the rest of the disc in data format.
As far as cracking and such, it may just be another gamecube (out the longest and JUST getting onto the mod scene within the past six months). Nintendo was smart to keep the system's primary functions gaming and gaming only, as this makes it more difficult to recode. When you have a multi-platform device (DVD, Music CD, Games, et al), you have a familiar platform somewhere in there to springboard from. Alot of people are familiar with the features and setup of the PSP, but to actually dissect it will take a little longer. Not much, though, given Sony's plans for firmware updates. With the first one of those, I'd say plan on the hacking to really commence. I mean, that's essentially handing modders the plate of food, they just have to get their noses into it to find out what spices were used, and re-tweak it a bit with things like Genesis and SNES emulators.
So, my answer: Within two weeks of the first firmware upgrade.[/quote]
The GameCube had less modding action because there was the least interest in that platform from the sorts who pursue that. It wasn't a technical issue so much as lack of opportunity for those seeking to do commercial modding ventures and a lack of aesthetic interest for those do it just for the sake of doing it.
PSP firmware modders are going to face the same problem as Xbox modders if they want to play online. It will be a simple task to set up the servers to query PSPs for their firmware details and perform a checksum against all existing official versions. Fail the test and your PSP could be banned or immediately 'fixed' for you. Xbox modders get around this by having a switch to go between the normal Xbox firmware and that supporting the mods. The trick on the PSP is where would you install the secondary chip to hold the alternate firmware?
omegaweapon7
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current generation games i doubt it...but do you know how easy it is to put SNES or GBA on this thing? besides, i seriously doubt sony is going to bother with SNES emulation projects ^_~
DreamSymphony
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[quote name='rockhero']I guarantee you that before too long there will be a GBA emulator for PSP...[/quote]
well the cpu is certainly powerful enough to do it....
well the cpu is certainly powerful enough to do it....
omegaweapon7
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[quote name='rockhero']I guarantee you that before too long there will be a GBA emulator for PSP...[/quote]
im betting on a SNES one first
been dreaming about it for years, ever since i found fan translated snes rpgs.
im betting on a SNES one first
been dreaming about it for years, ever since i found fan translated snes rpgs.
[quote name='omegaweapon7'][quote name='rockhero']I guarantee you that before too long there will be a GBA emulator for PSP...[/quote]
im betting on a SNES one first
been dreaming about it for years, ever since i found fan translated snes rpgs.[/quote]
hopefully snes come first. Chrono trigger, FF 1-5, Mario RPG, Secret of Mana. Those of the game I haven't play yet.
im betting on a SNES one first
been dreaming about it for years, ever since i found fan translated snes rpgs.[/quote]
hopefully snes come first. Chrono trigger, FF 1-5, Mario RPG, Secret of Mana. Those of the game I haven't play yet.
There are two primary places for hackers to examine the PSP for running unauthorized code without altering the unit. The first would be to break the security on the game sharing function. This wouldn't be as convenient as running stuff off of Memory Stick but would still open the door for lots of interesting stuff downloaded form a PC to the PSP's 32 MB of RAM.
THe other approach is to find a buffer vulnerable to an ovverrun attack. This has been the #1 system vulnerability since the 70's. In more recent times, about 80% of all the Windows vulnerabilites have been some form of buffer overrun and the Xbox saved game loader (in an EA Bond game IIRC) that served as a means to run unauthorized code wa another example.
If one of the PSP playback functions can be clobbere in such a way as to get an alternate OS loaded this would be the launching point for all sorts of things. It would get found out by Sony pretty fast and a mandatory firmware update would soon follow.
THe other approach is to find a buffer vulnerable to an ovverrun attack. This has been the #1 system vulnerability since the 70's. In more recent times, about 80% of all the Windows vulnerabilites have been some form of buffer overrun and the Xbox saved game loader (in an EA Bond game IIRC) that served as a means to run unauthorized code wa another example.
If one of the PSP playback functions can be clobbere in such a way as to get an alternate OS loaded this would be the launching point for all sorts of things. It would get found out by Sony pretty fast and a mandatory firmware update would soon follow.
[quote name='Alpha2']In an effort to keep Scorch from pulling out his hair i'm going to post this here since it kinda fits with the conversation:
It will be very interesting to see how much this lets people do. From's King's Field series is big favorite of mine, so I'd really like it if this made a bunch of games in that style available for free or cheap online.
I was planning to get Rengoku for it's resemblance to King's Field but it got delayed until April and I succumbed to the allure of other titles and used up all of my credit. So it may be a long time before I get that one.
[/quote]
It will be very interesting to see how much this lets people do. From's King's Field series is big favorite of mine, so I'd really like it if this made a bunch of games in that style available for free or cheap online.
I was planning to get Rengoku for it's resemblance to King's Field but it got delayed until April and I succumbed to the allure of other titles and used up all of my credit. So it may be a long time before I get that one.
xenoman80
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[quote name='Scorch']I actually asked Banky about that last night.. I asked him how long before someone made a third party program to rip entire games onto a memory stick.. he says two weeks, I say a week and a half.
