PSP - homebrew or official firmware?

Rockerette

Hey everyone, this is my first post in here so hey.

Anyway, I bought a PSP last week in Game. It's really awesome and am not sure why i didn't get one to go with the DS sooner. Anyway, I'd read quite a bit beforehand about custom apps running by people's homebrews and custom firmware. Now, i don't know too much about it, but from the guides online, it seemed to be pretty easy to set up.

I got GTA:LCS and I'm on 2.01, but got a system upgrade UMD but it only goes to 2.00 and I can't seem to get it to let use it to upgrade (or in this case downgrade).

My main question is, should I do the official upgrade to 2.8 or should I try and downgrade my system to 1.5 and then install the homebrew. Is it worth the risk and what are people's experiences/thoughts? http://www.psp-hacks.com/psp-homebrew-tutorial.php is what I imagine I'd attempt to do to get it working.

edit: oh and incidently, from searching I did find this thread, http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054882827&referrerid=59211&highlight=homebrew , but figure as its about 5 months old and I'm basically posing the question of whether to update or not, that a new thread was cool.

blocparty

how new is your version of GTA? because it might be the patched version which cant be used to downgrade.

I downgraded from 2.6 and its the best move ive ever made. Id advise you to upgrade to 2.6 and not any further because you will limit you chance to downgrade at a later stage and as far as i know there are no games on the market that require 2.8 so there is little or no advantage of upgrading to that

hope this helps you

Noelie

Agree with above, Upgrade to 2.6 and then down grade to 1.5. I was then recommemded to upgrade to 2.0 and then downgrade to 1.5 once more, i was told it was something to do with the iso not always working correctly, anyway mine works fine, it was fairly easy to do.

blocparty

i never heard of that noelie. i just downgraded form 2.6 to 1.5 directly and everything works perfect for me

Rockerette

How do I find out what version of LCS I have? I got it as part of a used bundle pack in Game, but it doesn't seem that new.

Also a real primitive question here, can I set up the homebrew to allow flash compatability while browsing, the demos of loco roco and world soccer that sony offer on the official site and the RSS capabilities that the newer versions allow? I guess what I want are the features up to 2.6 but without it actually being 2.6!! Is this possible?

juanjo

I heard about what u said noelie, however it doesn't happen often, mine didn't need the upgrade downgrade anymore.

And rockerette, don't upgrade. get into the homebrew world, much better, for example i heard that there's a homebrew PS1 emulator arriving veeery soon. And there's a firmware launcher called devhook that allows you to use every feature up to firmware 2.71.

I had 2.01 for 7 months and the best thing i did was not upgrading, just did it to downgrade and now i'm in the business....

And just a thing, with 2.01 you can't go to 2.00, as you said (through the GTA UMD) but that's the game you need to do the downgrade. then you need Fanjita's eboot loader for gta, the 1.5 eboot and dark alex' downdater. there's packs in the internet with all the necessary.

blocparty

im not really sure how you find out which version of GTA you have but im sure if you do a search on one of the PSP sites youll find an answer. the best sites are projectpsp.com, hackmypsp.com, pspupdates.com

the new N64 emulator is out today and they are working on a PS1 emulator as well as having a SNES, Nes and genisis emulator so i would highly recommend downgrading.

ive used www.xtrusion.es to downgrade my psp and my friends and i recommend it. just upgrade to 2.6 or 2.5 first.

Noelie

You need the version has the following number on the side of the box "ULES-00151"
A friend in work downloaded the save that he and I used, I'm not sure where he got it but when i get home i can email it to you.

wheatln2

Hey everyone, I'm rockerette's brother and was I was logged in as her by accident, so it's me, wheatln2, with the PSP probs not her!!

Anyway, so to summarise (and again, I apologise for being a real newbie to all this), I have 2.01 and I have the "ULES-00151" version of GTA:LCS. Can anyone give me details on exactly what I should do now? I'm thinking...

• As I have 2.1, I have to upgrade to 2.5 or 2.5 in order to downgrade.
  
  from here:
  The only solution is first to update to 2.50 and then to use the downgrader. To update it to 2.50, put the file EBOOT.PBP of 2.50 version in the PSP/GAME/UPDATE folder. Then you can update your PSP from the Game menu.
  
  
• Now that I have version 2.5, I download this file from here, and with my psp connected I run the exe on my computer and then this will bring me back to version 1.5.
  
• Not sure what to do now that I have version 1.5 as my firmware... Perhaps the kxploit method here, here???

OR the other alternative is:

• Download a homebrew app from somewhere like here.
  
• Go here to get the eloader and then load it up in GTA:LCS and follow guidelines in here. Test an application, hope it works!

Anyway, that's where I'm at right now. Still a little scared but the more I reserch it, the more I like the sound of testing this. Stil scared of the dreaded "bricking" though!

edit: Oh yeah, anymore info on how to run something like "devhook" to get the things like RSS, Flash, podcasts etc that the official Sony upgrades offer... Thanks everyone!

shoutman

This isnt meant to hijack the thread or anything but why is homebrew so good?

Like what are the brilliant applications/games it allows you to run?

cheers

juanjo

Easier than that rockerette. if you say that the update that comes with the gta that u have is the 2.0 (as you said) then you have the old version, the one you need for the downgrade. PM if you need aid, i'll just charge u a pint and a multiplayer game.

answering shoutman, i have a program called pimpstreamer that allows me to watch any movie i have in my computer from my psp, streaming it wirelessly. I have an ebook reader, emulators, Devhook (of course) and many more programs.

about brilliant games? you can play any latest game via devhook without needing to update since devhook emulates 2.71 firmware and all its features
plus homebrew games like turrican, rrotage, ports of famous ones like streets of rage, quake doom, duke nukem, descent and heretic.

here you have a pack with everything (you need a memory card bigger than 32 Mb to install it):

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=31FRM1OZ


It works but follow guides in order to do so and use it at your own risk. basically you need gta to run fanjita's eloader (open it like a saved game you want to play in gta) in there you have to see the downdater test and you have to run it. (IMPORTANT: this program will erase your psp's flash and will write the dump in it. if you don't have the dump in the proper place it'll brick your psp.)

Before running anything, check that verything is propely placed in the memory card, a picture is included with teh structure you should end with. it's called todo quedaria asi.gif

jayok

Sorry to hi-jack this thread also. I just got a PSP also wth GTA but it's the patched version :mad: Anyonw know where I can get an unpatched version....

juanjo

rent it at any xtravision or something. I have it and live in dublin in case you have no luck.

jayok

Thanks for the offer juanjo, I'll give xtravision a call first...

PiE

Bah. Just as I think there's finally a way of downgrading my 2.5 PSP... it turns out it's got that TA-82 or whatever.

BAH.

puffmullett

PiE, downgrading a TA-82 whatever is very close so just hold on a bit longer!
more info here:
http://pspupdates.qj.net/

PiE

Cheers for the info, wouldn't be too confident of the guy manually downgrading each TA-082 though!

Placebo

u can downgrade to 1.5 from 2.06 ?
ALSO do u still have to prx **** etc to run games from memory card?