Hacking the PSP Blog

Fanjita clears up piKey confusion

In response to questions about keyboard compatibility using the new piKey PSP keyboard driver, Fanjita has posted some clarifications on the Noobz site about device support. Here's what he had to say:

A few clarifications about piKey:

• Right now, an IR keyboard is probably your best option.  USB keyboard support will likely never be possible.
• The list of supported IR keyboards is limited by Monsti's IR library (which is used by piKey).  Although in theory it could support everything listed in the pspirkeyb.ini file, in reality only the following keyboards have so far been tested fully so far:
• Nova ETS - works fine, but may have problems with keyrelease events.
• Targus Universal Wireless (I think this one is the best option so far - a nicely repositionable IR transmitter, and a properly implemented IR protocol.  See original piKey article for links to it on Amazon).
• These ones are known not to work properly yet:
• Belkin IR - needs an updated keymap.
• Palm Universal Wireless - has issues with the current keymap.
• IRWave IR620K PS/2 to IR adapter - needs a new keymap.
• No directly-connected serial keyboard is yet supported, the serial connection is for terminal-style connections at the moment.  It is probably doable if we have access to serial keyboard hardware.
• Supporting new keyboard hardware is expensive and time-consuming.  If you want support for a keyboard that is not yet fully supported, you may need to either write the driver for it yourself (or fix up the version in libpspirkeyb, if present), or donate funds so that we can buy the hardware and do it for you.
• It's definitely not finished yet, but should work well enough for you if you have one of the supported keyboards.

Download piKey Keyboard Driver

Source: Noobz.eu

StrmnNrmn on Daedalus Frameskip

StrmnNrmn has posted on his blog about the mysterious frameskip version of Daedalus that recently started floating around and also about the inclusion of such a feature in Daedalus R10. He was kind enough to inform us about a couple additional new features he plans to include as well. Here's what he had to say in his brief message:

A couple of people have been commenting about the mysterious frameskip version of Daedalus R9 which appeared a short while ago. I'm not going to link to it because I can't verify where it came from. That said, I've not checked my email for a week so maybe the author has emailed me about it :)

Anyway, it just so happens that I implemented frameskip in R10 on Sunday, so expect this to be a supported feature in the next official release. I had been planning to add this to R9, but I forgot :) It's no big deal - it's about 20 lines of code.

It does give a slight speedup, but not always as much as you'd expect. For instance, skipping every other frame won't double the framerate, as not all the time is spent rendering. Paradoxically, it tends to have more of an effect on roms that are already running fairly fast. Hopefully for some roms it will make the different between them being barely playable and playable though.

There are a few other things people have been asking about which I will implement for R10 too:

• A configurable deadzone for the stick
• A configurable framerate limiter

-StrmnNrmn

Download Unofficial Daedalus R9 emulator with frameskip option

Source: Retro Console Dev

Reader Contribution: GTA Wheel Size and Exhaust Modifiers

These two web applications come care of psphacker108 and allow you to generate cheat codes that modify the wheel size and exhaust color and volume of vehicles in Grand Theft Auto. Below are the links to the two pages along with their respective instructions, as provided by psphacker108.

Link to post in PSP Games forum: http://community.hackingpsp.com/forums/6536/ShowPost.aspx

Wheel Size Modifier: http://www.themaxone.net/tools/wheelsize.php

Instructions:

• Select your cheats name
• Select the vehicle you want it to work on
• Set the Wheel size
• You must type 0.0 or you can switch it all the way to 1.5
• If you want the tires incredibly huge, go over 1.5, but I reccomend staying around 0.8 for the perfect car tire size
  
• After you have selected your choices click Submit then the code you made will appear under the selections.

Exhaust Color Modifier: http://www.themaxone.net/tools/exhaust.php

Instructions for Exhaust size Modifier:

• Select the name of your code
• Select Exhaust Size
• Small makes it hard to see
• Big (TONS) is a lot better.
• Select Exhaust Color
  
• You will see it says R G B. That has to do with how it's set up.
  
• You can use Paint or another program to see what color is perfect to set it to.
  
• The max you can set R,G,B to is 0 - 255. So choose numbers 0 - 255 for each Color Value.
  
• Each one must have some sort of number in it. If you don't want to change one set it to 0. You can't choose a car, it affects every vehicle in the game.

Here's a few exhaust codes I made too:

#cheat Red exhaust
//Made with Exhaust Color Changer by psphacker108
setchar(0x09569B94, 100, 00, 10);
setchar(0x09569B90, 0x10);

#cheat plasma green exhaust
//Made with Exhaust Color Changer by psphacker108
setchar(0x09569B94, 00, 99, 55);
setchar(0x09569B90, 0x10);

Off Topic: Microsoft says Xbox security wasn't breached

Microsoft found no evidence of a security breach on its Xbox Live or Bungie.net online gaming services, and gamers who had trouble with their accounts were likely duped into giving up their details to fraudsters, the company said Wednesday.

