As promised, here is the second chapter to our interview with the PSP homebrew crew of Team Wildc*rd.

For this feature we interviewed three of the main contributors to the Wildc*rd project — AtrumDonum, BallsOfSteel, and Bride.

On with the interview then!

AtrumDonum

How old are you?
AtrumDonum: I’m the grand old age of 20.

Where do you live?
AtrumDonum: I live in the United Kingdom, in this merry old place called England.

Do you work somewhere? Or are you a student?
AtrumDonum: I’m currently between jobs, but until recently I was a student.

When did you buy your first PSP?
AtrumDonum: I bought my first (and only) PSP in September of 2006

Was it bought keeping the homebrew scene in mind, or did you buy it for the games?
AtrumDonum: to be honest – I only bought it because of homebrew. If it wasn’t for there being a homebrew scene, I doubt I would have got one.

When did you start developing for the PSP?
AtrumDonum: Well, I’m really not much of a developer myself, but I’ve been experimenting with developing for a few months.

What is your role in Wildc*rd?
AtrumDonum: I am one of the testers and general idea man. I’ve generally got things to say about anything!

What pushed you, personally, towards joining / forming a group with other hackers and creating a new custom firmware?
AtrumDonum: Well, I really respect the people involved in the firmware and know them quite well and I wanted to do whatever I could to help them and the scene in general. One thing that is bad about the scene, is that it is all too negative – too many kids who seem to think that the devs OWE them something – when clearly that isn’t the case.

I guess I just want to give something positive to the community that I love.

Did you decide to join a team to fill the void because of AleX’s retirement, or was it something else which pushed you towards making a custom firmware?
AtrumDonum: I guess what really keeps me going is knowing that I’m doing some good – I dislike how Sony stamps down on homebrew. Sure, it’s a necessary evil to prevent piracy so that developers keep developing for the PSP, however I think they can do it in a better manner – perhaps with something like the XDK of Microsoft.

How difficult is it to keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible on the PSP? (Things like defeating DRM, working with very little space, enabling NO-UMD, etc)
AtrumDonum: Each and other new feature and boundary is completely different – however, space is always a reoccurring problem in whatever we pursue, so I’d have to say that that boundary is particularly difficult. We are constantly fighting to try and get two firmware’s to coexist peacefully with all their features and yet still add our own features. As you can expect, it’s not an easy job.

Any other hobbies apart from the PSP?
AtrumDonum: Well, my only other hobbies are listening to music and using the computer, and occasionally reading. However – I do have a social life and I also enjoy going out with my friends :)

Is this the first platform you’ve developed homebrew for?
AtrumDonum: Yes it is. I guess the pull of the PSP is that it is portable and powerful – so you can make good homebrew that can fit in your pocket!

How long do you plan on staying with the team and developing custom firmwares?
AtrumDonum: As long as WildC*rd exists and is still coding, I will be there.

Which is your favorite next-gen console considering the games on each platform?
AtrumDonum: To be quite honest, I’ve not actually researched the next gen consoles – not having much money tends to make you not want to look at things you can’t afford. However, I have had the pleasure of playing all three next gen consoles and in my opinion, PS3 is my favorite, followed closely by the XBox 360. I must admit, I do admire the Wii for it’s innovation though… Many people I know sing it’s praises.

How do you feel about the games on the PSP? Disappointed? Any games you’d like to see?
AtrumDonum: I think the games on the PSP are generally ok – although I must admit I am more a homebrew fan. I think the true “Diamond’s in the rough” are the Grand Theft Auto games and those game collection UMD’s, like the “Sega Genesis Collection”. Admittedly, they can already be emulated by homebrew, however the commercial games often have more features not found in homebrew emulators, due to it being commercial.

I guess the games I want to see at the moment, are “Final Fantasy” games – I just can’t get enough of that franchise!

Where do you see yourself 1 year from now in the PSP scene?
AtrumDonum: Hopefully I want to have developed applications/firmware mod’s for the PSP. I also want to develop my coding and reverse engineering skills, so that I can have a greater role in the development of WildC*rd.

Where do you see the PSP 1 year from now with regards to homebrew?
AtrumDonum: Well, if the PSP Slim gets downgraded/hacked (and I’ve no doubt it will), then I think we’ll see more complex homebrew due to the extra 32 MB of main memory it has.

