Keeping tabs on our Who's Who QuickGuides? Let's see now - we've had the life and times of Dark AleX, the AhMazing AhMan, the silent but deadly MaTiAz, the free radical FreePlay, and the scene prodigy Davee. Now let's point the spotlight to one of the scene's most high-profile collection of superdevs. With their countless contributions to the grateful homebrew community and an unhappy Sony, it's only fitting that we pay tribute to "homebrew without a clue" - the great irony known as Team Noobz.


Definitely NOT noobs

While they stand together under a brand given to newcomers, make no mistake - Team Noobz is anything but nooby. In fact, this fine collection of coders has been brewing for a very long time. Originally composed of just the duo of Fanjita and Ditlew, Team Noobz took new members and eventually grew into what it is today, with the great Fanjita at the helm.

Since then, Team Noobz has made homebrew headlines with various releases - downgraders, homebrew enablers, hacking tools, even the old Tetris for FW 2.0 - 2.8, you name it. And who could forget waking up to Fanjita's seven-PSP Hello World surprise?


Homebrew, anyone?

Some of the team's more remarkable and practical releases include the Furikup, their very own PSP Phone Software. Then there's the very useful PSP Slim USB Charger Plugin, which allowed the PSP to charge even when connected via USB - a feature that Sony didn't give the PSP. There's also the WiFi MAC Address Fixer to make the changing of WiFi boards and MAC Addresses a hell lot easier.

Although a very capable crew on their own, Team Noobz has also been known to work with some of the scene's most high-profile devs, including Dark AleX and Mathieulh. In fact, the most recent major project they worked on was the GripShift eLoader - a collaboration with the project's pioneers, MaTiAz and FreePlay. Unfortunately for them, though, the work was rendered useless with the release of the ChickHEN.


A chink in the armor

Just like the GripShift eLoader, it's not all homebrew homeruns for Team Noobz. On August of 2007, Fanjita announced his retirement, following the "betrayal of trust that preceded the Pandora release," marking the Pandora Battery as the great developer's last major project for the PSP.

With Fanjita's retirement, Team Noobz lost one of their founding fathers and a prominent figurehead.

Today, Fanjita still lends his support to Team Noobz, providing input here and there whenever he could and can still be seen blogging on his Rants blog and on the front page of the Team Noobz domain. His latest post came just a few weeks ago, congratulating Davee and acknowledging the TIFF exploit and the HEN, but the same time, expresses his frustration for all the work that went into the GripShift eLoader that was rendered useless by the newfound exploit.


Looking ahead

Despite having all their efforts somewhat wasted on the GripShift eLoader, Team Noobz can look into the coming days with optimism. The scene is bursting with new life right now. With all the new possibilities brought about the ChickHEN, it's very likely that we can see a lot of new software from Team Noobz.

With homebrew now possible on the PSP 3000, who knows what new tweaks that Team Noobz can give the previously unhackable model? One thing's for sure, Team Noobz has proven their worth in the homebrew hall of fame, validating that the excellence of their craft, making them the great homebrew irony.

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That's it for this QuickGuide, but I bet you all know who's next! Here's a hint: it rhymes with Mexican food that's usually made of chicken. Got it yet? Until then, stay tuned for the QuickJump QuickGuide, bringing you Who's Who in homebrew.