Games - Net Yaroze

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Net Yaroze is a development kit for the PlayStation video game console. It was a promotion by Sony Computer Entertainment to computer programming hobbyists in 1997. Yaroze, pronounced "ya row zei", means "Let's do it together!" or "Let's work together!".

For about $750 USD, the Net Yaroze package would contain a special black-coloured 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-98 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, for Japan (DTL-H3000), USA (DTL-H3001), and Europe plus Australia (DTL-H3002). The DTL-H3002 boots in PAL mode, while the others boot in NTSC mode. There are further differences between the Japanese kit and the others; presumably the manuals come in Japanese, the software for Japanese PC is included, and the discs and access card sticker have different printing. The Japanese version is sometimes officially 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, at least in the UK, in France (Epita) and in Japan.

The European Net Yaroze kit contains the following items:

1 Net Yaroze PlayStation console (black with fuzzy texture)
2 PlayStation controllers (black with fuzzy texture)
1 AC power cord (with UK plug; in France an AC adapter was also included)
1 AV cable
1 euro 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

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.

Many games made by hobbyists on the Net Yaroze were released on various demo discs that came along with the Official PlayStation Magazine from the late 1990s up to 2004. The last Official PlayStation Magazine UK 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.

The Game Developer UK Competition, organized by Scottish Enterprise in collaboration with the Scottish Games Alliance, Sony and Edge UK in 1998, accepted Net Yaroze entries; the overall winner was Chris Chadwick for his game Blitter Boy: Operation Monster Mall.

Contrary to popular belief, the Net Yaroze was neither the only nor the first official consumer console development kit. The PC-Engine Develo predates it, and the WonderWitch followed it. The GP32 could run user programs out of the box.

The Net Yaroze had no direct successor on the PlayStation 2 platform, but Sony's PS2 Linux for it is similar in its appeal to hobbyists and amateur developers.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Net Yaroze ]

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