Today I'd like to present this interesting tech demo/sample made by Sony Computer Entertainment in 2003. It's called Moonball, or Big Bang Bang if you own the UMD, of which we know of only one. From the source code of this tech demo we get the creation date of 9/22/2003, making it some of the earliest known executable code for the PSP. For some reason the UMD that this came from was made late in 2004, which begs the question, why? Originally the sample was made for testing PSP game formatting, and PSP graphics. However it doesn't make much sence that they would need a pressed UMD of such a demo later in 2004 closer to the launch. So then, why keep bringing up the 2003 date? Changes weren't seen in the source code until 6/08/2005, well after this UMD was made. My thinking is the UMD version still uses the same source and is still basically the same demo as they made it in September of 2003, but just on a different medium of testing. It's interesting and debateable to say the least. As for the tech demo itself, it's fairly simple, with the whole UMD weighing in at 1.53MB, and that isn't a typo. This is possibly the smallest UMD we've ever found. Starting the game brings us to the main screen, and pressing start will start the game. From there we have a crosshair to know where we're shooting, and multi-colored balls that fly up from the water below. The goal is to shoot down all of the balls, although doing so doesn't give you a different result than if you missed some. As the game goes on a detailed moon will sweep over the sky from left to right, giving the demo it's name. Pressing the select button at any time ends the games process and crashes the PSP. That's really it for it, a sample indeed. Here is a video of Moonball in action on my newly overhauled Proto & Knuckles channel. Don't forget to subscribe for more obscure videos in the future! Thanks guys. Also, here's an awesome bonus gallery of Moonball (Big Bang Bang) being played on my PSP Testing Tool using the original UMD http://imgur.com/a/iQ2vS Special thanks to @Paulweeze71 for this.
Wow, cool to see such an early sample. Do you know which month "late 2004" is? Just curious, since it launched in December, wondering how close to the launch they made this UMD.
...Huh. Why could they possibly want such an early and simple demo be burnt to a UMD a month before the launch. I mean, maybe this was something included with a earlyish developer kit to give a new dev a feel for what a UMD is? Ok that sounds farfetched, but this really is a strange UMD to exist.
This is what I’ve been trying to get my head around since the day I got the UMD. Also the disc code used for it falls in line with other internally used SCE UMDs, so there is that. Disc code starts with “UTST”. @subbie you know anything?
Most likely the umd is due to early production runs to make sure everything works. Far as I remember most PSP launch titles in japan cut it super close to launch for their print runs. So nothing really looks out of the norm to me. Sadly I don't remember what UTST means but I do think I've heard of it before. It's probably a code given for pre-prod or demo disc but I don't remember.
Wow, they really were cutting it close! I don't remember there being a game shortage at launch, but then again, I couldn't get a system until January. The consoles themselves were hard to get at launch, and I don't remember looking for games until I was able to actually get the console.
Yeah if memory serves me correctly. I don't think there were many units available in December for japan. Also really for game printing manufacturing time is only 2 weeks for a print run if memory serves me correctly. So they could have released more prints through out the month as well.
I've released this build - https://assemblergames.com/threads/psp-moonball-psp-tech-demo-utst-99104.67829/
It could've also been used to test out the UMD Battery life usage, since they also had a battery emulator to go along with it. It seems like a pretty active demo to do an extensive test of the graphics chip. If the UMD was pressed in November 2004, then the intended SDK version might've been 1.0.0 -> 1.0.3. Since the source code version was based around 2003, then it could be that it came from an early SDK version like 0.1-0.3. There was an early point in time when essential PSP system modules were being developed from PS2 IOP hardware i.e. LoadCore / LoadExec.
Seems quite a bit like Duck Hunt. Very cool discovery. What caught me was that it seems to be some of the earliest code.
