Homebrew developer notaz has released a new build to the popular emulator, PicoDrive. Now on version 1.50, the emulator features support for Sega Pico, an electronic toy released by Sega in the early 90's. More details in the full article.

Download: PicoDrive v1.50
Download: PicoDrive v1.50 (kxploit'ed version)

Homebrew developer Takka released a new build for the Unofficial gpSP Kai v3.2, bumping it up to Test 8.6. For those not quite familiar with this, the program is actually a Gameboy  Advance emulator for the PlayStation Portable.

This specific application is a port of Exophase's original gpSP GBA emulator for the Sony handheld. The changelog can be found via the "read more" link below.

Download: Unofficial gpSP Kai v3.2 Test 8.6

Homebrew developer Takka has just released a new build for version 3.2 of the project Unofficial gpSP Kai. This brings the Game Boy Advance emulator for the PlayStation Portable up to Test 8.5

Takka mentioned that only a few things were changed since the last build so it is up to users if they want to update to this build or not. To see the changelog, click the "read more" link below.


Download: Unofficial gpSP Kai v3.2 Test 8.5

Homebrew Developer Takka has announced that he has finished working on the gpSP Kai v3.2 test 06 which adds better support for TV Out support for PSP slims. While TV-out support was added in the last version, this polishes some of the interface niggles that users have reported.

For those who missed our previous coverage on this, this is the unofficial version of Exophase's Nintendo Gameboy Advance emulator for the Sony PSP. Takka's been doing some pretty good work on making further developments on this application and has added quite a few useful features ever since he started working on it.

More information and the download link in the full article.

 

Tipster Swish alerted us on another update on StrmnNrmn's blog, and whew, it's all about Daedalus R13 being "significantly faster" and probably more efficient than R12.

First off, remember the last update about the Dynarec Engine optimizations that were conceptualized on the train? As it turns out, StrmnNrmn had already discussed it with fellow homebrew coder Exophase... months ago. Anyway, it's good that that the dev has finally put the optimizations in place and we'll be seeing the results once R13 sees a public release.

Anyway, the second StrmnNrmn update today is about an "interesting Dynarec hack". For the non-techie people out there, it's basically a hack that exploits code generation... in other words, the hack will make Daedalus R13 more efficient and thus, faster. StrmnNrmn removed a couple of lines on the code, the error handling lines which can be omitted in a perfect world. Since programming and coding is hardly a perfect or ideal setting for error-free operation, StrmnNrmn used a hack that will allow him to omit the error handling:

What I realised on Monday is that I can make an assumption that lets me remove the error handling code for certain types of load/stores. The assumption is that when the N64 accesses any memory through the stack pointer ($sp) register, the address is always going to be valid, physical memory.

The assumption relies on the fact that most roms don't do anything particularly clever with their stack pointers - it gets set up for each thread to point at a valid region of memory then the game just runs along, pushing and popping values from it as the code executes. Of course, if the assumption is wrong then the emulator will just crash and grind to a halt in a unpredictable manner :)

According to the dev, there has been a "10% speed up" and better stability. Nice, eh? StrmnNrmn is still testing the hack with different roms, though he indicated that he will definitely add the hack on Daedalus R13. It's all looking good as faster really sounds better.

Thanks again to Swish for the tip!

Sometimes, it's easy to forget the people who've helped make the homebrew scene what it is today. That's why interviews with homebrew developers are always a welcome sight: they tell us more about the heroes of the homebrew scene, from who they are to what they're thinking.

The folks over at the Exophase website recently interviewed Zx-81, otherwise known as Ludovic Jacomme, one of the most prolific homebrew makers to date. He's done everything from IRC clients to old-school game machine emulators, and he's certainly not stopping there.

The interview talks about what motivates Jacomme to keep making homebrew, as well as his thoughts on the homebrew and gaming scene in general. It's an interesting read, if only to read his thoughts on how Sony has tackled the handheld market so far. In any case, check it out through the read link below.

The PSP homebrew community has seen a certain number of great programmers out there, Mathieu Hervais of Noobz being one of them. 22 years old and still a student, he is know by most in the PSP homebrew scene as Mathieulh. Today, the Exophase Forums has posted an interview they've conducted with the homebrew developer and a couple of interesting tidbits surfaced.

Now in light of hearing about Dark AleX leaving the PSP scene for good (supposedly due to possible issues with Sony), it seems that Mathieulh might be following suit. Not that he's leaving-leaving, but he says he'll quit working on what he's know for most: custom firmware.

