(no subject)

[dryfter]

Once again, I'm feeling vaguely tempted by the shiny tech that is the Sony PSP.
Unfortunately, I've gathered that Sony have done their usual horrible thing, and try to stop anyone doing anything interesting (a-la homebrew) with the device, and so you need an old firmware to run the homebrew stuff. ie. Not a brand-new PSP.

There are rumours on the internet, some say you can downgrade the firmware, some say you can't..

Does anyone have any hard knowledge about this matter?

Thanks in advance!

Comments

[scyph.livejournal.com]

the 2.0 series can be downgraded to 1.5 which can play homebrew and copied games.

AFAIK the new 2.5 isn't downgradable, however people have recently got them booting homebrew apps again - there's no sign (yet) of a fastloader which will allow people to play copied games for it though.

The only problem with downgrading your PSP to 1.5 is that newer games won't run on it (GTA forces you to upgrade before running)

HTH

[wintrmute.livejournal.com]

Hmm. There has been 2.60 and 2.70 firmware releases since then; people had some limited homebrew running on 2.60 via a GTA saved-game hack, but there's nothing at all for the 2.70 firmware.

Some people on the net appear to be saying in forums that they have successfully downgraded from 2.6 to 2.0 or 1.5, but I can't find anything on the internet to back this up, and there's just as many people on forums saying that 2.6 downgraders are full of sh*t.

*sigh* I wish Sony didn't do this stuff. I got fed up and sold my NetMD mini-discman because of Sony's attitude, but damnit, they make such /shiny/ tech! :(

[burritob.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Sony is going out of their way to make the PSP useless as a homebrew platform. I'm told the Nintendo DS is a lot more friendly, but I've got no personal experience.

One of my friends in Australia has a PSP on v1.5 firmware that he uses almost exclusively for homebrew stuff; he has talked about buying a second one that he can upgrade and play new games on. Which seems a bit excessive to me.

The GTA hack allows you to run a lot of homebrew stuff, with a few notable exceptions - MAME was still off the list, last tine I checked. The big difference between the GTA hack and the earlier, menu-based ones is that you can't execute code in kernel/protected mode, which is required to "boot" UMD rips, for example. So even though you can't readily play pirate games with the GTA hack, Sony still saw fit to close the loophole. Very lame.

[wintrmute.livejournal.com]

yeah. I don't care about pirated stuff - I just like hacking around. it really sucks that Sony works so hard to *prevent* people doing this stuff.

Why can't they go for the opposite, and encourage it? They get *more* support for their platform, which would increase sales, surely?

[burritob.livejournal.com]

As I understand it, crazy-talk like that is the reason why the likes of you and I aren't plutocrats :)

I do have a PSP - it is shiny (although mine has a slightly wonky screen and needs replacement) and does have a networked multiplayer version of Gauntlet, but I still suspect it may end up gathering dust once I finish Tony Hawk. On the other hand, I might sort something out to automatically encode videos to watch on the bus, which would be reasonably sweet...

[wintrmute.livejournal.com]

I suspect I am going to crumble and pick one up too, soon.

[wintrmute.livejournal.com]

By the way, how cool is this app for the PSP?
http://www.psprhythm.com/

[burritob.livejournal.com]

"Very."

Crap. Maybe I need to buy a copy of GTA now.

[wintrmute.livejournal.com]

I do wonder how much sales of GTA have been inflated due to that "accidental" exploit.