"There have been a few isolated incidents where malicious users have been attempting to draw personal information from unsuspecting users and use it to gain access to their Live account," the company said in a statement.

The statement comes a day after Microsoft said it would investigate possible fraud on its Xbox Live and Bungie.net online gaming properties. Gamers had reported that their Xbox Live accounts were hijacked and their credit cards used to buy "Microsoft Points," the virtual currency on Xbox Live, which has more than 6 million users.

"We have looked into the situation and found no evidence of any compromise of the security of Bungie.net or our Live network," Microsoft said in the statement. It added that, to its knowledge, no credit card or other personal information was exposed.

Read the full article here...

Joris Evers
March 21, 2007

Source: CNet News

DFC: DS Could Be Best Selling Video Game Platform Ever

Think the PS2's over 115 million in worldwide sales is impressive? According to the analysts at DFC Intelligence, the Nintendo DS is on pace to become the best selling platform ever. DFC believes the worldwide portable market will exceed $10 billion in revenue in 2007. More within...

Nintendo's DS handheld has taken the industry by storm; that's no secret. In Japan the Nintendo portable has been out-shipping Sony's PSP on a nearly three-to-one basis. Moreover, in 2006 the DS almost single handedly elevated the Japanese video game market out of its previous doldrums. On this side of the Pacific, not only is the DS consistently outselling the PSP, but it often outsells all consoles. In February, the DS was once again No.1 with 485K units sold.

With the above in mind, it's not surprising that DFC Intelligence's David Cole believes that the DS could very well become the No.1 video game platform in history. "The DS has the potential to be the best-selling interactive entertainment platform ever," he said.

This comes from DFC's latest report on the portable gaming market, which the firm predicts will exceed $10 billion in worldwide revenue this year, led by the DS. DFC said that the PSP will "establish a solid position in the marketplace" but that much of the Sony portable's fate will depend on how much effort Sony Computer Entertainment decides to put into promoting the platform over the next few years.

DFC is so optimistic about the portable sector that the firm thinks it will soon lead the market instead of supplementing the console space. "Under the right scenario, by 2011 the combined installed base of the DS and PSP could exceed that for the Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360," noted Cole.

Read the full article here...

James Brightman
March 21, 2007

Source: GameDaily BIZ

Opinion: Beware of Best Buy In-Home Service Plans!

An opinion piece from me after my continuing horrible experience with Best Buy service... Don't buy in-home service plans from Best Buy!

On a side note: It sure is getting difficult to get service today. With Call Centers being our only recourse as customers, there's not much we can do except grin and bear it. If they say they can't do anything, we really are out of luck for the most part. The stores just point you to their "customer service" telephone number. But if the person on the other end of the line, who has been trained to evade helping you get more than they want to give you, you're done - you have to do what they say. Look at the America Online fiasco. If you haven't seen their tactics for avoiding customer service, rather they just try to sell you more services instead of helping you (those are called WINs), you should take a look at that here.

I need to warn my readers about Best Buy's service plans. I know it's a bit off topic, but I want to make sure you don't get duped like I have. The only option you get when you need service is to talk to a live person, which normally would be a good thing. But not with Best Buy.

Intro to story: I had four appointments, all but one canceled on the day of the appointment by Best Buy, or their outside service firm, Top Tech. No excuse other than "death in the family." I feel horrible for the technician they keep assigning to me, really.

So the first appointment was set up, but then their system "went down." (why is software so buggy these days that it goes down all the time?) They said they'd call me back to confirm my appointment in 24-48 hours. Of course, no call. When I called back, they set up the first of the four appointments. They called me later in the day to tell me that appointment had been canceled and rescheduled for the next day.

The next day (Tuesday) came and they called that morning and canceled and scheduled it for Wednesday. The technician had a death in the family.

Wednesday came and they called and canceled the appointment and scheduled it for Thursday. Apparently that technician also had a death in the family.

So I called back and asked to talk with a supervisor. His name was Tony (x151225). His supervisor's name is Bea, but she's not allowed to talk to me directly unless she calls me back, again within 24-48 hours. I'm not expecting a phone call.

Tony says the only thing he can do is schedule me for next Tuesday. So now I've lost about two weeks on my brand new 65" television set that didn't work right when they delivered it.

Oops.

So I suggest you save your money next time you go to Best Buy and are deciding whether to buy an in-home service plan. I imagine their Product Replacement Plans for the PSP are still fine, though, since you’re not stuck talking to someone in a call center who isn’t obligated to help you.

I can only imagine that if you work on an hourly basis that calling in three days in a row might get you fired... apparently they don't appreciate that at Best Buy...

FYI!

Best,

-Auri