At the recent Destination Playstation event held by Sony in Arizona two new bundles were announced. The one announcement that peaked my interest was of course, the God of War PSP Entertainment Pack shipping in June. This bundle contains a new blood red PSP and a copy of the God of War: Chains of Olympus game (full package details below). I so want this bundle, but there is one odd thing about it. The bundle hits in June, but GoW:CoO hit the streets on March 4th!? If you can hold off on picking up God of War: Chains of Olympus until then you will be able to play it on this sweet new PSP, but if you wait you’ll end up with a second copy of the game. Also announced was a 80gb PS3 bundle shipping with MGS4 and a Dualshock 3.

Still cool, but I really don’t understand the method to Sony’s madness on this one. Package details follow from the official press release:

In June, a new PSP Entertainment Pack will be hitting stores, featuring the famous face of the Ghost of Sparta — Kratos. Here’s what you get in the bundle, which will be available for $199.99 (MSRP):

• Limited-Edition “Deep Red” PSP with Kratos silkscreened on the back
• God of War: Chains of Olympus
• Superbad on UMD video
• Voucher to download Syphon Filter: Combat Ops from PLAYSTATION Store for free

God of War: Chains of Olympus still arrives for PSP on March 4, 2008

Reblogged from our sister site Nukoda.

I went to my local Kmart today, but unfortunately they were all sold out. Better get there sooner than later if you want one of these puppies.

If cracking open your PSP just to find out what motherboard version you have doesn’t sound appealing, the creators of Undiluted Platinum have released a little tid bit of information that makes checking easy. Simple open the UMD drive of your PSP a little a bit and take a peek where the picture indicates. If you see the dreaded “IC1003″ it means you have an unsupported TA-082 motherboard.

Remember! Installing the Undiluted Platinum isn’t for the feint of heart. It requires some pretty advanced soldering skills and one mistake can permanently damage your PSP. Fortunately you have a few options.

• Buy the modchip and do-it-yourself (or have a friend help out)
• Have it professionally installed by ModChipStore.com
• Buy a pre-modified black PSP
• Buy a pre-modified white PSP

Luckily, the cards only sell for $19.99 at Best Buy so you can print out the coupon and take it in for a free memory card.

While I have not had a chance to try this out, I will be hitting Best Buy first thing tomorrow morning and pick up one (or two, or three)

[update 1]: It appears that SanDisk has changed the coupon. Now it simply says you can buy a 512MB MemoryStick PRO Duo for as low as $19.99.

Llamma has finished his LED mod for the PSP. The mod consists of placing LEDs in each trigger button and the center of the D-pad and face buttons. The LED’s are powered by the PSP’s battery and they turn off automagically when your PSP is running low on juice. This is definitely the most impressive hardware mod I’ve seen for the PSP. However, you’ll need some decent soldering skills as you’ll need to solder wires onto the circuit board of the PSP to power the LEDs.

Tools

• 000 Phillips Screw Driver
• Low wattage (15-20) Quality Solder Iron or variable temperature Solder Station
• X-Acto or other blade for stripping/scratching off the insulation on the wire
• Small Tweezers
• 5/64 Drill bit and drill

Supplies

• 30AWG Magnet Wire (enamel coated) (NOT 30AWG Kynar)
• 0603 SMD LED’s
• 10 Ohm Resistor for 4 blue

One of the guys over at bit-tech.net broke his analogue stick while playing OutRun 2006 so he decided to buy a replacement part from PSP Tree. As you can probably tell, he did a little more than replace the analogue stick. Since his warranty was already void, he decided to replace the original black face plate with an über cool transparent blue face plate. He has written a three page article describing the process to help out any others who wish to do the same.

Thanks to Jakanden for the tip.

The U.P. (Undiluted Platinum) is a flash replacement system for the PSP™ which allows the use of previous flash updates or custom firmware builds, opening up the possibility to run unsigned homebrew code on even the latest PSP systems. The U.P. contains 32MB NAND flash which is programmable from the PC via a high speed USB connection, using our user friendly software. You may boot the PSP from either its onboard flash or the flash contained on the U.P; the flash which is used is determined by a button press as the PSP is powered on (U.P. flash is used by default, hold L1 to use the PSP onboard flash). Since U.P. provides a secondary flash which the PSP can boot from, it can even be used to restore a PSP which has been “bricked”. Every effort has been made to make our flash updater software, which will be freely available for download, both as easy to use and reliable as possible. The software also contains diagnostics which can be used by installers to determine if an installation has been successful or not.
…
In order to maximise the benefits that U.P. can provide its users, we have decided to take an open source approach with U.P and will be releasing source code for any software we release as well as full documentation for the U.P. hardware interface – including information on how to control U.P. from within PSP programs. This will allow anybody to create software which can take advantage of what U.P. has to offer. We have also sent a few prototype units away to some of the scene’s best software hackers in order to give them a headstart at working on custom flash replacements – cant wait to see what people will come up with!