The Dreamcast had absolutely no piracy detection. You can literally burn a game on a CD-R, pop it in, and play. No mod chip needed, no boot disk, nothing. I heard rumors that they fixed it later in the run, though. I have a first generation DC ($199.99, baby!) and it plays burned games (Half-Life~!) and my NES rom CD.[/quote] how can i find out which 1 i have???? maybe i can play burned games on mine!!!
The Dreamcast had absolutely no piracy detection. You can literally burn a game on a CD-R, pop it in, and play. No mod chip needed, no boot disk, nothing. I heard rumors that they fixed it later in the run, though. I have a first generation DC ($199.99, baby!) and it plays burned games (Half-Life~!) and my NES rom CD.[/quote] how can i find out which 1 i have???? maybe i can play burned games on mine!!!
m0rningbreakfast
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When there's a will there's a way.
Between the DS and PSP, whoever gets a working SNES emulator will have a new customer - me.
Between the DS and PSP, whoever gets a working SNES emulator will have a new customer - me.
Yeah I'm annoyed by the lack of Rengoku as well, Since I'm not really interested in Untold Legends I'll probably be stuck with nothing but driving games and MGA for a while.
But the thing about this that made my ears stand up is the PC development kit because if it lets you create somthing you can play without the DIY game UMD like right off the Memstick that could quickly turn into an access point for random hackery, not that I expect or even want it on the PSP but if I were a code person I'd be following it closely. As an artist though I like the creative potential.
But the thing about this that made my ears stand up is the PC development kit because if it lets you create somthing you can play without the DIY game UMD like right off the Memstick that could quickly turn into an access point for random hackery, not that I expect or even want it on the PSP but if I were a code person I'd be following it closely. As an artist though I like the creative potential.
[quote name='Alpha2']Yeah I'm annoyed by the lack of Rengoku as well, Since I'm not really interested in Untold Legends I'll probably be stuck with nothing but driving games and MGA for a while.
But the thing about this that made my ears stand up is the PC development kit because if it lets you create somthing you can play without the DIY game UMD like right off the Memstick that could quickly turn into an access point for random hackery, not that I expect or even want it on the PSP but if I were a code person I'd be following it closely. As an artist though I like the creative potential.[/quote]
Playing a user-created adventure game on the PSP will require the Adventure Player UMD software and a Memory Stick Duo with the saved game data. Wannabe developers will create their own game data on PCs by using a development kit called Adventure Player Studio, which will be downloadable when Adventure Player hits retailers.
It doesn't appear to be the case. It would be a bad business model if a free PC download enabled that.
This could be an excellent educational tool for those learning game design and basic programming. Being able to do something that looks and plays reasonably can be an important source of encouragement. Reminds me of the great STOS/AMOS tools for the Atari ST and Amiga. This was a BASIC language style environment that had a lot of powerful functions for sprite movement, animation, scrolling, and a lot of other functions desirable in a game. You had to develop some real programming ability to really exploit it fully but the positive feedback came much more quickly than learning with a typical setup.
But the thing about this that made my ears stand up is the PC development kit because if it lets you create somthing you can play without the DIY game UMD like right off the Memstick that could quickly turn into an access point for random hackery, not that I expect or even want it on the PSP but if I were a code person I'd be following it closely. As an artist though I like the creative potential.[/quote]
Playing a user-created adventure game on the PSP will require the Adventure Player UMD software and a Memory Stick Duo with the saved game data. Wannabe developers will create their own game data on PCs by using a development kit called Adventure Player Studio, which will be downloadable when Adventure Player hits retailers.
It doesn't appear to be the case. It would be a bad business model if a free PC download enabled that.
This could be an excellent educational tool for those learning game design and basic programming. Being able to do something that looks and plays reasonably can be an important source of encouragement. Reminds me of the great STOS/AMOS tools for the Atari ST and Amiga. This was a BASIC language style environment that had a lot of powerful functions for sprite movement, animation, scrolling, and a lot of other functions desirable in a game. You had to develop some real programming ability to really exploit it fully but the positive feedback came much more quickly than learning with a typical setup.
Yeah possibly for demos installed directly on the Memstick.
Now that I think about it you're right about how bad an idea it'd be... Even for demos captured from a kiosk it seems like it'd make sense for them to require that you have some form of "jampack" type disk that allows you to actually Play the demos you download rather than making them isntantly playable code.
As for the DIY UMD being needed, as long as they can keep people from being able to read the data off of it or reverse engineering code that will allow ou to run thigns off the stick without accessing a disk they may have built a pretty strong defense against serious hacks... but that firmware update still feels like a nice big exploitable hole to me.
Now that I think about it you're right about how bad an idea it'd be... Even for demos captured from a kiosk it seems like it'd make sense for them to require that you have some form of "jampack" type disk that allows you to actually Play the demos you download rather than making them isntantly playable code.
As for the DIY UMD being needed, as long as they can keep people from being able to read the data off of it or reverse engineering code that will allow ou to run thigns off the stick without accessing a disk they may have built a pretty strong defense against serious hacks... but that firmware update still feels like a nice big exploitable hole to me.
