PSP Modchips
For the better... Or for the worse?
June 10, 2006
By Robert A.

OK, so most avid console gamers from both the past and the present have most probably heard the term 'modchip' before. You know, those chips which you place into your console, be it Xbox, PS2, or whatever, to gain unrestricted access to homebrew launching, as well as other cool features that you just can't do with a standard console system. Well, apparently the PSP has now its very first modchip: Undiluted Platinum, as it's called.

Here's three things that it can do for you:
1. Revive your dead PSP (in case you happened to brick it by means of an unfinished firmware upgrade, or a flash editing mishap).
2. Allow you to switch to all firmwares of the PSP on-the-fly.
3. Opens doors to homebrew launching for those PSPs which do not have the capability (2.7 and higher at the time of this article).

Undiluted Platinum is currently priced at $90. Good deal, so far, if you plan to install it on your own, otherwise, get ready to shell out a ton more money for professional installation, or a pre-modded PSP, which will go on sale around the vicinity of $400 ($150 over the PSP value pack; $200 over PSP core pack).

Installation will most probably be a pain in the butt, and with a community which, dare I say, consists mostly of the teenage demographic, one that is amateur to the advanced installation methods neccessary for Undiluted Platinum to be successfully installed (i.e. soldering, connecting cables), I personally will not be surprised as tons of threads start popping up with people who have perma-bricked their PSPs during installation: accidentally spilling solder on the motherboard, connecting the wrong traces, shorting the PSP; you get the point.

Now, here's three downsides of modchips:
1. Auto-void your warranty. Forget calling Sony for a replacement if anything happens to go awry.
2. Depending on your jurisdiction, modchips may in fact be illegal. Although the actual process of buying one is often not, using it to run, say, ISOs of full UMD games, is highly illegal; much more than using the software exploits available in firmwares such as 1.0/1.5.
3. Waste of money. If you need to play Mario so bad, spend that $90 on a used GameBoy Advance, and pop in a few cheap games. Sure homebrew is much more than just emulation, but why risk permanently damaging your PSP?

Some may not find the downsides very... down. I'll leave it to your own sole discretion whether or not you choose to mess with your PSP internals.

All in all, a PSP modchip is beneficial to the homebrew developing scene. But to Sony? Definitely not. Things like this make a console lose it's punch; it makes Sony more aggresive against the PSP homebrew scene, and gives a bad name to all homebrew developers supporting them. Sony will definitely retaliate to the release of the first PSP modchip; the 'un-virginization' of their once hardware-mod-free PSP.

For those who do not buy an Undiluted Platinum, be sure that Sony will make it even harder to exploit firmwares, and will most probably release more 'feeder' firmware updates (bogus updates which feature very little real improvements, but a whole bag of so called security updates). I'm led to believe that less than an 1/8th of the PSP homebrewing community will actually end up buying one of these. Being as there is now a door open to all firmwares via the modchip, firmware crackers (ones who are really into the scene; the same ones who will most probably be buying Undiluted Platinum) will lose the impetus to continue work on exploiting future and current firmwares, which will basically screw over the other 7/8 of the community who either don't have the funds, or don't have the means to buy a modchip online.

Now a lot of people may say, "Well, modchips didn't really affect the quality of PS1 or PS2 games; they've been around for quite some time, why would a modchip for the PSP be different?" Comparing modchips of the PS1 and PS2 to that of the PSP is like comparing apples and oranges. The PSP's generation is very different; there was no such thing as a Network Update back then, something that could limit your PSP's access to the latest games; a full-size console is much easier to mod than the micro-PCB-sized motherboard of the PSP, which takes quite a level of precision to successfully mod; piracy was not as big of an issue in the pre-2000/early-2000 era, as downloading ISOs of games often took days, if not, weeks, to download via a 56K connection. Now it can take just a few hours to download, copy (to memory stick), and run pirated software.

I'll end it at that. Take the release of the first PSP modchip, Undiluted Platinum, with a grain of salt. It can be good or bad, depending on your point of view.


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