The package will have everything you need to install the mod chip properly and will be priced at $90 USD and 75 euros.

The only concern I have is that some people will undoubtedly take advantage of this chip and us it to pirate PSP games. Sony hasn’t been making firmware updates because it wants to quash homebrew, they’ve been making firmware patches because they want to stop the piracy of PSP games. If malicious hackers hadn’t created ISO loaders that allow people to play illegal ISOs of PSP games, Sony might have allowed homebrew to stay. Sure, the Undiluted Platinum will open doors for legitimate PSP homebrew developers to create new and amazing homebrew programs and games, but this could also open the door the PSP’s demise.

More information about the Undiluted Platinum has been revealed.

“We don’t think Sony did this on purpose, but, for now, PSPs with the upgraded firmware won’t play files recorded with the Recorder 2,” said the company in a statement e-mailed to registered users.

“A second result of this issue is that any files you may have recorded previously with the Recorder 2 would need to be converted to play on PSPs having the upgraded Version 2.7 firmware,” Neuros continued.

Neuros is working actively to create a firmware upgrade for the MPEG-4 Recorder 2 to fix the problem as well as attempting to alert Sony to the issue so this does not happen in the future.

Source: Google Alerts

It requires the use of some online coupons but isn’t a bad deal. I would also recommend reading the comments in that same post for some additional deals that readers have posted.

The new value pack now includes the PSP game Daxter for a price of 249 Euros. Additionally, the price of the GigaPack has been dropped to 249 Euros as well. Additionally mentioned is the fact that the original value pack w/o Daxter is being discontinued.

Not a bad deal considering Daxter is getting great reviews critically.

PSP Updates summed up the features of this device quite nicely:

It adds to the PSP functionality in three different categories, Memory, Battery, and Ergonomics (how it is held/comfort of playing). For memory it allows the use of more than just the standard Memory Stick Duo cards. It allows the use of MMC, CF, and MicroDrive cards as well. It supports a total of 4 gigs of memory.

The NEO-PSP Pad finally allows the use of normal AA batteries to power your PSP. It also has a built in charger for your Ni batteries. You can do this with many different DC charging devices, including USB. The NEO-PSP Pad protects your PSP with anti-shock protection, and it converts your PSP into a more PS2 Dual Shock controller feel.

The device will set you back $174.99 US though it might be worth it for all the functionality assuming it works as advertised.

Source: PSP Updates

I purchased SOCOM: FTB last week at EB Games…. I asked them if they got the headset in too…. nope. I searched all over this fine city of mine and NOBODY had the heaset. So I decided to take matters into my own hands.

I asked many questions from the people on this board to find som insight into how the PSP Headset connects. Here’s what I found….

The PSP Headset is using a four conductor 3.5mm mini jack. Basically there is one more conductor for the microphone to connect to. I was shopping today and noticed a PSOne A/V cable in the bargain bin. I pulled it out and noticed it had the same four conductor mini jack. I brought it to work and started my magic.

I cut the cable in half ( that way I can make two) and I used a meter to tone out which wires were which on the end. The bottom three are for the left and right channels on the headpones and the top one is for the microphone. I soldered one female 3.5mm mini jack to the cables corresponding to the headphones and the other cable to the top for the microphone. I was then able to connect my headset from my PC directly into these connectors.

I was able to play SOCOM: FTB for over two hours and everyone could hear me just fine!

It is does take a bit of know-how considering it requires the use of soldering, but if you want to make one yourself, give it a shot.

Source: Kotaku

According to NewTechSpy:

The PSi (interactive) is just 4.5” wide and carries a 3” LCD with 16 million colors. Other familiar features include a tightly squeezed UMD and memory stick duo. Amazingly the PSi has the same pixel resolution as PSP, with 480 x 272, so gaming titles will not have to be reformatted.

The PSi is designed with a nearly unscratchable touch screen that will give users a virtual keyboard in which to enter internet addresses and other duties previously unavailable to PSP users. The rest of the body is constructed of matte finish plastic to eliminate the smudge-laden appearance of its glossy exteriored sibling. The ” i” also gives the PSi the ability to work not just with WiFi networks but with WiBro, UMTS, EVDO, and future WiMax networks via switchable modules that correspond with each system and their sponsors.

This is one rumor you definitely want to take with a grain of salt as it certainly sounds bogus, but who knows.