Playing on the Go

Sony off-handedly made a statement last week that they would be making
a skype for the psp handheld gaming system. My response….nice
thinking sony, you just killed the only edge the mylo had over the
psp, the unpopular mylo costing around $200 compared to the psp’s $120
price tag.

In this move by Sony, they slapped mylo owners in the face and gave
the victory to the homebrew kiddies because they’re really the only
ones still using the, what was it called? PORTABLE GAMING System! When
it came out that was the intention I got no idea what mechanized
horror it has mutated into. Maybe I’m being harsh but it’s the harsh
truth.

I myself am a semi-proud owner of one of these purpose-confused
buggers and am still considering a downgrade to run homebrews. I
scoured the Internet to find a decent voip app but failed the hunt.
This news of SONY supported voip might actually drive me to dust off
my PSP now turned bookend and start chatting with some skype
buddies but don’t hold your breath….

The Nintendo DS (i.e. everyone’s favorite handheld) has just overtaken last generation’s console behemoth, the Playstation 2, in total sales in Japan. This is truly a testament to the sheer popularity of Nintendo’s little handheld, especially in the land of the rising sun. Nintendo has been leading the way with great innovations in both the console and portable market, and their ingenuity is beginning to reflect how much money they’re making. Now, I wonder how long it will take for the PSP to outsell the PS2….

Contra 4’s American box art was quite possibly one of the most bad@$$ pieces of art we at Playing on the Go have ever seen. The main character, Lance Bean, wields an RPG as he sneers at his enemies, most likely aiming to obliterate them in the most painful way as possible. The T for Teen logo emblazons the front, letting every passerby know that this game is not for children or the faint of heart (especially considering this is a sidescroller). His partner has his pistols blazing…OK, I think you get the point.

The Japanese title takes a decidedly more reverent, anime art style to it. The main character wields his rifle close to him, staring off into the distance retrospectively, analyzing his past failures and mourning the memories of the many people he has killed. While the game is of great quality, it’s always interesting to see the different ways companies market to different cultures.

I think we can all recall the debacle that was the original N-Gage. It was uncomfortable, it was clunky, and it looked like a taco. However, in September Nokia was supposed to roll out the new N-Gage service on their N-81 model. However, delays arrived, and they pushed it back to November. Then December. Now, it has been delayed again until early 2008, citing a single issue that persists and needs to be solved. Honestly, they kinda blew it with the original N-Gage. No matter how innovative, stylish, or generally awesome this new service turns out to be, the original still leaves us bad memories, and taints this service. Kudos to Nokia for trying though–hopefully they can get this thing off the ground soon.

As I was browsing the internet today, a thought appeared in my head, “What is the future of cell phone gaming.” Most people have phones with power equivalent to that of the infamous RAZR but others have iphone….Like myself. I jail breaked (OM6) my iphone so now i can run games natively. My favorite is the classic labyrinth game that uses accelerometers to detect the tilt of the iphone. So, since the iphone came out we’ve progressed from strictly Java mobile gaming to Accelerometer/Multi-touch gaming. From here, other mobile companies will need to put new features on their phones to provide new gaming horizons.

Perhaps i’m favoring an overpriced phone that i have modified that completely voids my warranty? Maybe, but the benefits of enhanced mobile gaming among many other interesting features are well worth the price

Since May 2005 when Homebrews were first discovered to run on the PSP 1.00 firmware, the PSP has acquired many new purposes than just causally playing a game of SOCOM. These Homebrews can be coded for many different purposes, from changing the PSP’s MAC address to using it as a Graphing Calculator. Here is a list of the 5 that i believe are the most useful.

5. AFKIM

AFKIM stands for “Away From Keyboard Instant Messenger.” Many web-based instant messaging sites have appeared but running an application natively, like AFKIM, is always more desirable than visiting a web site for the needed service. AFKIM has an amazing feature that allows the user to connect an IR keyboard to type Instant Messages, turning your PSP into a small IM machine! AFKIM is the leader in Homebrew IM apps.

4. iR Commander
iR Commander is my favorite IR homebrew. This app allows the user to turn his PSP into a Universal Remote. So just imagine walking into your living room, turning on your: TV, Stereo, Cable Box, and any other device that uses IR as a communication medium. Also, try taking your PSP to the nearest sports bar and turn off their TVs during a football scoring run!

3. Pandora’s Battery

Pandora’s battery is one of the newer developments that has hit the PSP. Pandora’s Battery turns an ordinary PSP battery into one that the people at Sony would usually use to service the PSP. This battery can Un-Brick the PSP as well as downgrade the Firmware. The Un-Bricking feature proves quite useful for PSP hackers that, during downgrade, accidentally bricked the seemingly impenetrable firmware fortress that is the PSP.

