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Web Browsers on Video Game Consoles

vale.rocks

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Re: Web Browsers on Video Game Consoles

#61

Post by EvanAnderson »

oldnetguy wrote: post #14

If they brought up CDI and Pippin, then why leave out Commodore CDTV and CD32?

My stock CD32 doesn't have any connectivity that would support a browser. Adding an SX-1 module would make the unit a lot like an Amiga 1200 in a silly case w/ a CD-ROM drive, but you'd be limited to serial connectivity and SLIP/PPP (since there's no PCMCIA slot-- the typical method of adding Ethernet connectivity to an A1200).

I didn't have a CDTV so I can't comment on the hardware specifics. If I remember right it's an Amiga 500 (or 500+?) in a funny case w/ a CD-ROM and would suffer from the same lack of connectivity as the CD32.

Re: Web Browsers on Video Game Consoles

#62

Post by tantalor »

hilariously wrote: post #48
baumschubser wrote: post #44

Through this article, I guess I am one of today's lucky 10k to learn about anchor links to text like https://vale.rocks/posts/game-console-browsers#:~:text=SurfE...

It's only a few years old and cross browser support hasn't been amazing until lately so most people do not know about it at all.

https://caniuse.com/mdn-html_elements_a_text_fragments

First support was Chrome 80 (Feb 2020) and Opera 67 (Mar 2020).

Safari picked it up in 2022. Firefox in 2024.

Re: Web Browsers on Video Game Consoles

#63

Post by Rohansi »

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.

Weird to see this is still a thing on the latest console generation. Xbox runs software under HyperV which should make exploitation difficult

Re: Web Browsers on Video Game Consoles

#64

Post by reaperducer »

PSP had an excellent browser. I tired to use it a few months ago, and it won't connect to any current wifi networks.

Which is a shame, because the PSP also had an excellent RSS reader. These days I could see me using it as a dedicated RSS device.

Re: Web Browsers on Video Game Consoles

#66

Post by coretx »

mattcasmith wrote: post #27
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I got a message to say my PlayStation Network account had received a warning and could be suspended if I did it again! What?!? Really? Did they cite what rule you had violated?

“Sharing malicious URLs, including those that may harm another player.” The URL was google[.]com.

It's still a wise idea to take it seriously. Many years ago, a then 17 y/o old ( German ) friend of mine did mitm on his own console in order to replace a video stream in ps home, recorded it for youtube/laughs. Not much later he was SWATed by the german police as if he was some kind of terrorist. His parents got a heart attack. Next he received financial death threats from a ultra expensive UK based law firm send by Sony.

Re: Web Browsers on Video Game Consoles

#68

Post by mrguyorama »

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.

I ended up getting that "Not really a flashcart" Datel DS flashcart, and I loaded it up with DSOrganize, a homebrew "OS"

https://www.gamebrew.org/wiki/DSOrganize

It had a semi functional web browser included, without the RAM expansion cart! It somehow managed to browse most simple web pages on the inbuilt RAM from a hobbyist!

It also had an IRC client, and that was my introduction to IRC

And Internet Radio! You could point it at an internet radio station with a special "playlist" file that had a URL, so that's how I helped feed my Technobase.fm addiction at the time, before smartphones. I could carry around my DS and listen to internet radio!

Re: Web Browsers on Video Game Consoles

#70

Post by rocktronica »

ForHackernews wrote: post #54

Surprised to see no mention of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game.com a terrible portable handheld that offered a 14.4 kbit/s modem cartridge.

Yeah, that's the first thing I thought of too. It came out in 1997 and predates all the Game Boy stuff. IIRC there was a "Game Boy don't TOUCH the net!" marketing campaign but I can't seem to find find it now. The commercial is a fun nostalgia trip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-ON6wxHtUE

Even if you got the extra modem gear, tho, the browser was text-only. I doubt many kids got it; I did not.

It was ambitious of Tiger (a movie-tie-in LCD game company) to try to rival the big dogs, and it makes sense but is a shame it couldn't. I'm sure there's a lesson in there somewhere.

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