Dark_AleX has released another edition of his custom PSP firmware. Just as it appears '3.03 Open Edition Revision A' (OE-A) is essentially a modified version of Sony's official v3.03 fimware. 3.03OE-A also comes with a modified version of Sony's PS1 emulator, popstation; and with this latest custom firmware release, custom-made ISOs (game files) can now be compressed to conserve memory stick space.

Ethical concerns aside, it's amazing how the PSP homebrew scene has exploded ahead of Sony, unlocking the company's emulator for use with all PS1 titles. With just a few hours of research, a stack of old PlayStation games on hand, and perhaps a little trial and error, you now have the power to forge your own emulation experience -- imagine that. You don't even need a PlayStation 3.

Update: clarified that popstation is a modified version of Sony's PS1 emulator.

A company called Allegorithmic recently held a presentation at London's Game Developers Conference and briefly talked about their advanced texture compression technology. The uninterestingly named ProFX and MaP Zone 2 programs aim to reduce the size of in-game texture files by up to 70% -- with no image quality lost. One of the games utilizing the technology turns out to be Roboblitz which, like every other Xbox Live Arcade game, is expected to come in at under 50MB. Allegorithmic's software supposedly reduced the entire game's collection of textures to a size less than 280KB.

Efficient compression techniques, if implemented correctly, could easily be seen as a way to obviate the initial need for new storage mediums such as HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. However, the Bit-Tech article points out that designers are just as likely to fill the extra space to create even more rich and varied textures. Instead, the biggest winnner would be the world of digital distribution. Though broadband speeds are constantly increasing, nobody likes waiting for a progress bar to fill. Casual or arcade games could certainly benefit greatly from smaller overall file sizes as they vie for your limited time and attention.

[Via PS3 Fanboy, thanks to everyone that sent this in.]