A trip down homebrew lane: PSPKVM
In the days of the PSP, eager developers ported everything to it but some homebrew stands out in particular. PSPKVM, in my opinion, is one of the most interesting pieces of PSP homebrew to date, not only because you can run J2ME code and games on it but because you can even run useful browsers on the PSP.
What’s PSPKVM?
PSPKVM is a homebrew that allows the user to run J2ME code on their PSP or if you prefer, the .jar applications that a good number of us used to (still?) run on their older feature phones. These applications were mostly games, simple utitilies or browsers. PSPKVM allowed almost all J2ME applications to run and even chunkier J2ME apps such as Opera work on it. Development stopped quite a few years ago but that doesn’t really matter as PSPKVM is quite stable and useful.
PSPKVM features:
- Ability to install jar/jad files from Memory stick/via Wifi
- Internet Connection for J2ME apps
- Various keyboard options even internal OSK
- Ability to use various profiles in order to get the best experience on your device
- Easy to use application launcher
- Compatible with a whole variety of J2ME applications
Why PSPKVM stands out
PSPKVM is still is a very interesting piece of software to this day is probably because one can run web browsers on it. The PSP’s web browser leaves a lot to be desired but thanks to PSPKVM, one can easily browse the internet with Opera Mini 8 or UC Browser. You can even log into popular sites such as Facebook/Twitter if you really need to check social media which makes the PSP useful in a situation in which you don’t have anything else that can access the internet. Opera Mini does have a few limitations sadly and one of those is not being able to download files to memory stick but that shouldn’t be a very major issue.
You can also play some niche games like Doom RPG and Wolfenstein RPG which could be fun if you take into consideration the limitations of J2ME phones back then.
Conclusion
Nowadays, PSPKVM is more of a novelty but it could be fun to play around with J2ME applications that we once thought were the future. Of course, this homebrew should run fine on a PSVita in Adrenaline so you can mess around without even having to take out your PSP! Make sure you get v0.5.5 which is the latest version for the PSP which is confirmed to work even on FW 6.61. Oh, and you needn’t point out slow news days; everyone knows that developing new homebrew isn’t something done overnight so wait and enjoy the past while waiting to see what’s in store next.
Sourceforge link for download: https://sourceforge.net/projects/pspkvm/
Opera Mini 8 link (it’s fun to mess around on your PSP, if you have the time): http://www.opera.com/mobile/download/versions/
no clue you could do that with a psp
wow! never heard of it!
time for some vampires dawn then :O
I still use this app 😀
i was in Highschool and my first Java phone was Nokia 5610 , I really loved my phone but ive lost it 😀 Fell from a Cliff XD
anyway when i got my PSP and i noticed that i can emulate my old java app on it , i didint hesitate to test what i missed from those days.
On my PSP i used to play Puzmanic or something XD a Little bit +17 Game XD
Anyway i still use it on my PS Vita
wow that phone is realesed on 2005..you must be very old,how old are you?
^__^ 2005 is very old now…?
williams parents must be pretty much ancient relics according to his view on time
well my dad gave me my first phone which is iphone 4..i never heard Nokia 5610 before but my dad know that phone .. so im thinking maybe Salar same age as my dad
Adrenaline won’t connect to internet (Infrastructure).
Could someone please help me?
I quite enjoyed doom RPG back in the day on an old nokia candybar phone. It’s a shame the upgraded ios version and sequel never came to android or other platforms.
Oh my god! What a nostalgic feeling. I used it 2 much!
omg youre such a geek…its just a retro game, nothing special
And? Mr. Cold
Actually it is not just a retro game… it is a thousands of games and applications, maybe you don´t realize how important it is.
I installed the facebook app on my psp due to this homebrew
for someone who have problem downloading files with pspkvm, install ucbrowser, and with vitashell create a new folder inside pspemu and rename it to pspkvm , so you will have pspemu/pspkvm, when ucbrowser ask you where do you want to save the file, just select root, and enjoy downloadin vpk files
Fond memories here. I was/am a huge God of War fan. This nifty application allowed me to play a little known entry into the series known as God of War Betrayal on the go. Back then my cell phone simply couldnt run it. And while the game was terrible and should never have been made that doesn’t stop one that is a fan of a series from choking down the horrid gameplay. Thanks for the article as it truly made me recall all the fun I had with this. I’m going to in fact load this up on my Vita during my lunch break amd play it again!!!
I used to download stuff with Opera all the time so IDK what ya’ll on about :/
Oh. For some reason, downloading on Opera Mini 8 doesn’t work on 6.60 PRO-C for me.. I’ll make sure to try it out on 6.61
I used it back in the 5.00 M33 / 5.50 GEN days so no idea if it might have broken after that.
KVM is not worknig for me on adrenaline. It throws error on launch.
PSPKVM is working for me in adrenaline
PSPKVM got its limitation for not able to Play 3D Java Games
I used to be the tester for PSPKVM. Sadly it was discontinued. I did not have the time to do a full check on my compatibility list.
It’s here for anyone that needs to check if a game runs. That version is based on 0.53, but 0.55 should work obviously.
https://netlogin.home.xs4all.nl/pspkvm/pspkvm.htm
Does the Opera Mini server still work with version 3? That was easily my favorite version of OM when I had my J2ME phones.