PSP Homebrew Weekend Warrior: of calculators, TVs, readers, shells, and guides

The week was a pretty good one for the PSP homebrew scene, punctuated by the release of a new iR Shell. It’s not quite the uber cool “advanced multi-tasking” iR Shell just yet, but it does add a couple more features to an already awesome piece of ‘brew. The release ratio was still skewed heavily towards the applications, but a couple of good homebrew games did get released as well. Let’s get right on down to the rundown!

The week was a pretty good one for the PSP homebrew scene, punctuated by the release of a new iR Shell. It’s not quite the uber cool “advanced multi-tasking” iR Shell just yet, but it does add a couple more features to an already awesome piece of ‘brew. The release ratio was still skewed heavily towards the applications, but a couple of good homebrew games did get released as well.

Anyway, without further ado, let’s get right on down to the rundown!

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Homebrew applications

• Mr. Anonymous Japanese Coder man guy dude person has updated his mod of gpSP, the GBA emulator for the PSP. Only one entry for this version’s changelog, and that’s a fix for sound syncing. Link.
• From the author of PSPNotes and Dualboot comes a new version of PSPluginInfo, a plugin that displays information about your PSP. Link.
• PSP Live TV is an application that will let you watch TV feeds on your PSP. It has 14 channels, except they’re all in French. Time to practice saying your bonjour, monsieur, and… gracias? Link.
• This week saw the rollout of the third version of CalculMp3. This isn’t just a regular calculator anymore. It now has all the features of a scientific calculator, complete with mp3 support. Link.
• If you want to broaden your PSP knowledge with a little dash of hardware know-how, the PSP Ultimate Repair Guide v.1 is what you need. This guide includes stuff on disassembly, power switch and analog stick replacement, and more. Link.
• Bookr, the all-purpose document reader has been updated with new features, new enhancements, and a fix for the dang-blasted multi-page PDF bug. Link.
• This isn’t exactly a homebrew release, but it does have a little something to do with the scene. A PSP Testing Tool (thanks to all out that this was a Test Tool) was spotted on eBay. Right now, it’s still there with a current bid of US$ 1,000. Link.
• Some people like Lua shells, some people don’t. Whichever group you consider yourself to be in, there’s a new Lua shell out called Vista Portable. Link.
• It’s not quite that uber cool “advanced multi-tasking” iR Shell just yet, but v4.92 paves the way to incorporate support for Dark AleX’s LEDA tool and RemoteJoy improvements. Link.

Homebrew games

• Rock Band may be officially coming to the PSP, but thankfully, homebrew developer festi hasn’t stopped developing the homebrew version of the game yet, releasing a new version of the homebrew Guitar Hero clone GuitarStar. Link.
• It started out as just a demo for the Gearworks engine, but Gnarly Pong has finally been updated with some actual gameplay. Link.

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What else, what else? Oh, while we’re on the subject of homebrew, check out this week’s QuickJump QuickGuide on Dark AleX, one of the names that you should definitely know if you’re a part of the PSP homebrew scene. We also have a new How-To up that delves a bit into the legal workings behind homebrew. I know, I know, I’m not a lawyer, but it does open up some good points for discussion, like the correlation between homebrew and piracy.

Aaaaaaand thats it. See you guys again next week!