The PSP Article 2 : Introduction to the HomeBrew Scene!

Hi all! Once again, I’m back to continue the article on the PSP, a wonderful device that I shared about in Article 1 of the PSP Articles! If you are new to the blog, this is what I wrote earlier.

https://stylez.wordpress.com/2007/07/09/the-psp-article-1-introduction-to-the-psp-scene/

In Article 2, I will be introducing different homebrews that would work on the PSP, but at the same time, I will bring you along how the PSP homebrew community can work well with the user(which is you! who is reading the article), according to what type of PSP the user has.

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Before we begin, let’s start by checking your PSP firmware version. It is important to know whether your PSP can support homebrew in its version. I apologise for not being able to capture screenshots as of now, but will guide you along on how to check your firmware version.

1st . Switch on your PSP

2nd . Proceed to Settings at the furthest left within the browsing category. (The one which you configure all your basic PSP settings like USB, battery power)

3rd.Browse down and proceed to System Settings and select it.

4th. Under System Settings, browse down to the bottom to find something called System Information.

This is the point to check which firmware the PSP is running on, whether it’s an official Sony Firmware, or a custom firmware which allows you to run homebrew.

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If your PSP belongs to any of the version below, it will be downgradable. The downgrading method will be shown in article 3!

– 1.5
– 2.0
– 2.50
– 2.60
– 2.70
– 2.71
– 2.81
– 3.03
– 3.10
– 3.11
– 3.30
– 3.40
– 3.50

NOTE : 3.51 and above are currently unable to be downgraded or what we define as “modded”.

The firmware versions shown above official Sony Firmwares. These official Sony Firmwares are unable to run homebrew without being modified to become custom firmwares to be run on the PSP.

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What are custom firmwares then?

Custom firmwares, as shown in its name, is firmware created by homebrew developers. One famous person known in the homebrew community for his custom firmware, is Dark-Alex. Many from the PSP community would know him being one of the person who break the Sony firmware and created his own, with the ability to run homebrews. Sadly, Dark-Alex is not producing any more custom firmwares after his recent stint in many PSP-based fansites and discussion forums about the dangers of producing custom firmwares.

To date, DA(Dark-Alex), has produced custom firmwares such as versions

– 3.03 OE-C

– 3.10 OE-C

– 3.30 OE-A

-3.30 OE-B

– 3.40 OE-A (Currently most used)

-3.51 OE-A(Dropped Project, no longer continued)

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If you remembered earlier, I asked that you check whether what your firmware version was, the above would be of a great help. If you are currently running any of those above mentioned custom firmwares , then you would be able to run homebrews mostly without much hassle.

I recommend that users who would want to use homebrews to be on all these custom firmwares, rather than older version of SONY firmwares, which although do support homebrew, requires a slightly complicated effort to run homebrew such as the use of applications like DevHook, which may sound new to new users of the PSP community.

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From this portion on, I will introduce to you all some of the homebrew that I am using, and the installation methods.

Emulators(Arranged in Console Name – Emulator Name format)

Nintendo Entertainment System – NesterJ

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Entertainment_System

Super Nintendo Entertainment System – SNES9x TYL

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Nintendo_Entertainment_System

Nintendo 64 – Daedalus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_64

GameBoy Advance – gpSP

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy_Advance

Contradiction Noted: Somehow Nintendo emulators seem to be the most popular ones out of all the emulators, especially on a Sony product. Could it be Nintendo > Sony in terms of consoles/handhelds? We could never know (:

Image/Music Software

– Screen/Video Capture Module 0.5 (Recommended from Qisahn.com)

http://www.psp-hacks.com/file/942

– PSP Radio

http://dl.qj.net/PSP-Radio-0.38.11-Pre-release-Dynamic-for-1.5-user-PSP-Homebrew-Applications/pg/12/fid/7993/catid/189

Instant Messaging Programs(MSN/Yahoo!)

– AFKIM

http://dl.qj.net/AFKIM-v2-PSP-1.5-PSP-Homebrew-Applications/pg/12/fid/6439/catid/140

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These are the 7 most commonly used homebrews in my PSP. It may not always be the best, but I have my preferences, and they have did their best in meeting all my requirements, to me, they are homebrews good enough already (:

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Homebrew 1 : The Nintendo Entertainment System Emulator

Description : The NES Emulator, created to work as much as possible for PSP users under the name of NesterJ(not the name of the developer), NesterJ has run successfully on the PSP by emulating a lot of the classic games, especially games like the first few Super Mario Bros, Contra, Tank, Pacman, Ice Climber and many more. The NES was a well-known system to produce such games that become megahits, especially Super Mario Bros, which is still extremely famous till today.

