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Send Help: DSi Ware purchases trapped in your handheld

A Gaming Moose — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 02:20:14 +0000

Well, a lot of you early adopters of Nintendo's DSi are out of luck if you want to pick up one of the new colors. Well, only out of luck if you purchased DSi ware games and want to transfer them to a new DSi that is. Nintendo of Australia have announced that any purchases made can not be transfered to a different DSi. It seems that any content you download onto your DSi is locked to that particular console.

There are a few exceptions to this rule, but they have caveats. If you happen to break your DSi and then get a new one, Nintendo will transfer your downloaded content from the broken console to the new one. The big headache is that you have to send BOTH to Nintendo for them do transfer your DSi purchases. Lame, isn't it? So sorry if you thought about picking up that pretty in pink DSi, your data is locked to your old boring one (until it breaks).

Hopefully, Nintendo will work towards an easy upgrade path for their customers, because, isn't the customer always right? The customer should be able to transfer their legally purchased content to whatever DSi they own. Even a sort of iTunes de-authorization setup would be better than forcing their customers to jump through hoops.

PSP Go: a No Go for Dutch Retailer

A Gaming Moose — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 14:08:06 +0000

Holland's largest gaming retailer Nedgame won't be carrying the PSPgo when it launches in October. Who would blame them since it has less features of the PSP and is more expensive. Eurogamer reports that the reaons boil down to exactly just that. Well, Nedgame has a few reasons for not carrying the handheld.

Nedgame believes that the hefty price tag of €250 (€80 more than the PSP-3000)is not justified. One example is the smaller screen size on the PSPgo. I would wager that it is more because the lack of a UMD drive in the PSPgo.

Not having a UMD drive means that Nedgame will not be able to sell games for the PSPgo. Traditionally, games are where the profits are at for the retailers. This really puts the retailers out in the cold, and it's easy to see why Nedgame won't be supporting the PSPgo. The lack of a UMD drive means that every game will be tied to a specific Playstation Network (PSN) account; this means no trading games to your friends.

Sony's monoply on software sales for the PSPgo doesn't bother just Nedgame; Eurogamer says that other Dutch retailers will be boycotting the PSPgo as well. Eurogamer Spain aslo reports (surprise, surprise) that retailers in Spain will be jumping on the PSPgo boycott wagon.

Personally, I am hoping that American retailers like Walmart and Target will boycott the PSPgo as well. I just think that moving to a UMD-less device is the wrong direction. I already have my gaming collection for my fat PSP and how am I supposed to move that over? That also means that I can't get used games from Gamestop for the PSPgo.

1UP “confirms” the new PSP hardware

A Gaming Moose — Fri, 01 May 2009 19:10:01 +0000

There has been a lot of rumors flying around for the past few months-- the biggest shocker was the removal of the PSP's UMD drive. Other rumors pertained to the name of the device as the PSP2 or PSP-4000. Well, it seems that 1UP's sources say that it will be not named that way, but will go by the moniker PSP Go!.

Their sources say the PSP Go! will come in a 8GB or 16GB models. It will feature a sliding screen, a single analog nub and will have 100 titles available to download at launch which could include Gran Turismo Mobile. It will apparently launch in September in Japan and October or November in the US . This of course makes us further believe Sony has given up on the UMD format for good.

Sony itself hasn't confirmed ANY rumor pertaining to the upcoming new PSP and I hope that 1UP's sources are legit. LAthough I doubt I will be upgrading any time soon; I'm still rocking the good 'ol PSP fat version. I also want to see what kind of copy protection they try to implement with the new psp...

Nintendo DSi goes on sale April 5th

A Gaming Moose — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 02:26:59 +0000

It's offical! For anybody living under a rock, Ninentdo's newest addition to their hand held lineup hits the streets April 5th. I would be looking forward to picking one up, except I got the Guitar Hero bundle before the DSi was unveiled. I am not happy that they are removing the GBA slot ( so there goes the Guitar Hero game pack). Who knows what software will be coming out for the DSiWare and I do hope they support homebrew from the start.

From JoyStiq:

For those who have been living under a rock (it's difficult to take pictures of you under there), this latest hardware revision will shoehorn a pair of cameras onto the handheld, as well as an interactive voice recorder and ability to play tunes stored on an SD card. Downloadables are also promised with what Nintendo creatively calls its DSiWare application, with software available for a range of prices starting at 200 DSi Points.

Via Joystiq

PSP-3000 Hacked and Homebrew Hardware for the Wii

A Gaming Moose — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:57:14 +0000

Homebrew users rejoice! It seems that the very tough (to hack) PSP-3000 has been finally broken. It took them awhile, but it is finally done. Details from Engadet

The notoriously-difficult PSP-3000 model (also known as PSP Brite) has finally been hacked, this time without the need for a downgrader tool. MaTiAz's "The Sparta!!!" exploit was allegedly discovered after overwriting the player's name in a GripShift save file with "this is spartaaaaa..." -- with 57 a's tacked onto the end -- and is now available for download along with a new SDK. It's said to work with PSP firmware versions 1.52 through the current 5.02. The Hello World proof of concept video is after the break. Welcome to the homebrew community, Brite: we've been expecting you.

This comes in handy for anybody looking to upgrade from their old PSP-2000 or the REALLY old fat PSP. Although, the PSP-3000 does have interlacing screen issue, the other features would be nice to have. At least you can bring all of your homebrew with you now!

On the Wii side of things, a device called FLATMII came out to enable you to steam ISO backups to your consoles. Nintendo has been pretty vigilant on trying to keep people from installing homebrew and it is interesting to see that FLATMII come out. The FLATMII plugs into the Wii's drive ribbon and then you use a Windows XP or Vista machine to stream the file. Now, there is nothing wrong with homebrew, and nothing wrong with this kind of hardware either. The issue is if the end user is only pirating the games and not just making legal backups of their own games. I would be nervous about prying open my Wii to install the FLATMII; I will just stick to using normal homebrew for DVD playback.
Via Max Console