Anybody who cares probably already knows but a few days ago a device called PS jailbreak came out, allowing unsigned code to run on the ps3 marketed with a "backup" loader at the cost of bout $150
Since then there has been what is apparently a
modified recreation of the device released in the form of source code that disables the backup loader but otherwise supposedly works so somebody could make there own for quite a bit less.
I read about it
here
I hear about the device a little while ago but didn't follow. My only concern is that the main usage will be piracy anyway. Just when they were starting to sell better (talking about the unit).
Here's, with my usual sarcasm: Welcome pirates! Goodbye Ps3!
Note:
Of course this will increase the sale of the console. But I don't think it will be the same story for the games.
I am still pretty annoyed with them for removing other OS on the older consoles so I am glad that option will likely be revived on all ps3's without any limits placed on it pretty soon.
Banshaku wrote:
My only concern is that the main usage will be piracy anyway.
Yoda of the
Star Wars series said that fear leads to anger, anger to hate, and hate to suffering. Paul of the Christian New Testament
continued the chain: suffering leads to perseverance, perseverance to character, character to hope. But in the opinion of the console makers, homebrew leads to emulation and emulation to piracy of the emulated games. Sony and Nintendo try to stop homebrew. Microsoft, on the other hand, tries to stop emulation by
making XNA an uninviting environment for emulator authors.
As I wrote in
an article about the Wii homebrew scene, I've
fallen out of love with modern consoles. If you want something to use as a PC, buy a PC. Nettops with an ION chipset, such as Acer Aspire Revo, strike a useful balance of size, price, and performance, and even Apple makes
a Mac model that a
moron in a hurry could confuse with a Wii. The advantage of a console used to be that it could output to an SDTV as a standard feature, but that has become less of an issue now that LCD HDTVs appear to be taking over the market.
I almost agree with you when it comes to the ps3 but with the Wii's unique controller design there are been a number of interesting demos made which have made use of the controls in creative ways. (I am aware you can hook the controller to a computer but this is a a more tedious process than homebrew enabling the wii and cost money) Also the emulators support light gun emulation, which is not something I have seen or would know how to do on a computer. This allows me to play some of my favorite super scope games despite my super scope being out of commission. (although wiimote is not as accurate as I would like)
The PC emulators do support the light gun, just use the mouse.
The Wii emulators don't do any kind of special optical stuff, it just uses the pointer as a mouse cursor, and operates the same way the PC emulators do.
peppers wrote:
the Wii's unique controller
...is a Bluetooth device. The Wii has an internal USB port to which the Bluetooth radio is connected. Once you connect a suitable Bluetooth radio to your PC's USB port, you can use special drivers to make a Wii Remote look like a keyboard+mouse. The most popular driver for doing this system-wide is region coded, but support inside any GPL emulator for Windows or Linux is possible with the "wiiuse" library.
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Also the emulators support light gun emulation, which is not something I have seen or would know how to do on a computer.
My PC has a mouse, and ZSNES supports Super Scope through the underlying operating system's pointing device interface.
a mouse is not the same as an aim and shoot control.
Also I am aware you can connect the wiimote to a computer and I have done so, but I find the process tedious. There are more people with a hacked Wii than who bother to hook up there wiimote to a computer so going that way a lot less people will see anything developed.
peppers wrote:
a mouse is not the same as an aim and shoot control.
In Quake III Arena for PC, what does the player use to aim and shoot?
So your honestly telling me you don't see any difference?
Its not a 100% authentic experience but its a lot closer than using a mouse.
One argument for the ps3 would be your not gonna find a cell processor in anything less expensive. Its my understanding that universities and the US military do use the older ps3's with the other OS feature in order to aid them in cell processor research.
Some of the coolest stuff for systems comes from homebrew, I would say that the genesis RPG Pier Solar (Which I am pumped for the 2nd release!) is probably going to be one of the best RPG's for the system ever made. Without homebrew, stuff like that would never happen and systems FULL capabilities would never be reached.
And most of the stuff made sucks for consoles today, but hey, it's at least a good way to learn PC stuff. XNA is getting a couple GREAT games made that are simple and amazingly fun and best of all, cheap. I can't say how many times I ave played the Miner Dig Deep demo or IMAGWZII. Amazing fun, both games are $1 each! Can't go wrong.
