There's been no shortage of shell applications floating around the PlayStation Portable homebrew community lately. Ubuntu 7.10 v0.1 beta is the latest homebrew shell program from developer Jack and it runs many of the standard features found in similar applications. However, what makes this shell program more enticing than others is that it was licenced under the freeware distribution of GNU/linux. More on this in our full article after the jump.

Download: Ubuntu 7.10 v0.1 beta

PSP coder M@x has released another update for the PSP port of Sun Microsystem's phoneME, and it's now on version 0.2.1. A number of changes were made so check out the full article for the lowdown and the changelog.

Download: pspME v0.2.1

Old-school gaming addicts, be aware! Developer Zx-81 has come up with the final release of the PSP7800 Atari homebrew emulator for the PSP with version 1.1.2. This latest build includes new hotkeys and major improvements with the program's running speed.

Download: PSP7800 v1.1.2 for CFW 3.xx
Download: PSP7800 v1.1.2 for CFW 1.5
Download: PSP7800 v1.1.2 source code

Since the introduction of the MyEye module for MyPSP Robotics, a ton of interesting new features dawned upon ccpspita, Italian PSP homebrew developer, for the Sony PlayStation Portable robot project. This time is no different, and the homebrew developer plopped a tasty addition to MyPSP Robotics version 4.4.5: GOCR support. More on this sweet optical character recognition feat at the full story.



Download: MyPSP Robotics v4.4.5 - MyEye with GOCR

PSP homebrew developer Zx-81 has just released a new build for the GNU Chess port, PSP GNU Chess. Now on version 1.0.3, the PSP game has a number of additional features and a bug fix.

Check out the full version for more info regarding PSP GNU Chess.





Download: PSP GNU Chess v1.0.3 FW 3.XX
Download: PSP GNU Chess v1.0.3 FW 1.50
Download: PSP GNU Chess v1.0.3 source
Visit: Zx-81's Homebrew Releases

PSP homebrew developer Zx-81 has just released an update for PSP GNU Chess. This game's latest build carries new bug fixes and a new book feature among other things. Here's the full changelog for version 1.0.2:

• Option to specify search depth (i.e: difficulty)
• Add Undo feature
• Add Book feature, move database is stored in file book.dat. The file given with this homebrew is the book.dat provided with gnuchess (but you can replace it by your own)
• Bug fix when you put black on the bottom of the screen, King and Queen weren't at the right place !
• Bug fix with keys/analog pad (sensitivity was too high)
  

In case you're wondering, this homebrew game is a PSP port of GNU Chess, a command line Chess program that's also been ported to platforms such as UNIX, Windows and Mac OS X. The original version was developed by Stuart Cracraft back in 1986. This PSP version in particular uses GNU Chess version 5.07 for its AI. We advise the readers to view the readme included in the file bundle for full installation and usage instructions.

Download: PSP GNU Chess v1.0.2 (fw 1.50)
Download: PSP GNU Chess v1.0.2 (fw 3.xx)
Visit: QJ.NET PSP Development forums

 

PSP homebrew developer Zx-81 has whipped up a handy little application that lets you play a game of classic, no-frills Chess with an AI-controlled opponent. It's PSP GNU Chess v1.0.1 for the Sony PlayStation Portable, fresh off Zx-81's homebrew oven.

For the uninitiated of us, GNU Chess is a command line program that runs on a myriad of systems, some of which are UNIX, Windows or Mac OS. Started in 1986 by Stuart Cracraft, GNU Chess is still under development up to this day, and this homebrew port of the game has now been made to work on the PSP courtesy of Zx-81, with a few personal tweaks. This includes a graphical user interface for convenience.

And like all of Zx-81's releases, everything a PSP homebrew enthusiast needs to know about using or installing the game is inside the readme file bundled in the downloadable archive. So be sure to read it before doing anything.

Download: PSP GNU Chess v1.0.1 for FW 3.xx
Download: PSP GNU Chess v1.0.1 for FW 1.50
Download: PSP GNU Chess v1.0.1 source
Visit: QJ.NET's PSP Development Forums

PSP homebrew application PSPWrite v1.0.1 gets stepped up to v1.0.2 with a slew of changes from the previous version. PSP homebrew developer Zx-81's newest release of the homebrew Sony PlayStation Portable text editor now permits the editing of larger text files, using the 8-bit iso8859-1 character set that's also used in the Danzeff-like virtual keyboard.