However, we are blessed with great people such as StrmnNrmn (Daedalus creator) and Exophase (gpSP coder) – and of course all of those people at PSPDEV who generally work behind the scenes of the PSP scene – with all these great people and more people getting better at homebrew each day, I predict great things will be released.

Look what people have said couldn’t be done and which have happened – there is surprisingly many things. People have said Linux can’t happen on the PSP, however I have great expectations on it being a reality, due to it already being successfully ported to the PSP.

Thank you,
exophase.com

AtrumDonum: You’re welcome, thank you for giving me an interview!

BallsOfSteel

How old are you?
BallsOfSteel: 16

Where do you live?
BallsOfSteel: Manchester, England

Do you work somewhere? Or are you a student?
BallsOfSteel: I am a student, in between high school and college :)

When did you buy your first PSP?
BallsOfSteel: I bought my PSP in December 2005. It was a white 2.00 PSP, I downgraded it the moment I got home, of course ;)

Was it bought keeping the homebrew scene in mind, or did you buy it for the games?
BallsOfSteel: Both. I knew the PSP had some decent games, such as Wipeout, GTA:LCS and so on, but I probably wouldn’t have bought it if homebrew wasn’t possible.

When did you start developing for the PSP?
BallsOfSteel: To be honest, I can’t remember. I know I developed a few Devhook 0.4 mods in the summer of last year, then I started developing prxdecrypter. I have worked on some projects of my own and in teams that were never released.

What is your role in Wildc*rd?
BallsOfSteel: Generally, looking over code, helping with code reversal, advice, ideas, that sort of thing.

What pushed you, personally, towards joining/forming a group with other hackers and creating a new custom firmware?
BallsOfSteel: When Dark_AleX left, I could see that all the sceners were worried about the future of OE. A few people were considered to be the future of OE but they are certainly not capable. A topic on MaxConsole started in which some of the people who were involved in firmware modding got together and started to discuss the possibility of reversing OE, and it all snowballed from there.

Did you decide to join a team to fill the void because of AleX’s retirement, or was it something else which pushed you towards making a custom firmware?
BallsOfSteel: Really, it was both. As I just said, the void left by Alex’s departure was going to be difficult to fill, and I knew I had at least something to contribute in creating a new (or at least reversing) custom firmware. I am also fascinated with the inner workings of the PSP, all the little glitches that Sony leaves, and the huge possibilities created just by modifying system functions.

How difficult is it to keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible on the PSP? (Things like defeating DRM, working with very little space, enabling NO-UMD, etc)
BallsOfSteel: Difficult, but not impossible. The DRM in POPs is pretty insecure which is what made it relatively simple to defeat (though WildC*rd didn’t obviously write the code, we have it in reversed form), and np9660 is similar.
With regard to the space we have on flash0, I am sure we will eventually have to drop the sections of the 1.50 kernel which enable old EBOOTs to be used – leaving just enough to bootstrap the firmware – and encouraging the development of 3.XX usermode homebrew, or look for methods of downsizing flash1 – which has something like 3.5mb wasted.

Any other hobbies apart from the PSP?
BallsOfSteel: At the moment, nothing really :P I have a 360 which is great fun, especially with games such as Gears of War (which I completed in Insane mode :D !) and Halo 3 is going to be amazing. I also love watching TV and chatting on IRC when I have the time :p

Is this the first platform you’ve developed homebrew for?
BallsOfSteel: Yes, I never bothered to learn C until I bought a PSP.

How long do you plan on staying with the team and developing custom firmwares?
BallsOfSteel: As long as the scene wants custom firmware, which I imagine will be for a while.

Which is your favorite next-gen console considering the games on each platform?
BallsOfSteel: Definitely Xbox 360. The exclusives on the PS3 just don’t attract me, and a few of them are timed anyway (Unreal Tournament for example). As for the Wii, I think it’s just a stupid gimmick, and very soon people are going to get very bored of it.

