Sega Star Gazing Program For PSP

[Clownzilla]

I just ran across this PSP program (not a game) made by Sega. Apparently, it's used with the PSP GPS to find out what star constellations and space objects you are looking up at. I would think this would do great in the USA market. What is keeping developers from bringing us non-gaming applications like this to the USA?

Here is the link: http://homestar.sega.jp/

Oops! I misspeled gazing and can't change it!

[Drexel923]

Oops! I misspeled gazing and can't change it!

Fixed it for you.

In the future, all you have to do is double click next to the subject of your thread in the main forum and you can edit the text.

[Clownzilla]

Thanks

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

As someone who would gladly build a backyard observatory if he had the money to, I think it's a great idea...however, there seems a be a mindset in the U.S. that you can't possibly use a device associated with gaming for anything that isn't gaming. Even though some handhelds now have media player capabilities built in, the same thing applies - entertainment devices can't possibly be used for serious business. Or at least that perception exists with the software vendors; I think the end users know better. But hey, this isn't about what we want.

Oh. Wait a minute.

[Clownzilla]

As someone who would gladly build a backyard observatory if he had the money to, I think it's a great idea...however, there seems a be a mindset in the U.S. that you can't possibly use a device associated with gaming for anything that isn't gaming. Even though some handhelds now have media player capabilities built in, the same thing applies - entertainment devices can't possibly be used for serious business. Or at least that perception exists with the software vendors; I think the end users know better. But hey, this isn't about what we want.

Oh. Wait a minute.

Well, like you said, the end users know what they want but the vendors don't understand the market. I'm tired of Sony wasting their time trying to convince the public to buy their system instead on the DS because they are a "whole media experience", while they won't release the essential software to make it a "whole media experience". The UMD movie idea was dumb and didn't make sense! That is why it failed! I can almost guarantee Sony that software like this would sale + make a profit. Now, they are not going to make a killing off one piece of software like this, but they will make a profit. If they repeat this success several times, then they will be WAY in the black. Another piece of software like this that I found at Play-Asia was a golfing program for the PSP that functions with the GPS to show you exactly where you are on the coarse, how far you are from the hole, where hazards are, etc (it had maps of all the golf courses in Japan). Now, this idea is GREAT (and made by Sony). Golfing is pretty popular in the states, and if they advertised in the right places, the relatively wealthy golf market would buy a PSP just for this. Again, they would not make a "killing", but they would make a healthy profit.
All by utilizing the "whole media experience".

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

Funny. I hadn't heard of this program before, but I'm actually just beginning devlopment of a DS homebrew game which will include a star chart. The point of the game is to collect stars and add them to the chart, so once the player has completed a section of the sky, he'll be able to have an interactive star chart.

This doesn't require GPS, you only need to know the date, time and lattitude of the user. Date and time will come from the DS itself, so the user will only have to enter their latitude.

Of course, I'm sure Sega's version is a lot more fully featured than mine will be, but mine's free and it's going to be a really cool game, too.


...word is bondage...

[BocoDragon]

I have a million dollar idea: Make a "game" that uses the PSP GPS to go Geocaching. You can go to locations and mark them down, and other "players" can use their PSPs to find this location. You could even encourage people to leave a treasure at the co-ordinates and there would be a secret gift exchange.

Make it a game somehow... you could have sudden time limits encouraging you to get to a waypoint quickly... you could even have "digital pursuers" after your virtual character, encouraging you to move in the real world! Fun, exercise, exploration.

It would be the next Pokemon... for adults!

[boatofcar]

Is the PSP GPS unit even available in the west?