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Web Browsers on Video Game Consoles

vale.rocks

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Re: Web Browsers on Video Game Consoles

#31

Post by [deleted] »

KeplerBoy wrote: post #5
lxgr wrote: post #3

The browser on the Wii was amazing. I didn't use it all that often, but I was a big Opera fan back in the day, and it was amazing to see how well their engine scaled to all kinds of systems. As far as I remember, there were even some games that supported the Wiimote natively? I don't remember if this was via Flash or Javascript, but there seems to be a library for the latter: https://github.com/ryanmcgrath/wii-js I u…

I bought the NDS version back in the day and let me tell you it was not worth the 40€ of my pocket money.

[deleted]

Re: Web Browsers on Video Game Consoles

#32

Post by taneq »

Uncle_Brumpus wrote: post #20
alhadrad wrote: post #6

My first experience with porn was the Dreamcast browser.

It's funny that this was my first thought, too. I am sure game console browsers were an entry point for whole generations of kids. Mine WOULD have been through the Dreamcast, but because my parents were early adopters of Broadband internet, we never had a dial-up connection to hook the modem up to. I did a bit of curious searching on the family PC, but one time I forgot to wipe the history, and the game was up. The f…

> I did a bit of curious searching on the family PC, but one time I forgot to wipe the history, and the game was up.

Hahaha that takes me back to the time my friend got hold of a 3.5” floppy with some Playboy pics on it, and then called me in a panic because Windows had helpfully added them to the “recent files” list and he couldn’t figure out how to clear it.

Re: Web Browsers on Video Game Consoles

#33

Post by alhadrad »

taneq wrote: post #32
Uncle_Brumpus wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny that this was my first thought, too. I am sure game console browsers were an entry point for whole generations of kids. Mine WOULD have been through the Dreamcast, but because my parents were early adopters of Broadband internet, we never had a dial-up connection to hook the modem up to. I did a bit of curious searching on the family PC, but one time I forgot to wipe the history, and the game was up. The f…

> I did a bit of curious searching on the family PC, but one time I forgot to wipe the history, and the game was up. Hahaha that takes me back to the time my friend got hold of a 3.5” floppy with some Playboy pics on it, and then called me in a panic because Windows had helpfully added them to the “recent files” list and he couldn’t figure out how to clear it.

I would like to understand the pedigree of those images. Someone had to go through an awful LOT of trouble to save them to a floppy... This leaves a lot of open questions. Scanners at the time were technological torture apparatus.

Re: Web Browsers on Video Game Consoles

#34

Post by regus »

I used to use my Dreamcast to browse the web. I had bought the keyboard and mouse peripherals to play Quake 3, and they worked with the browser. Back then I would use a variety of free dial up internet providers. Once the free trial ran out I would have to find another. This was in addition to the Internet that my parents were paying for.

Re: Web Browsers on Video Game Consoles

#37

Post by 7777332215 »

mattcasmith wrote: post #21

I was amazed recently by how locked down the hidden PlayStation 5 browser is. You can’t access it as an app through the dashboard, but it appears if you click a URL from a message. So people were sending themselves “google[.]com”, clicking, and enjoying web access. But it seems Sony have even clamped down on that. I sent a message to myself recently, the link wasn’t clickable, and I got a message to say my PlayStatio…

They are used to exploit known vulns to get arbitrary read write, calls. For cheating. Both freebsd kernel exploits and browser exploits.

Re: Web Browsers on Video Game Consoles

#38

Post by embedding-shape »

7777332215 wrote: post #37
mattcasmith wrote: post #21

I was amazed recently by how locked down the hidden PlayStation 5 browser is. You can’t access it as an app through the dashboard, but it appears if you click a URL from a message. So people were sending themselves “google[.]com”, clicking, and enjoying web access. But it seems Sony have even clamped down on that. I sent a message to myself recently, the link wasn’t clickable, and I got a message to say my PlayStatio…

They are used to exploit known vulns to get arbitrary read write, calls. For cheating. Both freebsd kernel exploits and browser exploits.

Also for rooting the console, which makes it way easier to run cracked games. I think I saw a browser being used for getting root access first with PS3 unless I misremember.

Re: Web Browsers on Video Game Consoles

#40

Post by robin_reala »

I was chatting to the author and it turned out that it’s not common knowledge that Dreamkey supported the Dreamcast light gun. You used the d-pad on the back to scroll, then shot links to navigate. I think this interaction method deserves a resurrection!
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