New Real Tech VR game: The Newton War

Real Tech VR has released a new homebrew arcade/puzzle/maze game. The Newton War looks very good like all of their games. I'll play it and post a review in the next couple of days.

Last Version of IRShell released: IRShell 3.9

IRShell is one of my favorite and most used homebrew apps/shells. My heart breaks at the thought of Ahman retiring and there will be no new IRShells, but I wish him luck at his future endeavors. Thank you so much for what you have contributed to the PSP homebrew scene. I'm sure IRShell 3.90 will be excellent, like previous versions, but I'll let you know if there are any surprises.

Hex-A-Hop Review

Deniska has recently released another port for the PSP: Hex-A-Hop. In this puzzle game you play as a girl who must jump from stone to stone without getting trapped, stranded, or wet. When you jump onto a stone it cracks and after jumping off the stone, it falls into the water. The graphics and music are good and gameplay is addictive and fun. One problem I hope Deniska can fix in the next version is the controls. The directional pad is useless if you need to go diagonal. This leaves you the analog stick which is only slightly better. I spent a lot of time trying to get the girl to go where I wanted. She either goes the wrong way or goes nowhere. It feels as though the stick has to be in exactly the right spot to move correctly. If Deniska can fix this problem then this will satisfy any puzzle hungry gamer. Nice port Deniska. There is even a gameplay video:

Hori PSP Screen Protective Filter

The Hori screen protective filter is quite impressive. I looked around for a good screen protector for my PSP and tried a few, but none were adequate. The Hori protective filter does it's job well as long as you make sure there is no dust under it. The filter makes the image on screen look crisp and clear. All of these screen protectors collect fingerprints but the Hori seems a little worse than most, thankfully they send a cleaning cloth with the filter. Definitely worth the $5 cost.

Patapon demo only playable at GameStop?

Does this mean that the demo will not be provided on the Playstation Store? If so this is b.s. and Sony can suck it, as usual.

FreeRadio Internet Radio Guide

Here is a short guide to help installing and customizing FreePlay's FreeRadio internet radio player.

Download FreeRadio from here. After you unzip the file you will see a "readme" and a folder. Read the readme.txt file. FreePlay wrote it for a reason.

Installation:

Open the folder named "Copy the stuff in this folder into the top folder of your memory stick!". Double click to open it. Then copy the "radio" folder over to your PSP's root directory (ms0:\, ms_root, G:\, etc.). Mine has the green circle around it here:


Copy the "PSP" folder from the download over to the "PSP" folder on your memory stick (circled in red above). It will add the needed files to your memory stick.

That's it. You can close your USB connection and navigate to the network icon on your PSP. You should have a new option: Internet Radio. The included Shoutcast stations FreePlay has included are quite good but if you would like to customize these stations keep reading.

Customizing your Shoutcast Stations:

Here are the instructions FreePlay has provided in the readme file:

"To customize the list of Shoutcast stations, podcasts, or raw streams, look in the 'radio\personalize' folder. 'MyShoutcast.js', 'MyPodcasts.js', and 'MyStreams.js' contain the lists of Shoutcast stations, podcasts, and raw streams displayed in the portal, as well as instructions for adding your own stuff. You can edit them in Notepad or any other text editor."

That's pretty straight forward but here is a screen capture in case you need help.


Double click "radio", then double click "personalize", and finally you'll see "MyShoutcast.js". I used notepad to open the file and here are the station names and i.d. numbers that Freeplay provided for our listening pleasure:

