Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Cracking Technocultural Memory: Scenes and Stories of Origin in the PlayStation Portable Forensic Imaginary

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Game History and the Local

Part of the book series: Palgrave Games in Context ((PAGCON))

  • 322 Accesses

Abstract

Focusing on the PlayStation Portable’s (PSP) cracking, this chapter uses the local origins of a firmware hack to insist that globally distributed game hardware can also meaningfully have local specificity. By drawing from digital ethnographic and media archaeological theories and methods, Murphy connects the cracking of the PSP to a provincial instantiation of the hardware and specific version of firmware that were only available during the platform’s local launch in Japan.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    See Samuelson (2005).

  2. 2.

    See Sony Corp. of Am. v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 US 417 (1984).

  3. 3.

    Armored Core: Formula Front (From Software), Darstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower (Capcom), Doko Demo Issho (Sony Computer Entertainment), Everybody’s Golf (Clap Hanz), Lumines (Q Entertainment), Mahjong Fight Club (Konami), Dynasty Warriors (Omega Force), Kotoba no Puzzle: Mojipittan (Namco), The Legend of Heroes II: Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch (Nihon Falclom), Metal Gear Acid (Konami), Ridge Racer (Namco), and Ultimate Block Party (Magic Pot).

  4. 4.

    Every game was produced by a Japanese studio, but two never officially left Japan (Doko Demo Issho, and Kotoba no Puzzle: Mojipittan), and out of the remaining nine that eventually appeared in North America, seven were released in Europe, and only one made its way to Australia (Dynasty Warriors).

  5. 5.

    See https://web.archive.org/web/20050518050728/http://forums.ps2dev.org:80/viewtopic.php?t=1570

  6. 6.

    See Bez, Roberto, Camerlenghi, Emilio, Modelli, Alberto, and Visconti, Angelo. 2003. Introduction to flash memory. Proceedings of the IEEE 91,4: 489–502. doi:10.1109/JPROC.2003.811702.

  7. 7.

    See Kagal, Lalana, Finin, Tim, and Joshi, Anupam. 2001. Trust-based security in pervasive computing environments. Computer 34, 12: 154–157.

  8. 8.

    The post is no longer available online, but it can be found in Tyranid’s PowerPoint presentation at 8:02.

  9. 9.

    In a recent keynote address given at the replaying Japan conference in 2018, Kutaragi downplayed the media hype which surrounded the console wars, but he also insisted that he wanted Sony to be more than an existing contributor to the “genre of video games” and a pioneer in a new genre of computer entertainment.

References

  • Arendt, Susan. 2008. Sony Investigating PSP Hackers Motivations. Wired. https://www.wired.com/2008/04/sony-investigat/. Accessed 20 August 2020.

  • Arsenault, Dominic. 2017. Super power, spoony bards, and silverware: The super Nintendo entertainment system. Cambridge: The MIT Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, Andy, and Peterson, Richard A, eds. 2004. Music scenes: Local, translocal, and virtual. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, Andy, and Rogers, Ian. 2016. Popular music scenes and cultural memory. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bez, Roberto., Camerlenghi, Emilio., Modelli, Alberto., and Visconti, Angelo. 2003. Introduction to flash memory. Proceedings of the IEEE 91,4: 489–502. https://doi.org/10.1109/JPROC.2003.811702.

  • Bogost, Ian., and Montfort, Nick. 2007. “New media as material constraint: An introduction to platform studies.” In Electronic techtonics: Thinking at the interface. Proceedings of the first international HASTAC conference. Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, April 19–21, 176–193.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boluk, Stephanie, and LeMieux, Patrick. 2017. Metagaming: Playing, competing, spectating, cheating, trading, making, and breaking videogames. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Burgess, Jean, and Green, Joshua. 2009. YouTube: Online video and participatory culture. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coleman, Gabriella E. 2012. Coding freedom: The ethics and aesthetics of hacking. Princeton: University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deeming, Skot, and Murphy, David. 2017. Pirates, platforms and players: Theorising post-consumer fan histories through the Sega Dreamcast. In Fans and videogames, eds. Melanie Swalwell, Helen Stuckey, and Angela Ndalianis, 75–90. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fahey, Rob. 2007. Farewell, father: Charting the rise and fall of Ken Kutaragi. Eurogamer. https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/farewell-father-article. Accessed 20 August 2020.

