o ya, and Go Lakers!

Over the past few days you’ve likely spotted several SNES test builds circulating the scene. While the Japanese developer (or developers?) remains anonymous, people are talking, and word on the virtual street is, Ruka — you know, the talent behind NesterJ — may be responsible for the number of recent updates. Evidently, Snes9xTYLsmcm is based off the initial developments of YoyoFR and Laxer3a.

Anyway… I finally had the opportunity to sit down, install the latest test build, and kick some serious alien ass in Contra III - the Alien Wars. Fans of the Super NES — you need this emulator, no questions asked. It’s slick.

s9xtylslimmecm_test5_0527

To celebrate the Madden NFL franchise’s 20th anniversary this year, Sony will be released a new PSP slim bundle featuring a limited-edition Metallic Blue PSP plus the newest Madden game - Madden NFL 09. Also included in the package will be a UMD (boring), a voucher to let you download Beats from the PlayStation Store, and a 1GB memory stick duo pro (woo). All of this will cost just $199.99 which sounds like a great bargain to me for everything you get. I’m seriously considering this just to get the blue PSP. In my opinion, it’s the best looking one out right now, considering the classic black, white, silver, and red ones (did I miss any?). Look for this to drop in stores nationwide on August 12.

Sony has made Skype support on the PSP available since the 3.90 firmware but yesterday the official Skype headset kit from Sony was released for retail at last. For $27.99 you get two separate earphones with retainers that wrap around the ears. Out of one earphone the microphone is attached. The earphones connect to a small control unit to manage your calls. The unit then connects to the PSP itself. Note that this kit works on the PSP slim only (PSP-2000).

Of course, Skype calls to other Skype users is completely free. If you want to call cell phones or land lines, you’ll need Skype Credit. Now you too can be cool like all the iPhone users who can already use Skype.

Transfer files via ad hoc from one psp to another. Supports up to 6 connections at a time. The best part about it is the receiving PSP doesn’t have Minerva’s homebrew installed, you can transfer said tool using Sony’s official game sharing.

Read more »

Remote Play is a feature on the Playstation 3 and Playstation Portable which allows a Playstation Portable user to interact with their Playstation 3’s Xross Media Bar. Users can access music, videos, games, and various programs stored on the Playstation 3’s HDD, external flash drive, or optical media.

Remote Play works by encoding a video and audio stream (most likely AVC and AAC) of the output image on a PlayStation 3 then delivering it over a network (via TCP port 9293) to a PlayStation Portable. Actions performed on the PSP, such as the pressing of buttons, are uploaded back to the PlayStation 3 over the same connection. This is similar in concept to the Slingbox.

Read more »

According to the results of a survey unleashed upon the world by Net Asia Co. Ltd., the PSP and DS Lite have very specific demographics. Taking answers via the internet and text messages from people aged 15-29 in Japan, it turns out men admitted to PSP as their handheld of choice, with 42% selecting it. Women chose completely differently — less than 10% opted for the PSP as their handheld of choice (exciting pie chart pictured above).

Take this with the results for the DS and DS Lite, and you see that Sony is losing on a huge chunk of the gaming market — girls. Females responded almost 80% towards Nintendo’s handheld. Sony is trying to break the mold with titles like MyStylist, but they might need more games featuring cute dogs and cats, or more mini-game titles instead of SRPGs to get the majority of casual female gamers interested. Let’s go, Sony!

If you’re in need of extra gigs for your PSP, but looking to save a pretty penny or two, perhaps you’ll want to hear about this adapter. The PhotoFast CR-3500 microSDHC to Pro Duo adapter will allow microSDs and microSDHCs (high capacity) to work with both PSP-1000 and PSP-2000 models. The adapter supports microSDHCs up to eight gigs large.

Now how is this going to save you a few bucks? Well, for the exact same amount of storage capacity, microSDHCs offer a cheaper solution to Pro Duos — even if you factor in the price of the adapter. But hang on right there. There’s no price yet on the adapter. However, a little rummaging finds the adapter listed on Amazon Japan for ï¿¥990. That’s roughly US$9.70. If that estimate holds true for North American consumers, then there’s a lot of savings to be had.

Sony just released a new PSP firmware. 3.95 is a minor update to what is already out. No word on when the mod’ed version will be out, but my guess is shortly.

Newly added features

PSP Firmware 3.95:

While playing PSone games on your PSP, you can now customize how the buttons are assigned by going to [Controller Settings] > [Assign Buttons] and select [Custom].

You can now quit Remote Play and choose to turn off your PS3 or leave it on after quitting. This is useful if you are performing a download and want to quit Remote Play, but still want your download to continue on the PS3. Select [Quit and Turn Off the PS3 System] or [Quit Without Turning Off the PS3 System] from [Quit Remote Play] when you press the HOME button on the PSP system.

And for those who don’t know. In japan the PSP already has GPS

Japanese charts: PSP outsells every other system combined

PSP sales top charts in Japan last week, not only out selling the DS Lite, but out selling all of the other consoles on the market combined. Sales were obviously spirited away by the release of Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G, which can be seen in the hands on busy PSP owners in the Tokyo metro.

PSP : about 139k
DSL : about 57k
Wii : about 49k
PS3 : about 13k
PS2 : about 9.8k
360 : about 2.8k