var shoutcast_stations = new Array(
'2680', '1.FM - Blues',
'6951', '1.FM - The Chillout Lounge',
'2541', '1.FM - Otto\'s Baroque Musick',
'7526', '181.FM - Christmas Mix Channel',
'5835', '181.fm - Kickin\' Country (Today\'s Best Country!)',
'2266', '181.fm - POWER 181',
'1553', '.977 The 80s Channel',
'1025', '.977 The Hitz Channel',
'8751', 'ChroniX Aggression',
'3201', 'DIGITALLY-IMPORTED - Chillout',
'1276', 'DIGITALLY-IMPORTED - Trance, Techno, Hi-NRG',
'1790', 'DIGITALLY-IMPORTED - Vocal Trance',
'3674', 'Drone Zone: Atmospheric ambient space music',
'841', 'Groove Salad: beats and grooves.',
'5067', 'idobi Radio: Music that doesn\'t suck!',
'6445', 'Japan-A-Radio',
'8771', 'Radio Paradise-modern, rock, world, electronica, more',
'333', 'S K Y . F M - 80s, 80s, 80s!',
'1568', 'S K Y . F M - All Hit 70s',
'1403', 'S K Y . F M - Absolutely Smooth Jazz',
'1914', 'S K Y . F M - Classical & Flamenco Guitar',
'2429', 'S K Y . F M - Mostly Classical',
'4977', 'S K Y . F M - New Age',
'8613', 'S K Y . F M - Roots Reggae',
'1677', 'S K Y . F M - The Christmas Channel',
'2207', 'Slow Radio',
'5890', 'SmoothJazz.com',
'9581', 'SmoothLounge.com',
'9036', '[XRM] - Alternative'
);

Notice that there isn't a comma after '[XRM] - Alternative'. That's important, make sure you leave out the last comma if you add or remove stations from your list. Also, if you add a station that has an apostrophe like "181.fm - Kickin' Country (Today's Best Country!)" above; make sure that you include the backslash before it \'.

Here is a list of the top 50 stations, with their i.d. numbers, on Shoutcast from Jan. 22, 2008. The additional five stations, at the end of the list, play a lot of game soundtracks. Thought you might like them.

'3394', 'French Kiss FM',
'4757', 'HOT 108 JAMZ',
'942319', 'HOT FM',
'5635', 'The Alex Jones Show',
'526', 'S K Y . F M - Top Hits Music',
'4253', '181.FM - Classic Country Hits',
'8591', '181.fm - The Buzz-Your Alternative Station',
'8848', 'PulsRadio',
'4870', 'POWERHITZ.COM',
'5427', 'Musik.Main',
'9956', 'FREQUENCE3',
'8303', 'HitzRadio.com',
'5327', 'KQED Public Radio',
'6422', 'Musik.Goldies',
'757', 'Blue FM',
'524', 'TechnoBase.FM',
'4866', 'Discollection-Radio.De',
'2897', 'DIGITALLY-IMPORTED - EuroDance & HiNRG',
'4869', 'SomaFM presents: Indie Pop Rocks',
'320792', 'PJ BeeVBoY For Sodazaa',
'6409', '1.FM - Top 40',
'3654', '1.FM - Bay Smooth Jazz',
'9462', 'Radio ENJOYSTATION.NET',
'1057', 'frisky R a d i o',
'6967', 'DIGITALLY-IMPORTED - Lounge',
'7790', '1.FM - Otto's Classical Musick',
'6201', '1.FM - Dance Hits',
'1187', '1.FM - Channel X',
'6617', 'Angel Fire Radio's Classic Rock&Roll.FM',
'1568', 'S K Y . F M - All Hit 70s',
'2502', 'AM 1710 Antioch Old-time radio',
'706105', 'GCN Network 3 Live Stream',
'3103', '181.fm - Energy 98 - Dance Hits',
'3911', '181.FM - The Beat * #1 For HipHop',
'2916', 'Bassdrive - Music Beyond',
'2762', 'Fusion Radio. The Future of Dance',
'185033', 'Beatles Radio.com',
'4267', 'Musik.JaM',
'2399', 'Secret Agent',
'7963', 'Radio Caraibes FM - Haiti',
'706105', 'GCN Network 3 Live Stream',
'1952', 'Play Classical UK',
'1968', 'FG DJ RADIO',
'8589', 'H A P P Y D A Y - New Age EZ1 Channel',
'2464', 'Musik.eXTreMe',
'5295', 'k a w a i i - r a d i o',
'819988', 'yaxiradio 9275 FMz',
'2086', 'KCRW Music',
'5438', 'Radioseven',
'3392', 'Radio VHR',
'209054', 'Power of the Games',
'369667', 'Final Fantasy XI - RGoNots Linkshell',
'463697', 'All Games Radio',
'4177', 'Radio GOSU: 24/7 Video Game Music',
'3292', 'WoW Radio',

Just add these to the list of Shoutcast stations and save the file. Replace your "MyShoutcast.js" file on your PSP's memory stick with this new file and you'll have a bunch more great stations.

