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1.50 Downgrader for 2.50/2.60 PSPs Released

Posted by Zonk on Sat Jul 01, 2006 03:33 PM
from the now-you-can-play-real-games-on-the-psp dept.
Portables (Games) Emulation (Games) Programming
Cyraan writes "PSP owners rejoice! Hot on the heels of the recent exploit discovery & bricking that resulted from early test versions comes a confirmed working downgrader. The method uses a GTA eLoader that will turn any version 2.50/2.60 PSP, with the exception of those with a TA-082 motherboard (how to check without opening/voiding warranty), into a version 1.50 capable of playing all forms of homebrew. One thing that may not be mentioned specifically in the article: it is recommended you NOT use the 32mb Memory Stick that came with the PSP, as the process creates alot of log files that can fill it up, possibly causing a brick."

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[+] Homebrew Community Blends Gamers and Hackers 87 comments
MSNBC is running an article on the gaming homebrew community. They examine the 'do it yourself' attitude of the folks that make mods, knockoffs, and emulations possible. From the article: "So lively is the homebrew scene that some PSP fans -- it's impossible to say how many -- say they don't buy or play new games because they don't want to upgrade their gadgets and lose their homebrew software. There's even a circulating joke slogan: 'Friends don't let friends upgrade their PSPs.' Unable to break through recent versions of the Sony software, PSP homebrewers have moved on to another trick: downgrading their PSPs to earlier versions."
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1.50 Downgrader for 2.50/2.60 PSPs Released | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 127 comments | Search Discussion
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  • ALOT IS NOT A FUCKING WORD (Score:1, Funny)

    by (TK2)Dessimat0r (669581) on Saturday July 01 2006, @03:34PM (#15643426)
    IT IS "A LOT". This makes me seriously fucking angry.

  • And the quest (Score:5, Funny)

    by buffer-overflowed (588867) on Saturday July 01 2006, @03:40PM (#15643442)
    (Last Journal: Sunday July 29, @06:59PM)
    to play Nintendo games on Sony hardware continues...

    Join us next month for the release of 2.7 with Loco Roco, and the following month for yet another crack.

  • Amazing... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by kinocho (978177) on Saturday July 01 2006, @03:46PM (#15643466)
    It just amazes me, but I have no idea wich one the most...

    Stupid companies stopping customers to do what they want with legally owned hardware or

    People buying a piece of drm'ed shit that will, by all means, try to prevent it's logical uses and full potential.

    (ok, not exactly drm, but you know what I mean...)

    What, do they thing that we only have rights to the usage of the machine now? Play with it, but don't "play" with it, the new motto...

    (fuck them all)

    • Re:Amazing... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Aim Here (765712) on Saturday July 01 2006, @04:03PM (#15643514)
      What do you mean 'not exactly DRM'? What you have is a machine that is allegely yours but won't run binaries that you wish to run, merely those that someone else wishes you to run.

      That IS exactly DRM.

      Otherwise, yes.
      [ Parent ]
    • Re:Amazing... by KDR_11k (Score:2) Saturday July 01 2006, @04:07PM

    • Re:Amazing... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Jawbreaker4Fs (974108) on Saturday July 01 2006, @04:14PM (#15643548)
      Just buy a gp2x and be done with it.
      [ Parent ]
      • Re:Amazing... by rmadmin (Score:2) Saturday July 01 2006, @04:45PM
        • Re:Amazing... by rmadmin (Score:2) Saturday July 01 2006, @04:55PM

          • Software for the GP2X (Score:5, Informative)

            by Rob Simpson (533360) <bertsimpson@yahoo.COUGARcom minus cat> on Saturday July 01 2006, @05:20PM (#15643732)
            Anyone interested in what software is available for the GP2X should look here: http://www.gp32x.com/ [gp32x.com]

            There are plenty of emulators, freeware games and utilities. There is also stuff for the previous-generation GP32.

            [ Parent ]
            • Re:Software for the GP2X by Tony Hoyle (Score:1) Saturday July 01 2006, @09:00PM
              • Re:Software for the GP2X by theoddbot (Score:1) Saturday July 01 2006, @09:49PM

              • Re:Software for the GP2X (Score:5, Informative)

                by Rob Simpson (533360) <bertsimpson@yahoo.COUGARcom minus cat> on Sunday July 02 2006, @01:22AM (#15644797)
                You're looking in the GP32 (the previous model) section. The GP2X has superior (and built-in) mp3 and video support, is much faster - it has two processors, each of which is twice as fast as the old model's CPU. My GP32 can play Phantasy Star 4 (Sega Genesis) and a bunch of Turbographix games flawlessly, among other things. Apparently the GP2X has excellent emulators for Genesis/TG16/SNES, though can't say for sure since I haven't received my GP2X yet. :) But since it has considerably better hardware, it seems reasonable. The only emulation that is supposed to be buggy and slow on the GP2X seems to be PSX (because of the 3D) and DOS emulation.
                [ Parent ]
              • Re:Software for the GP2X by geminidomino (Score:2) Sunday July 02 2006, @08:13AM
      • Re:Amazing... by Jacek Poplawski (Score:2) Sunday July 02 2006, @08:08AM
      • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
    • Wow?!!? by vwjeff (Score:2) Saturday July 01 2006, @06:51PM
    • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.

  • Downgrader? A better word! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by erroneus (253617) on Saturday July 01 2006, @04:18PM (#15643554)
    (http://slashdot.org/)
    Backdater. Downgrade seems like you're making something worse which is actually the case with some "updates" that are provided by some makers. Examples of this includes TiVo updates that remove features like commercial skipping. It would most certainly not be an upgrade. And to go back to something with better features once removed or modified would not be a downgrade. But to go back to a previous version that is more useful in some way, I would call "backdating." (please, no gay jokes)

  • Downgrading is an upgrade (Score:1)

    by js62 (609777) on Saturday July 01 2006, @04:46PM (#15643629)
    Just went to newsgoups(a.b.sony.psp) got the dutch version of the downgrader. Translated directions with bablefish and it works perfectly on my Lik-Sang Japanese import(white version was 2.6 firmware, now 1.5). Total time less than 5 minutes.

  • Out of curiosity . . . (Score:1)

    by pembo13 (770295) on Saturday July 01 2006, @04:46PM (#15643630)
    (http://www.pembo13.com/)
    How many ways are there to "brick" this device?

  • Personally (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Bongo Bill (853669) on Saturday July 01 2006, @05:00PM (#15643668)
    (http://frontal-lobe.net/)
    I'm waiting for that modchip to be released. That or an exploit that doesn't involve owning GTA.
    • Re:Personally by frickendevil (Score:1) Saturday July 01 2006, @08:14PM
      • Minors by tepples (Score:2) Saturday July 01 2006, @08:20PM
        • Re:Minors by snuf23 (Score:2) Sunday July 02 2006, @01:31AM

  • Slashdot Duped by the QJ Network (Score:5, Informative)

    by Croakyvoice (986312) on Saturday July 01 2006, @05:39PM (#15643783)
    The person who submitted this article carefully linked to the PSPUpdates/qjnet spam machine which charges it uses 3 dollars a week to view the forums with no ads, on the newsposts them selves they have not linked to the real coders sites or indeed release threads. This network have been banned from digg for these actions of spamming and well i hope slashdot do too. If your looking for better PSP News Sites that actually link properly then check out these sites: PSP News - http://psp-news.dcemu.co.uk/ [dcemu.co.uk] PSP 3D - http://psp3d.com/ [psp3d.com] PSP Hacks.com - http://www.psp-hacks.com/ [psp-hacks.com]

  • Filling up 32 MB??? (Score:2)

    by tronicum (617382) * on Saturday July 01 2006, @05:47PM (#15643796)
    One thing that may not be mentioned specifically in the article: it is recommended you NOT use the 32mb Memory Stick that came with the PSP, as the process creates alot of log files that can fill it up, possibly causing a brick.

    How on earth could they code an update process that fills up an 32 MB Flash? A Firmware itself is about 18 Megs + a Loader (3 MB), a program (~5 MB), how on earth can you write a log file that grows on 5 Megabyte?
    Writing a bit for every byte going to the flash-rom? They could write them to RAM anyway.

    If its turned to a brick, a log wouldnt help you with the Sony Support anyway.

