SCI/TECH: Playstation Portable Cracked...

Even before the new Sony handheld gaming device launches in Europe, (September 1) several sources on the internet report that the copy protection scheme used by Sony to lock down content on the PlayStation Portable's Universal Media Disc (UMD), can now be bypassed. Even though piracy is not yet an issue, it may become one soon, as the PSP is equipped with a MemoryStick slot, making it possible to transfer games to the handheld in a rather simple way.



So far, very few companies succeeded in making their console or handheld piracy-free.
At this point, the only machine on which it is not possible to play illegal games, is Nintendo's Gamecube.

On all other consoles and handhelds it's rather easy to get your games cheaper than they are supposed to be, making the games more expensive to those who are willing to buy them legally.

It looks as if Sony made it rather easy to crack the UMD format, seeing how fast the format was cracked.
Maybe they do this on purpose, as they realize the possibility to play illegal games can greatly increase the demand for the PSP, over another handheld that only plays legal (and expensive) games.

oh hell yeah!

I so need a PSP now. Let it be written and so it shall be done!

Hmm, the PSP just got a whole lot more interesting to me hehe. Can it run Linux is what I wanna know, and what type of wireless capabilities does it hold.

I do not think you can run linux on this handheld.
The architecture is custom-made by Sony for their own software only.

It doesn't do anyone any good now, unless someone has a UMD burner in their pocket, but it's a nice step forward to making games downloadable onto memory sticks, sometime in the future. Since 1 gig memory sticks run about 150 bucks now, hopefully this hack will mature, and becomes practicable, when stick prices start to go down.

Hmm I wonder if sony is going to go the rout of user created content to spice up thier product line? It worked for Valve and a few others in PC Games, I wonder if it will work for consoles.

It does make me wonder though, playstation 2 was by far the easyest console to copy and play illegal games for...
Could it be that this is the reason the playstation 2 was the most succesfull console compared to other consoles of that generation? (Xbox, gamecube)

If so, this could be seen as a conspiracy, the conspiracy of Sony making their hardware easy to hack, making it easy for people to play pirated games, making their hardware wanted over more pirate-proof hardware.

yea.... you know what it is kinda weird, gamecube seems to be the least popular and it cannot be hack...

not that I condone (sp?) this or anything, but the gamecube has been hacked, although I believe it's quite a complicated task that will put off the more casual gamer - so, partial success I guess.

Yeah the Gamecube can play pirated games. It involves the Phantasy Star Online broadband package. Whereby a copied game is streamed to the Gamecube off a computer's hard drive. Complicated and only works on a certain version of Phantasy Star Online hence its little impact on Nintendo sales.

With regard to it being a Sony conspiracy in that the copy protection was made to be broken to boost sales, thats just not possible.

Its a well known fact that consoles are sold at a loss by the producer. They make all their profit from software (game) sales. They do it because on average a console owner will buy 15 games. Games have a staggering profit margin.

The last console that I know for sure was sold at a loss was Microsofts Xbox.

[edit on 10/5/05 by subz]

The gamecube can not be hacked like Xbox and playstation can.
There is indeed a very complicated way to record the datastream from a gamecube disc, but so far there is noone on the internet succesfull in backing up and playing back a game from the backed up source.

Yes there is Jakko. There are plenty of programs and guides on how to do it.

Just what to confirm that the gamecube has been hacked. Took about 2 years, I believe the chip is called something like the phoneix chip (sorry spelling).

Saying that the gamecube does not have that many games that you really want to get, ok Zelda is pretty good, but Super Mario sunshine was crap.

As for the PS2 being the easiets to hack, I am not sure my XBOX took about 5 minutes to do, been running Xbox Media Centre since then, the best bit of homebrew software I have ever seen.

Now back on topic, PSP has been hacked which is kind of good if you want to play cheap games. But hopefully it will get some home brew Apps on it. I believe Wipeout already has a hidden browser in it (not much you can do I don't think it has an addess bar), but Imagine been able to use it as a state of the art PDA, maybe get an N64 Emulator on it to play Goldeneye on the move

[edit on 10-5-2005 by trinityschild]

The way to hack the gamecube is way too complicated compared to the way to hack the xbox and ps2.
And once again, I have not once seen a site where they explain or even say they succesfully managed to copy and launch, and I looked quite hard to find it.

Maybe you can u2u me a link? As far as I understand gamecube is the only "unhackable" console out there.


EDIT

I found some sites now, recently they managed to backup and launch games indeed, but only by using that broadband adapter and the game phantasy start online, and a PC next to the gamecube and several buggy apps.

It's just something else than xbox or ps2.

[edit on 10-5-2005 by Jakko]

Originally posted by Jakko
I do not think you can run linux on this handheld.
The architecture is custom-made by Sony for their own software only.

So was GameCube, and I belive some geeks got a Linux Distro to work on it. I believe it's the same crew who got Linux to work on N64 as well.

Computers run machine code. If the processor only executes code compiled Sony-style, then it's just a matter of compiling Linux Sony-style. This is not such a daunting task when a Linux guy gets ahold of the game development kits that exist for software companies that make games for the PSP.

Zip

Originally posted by sardion2000

So was GameCube, and I belive some geeks got a Linux Distro to work on it. I believe it's the same crew who got Linux to work on N64 as well.

From what I remember the gamecube has a pretty straightforward architecture, easy to develop for, and runs on a processor similar to the IBM powerpc processors.

Sony's hardware, both the PS2 and now the PSP have a completely different architecture, and if I remember correctly the PS2 has always been the hardest platform for coders to develop for because of the complicated architecture and low level acces to 2 similar chips instead of one.

PSP Linux is in the works, they have a website but it's currently down being rebuilt. www.psplinux.com

I'm going to pull my hair out if I have to listen to one more person "claim" that the console manufacturers are operating at loss for every console they sell. It's an untrue, mis-informed, uneducated statement to make. Oh yes...it's also silly.

They make money off of EVERYTHING that's sold. I promise.

www.bestbuy.com...

A 1GB memory stick capable of speeds that won't make you want to pull your hair out is over 100 dollars.

So you're going to spend 100 bucks on a card that will let you copy over a 30 dollar game. That's definitely "special."

See the thing here is that once you get it on the card you can't do much with it, except play it from the card. The PSP discs are a read only format.

Can you do more than one game? Sure, but not more than one at a time.

Are you really going to buy a card just to hold one game when the game is a third of the price? I dunno, seems funny to me.

When a drive is made to burn the media for PSP that will of course be a different story, but in it's current situation I just don't see it being practical.