Net Yaroze
Encyclopedia
The is a development kit for the PlayStation
video game console
. It was a promotion by Sony Computer Entertainment
to computer programming
hobbyists in 1997. Yarōze means "Let's do it together!".
For about $750 USD
, the Net Yaroze package would contain a special black-colored debugging PlayStation unit with documentation, software, and no regional lockout
. The user still had to provide a personal computer (IBM-PC
or Macintosh; NEC PC-9801 was also supported in Japan) to write the computer code, compile it, and send the program to the PlayStation.
While without regional lockout, the Net Yaroze console exists in three variations; one for Japan, one for North America and one for Europe/Australia. The Europe/Australia version boots in PAL mode, while the others boot in NTSC mode. There are further differences between the Japanese kit and the others; the manuals come in Japanese, the software for Japanese PCs is included, and the discs and access card sticker have different printing. The Japanese version is sometimes unofficially referred to as DTL-3000 rather than DTL-H3000.
The Net Yaroze was only available for purchase by mail order; but Sony also provided it to universities in the UK, France (Epita) and Japan.
The European Net Yaroze kit contains the following items:
Additionally, CodeWarrior
was ported for the Net Yaroze. Lightwave 3D was as well but many of its features were impractical with only 3.5MB of RAM
.
The Net Yaroze lacks many of the features the full PlayStation developers' suite provides, such as advanced hardware/software tools and Sony's extensive technical support (including live telephone support). Dedicated Usenet groups, with access restricted to Net Yaroze members, were maintained by Sony; homepage hosting was also provided. The access was restricted according to the kit's region of origin, which made collaboration between users in different territories impractical.
Another shortfall of the Net Yaroze was the fact that all games created using it had to fit within the device memory, which was a meager 3.5MB, and not enough to enable users to code complex games.
Many games made by hobbyists on the Net Yaroze were released on various demo discs that came along with the Official UK PlayStation Magazine (and other official PlayStation magazines around Europe) from December 1997 up to March 2004. The last Official UK PlayStation Magazine issue, number 108, featured a compilation with many Net Yaroze games. A regular PlayStation disc, featuring a number of user-developed games, was produced by SCEE and sent to PAL zone Yaroze owners.
Some of these games were based on arcade classics such as Mr. Do and Puzzle Bobble
, while others (e.g. Time Slip) were illustrations of a novel concept. The Game Developer UK Competition, organized by Scottish Enterprise
in collaboration with the Scottish Games Alliance, Sony and Edge
in 1998, accepted Net Yaroze entries; the overall winner was Chris Chadwick for his game Blitter Boy: Operation Monster Mall. An updated version of Time Slip was later released for Xbox Indie Games
in February 2011.
Contrary to popular belief, the Net Yaroze was neither the first nor only official consumer console development kit. The PC-Engine Develo
predates it, and the WonderWitch
followed it. The GP32
can run user programs out of the box. Finally, many earlier consoles (Astrocade, Famicom
…) offered limited programming capabilities with BASIC
dialects.
The Net Yaroze had no direct successor on the PlayStation 2
platform, but Sony's Linux for PlayStation 2 is similar in its appeal to hobbyists and amateur developers, although the demo disk that was bundled with the system on release had an application called Yabasic
and allowed users to program in basic and run on the PlayStation 2 system, it came preloaded with some simple games and users could save their programs to the memory card.
Prior to the 3.21 firmware update on April 1, 2010, the PlayStation 3
(only the "fat" version, Linux could never be installed on the "slim" version) allowed versions of Linux to be installed and some Linux programming was possible, similar to the PS2. However, access to the RSX graphics chip was prohibited, so games had to be written in software using only the CPU.
PlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
video game console
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
. It was a promotion by Sony Computer Entertainment
Sony Computer Entertainment
Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. is a major video game company specializing in a variety of areas in the video game industry, and is a wholly owned subsidiary and part of the Consumer Products & Services Group of Sony...
to computer programming
Computer programming
Computer programming is the process of designing, writing, testing, debugging, and maintaining the source code of computer programs. This source code is written in one or more programming languages. The purpose of programming is to create a program that performs specific operations or exhibits a...
hobbyists in 1997. Yarōze means "Let's do it together!".
For about $750 USD
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
, the Net Yaroze package would contain a special black-colored debugging PlayStation unit with documentation, software, and no regional lockout
Regional lockout
Regional lockout is the programming practice, code, chip, or physical barrier used to prevent the playing of media designed for a device from the country where it is marketed on the version of the same device marketed in another country.-Video games:...
. The user still had to provide a personal computer (IBM-PC
IBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC architecture, facilitated by various manufacturers' ability to...
or Macintosh; NEC PC-9801 was also supported in Japan) to write the computer code, compile it, and send the program to the PlayStation.
While without regional lockout, the Net Yaroze console exists in three variations; one for Japan, one for North America and one for Europe/Australia. The Europe/Australia version boots in PAL mode, while the others boot in NTSC mode. There are further differences between the Japanese kit and the others; the manuals come in Japanese, the software for Japanese PCs is included, and the discs and access card sticker have different printing. The Japanese version is sometimes unofficially referred to as DTL-3000 rather than DTL-H3000.
The Net Yaroze was only available for purchase by mail order; but Sony also provided it to universities in the UK, France (Epita) and Japan.
