Christmas comes early this year!

I will break my offline mode to give you some really great news: Dark_Alex, the PSP cracking mastermind, has just released Custom Firmware 3.02 OE-A (read the official release thread here)!

For all those who might not understand what this is all about, here's the breakdown of what's there:
- you can enjoy all the goodies of 3.02 firmware together with homebrew capacity of firmware 1.50 without resorting to DevHook (straight after turning your PSP on);
- this means Flash, WMA support, neat music visualisations and so on;
- UMD video region lock is lifted;
- the most important aspect of it is Pops (PSONE emulator) with DRM protection hacked, meaning PS1 emulation working without worrying about the licence (you can share your game with your friend without having to pay for it twice). Finally you can take PS3 out of the equation if you want to play PS1 games on your PSP!

This is truly ground-breaking news!

Image of PS1 Syphon Filter on PSP taken from NeoGAF.

I have to admit I feel a bit sorry for Sony R&D engineers. They were working for so long to make this solution as crack-proof as possible (developing DRM system was the main reason for postponing 3.00 firmware) and now this...

I won't be flashing my PSP now, because the solution is very fresh at the moment and I don't have net access to consult forums and IRC channels should anything go wrong. After Christmas break it should be mature enough and there should be lots of instructions and user comments on forums, so expect me to welcome new year with some flashing.

Merry Christmas to all of you!

I will be going offline for the Christmas holidays, so there won't be any updates before January. I have tried to post a little more than usual, though, in order to leave you something to read for this period.

I would like to take this occasion to wish you Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May this holidays be full of joy in true Christmas spirit and great time spent with family. And of course all the best for the incoming year - may it be better than this one and make all of your dreams come true.

I attach a Christmas card made by me - I thought it would be more original than one of the standard ones available over the web:

Click to see full view - it looks significantly better that way.

See you in 2007!

In-game advertising in Wipeout Pure

In-game advertising is becoming more and more popular nowadays. I have to say that I don't like this trend. It is already enough that product placement has invaded movies - but at least in most cases it fits the imaginary world. It seems logical that Bond drives Aston Martin in Casino Royale, but Intel and Pepsi commercials in Battlefield 2142 are stretching it a bit.

I would like to show you a little case study concerning a great PSP game Wipeout Pure and a well-known brand Puma to make a point why it is so :

In my opinion it takes away the credibility of the game universe - imaginary as it may be, it has to be coherent. Introducing a connection between the fictional world and the real world in form of advertisements that we can see behind a window destroys whatever illusion of realism the game had. Even more so if the ads are plastered all over every surface available, which is the case here.

The advertisments of futuristic corporations that created the vehicles player drives in Wipeout Pure fit well the atmosphere of the game, especially due to the fact that their color-schemes go well with the graphical style of the tracks. Bright red and white Puma logo slapped all around the tracks with subtlety of heavy-weighed boxer does not. In fact, it becomes quite annoying after a while.

Unfortunately, we probably won't know what effect this ads had on their target demographic, but at least there is one positive aspect to it : only one game add-on pack was Puma-infected, so it is relatively easy to avoid.

Lumines VS. Lumines II

I have written one post about how I am disappointed with Lumines 2. And I have not changed my mind since then - I definitely prefer the first game. It gets the balance right and its sense of style is way more pronounced than the second one, which in some places makes me wonder whether some colours weren't randomly selected.

I got the idea to make a Slideshare presentation comparing the screens from equivalent "skins" (combination of graphical style and music for a particular level in the game). Unfortunately, it turned out to be a really time-consuming task and I won't be able to finish it before Christmas, so I have decided to give you a sneak peek of how it will look. Enjoy!

"Round About" skin (Lumines)

"Round About" skin (Lumines II)

Which one has more consequent art style in your opinion? Because for me the first one is better. The original Lumines is still one of my favourite games for the system.

More to come in 2007!

Firmware 3.0x emulation via Devhook

Since there are quite a lot of people coming to this blog in search of information on firmware 3.01 and 3.02 emulation and homebrew (one day I am going to write a post called "Referral corral", because some other entries are really hilarious), I will write a few words about it.

