Hacking the PSP Blog

Burnout to Dominate Again

August's announcement of Burnout 5 for PS3 and Xbox 360 dashed the hopes of PS2 owners. It appeared Burnout would never race again on current-gen consoles. Today, EA gave PlayStation 2 and PSP owners an early Christmas present, announcing Burnout Dominator exclusively for Sony's current-gen systems.

Developed by EA's UK Studio, Dominator promises to return Burnout to its roots. "The series was born on the PlayStation 2, and Burnout Dominator is about celebrating the essence of Burnout," said Nick Channon, Senior Producer of Burnout Dominator. "Burnout Dominator focuses on the reckless skill-based racing and fear of crashing that fuelled the first games." Channon knows about speed, having previously worked on F1 racing games for EA.

Burnout Dominator arrives sometime in 2007.

Hilary Goldstein
December 7, 2006

Source: IGN

PSP's GPS Receiver is on Play-Asia

Enterprising PSP owners may want to put their heads on the shoulder of a Sony Exec and cry, especially since the GPS attachment for the PSP is selling very briskly. Finding one is certainly more difficult than some would bargain for. If you've got a Japanese PSP that is begging for a new enhancement, then you may want to check Play-Asia for some goodies.

Our trained ninja hamster spies snuck deep into the headquarters of Play-Asia and have recently uncovered that the importers are currently selling GPS Receiver units. Their selling price, sans shipping, is US$ 59.99. Of course, what you intend to do with it if you don't live in Japan is beyond us, but if you're visiting there or live in the area, this might be a good chance for you to grab one if you can't find one in the immediate vicinity.

You may want to use an actual map with the system though, just to be sure. Happy global positioning!

Source: PSPUpdates & Play-Asia

"Rampant piracy" makes PSP the perfect gift in China

The Chinese video game market is a difficult one for manufacturers to deal with, simply because piracy is totally out of control in that region. Many publishers and console manufacturers avoid the market altogether. However, the Chinese market loves to play video games, and a blog called Shanghaiist is recommending the PSP for holiday gift givers this year:

"Our buying decision this holiday season has every bit to do with the PSP being a nifty gadget as it does some of the extra "resources" available to us as residents of Shanghai, or China for that matter ... rampant piracy of games. The PSP is no different. Machines for sale here are from either Europe or Japan, but with firmware downgraded/modified so that they can handle "backup" (read "pirated") games."

While I'm all for sales of the PSP increasing, I'm appalled at this recommendation. Telling people to buy a system because you can easily pirate games on it is really uncool. Of course, it seems like many people on the Internet also seem to think the PSP is all about homebrew and piracy as well. What have you experienced on the web?

Andrew Yoon
December 7, 2006

Source: PSP Fanboy

Map This! v0.4

You can tell that Christmas is well and truly on the way with just about every famed PSP developer feeling the holiday spirit and releasing a new version of their applications; some of which we haven't heard from in a little while. Well, it's been a month and a half since we last heard from Deniska, but today he has come out of the developer closet once again to give us another great update to map This!.

This nifty application turns your run of the mill PSP into a fully-fledged map viewer on your portable screen, capable of locating points of interest and directing you to where you need to go using a GPS device. If you haven't already got a GPS receiver, you'll be happy to know that Map This! v0.4 is now compatible with Holux's "Worlds Smallest GPS receiver" which you can get on eBay for around US$ 80. Cool huh? Here's the full changelog:

•  GPSFS format support. Map tiles are stored in a custom format for much faster transfer and access rate.
• Zip support for maps is discontinued (since it was too slow for large maps)
• Added logic for low baud GPS devices (by Zero Altitude). To activate put SLOW_GPS=1 in config.txt
• Straight and path distance calculation in map mode
• Ability to add POI. ([X] in Map Mode)
• POI search / display. ([O] from Attraction selector screen). List the names of up to 100 closest points of interest, which match your search criteria together with distances from current location
• Variable read-speed for "GPS from file" mode (FAKEFEED=1). While re-playing your pre-recorded GPS data, press [X] to toggle re-play speed between x1,x3,x5,x7 speeds
• Last position recall. The application memorizes the latest position and zoom settings for each map.
• Improved map rotation logic for TRACK-UP mode. Use TURNSPEED variable in config.txt to specify the minimum speed at which screen rotation takes place. This allows to reduce screen rotation due to deviation in GPS coordinates while the device is not moving or moving slowly.
• Google maps version updated to most recent in WIFI Download mode.
• "No UMD" bug is fixed. GPS read functionality does not depend on UMD in drive, wifi switch or hold button position.
• STARTUPMAP=... option in config.txt allows to go directly to a specified map and enables the GPS mode.
• Improved and hopefully mode informative help screen ([START] button)
• New (faster) garbage collection logic (old logic used to crash application on large maps)
• More accurate distance calculation in GPS mode.
• Code cleanup (source code attached)
• New version of Windows Map Download Tool by in7ane (GPSFS conversion/support, new map vendors and much more)

A huge guide on how to use this application and get the most out of it can be found at the Map This! official Wiki over here. With this on you all the time you'll never get lost again!

Download Map This! v0.4




Source: PSPUpdates

Funny, Off-Topic: Free SNICKERS Bar with Nintendo Wii?

Well, if that's the deciding factor... ummm...

Check out this eBay auction where you get a Wii. But the best part is you'll be satisfied you paid too much after you get that free Snickers bar. Yum.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Nintendo-Wii-Game-console-w-FREE-SNICKERS_W0QQitemZ170056030103QQihZ007QQcategoryZ62054QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item170056030103

BTW - Look at the receipt. The guy works for Target. He says he spent the night there... Yeah, but he also got 10% off, and likely got to stay inside, so stop the whining! <grin>

-Auri