I hope piracy doesn't get too bad, especially not to run games on, but still. Homebrew is a great thing for consoles IMO.
The PS3 is currently the most powerful gaming system ever made (maybe some very recent PC might compare to it - but oh well).
I have no idea what are "it's limit" because I'm not into modern games much, but I'm sure they're not close to be reached yet. I guess there is that racing game (Grand Turismo 4 was is ?) that had so realistic graphics you couldn't tell it wasn't a film. In fact you could tell because the cars were too perfect and too shiney to be real, but aside of this it was just like reality.
Now SO many people ask me "Why do you program NES games and not PS3 games ?". That's why I stopped to mention that I program NES games to people :p I don't know what to answer, except that I'd never understand the system as much as I understand the NES.
The NES is simple enough so I know almost exactly how all it circuits are made. Okay, there is a few dark zones here and here, but I feel like I fully control the system - which might or might not be possible with more modern system.
Bregalad wrote:
Now SO many people ask me "Why do you program NES games and not PS3 games ?".
Here's what you could tell people who don't see the point of retro coding: "Because it costs more to pay artists to make PS3-class art."
Bregalad wrote:
The NES is simple enough so I know almost exactly how all it circuits are made.
I think console makers leave some parts of the hardware's behavior undefined or unspecified on purpose so that the console maker could change those parts in a future hardware revision.
Sony lost me as a potential customer when it killed Other OS.
Haha, teeples and his "economical" arguments. You should focus more on engineering and less on commercial stuff.
But that's not entierely wrong : I can do the art of a NES game myself. For a PS3, I'd have to go with REALLY cheap graphics for the standard of the platform. I probably couldn't even do cell-shaded graphics or 2D isometric.
tepples wrote:
Here's what you could tell people who don't see the point of retro coding: "Because it costs more to pay artists to make PS3-class art."
Or: "Making games for new consoles requires teams of people and expensive tools, retro games can be made by a single person in their home PC."
65024U wrote:
Without homebrew, stuff like that would never happen and systems FULL capabilities would never be reached.
Maybe for old console like the nes I could see about the full capability but the PS3? The day that some homebrew coder will make something that push the full capability of that system compared to a team of professional.. I will be quite surprise. What will they bring, pong again using the 8 cells at the same time? I can't wait! (...).
That thing stink piracy. Homebrew will not be the primary factor of selling that thing. It's so obvious.
Bregalad wrote:
Haha, teeples and his "economical" arguments. You should focus more on engineering and less on commercial stuff.
Only a fool ignores the economics of something.
Everything is a question of economics. Do you make an elaborate meal, or a simpler one that takes less time? Well, depends on what else you could be doing, how much more you enjoy the elaborate one, whether you'd have to buy more ingredients, etc. Or with coding, do you spend more time optimizing, or functionality? Depends on the costs of doing so, how valuable more functions are, etc. Economics is what entities with limited resources do, and us humans always have limited resources, no matter the situation, if only time.
Engineering is all about economics: how to fit maximum desirability of the end product into minimum cost. For 2D gaming, the NES as a medium has more bang for the buck, just as pencil drawing is cheaper than oil painting. And even if you want PS1- or PS2-class graphics, doing it on the PC is going to be cheaper than doing it on a console unless both A. you're a substantial-size company and B. your game is designed around local multiplayer.
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Everything is a question of economics.
I couldn't disagree more. Love, friendship, human relations and whatsoever is not by any means a question of economics.
Since NES programing is a hobby there is no way I'll spend a lot of money in it, and now way I'll earn a lot of money either. Nobody is going to raise a multinational creating NES games. If you guys who refuse to admit this fact then YOU are fools.
Quote:
Engineering is all about economics: how to fit maximum desirability of the end product into minimum cost. For 2D gaming, the NES as a medium has more bang for the buck, just as pencil drawing is cheaper than oil painting. And even if you want PS1- or PS2-class graphics, doing it on the PC is going to be cheaper than doing it on a console unless both A. you're a substantial-size company and B. your game is designed around local multiplayer.
The problem with PCs is that they have no fixed specs.
Bregalad wrote:
Quote:
Everything is a question of economics.
I couldn't disagree more. Love, friendship, human relations and whatsoever is not by any means a question of economics.
