Remove custom firmware from PSP?

[cityside75]

I didn't post this in the Tech forum, since I'm asking this from a practical and technical standpoint. So I have a couple of PSP phats, one of which has custom firmware and one that does not. I thought the custom firmware would be a cool modification for the PSP years back when I first set it up, but honestly I never use any of the features. Yes, I have a couple of emulators on there, but I just never take the PSP anywhere and I have numerous better ways to emulate when I'm here at home.

Today I started looking into updating the custom firmware since it's been a while since I last did it (I'm at 5.00 m33) and remembered why I don't do this often - I have to relearn the whole process and jump through a bunch of hoops to update the firmware and I probably won't do anymore with the custom firmware once it's updated except let the battery run completely out and then look for another update in a year.

So here's my questions:

-Have there been any recent new functionalities that the CFW add to the PSP that I should look into?

-Have the slower emulators improved significantly (N64, etc) that it would be worth it for me to try those again? This probably won't be a significant benefit, but it would give me something new to play with.

-Is there any value in keeping the PSP modded if I decide to just sell this one (I have two PSP's and barely use either of them), does this make it more or less desirable to sell?

-If I want to "go clean" with my modded PSP, do I just install the latest official firmware? Or is there more to it than that?

Thanks for any feedback.

[megasdkirby]

-Have there been any recent new functionalities that the CFW add to the PSP that I should look into?

Play games off the Memory Stick. It's great, as it can also prolong lens life (since it's not being used extensively). And it has, at least for me, faster loading times (?).


-Have the slower emulators improved significantly (N64, etc) that it would be worth it for me to try those again? This probably won't be a significant benefit, but it would give me something new to play with.

Never tried those before. The ones I have tried (NES, SMS, NeoGeo, CPS2, etc), have all worked great.


-Is there any value in keeping the PSP modded if I decide to just sell this one (I have two PSP's and barely use either of them), does this make it more or less desirable to sell?

I know people prefer to have CFW over OFW for "other" evil reasons. But yes, it's more desirable, at least from what I've seen personally. I still have customers come in requesting "PSP 2000 Only" models for the sole reason of hacking/modifying.


-If I want to "go clean" with my modded PSP, do I just install the latest official firmware? Or is there more to it than that?

I would pressume you could, but since it's been a while since I modified my PSP, I don't know for sure.

I can say that I now have to purchase another PSP just to play the newer games (Firmware 6.00+) since they won't work on my PSP (CFW 5.00 M33-6). So modifying to OFW does have that benefit.

EDIT: If you decide to let go of the other PSP, I am definitely interested. :)

[kupomogli]

-Have there been any recent new functionalities that the CFW add to the PSP that I should look into?

The newest 5.50 GEN D Final from what I've read can play all newer releases regardless of firmware needed. I'm waiting on a release from DarkAlex which will never happen so I'll really need to download and install this new one.

Newer custom firmware is easy to install. You'll also find a readme in the zip files for a refresher if you really need it, but it's mainly "put this file onto the main portion of your memory stick, open up eboot, make sure your battery is 75% full, etc." The custom firmware eboots also won't start unless you have the correct files(or atleast something named that which would be retarded to do unless you want to brick your PSP,) most don't start unless you have 75% of your battery charged(atleast DarkAlex's won't.)


-Have the slower emulators improved significantly (N64, etc) that it would be worth it for me to try those again? This probably won't be a significant benefit, but it would give me something new to play with.

The N64 emulator will never work I can pretty much guarantee it. I've played some revisions previously that were faster than the newer revisions. The only game that the emulator seems developed for is Super Mario 64 and will only run at a good speed volume disabled. Maybe a few other games actually run, but run at terrible speed, and the majority of the library doesn't work at all.


-Is there any value in keeping the PSP modded if I decide to just sell this one (I have two PSP's and barely use either of them), does this make it more or less desirable to sell?