The best step-by-step guide to installing Devhook 0.51 with either 3.01 or 3.02 firmware I have seen so far is this one :

Devhook .51 Setup Guide, FAQ, and Help Thread EASY INSTALLER

In order to download the files there you will need to register at QJ Net forums, but I think it's worth it. Following the steps described there I was able to have 3.01 emulation via Devhook .51 on my 1.50 PSP in under ten minutes. Here's the proof :

My trusty PSP running firmware 3.01 via Devhook 0.51

Some additional information :

- Remember that there is currently no downgrader nor eloader for firmwares 3.00 and higher, which means that if you upgrade to that firmware, you won't be able to use homebrew.

- Recently firmware 3.03 has hit the web. Unfortunately, it is not yet possible to use it with Devhook. However, it doesn't really add much functionality to PSP, only allows playing a couple more emulated PS1 titles. Read more here.

Manhunt fan movie

I have to admit that I really liked Manhunt. Although at first I was not too convinced with the idea of brutally killing people (and actually played the game just to be able to say it is terrible), its grim story and dark ambiance really have drawn me into it. It was like watching "Seven" - a dark tale of violence and fear.

Manhunt box looks like a snuff video tape.

Manhunt tells the story of James Earl Cash, a man convicted to a death row, who after his execution wakes up in gang-ridden suburbs. He is a victim of blood-lusting snuff films director, Lionel Starkweather, who is filming James' desperate efforts to stay alive. Starkweather is guiding James via a radio headset and he forces him into more and more killing. To cut long story short, there is more to the game than just gruesome violence. The mood is incredible and it is really a memorable game.

If you want to know more about the game, follow the links below :
- Manhunt trailer
- Manhunt video review by Greg Casavin
- all Manhunt kills, if you really have to see them
If not, read on.

Why am I writing about it here, however? Well, because recently I have stumbled upon a fan movie based on Manhunt on YouTube. And although for someone who hasn't ever played Manhunt it's not anything special, as a Manhunt fan I consider it to be great. It manages to capture well the atmosphere of the game, all this deadly hide-and-seek in the shadows. See it for yourself :

...and what is your opinion on it?

LTE Game Engine for PSP

Recently I brought you the YouTube movie showcasing a 3D game creation environment called Virtools. I wish it was made available to PSP homebrew scene, but as much as I would like to put my hands on it I doubt its creators will release for free. Still, that has given me the idea to present you one of the free alternatives.

Irrlicht is one of the most popular open-source 3D game engines. It offers quite sophisticated solutions that should be more than enough for most of applications. There is quite a lot of serious applications based on it, as well as some amateur projects (you can see some of them here).

Wireless sensor boards.

I myself used Irrlicht for a project that I have been working on in NTT Laboratories in Japan. The project consisted of hardware and software part : we used Freescale Zigbee kit for wireless transmission of data gathered by independent sensors. The data would then be sent (also wirelessly) to a PC running a 3D visualization program, which would display the position (including rotation angles) of sensors in three-dimensional world. You can think of it as something similar to Wii and its Wiimote, only a wireless cluster of them.

At some point, when I already had bought my Playstation Portable and started dabbling in programming it, I thought that it would be cool to have Irrlicht ported to PSP. I pointed it out in Irrlicht forums - you can read it here. It turned out that I was definitely not the first person to have thought about it : a couple of days later the port was announced.

The port is called LTE Game Engine and it is available here :

LTE Game Engine webpage

However, there is one thing that spoils the overall good impression: the team behind it forgot to give any credit whatsoever to Irrlicht devs (or at least I do not know anything about it). That is a bit nasty, especially since Irrlicht is open source and its license allows modifications and porting, so it wouldn't really hurt to admit that most of the job was in fact done by someone else.

One of Irrlicht devs wrote a post on his blog about how ungrateful the guys behind LTE are, having forgotten to mention Irrlicht anywhere in their documentation, which goes to show that it hurt their feelings a little.

