Sega Nerds

Homestar Portable: Star gazing for your PSP

Posted by Graham. Filed under G, Sony PSP. Tagged with Fan Stuff, Sega Toys.

Ok to be perfectly honest I’m not entirely sure what this is…or what to make of it. I first heard about it from the DigiPress forums, so kudos to the guy that found it.

I have tried to do some ‘research’ on the product, but the websites I viewed were all in Japanese and the Google translator failed me miserably, (It’s amazing how most Japanese sites it can translate- then suddenly not this one, it’s like the Japanese got annoyed and re-wrote their language to annoy western Google users).

Anyway the best I can gather from this is that it is for the Sony PSP, but it’s not a game. It’s a piece of software that helps you ‘read’ the nights sky. By utilising the PSPs GPS unit (I had no idea the PSP had one until now!) it can tell where you are and what constellations are above you…or that is my understanding at least.

This is clearly not for gamers at all. But it is very handy for any star gazers out there. Rather than using large paper star maps or even a laptop, all they need now is a telescope (or if you are cheap - binoculars), a pen and paper (for doodling or writing important notes down) and a decent, light-weight PSP! While laptops may be more powerful and can have some truly decent software on them for star gazing, they are also expensive and the software tends to be pricey too (for a half decent package), so now and budding star gazers, who can’t afford the high-tech equipment can use their PSP to this great advantage!

Note: The above images are full size- as they were on the official site.

Check out the official Homestar site here. If for nothing else, go for the lovely music they have. I know it’s actually a famous piece, but it’s very relaxing.

And you can purchase Homestar from SegaDirect.jp

You can even get a Homestar compass to help your findings.

-Also while looking into this and attempting to read oriental signs of the Japanese language (Kanji- is that it?) I did stumble across something which I think may be used in conjunction with this PSP package- or possibly something else entirely.

It’s from Sega Toys, and it is also called Homestar. From what I can gather from the images on the site, (and a short video), it seems to be like a little pod- no bigger than a hand, which projects images of star constellations into your living room. So in effect one can have their very own planetarium in their home!

Check out this little gizmo at the SegaToys site.

Note: I really should emphasize that this is mainly guess work. I really have no idea how to read Japanese, and as I say the Google translator wasn’t working for me on this occasion. So if anyone else has better luck, and can translate the sites involved and finds something entirely different- please do tell us!

[Source: Homestar main site via DigitalPress forums and Sega Toys]