September 2005 Archives

Whew... Sorry for the lack of posts. I have been house sitting for a few days and besides that, I have been lazy.

Anyways to the good news!! The group MPH has released a WORKING PSP downgrader. I have verified and tried this myself and yes, it DOES work. I feel sorry to the people who donated to WAB and PSP-DEV for a product that was never released (and may not have even existed, we may never know).

I have tested the install by loading up the NesterJ emulator and it loads up just fine. It has also been reported that you can update back to firmware 2.0 if you want to (I have not tested this myself). Which will come in handy since apps are starting to come out for the 2.0 exploit.

Score: +1 for hackers. Sony: -1

Steps to use the MPH downgrader:
- Create an UPDATE folder in the /PSP/GAME/ folder of your memory stick
- Copy EBOOT.PBP (update 1.50) in /PSP/GAME/UPDATE folder
- Unpack MPHDowngrader.zip
- Copy overflow.tif in your PSP/PHOTO/ folder of your memory stick (make sure you have changed your background to frame_buffer.png as explained in the toc2rta exploit.)
- Copy h.bin in root of your memory stick
- Copy index.dat in root of your memory stick
- Plug the AC adaptor
- Goto the photos and find the added image. You will see garbage, wait 30 seconds and reset the psp.
- Goto game on memory card, load 1.5 update and let install.
- At 99% it gives an error, reboot. You get some screen, it reboots.
- Done!

I have some linkies for you (courtesy pspnewz)
Exploit Hack
Original 1.5 Firmware

This doesn't really pertain to anything game related, but it could be a fun flash based game if someone was to make one (with customizable hamsters and all with a full out brawl)

How to turn your hamster into a fighting machine

New Review. This time for Ultimate Spider-Man. Fun game with replay like all games should be. Check it out now.

So far, there have been no horrible Spider-man games, aside from the game where he teamed up with the X-men to fight Arcade. The side-scrolling fighting games were good in the early to mid 90s, the 3D versions for the PSX were very well done, and the Spider-Man 2 Movie game was extremely well executed. So how could Ultimate Spider-man follow such past roster? Apparently very well.

The game allows not only game play as Spider-Man, but also Venom. They made the characters act and play differently to create a variety of game play and storytelling. Though the story mode is a little short, there are enough extras to make the game last much longer. After all, if there is a special event that requires one to beat up Boomerang, you know the game has to be good. I only wish the story mode was longer and they answered a little more of the questions they created, instead of throwing in a random villain to face and fight.

The controls are pretty smooth, but the lack of an auto-lock can make things a little difficult. Also, sometimes Spider-man appears not wanting to shoot any webs when falling from massive heights.

As for the graphics, they fit the game, comic, and mood very well. The Cel-shading is done perfectly and looks like an animated comic. Plus the inserted panels create add to this and hint the players on actions that may be hard to see from 3rd person.

The music was very well done and fit the image and mood of the game. I know a lot of people hate techno, but it is fast paced and fits for battles against gangers, races with Johnny Storm, and the ever popular stop that car. But I would not buy the soundtrack though, unless I plan on listening it while web-sling across town or doing other super hero feats.

Is this game worth buying? Absolutely. It is well designed, very fun to play, and full replay value with all of the extras present.

Pros: Good controls, nice graphics, fitting music, full of replay value.

Cons: Story mode a little too short, some parts of the story mode seemed thrown together, no auto-locking on enemies.

New Comic. Not sure if it counts as NSFW or not. But at least Marvel knows not to ever include the content I depicted. Now if I could only tell the difference between Ultimate Green Goblin and the Abomination...

Sticks and Stones #11 is now up. It's mostly true.

In other news, I got hooked up with a brand spanking shiny new phone. The vx8100.

The phone is real pretty like. Gotta love the dual high-rez LCDs and dual speakers. Here are some quick stats:

• Dual high-resolution color LCDs
• 1.3-megapixel CMOS camera with flash and up to 8x digital zoom
• Save up to 100 Photos (4MB) and up to 100 15-second video clips (15 frames / second)
• VCAST service to stream and download video clips with high-speed EV-DO connection
• Bluetooth compatible with devices that support the headset and hands-free profiles
• Dual speakers for MP3 stereo sound and full-duplex speakerphone functionality
• Speaker-independent voice recognition
• MiniSD external memory port to store pictures, videos, sounds and music
• Personal organizer with Calendar, Scheduler, Alarm Clock, and Notepad

I am currently awaiting for the arrival of my 1gb mini-sd card so I can fill it up with lots o' MP3s and other stuff. I'll have more info about it once I have more time to play around with it.

New Comic. Since I've been unhappy with my coloring on the comics I've submitted, I've switched to black and white line art. Also, check out Gashapon Shop. They're a pretty cool webcomic and my Guest Comic is up there now. As Ryo mentioned, pics for the new controller for the Revolution have been released. Seeing it reminded me of an old Burger King kids mascot. Well, back to the sketch pad for me.

Nintendo has finally revealed their Revolutionary controller. It is...well... interesting, but I am slightly uncertain. Multiple sites have covered it with many pictures.

Without further delay, Sticks and Stones pages 9 & 10 are up. I already have number 11 formatted and ready for release. Number 12 needs a little touching up, but it shouldn't take too long.