In addition, the text editor will also ignore text file extensions, so you can edit text files dotted with .txt extensions. Dev Zx-81 has also ironed out the kinks in the code, with some bug fixes here and there.

The PSP homebrew developer has listed other changes included in the Readme, but we'll list them here for your convenience:

• IR keyboard is now active in all menus and the ENTER
• key works fine (no need to press Ctrl-X in menus)
• the last folder used to load a file becomes the new default folder
• the last folder is saved in the configuration file (so the default folder is not always pspwrite/txt/ folder)
• options are now saved on exit
• ask before to overwrite a file
• keys such as page-up or page-down are now working fine in the virtual keyboard
• add missing key mapping in the help file
• option to specify the text and background color
• option to specify the width/height of the editor screen (the screen will be automatically centered)
• tabulations are now supported (and expanded in space optionally)

Zx-81 advises users not familiar with the Sony PSP homebrew application to go through the bundled Readme file (in English or French) for further instructions. 3.xx and 1.50 versions were released, together with the source code under GNU public license.

Download: PSPWrite v1.0.2 for FW 3.xx
Download: PSPWrite v1.0.2 for FW 1.50
Download: PSPWrite v1.0.2 source code
Visit: QJ.NET's PSP Development, Hacks, and Homebrew Forum

 

Here's some more homebrew goodness from zx-81, who has just released a new version of PSP-PDA, Rob_psp's PDA applications for the Sony PSP handheld system. This bumps PSP-PDA up to version 1.3.1.

Okay, first of all, Rob_psp's PSP-PDA homebrew set is a collection of PDA programs that have been coded to run on the PSP. It includes notepad, a music player, an image viewer, an address book, a calendar, a calculator, and a clock. As for what zx-81 has added to PSP-PDA, here's a list of what's new:

• Improve IR-keyboard handler!
• Bug fix in theme chooser (but you need now to restart psp-pda to view the new theme)
• Many bug fix in calendar
• New theme designed by ** Vashts121 **

IR keyboard support for PSP-PDA was tested using a Targus Universal IR wireless keyboard. For installation and usage instructions, please read the README.txt file included in the download. PSP-PDA is being distributed under a GNU license, so if you want to tinker around with it, feel free to download the source code below.

Download: PSP-PDA v1.3.1 for FW 1.5
Download: PSP-PDA v1.3.1 source code
Visit: QJ.NET PSP Development, Hacks, and Homebrew forum thread

ZX-81 is on a roll! Only minutes after giving us an update on TI-92 Calculator emulator PSPXTI, he's once again visited our PSP forums bringing us a new version of Portable VNC, now on v.1.2.5.

PSP application Portable VNC is very popular among long-time PSP homebrew fans because it allows its users to access their PC desktop via PSP from any place using a Wi-Fi connection. Unfortunately for those stuck on the latest Sony PSP firmware and for those who choose to use lower firmwares, this version is only available for users of Dark Alex's custom firmwares.

Portable VNC includes IR keyboard support based on the work of Harald Fielker, the author of the PSP IR Keyboard Library. It also features the Danzeff virtual keyboard which in turn is based on the Danzel code. PSPVNC is based on the PalmOS VNC client and is from NHD from TeamXos. With that cleared, we now give you version 1.2.5's changelog straight from ZX-81:

• Real hostname are now supported in the configuration menu! It should be usefull if you want to connect to your PC from anywhere and if you have a dynamic IP. Of course you can still specify a static IP address
• IR Keyboard is now active in all menus
• New keyboard mapping (previous one was very confusing)
• Display help on keys to use for each menu

Again, we're reminding you that Portable VNC is being distributed under the GNU license. If you want to modify or add to the program, you can download the source code below. ZX-81's also warning us that the "host configurations file generated with previous versions are NOT compatible" with this release. Lastly, for installation and usage instructions, please read the README.txt file included in the downloads.

Download: Portable VNC v1.2.5 (DNS)
Download: Portable VNC v1.2.5 (DNS) source
Visit: QJ.NET PSP Development Forum