One Step Forward, Two Steps Back - Emulation on the PSP

To put it simply, an emulator is an application which duplicates the functions of one system using a different system.

In the gaming world, this is like playing Super Nintendo or Sega on your PC.

Emulation in the gaming world is very popular; a google search for SNES emulators will reveal thousands of websites that allow you to download Emulators (the application you install on your PC to allow you to play the games) and ROMS - the games themselves.

These applications are mostly open source, and usually flout all manners of copyright law. While the emulation community has been popular for some time, the release of the PSP created another interesting development in the history of emulation.

Without trying to geek it out too much, the early firmware versions of the PSP allowed users to install emulators on their PSPs. This meant users could effectively install a Super Nintendo on their Playstation Portable.

The fact that nostalgic gamers could play Super Mario on a portable hand held device instead of their PC created quite the stir, leading to the beginning of the Homebrew PSP community.

Sony, for whatever reason, tried their best to discourage users from hacking their PSPs, and with each firmware update, it became harder and harder to "Homebrew" a PSP.

However, in true open source fashion, geeks from the world over collaborated to created new mods and hacks to open up a PSP to this sort of custom tweaking, and there is an abundance of information available should you want to find out how.

The mystery here, however, is why Sony isn't so keen on letting it's users improve one of their own products. The ability to install emulators on the PSP is a strong selling point for those geeky enough to know, and potentially for thousands of customers who don't, but perhaps the fact that emulators create copyright and licensing issues, or that Sony cannot make money out of it is the real reason.