The PSP is worth having for emulating nearly every system before the N64 perfect or almost perfect except for CD systems and also being portable. People will buy a CFW system over a regular system most likely.


-If I want to "go clean" with my modded PSP, do I just install the latest official firmware? Or is there more to it than that?

Just upgrade to the official firmware. That's it.


Thanks for any feedback.

The PSP has a lot of great games. You should look them up. Yggdra Union may be a port, but it surpasses the GBA version by far and load times are almost unnoticeable. Half Minute Hero, Wild ARMs XF, Brave Story, Star Ocean, and Jeanne D Arc as far as great RPG titles go. Driver 76, Liberty City Stoires, Vice City Stories, Wipeout Pure, and Wipeout Pulse are good in an obvious genre. Gurumin, Dracula X Chronicles, and Prinny for action platformers. It's also got a lot of amazing remakes and ports if you happen to not have them on the original system(which is most likely in most gamers case.) Those barely make a dent in great PSP games, but yeah, I'm not out to make entire lists. If you want to see lists of good PSP games, there are atleast three around the forum.

[Raedon]

I used a PANDORA battery (http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.22349) w/ a Lithium Ion battery to hack my Vader. Lasts about 3 hours charged.

I've been having fun with the Tg16/PC Engine emulator. Many of the emulators run perfect.

Not sure if I'm the only one but the SNES emulator seems slow to me though.

[Matt-El]

N64 is a crapshoot emulator, definitely. Its just not up to snuff in my opinion unless i can play with full sound at a relatively smooth rate.

SNES is pretty good, tho. If any slowdown, try adjusting the mode to psp accellerated plus approx software or accurate and bumping up the frameskip a point or 2. I have a slim psp that i run with auto frameskip on lots of games and works fine for me.


Oh yeah, and just install the new official firmware if you want to get rid of your custom firmware.

It's pretty much been covered before. Except for one game and one or two new official applications, the new revision of 5.50 can do everything else. Just install that, works like a charm. Most people buy a system just TO modify it. Unless you needed it repaired by sony or something, why bother getting rid of the CFW?

[cityside75]

Unless you needed it repaired by sony or something, why bother getting rid of the CFW?

Yeah, I probably won't. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't viewed as a negative by potential buyers. This particular PSP also has a non-functioning left speaker, so it doesn't need any more knocks against it.

If upgrading is as easy as everyone is saying, maybe I'll try it. I looked just briefly and saw different downloads for different motherboard variants and containing different apps. There were a lot of acronyms being thrown around that weren't part of the lexicon way back when I was interested in this stuff. Plus, I tried firing up DGen today with my 5.00 m33 and got an error that is apparently related to needing FW 1.50 add-on's downloaded?

I know it's an ever-changing process and I feel like every time I stop following it, I completely lose track of it; which is what led me to making this thread.

[cityside75]

I used a PANDORA battery (http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.22349) w/ a Lithium Ion battery to hack my Vader. Lasts about 3 hours charged.

It was my understanding that my 1001 PSP doesn't need a Pandora battery? Would it provide me any benefit in my already modded PSP?


Not sure if I'm the only one but the SNES emulator seems slow to me though.

Yes, I always found it to be kinda slow as well.

[dairugger]

as far as i know all newer games can be played on all custom firmwares as long as theyve been patched (decrypted)

[kupomogli]

Plus, I tried firing up DGen today with my 5.00 m33 and got an error that is apparently related to needing FW 1.50 add-on's downloaded?

I don't think anything lower than 4.00 can download and use the 1.5 time machine, don't bother with DGen anyways. After Picodrive has been released, that's all you need.

Picodrive can run Genesis games perfect and Sega CD games near perfect. I say near perfect because there are some games that will take a slight reduction in frame rate during certain parts but will usually maintain a steady 60fps. Even though you might see the frame rate change lower, it doesn't seem that any slowdown hits it, so it seems the framerate drop is so minor that it's instantly back up. Incase people are interested in knowing some of the better emulators to use, here is what I use.

