Sunday, January 21, 2007

PSP-Programming.com

 

uClinux on the PSP

Chris Mulhearn has succeeded where many others have failed. He has ported Xiptech's port of uClinux to the PSP. What exactly is uClinux, you may ask? It is a variant of Linux designed specifically for machines without MMUs. This is perfect for the PSP as it has no MMU.

Currently, there is very little in the way of functionality from this port, as the kernel is very basic.  To interact with Linux, you'll have to connect through the PSP's headphone serial port for IO. The IO itself is done through a TTY/console interface on the connected computer.  None of the PSP's devices (screen, ms, speakers, etc.) are yet supported except the serial port.
Despite these shortcomings, Linux is in fact running on the PSP.  The entire project is open source, so if you're curious, just head over to Chris's page.

Source: PSP-Programming.com

Saturday, January 20, 2007

MAME 0.111u3

 

A new update is now available on the Latest Release page. Note that this one has some significant OS-specific changes (hopefully for the better), so if you're not in the mood for a bit of risk-taking, you should probably stay away from this one!

Source: MAME 0.111u3
Originally published on Thu, 11 Jan 2007 06:49:25 GMT

ScoreHero.com :: View topic - Idiot Proof Guide to playing custom made songs in GH2.

[Welcome to all our visitors arriving from the blogosphere. It's mentioned below, but it really should be step 0, so let me save a bunch of you some time and frustration: This process requires a modded PS2 capable of playing burned DVDs. This is NOT something we will assist you with here. If that's you, then feel free to continue reading. If not, thanks for stopping by, and if you enjoy Guitar Hero, do take a look around the rest of our site. --The Management]
It should be idiot proof, because i can do it
I decided to do this because there is some incredible work going on and peoples creations deserve to be played, so i thought a simple one stop guide would encourage more people to try it out.
I'm going to attempt to write this guide so that the level of prior knowledge required is zero. So forgive me if you read this and think a lot of stuff is obvious.
Firstly let me state this guide will only help you with getting other peoples created songs into your Guitar Hero 2 game
It Contains no information on creating custom notecharts.
Tools Needed (All programs are freeware) Use "paddy" without the quotes if the .rar asks for a password.
Guitar Hero Explorer: http://scorehero.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2549
GHero Utils: http://scorehero.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2132
Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
MFAudio: http://www.zophar.net/utilities/ps2util.html
Anvil Studio: http://www.anvilstudio.com/
CD-DVD Generator: http://utilities.psxforum.com/cddvdgen.zip
Apache: http://www.ps3news.com/forums/downloads.php?do=file&id=9
DVD Decrypter/Nero/Alcohol/Any other ISO burning software.
Swap Magic/Mod Chip/Method of booting burns on your PS2 (If you don't have one, don't ask, you wont be getting any help)
A DVD Burner
Good quality media to burn to. This is REALLY REALLY REALLY important. If your eventual burn does not work, this is the number one reason why. I recommend Taiyo Yuden, Sony and Verbatim or Check: http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm for a full list
The Actual Process
Step 1. Download the provided .mid file
Step 2. Check to see if the .mid is for GH2 and not GH1, if this is not made clear by the person who posted it, check the video link if there's one provided, or ask them
Step 3. If the .mid is for GH1, or you are unsure, open Anvil Studio, load up your .mid. Look at the yellow box near the top, if it says "PART GUITAR" leave it, if not, right click it and make it so. Now go to View --> Event List, select "Events" from the drop down menu and scroll down to the bottom. Look for the entry with "Comments: [end]". If there are brackets around the word end you're good to go, if there aren't, double click the entry and put them in.
Step 4. Get an .mp3 of the song in question. If one is freely available, it may have been provided by the song creator, if not you will need to rip it from the CD or buy it from Itunes.
Step 5. Insert your GH2 disc into your DVD drive, copy the contents of the disc to a folder on your hard drive.
Step 6. Open Guitar Hero Explorer (Ghex), Go to file ---> add archive and locate your MAIN.HDR file which is in the "GEN" folder you copied from the GH2 disc
Step 7. In Ghex expand "Songs" and then the song you wish to replace, right click on the .mid file for that song and hit replace, now locate the .mid of your custom song and hit replace.
Step 8. Right click the .vgs file of the same song and click import, now right click the new box and select Add. Find your mp3 from step 4 and just fill in the bottom with the default settings. After it has finished you can preview your vgs by hitting play to check it's worked.
Step 9. Click on the folder for the song you replaced, you should see a preview of your note chart, click play, slow the playback down to 50% and check your audio file does not start too late or too early, if it does, go back to step 8 but after adding your mp3, right click it and select properties. Now fiddle around with the offset (+ if the song starts too early, - if it starts too late) and import it again. Repeat until you get it right.
Alternatively, if you have problems with GHEX (as the VGS feature is still in its early life) you can use the original method

Code:

Open your .mp3 with audacity and go to File ---> Export as WAV
Open MFAudio, select your new WAV as the input file and select .vag as your output format. Now hit process
Unzip the contents of the GhUtils archive to a folder called "GHUtils" in your Program Files folder. Open command prompt (Start Menu ---> Run ---> cmd) locate the folder to which you unzipped GHutils (type cd \Program Files\GHUtils) and type java FileExpandGuitarHero
This will launch the vgs converter. Find your .vag from step 6 and hit New Audio. When it's done it will ask you to enter a hex value, just ignore it and hit cancel. You now have everything you need to play your song, now to get them in the game :)