  • Galloway, Alexander R. 2012. The interface effect. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grabarczyk, Pawel. 2018. SNES-Not so “Super,” After All. Game studies 18, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grimes, Sara M. 2015. Little big scene: Making and playing culture in media molecule’s LittleBigPlanet. Cultural studies 29, 3: 379–400.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jenkins, Henry. 2006. Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide. New York: New York University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johns, Adrian. 2010. Piracy: The intellectual property wars from Gutenberg to Gates. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kagal, Lalana, Finin, Tim, and Joshi, Anupam. 2001. Trust-based security in pervasive computing environments. Computer 34, 12: 154–157.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kane, Yukari Iwatani, and Dvorak, Phred. 2007. Howard Stringer, Japanese CEO. The wall street journal, March 3.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelty, M. Christopher. 2008. Two bits: The cultural significance of free software. Stanford: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keogh, Brendan. 2019. From aggressively formalised to intensely in/formalised: Accounting for a wider range of videogame development practices. Creative industries journal 12, 1: 14–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kernighan, Brian, and Ritchie, Dennis. 1978. The c programming language. Bell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirschenbaum, Matthew. 2008. Mechanisms: New media and the forensic imagination. Cambridge: The MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kutaragi, Ken. 2003. “Sony press conference.” Electronic entertainment expo, Los Angeles convention center, May 4–16. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elDDEqZfb94. Accessed 20 August 2020.

  • Locklear, Fred. 2004. 200K pretty sweet purchases during Sony’s Japan PSP launch. ars Technica. https://arstechnica.com/uncategorized/2004/12/4458-2/. Accessed 20 August 2020.

  • Loftus, Tom. 2005. Sony’s PSP is handheld entertainment. MSNBC.com. http://www.nbcnews.com/id/8645863/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/t/sonys-psp-handheld-entertainment/#.XqWj8GhKg2w. Accessed 20 August 2020.

  • Little Big Planet. 2008. Japan: Sony.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lumines. 2004. Japan: Bandai.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martinez, Hector. 2004. The top ten things you need to know about Sony’s PSP. Gearlive.com. http://www.gearlive.com/index.php/news/article/the_top_ten_things_you_need_to_know_about_sonys_psp/. Accessed 20 August 2020.

  • Maxigas. 2017. Hackers against technology: Critique and recuperation in technological cycles. Social studies of science 47, 6: 841–860.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Plantin, Jean-Christophe, Lagoze, Carl, Edwards, Paul N., and Sandvig, Christian. 2018. Infrastructure studies meet platform studies in the age of Google and Facebook. New media & society 20, 1: 293–310.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Press, Larry. 1993. Before the Altair: the history of personal computing. Communications of the ACM 36, 9: 27–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rubens, Paul. 2007. Three hacker teams unlock the PSP. BBC news, February 26. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6397797.stm. Accessed online 20 August 2020.

  • Samuelson, Pamela. 2005. The Generativity of Sony v. Universal: The Intellectual Property Legacy of Justice Stevens. Fordham law review 74, 1831: 101–143.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shank, Barry. 1988. “Transgressing the boundaries of a rock ‘n’ roll community.” The first joint conference of IASPM Canada and IASPM USA, Yale University, October 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shank, Barry. 1994. Dissonant identities: The rock’n’roll scene in Austin, Texas. Hanover: Wesleyan University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shapiro, Eben. 1991. Nintendo-Philips deal is a slap at Sony. The New York times. June 3. https://www.nytimes.com/1991/06/03/business/nintendo-philips-deal-is-a-slap-at-sony.html. Accessed online 20 August 2020.

  • Sony Corp. of Am. v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 US 417 (1984).

    Google Scholar 

  • Straw, Will. 1991. Systems of articulation, logics of change: Communities and scenes in popular music. Cultural studies 5, 3: 368–388.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Straw, Will. 2004. Cultural scenes. Loisir et société/Society and leisure 27, 2: 411–422.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Švelch, Jaroslav. 2017. Keeping the Spectrum Alive: Platform Fandom in a Time of Transition. In Fans and videogames: Histories, fandom, archives, eds. Melanie Swalwell, Helen Stuckey, and Angela Ndalianis, 57–74. New York: Routledge.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • TyRaNiD. 2007. “PlayStation portable cracking: How in the end we got it all.” 24th Chaos communication congress, Berliner Congress Center, Berlin, Germany, December 27–30. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INdUZk4NFIA. Accessed online 20 August 2020.

  • Vanderhoef, John. 2016. An industry of indies: the new cultural economy of digital game production. Doctoral Dissertation. University of California, Santa Barbara.

    Google Scholar 

  • Woo, Benjamin, Rennie, Jamie, and Poyntz, Stuart R. 2015. Scene Thinking: Introduction. Cultural Studies 29, 3: 285–297.

    Google Scholar 

  • Young, Chris J. 2017. Game changers: Everyday gamemakers and the development of the video game industry. Doctoral dissertation. University of Toronto, Ontario.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ryerson University, Toronto, ON, Canada

    David Murphy

Authors
  1. David Murphy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to David Murphy .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Transformative Media Technologies, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Melanie Swalwell

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Murphy, D. (2021). Cracking Technocultural Memory: Scenes and Stories of Origin in the PlayStation Portable Forensic Imaginary. In: Swalwell, M. (eds) Game History and the Local. Palgrave Games in Context. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66422-0_8

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation