There are some enthusiastic homebrew developers that have designed a lot of games for the PSP. Not all are well received. In fact, if you read through the forums, you will find that there are plenty of critics around that keep developers busy! All the same, there are homebrew games that get wide approval. We have included three of those below - enjoy!

1) Kurok PSP v0.4 Shooter game courtesy of homebrew developer MDave:

You can also check out this Tutorial on how to download this to PSP.

2) CSPSP, (counter strike) courtesy of homebrew developer nataku92:

The developers included a Source Map Pack that contains 7 maps. that vary in size and complexity -  so the player can choose which battleground they want to play!

3) Bob in the Ice Age 2: A bobbing smiley named Bob has to deal with a size-enlarger egg, golden coins, blocks, fire flowers, and super stars. It looks a bit like a Super Mario game.

And a great game that is in development but should be out soon:

Call of Quake - a Sniper Rifle PSP game courtesy of homebrew developer Major Holland. Watch it in action

We will keep you updated about the release date.

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Currently slated to be released at the same time as the movie (August 7th, 2009) G. I. Joe is set to be a big financial success. The game has been developed for most game platforms, is being released with the movie and has been designed in association with toys that will also be on the shelves for this big double duo event. PLUS, both game and movie are aimed at Dads who grew up with the G.I Joe heros of the comic world and at todays kids (whos Dads grew up with ….)

Lets see what they are revealing at this stage. The official movie site is up and offering the usual free wallpaper downloads along with this brief movie teaser:

Disappointingly, the game developers (EA) are not revealing much at this stage - just some broad hints about how the game will play - as revealed at Toy Fair 2009:

But toy producers - EA Hasbro - had a bit more to offer at the ASM Toy Fair last week when they unveiled their toy G.I. Joe characters:

Looks like the G.I. Joe heroes are set to make their presence felt at another Christmas!

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If you have ever tried out a professional flight simulator, you know how incredibly realistic they are. In fact, many pro pilots do their training for unfamiliar planes on tailor made simulators and then go right out and fly them!

The latest game developed by Graffiti Entertainment for our PSPs, looks to have some of the feel of these pro flight simulators. But instead of having to practice boring take-off and landing procedures - airport after airport after airport - and run through endless practice pre-flight preps! We get to fly action-packed missions - based on known WWII events and to engage in strategic bombing raids, air support manouvers, paratroops and supply deployment, and bombing-prevention missions.

Players can choose to fly for the Americans (US Air Force), Russians (Red Army Air Force), British (Royal Air Force), or Germans (Luftwaffe) and to choose from 17 authentic planes. And as the game is multi player (up to eight players) there is plenty of room for rivalry in the air!

Grafitti have built in 13 different authentic World War II campaigns - and each one has several smaller missions. The result is that there are more than 240 individual missions included in the game! That should be enough to satisfy even the most avid flight sim fans.

The game is due to be released on March 17th, 2009

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In our previous post, we included an image of a modded PSP. Now, there are LOTS of ways to mod a PSP - this is just one of them (see image to the left). Did you notice the image and wonder “what the..??”

This has become one of the classic mods. Since our last post we have had a lot of queries about it - so we decided to post a video that shows how its done:

If you decide to give this mod a go, let us know how you went with it in the comments section below.

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If you are looking in CraigsList or Ebay to buy a second hand PSP you will quickly find ads offering to unbrick, unlock or mod your PSP, with offers like:

Have a bricked PSP phat/slim? Want custom firmware or games? Feel free to email me or give me a call. I can fix your BRICKED psp and put CUSTOM Firmware of your choice which allow you to play homebrew games/apps, CSO/ISO,emulators (SNES,NES,Sega,Atari etc.)Movies, PMF/MP3 player and just completely unlock the full potential of your PSP)

Although we found that the cost of this service varies - in most places the charge is around $20.

But why would anyone unlock their PSP? Can all PSPs be modded? Is it legal? Is it easy to use homebrew and emulators? And WHO gets their PSP modded?

We decided to go to the source and interview a local PSP modder to get some answers, and here is what we discovered:

* The main reasons people mod their PSP are :

1) be able to make backups of their PSP games,

2) Get free homebrew games,

3) load an emulator so they can play nintendo and Atari games,

4) get copyright games for free (eg God Of War was one that the modder we interviewed included in his price - this last is definitely illegal)

* Not all PSPs can be modded. The new 3000 can’t be unlocked (yet?), and the plain black 2000 is unlockable. The easiest to mod is the original phat PSP. Of the slim models, the white and silver have a 90% chance of being modded and the blue and red PSPs have about a 70% success rate of being modded.

* Getting your PSP modded is not illegal. But our source warned that if your PSP has to be sent to Sony for repairs they will update the software to the official Sony software and you will have to get it modded again.

* According to our source, its easy to use emulators and download and play homebrew games. (We will go into this in more detail in later posts)

Our interest is in being able to try out the homebrew games. Sony could well take a look at how Microsoft has brought the radical inventors in from the cold. They have established a self governing community where homebrew games can be showcased and trialed and critiqued and eventually sold as legitimate games!

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