Seen@GDC: PlayStation Spot and ChatterBox's Alon

by Christopher Grant { Mar 27th 2006 at 9:57AM }

While hurrying through the expo floor, shoving my way through thousands of square feet of booth babes, game devs, schwag-laden fanboys, and disinterested PR types, I finally came across the PlayStation Spot. The chrome-plated monolith reflected the lights of the convention center, calling me towards its rocky shores like a siren for weary gamers (read rocky shores as great downloadable games).

You can imagine my dismay upon reading they required firmware version 2.5 to get going; my 1.5 PSP whimpered in my pocket. "Don't do it," she pleaded. "Don't upgrade my firmware."

"But Lo-Loco Ra-Roco," I stuttered, before realizing there was a serviceable PSP already hooked up to the kiosk. I could play with the new shiny tech and leave my firmware at 1.5 (note to self: determine how to run homebrew on 2.0 and 2.5 firmware for E3).

At around the same time, I spied Alon from the excellent ChatterBox Video Game Radio show. How did I know it was him, you ask? Well, he looks just like his picture. This here is Alon throwing up the hand sign for "we don't want firmware 2.5! 2.0 or below, suckas!" It's nice to know there's still some folks keeping it street at GDC.

Continue reading for another shot of the unit and the transcribed instructions (they're easy).

On your PSP™ browser, move to the SETTINGS icon, press down to go to the NETWORK SETTINGS icon and select "Ad Hoc Mode."
Select the channel with the game of your choice [See "Available Games" below]
Press 'X' button to save settings.
Hold PSP within 15 feet of the PlayStation Spot kiosk.
Make sure WLAN switch is pushed up.
Move to the GAME icon and press up to go to the GAME SHARING icon.

Available games included: Loco Roco, Wipeout Pure, and Namco Museum Battle Collection.

Tags: Chatterbox Radio, ChatterboxRadio, PlayStation Spot, PlaystationSpot

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Paul @ Mar 27th 2006 10:24AM

Egon?

J B Cougar @ Mar 27th 2006 10:48AM

Since when did Bob Saget start blogging video game developer conferences?

DeathAwaitsU @ Mar 27th 2006 11:06AM

Errr homebrews already available on 2.5, where have you been? lol

carterman @ Mar 27th 2006 11:37AM

http://www.fanjita.org

You'll need GTA: Liberty City Stories, but homebrew can be run on all current firmwares via this exploit. Some of it doesn't work all that well, but it is possible.

All I know is that Game Sharing would be much better if you could save the demos that you d/l to your memory stick.

C. Grant @ Mar 27th 2006 11:51AM

Errr, I know homebrew's avail. for 2.0 and 2.5. I even mentioned it in the post: "(note to self: determine how to run homebrew on 2.0 and 2.5 firmware for E3)"!

I just didn't have it running then and there, and didn't want to futz with it.

REALLY funny you mentioned Bob Saget J B Cougar, cause he actually WAS there... well, not at GDC, but in San Jose for a show. Kept hearing about sightings of him. Was hoping to see him but alas, it wasn't meant to be.

King @ Mar 27th 2006 12:04PM

Where can I find emulators to run on psp firmware 2.1. I just picked up the psp and want to try it out.

Jonn @ Mar 27th 2006 12:06PM

Egon Spengler? What are you doing at GDC?

Gonzo @ Mar 27th 2006 1:03PM

I thought all this was fixed already. Should psp owners still be wary of upgrades?

I like the idea of a psp equivalent of a download kiosk. It's especially needed. The psp games are relatively expensive (for a portable) and only a few of them are really worth owning (but of course those ones kick ass) and I'd like to be able to try a demo before putting cash down for the game. Now that I think about it, I'd be surprised if sony allowed allot of these things to be set up all over.

Evil Inside @ Mar 27th 2006 2:12PM

For future reference(E3) you can reun PSPsetX on a 1.5 or 2.0 firmware PSP and set the firmware to 2.5 or 2.6. This doesn't change the actual firmware, but makes the PSP think it's firmware is higher and allows games that require higher firmware to run.