Fanjita from Team Noobz recently bought himself a PSP battery from Amazon, planning to turn it into a Pandora’s battery. Despite the battery sharing the same model number as the older, Pandora-compatible battery, existing tools failed to convert the battery.
If this is indeed the latest move by Sony to keep hackers out of the PSP internals, I give it two weeks max before they find a new method.
via MaxConsole
As if the risk of bricking your PSP wasn’t enough, now you can potentially blow your hand off in the quest to run homebrew on your PSP. A member of legendary console modder Ben Heckendorn’s forum has posted instructions for turning a standard Sony PSP battery into a Pandora’s Battery with a soldering iron, instead of another already homebrew-enabled PSP.
We’re not joking about the blowing your hand off thing either - please take note of the warnings and do not attempt this modification if you aren’t experienced with a soldering iron.
Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow will take full advantage of the handheld’s recent firmware update, pushing its clock speed to 333MHz.
Technical director Chris Reese says that the extra 67MHz will allow Bend Studio to implement Havok physics, water rendering/gameplay, larger environments with significantly more interactive elements, and faster AI response times. This is gonna look swell on the big screen too, thanks to PSP Lite’s output feature.
via Playstation Blog
PSP owners frustrated with their fiddly, single nub may soon find Dual Analog relief.
These highly technical blueprints contained in a recently published patent (initially filed by Sony in September 2005) reveal a plan to dock the PSP with a PS2 Dual Shock Controller. The wireless PS3 Sixaxis is another likely candidate for the job. Given the PSP Slim will now be able to be plugged into a TV, we may be looking at a replication of PS2 play.
But being able to actually target your enemies in an FPS may come at a price, such as a
rumbling screen and a not-so-portable portable system.
via Kotaku
Sony is seeking to expand portable gaming development by allowing universities to gain access to the same professional tools used by commercial developers. Students will be able to use hardware kits at “vastly reduced rates” (and rightly so). These will ship with the same ProDG tools and debuggers used in commercial studios. They’ll also have online support and access to a cloned version of the professional development website.
So far a couple of universities in the UK have been enlisted as launch partners in the non-commercial scheme, with others soon to follow suit. Good to see Sony giving the kids a turn at bat.
via PocketGamer
Here’s a really interesting new concept under development by Sony Computer Entertainment Japan. Drawing inspiration from M.C. Escher’s visual trickery, Echochrome is a puzzle game made up of one part Lemmings, three parts relativity.
The decidedly minimalist 3D environment consists of blocks, staircases, holes and springboards. The similarly primitive, yet particularly well animated stick figures who inhabit the environment plod forth aimlessly, and just like their Lemming predecessors, they will plummet to their doom if you let them. By changing your perspective on the enviroment, you can bend reality to help them avoid the dangers. Of course, a video is worth 10,000 words.
EA have announced a new title from the Medal of Honor franchise, Medal of Honor Heroes 2. From the same team at EA Canada who developed the first Medal of Honor Heroes game for the PSP, the sequel will be released on the Wii and PSP platforms this holiday season. While yet another World War II game might not have you trembling with excitement, Heroes 2 looks to be the first title to bring a decent multiplayer FPS experience to the Wii - with the 32-player online play from the original PSP version surviving the jump to the Wii.
The new PSP design was unveiled recently at E3 2007 - smaller, lighter, faster (loading, that is…) and a TV-out to boot. Sony have just announced the new units are set to hit shelves in Japan on September 20th for ¥19,800 (US $162)
via Kotaku
