Hacking the PSP Blog

Homebrew coders cook up a success for consoles

For years videogame watchers have complained that there is no mainstream channel for independently produced games. Sure, you can hunt down great indie titles online, but until recently, the only way casual users could experience these hidden gems would be through a mainstream publisher picking them up for retail distribution.

Xbox Live Arcade and now the PlayStation 3's E-Distribution Initiative have shifted the industry mindset, with Microsoft and Sony actively courting the indie development scene. Sony has gone one step further with PS3, allowing users to install alternative operating systems to start their own programming projects. At last year's E3 event, Sony's head of the software platform division, Izumi Kawanishi, openly invited bedroom coders to start producing games and other apps for PS3.

But this is also happening without their permission. For years there's been a large homebrew development community, a determined band of coders who hack into the firmware of games consoles, to seize control of the silicon and persuade the machine to run their own applications.

But homebrew is quietly being legitimised. Online communities like Dcemu.co.uk provide a hub of homebrew development, offering clear instructions and helpful forums to non-techie uses wishing to run indie software on their consoles. The PSP scene is the liveliest. There are hundreds of apps, from emulations of classic consoles and home computer games to text versions of the Bible and guitar tuition.

Hardware manufacturers are getting in on the act. UK company Datel recently released a Games 'n' Music for the Nintendo DS - just slot it in and you can run homebrew games and apps, as well as watch videos and play MP3s. It even comes with 25 homebrew games.

Even more accessibly, the flash game site Wiicade.com released an API allowing developers to support the motion sensing capabilities of the Wiimote controller. Soon, then, Wii owners will be able to play independently produced titles that use the physical controls in entirely new ways, Or, just as likely, you'll get 100 versions of Tetris that let you manipulate shapes by twisting your wrist. But hey, that still sounds like fun.

This is, of course, all part of the breakdown in digital barriers between the consumer and the content provider. In courting the MySpace generation, console manufacturers have had to loosen their obsessions with control and security. And it's been liberating. Xbox Live Arcade is a success, and by embracing independent thought, Sony could turn round the PS3 naysayers. If indie gaming can do that, it can do anything.

Keith Stuart
March 8, 2007

Source: The Guardian

GDC: Eidos turns PSP into virtual music studio

New software will allow owners of Sony's handheld to mix and sample beats on the move.

A new piece of software developed by Definitive Studios and published by Eidos will position Sony's PSP as a piece of professional music equipment.

Called Traxxpad, the software attempts to offer virtual sequencers, drum machines and keyboards that can be both used by professionals and consumers. A mixing and sampling element means users can record samples straight to the handheld and remix them on the go, and export their creations as MP3s or WAVs.

"It's one thing to make a powerful music device, but it is truly impressive to make an application that allows someone unfamiliar with music to make something that sounds professional," said Eidos' marketing manager Kevin Gill.

"That is where Traxxpad excels. This is a piece of software that appeals equally to both aspiring musicians as well as professional music producers."

Exec VP of sales and marketing at Eidos Robert Lindsey described the software as "It produces professional music, and makes it easy to do, providing an end result that is more fun and satisfying than completing a pre-defined task in a game."

Michael French
March 5, 2007

Source: MCV

Daedalus R10 Release Target and Plan of Action

After receiving a couple hundred emails giving suggestions on what to include in Daedalus R10, StrmnNrmn has come up with a plan of action and an approximate release target for the next version of his N64 emulator. Here's what he had to say on his blog:

It seems pretty clear to me that speed is the single biggest issue that most people want to see addressed. Many people also mentioned compatibility and savestate or save game support, but in nowhere near the same kind of numbers as those wanting speed improvements.

Based on your feedback my current plan is to release Daedalus R10 at the end of March, focusing mostly on speed improvements. If I can fit in any easy compatibility fixes, I'll do this too*.

Several people have asked what possibilities remain for optimisation. Here's a short list of things I know need more work:

• In many games, a lot of the time spent executing dynamically recompiled code is doing things which can potentially be emulated at a high level. For instance, over 5% of the time spent executing dynarec code in Mario64 is just converting matrices from floating point to fixed point format. Another 4-5% of the time is spent in a loop invalidating areas of the data cache (which is irrelevent in an emulator.)
• Some of the most expensive fragments are those which branch to themselves (i.e. those doing many loops). I can optimise for this to avoid loading and flushing cached registers on each iteration through the loop.
• I can implement a frameskip option (I had intended to implement this for R9, but forgot!)
• I can make use of the Media Engine (as Exophase suggested in conversation, as the ME can't access VRAM, it might make more sense to execute Audio and Display Lists on the main CPU, and run the N64 CPU emulation on the PSP ME)
• There are certain situations where I fail to create fragments in the dynamic recompiler - for instance if the code being recompiled writes to a hardware register, this triggers an interrupt and causes fragment generation to be aborted. I should be able to deal with situations such as this more gracefully.
• The fragment generator can do a lot more to improve register caching, and eliminating redundant 64-bit operations.
• There are many situations where N64 roms busy wait. I detect very simple occurances of this, but not all of them. If I manually identify more complex examples I can have the fragment generator optimise them away.
• Some roms are causing the dynarec fragment cache to be repeatedly dumped and recreated (I think Banjo Kazooie is one example of this). Fixing this may just involve tweaking a couple of magic numbers.
• I currently optimise memory accesses under the assumption that most accesses are in the range 0x80000000 - 0x80800000, which is incorrect in the case of roms that make heavy use of virtual memory, or access RAM through the mirrored range at 0xa0000000. I can improve the trace recorder to collect information on which range a memory access fell in, and generate code to speculatively optimise for this.
• Now that the dynarec engine is producing much better code, the cost of display list processing is becoming more significant, and may finally be worth profiling and optimising.

That's quite a big list, so I doubt I'll be able to work on these things before the end of March, but I think it shows there's still a lot of scope for further optimisation.

Source: Retro Console Dev

SanDisk 4GB Memory Stick PRO Duo $49.99 @ Fry's

Keeping with a string of great deals on the SanDisk 4GB Memory Stick PRO Duo, Fry's has them right now for $49.99 ($69.99 - $20 mail-in rebate). I wasn't able to find it in their online store but you should be able to pick one up at your local Fry's.

GDC: Harrison Keynote Reveals Home, LittleBigPlanet

At his keynote at Game Developers Conference, 'Game 3.0', Sony executive Phil Harrison themed his talk specifically around the subjects of "audience participation and emergent gameplay", revealing a host of new PlayStation 3 features to help community.

Harrison started by discussing the concept of Web 2.0, referencing sites such as Flickr and YouTube, and explaining the predecessors of the 'Game 3.0' concept. He started with Game 1.0, where the entirety of the game content was contained within the disc or cartridge. Game 2.0 was a connected console or PC, but with static content on the disc.

Finally, we get to Game 3.0, and Harrison explained: "This is our suggestion... it's all about social interaction, it's about content creation." Harrison then announced Home, a software service launching for PlayStation 3 "later this year", and to be added to the Xross Media Bar.

Home is a PS3-specific online world with clothing and avatar customization - a "3D social networking service" in which you can "express yourself and your personality". Harrison demonstrated the ability to customize the face and clothes. There's dynamic advertising being shown in the world - in the example, for Resistance: Fall Of Man, as well as HD-quality video.

There are also other avatars in the world, representing other players, and you can chat to them using preset phrases, a virtual keyboard, and even voice chat. There is also a game room in the service which has virtual bowling, virtual pool, and custom arcade machines which you can play in the world.

Harrison then showed the ability to customize your personal room, with customization of wallpapers, furniture, and so on and so forth - the furniture is also physics-based so can be piled up. Some of the accessories will be free, and some will be pay-to-buy - premium items include pool tables, high-end furniture, and so on.

You can also mount picture frames, and embed pictures and video in the frames or televisions in your virtual space. Home will also include a cinema section - with trailers for existing movies and a deal with Sony-owned Grouper.com for user-created content.

Read the full article here...

Simon Carless
March 7, 2007

Source: Gamasutra

Off Topic: ELSPA welcomes Blair's backing for UK industry

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has spoken out in support of Britain's creative industries, including the games industry, in a speech at London's Tate Modern gallery.

Addressing members of various different creative sectors, Blair described the UK as the world's "creative capital" and acknowledged that many different sectors, including videogames, have "contributed to the renaissance of British culture".

British videogames publisher trade body ELSPA welcomed Blair's remarks, pointing out that the videogames industry is a net contributor to the UK's balance of trade, and has achieved global success without any of the direct financial support or subsidy from government which have been enjoyed by other sectors.

"It is good to hear the Prime Minister's speech and the government's recognition of the creative industries in Britain and their contribution to the culture and essence of the country," commented ELSPA director general Paul Jackson after the speech.

"The games industry is a proud member of these industries. The talent and creativity that our industry houses and nurtures is what makes the games industry a part of Britain's cultural heritage, and more specifically, an important asset in Britain's creative and cultural future."

The British games industry is consistently noted for "punching above its weight", with massive international franchises including Grand Theft Auto, Tomb Raider and Project Gotham Racing all having their roots in the UK. According to figures cited by Eidos creative director Ian Livingstone, 25,000 people are employed in the games industry in the UK, with over GBP 2 billion per annum being contributed to the economy by the sector.

Rob Fahey
March 8, 2007

Source: GamesIndustry.biz