The European Net Yaroze kit contains the following items:
- 1 Net Yaroze PlayStation console (black matte texture)
- 2 PlayStation controllers (black matte texture)
- 1 AC power cord (with UK plug; in France an AC adapter was also included)
- 1 AV cable
- 1 European AV adapter
- 1 Net Yaroze boot disc (A greenish PlayStation CD-ROM)
- 1 Net Yaroze software development disc (A CD-ROM containing development tools for PC)
- 1 access card (a black memory card-like dongle, required for booting in remote-controlled mode), with sticker
- 1 communications cable (a serial cable used to link the console and the computer)
- 1 "Start Up Guide" manual
- 1 "Library Reference" manual
- 1 "User Guide" manual
Additionally, CodeWarrior
CodeWarrior
CodeWarrior is an integrated development environment for the creation of software that runs on a number of embedded systems. Prior to the acquisition of the product by Freescale Semiconductor, versions existed for Macintosh, Microsoft Windows, Linux, Solaris, PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube,...
was ported for the Net Yaroze. Lightwave 3D was as well but many of its features were impractical with only 3.5MB of RAM
Ram
-Animals:*Ram, an uncastrated male sheep*Ram cichlid, a species of freshwater fish endemic to Colombia and Venezuela-Military:*Battering ram*Ramming, a military tactic in which one vehicle runs into another...
.
The Net Yaroze lacks many of the features the full PlayStation developers' suite provides, such as advanced hardware/software tools and Sony's extensive technical support (including live telephone support). Dedicated Usenet groups, with access restricted to Net Yaroze members, were maintained by Sony; homepage hosting was also provided. The access was restricted according to the kit's region of origin, which made collaboration between users in different territories impractical.
Another shortfall of the Net Yaroze was the fact that all games created using it had to fit within the device memory, which was a meager 3.5MB, and not enough to enable users to code complex games.
Many games made by hobbyists on the Net Yaroze were released on various demo discs that came along with the Official UK PlayStation Magazine (and other official PlayStation magazines around Europe) from December 1997 up to March 2004. The last Official UK PlayStation Magazine issue, number 108, featured a compilation with many Net Yaroze games. A regular PlayStation disc, featuring a number of user-developed games, was produced by SCEE and sent to PAL zone Yaroze owners.
Some of these games were based on arcade classics such as Mr. Do and Puzzle Bobble
Puzzle Bobble
, also known as Bust-a-Move, is a 1994 arcade puzzle game created by Taito Corporation, based on Taito's popular 1986 arcade game Bubble Bobble, featuring characters and themes from the original...
, while others (e.g. Time Slip) were illustrations of a novel concept. The Game Developer UK Competition, organized by Scottish Enterprise
Scottish Enterprise
Scottish Enterprise is a sponsored non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government which encourages economic development, enterprise, innovation and investment in business...
in collaboration with the Scottish Games Alliance, Sony and Edge
Edge (magazine)
Edge is a multi-format computer and video game magazine published by Future Publishing in the United Kingdom. It is known for its industry contacts, editorial stance, distinctive anonymous third-person writing style, yearly awards and longevity....
in 1998, accepted Net Yaroze entries; the overall winner was Chris Chadwick for his game Blitter Boy: Operation Monster Mall. An updated version of Time Slip was later released for Xbox Indie Games
Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade is a type of video game download distribution available primarily in a section of the Xbox Live Marketplace, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360, that focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent game developers...
in February 2011.
Contrary to popular belief, the Net Yaroze was neither the first nor only official consumer console development kit. The PC-Engine Develo
Develo
The Develo is an official Japanese PC Engine hobbyist development kit for NEC's console. It includes a C compiler and an assembler. Some games made with this kit were published on demo discs, such as Freesbee John....
predates it, and the WonderWitch
WonderWitch
The WonderWitch is an official hobbyist development kit for Bandai's WonderSwan console. It was available only by mail order to Japanese residents. Everything related to the WonderWitch was handled by Qute....
followed it. The GP32
GP32
The GP32 is a handheld game console developed by the Korean company Game Park. It was released on November 23, 2001, in South Korea only.- Overview :The GP32 is based on a 133 MHz ARM CPU and 8 MB of RAM...
can run user programs out of the box. Finally, many earlier consoles (Astrocade, Famicom
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
…) offered limited programming capabilities with BASIC
BASIC
BASIC is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages whose design philosophy emphasizes ease of use - the name is an acronym from Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code....
dialects.
The Net Yaroze had no direct successor on the PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
platform, but Sony's Linux for PlayStation 2 is similar in its appeal to hobbyists and amateur developers, although the demo disk that was bundled with the system on release had an application called Yabasic
Yabasic
Yabasic is a free and open source BASIC interpreter for Windows and Unix platforms. Yabasic was originally developed by Marc-Oliver Ihm, who released the last stable version 2.763 in 2005. As a continuation of the project, version 3 is now developed by a team centered around Pedro Sá and Thomas...
and allowed users to program in basic and run on the PlayStation 2 system, it came preloaded with some simple games and users could save their programs to the memory card.
Prior to the 3.21 firmware update on April 1, 2010, the PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
(only the "fat" version, Linux could never be installed on the "slim" version) allowed versions of Linux to be installed and some Linux programming was possible, similar to the PS2. However, access to the RSX graphics chip was prohibited, so games had to be written in software using only the CPU.