Why Game? 1 - TextFiles.com

Morality and Emulation on the PSP
By Matthew Williamson
I admit it: I bought my PSP with the knowl-
edge that I would most likely be playing NES
and Genesis games on it. In fact, I know more
than a few other people like myself. There is a
certain joy to be found in loading up my PSP to
a game of Contra.
Despite what Sony’s marketing is trying to
tell us, the PSP is the underdog out the gate.
They’re losing money with every system sold,
but with Nintendo’s dominance over the hand-
held market it was their only way to get a foot
in the door. A small (though noteworthy) release
line-up, low battery life and long load times
make it even more difficult for Sony to lighten
wallets with their $250 price tag. To their ben-
efit, they offer a beautiful, wide screen and the
ability to play MP3s and “DVD quality” video out
of the box. In order to take advantage of these
features, Sony’s PSP uses the same Memory
Stick Duo that they’ve been using with nearly all
of their digital cameras, mp3 players, and VAIO
computers for the past three years.
It’s this Memory Stick Duo that is the key
to getting emulators working on your PSP. If
your PSP has version 1.5 or earlier firmware, all
it takes is a little know-how and either a USB
to Mini-USB Cable or a Memory stick slot on
your PC then it’s as simple as moving a file from
your PC to your PSP, adding some backup ROM
files and selecting the emulator from the PSP
browser. It’s almost too easy. Of course, in order
to reach this point, crackers and hackers had to
break the security measures in the PSP’s firm-
ware. Apparently, hacking the 1.00 firmware,
which was installed on the first batch of PSPs
shipped in Japan, was pretty easy, but Sony
threw a band-aid on these efforts by shipping
the US PSPs with the unhackable version 1.50
firmware, or so they thought...
Like a low-level drug dealer, Sony foregoes
profit at the beginning only to make it back later
by selling their games, movies, and high-ca-
pacity memory sticks at a price well over cost.
Everything you’ll need to enjoy the system
is handed to you in the beginning. The first
systems to hit shelves even came with Spider-
man 2 on UMD and a disc of PSP trailers giving
you just enough of a taste to get you addicted.
You’re even given a small but competent 32mb
Memory Stick Duo for which to use as a memory
card and experiment with the MP3 and photo
features at a small scale. All of this comes with
the “value pack” that Sony has made available
for a high fetching price.
Sony intends for gamers to buy their
games for $40 to $50 - the same price as games
on their current home console. In exchange,
gamers are offered top quality, near-PS2 level
graphics. To reach this quality without the bat-
tery dying too fast for the publishers, we are
given decreased polygon counts and increased
load times. For a 1 minute, 30 second race in
Midnight Club for the PSP - one of the worst
In a Sea of Intellectual Propery, Pirates Arise. 121