As for the engine itself, I cannot write more about its efficiency and speed, as I didn't have time to really push it to the limits and see what comes out. Recently I installed a new Linux distribution over the old one, which means I need to set up PSPSDK once again (and it is quite a long process indeed). Still, I thought I would bring it to your attention, even if there is a little controversy surrounding it. A free alternative to commercial libraries is a good thing after all.

Ultimate tool for PSP game development

Virtools is a game development tool for the PSP (not only that, see their webpage to know more about different products bearing the same name). I recently saw the demonstration movie on YouTube and was hooked :

If only it was available free of charge... Unfortunately, this is being made by a company and it probably won't be free. Still, it would be great if there was an option to make it available to PSP homebrew scene for some reasonable price. For example a license for non-profit game creation (meaning you can make free homebrew Indie games with it, but you cannot sell them), perhaps with limited features. That could be PSP's equivalent of Microsoft's XNA, a real revolution.

I am daydreaming, I know. Sony won't allow that and Dassault Systemes wouldn't probably be interested. A tempting vision, nevertheless.

Final Fantasy Tactics reborn on PSP

I can barely contain my joy. there seems to be more and more A+ grade titles coming up for the PSP.

I think everyone knows Square-Enix franchise, Final Fantasy. Slightly less popular was its turn-based strategy offspring, Final Fantasy Tactics. The game debuted on PS1 with a follow-up on Gameboy Advance, and both were considered to be one of the very best games for the systems. I myself have very fond memories of GBA version.

Well, recently a preview appeared in Japanese magazine Shonen Jump, indicating that there will be another sequel of the franchise arriving on PSP. Apart from batch of screens, there's hardly any other information, but the official webpage will open soon.

Stay tuned for more information - as soon as it surfaces I'll post it here!

EDIT : The official webpage has just opened! There is not much to see there yet, but I'll report if anything surfaces.

EDIT2 : There is a shaky cam trailer available over the net. Enjoy :

Ore no disaster

I'll keep it short this time, even extremely short. I got a copy of Ore no Dungeon for the PSP (Japanese version). Theoretically, it is supposed to be role-playing game similar to old-school hits like Eye of the Beholder, Dungeon Master, Ishar or Lands of Lore. In practice, it turns out to be a complete waste of your time and money.

One of two nice screens in the game.

This post is a warning : do not buy this game. I really wonder how it passed through Sony quality control check. There are better homebrew games for PSP... a lot better. Perhaps some subtleties of the story have escaped me, but there is no denying - graphics are crude, sound is mediocre at best, gameplay is boring as hell.

That's how the game looks like while playing.

Introduction sequence is more or less on par with early Atari games (okay, there are more colours). Enemies are laughable and totally abstract. The style is incoherent. It takes away any credibility the world might have had. The shops and the city are but a few screens with a couple of options. The dungeons are all the same and they look very bland. Animation is jerky.

I don't know how to rephrase it, but maybe this will convince you: it is the worst game I have seen on the PSP so far. Avoid it.

I'll post second nice in-game screen, so that you see all that the game has to offer and don't even need to bother renting it.

Now you've seen all that there is to see in this game.

Story of one Dungeon Siege review

As you have probably noticed, I write about games (duh). I review them or just share my impressions, but generally I put quite a lot of effort into making it interesting and error-free. Since English is not my native tongue, I happen to use strange structures sometimes or make mistakes. I am afraid that's unavoidable, even though I really try to iron out the texts before I submit them.

Some time ago I posted a note mentioning that I am preparing a Dungeon Siege : Throne of Agony review. I actually managed to finish it and I sent it to HonestGamers page. After some waiting (subjectively for a long time) for critique, I was informed that my review was rejected. The reviewer of a review (this doesn't sound good, I know) judged it to be bad enough not to post it on their site. Quote :

The writing was rough enough that I didn't read more than the first few paragraphs, which seemed a little dry.

I could point to similarly rough sentences throughout your review, but your tendency to let your sentences get too complex for their own good is strong enough that there wouldn't be much point in doing so.