If neither FreePlay's selection of stations, nor mine, has what you want then feel free to head over to Shoutcast.com. Find a station that you want to add and right click on the "Tune In" button. Select the "Copy Link Location" option and inside of your preferred text editor program hit ctrl+V and paste the link into a new document. You will find a number toward the end of the link, that is the station i.d. number. Using the format above ('i.d.number', 'station name',) add this info into the list of Shoutcast stations in the "MyShoutcast.js" file.

Two problems I found:

• When adding stations, keep only the stations you can't live without because the FreeRadio player starts to lag when you have more than 40 or 50 stations. I believe it is caused by the E.Q. plugin. One thing that helps is to open the "Plugins" folder and rename the "equalizer.plugin" to "equalizer.disabled". FreeRadio will ignore the plugin and the lag is greatly reduced. To re-enable the plugin just rename it back to "equalizer.plugin".
  
• AAC and MMS streams are not supported.
  

These issues are minor and do not detract from the experience.

I hope this guide was helpful. Please enjoy FreePlay's great homebrew internet radio player: FreeRadio.

PSP Internet Radio Alternative: FreeRadio

FreeRadio 1.7 is a serverless internet radio portal for Official and CFW 3.80. Due to the use of Javascript inside the PSP's browser/internet radio player this is able to run on official Sony firmware, as well as custom firmware.

Features include:

• Shoutcast playback
• Streaming MP3/AAC playback
• Podcast browsing/playback
• Remote playlist streaming
• Web browsing
• Links to both official Sony radio players
• Customizable lists of Shoutcast stations, podcasts, and raw audio streams
• Support for custom plugins

This is an impressive internet radio player which FreePlay has created. FreeRadio allows you to consistently and accurately pick the exact radio station you want to listen to, unlike Sony's players which have you pick a genre and then you have to scan the dial to find what you want. FreeRadio also allows you to add your favorite Shoutcast stations, podcasts, or streams. Open the "radio/personalize" folder and find the "MyShoutcast.js", "MyPodcasts.js", and "MyStreams,js" files. Use notepad or another text editor to open these Javascript files to see the lists of the Shoutcast stations, podcasts, and the raw streams displayed in the portal. Instructions for adding your favorites are included (look for my guide to adding Shoutcast stations coming soon).

I can't wait to see some of the plugins that users create. I wish I knew more Javascript.

This is an excellent piece of homebrew and is the only way I will use the new Internet Radio option on my PSP.

OpenTyrian v 1.0 for CFW 3.XX (slims rejoice)

PSP slim owners should be very happy with Deniska's latest release of OpenTyrian because it allows them to play this excellent port. Previously, the game was only available for the 1.50 kernel. If you have a homebrew capable PSP (phat or slim) this game should be on your memory stick.

Retro Review: Smartdisk Fotochute 20 GB for your PSP

I'm calling this a retro review because the Fotochute has been around for a long time. I had been searching for a cheaper portable hard drive that would work with the PSP but didn't have much luck until I found the Fotochute. I love this little guy. 20 gigs of storage for homebrew, iso's, etc. and for under a hundred bucks. Transfer times from the hard drive to my PSP's memory stick are decent. The OLED screen is a little small which complicates things because you can't read the entire name of the file you are copying over. The Fotochute is a USB Host/OTG and therefore can read/display the contents of the internal hard drive and the PSP's memory stick. If you are looking for a large amount of portable storage for your homebrew without spending a bunch of money on memory sticks definitely give this a look. Here is a review from Macworld, may not be the best solution for Mac users. Thought this may be of interest to some of you. Hope it is helpful.

Zack and Angeal look badass in new Crisis Core trailer

Can't wait 'til March. Crisis Core is looking so good.

Double Review: Purple Motion and Eyeliner

Real Tech VR recently released two new games for homebrew PSPs: Purple Motion and Eyeliner.

Purple Motion:








I would describe Purple Motion as a driving game on rails. The left half of the "highway" are the slow lanes and the right half are the fast lanes. There are obstacles in the form of gaps in the road which must be jumped over and circles which must be shot. If you want to change lanes, you must wait until the road widens and make your move. There are also forced lane changes which can be jumped if you would like to continue your current path. Stars are collected along the way which give you a time bonus.