Download Link : http://dl.qj.net/NesterJ-v1.20-beta-with-WiFi-Network-play-PSP-Emulators/pg/12/fid/10860/catid/127

Current Emulator Version : 1.20 Beta with WIFI

Installation Instructions :

1. Download the file and open it.

2. Inside the file, there should be a folder with the name NesterJxxx* (xxx here refers to the version of the program)

3. Open the folder, and you will see 3 folders, with “1.0”, “1.5”, and “docs”.

4. Open the 1.5 folder, and you will see 2 folders with the name of “NesterJ”, and “NesterJ%”.

5. Extract these 2 folders to your PC Desktop.

6. After doing step 5, proceed to your opening your memory stick in your “My Computer”. The memory stick should be under the name of “Removable Drive” if you have successfully establish a USB connection with your PC from the data cable purchased.

7. If you have formatted your memory stick in your PSP, you should have 6 folders. Now, look for the PSP folder, and opened it.

8. There should be a GAME150 folder inside the PSP folder I mentioned. Open it.

9. There is currently nothing inside. Copy and paste the two folders that I mentioned earlier, which is on your PC Desktop, “NesterJ” and “NesterJ%”, into this GAME150 folder.

10. You are done! Of course, currently there is no games inside. You will have to download roms by yourself of the games you would like. I would not be suggesting any links to download in my blog, as this is illegal.

Once you find the roms that you like, normally offered at certain websites in .zip format, open those .zip files and extract everything into your NesterJ folder in your GAME150 Folder inside your memory stick.

Then, switch on your PSP, and go to GAME, and load the emulator from your memory stick. In your Emulator, you can choose to load the game file, which should be <gamename.nes>, without the brackets, and tada! you have successfully installed your own NES Emulator.

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Homebrew 2 : The Nintendo Entertainment System Emulator

Description : The SNES Emulator, created to work as much as possible for PSP users under the name of SNES9x TYL(not the name of the developer), SNES9x TYL has run successfully on the PSP by emulating a lot of the classic games, especially games like the Chrono Trigger, Remakes of Super Mario Bros, the first 6 Final Fantasy games, and the Megaman Series. The SNES was a well-known system to produce such games that become megahits, especially Final Fantasy, which produced a whole generation of sequels and remakes later.

Download Link : http://dl.qj.net/SNESPSP_TYL-ME-Version-v0.4.2-PSP-Emulators/pg/12/fid/7758/catid/135

Current Emulator Version : 0.4.2

Installation Instructions :

1. Download the file and open it.

2. Inside the file, there should be a folder with the name s9xTYL-0.4.2me*

3. Open the folder, and you will see 2 folders, with “1.0”, “1.5”, and 2 other documents. It is good that you read documents that come along with files you download for your PSP, so as not to do risky installations that may otherwise brick your PSP.

4. Open the 1.5 folder, and you will see 2 folders with the name of “Snes9xTYL”, and “Snes9xTYL%”.

5. Extract these 2 folders to your PC Desktop.

6. After doing step 5, proceed to your opening your memory stick in your “My Computer”. The memory stick should be under the name of “Removable Drive” if you have successfully establish a USB connection with your PC from the data cable purchased.

7. If you have formatted your memory stick in your PSP, you should have 6 folders. Now, look for the PSP folder, and opened it.

8. There should be a GAME150 folder inside the PSP folder I mentioned. Open it.

9. There is currently nothing inside. Copy and paste the two folders that I mentioned earlier, which is on your PC Desktop, “Snes9xTYL” and “Snes9xTYL%”, into this GAME150 folder.

10. You are done! Of course, currently there is no games inside. You will have to download roms by yourself of the games you would like. I would not be suggesting any links to download in my blog, as this is illegal.

Once you find the roms that you like, normally offered at certain websites in .zip format, open those .zip files and extract everything into your Snes9xTYL ROM folder in your GAME150 Folder inside your memory stick.

Then, switch on your PSP, and go to GAME, and load the emulator from your memory stick. In your Emulator, you can choose to load the game file, which should be <gamename.snes>, without the brackets, and tada! you have successfully installed your own SNES Emulator.

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Homebrew 3 : The Nintendo 64 Emulator

Description : The Nintendo 64 Emulator, created to work as much as possible for PSP users under the name of Daedalus (not the name of the developer), Daedalus has run stably on the PSP by emulating a few of the 3D games well known on the N64 platform. The N64 was a well-known system to produce such games that transformed our everyday perspective of 2D games into 3D games, like Zelda, Super Mario, Mario Kart, Pokemon Stadium and many others.

