QuickJump QuickGuide #12 – Who’s Who Edition: The free radical FreePlay
The homebrew community sure has a lot of memorable icons, each one of them quirkier than the next. Enter FreePlay. Yes, I’m sure you’ve heard of him – what with talks of the PSP-3000 exploit pervading the air recently, FreePlay’s name has been thrown around a lot these days. So, following last week’s Who’s Who QuickGuide on MaTiAz, we now venture into the GripShift exploit’s other half. How well do you know this free radical, anyway? His influence in the homebrew community runs deeper than you think!
The homebrew community sure has a lot of memorable icons (err, icon in the people sense, not eboot XMB icon sense), notwithstanding some folks whose reputations precede them. And as with all sorts of society’s many circles, the upper echelons of brewing has varied personalities, each one of them quirkier than the next.
Enter FreePlay, a PSP (and part-time PS3 and Zune) programmer, with a rather imposing personality to match. Yes, I’m sure you’ve heard of him – what with talks of the PSP-3000 exploit pervading the air recently, FreePlay’s name has been thrown around a lot these days. So, following last week’s Who’s Who QuickGuide on MaTiAz, we now venture into the GripShift exploit’s other half.
FreeRadical: because everyone’s got character
Way before the GripShift Exploit even hit the scene, FreePlay’s already made himself known. A self-professed atheist (err, long story), FreePlay’s been around the PSP scene since 2005.
He established himself well enough to get moderator status in our very own forums (yeah, that’s his current avatar on the right), as well as proved himself to be a very outspoken guy in the comments section of the front page QJ.NET blog.
Sometimes seen as rude (to the point of being mistaken as a trolling fanboy even), FreePlay’s comments and forum posts still resound to today as having the voice of reason. While unorthodoxed in his manner of speech, he does have a penchant for helping the misguided with tips and tutorials of how to get something running or clarifications on certain matters – homebrew-related or otherwise.
Quite simply, when FreePlay speaks, everyone listens. And damn straight, he will make you listen.
FreeRunning: letting homebrew releases flow
Aside from the being well-known for his personality, FreePlay’s apps have also given him popularity. Through the years, he’s had dozens of homebrew projects, a handful of which were done as a joint-collaboration with someone else, with others being derivative work picking up some slack in other developers’ homebrew.
One of his biggest PSP applications to date is FreeRadio, a solo project of his (v1.8 here).
It’s a server-free Internet radio player that can handle streaming MP3/AAC, podcast, and shoutcast playback, as well as support RSS and remote playlist streaming. Speaking of RSS feeds, he also has the PSP RSS Manager, which allows you to tinker your PSP’s RSS channels via Windows.
See, FreePlay’s had his fair share of exploit experience even prior to the GripShift exploit. Those who’ve been around during the glory days will in fact know FreePlay as one of the developers who did ports or derivatives works. For example: the GTA Liberty City Stories Cheat Device back in heyday of FW 2.00-3.00, and that uber classic TIFF File Assistant.
Heck, he even had his own Custom Firmware, if some of you remember. This proof of concept video had him running Puzzle Bobble Pocket without using the memstick or a UMD! (oooh, don’t you just love these ancient videos? trip down memory lane, I swear!)
FreeRealms: expanding to other worlds
Now FreePlay’s also had some hand in PS3 homebrew development, not least of which is his Minimal-BDJ Devkit for the PS3. This dev kit unlocked – to a minimal degree – Java-based homebrew for the PS3. A bit of a bummer though when PS3 FW 2.50 came out and blocked BD-J… But nonetheless, it was fun while it lasted.
His influence on PS3 homebrew development has even extended to pitching in his own two cents on how it’s theoretically possible to run backups on the PS3 – throwing in his own ideas into the pool with those of Mathieulh’s. Though all of it is up in theoretical speak, it’s still proof of FreePlay’s coding prowess.
Freedom: because this. is. Spartaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!
And now we come to that point of history when FreePlay established quite an imprint through the course of the PSP-3000 exploit development. MaTiAz had found the exploit in a GripShit savegame file, and eventually FreePlay helped out by contributing his other half of the exploit: the Sparta SDK.
But of course, that’s not the end of the story, right? Or is it? The race is still on: with the exploit and the SDK in place, all everyone’s waiting for right now is the HEN. While FreePlay, MaTiAz, Fanjita, and Team Noobz all worked on it, it looks like someone else is coming up from behind with a release.
Which now brings us to the end of our trip down memory lane. Aww, just like that? Yeah well, someone’s still promising us that HEN release, and yes, it’s been a long time coming too. Guess who’s next for our Who’s Who QuickGuide, hmm?
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