Thursday, June 29, 2006

PSP To Host 7000 PSone Games

- According to UK PSP Magazine, these five games should be available when the PSP's PSone emulation service launches:

* Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
* Final Fantasy VII
* Final Fantasy VIII
* Silent Hill
* Tomb Raider

- They also said that up to 7,000 PlayStation titles will be available for download by the end of 2007.
- Apart from that "up to" part, this could be good news and actually puts the PSP on a par with the GameBoy line's backwards compatability... except you have to buy them again...

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

PSP Games For $8.96

- Cheap Ass Gamer has posted details of "The Circuit City Summer $8.96 Sale".
- The sale does not officially start until July 4th week, but some are already marked as $8.96, although those games are often being hidden out the back until this Sunday.
- PSP games involved are:

Darkstalkers
Exit
FIFA Soccer
Gretzky NHL
NBA Street Showdown
Need For Speed Underground Rivals
Spiderman 2
Tiger Woods PGA
Tony Hawk Underground 2 Remix
World Soccer Tour

Undiluted Platinum - PSP Mod Chip

- ModChipStore.com have gotten their first shipment of Undiluted Platinum chips and they look very impressive, (hell they will allow you to run a bricked PSP again!)
- Costing $100, here are some of the features:

* Run your Homebrew Code in even the latest PSP's
* No need for Hacked Firmware anymore, Dual Flash boot will bust your PSP wide open with possibilities
* Play your Homebrew or Backup Games, Movies and Apps
* Ultra reliable and feature rich Actel ProASIC Plus FPGA
* Full Speed USB 1.1 ASIC onboard
* Branded 32MB NAND flash onboard (same flash as used in PSP)
* Stable and reliable flashing software freely available for download
* Installation verification using flashing software
* Ultra compact four layer PCB
* High quality Japanese connectors
* USB cable included
* FPC cable included, reducing installation effort and improving shock resistance
* Copper enamel wire included
* Open platform development system for software developers
* Installation has been optimized to fit entirely inside PSP
* All PSP hardware versions/regions supported
* User updatable flash
* Low power consumption
* Flash select via button press
* Ultra compact PCB has been designed to avoid signal bounce

- Hold L button during power up to boot from PSP flash, or don't hold anything to boot from the U.P Flash.
- There is one version of the PSP hardware that currently is not supported by U.P, but these are only in the very newest units. To see if you have one of these "TA-082" motherboards, check this guide.
- Here are the install diagrams. It does not look too easy, but ModChipStore.com has an installation service for $99.
- Finally, there is the Epsilon BIOS. This is the firmware you will be flashing onto your U.P, (until more options start appearing since U.P is going ope source with everything!) and it has some tasty features:

* Ability to launch homebrew software from the memory stick
* Kernel mode access for software requiring this app
* Support for 1.0 and 1.5 EBOOTs
* Simple UMD ISO loading
* Their own compressed ISO format

- Here is a video of it in action, showing ISOs, homebrew and all kinds of fun stuff:

PMP VLC v0.0.8 - Media Player

- Check out this guide to the PMP movie format to see how to convert your videos and get them working on your PSP.
- You can then use PMP VLC to play them and other file types from the memory stick or streamed from a PC.

X-Flash v9h - Firmware Mod Tool

- X-Flash is a firmware modification tool that runs on your PSP and flashes it to change various things about the way your PSP behaves. Because it messes with the firmware and flashes your PSP, you need to be careful when using it.
- PSP Updates shows it is up to version 9h right now and has the following options:

- Apply Debranded Intro Screen
- Apply Alternate Sound Effect
- Toggle Network Updae Capability
- Toggle XMB Menu Wave Effect
- Replace Month Background
- Install Custom Font
- Apply Custom XMB Menu Label
- Change Game Boot Intro
- Apply Firmware Version 9.99 Spoof
- Spply Firmware Version 13.37 Spoof
- Perform Complete Firmware Dump
- Perfrom Registry Restore / Backup
- Change X-Flash Menu Theme

Peripherals and Upgrades Release Dates

- PSP Updates posts images scanned from the UK's Official PlayStation 2 Magazine which apparently dates the PSP EyeToy for September, then the GPS adaptor in October, followed by the PSOne emulator also in October, along with video calling.

Sony Access

- Seen those Sony Access veding machines in a mall near you yet? If not, here is a video of what to expect:

Friday, June 23, 2006

TiVoToGo And PSP

- TiVo have added functionality to their TiVoToGo software to export recorded shows straight to PSP.
- $24.95 for the software.
- 320 x 240 resolution output only.
- Software works on Windows only.

Saturday, June 17, 2006

Tomb Raider PSP Not Cancelled

- It seems the 10th anniversary remake of the first Tomb Raider adventure has not been cancelled after all, and will be available for PC and PS2 as well as PSP.
- This from SCi-Eidos after Core Design's website said the opposite yesterday.
- Said Larry Sparks of SCi-Eidos:

"Our 10th Anniversary Edition of Tomb Raider is a one-off title to celebrate both Lara and Tomb Raider. It will appeal not only to the loyal fans of the Tomb Raider series but will also attract a totally new audience."

Friday, June 16, 2006

Tomb Raider PSP Cancelled

- UPDATE: Perhaps not.
- This quote comes from Core Design's website concerning the Tomb Raider remake for PSP:

"Following speculation on the internet, we would like to offer the following clarification.

The video of Tomb Raider: 10th Anniversary Edition that appeared on certain sites was an unauthorised release of an internal presentation of a game that was being developed by Core Design until very recently. It was running on PSP and used a Core-developed engine. However, following a recent review this project has been officially cancelled by SCi.

Core is alive and well and working on some great new projects, and we are still planning to announce some exciting news very soon!"

- And for completeness, here is the video in question:

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

New SanDisk 4GB MS Pro Duo

- GameStop have put up a new product page for a 4.0GB Memory Pro Duo.
- Available 3rd July 2006 for $239.99.