Download Link : http://dl.qj.net/Nintendo-64/pg/12/fid/13984/catid/330

Current Emulator Version : R12 (I assume it’s Revised version 12, as it’s not one that is running smoothly for all N64 games yet)

Installation Instructions :

1. Download the file and open it.

2. Open the file , and you will see 2 folders with the name of “Daedalus”, and “Daedalus%”.

3. Extract these 2 folders to your PC Desktop.

4. After doing step 3, proceed to your opening your memory stick in your “My Computer”. The memory stick should be under the name of “Removable Drive” if you have successfully establish a USB connection with your PC from the data cable purchased.

5. If you have formatted your memory stick in your PSP, you should have 6 folders. Now, look for the PSP folder, and opened it.

6. There should be a GAME150 folder inside the PSP folder I mentioned. Open it.

7. There is currently nothing inside. Copy and paste the two folders that I mentioned earlier, which is on your PC Desktop, “Daedalus” and “Daedalus%”, into this GAME150 folder.

8. You are done! Of course, currently there is no games inside. You will have to download roms by yourself of the games you would like. I would not be suggesting any links to download in my blog, as this is illegal.

Once you find the roms that you like, normally offered at certain websites in .zip format, open those .zip files and extract everything into your Daedalus’s ROM folder in your GAME150 Folder inside your memory stick.

Then, switch on your PSP, and go to GAME, and load the emulator from your memory stick. In your Emulator, you can choose to load the game file, which should be <gamename.n64>, without the brackets, and tada! you have successfully installed your own N64 Emulator.

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Homebrew 4 : The GameBoy Advance Emulator

Description : The GBA Emulator, created to work as much as possible for PSP users under the name of gpSP(not the name of the developer), gpSP has run successfully on the PSP by emulating a lot of the popular games nowadays. Especially being the predecessor of the NDS Lite, The GBA library is extremely large, with up to 2000++ games, and has gained quite a fanbase before the NDS and the PSP came out. It contain alot of classic games from different platforms, like remakes of Final Fantasy, new version of Megaman(The Battle Network Series), remakes of Super Mario in SNES, and many others as well, it is also one of the handhelds to bring in anime-based games to the general public.

Download Link: http://dl.qj.net/gpSP-0.9-1.5-EBOOT-PSP-Emulators/pg/12/fid/11783/catid/122

Current Emulator Version : 0.9

Installation Instructions :

1. Download the file and open it.

2. Open the file , and you will see 2 folders with the name of “gpSP”, and “gpSP%”.

3. Extract these 2 folders to your PC Desktop.

4. After doing step 3, proceed to your opening your memory stick in your “My Computer”. The memory stick should be under the name of “Removable Drive” if you have successfully establish a USB connection with your PC from the data cable purchased.

5. If you have formatted your memory stick in your PSP, you should have 6 folders. Now, look for the PSP folder, and opened it.

6. There should be a GAME150 folder inside the PSP folder I mentioned. Open it.

7. There is currently nothing inside. Copy and paste the two folders that I mentioned earlier, which is on your PC Desktop, “gpSP” and “gpSP%”, into this GAME150 folder.

8. You are done! Of course, currently there is no games inside. You will have to download roms by yourself of the games you would like. I would not be suggesting any links to download in my blog, as this is illegal.

9. Before you run the emulator, you will need one more file, this is particular for the GBA emulator. Use Google and look for a file called gba_bios.bin and place it in your gpSP folder in your GAME150 folder in your memory stick. I do not distribute the gba_bios.bin file as it is illegal to do so. Make sure the name of the file is gba_bios.bin. It is 16kbs in size.

Once you find the roms that you like, normally offered at certain websites in .zip format, open those .zip files and extract everything into your NesterJ folder in your GAME150 Folder inside your memory stick.

Then, switch on your PSP, and go to GAME, and load the emulator from your memory stick. In your Emulator, you can choose to load the game file, which should be <gamename.gba>, without the brackets, and tada! you have successfully installed your own GBA Emulator.

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Note : For homebrew 5, 6 and 7, I decide to feature a Part 2 for Article 2 : Introduction to the HomeBrew Scene, as they involve plugins, which may be a rather new term and feature to users who just brought the PSP, and no idea how to work around it. Plugins involves activation from the “PSP Recovery Mode”, which I will include as a guide in part 2 as well. Of course, for homebrew 6 and 7 especially, it requires the use of a wireless network, since it is based on the Internet, which will be featured in part 2, that I will elaborate more on.

For now, I’ve come to the end of part 1 of Article 2 : Introduction to the HomeBrew Scene, and will continue soon again this week!

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Of course, if you have any questions, you can bring it to my MSN @

general_mah@hotmail.com

or send me an email to my workmail @ jasper_mah@myrp.edu.sg and I will do my best to answer your enquiries!

Thank you for reading this article, and I hope you have understand and enjoyed your time here.

Thank you.

– StyleZ

“Play with Originality, Play with StyleZ”