Hacking the PSP Blog

Slick, All Black XMB

undertaxx, building on the original work of Sérgio Catumba and Innercy, has given us a very cool, slick looking, black XMB theme. Unfortunately this theme will not work with Dark Alex's 3.10 OE custom firmware. Here's what undertax says is included in the package:

• 32 bits High-Res Black Icons
• 32 bits High-Res Battery Icon
• 32 bits High-Res Volume bar
• 32 Bits month background + Bogus Waves
• 32 Bits High Res Load Icon (game, savedata, photo & corrupt)
• 32 bits High Res Load Circle (Right Corner thing)
• Xmb line, Shadow, Selectbar  customized to Black/Cromé
• All other thats included and i forgot

Download "Ultimate" Black XMB





Via PSPUpdates

Off Topic: States wising up? Video game bills drop like flies

After a streak of futility rivaling that of the Chicago Cubs, state politicos across the country appear to be finally getting the message about the constitutionality of legislation seeking to restrict the sale of violent video games. Already this year, three attempts to pass such legislation have either failed outright or been put on hold, as lawmakers appear to be increasingly cognizant of the constitutional issues.

A tale of three states

Mississippi
Mississippi State Senator Gray Tollison (D) introduced legislation in January calling for fines to be assessed to retailers selling M- and AO-rated games to minors, $100 for a first offense and $500 for subsequent offenses. It was a rerun of a bill introduced during 2006 and like its predecessor, it died in committee.

Utah
In Utah, State Representative Scott Wyatt (R) teamed up with video game violence pundit Jack Thompson to craft HB50. Modeled along the lines of an unconstitutional Louisiana law crafted with Thompson's help, Rep. Wyatt's bill would have modified the Utah Criminal Code to lump "inappropriate violence" in with sexual content in a list of materials harmful to minors, thereby prohibiting the sale of violent games to minors. Just as the Louisiana law did, HB50 drew on the Miller Test for obscenity to describe depictions of violence inappropriate to minors.[...]

Indiana
Most recently, an Indiana bill cosponsored by State Senators Vi Simpson (D) and David Ford (R) was introduced that would result in $1,000 fines for retailers selling violent or sexually-explicit video games to minors. After some choice violent scenes from a couple of video games were shown to the Senate Economic Development and Technology Committee, it voted by a 5-2 margin on Monday to send the bill to the full Senate for consideration.[...]

Read the full article here...

Eric Bangeman
February 23, 2007

Source: Ars Technica

European PS3 will play fewer old games?

A little bit off-topic, but I want to point out that Ken Kutaragi said at the PS2's (yes - PS2) launch that all future Playstations will be fully backwards compatible with old Playstations. I guess that PS3 really *did* cost too much - oh yeah, and there aren't any good games for the $600 system yet. Note that I said "games" - since there is a good "game" - Resistance Fall of Man. :-P -Auri

Here's the story from CNET:
Original link: http://news.com.com/European+PS3+will+play+fewer+old+games/2100-1043_3-6161623.html?tag=nefd.top

European PS3 will play fewer old games The European version of PlayStation 3 will play fewer PlayStation 2 video games compared with models launched earlier in Japan and America, Sony said Friday. "The backwards compatibility is not going to be as good as the U.S. and Japan models," a Sony representative said. PlayStation 3 was launched in Japan and North America in November. The model that will be introduced in Europe on March 23 will be designed differently. Software will take over some of the functionality that was originally taken care of by dedicated chips, which means far fewer PlayStation 2 games can be played on a European PS3 compared with the Japanese and American PS3 models that play 98 percent of old games. "Sony is managing expectations by saying now that the new console will play fewer of the old games. And that's a good thing," said analyst Alex Kwiatowski at British market research group Vertical Market Technologies. Kwiatowski said gamers with a PS2 will need to hold onto their device to play their current collection. "I'm as disappointed as the next game player about the reduced backward compatibility, but even the most nostalgic, misty-eyed gamers will have their steely hearts impressed by the new features that PS3 games provide," Kwiatowski said. The PS3's graphics and sound capabilities are much improved over the PS2. "Rather than concentrate on PS2 backwards compatibility, in the future, company resources will be increasingly focused on developing new games and entertainment features exclusively for PS3," Sony Computer Entertainment said in a statement. About 1 million units will be available at the European launch next month, as many as were made available in the United States during the first six weeks after the launch last year.