The controls in Purple Motion are responsive and work as expected. The graphics are excellent. The sound track and sound effects fit the game well.

Purple Motion is addictive and fun but the difficulty increases dramatically when the background colors change from purple to green. You will find yourself dieing often because there are 2 or 3 jumps in a row and you end up landing on a gap. My biggest complaint is that my PSP crashed almost every time I exited the game. This must be a coding problem because my PSP rarely crashes.

I would definitely recommend this game to PSP owners looking for high quality homebrew.

Eyeliner:







I'm not sure what category Eyeliner fits into but Real Tech VR calls it an arcade/puzzle game so I'll go along with that. You play as a three dimensional hexagon finding your way through a maze-like "matrix" collecting pills. Find enough pills and the security on the transporter is lifted allowing you to go to the next area.

As with all of Real Tech VR's games, the graphics are commercial quality. The controls and audio are solid.

I am an anal retentive complete-ist when it comes to the RPGs I usually play. Meaning that I don't mind side quests and usually try to solve, complete, find, and explore every thing. This game pushed me to my limits and beyond. Eyeliner is all about collecting, and collecting some more, and after you have spent so much time collecting every last pill, you get to search and explore and collect some more. I tried my best to like this game because I know someone has spent a lot of time designing and coding and debugging. I want people to enjoy the games I make (if I every finish and release one) but I just wasn't able to enjoy this game. I must admit that I didn't make it as far into this game as I would have liked. Later levels may be better than earlier ones. I believe what this game lacks is something to do while searching for pills. Some enemies to shoot would be good; something to break up the monotony.

If you are a hard core "collector" (I thought I was) then definitely give Eyeliner a try, if you're not then I would look elsewhere.

CFW 3.80 M33 released and updated

Dark AleX has released CFW 3.80 M33 and a quick update followed. You can download the original and the update from DAX's site. DCEmu posted details about the original release and update. Sounds like the network update feature is working properly. I haven't had a chance to install it yet but I'll let you know if there are any problems. Thanks for the hard work DAX and M33.

Mathieulh responds to rumors, news, and 3.80 update

Math (friend and member of Dark AleX's team) posted his comments (below) to the homebrew community on Brakken's blog about news, rumors, and the problems with the homebrew scene. One of the primary reason's that DAX is including the network update feature in 3.80 M33 is so that future cfw releases will only be available from his site. This will prevent news sites and others from making money off his hard work. I agree with this reasoning completely. DAX and his team provide a great service to the homebrew community and their efforts should not be taken advantage of.

This was copy/pasted from the comments from Brakken's blog:


"EVERYONE PLEASE BEHAVE.

This is not only about zeus or Maxconsole or even Datel. We wish to only release on dark-alex.org or through network (not even on exophase, lan or anywhere else.) for the time being for our own reasons.

Mostly because we are tired of people making money on our backs, wether it is maxconsole, qj or anyone else. That doesn't only include news sites but also shops that ILLEGALLY make money by flashing m33 firmwares on psps or even selling pandora batteries/memory sticks sets, some will ask over 50 euros per installs !
Some even have the guts to claim sending a percentage of the money to m33 or c+d when this is not true!

We took that decision not only against maxconsole but every other sites that do make money over our work. Of course most/all of news sites do exist for the purpose of making money and yet, those are needed.

We can always dream of decent sites that make news with no earning whatsoever but considering the tiresome job that it is and how time consumming it is for people to actually look for news and report it on a 24/7 basis, I doubt that we will see such a thing happening any time soon.

Nevertheless we hope to be able to move things and that such a change may happen if we keep having a fair release system between each and every psp related sites (by only releasing on our website or through network, then we do not care of what sites do of the binaries once they got those.)

Another thing we are pretty much fed up of is the "news race" that tend to happen between all sites that try to be the first to news stuffs all the time, and everyone of them try to get news from us almost every minutes despite the facts that we do have lives of our own for the sole purpose of getting ranked up on Alexa.

To be honest I like the maxconsole comunauty which seems more mature than the ones of most other sites, this is what kept and keeps me staying here, the fact that we stop releasing from that place does not mean we wont keep posting in there. I think that most sites got carried away and forgot that comunauties are before all created by the users, for the users.


