It's quite an emotional rollercoaster, this week really was. Straight off from the news that the King of Pop has died, we went on to have the usual string of gaming news that rock our own worlds. With the usual news on lawsuits, layoffs, company shutdowns, convicted murderers over consoles, it was looking to be a sad state of affairs. Good thing we've got our own Neverland to brighten things up a bit. And now we've come to the Fourth of July weekend. Time to kick off those shoes, stretch out, unwind and celebrate. You know we all deserve it. Happy FOJ weekend, everyone!

KaiserCz, one of the editors at PSPGen, went over to the Japan Expo for a look at what the event had to offer. There, he got his hands on a PSP-1000, on which he tried out a Soul Calibur demo. But that's not really the point of this story. What's notable here is that KaiserCz found that the PSP that he used was running on firmware 5.55.

Minus the digital downloads, this has to be one of the smallest batches we've seen on On Shelves. Talk about a dry batch - no AAA titles in this lineup. Anyway, there's still ArmA II for the PC if you're a die-hard FPS fan, or if you're a baseball fan, 2K Sports' The Bigs is also coming out this week. For the other two titles, read on for this edition of On Shelves This Week.

When EGM founder Steve Harris reacquired the rights to his gaming mag, one thing was clear - Electronic Gaming Monthly will rise from the grave. And through an interview with Publishing Executive, more things are made clear as Harris talks about his vision for the relaunch of the iconic magazine.

An unknown Japanese homebrew coder has released a new update for gpSP Mod, Game Boy Advance emulator based on the original work done by Exophase.


Download: gpSP Mod 20090703

The JPCSP team has released a new update for JPCSP,  the Java emulator for the PSP. The latest update has added a new feature in Savedata mode 11.


Download: JPCSP v0.02 revision 1086

Homebrew coder Torch is back with a new update for Hold+, a battery saving application for the PSP. The latest update now has the 5th brightness level for PSP-3000 corrected.


Download: Hold+ v3.8
Visit: QJ.NET's PSP Development Forums

Homebrew coders Xenogears and becus25 have released a new version of Custom Firmware Enabler, a program that activates the functions of the M33 custom firmware using ChickHEN. Among the notable changes in version 3.51 includes an improved system of flashing Pops and some more bug fixes.


Download: Custom Firmware Enabler v3.51

Homebrew coder thecraziness1 dropped by the QJ.NET PSP Development Forum to release PsPlugin Manager, a program that allows you to choose the best plugins for your PSP. It can also edit plugins that have config files, install and uninstall other appications and many more.


Download: PsPlugin Manager
Visit: QJ.NET's PSP Development Forums

With Dark AleX not releasing any custom firmware versions for the official ones Sony has rolled out recently, other dev teams have come up with their own CFW releases. One of the most prolific is the team behind the GEN CFWs, who teased and promptly launched CFW 5.50GEN-B this week. We heard silence gaming-side this week, but hopefully that'll change in the next seven days. This week also heralded the end of the Sony-supported PSOne homebrew program, Net Yaroze. Read on for the rest of the PSP Homebrew Weekend Warrior.