[quote name='Alpha2']Yeah possibly for demos installed directly on the Memstick.
Now that I think about it you're right about how bad an idea it'd be... Even for demos captured from a kiosk it seems like it'd make sense for them to require that you have some form of "jampack" type disk that allows you to actually Play the demos you download rather than making them isntantly playable code.
As for the DIY UMD being needed, as long as they can keep people from being able to read the data off of it or reverse engineering code that will allow ou to run thigns off the stick without accessing a disk they may have built a pretty strong defense against serious hacks... but that firmware update still feels like a nice big exploitable hole to me.[/quote]
They could change the Jampack subscription to a less expensive version using live downloads and video files saved to MS. The initial UMD would just serve as the browser application. You would have a code tied to your PSPs internal UID to prevent it from being copied to another unit. You could copy it to other Memory Sticks but it would only work in association with that PSP.
I've no doubt there are folks disassembling the firmware but the real trick is keeping Sony from simply installing an approved version every time you go online or try to play a game published after a certain date. If someone can figure out how to easily switch between hacked and unhacked firmware as needed, then there will be some serious homebrew happening.
Now that I think about it you're right about how bad an idea it'd be... Even for demos captured from a kiosk it seems like it'd make sense for them to require that you have some form of "jampack" type disk that allows you to actually Play the demos you download rather than making them isntantly playable code.
As for the DIY UMD being needed, as long as they can keep people from being able to read the data off of it or reverse engineering code that will allow ou to run thigns off the stick without accessing a disk they may have built a pretty strong defense against serious hacks... but that firmware update still feels like a nice big exploitable hole to me.[/quote]
They could change the Jampack subscription to a less expensive version using live downloads and video files saved to MS. The initial UMD would just serve as the browser application. You would have a code tied to your PSPs internal UID to prevent it from being copied to another unit. You could copy it to other Memory Sticks but it would only work in association with that PSP.
I've no doubt there are folks disassembling the firmware but the real trick is keeping Sony from simply installing an approved version every time you go online or try to play a game published after a certain date. If someone can figure out how to easily switch between hacked and unhacked firmware as needed, then there will be some serious homebrew happening.
Emulators on the PSP are almost guranteed to be something that we will be seeing in the near future, but I think it will be awhile before they actually start comming out and working properly. I would love to play NES games on my PSP and it would especially cool if someone found away to play the games via the wi-fi. Imagine playing Street Fighter II or River City Ransom via wi-fi.
lordopus99
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through a coworker at EB, he told me some guy he knew figured out how to put ROMs on his PSP and got them to work. It's just what I heard.
[quote name='javeryh']Couldn't hackers wirte a quick program that resides on the memory stick that works in conjunction with ROMs also stored on the memory stick. The 32MB of RAM seems like it would be more than enough...[/QUOTE]
But how do you get the program to run? The PSP firmware only allows for one situation in which a file on the Meory Stick is treated as code rather than data, which is updates to the firmware itself.
If the PSP firmware uses good programming practices and modern tools, even a buffer overrun won't give hackers a means to get their code running. One of the big reasons such things have long plagued computer Operating Systems is that the programming languages used didn't enforce the distinction between program code and data. C and most C derivatives were especially guilty of this but a lot of that can also be attributed to the severe lack of resources in the average system when this stuff was first created. On modern systems there isn't any excuse but it has taken decades to get rid of the old evil stuff. The orimary appeal of Microsoft's C# (pronounced C-sharp) is that existing C programmers can learn it quickly but it doesn't allow many of the situations that created so many security holes in the past. A buffer overrun attack may crash an application that doesn't do proper checking but it won't allow the inserted code to run because the memory space attacked will be exclusively for data.
This is also why Sony is very unlikely to let people burn their own UMDs any time soon. There is little doubt that people would soon learn how to make a disc that passes Sony's security measures and then runs any application desired, including a simple loader to get apps on Memory Stick running. Controlling the media gives Sony a big barrier for hackers to overcome.
But how do you get the program to run? The PSP firmware only allows for one situation in which a file on the Meory Stick is treated as code rather than data, which is updates to the firmware itself.
If the PSP firmware uses good programming practices and modern tools, even a buffer overrun won't give hackers a means to get their code running. One of the big reasons such things have long plagued computer Operating Systems is that the programming languages used didn't enforce the distinction between program code and data. C and most C derivatives were especially guilty of this but a lot of that can also be attributed to the severe lack of resources in the average system when this stuff was first created. On modern systems there isn't any excuse but it has taken decades to get rid of the old evil stuff. The orimary appeal of Microsoft's C# (pronounced C-sharp) is that existing C programmers can learn it quickly but it doesn't allow many of the situations that created so many security holes in the past. A buffer overrun attack may crash an application that doesn't do proper checking but it won't allow the inserted code to run because the memory space attacked will be exclusively for data.
This is also why Sony is very unlikely to let people burn their own UMDs any time soon. There is little doubt that people would soon learn how to make a disc that passes Sony's security measures and then runs any application desired, including a simple loader to get apps on Memory Stick running. Controlling the media gives Sony a big barrier for hackers to overcome.
bread's done