P.S. I do not think that deleting the threads is a solution, and I do not believe that moderators were closing those on purpose. A forums need to be moderated. As long as we discuss of things peacefully there is no reason for a thread to be deleted, if not then indeed there is. If people start flamming, bitching or cursing all over the forums, then indeed those threads need to be deleted or closed. I personally know most of the moderators responsible for the psp section on the maxconsole forums, and I pretty much doubt that any of them would have deleted threads just to prevent anyone from express themselves or share their opinion (wether good or bad) about this forum.

Also a personal message to Brakken: We (the M33 team or even the Prometheus group) never worked for divineo even once, and even if we did, how would this be ANY of your business ? I have yet to see your so called "proofs" about us working for divineo (which do not exist since we never done such a thing) Keep in mind that we were not forced to make free releases available to everyone, we just CHOSE to do so. I can tell you for sure that we would have not if we worked for such company as divineo to begin with. Now please stop making pointless assumptions without proper evidences. Thank you for your understanding.

Have a nice reading."

'Nough said.

iRiver AFT 100 FM Transmitter Review

I listen to a lot of podcasts and music in my truck on the way to work. I was using Griffin's iTrip for PSP and it seemed to work fine but I soon became frustrated with it's range so I opened it up and added an external antenna. This improved things dramatically. The antenna mod tripled the iTrip's transmitting range. The iTrip (and the iRiver) is equipped with an automatic power-off feature to conserve batteries while there is no audio signal for 30 seconds. This is a feature I could live without but is a nice addition; until the contacts inside the iTrip's headphone port go bad and it no longer gets a consistent audio signal and keeps shutting itself off.

I can't live without my PSP pushing out MP3's to my car stereo so I decided to do a little more research and find the best reviewed FM transmitter I could. I found numerous sites that said that C. Crane's FMT Digital FM Transmitter was an excellent wireless solution because it is designed primarily for home use and therefore has a long transmitting range. Amazon's reviews don't brag as much as other sites do but overall the C. Crane sounded like the best. The problem is that it cost's about $80 and I didn't want to spend that much.

After more searching, I came across the iRiver AFT 100 Mobile FM Transmitter and it also got good reviews. One advantage the iRiver has over the iTrip is that is uses the car's cigarette lighter/power adapter socket for power instead of AAA batteries. As I said before, the iRiver has the auto power-off feature to prevent draining your car's battery. I have used the iRiver for about a week, to and from work everyday, and I am very pleased. I often have time before going into work when I play some homebrew games and they sound great on my stock factory stereo. Out of the box, the iRiver has better trasmitting range than the iTrip and I don't have to buy AAA batteries for it. Living and working in a medium sized city there are only a few empty radio frequencies. I have tuned both my truck's stereo and my iRiver to these empty frequencies and saved them to the iRiver's 3 presets as well as my radio's presets. The audio quality is as good as FM radio and there are only two spots on my way to work where I get a slight amount of static for a couple of seconds. The iRiver has a much better price than the C. Crane and outperforms the iTrip. I definitely recommend it to those PSP owners who want to play their MP3's in the car.

DAX/M33 CFW 3.80 delayed

Math told us yesterday that 3.80 would arrive today but sounds like Dark AleX has some final adjustments to make. No big deal. Everyone would rather it be up to DAX and M33's high standards than release a firmware with problems. Thanks again for the hard work and take all the time you need. Dark-AleX.org has been down most of the day but maybe it is preparation for the new release or the cause of the delay.

In DAX we trust.

Eyeliner: Another release from Real Tech VR

Welcome to the matrix. Your mission is to infiltrate the network of a large international group.

Watching the trailer (below), I'm not sure how this little bit of story goes along with this arcade/puzzle homebrew game but I'll let you know in my review. I'm downloading now and will review Eyeliner after a couple of days of playing it.

CFW 3.80 M33 release tomorrow

PSP-Gen and QJ have posted that Dark AleX and the M33 team will release their CFW 3.80 tomorrow. A new and exciting feature they are adding is network update. Can't wait to see it. Thanks for all the hard work Dark AleX/M33.