People who actually study such things in an objective would strongly beg to differ. It may not seem like you're making decisions based on costs and benefits, but you actually are all the time. Reading about cognitive biases is a good place to start. It can be pretty startling to go down this rabbit hole, so be warned.
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Nobody is going to raise a multinational creating NES games. If you guys who refuse to admit this fact then YOU are fools.
You seem to associate cost-benefit analysis to a narrow field of one's life. Doing so is limiting, because such analysis can benefit all areas. There's nothing cold and calculated about such things; acknowledging that it occurs all the time even if not done consciously is a step towards making it less cold and calculated, because it's in the open to be scrutinized, rather than working behind the scenes.
Yeah, relationships are all about economics and it's not hard to see why. We try to spend more time with people who provide us with a good feeling, whether from being funny or because we love them, and we try to avoid people who provide us with bad feelings. To you, it is worth more of your time to be around people you like. You may decide how to budget your day around this, too - maybe hanging out with friends is less worth it to you than just playing some video games, or vice versa.
You have limited resources (time, money) and have to decide how best to spend them. Relationships are things that you can spend on, same as food and entertainment.
Bregalad wrote:
The problem with PCs is that they have no fixed specs.
Neither does a "modern console". How big is the hard drive? Is there one *cough*Xbox 360 Arcade*cough*? Even on an N64, is there an Expansion Pak? Does the player own a bunch of Controller Paks, or must we rely on a save chip on the Game Pak? Is your NES game running on a Famicom (with mapper sound) or an NES (without it)? Does the player own a Zapper, and is the TV a CRT?
Like the consoles, PCs have
minimum specs: the system requirements for the current version of Windows, or the specs of the iMac model sold three years ago. The Intel GMA is more than adequate for any sort of 2D graphics you want to throw at it, as well as 1999-class 3D graphics.
Fun fact: Rocket Robot on Wheels does not work on an N64 with the expansion pack inserted.
UncleSporky wrote:
Yeah, relationships are all about economics and it's not hard to see why. We try to spend more time with people who provide us with a good feeling, whether from being funny or because we love them, and we try to avoid people who provide us with bad feelings. To you, it is worth more of your time to be around people you like. You may decide how to budget your day around this, too - maybe hanging out with friends is less worth it to you than just playing some video games, or vice versa.
You have limited resources (time, money) and have to decide how best to spend them. Relationships are things that you can spend on, same as food and entertainment.
Relationships can be about economics but its not that simple. Really its more about what you consider valuable, if you have others whos lives you consider to hold greater value than your own people will often allow themselves to suffer if it is to protect them or to give them what they want.
strat wrote:
Fun fact: Rocket Robot on Wheels does not work on an N64 with the expansion pack inserted.
That is really good to know. I used to play it as a rental, and will one day buy it again. And now I won't RAGE when I realize it doesn't work on my N64. I'll know why
It took two copies (not a big deal since they were 8 bucks) and testing on a friend's N64 to find that out. It's not like you can easily swap expansion and jumper paks, either.
Banshaku wrote:
65024U wrote:
Without homebrew, stuff like that would never happen and systems FULL capabilities would never be reached.
Maybe for old console like the nes I could see about the full capability but the PS3? The day that some homebrew coder will make something that push the full capability of that system compared to a team of professional.. I will be quite surprise. What will they bring, pong again using the 8 cells at the same time? I can't wait! (...).
That thing stink piracy. Homebrew will not be the primary factor of selling that thing. It's so obvious.
Yeah, but still. Even if one more game gets made that would have never seen the light, it's worth it IMO.
And yeah, maybe not enough resources, but still. A bunch of small 2D games and a couple 3D and even
4D games would be cool and very enjoyable. I love the XNA indie games Miner Dig Deep and I made a game with zombies in it. They're so fun! Wii quality for only $1!
Also, 360 is the much better gaming system IMO, graphics are so much more killer, WAY better graphics unit.
The ps3 is hardly the most powerful game system ever made. Power means precisely dick if it isn't practical to use.
The issue with varied PC specs is mostly a question of how much you can stand limiting your audience, and how much you're willing to pay to provide tech support.
Modern consoles have fixed specs for all the parts that actually matter, which'd be the controllers, CPU specs, system software, and GPU. Compatability issues on the PC are almost entirely a matter of GPU mismatches, graphics or sound driver issues, and order of magnitude differences in CPU/GPU capability between the top end and the onboard Intel IGP end.