The Complete PSP Hacks Guide - Update

While the competition in the handheld market is heating up and the PSP has been losing ground to its arch nemesis, Nintendo's DS, Sony's little power house is only now showing the extent of its versatility.
Now that the floodgates have opened for developers, everyone is producing utilities and games for the handheld, making the prospect of parting with the necessary cash in order to obtain a PSP, that much more appealing. It appears that Sony's handheld will need all the help it can get since gamers appear to prefer the cheaper option, the DS.

The latest offerings for the PSP include a media player which will allow you to playback media files including .mp3 and .ogg files. Gamers will be happy to know that Quake and Doom are also available for their power hungry handheld while the more relaxed owners can try out their luck at the new version of TicTacToe (with improved AI).

All the utilities and games mentioned above are available by following the download tab above while SNES emulation for PSP details can be found by following the link below and to your right. Since progress is achieved daily on the PSP development front you can also visit MaxConsole, a specialized site.

It seems that some smart programmer from Japan has finally managed to use the word "irony" to its full potential. The first emulator for the PSP has now officially been created and will run perfectly well on any PSP with version 1.0 ROM.

Although its developer claims it's all just good fun, Nintendo might see things differently as GBEMU is a GameBoy emulator for the PSP.

As you can probably make out from the rough image on your right the transition doesn't do the Nintendo games any favors but the fact remains that you get a Sony device playing games originally designed for its rival's device.

The emulator is freely available for download and some efforts are underway to find a way of helping people downgrade to version 1.0 ROM.

Despite the trouble with dead pixels and the numbers suggesting Sony may have overestimated the popularity of its Playstation Portable handheld, one other measure of popularity and of the potential for long-term success, the generation of a PSP community, appears to be going Sony's way. It seems that the portability and the power of the console has proved irresistible for both the gaming and hacking communities.

When the PSP specs were announced, everyone with even the most basic of technical skills wanted to get their hands on one. The potential seemed endless and the various features made it a tempting piece of hardware. So it is understandable that within a couple of weeks of its US release, a variety of extra features for the PSP have begun to crop up, all created by amateurs and all intended to enhance the PSP user experience.

The most popular of these modifications to the PSP will let owners browse the Internet through a straight-forward redirection of the console. The ability to browse the web with the PSP was always Sony's intention but it is doubtful that they expected users to find a way of doing it this soon. All you need is web server, a wireless connection point, a copy of Wipeout Pure and a PSP. The method uses the built-in Wipeout Pure browser, placed there by Sony for the download of game content. Since the game browser automatically attempts to connect to https://ingame.scea.com/wipeout/index.html , all you need to do is redirect the PSP DNS server setting. Step-by-step details are available in a variety of locations although we found Daemon Projects to be the most comprehensive guide. These changes will in no way effect your PSP warranty as you will not be changing any hardware on the console.

Once Internet access was achieved, it didn't take long for others to develop some activities for PSP owners. One of the first such activities and one that is proving very popular was IRC access. Robert Balousek has created a web page which acts as a portal allowing PSP users connecting to it to access #pspirc on irc.freenode.net. Although access is currently limited to that channel for now, the possibilities are there for expansion. The creator of pspirc.com is also currently working on pspaim.com and pspmsn.com so expect the psp to become a fully capable chat device very soon.
One of the main problems experienced by owners getting to grips with the new services was the lack of a viable typing option. A variety of key mapping options was suggested but the problem has, to some extent been addressed by the creation of a virtual keyboard by the pspirc developer.
Third party companies have already announced a variety of keyboards under development for the PSP, such as the Logic 3 keyboard in the image below, but precise release dates have yet to be announced.

PSP owners have been busy trying to justify their USD 249 on other fronts as well. Some of the latest added features for the PSP include a way of transferring Tivo captured video to the handheld. The method involves a variety of steps and a very thorough guide is available from Tivo to Go, a small price to pay for getting the chance to watch your favorite TV shows on the way to work.

Comics

Another guide has recently become available for reading Internet comics on your PSP. The guide is fairly straight-forward but this is a hack that will appeal top the more determined comics fans out there. The details are available from 8Bit Joystick.

This sudden burst of activity from PSP owners, so soon after its release, is significant not only as an indication of the creation of a community but as a sign to Sony that it is really not offering much support for its console yet. On launch, Nintendo's DS came with built-in chat software and a variety of connectivity options; Sony unleashed its device with minimal support for such functions and has given users the incentive to fend for themselves. Many PSP owners are now demanding some action from Sony by this year's E3 show. The most popular request is for a fully functional browser, the current hack does not support frames, cookies, large images and a variety of modern browsing options.
Other requests include: support for accessing content and communication with other locally networked PSPs, A simple file manager to handle downloaded content without having to connect to a PC, a means of using the USB 2 as a Video out, support for downloaded game demos, add-ons and patches, a Sony official portal offering gaming news and previews etc., an RSS reader, a POP email client... the list goes on and on and on.

One major complaint MegaGames has had from many PSP owners has to do with the extravagant USD 30 Sony are charging for UMD movies, although users are positive about the existence of movies on the format, paying more for them than for the DVD version seems preposterous at best.

All this excitement around these features however, does make us wonder if DS owners will go down the same route. Nintendo's new handheld seems better equipped for such extra functionality and it would definitely become an instant must-have device for a much more reasonable price.