New Game from Real Tech VR: Purple Motion

Real Tech VR has released a new game for homebrew PSP's: Purple Motion. Like all their other games, this one has excellent graphics. I have only played a few minutes so I will review it in a couple of days. So far it seems as though it is high quality like all their other games. Check it out here.

God of War: Chains of Olympus is looking good

I hope the game play in GoW:CoO is as good as this trailer looks. Can't wait.... Must have now....

16 GB Memory Stick Pro Duo coming in March

I've been waiting for the 16GB MS to be released. No, I won't be paying the $300 price tag for it, I am just hoping that this will drive down the price of the 8 GB MS. I really need 8 GB, my 2 GB is busting at the seams with homebrew.

GPS for PSP in U.S.

Sony has officially announced that the GPS unit that has been available in Japan for quite some time will be available in the U.S. No release date has been set. Maybe we aren't the red-headed step child I thought we were.

Who needs PSP Skype with Fanjita's Furikup

Sony has officially announced Skype for the PSP slim (only). As I have said before, I am relying on the homebrew community to undo the injustice being done to us PSP phat owners. I am vindicated by the announcement of Fanjita's Furikup SIP Phone for all PSP's. It is full featured and has some advantages over Skype. Fanjita is still working on the beta but we definitely have an alternative to Skype on the way. Thanks Fanjita.

If you want to learn more about SIP look here.

iRiver AFT 100 Mobile Transmitter

My Griffin iTrip recently gave up the ghost so I just ordered the iRiver AFT 100. (I was never that impressed with the iTrip's range anyway.) I use my PSP as my only mp3 player and the factory radio in my truck doesn't have an auxiliary input. I can't do without my podcasts so a FM transmitter is the easiest and cheapest solution. I'll let you know how it works once I receive it and have a chance to use it.

Details on Skype for PSP piss me off

A couple of details have come out about Skype coming to the PSP. The most important detail is that supposedly it will only work on PSP slims. This is BS. I have a phat, and now I have to buy a new PSP for no good reason? Are you going to tell me there is some reason Skype won't run on a PSP phat? I'm so glad I run CFW so that I can rely on the homebrew community to undo this injustice.

Skype for PSP coming

This has to be the biggest news I've heard in a while on the PSP scene. Sony unofficially released news of Skype coming to the PSP. ComputerandVideoGames.com broke the story here.

RS-GUI PopstationMD and ImpalerPSX Eboot Creator

RS-GUI and ImpalerPSX are gui interfaces for DarkAleX's multiple disk popstation. I was going to do a head-to-head comparison of these two apps but I don't believe either one is really near a final version. I will give you my findings up to now:

RS-GUI:
Pros:

• Supports img, cue, bin, and iso
• Interface is O.K.
• Full preview of icon and wallpaper png's (along with error messages if the sizes of images are incorrect, nice touch)

Cons:

• No automatic game codes. This feature is coming but not implemented yet.
  
• I received an error message and that's pretty much all it said: "error occurred" during my first attempt at creating a multidisk eboot. After using PSX2PSP to find my game code, I had input "slus " in lowercase letters. I changed to uppercase and no error.

ImpalerPSX:
Pros:

• Interface is nice and clean.
• Input the game's name and it will give a list of possible game codes.

Cons:

• Only supports iso. Since my game images are img, I had to use UltraISO to convert them to iso.
  
• ImpalerPSX has to copy your game iso's to another folder to work on them. This takes a long time: 4 disk game X 650 MB (minimum) each disk = a long wait.
• The app consistently locked up on me. I wasn't able to complete the eboot creation process. I tried to contact Impaler but his feedback page on his website gave me a 404 error and I couldn't find a forum thread to get help. I think that converting the img to iso is the problem.

I am going to put this comparison on hold. Please don't take these criticisms too seriously since neither of these apps seems complete. Here is what I would like to see if I were going to use one of these to create multidisk eboots for all my PSX games:

• Red Squirrel needs to add automatic game codes. I hate opening another app to find the code for this app. Also, better error messages: tell me what I'm doing wrong.
• Impaler needs to add other image formats other than just iso. I shouldn't have to use another app to convert to iso. I will continue to try and get a usable eboot out of this app, hopefully the problem is something I am doing wrong.

These developers are very good at what they do. I have to utmost confidence that both of these apps will eventually become what we need them to be. Can't wait for updates....just need to be patient....