As someone pointed out on the Tapland boards last night, I guess I am sort of queer for the PSP. I’m not ashamed—it’s the best mobile gaming platform yet. There are a couple of stories floating out there in internet that hold even more promise for Sony’s platform, though, especially from the ‘relatively cheap hacking platform’ perspective.
The first: someone has executed code from the PSP’s MemoryStick, something Sony specifically attempted to prevent (you’ll put together why here in a second). It only works on the first-generation Japanese firmware models, so it’s obviously using a hole that Sony has since plastered over.
The second: someone has figured out how to dump the data from UMD discs, which means games can be download and (someday) run from MemorySticks, presuming someone can follow up on the first item to make the execution of code possible.
Altogether this means lots of free games in the future, either from legal homebrew, grey-area emulation, or good ol’ American piracy.
Hello World on PSP [PSP411]
PSP UMD format cracked; game ISOs appear [Engadget]