How do you feel about the games on the PSP? Disappointed? Any games you’d like to see?
BallsOfSteel: Yes, I’m disappointed at the quality of some games, such GTA: VCS which was hugely hyped but ended up full of bugs (garages that don’t work in a game where you steal cars?!) and had a disastrous framerate. However there are a few games which are really decent such as Daxter, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, Lego Star Wars and so on. Being a huge GTA fan, I’d love to see San Andreas ported to the PSP, maybe set a few years earlier or later :)

Where do you see yourself 1 year from now in the PSP scene, where do you see the PSP 1 year from now with regards to homebrew?
BallsOfSteel: Hopefully, developing 4.XX* WildC*rd Edition ;) As for homebrew, there isn’t so much stuff going on these days, but occasionally you see a great release such as a new Daedalus (StrmnNrmn is REALLY innovative with his optimizations), MapThis!, and that Vertex Racing game looks promising. Unfortunately the scene is not as active as it was last year, but hopefully it will at least continue at this rate.

Thank you,
exophase.com

BallsOfSteel: Thank you, and sorry for the huge answers ;)

Bride

How old are you?
Bride: 16

Where do you live?
Bride: Colorado, US

Do you work somewhere? Or are you a student?
Bride: I’m both a high school student and a decently-successful professional network security consultant. I also do a bit of contract coding.

When did you buy your first PSP?
Bride: US launch night.

Was it bought keeping the homebrew scene in mind, or did you buy it for the games?
Bride: Mostly for the media playback, actually, with games as a bonus. I definitely had homebrew in mind, but I didn’t expect it to take off as quickly as it did.

When did you start developing for the PSP?
Bride: The day swaploit was released.

What is your role in Wildc*rd?
Bride: I help with improving WildC*rd security, and occasionally provide ideas and bother/advise the main firmware programmers.

What pushed you, personally, towards joining/forming a group with other hackers and creating a new custom firmware?
Bride: I was invited due to my past reputation and friendships with other Wildc*rd members; it honestly wasn’t something I had in mind.

Did you decide to join a team to fill the void because of AleX’s retirement, or was it something else which pushed you towards making a custom firmware?
Bride: I’m always glad to help with new and exciting projects, and I was asked to join.

How difficult is it to keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible on the PSP? (Things like defeating DRM, working with very little space, enabling NO-UMD, etc)
Bride: It’s occasionally difficult; the worst part is when something should work and doesn’t or when you think you’ve nailed something only to have a confusing bug appear.

Any other hobbies apart from the PSP?
Bride: I do all the usual high school things, hang out with my friends, see movies, etc. I’m also an avid downhill mountain biker and since I’m in Colorado, winter skiing and snowboarding are a must.

Is this the first platform you’ve developed homebrew for?
Bride: I developed an Xbox dashboard using the open-source Xbox SDK late in the Xbox’s “life”; it was never released since it was useless compared to XBMC/EvoX/Avalaunch/etc, it was just written to prove to a friend that not all Xbox dashboards had to be illegal/shady (Microsoft XDK).

How long do you plan on staying with the team and developing custom firmwares?
Bride: As long as the team’s around, I’m not going anywhere.

Which is your favorite next-gen console considering the games on each platform?
Bride: They all have their strengths; I believe the PS3 has the strongest hardware but right now the 360 is the winner due to its games. The Wii is a fun distraction but is more of an exciting toy than a game console. (not to say it’s bad; I just don’t put it in the same category).

How do you feel about the games on the PSP? Disappointed? Any games you’d like to see?
Bride: Very disappointed; Lumines is still the best PSP game and it was a launch title. Where are the exciting, new games? The PSP is a terrible platform for the next rehashed FPS/third-person shooter but that’s apparently all anyone wants to do with it (that and release 10000 racing games which are exactly the same).

Where do you see yourself 1 year from now in the PSP scene?
Bride: If it’s still active, I’ll be where I am now, giving advice and chilling in the ‘hood as it were.

Where do you see the PSP 1 year from now with regards to homebrew?
Bride: I see an increase in 3D, professional-quality homebrew games. Now that the reverse-engineering phase of PSP development is almost over (the pspsdk is *very* complete and useful), the career developers/designers who aren’t really “hackers” can brew things together in their off time.

Thank you,

bride

If you’d like to discuss this interview, you can join our IRC channel #exophase.com at irc.dark-alex.org.

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