First step to PSP Piracy - UMDs Dumped

[Shockeye]

Saw this story over at engadget:

PSP UMD format cracked; game ISOs appear
Posted May 5, 2005, 6:36 AM ET by Barb Dybwad
Related entries: Gaming, Handhelds

Another step forward in the race to crack open the PSP: ps2nfo.com user Paradox worked out how to get a dump from a UMD disc, and has released the ISO files for several PSP games (Wipeout: Pure US, Ridge Racers Japanese, and Vampire Chronicles: The Chaos Tower Japanese). Also of note, UMD discs use the standard ISO9669 format, so the released ISOs can be burned to regular CDs or DVDs. Know that the games are not yet playable in this format, but it’s a big step forward now that all the reverse engineers out there can get their hands on this stuff.

I would assume it's only a matter of time before they are dumped on memory sticks and played from there. I wonder why Sony put UMDs in ISO9669 format unless they really aren't concerned about piracy.

[NiX]

Now we just need an emulator!

[Righ]

Now we just need an emulator!

And a system with the form factor, controls, convenience and price point of a PSP that runs the emulator.

[Shockeye]

First PSP games pirated
   
   

[05/05/05 14:40]
Internet piracy groups finally manage to 'rip' PSP games - playable versions expected soon

After a few piracy-free months, PSP has finally been cracked open by persistent hackers, with ISO files of Vampire Chronicles, Ridge Racer and Wipeout Pure having now been 'released' on to the internet.

The first batch of games to have been successfully copied from UMD discs and into the ISO image format (a file type used to pack and store multiple files - in this case those files found on PSP UMDs) made it on to the internet sometime last night and indicate that PSP's piracy-free days are numbered.

While the games have been made available to download, there's currently no way of actually playing them on your PSP, as no UMD writing device exists to perform the necessary action of creating a pirate UMD game.

So why bother pirating them at all then?

Well, aside from the simple answer "because they can", these ISO files containing all the PSP UMD disc data will be a massive aid to PSP 'homebrew' programmers, who are currently beavering away on unsigned software applications for the machine.

Illustrated by the picture on the right, one techie has already managed to get his unsigned software application running on the machine, a program which has been placed on PSP's memory stick and run through its own main menu.

Hackers are now developing software that will allow the currently-pirated games (which range from 100MB to 500MB in size), along with any future 'rips', to run via the memory stick in a similar fashion.

[schild]

Hello World has become a battlecry for intelligent hacking.

I love it.

[Trippy]

Even if you could get the games to run from a Memory stick (and I'm not sure that you can), the 2 GB Duo is pretty expensive right now at around $450. At that price you could buy 15 or so PSP games.

[Shockeye]

Even if you could get the games to run from a Memory stick (and I'm not sure that you can), the 2 GB Duo is pretty expensive right now at around $450. At that price you could buy 15 or so PSP games.

And you need a 2GB one why?

[schild]

I saw an article about this the other day. I think the biggest game was 450megs.

Honestly though, what's more important is emulators. I've no problem buying PSP games by the dozen. I like the little disc.

In reply to Shockeye: Bigger is Better. I want a 100GB memory stick. I want 20 seasons of TV on it. I want memory sticks that cook my food too. And flying monkeys. We all want flying monkeys.

[Shockeye]

And flying monkeys. We all want flying monkeys.

Not I. Letting the monkeys fly just means more monkey shit in harder places to clean.

[Trippy]

Even if you could get the games to run from a Memory stick (and I'm not sure that you can), the 2 GB Duo is pretty expensive right now at around $450. At that price you could buy 15 or so PSP games.

And you need a 2GB one why?

The max capacity of the UMD is 1.8 GB but if what schild says is true then that's not necessary right now, though eventually games will fill up that entire space (like presumably Gran Turismo), but the price on the MSD will be lower as well.

[Shockeye]

Even if you could get the games to run from a Memory stick (and I'm not sure that you can), the 2 GB Duo is pretty expensive right now at around $450. At that price you could buy 15 or so PSP games.

And you need a 2GB one why?

The max capacity of the UMD is 1.8 GB but if what schild says is true then that's not necessary right now, though eventually games will fill up that entire space (like presumably Gran Turismo), but the price on the MSD will be lower as well.

I'm assuming, of course, that you need this for legitimate back-up reasons.

[Kairos]

I'm with schild on this. I don't really care to play pirated PSP games on my PSP. But the prospect of homebrew software and emulators... yes please.

[Yegolev]

GG Barb Dybwad!

[Shockeye]

Boot To The Head For Bootleggers

New PSP titles forcibly sew up security holes in the PSP.
by Nix

May 12, 2005 - Don't say you didn't expect this news. After hackers found a security flaw in the original Japanese release of the PSP, Sony has taken measures to fix that hole with a required BIOS update for older models of the PlayStation Portable.

This new update requirement (which does not affect any model of the PSP released in America -- all North American PSPs were released with 1.5 system software, whereas the security hole was only in PSP v1.0) affects older PSPs when gamers try to play newly-released games. A message pops up on the screen stating, "This game could not be started. To start, you must update the system software." A simple BIOS update (which can be done either with the online Network Update feature or with a BIOS updater written on new game UMDs to bring the system up to the more recent PSP version (an even more recent 1.51 has also been released, with yet another security patch, although unless 1.50 has an extremely compromising security hole, Sony may settle for 1.5/1.51 updates with game releases until it has a better and more necessary BIOS update to offer.)

This security update is a vital flaw fix for Sony. Although most gamers would never notice, the security flaw (which IGN has written about before, in last week's acticle, PSP Slips and Cracks) leaves the PSP open to run software not carrying Sony's official digital encryption signature. Basically, it leaves the PSP wide open to run bootlegs and possibly pirated games. An emulator for running Game Boy and Game Boy Color games on PSP has already been converted to run on unprotected PSP hardware, and while coders have so far not been able to figure out how to run stolen PSP games, the encryption flaw could be used to run the illegal rips of PSP games already posted on international pirate sites.

The first game released in Japan to include the version checker is the new Space Invaders Pocket compilation, a collection of Space Invaders games from throughout its years. It's likely that this will be a standard feature in games released for PSP from now on -- the next set of games to come out for PSP after this week's Space Invaders is the Yarudora Pocket series of adventure games from Sony, which ship on May 26. We'll check then whether any other new import titles run without checking for updated hardware, but don't count on it ... that leak is going to be tied off in as soon as Sony can get a big game into everybody's system.