HG101: Epic post on the Net Yaroze

K.O.Kiki

http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2011/02/net-yaroze-on-ps1-we-need-you.html

...
The video games industry is REALLY REALLY bad at archiving their early works, isn't it?

o1s1n

Sadly it only came to my attention after the fact that Sony closed the official servers and members forum in July 2009, destroying all the archives of what had been created. Worse still, I’ve discovered that dozens of quality games, which never found release on OPM’s demos, have potentially been lost forever.

FFS!

There were some really fantastic Yaroze games. There was one particular Official Playstation Magazine that had all the good ones on it. Best demo ever. I'm pretty sure the same disc also had the Metal Gear Solid first level demo on it too!

Myrddin

Yep, more mupeteering by Sony. Doesn't hold a candle to this latest farce though - http://psx-scene.com/forums/f6/call-privacy-modern-spyware-playstation-network-81141/

But to delete games & unreleased stuff created on the Yaroze? Sad & idiotic. Fair enough if the servers have to come down then so be it, but authors could have been given the chance of salveaging their work surely?

o1s1n

I'm suprised all that was still there until 2009. Wonder was there still any game development going on for it?

That link is crazy. One more reason not to be buying digital downloads with a credit card.

Myrddin

o1s1n wrote: »

I'm suprised all that was still there until 2009. Wonder was there still any game development going on for it?

That link is crazy. One more reason not to be buying digital downloads with a credit card.

The thing that kills me about the story I linked to, is that you don't need a PSN account at all (well the credit card thing is relevant to psn only). Apparently the console collects every piece of info it can about devices on your home network, including mac addresses, personal info, shares, you name it, the bloody make/model of your tv is in there, and sends it to Sony. And I though Google was bad :mad: Bit of firewall config sorted that out, cheeky corporations these days :rolleyes:

Anyhow it's besides the point, real shame about the Yaroze. That was the black semi-dev console wasn't it?

Retr0gamer

At least they managed to save most of the games, really must download the archived games. It's ridiculous that companies give out about emulation and roms when they frequently have to cancel retro compilations when they find they lost their source code and some retro compilations have taken roms directly off popular rom sites since they still have the signature data they emded in them.

As for Sony and that PSN stuff, that really is ridiculous. It's not the first time they did it. Some Sony music CDs installed root kits on your PC if you used them on your PC.

CiDeRmAn

We are still at the genesis of gaming as a legitimate art form, and this is just like the destruction of countless movies due to the poor film stock from the earliest days of film.
All those games, can only imagine that, these days, every game ever made for the PS on the yaroze format would have fitted on a portable drive you can buy in easons for 70 quid.
What a bunch of losers.
That just tells you precisely what Sony really think of gaming, it is just a revenue stream and when that stream is no longer producing profit it is worthless and artistic merit is just so much bull to them so it's destroyed.
I can only imagine that the same fate awaits any PS/2/3/psp titles that don't meet the grade, aside from copies owned by gamers a similar oblivion awaits, in time.

pdbhp

Just another reason why Sony are the biggest pile of sh1t on the planet.
Roll on the NGP....

Myrddin

pdbhp wrote: »

Just another reason why Sony are the biggest pile of sh1t on the planet.
Roll on the NGP....

The NeoGeo Pocket has been out for years man

pdbhp

EnterNow wrote: »

The NeoGeo Pocket has been out for years man

I should have said NGPC for the new colour version:pac:

o1s1n

EnterNow wrote: »

Anyhow it's besides the point, real shame about the Yaroze. That was the black semi-dev console wasn't it?

That's the one alright! I always wondered if the console itself did anything, of it it just acted like it had a modchip to allow developers to burn copied games and test them out?

Seems that's all it was -

the Net Yaroze package would contain a special black-colored debugging PlayStation unit with documentation, software, and no regional lockout[3]. The user still had to provide a personal computer (IBM-PC or Macintosh; NEC PC-9801 was also supported in Japan) to write the computer code, compile it, and send the program to the PlayStation.

weeder

well no. the kit came with a fairly extensive SDK as well

o1s1n

From what I've read it seems to have been far from extensive. Basic might be a more suitable word.

Myrddin

weeder wrote: »

well no. the kit came with a fairly extensive SDK as well

Wasn't that the full dev unit though, a blue console if I recall?

weeder

ah yes, but in all honesty would there be much the average bedroom coder could do with the official sdk that he couldnt with the yaroze

o1s1n

I think how it went was -

Black Net Yaroze - bedroom coders. Basic software development tools.

Blue PS1 - commercial test unit - advanced software dev tools and Sony support.

I'd say the only difference between the test systems themselves is the colour though.

Myrddin

weeder wrote: »

ah yes, but in all honesty would there be much the average bedroom coder could do with the official sdk that he couldnt with the yaroze

Seriously I think there are big differences, in hardware. I'll look into it, but I'm almost positive the Yaroze was geared at amateur coders, & was limited to the whatever ram the console had (to both create & play the creations). The full dev unit was a different beast altogether, with pc connectability, more ram etc.

While a chip certainly eliminates regional restrictions/copy protection, it can do feck all about adding processing speed/power. I'll check it out now though.

o1s1n

Wiki says the Yaroze was limited to 3.5mb of console RAM. Ouch!

weeder

EnterNow wrote: »

Seriously I think there are big differences, in hardware. I'll look into it, but I'm almost positive the Yaroze was geared at amateur coders, & was limited to the whatever ram the console had (to both create & play the creations). The full dev unit was a different beast altogether, with pc connectability, more ram etc.

While a chip certainly eliminates regional restrictions/copy protection, it can do feck all about adding processing speed/power. I'll check it out now though.

but the yaroze did have pc connectibility, not sure about the ram now, what im trying to get at is that it was more than just a chipped ps1.

its a bit like saying the origninal xbox xdk was just a modded retail unit, which in a way thats all it was since if im remembering correctly there was a conversion guide somewhere that even included adding the extra ports from the sdk



http://www.llamma.com/xbox/xbox_developer_kit.htm

oh how i wanted one, even though i wouldnt have known the first thing to do with it.

that said im going way off topic here on my own little tangent

Myrddin

Ah well then we're both saying the same thing. It went beyond what any chip could provide, it's a semi-dev unit. But it's inferior to the actual dev-unit in a lot of ways, technically & non technically.

Yep created games had to live in ram, ouch indeed!

The Net Yaroze lacks many of the features the full PlayStation developers' suite provides, such as advanced hardware/software tools and Sony's extensive technical support (including live telephone support). Dedicated Usenet groups, with access restricted to Net Yaroze members, were maintained by Sony; homepage hosting was also provided. The access was restricted according to the kit's region of origin, which made collaboration between users in different territories impractical.

Another shortfall of the Net Yaroze was the fact that all games created using it had to fit within the device memory, which was only a meager 3.5MB, and not enough to enable users to code complex games.

Source

weeder

wouldnt it be super amazing if something like this was released for the ps3 :pac:

Myrddin

weeder wrote: »

wouldnt it be super amazing if something like this was released for the ps3 :pac:

Aka Rebug? There's a project underway now a while to create a hybrid firmware of retail functions, combined with debug console firmware. It's fairly advanced, beta release already I think.

The PS3 TEST system is roughly akin to the Yaroze, but all the differences are software based, except having TEST embedded on the case.

weeder

you missed my sarcastic joke

Myrddin

weeder wrote: »

you missed my sarcastic joke

Duh, weeder...from console modding! Over the head & out the window that went! :o