Recently I’ve tried PSPKVM, the PSP port of Sun’s open-source JavaME implementation phoneMEFeature and that little thing is amazing!
Having a Java virtual machine brings immediately so many new possibilities for the already vast PSP homebrew scene and I thought it would be incredibly wonderful if a PS2 port would exists!
Just imagine browsing the Internet with a PS2 and the Opera Mini of the Bolt browser, using a MSN Messenger clone, using Google Earth just for the kick, or playing those phone java games some people like.
The sad thing is that I personally have now the skills for doing it but simply don’t have the time for such a project… Maybe it could be more doable with some other devs collaboration. Is any interested and experienced dev reading this?
PS2 Homebrewing 
December 26, 2009 at 7:13 am |
I really like the idea of pspkvm on the ps2 that would best homebrew on the ps2 yet. I wish I could help but I dont know how to program. 😦
December 26, 2009 at 4:32 pm |
This is good news, especially if we want to run those phone Java apps. They may require some modification before they can run but they should be able to, if it’s a 100% complete J2ME implementation.
However, regarding ports of applications like web browsers, it would be faster to port such apps to native implementations (as in the application is the operating system calling upon BIOS functions, just as with any PS2 game or regular PS2 ELF). Remember DC’s browser? Having a Java layer on this seems a bit too much extra for the convenience it would give in terms of programming. Forget about anything too intensive. And as far as a web browser goes, you might as well not run Javascript at all in such a browser.
December 26, 2009 at 7:50 pm |
Well, good news would be actually the announcement of the start of the project. I don’t see myself with enough free time to do it alone.
I’d prefer to port this java VM than to port a specific app like a browser for the obvious reasons: You’d get a ton of apps running on your PS2 as the result.
And the apps are light enought to run realtively smooth, judging by the PSP experience. A nice thing about pspkvm is that it allows up to 2 java apps running at the same time (limited by RAM? The Slim has 64MB and the PS2 has 32MB) so it’s pretty cool to have a messenger app and a browser running at the same time.
February 19, 2010 at 2:23 pm
PS2 is too dead now. It’s all about 360 and Wii.
December 28, 2009 at 4:38 pm |
Max, developer of pspkvm will contact you shortly about this.
December 28, 2009 at 6:04 pm |
Hi, if you need my help, just send email to me for detail discussion:
max@pspkvm.org
But definitely you’ll need someone else to join this project, my spare time is not enough to make another VM porting…
December 28, 2009 at 11:00 pm |
Hi,
Many thanks for your support. I’ll let you know if I get some more help.
April 9, 2010 at 2:31 am |
I recently signed up on the mailing list of openJDK to obtain information on how to run java on a PS2 recently sent me the following project:
https: / / http://www.reservoir.com / ultraviolet
April 9, 2010 at 9:18 am |
Hi Wallace,
Thanks for the info. Unfortunably currently I have no time to dedicate to PS2 dev.
cheers
April 17, 2011 at 1:33 pm |
Greetings.
I’m a expertised Java(SE, J2ME and now Android) Develper, with solid skils with ANSI-C embedded development (flex/os over Freescale’s Coldifre) and (somewhat rusty, however) C++ (mainly on WIN32’s MFC, unfortunatelly).
I have some time to spare and a interest on PSP and PS2 development for a hobby. This idea is still alive?
April 17, 2011 at 9:33 pm |
Hi,
Glad to hear from you. Although the free time is still a problem (maybe now more than ever) my interest about this project still maintains. I guess we could try to see how it goes. Did you already started doing any dev on PS2 or PSP? Do you own both consoles, btw?
Regards
April 19, 2011 at 3:46 am |
Hi.
I do not have any previous experience with a MIPS before, but have pretty good knowledge on MC68040(flex) and ARM7 (Symbian V1). I understand that Emotion is a very different modus-operandi than the orthodox architecture (like OMAP or PCs). This will be chalenge, without doubt.
It appears to me that PSP has a lesser heterodox architecture, but it’s too soon to be sure about that yet…
Yes, I own a PSP 3001, a PS2 SCPH50001(with hd and ethernet) and (just for the sake of completude) a PS1 SCPH-1001 and a PS3 CECHA01. Don’t ask, it just happened… 🙂
For this moment, I’m working on my initiation on these sacred arts. Advices are welcome.
Best regards,
Lisias
(btw, I’m living in São Paulo/BR)
April 22, 2011 at 6:22 pm |
Hello Lisias,
Sorry for the late reply.
You shouldn’t be worry about the specificity of the PS2 arquitecture regarding this project since it will be hided by the use of standard C/C++ programming (I don’t expect assembly will be needed) but of your experience with arquitectures other than PC will be valuable of course adding to your code-fu 🙂 The ps2sdk offers a reasonable ammount of high level by using existent graphical libraries (SDL image port exists and works reasonably well) although you can go low level pretty easily.
As general culture information on PS2 I recommend the link at http://lukasz.dk/playstation-2-programming/an-introduction-to-ps2dev/. For coding you’ll need to setup the toolchain. Here you could go Linux (more easy to setup) or Windows (the problems comes from latest OS (win7/Vista) and latest cygwin were the toolchain breaks. MinGw is a viable solution). Personally I’m using an old cygwin setup at WindowsXP since I haven’t found (and really searched for) good linux replacements for the utilities I like on Windows.
Check your email soon; I’ll send you more hints.
cheers / Abraço