2. Downgraders
These might be the most commonly used applications on the PSP. Downgraders do exactly what their name implies, take a PSP running a newer firmware (ex 3.03) and bringing it back down to a firmware to can run homebrews (ex 1.50). However, as the Firmwares get high and newer, the more complicated the downgrade process is. A PSP downgrade is usually the first measure that hackers preform to unlock the full capability of the PSP.

1. Custom 3.03OE-C
The Custom Firmware is another initiative that most hackers take. The custom firmware was created by possibly the most acclaimed PSP hacker Dark_AleX. The Firmware also allows the user to play homebrews that usually only the 1.50 firmware could play. But, since it’s running the 3.03 firmware, the user can access all the 3.03 features such as a Visualizer for the Music player.

As we all know, PSP’s older firmwares allow the user to download programs coded by hackers which are called “Homebrews.” These Homebrews use the PSPs features to the fullest of their abilty such as the abandoned IR port as a universal remote. Since the PSP possesses such opportunity, it comes as no surprise that a Nintendo DS emulator has been made. Granted that it’s lagged beyond compare and it lacks a touch screen feature, this represents a major step in the PSP Homebrew world to emulate a competitor system. This emulator will probably never run a DS game at full speed so the PSP will never enjoy the enhanced level of game play that the DS has to offer.

I am a Disney fanatic, my family and i have been continuously purchasing annual passes to Disneyland for the past 15 years. The venue must bear some sort of “Magical” quality that continually draws be back to spend more money. A few months ago, however, i did find a feature of that park that i had never noticed before. This is the kind of improvement that Disney can perform without the average guest noticing, Open WiFi, that is, a network without a WEP or WPA encryption.

While in an aggravatingly lengthy line for Splash Mountain, i flipped on my PSP and decided to use the thoroughly deficient internet browser. I expected WiFi to be scarce in the happiest place on earth, however, i discovered there was one network aptly named “DisneyNet.” I forgot the actual title but I was sure that Disneyland was running for it, probably for their employees or executives. With this find, it is possible for PSP and DS users to play in multilayer mode, over the internet, while in Disneyland.

Much to my chagrin, about three hours later, i was unable to connect to the network. I haven’t used any other devices on their network since then so i wouldn’t know if this was just a chance occurrence. The prospect of internet access at Disneyland inspires me to bring my iPod Touch with a cup of coffee and blog by the Rivers of America! I encourage anyone reading this with access to Disneyland to bring your WiFI enabled device and enjoy the Happiest WiFi on earth.

Vista, the “bloated” successor to XP, is now beginning to gain ground on the gamers market. Many XP gamers were and still are speculative about Vista’s performace in running their precious games. This uneasiness comes primarily from the fact that the Vista operating system is a memory hungary BEAST. In fact, the minimum memory requirement to install the monstrosity is 512mb compared to XP’s meager 64mb. One cause of this lust for memory is the Vista sidebar which runs the gadgets and contently sits off to the side quietly slowing down the computer’s performance.

Now, games also need an exceptional amount of memory to perform at the highest frames per second. All the memory sucking native features in Vista amount to very little left to run Half-Life 2 or Counterstrike. The only benefit of Vista is that it offers the new DirectX 10 graphic acclerator which, when used with compatable video cards, dramatically improves gameplay. This is possibly the only advantage Vista has to offer over XP and its deficient DirectX 9.

Bearing these facts in mind, Valve, the creator of Half-Life 2 and Counterstrike, shows that customers using Vista have tripled from 5% to 15% from June to November. The supremacy of XP in the gaming market will doubtlessly continue until Microsoft can appease Vista’s fervor for memory.

Nintendo has leaked that a new DS has been created which is probably lighter than the DS Lite. This is because it is ditching the GBA port and relying on the DS proprietary cartridge port. Also, there will be expanded storage. With the loss of older Game Boy games and expanded storage its seems logical that Nintendo would release a download service for games no longer supported by the ports. The addition of storage on the DS will put it in competition with the PSP as a Personal Media Player

Since it was introduced, the PSP has offered storage via the Memory Sitck DUO for Video, Pictures, Games, Home brews, just about anything the user desires. The PSP has long held supremacy over in DS as a media player, however, this move by Nintendo will make the DS a candidate in the media player market.

Apple insider announced early this week that Apple is planning to release a new 13″ aluminum Mac. However, a line that surprised me the most is it’s projected lack of Optical Drive. Yes, it seems that Apple forecasts that highly corruptible CDs are finally becoming another piece in the museum of storage methods. Apparently, size and weight matter more than the quick access of data. Optical Drives to comprise much of the mass a notebook but is it a feature that any of us can live without?