I know that there are some issues with my review, but was it really that bad? Well, I thought I'd share it with the world nevertheless and see what others think about it. You can read it here :

Barts' Dungeon Siege review on Gamespot Player Reviews

I would be very grateful if you would like to share your opinion on it via comments. Also, here's a bunch of screenshots that I have prepared to accompany the review.

Ending this post, I'd like to ask you to point out any language problems and grammar mistakes that you can find on this page. It will help me to improve my English.

Brave Story impressions

Once again I've had the opportunity to snatch a Japanese PSP game before it arrives to Europe or States. This time I spent some quality time with Brave Story, a new jRPG loosely based on the Studio Gonzo (sound like a studio specialising in other kind of movies) anime film which in turn was based on the manga by Miyuki Miyabe.


I have to admit with a shame that my Japanese has really become quasi-inexistent since I left Japan - therefore I was unable to really follow the plot to well. The basic premise of the game is similar to the movie : a boy travels to a fantasy land through a magical gate. There's a frog which seems to have something to do with it and bunch of multi-coloured birds popping out of the air. Don't ask, I don't get it either. But for sure there is a destiny involved.

What I can do, however, is to tell a few words about the presentation. It's splendid. What I have seen made me immediately want to go out and buy localised version. I liked a lot the graphics, which are both cute (in kawaii sense) and realistic. It sounds like a contradiction, but somehow child-like characters and sometimes wacky enemies manage to look credible and consistent within the boundaries of fantasy world they inhabit. Please look at the screens to see what I mean.

Sound is also nice, although there is no full voice-over, which is a bit of a shame, since that's one of the things that PSP is capable of (both in terms of sound hardware and UMD capacity). Even Riviera for PSP has it. Plus, this is a competition advantage over DS, so I really wonder why developers don't use it. Especially since the cost of hiring a couple of decent voice actors and a studio is practically negligible from the point of view of game budget.

As for the gameplay, it follows traditional jRPG standards in almost canonical way. Our hero (and a few minutes later our team) wanders around faraway lands with occasional fight happening out of the blue every now and then. Battle system is a typical representative of Final Fantasy like active-time variant. There is the usual plethora of special effects involved whenever a spell is cast or ability used and it's what makes this game stand out - the execution is absolutely gorgeous.


Although I wish I had more time and language skills to be able to enjoy Brave Story some more, I have to say that I was caught. I'll be sure to buy this game when it is translated and I recommend the same to you. It looks like the future is bright for the PSP owners.

A word on Sonic Rivals graphical style...

Okay, so I am playing Sonic Rivals quite a lot recently. The game is a little too short for its own good - I am stuck at one of the last levels and there was not really too many of them before I got to this point. Apart from that, the game is really great. The sense of speed is overwhelming, visuals are really nice and level design is terrific.

Still, as some of you might remember, I wrote that Sonic Rivals' graphical style reminds me of 16 bit era, especially "Lost Vikings", the game that I loved when I was at the secondary school. I played it on my PC back then, but there were many ports, so you might have played it on some other hardware, including Gameboy Advance if I am not mistaken.

I still stand by this opinion - even though Sonic has been translated to 3D, it manages to keep that old-school feeling. In order to prove this statement, allow me to present the following images :

Sonic Rivals - PSP

Sonic the Hedgehog - Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis port on the PSP in Sega Collection

Lost Vikings - PC

There is definite (and I think intentional) likeness between the first and the last Sonic. But if you look at two latter images, you will notice certain similarity in style as well. Or maybe not and it is just me? I am really curious to hear what you think, so if you have a couple of seconds, please let me know your opinion via comments.

Anyways, even if you don't, I thought it might be interesting to take a little history tour and show you for a split second how the dinosaurs of gaming era perceive the modern games.

Evolution of videogames

I have just come back from a weekend at my parents' place where I have no internet access. To make up for this two day silence, here's a little movie that I think is worth seeing. It shows how different videogame genres have evolved - last twenty years of digital entertainment in a pill.

Enjoy!