[PSP] Newbies Guide, Hardware, General Homebrew and ISO Booting & Ripping

(last update: included link to 2.0 games on 1.5 thread link)

Although all the information you'll ever need is within this section most people don't bother to search for it, so here's a guide to summarise most things you need to know, links to files to download and some other treats. I'll update it as and when needed, consider it like a wiki - if u want to add something do so after this post or just PM me and I’ll add it in.

First Things First
Get a PSP! Best place (for me anyway) is from Neodiscs (suppport DF!!!) or eBay. So far no other place can beat eBay for the price of a PSP. There's a constant barrage of offers ranging from ?150 - ?180 and will either be a used system with games or memory sticks (more on these later) or it'll be a new system. You can also check here .... for any developments on the best place (thread might die, will edit if so)

Click here .... to look at Neodiscs PSP Offers (and support the forum if you buy from there)

It's worth knowing what you get in the pack:

Standard Pack - PSP Console, Charger, Manual, Box
Value Pack - Same as Stanard; plus headphones & remote, 32mb memory stick, leesh, protective pouch & sometimes a cloth/sample UMD depending on it's age, firmware and location.

I recommend the value pack, the standard pack was only in japan and although it can be up to ?20 less it's normally more like ?10.

If you really want to get a new one and want to import it request it's send via a commercial sample/gift, marked to a low value <$20) and isn't sent via DHL. DHL love to charge customs, so for this reason I wholly recommend EMS, they can be just as fast and less likely to charge customs (in my experience). Buying from the uk<st1:country-region w:st="on"></st1:country-region> is a safer bet, it's quicker and with special delivery you know nothing can really go wrong.

Japanese PSP's have english in the firmware. New PSP's will ask you to select the language, so if you select english you'll never see any Japanese. If the PSP comes with Jaanese and you dont know how to change it, just ask, someone will tell you the button combinations to change it.

Firmware
Before you buy your PSP you need to know what the firmware version is, so check it before you buy.

Check your firmware by going to Settings > System Settings > System Information. It'll then state the firmware version.

Here's a low down:

1.0 - The original JAP release firmware. Doesn't have as many features but allows full unencrypted homebrew applications to run with no exploit needed. This firmware is now very rare and isn't worth paying the extra money for. Most 1.0 users upgraded to 1.50 a while ago, and as less and less developers make their homebrew for 1.0 units its best all round to really whack it up to 1.50.

1.50 - This is THE firmware (for now) to have on your PSP. 1.50 allows ALL homebrew to boot, it's the perfect machine in the eyes of a hardcore PSP owner. I'll go more into what this can boot in this guide...

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2.0 - The super-duper upgrade from Sony. Includes a web browser, themes, network & multimedia enhancements and a crucial hole in the system. If you have a 2.0 system you can boot homebrew thanks to a security flaw in tiff images, which they added to this firmware. You run the exploit and it allows you to run around half of the homebrew available. It also allows you to run the downgrader, which [i]safely (when done correctly) downgrades your PSP to 1.50. More in this further down.
2.01 - this firmware isn't great at all. Sony patched the latest exploits up and released this firmware.

2.5 - Location free added to the PSP. This isn't a bad thing at all but having 2.5 means no more homebrew fun until an exploit is found, which may never happen.

both 2.01 and 2.5 firmware’s will kill any chance of booting homebrew, if you want to do this with your PSP then don’t get a PSP with these versions. Maybe a exploit will exist one day, but not now.

There are methods of booting homebrew on a 2.0 system, however so far it's limited. You can boot some emulators and other rated homebrew software but not all. There is a huge limitation in the way. If/Once this is gone then we'll all be on 2.0 firmware and booting from that (much like how 1.0 was subceeded by 1.50). This will mean that GTA:LCS will work

Downgrading
OK you've got a PSP. If it's 1.50 skip this part. If it's 1.51, 1.52 or 2.0 then read on. If you have a 1.51 or 1.52 you will need to upgrade you PSP to 2.0. You can get the official 2.0 upgrader from here .... Once you're on 2.0 follow these instructions .... to downgrade to lovely 1.50

Memory Sticks & Other Storage
Right you've got a wazzo PSP but you don't have a memory stick? No problem. They are available in many brands and sizes. I don’t know much about the speeds so if someone will fill that in it'd be great;)

Also please note because of file systems memory sticks have slight less space than they say. Don’t get upset when a 1 GB stick is only 929MB or so, it's a fact of life.

32mb - Standard Issue with value pack. this can hold some homebrew apps and possibly one very small ISO game, like puzzle bobble, pinball or something else smaller than 29mb in size.
128MB - not bad but nothing amazing about these. Not worth the money to buy
256mb - the minimum stick really, you'll want more than this ideally but i'll hold some games but generally really ripped down versions, which you may or may not like.
 512mb - now we're talking, can take 50%+ of all PSP games with a little ripping here and there.
1GB - Getting much better now, 1gb sticks are the ones to love and to cherish
2GB - Now falling in price and nearly worth getting. These will always hold a UMD rip (UMD capacity is 1.8 GB, but that space is rarely used)
4GB - Not really cheap out yet. These are fantastic if you can afford them. It'd make more sense to buy two 2gb's though at this time. (one day we'll laugh at expensive 4gb flash memory (I hope))

There's also other storage, which I can’t go into as it'll take loads of space. Datel do a (rather slow and bulky) 4gb addon drive and NeoFlash are bringing out a flash memory adapter for the PSP - more info when they are out, or check other threads ....

