Peggle on the PSP

I managed to bring one of my favourite games, Peggle, onto one of my favourite gadgets, the Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP). If you don’t know Peggle, do yourself a favour and download the demo, it is an awesome little game!

But, Peggle was never released for the PSP!

There will be a release for the Nintendo DS (NDS, another of my favourite gadgets) later this year, but not everybody has a NDS, and it isn’t out yet. There are also releases for Windows, Mac OS, iPod, and mobile phones.

So, how did I manage to run Peggle on my PSP?

Well, there is a software for the PSP called PSPKVM which is, no surprise here, a KVM (Kilobyte Virtual Machine) for the PSP. A KVM is a small (thus Kilobyte) application that allows the execution of certain Java programs. Especially Java Programs made for mobile phones. Which, as mentioned above, includes Peggle.

For computer-savvy people those links should be enough. For the rest of you, here goes a little Tutorial:

So, all you need is a homebrew enabled PSP, the PSPKVM version for your PSP and a mobile phone version of Peggle (the 240×320 version for Series 60 works fine for me). I can’t help you with the last one, you might be able to buy it, if not, Google is your friend.

Now, put the .jar or .jad (the Java-file) file somewhere on your PSP Memory Stick (I created a new directory called JAVA) and remember that place. Extract the PSPKVM-archive you downloaded and put the pspkvm directory in the PSP/GAME or PSP/GAME150 directory (depending on the Firmware your PSP runs on) of your PSP Memory Stick.

Now go to the Games menu on the PSP and run PSPKVM.

Choose “Find Applications”, then “Install from memory stick (ms0:/)”, then navigate to the directory where you put the Java-file and choose the file (in PSPKVM the Circle-button acts as “confirm”-button, not the Cross-button).

In the next dialog scroll down till you see the option “Nokia (320*240, CW90)” (almost at the end of the list) and choose it. This will rotate the game 90 degrees clockwise, otherwise it won’t completely fit on the PSP screen and will be scaled down (actually, now it will be slightly scaled up, but at least you won’t lose any details this way).

Now move the cursor to Peggle and press the Start-button and in the appearing menu choose the last option “Select device”. There you can set up the controls for the game, for a comfortable control while holding the PSP 90 degrees rotated, I recommend setting “UP” to “UP”, “DOWN” to “DOWN”, “SELECT” to “RIGHT”, “SOFT1″ to “ANALOG UP” and “SOFT2″ to “ANALOG DOWN”. Press the Start-button to leave the menu.

To play Peggle just select it in the menu and press the Circle-button. Now you can use the Up- and Down-buttons for left and right (because you hold the PSP rotated by 90 degrees, remember?) the Right-button (now facing up) for “Select” or “Shoot”, and pushing the analog nub up (which is now left) works as the left phone-button and pushing it down (a.k.a. right) as the right phone-button (you know those buttons. Every phone has them; the phone buttons).

If that confuses you right now, just try it out, you will understand it when you see it.

Troubleshooting:

Should Peggle refuse to run (you might see a “No entry” sign), try another Device in the “Select device” menu.

There you can also change the controls to something more to your liking. Just use your common sense.

I hope I could help you with this, I sure have great fun with Peggle and other Java games on my PSP!

P.S.: If you have questions, use the comment function. But don’t ask me how to run homebrew on your PSP or where to get a “free” version of Peggle. Use Google or the search engine of your choice.

P.P.S.: Sorry, no screenshots or videos yet, I don’t have the necessary equipment.