The lack of Optical Drive is compensated with the installment of new NAND Flash Based Harddrives. These allow for
-Nearly Instantaneous Boot
-Improved Power Management
-Greater Security
-Less Heat
-Quieter Performance

Such characteristics on a notebook that’s 50% lighter than its predecessor is likely to turn some heads, especially those gamers who simply refuse to live without their laptop.

This video, released from Google just a few hours ago, demonstrates simple capabilities that can be had on the new Android platform. Two phones are used, a low-class one with a qwerty keyboard, and a multi-touch enabled one. On the qwerty phone, basic Google maps and common-place phone functions were demonstrated, however, the upper-scale phone’s hardware only foreshadowed its vast aptitude.

The most striking of the recounted abilities was its openGL integration enabling Quake to be played at a bustling frame rate. The accelerated graphics capability on this phone allows for rich cellphone gaming in the future of Android. This revolution might finally break the chain of low-bit graphic games found on phones today. If all continues well with the development of openGL on Android and an ambitious batch of developers working tirelessly to better the platform, i believe that an era of quality FPS and RPG genres will arise and free games on the Android platform will dominate the entire wireless gaming market. Think i’m overestimating? I believe that it’s a definite possibility considering the potential that Android possesses.

Last Monday, Google finally made its much anticipated announcement about their gphone or phone operating system. Well, Google never fully released its gphone but it made advances to something far better: An alliance that seeks to create a superior breed of cell phones.

This alliance is called the Open Handset Alliance and is composed of many companies such as T-mobile, Sprint, Motorola, LG, Ebay, Texas Instruments and most notably, Google. This alliance is unique in that the companies just listed have all worked in creating the common-place cell phone but now are all united and working cooperatively for the emergence of not one, but a multitude of superphones. These phones will possess a Linux based platform named “Android,” stunning design, gorgeous User-Interface, and sport some fancy hardware.

By creating this alliance, google has taken the first step to supremacy in the cell phone market. Google intends to be in direct competition with apple against the over esteemed iphone in both price, features, and support.

How does this all relate to gaming?

Since these new phones are Linux based, and the alliance has the mentality of creating an overly exceptional phone, the mobile gamer can only profit from such a lovely combination. It is safe to assume that the new phones will have a large touch-screen much like the iphone thus enhancing the gaming experience. The Android platform will also probably allow homebrew games to be downloaded directly from one’s computer to the cell phone allowing gamers to continue playing for free. An since the Android is open-source, geeky gamers can code their own games to play wherever and whenever they want!

Back in 2005, Sony came under fire for installing a rootkit whenever a user ripped a Sony BMG CD to his hard drive. A rootkit is a piece of software that hides processes from the user, basically a nasty piece of spyware. Sony’s blunder was eventually exposed Sony stopped their distasteful habit.

The new game, BioShock, has reawakened Sony’s desire to harbor the user’s information. BioShock took the first step to a new age of annoyance in PC gaming. BioShock can only be install 5 times on any computer. This prevents against piracy but will mostly likely cheat the user out of software that he has legally bought.

Now for a trip down memory lane

The company that supplies the DRM for BioShock is called SecuROM which is owned by, you guessed it, Sony! Judging from Sony’s dreadful previous experience with copy protection, one would only hope they would’ve learned. Now gonna happen! Sony has packed a rootkit on every copy on BioShock. Haven’t they figured this out by now?

“Those who are cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it”

As you may have noticed, posting to this site has been sporadic at best over the past few weeks. To simplify things for everyone, I will not be writing the content for this blog any longer. This is due in part because I have very little time to devote to the site. But also in part because there honestly is very little news on the handheld front to share these days. Within any type of journalism, one should hold stock in quality over quantity, and I did not see it fit to simply shove content down your collective throats when there simply isn’t enough for Momma Bird to give.

And let’s be truthful. Video game blogging isn’t anything special. Each site is a clone of the one before it, simply posting what already has been. There really isn’t a reason to go to events such as E3 anymore, as blogs and news sites basically can copy and paste what already has been delivered elsewhere. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t good sites out there, however. 1PStart on this very network is a good example. Joystiq is another fine case. And just because I will no longer be writing via this outlet doesn’t mean that we can’t continue to converse on news of the day, you can still reach me via my blog.

Thanks again to those of you who read, and those of you who commented! Though sometimes frustrating, this has indeed been a fun and rewarding experience and I thank you for coming along.