
Hacking the PS Vita - voltagex_
https://yifan.lu/2015/06/21/hacking-the-ps-vita/
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yifanlu
Hello, didn't expect to see this here. I'll be happy to answer any question as
I refrained from giving deep technical details in the article. I'm surprised
at how secure the Vita is given Sony's track record. I would say that the Vita
is the most secure consumer embedded device that's out today.

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mrpippy
> I would say that the Vita is the most secure consumer embedded device that's
> out today

Moreso than the PS4 and XBONE?

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sspiff
Or the 3DS.

It's funny, when it's our personal data or credit card numbers, they can't
seem to manage the most basic of security procedures. Yet when it's DRM and
they want to prevent unauthorized third party code from running (because they
can't take their 60% cut), suddenly they're masters at sandboxing.

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DanBC
> suddenly

Ignoring the Gameboy, Gameboy Pocket, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advanced, Gameboy
Advanced SP, Gameboy Micro, all the various combinations of those machines,
and then the Nintendo DS and combinations.

They've never been friendly to homebrew, but after DS flash cards it's not
surprising they tightened things up.

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sspiff
Suddenly as in compared to securing customer data, not their previous
consoles. Suddenly was used to indicate the contrast between their efforts and
abilities in securing various segments of their platform.

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TD-Linux
I've noticed a dramatic rolloff in homebrew scene activity since the rise of
smartphones and the like, at least in portables. Part of this is due to the
(more) open nature and ubiquity of smartphones, but also due to proprietary
consoles getting more and more boring.

The Nintendo DS homebrew community was very active, with a well-supported
toolchain. The NDS was a neat piece of hardware - the graphics system was
inherited from the GBA, which bears many similarities back to the original
Gameboy and the NES. It's probably the last console produced with the concept
of tilemaps and sprites. You also got a fast CPU, two screens, and a
touchscreen, three years before the iPhone.

Now, today, portable game consoles are basically underpowered smartphones.
Perhaps the 3DS is a bit unique due to its screen, but better consumer
hardware exists even for that. It's even worse for desktop consoles, which are
an AMD APU with no particular merits whatsoever.

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joshuapants
> Now, today, portable game consoles are basically underpowered smartphones.

With the notable addition of good physical controls

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madez
Having good physical controls is not so hard to get on smartphones [1]. If
smartphone manufactures wanted to make their device better for gaming, they'd
just need clips for common controllers and make the wired and wireless
connection work.

[http://buy.thegameklip.com/products/gameklip-
casemount](http://buy.thegameklip.com/products/gameklip-casemount)

~~~
joshuapants
That does kill the portability aspect though.

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madez
Yes, you are right, that specific linked gadget kills portability to a large
degree. However, there speaks nothing against making a gamepad more specific
to this use-case so you have better portability. Of course this approach will
not be as good as dedicated controllers on the device itself, but I think it
would be enough.

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voltagex_
Whelp.

[https://en-support.psm.playstation.net/app/answers/detail/a_...](https://en-
support.psm.playstation.net/app/answers/detail/a_id/343)

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tux
Site down, here is cache: [https://archive.is/TTR4f](https://archive.is/TTR4f)

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daurnimator
Great to see follow-ups like this.

I was involved in the old PSP homebrew scene; good to see people keeping it
alive for more than just playing ripped games.

