QuickJump QuickGuide #15 - Who's Who Edition: Fanjita, the PSP freedom fighter |
Ó
Quick roll call of who we've had features on in the past few weeks: Dark AleX, AhMan, MaTiAz, FreePlay, Davee and, most recently, Noobz. Today we're shining the spotlight on one of the devs behind the big hacks, exploits, eLoaders, and downgraders for the PSP: Fanjita.
IN THE BEGINNING...
Fanjita is inarguably one of the most recognizable names in the PSP homebrew community. Along with Dark AleX, he was interviewed by the BBC for his work on freeing up Sony's handheld console from its firmware restrictions.
The BBC piece also shed a lot of light on the man behind the name. Fanjita, whose real name is David Court, is actually a professional programmer who just happens to dabble in hacking the PSP for an hour or two a night in his Edinburgh home where he lives with his wife and kid.
Even before he became a professional programmer, Fanjita revealed in an interview with PSP Emulation that he cut his teeth on a Sinclair ZX81. The man has apparently been coding since the age of 10, so it's not that surprising that he's had a great many accomplishments in the field of PSP homebrew.
ENTER THE HACKER
Fanjita first entered the PSP homebrew scene back when the most recent official firmware from Sony was 2.0. While he's known mostly for his work on the various eLoader releases, his first contribution to the scene was a Tetris clone for 2.0. That first taste must have driven him to do more, because he followed it up with the 2.0 eLoader based on Saotome's 2.0 Eboot Loader.
Using a save game hack spotted and exploited by Edison Carter for his GTA cheat device, Fanjita and Ditlew were also able to construct an eboot loader for firmwares 2.01, 2.50, and 2.60. The eLoader has since grown to cover official firmware updates up to 2.80. The latest version even has support for launching via HEN and custom firmwares and also works on the PSP-2000.
PIRACY AND PANDORA
Ever since the beginning, Fanjita has been an outspoken critic of those who use homebrew as a means for piracy, even calling out those who blatantly asked him for help to pirate PSP games. Despite this stance, however, he has always maintained that downgraders are just tools that give freedom to the end user and that how they choose to use that freedom is up to them.
Downgraders are tools. We provide them because we believe in individual freedom and have faith that human beings can be responsible. We do not like being treated like children by those with whom we spend our money. So it's your choice what you do with it. - Fanjita
The piracy problem wasn't the only thing that brought unneeded drama into Fanjita's little slice of homebrew heaven. A leak that occurred while Noobz/C+D were on the cusp of releasing their universal unbricker -- coupled with "the continual pressure and idiocy of the PSP scene" -- drove the dev to retiring from working on any major PSP projects. He continued to work on his non-exploit projects, though, among them Noobz's PSP Slim USB charger plugin and the Furikup PSP phone software.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Nobody knows the answer to that question except for Fanjita himself. With the PSP whole homebrew community celebrating Team Typhoon's ChickHEN, it remains to be seen what Fanjita and Noobz will come up with to bring the sweet smell of freedom to even more PSP users. Suffice to say, whatever they come up with will no doubt be something grand.
Note: There's only one more Who's Who feature left, folks, and starting next week we'll be shifting the focus to E3 2009. Got any guesses? See you guys then!
Contact Us:
The QJ.net Network |
 |
| Site | Feed |
| QJ.NET | RSS |
| Nintendo DS | RSS |
| PlayStation 3 | RSS |
| PSP Updates | RSS |
| Wii | RSS |
| Xbox 360 | RSS |
| MMORPG | RSS |
| Personal Computer Games | RSS |
| iPhone - iPod Touch | RSS |
| QJ.NET Forums | RSS |
Add QJ.NET
User Favorites - December
User Favorites - December
Categories
Archives
Accessories
Add-ons
Applications
Artwork
Batteries
Cheats
Deals
Emulators
Events
Featured Articles
Firmware
Flash Applications
Flash games
Game Demos
Games
Hacks & Exploits
Homebrew Applications
Homebrew Demos
Homebrew Development
Homebrew Emulators
Homebrew Games
Homebrew Themes
How-To
Humor
Imports
Interviews
Magazines
Mods
MY QJ
News
Off Topic
On Shelves This Week
Opinions & Analysis
Podcasts
Previews
PSP Go
PSP Minis
PSP Slim & Lite
QJ How-To Series
QuickJump QuickGuide
QuickJump QuickPeek
Reviews
Rumors
Scans
Screenshots
Site News
Titles
UMD Movies
Videos
Weekend Warrior
Wi-Fi
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
July 2005
June 2005
May 2005
April 2005
March 2005
February 2005
January 2005
Comments
hmmm, I cannot think of any other devs that contributed to the further advancement of homebrew on the PSP Maybe Tyranid, or hellkat :D
To the Hall of Fame!
Add New Comment