    • Re:Filling up 32 MB??? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Firehawke (50498) on Sunday July 02 2006, @12:25AM (#15644689)
      (Last Journal: Sunday February 20 2005, @09:48PM)
      Note that the program was on beta 5-- the previous four test versions bricked PSPs, period. They were outputting a whole lot of debug data about each stage of the flash, it seems, since there are some complex steps to get things to the right point. It's not just writing bytes-- this downgrader apparently actually borrows chunks from the official PSP updater and does some interesting tricks to bypass various protection mechanisms.

      The logs were there purely to figure out where things went wrong; nobody expected this version to work.
      [ Parent ]
    • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.

  • What has digg got against qj.net? (Score:2)

    by Frogbert (589961) on Saturday July 01 2006, @07:32PM (#15644033)
    I noticed on the site that Digg seems to be banning QJ.net links from making it to the front page. Does anyone here know why this is?

  • This is great... (Score:1)

    by Mister Impressive (875697) on Saturday July 01 2006, @08:38PM (#15644198)
    ..but unfortunately for those who own the newer revision of the PSP, the TA-082, we're left high and dry unable to run homebrew the same way 1.5 users are able to. I am one of the unlucky few, having seen at least 200 people pass through Fanjita's IRC channels successfully downdating their PSPs.

  • So glad I got rid of my PSP (Score:4, Interesting)

    by British (51765) <british1500.gmail@com> on Saturday July 01 2006, @08:49PM (#15644223)
    (http://infaux.net/ | Last Journal: Thursday September 01 2005, @02:08PM)
    I went out and bought specificially a 1.5 to enjoy the homebrew. I ended up playing the homebrew stuff more than the pricey games.

    But looking at the downgrader instructions and such, AND knowing the risks of "bricking" your $250 game system, I'm glad I traded it in for a DS.

    While the PSP may have a bunch of fun features, getting to the homebrew stuff with Sony's anti-blessing is just a hassle. A lot of the homebrew stuff is about as fun as recompiling a linux kernel..on a video game system. I won't try to make any Linux technobabble / PSP technobabble comparisons since I've heard nothing but good things about the GamePark.

    So if you like fighting against Sony, the complications of Linux(upgrading/downgrading/copying files), the risk of malware(bricking your PSP, ie worse than any Windows malware), pricey games, and a failing media format(UMD), the PSP is for you!

  • I don't own a PSP nor am I going to get one but any day Sony and anyone associated with Sony gets
    burned is a good day. All the same: Kudos and honest appreciation to the people that hacked the
    firmware.

    I hope this latest fiasco should be cause for people to pull out of Sony and make them drop out of
    the console market altogether. And doesn't it suck to be one of the software vendors that actually
    invested in the PSP2... Hope you're reading this, because this is going to cost you dearly and
    I hope you don't even break even.

  • Music Please (Score:2)

    by Nom du Keyboard (633989) on Sunday July 02 2006, @01:32AM (#15644815)
    There should be a song: 50 Ways to Brick Your Sony.

  • another type of slashdot effect... (Score:1, Insightful)

    by ziggy the zagnut (639592) on Sunday July 02 2006, @12:50PM (#15646353)
    (Last Journal: Thursday May 27 2004, @09:24AM)
    I just wanted to say how really weird it is to actually know quite a bit about the topic (I've been developing PSP homebrew for over a year now) of an article and then read how unnuanced and uninformed people's comments are. It makes me wonder about the quality of information and comments on all the articles I read each day.

    For almost every person pointing out something that seems completely stupid and illogical, there is usually a really good reason. Like the person talking about the 32MB sticks being filled up....did you ever stop to think that maybe someone already has it filled up with mp3s and doesn't want to erase them? or the person who says it shouldn't be called a 'downgrader', but a 'backdater,' did you ever stop to think about the thousands and thousands of people out there already calling it a downgrader? you can't change any movement that big.

    so by all means, make inquiries, but don't act like other people are stupid and illogical for things that surprise you.

  • 32MB of logs? (Score:2)

    by macshome (818789) on Tuesday July 04 2006, @08:12AM (#15655766)
    (http://www.afp548.com/)
    What the heck can it be doing to fill 32 MB with log files? Does it write it all down in 1s and 0s?
  • 5 replies beneath your current threshold.

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