PSP's Sorted, on with the Homebrew
Now you've got a 1.50 PSP you can load homebrew, but WTF is it? Homebrew is homemade applications, tools and games for a system made by independent coders. There is a HUGE supply of homebrew available for the PSP. There are things like:

PSP Doom, a port of the original classic.
LUA Player - A development loading platform for the PSP which has a vast amount (and growing) number of games and applications on the PSP
ISO booters - Much more on this in a minute, but in summery you can boot rips of PSP games off the memory stick for faster loading, no UMD needed and better battery life.
Misc Tools - File organisers, editing tools, text readers, web browsers, network tools - tool many to list
Homebrew games - SO many games made by programmers.
Emulators - All your fav consoles, SNES, NES, Mega Drive, Master System, Amiga, NeoGeo, SCUMMVM, Gameboy, GBA etc...
Plus much, much more (there's loads!)

Where to get it from
The Best sources for downloading most available homebrew (and news on the latest) I have found are:
PSP-Tribe ....
PSP Emu ....

Installing Homebrew
No need to install anything. Plug in the PSP, whack on USB mode and copy the files over, easy.

You PSP will be a removable drive in My Computer (in windows). Make this file system:

PSPDrive:\PSP\GAME\

Then in the game folder you'll need to copy the files you download. For 1.50 system you need to copy both the folders, here's an example for PSPDoom:

Download it, you'll have two folders:

PSPDoom and PSPDoom%

Copy both these folders over to \PSP\GAME\

You need both folders because the one ending in % is the game and the folder without is the exploit file which makes it boot on a 1.50 system. When it's on the PSP go over to Game (far right) and then down to memory stick games. Press O or X and it'll open the list of games installed on the memory stick. You'll notice there's one Icon for DoomPSP and one for Currupt Data. This doesn't matter; it's just the way the exploit works. We can hide these currupt icons by following this thread .... (thanks {{909}})

Try booting one, it's a simple process and takes only a few seconds to load your homebrew of choice.

Now the fun stuff,

Booting ISO's / Rips of Games & Ripping Game File sizes
Yes, you can boot PSP ripped games on the PSP (1.50) with no hardware mods.

These are the Apps you'll need for a good combo:
Umd Emulator 0.8c ....
Devhook 0.22 ....

Using these two programs together makes a great combo. Umd Emu is a great tool to boot ISO's on the PSP. UmdEmu needs a UMD in the drive to boot, so if you want to save all the battery juice you can then I recommend using it with DevHook (another ISO booter) which doesn't.

To use Umd Emu on own simply follow its install instructions, making sure you setup the folders on the memory stick correctly. Put an ISO in the ISO folder and boot the application. You'll have a list of options and a list of ISO's on the stick. For compatibility reasons make sure you change the second to top setting on Umd Emu from direct load to system menu. When you select an ISO it'll return you to the main PSP system, don’t worry the ISO will boot.

Simply put in any UMD (doesn't matter if it's video or game (not sure on music) but it just has to match with the settings in Umd Emu that you chose (read the readme). Select the UMD and it'll boot your game ISO. There's a way around having a umd in the drive though:

By using DevHook you can ignore UMD's all together. Simply set UmdEmu to System Menu and select your ISO. You'll be taken back to the PSP's XMB (Cross Media Browser). Now boot Devhook. Once it's loaded select any ISO from the list and it’ll boot the one you previously selected from UmdEmu. The compatibility with this method has been 100% with me. If it doesn't boot it may be a bad ISO or it may be incompatible with this method, but a <st1 ="">LOT</st1> of games work flawlessly with this booting method.

To test if it's devhook or the ISO put in a UMD and try to boot it with that alal the first boot method, if it works do it that way, if not go get another ISO as the one you have may be bad.

Ripping and Shrinking ISOs
This is a huge thing to duscuss but here's the basics:

ISO's of games can have things like music and videos ripped down, customised (you can have your own music tracks .... in games) or just all ripped out. This reduces the size of the ISO and lets you fit it if you have a small stick or want to have more than one game on a memory stick (on a 1Gb you could potentially have 10+ games on it).

Each game is different in how it's ripped but essentially to have a poke about in the ISO just extract it with WinRAR .... simular, do your work and then rebuild it with Umd Gen ....

UPDATE:You can find a full tutorial for UMD GEN here ....

It's always safe to delete the update.bin from the Update folder in the system side of the ISO. It'll be around 12mb in size and can always go, we're not updating

There also are dummy files, but if you download the ISO these will generally be gone as groups take them out (totally pointless). If you rip your own ISO's with UmdEmulator toyour PSP you'll want to delete these dummys.

You can also swap or dummy out music tracks and video files. The PSP is pretty hardcorem, you can easily swap huge intro movies for much smaller ones, even if they are from a different game, as long as we get the file size down it's all good.

You can also get RipKits, which someone else has done the hard work for you. Check www.ripkits.net .... has some but most BT, NG providers will carry either ripped games or the ripkits, so keep an eye out for them when a new release comes.

Booting UMD Games which Require a Higher Firmware Version that the one you have
You've got the 1.50 PSP but how do you now boot the new games you buy (please BUY games) without upgrading? Simple, run a firmware spoofer

You can run the SonyXTeam .... Version changer. Which allows you to make the PSP think it's different to what it really is. Most games which require higher firmware than 1.50 (i.e. most games released after August 2005) will want to upgrade before you play. This is rarely necessary so you can use these tools to make the PSP think you've got the right firmware and it'll boot the UMD.

Updated: 23rd Feb 2006
There's now a way to boot games which require 2.0 firmware, like GTA:LCS

Please see this thread .... (cheers SanJ[UK]

)

phew, I think that'll do for now, like I said if there's anything else just post it ot PM me and i'll whack it in. I hope this is of some use to people who are curious about the PSP but didn't want to trawl the board for info.