Brace yourselves as a barrage of new information arrives for Namco Bandai's upcoming title, Macross Ace Frontier. We've picked up more details on the game's ad-hoc multiplayer mode, replay mode, and its character lineup. The rest of the details are available in the full article.

A few days back, we found out that Fanjita and the rest of Noobz don't forget their promises when they released the HEN/Downgrader for firmware 3.11. Today, Noobz released another promised homebrew application, eLoader version 1.000.

Before you go "but we already have Pandora to downgrade", this version of the eLoader is actually aimed at running those "tricky EBOOTs" on PSPs that already can and the PSP Slim & Lite. Chris Swindle explains:

As a lot of people are finding out the PSP Lite is unable to run 1.50 kernel, this means that old homebrew games are not able to run on the PSP Lite custom firmware, however eLoader makes it possible to run some of these older games without needing to recompile them. So I hope all you new PSP Lite owners enjoy getting to see some of the old homebrew games running on the new device.

Groundwork for this project was laid out by Saotome, through the first EBOOT loader. This is basically for the homebrew that HEN and CFWs can't load (read: old homebrew). The major feature for this release of the eLoader would be "support for launching via HEN and custom firmwares, including the PSP Lite" (from the readme). Another plus in this eLoader is that homebrew devs who don't own a PSP Lite can use this to check out if their creations are compatible with the PSP Lite.

Though amidst the pros come the limitations. Here are the known limitations as listed on the readme:

• Can't run most kernel-mode applications.
• That means anything that emulates ISOs/UMDs.
• Some minor system calls are still unsupported.

Anyway, we'd advise you guys to go through the readme file as it details important stuff about the application like the installation instructions, troubleshooting, and navigation controls, among others. You know the drill, download's below. Enjoy!

Thanks much to magick2401 for the tip!

Download: eLoader v1.000

  

Art from our forums has updated his homebrew sound recording application for the PSP today to version 4b. Virtual Tape Recorder is a homebrew recording application that utilizes lteixeira's audio input library and a PSP compatible microphone such as the one included with SOCOM to record sound and save it to your memory stick. So, whats new? Here's the changelog:

New For Virtual Tape Recorder V4:

• Implemented live waveform monitor which provides visual indication that the program and microphone are operating correctly. (Thanks to Saotome for sample code that helped with this)
• Virtual tape reel index position is no longer reset when switching between record and playback modes.
• Recording is now stopped rather than looped if a recording reaches the end of the reel.
  

Done for Virtual Tape Recorder V4b:

• Fixed reset reel index bug. Display was showing 1024 instead of 0 after reset since V4.
• Inverted the waveform for graphic waveform monitor.
• Wave now starts from the bottom, of the screen and moves up.
• Compressed waveform on both axis to better fit the screen.
• Fixed waveform monitor for effect mode.
• Implemented a quick erase reel feature.

Art still has more planned for future releases of this excellent homebrew application, most notably a function to quick erase reel , the ability to play at normal speed in reverse and a function that can write sound directly toa  file, and playback directly from that file.

Download: [Virtual Tape Recorder v4b]
View: [Forum release thread]

Well, we’re at a crossroads with regards to PSP Hacking, what with the announcement of a PSP Modchip. And co-incidentally, I’d been working on an article pretty much related to the history of PSP hacking. So what better time to present it? Well here goes.

I’m sure our readers are quite curious about the history of PSP Hacking. I can state that about 60%-70% of our readers have joined us within the last 6-8 months. And trust me, your time hasn’t been as exciting as the first few months after the release of the PSP.

We’ve had the Firmware Updates, the eLoaders, the ISO Loaders, and loads more, and just about everyone knows about them. But far too few people know or remember the first few weeks/months when the PSP came out.  Lets go on a small journey, shall we?

Full article after the jump. You know you want to read it - history is good for you!