PlayStation Broadband Navigator (also referred to as BB Navigator and PSBBN) is software for Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese PlayStation 2

PlayStation 2

The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...

 consoles that formats a hard disk

Hard disk

A hard disk drive is a non-volatile, random access digital magnetic data storage device. It features rotating rigid platters on a motor-driven spindle within a protective enclosure. Data is magnetically read from and written to the platter by read/write heads that float on a film of air above the...

 drive for use with those consoles and provides an interface for manipulating data on that hard disk drive. It only works with official PlayStation 2 HDD

PlayStation 2 Expansion Bay

The PlayStation 2 Expansion Bay is a 3.5" drive bay introduced with the model 30000 and 50000 PlayStation 2 designed for the network adaptor and internal hard disk drive...

 units.

Apparently the PlayStation Broadband Navigator has a more strict region lock on it than normal PlayStation 2 software, as the software will only boot on NTSC-J

NTSC

NTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...

 systems with a model number ending in 0, meaning they are sold in Japan, making the software unusable on Korea

Korea

Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...

n and Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

n NTSC-J PlayStation 2 consoles.

Versions

• PSBBN version 0.10 Prerelease was released and bundled with Japanese PlayStation 2 BB Units (Network Adaptor and HDD bundle packs) in early 2002, replacing HDD Utility Disc
  HDD Utility Disc
  HDD Utility Disc is software to format a hard disk drive for use in a PlayStation 2 console. It only works with the official PlayStation 2 HDD unit. It makes the HDD appear in the PlayStation 2 Browser on the same screen that game discs, video DVDs, music CDs, and Memory Cards appear.HDD Utility...
  
   1.00. It lacked the ability to store and manage game saves on the HDD that HDD Utility Disc had.

• PSBBN version 0.20 was released in late 2002. It added functions to the interface of the software, including the ability to update itself to new versions over a broadband internet connection and management for game saves.

• PSBBN version 0.30 was released in mid-2003. It added access to Sony's feega service (which is used to bill the monthly fee for some online games) and an e-mail
  E-mail
  Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
  
   program. Version 0.31 was released in late 2003, fixing an exploit.

• PSBBN version 0.32 was released in early 2004, and is the current version as of October 8, 2005. The only change appears to be the removal of the Audio Player option inside the Music Channel, which allows to transfer music between the HDD and a MiniDisc player in earlier PSBBN versions.

Features

PlayStation Broadband Navigator offers many features that are not available with the original HDD Utility Disc software. Some Japanese releases take advantage of the features, and may even require a specific version (or higher) of the software.

• The features of the software include:
  1. Game Channel
     • Access to online sites, similar to web pages, for various ISPs and software publishers (only in version 0.20 and higher)
       • Downloadable game demos or full games (ex. Pop'n Taisen Puzzle-dama Online demo, Star Soldier BB full game, Milon's Secret Castle full game)
       • Downloadable picture and movie files
       • Information pages on past, current, and future releases and services
     • A launching point for bootable games installed to the HDD
  2. NetFront 3.0, a Linux
     Linux
     Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
     
     -based web browser
  3. Music Channel
     • Provides a tool to convert an audio CD to audio files on the HDD
     • Provides an organization system for audio files stored on the HDD and a means to play them
     • Provides a means to transfer audio files between a MiniDisc player and the HDD over a USB connection (only in versions 0.20 through 0.31)
  4. Photo Channel
     • Provides an organization system for picture files stored on the HDD and a means to view them
     • Provides a means to transfer picture files between USB devices (ex. digital cameras, USB flash drives, a PlayStation Portable) and the HDD
  5. Movie Channel
     • Provides an organization system for video files stored on the HDD and a means to view them
  6. feega account management (only in versions 0.30 and up; required for Net de Bomberman and Minna no Golf Online)

Non-Japanese Release

Sony Computer Entertainment America released the HDD on March 23, 2004 with HDD Utility Disc 1.01 and bundled with Final Fantasy XI

Final Fantasy XI

, also known as Final Fantasy XI Online, is a MMORPG developed and published by Square as part of the Final Fantasy series. It was released in Japan on Sony's PlayStation 2 on May 16, 2002, and was released for Microsoft's Windows-based personal computers in November 2002...

. Consumers that knew about PlayStation Broadband Navigator were confused as to why it wasn't included with the HDD Utility Disc. SCEA's response was always that PlayStation Broadband Navigator would be released in North America "at a later date." This date now appears to be never in light that SCEA

SCEA

SCEA can refer to:* Sun Certified Enterprise Architect, a professional certification* Sony Computer Entertainment of America, the American division of Sony Computer Entertainment* Society of Cost Estimating and Analysis* Single Choice Early Action...

 has switched to only manufacturing the slim, HDD-incompatible PlayStation2 models and stopping manufacture of HDD units for their region.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 and Sony Computer Entertainment Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 never released the HDD outside of the Linux Kit before switching to only manufacturing the slim PlayStation2 model, so it appears that neither HDD Utility Disc or PlayStation Broadband Navigator will be released in those regions.

Compatible Software

A few games require PlayStation Broadband Navigator either for certain features to work, or for the game to work at all.

• Known games are:
  1. Energy Airforce (Taito
     Taito Corporation
     The is a Japanese publisher of video game software and arcade hardware wholly owned by publisher Square Enix. Taito has their headquarters in the Shinjuku Bunka Quint Building in Yoyogi, Shibuya, Tokyo, sharing the facility with its parent company....
     
     )
     • Lets players replace in-game music with music stored on the HDD (PSBBN 0.20 or higher)
  2. Minna no Golf Online (Sony Computer Entertainment) - Online servers no longer active
     • Requires a feega account (PSBBN 0.30 or higher)
  3. Net de Bomberman (Hudson) - Online servers no longer active
     • Requires a feega account (PSBBN 0.30 or higher)

External links

• Unofficial English Manual for PSBBN 0.20-0.32
• Official SCEA PlayStation2 HDD Message Board (Closed as of June 14, 2005)