Mathieulh: I will continue to be in N00bz and perhaps help a few friends of mine developing softwares but I am done with anything related to custom firmwares.

This bit of news might prove to be a slight hitch at homebrew development, to say the least. However, our sullen feelings were quickly replaced by something from out in left field. Homebrew for the PS3 and 360? Is he leaving PSP custom firmware for bigger fish to fry? Right after giving the answer above, he was asked whether he would like to tinker around with other next-gen consoles.

Mathieulh: The Xbox360 or the PS3 (I am not intested into the wii for homebrews and I do not take part in piracy either). I am more interested on the Xbox360 though as the system is way better to develop on (unlike what Sony tries to claim with the ps3). I like the fact that the cpu uses real cores (and not SPUs) and that each of those can handle 2 threads at a time. Although the PS3 would probably be way easier to hack than the 360, the 360 installed userbase is greater. Beside SCE claim that they will persecute anyone finding an exploit on their console (which is still not illegal in certain places such as the EU) so I rather not take my chances on it. Still kudos to Microsoft for their work in securing the 360 kernel, this is what I call a real security (and a real challenge for hackers)

Will he pursue homebrew on the 360 or PS3? The way he says it, it seems unlikely - Mathieulh thinks that both the PS3's Linux and Xbox 360's XNA are "way too restricted." Regardless, it's interesting to note what his take is on homebrew for both next-gen consoles. To see the full transcript of the interview, we've posted a Read link below which leads to the Exophase Forums.

The last time we talked about PSP homebrew developer Exophase was way back in January. After he released gpSP v0.9 for the PSP and after we cleared up the air about the Exophase-Takka gpSP snafu, we have not heard a lot from this amazing developer.

But now, PSPBrew was able to have a short chit-chat with Exophase himself and he talked about gpSP development, StrmnNrmn, and other personal tidbits.

The interview conducted by DarkPacMan77 started with the more personal questions such as Exophase's actual name (Gilead) and his age (23 years-old). Exophase also divulged that he started coding "around 10 years ago" and that he can't really explain why he started coding. He was then asked if he and Daedalus creator StrmnNrmn are working on something and this is what he said:

To be honest I rarely get to talk to him. I've tried but he isn't really around, at least nowhere I am. I give him various ideas sometimes but he hasn't really gotten back on most of them.

Well, as Exophase mentioned in the interview, StrmnNrmn is a busy guy. But even if they aren't collaborating on something, we are still free to imagine how great that Exophase-StrmnNrmn team-up would be. The interview also tackled Exophase's hardships during the development of gpSP. Development is not something that's easy as pie and the dev mentioned that just getting gpSP "off the ground wasn't very easy." He added, "And more than anything I've had to go through dozens of hours of debugging in an effort to get various games working."

Click on Full Article to read on more of the details discussed in the interview.

While reading up on POPS in the Exophase forums, we found an intriguing post by x3sphere about some new developments with emulating Resident Evil 2. According to something he found from graz68, all you had to do was change the Game ID to SLPS 01222, and the game freezing bug at the police station should disappear.

It seems that for some games, it's a simple matter of changing the Game ID to remove certain bugs. In fact, Mathieulh also chimed in with a list of games that need specific Game IDs to function properly, which you can find after the jump.

How about you? Any POPS games you're having trouble with? Maybe you should check out the list and see if you need to change the Game ID. Better yet, include your own solutions as a comment or in the QJ.Net Forums.

The Game IDs after the jump!

A new homebrew app from Chilly Willy has been released on Exophase's forums. Called KeyCleaner v1.0, this new app displays the current state of a TA-082/86 model PSP's IdStorage as well as dump the keys currently in the IdStorage. It can also detect commonly known problems that happen due to old downgraders and can provide some suitable solutions and corrections according to the problem identified.

For installation and usage instructions, please read either the .pdf or .txt versions of the readme file included in the download below. Be careful when you're using this app, though. Here's a warning from the app's developer, Chilly Willy (emphasis ours):

Be careful about these keys! A bad key can brick your PSP. That is why you are given every opportunity to exit without changing the keys. Sometimes, you will be given the opportunity to fix the keys without using files on the memstick.

This option will always be selected via the SQUARE button, and cannot FULLY fix the keys. After using this option, you will be told that all the keys but one have been fixed. If at some time in the future, you get files to fix those keys, KeyCleaner will allow you to do so.

You can get Chilly Willy's KeyCleaner v1.0 by clicking on the download link below. The source code's also included in the download, so you might want to take a look at that too.

Download: KeyCleaner v1.0