Step 10. That's all the file swapping done, now to rebuild the game. Open CD/DVD Generator, select new project and then New DVD Master disc, drag and drop the folders and files from the GH2 game disc into the main window in the following order.
GEN
IOP
VIDEOS
SLUS_214.47 (If you are not using the US version of the game this file will be different)
System
Now click on the "Volume" tab and enter SLUS 21447 (or whatever your file said if it was different) into the "Disc Name" field. Put PLAYSTATION in the "Producer Name" field and change the license area to the appropriate region. Ignore the rest. Now click on File ---> Export .iml file
Step 11: Open Apache, Go to File ---> Create ---> ISO from IML file, select the IML you made in the previous step and let it do it's thing.
Step 12: Open up DVD Decrypter/Nero/Alcohol/Your burning program of choice and burn your ISO at 4x to GOOD QUALITY MEDIA (see above)
That's it, you're done. That may look like a long process, but once you have the procedure down it doesn't take much longer than 10-15 minutes including wait times to get the ISO.
Let me know if i've missed anything or if anything is wrong. (I'm not sure about the changing GH1 midi to GH2, can someone confirm that what i said in step 3 is all that's needed as i haven't tried it myself yet.)[/code]

Source: ScoreHero.com :: View topic - Idiot Proof Guide to playing custom made songs in GH2.

Monday, January 15, 2007

CWCheat 0.1.6 Rev. G for 3.03 OE GAME & POPS

 

Cheaters, cheat with ease, thanks to weltall and the latest revision of CWCheat. It’s available in two builds, one of which allows you to load the database from a different location (cwcheat-gamecompatibility.prx); this will hopefully prevent games like Socom from crashing. Otherwise, below is the full 0.1.6 Revision G changelog:
* fixed the code type D1 there was a little bug [POPS]
* brightness reworked a bit now it should be more responsive [ALL]
* brightness is now saved and loaded from file 0 = disabled 1 = 25% 2 = 50% 3 = 75% 4 = 100% [ALL]
* fixed a little glitch in the id reading function which made cwcheat show om or rom when the executable was named PSX.EXE. Now PSXEXE is showed [POPS]
* added xploder code types 90, 70 and 00 [POPS]
* now it’s possible to read gme memorycard (no save support ATM) press R to exchange gme< ->mcr [POPS]
* added a build which loads codes from the kernel partition you can use that as a temporary fix for games which have problems with the volatile partition (like socom and nfs)[GAME]
* added back support for 302OE emulator memory cards now it’s automatically detected if it’s the 303OE emulator or the 302OE one
* prx for psp games is updated to latest functions [GAME]
* added 32bit search support for builds with GS/AR support: the output code will be a two line code [POPS]
* All was moved to ms0:/seplugins/cwcheat/ so the dh folder isn’t needed anymore [ALL]
* battery temperature is now showed [ALL]
* other things [ALL]
0.1.6 Rev. G is compatible with 3.03 OE GAME (cwcheat.prx) and POPS (cwcheatpops.prx), meaning you’re able to cheat just about every PSP and PSX game with this release.
Download and Give Feedback Via Comments
via weltall

Attached Files

File Type: rar
CWCHEAT_016_REVG_FOR_303OE-POPS-GAME.RAR (1.16 MB)

Source: CWCheat 0.1.6 Rev. G for 3.03 OE GAME & POPS
Originally published on Mon, 15 Jan 2007 17:47:26 GMT

My goodness, that's pretty

 

Filed under: Mods, Controller

Greeeennnnn
We've seen some Wiimote mods before, but certainly none were quite as aesthetically pleasing as this. Not only has the modder-in-question placed a bright LED behind the transparent A button, but he actually changes the color of both the button and the lower LED based on player position. This mod is apparently quite difficult to pull off, but if you've any electrical savvy in your body, we all think you owe it to your Wiimote to at least take a look at how it's done.
It's so pretty.
[via 4cr]

Source: My goodness, that's pretty
Originally published on Mon, 15 Jan 2007 19:20:00 GMT

Clips: NES Controller Built For iPods

 

The thing about most mods is that they're pure show-off. Not this. It's not only neat, but functional as well. A guy (with dirty fingernails) over at Acid Mods apparently figured out how to dock his NES controller with an iPod so he can play Doom. If it's real, color us impressed! Brian Ashcraft

NES Controller iPod Hack [Hack A Day]

 

Source: Clips: NES Controller Built For iPods
Originally published on Mon, 15 Jan 2007 19:21:11 GMT

The PlayStation 3 Swap Trick

 

Ps2onps3

It was bound to happen sometime: a PSX-Scene poster claims to have discovered a way to play backups of PlayStation 2 games on the PlayStation 3, and in true internet tradition, he's put a poorly-lit jerky video on YouTube as proof. In actuality, this is nothing more than the standard swap trick PlayStation and PlayStation 2 users have been using to boot imports and preview code for over a decade now. But thanks to the PlayStation 3's slot-loading drive, the process now requires substantial work:

First take the torx bolt out slide the face plate off and remove few phillips screws. Take the metal cover off the top of the bd drive. Then remove the top plastic cover and unplug the sensor. Secure it down with a couple screws. Then cut a circle (with a plastic cutting saw bit) on the top cover. Your face plate now slides back over to allow swapping and still keeping the PS3 looking clean.

Given these instructions, considering the required older firmware disables the PlayStation 3's online functionality, plus how the jagged edges of PlayStation 2 games actually resemble a plastic cutting saw bit when played on the PlayStation 3... what's the point again?

PS2 Backups NOW PLAYABLE on PS3 [PSX-Scene]

 

Source: The PlayStation 3 Swap Trick
Originally published on Mon, 15 Jan 2007 20:45:02 GMT
=======================
Hey I just report the news.. Don't blame me if this screws up your $600 game machine.