-NES NesterJ 1.20alpha(this has also had a rewind feature that you could patch to it, but it sometimes freezes the emulator.) The newest FCEU can play FF7 NES bootleg, but it glitches on sound on all games, so it sucks.

-SNES http://dl.qj.net/psp/emulators/s9xtylmecm-091124.html Every revision of "random coder" SNES version of TYL after TYL0.4.2memc will say Tyl0.4.2memc. Anyways. This(linked) is the best version. I usually test out to see speed differences with specific games. Chrono Trigger is one which has never gotten a 60fps speed in a battle without some sort of frame skip. This emulator can play Chrono Trigger 60fps in all instances except when casting big spells like Luminaire, Dark Matter, Flare, etc. However, with one frame skip you can play the entire game without any decrease in speed. You can't tell the difference in a game like Chrono Trigger 0 frame skip or one frame skip full speed so what's it matter. The only games I've played that really push this emulator to its limits are the really heavy graphic ones such as SMRPG, Kirby Super Star, Rendering Ranger, Star Fox, Contra 3 at some parts(one frame skip fixes that.)

-GBA Unofficial gpSP kai 3.2 test 8.7. Better than any revision before or after, even the couple UO gpSP kai revisions after. Perfect on all games I've played but Golden Sun and Golden Sun 2. FF6 also has sound glitching very rarely.

-SMS/GB/GBC Masterboy 2.05. I don't think anything else can be done to make it better. Everything runs full speed it seems.

-TG16. HUE. The TG16CD will load some games but sound won't work. I only playe the HuCards on the system though. There's another one that's newer, haven't tried it though. This one is good if you're not going to use CD games.

-Genesis/Sega CD PicoDrive. Genesis games play perfect on it. Sega CD games play just about perfect on every game at every point.

-CPS1, CPS2, Neo Geo MVS. CPS1PSP, CPS2PSP, MVSPSP. Full speed on all games. Multiplayer runs perfect and full speed between two PSP systems near each other. These emulators can even play across ad-hoc party(about two frames per second but still.)

Other than the TG16 emulator, I think the ones I use are the better ones developed. I don't play any other systems on the PSP though, so I don't have everything.

*edit*

Also, with apps or other games. Cave Story was ported by someone to the PSP. Definitely worth picking up. IRShell is a pretty much "everything app all in one." It's got an internal Bookr, amazing text file reader, ebook reader, etc. You can play music at any time with whatever program you're playing. You can mute all music in the ground or you can mute specific background music. So you can have sound effects playing on a PSP game but not the BGM. A great alternative to the XMB, so good that they even developed a .prx file to have IRShell auto load when the PSP boots instead of the XMB.

My favorite prx file though. I've shown a ton of people after I downloaded it. Is PSP Game Categories. You can create a folder CAT_whatever and then you can go to your memory stick and load each specific folder up. Multiple ways to arrange it as well. You can have one memory stick icon each folder, or the one memory stick icon can break into sub folders, or the one memory stick icon and it brings up the menu on the right side(kindof like hitting triangle.) Awesome program. More of a novelty, but also keeps stuff seperated pretty well so it's nice.

I've usually try most of the new unique concepts. I didn't try the one program to use your PSP as an extra screen but I did watch a video how as long as your PC is on and you are near a Wifi hotspot, you can have it set up to link to a PC program, and you can play whatever game your PC is linked to start if your PSP starts the eboot. Basically watched a video of some one playing Diablo 2 on the PSP wireless with no acciess to their PC. Opened the file, it opened Diablo 2 up on their PC without touching the PC and then controlled it from the PSP as well.

If you download a java emulator for the PSP, you can download Opera for java. Loads everything extremely quickly and has a large view space unlike the PSP viewer which isn't that bad but annoying. If anyone knows where I can purchase some cell phone games(legally,) to my PC in a format that my PSP java app can play, show me. I'd like to put Dirge of Cerberus(if anyone has played this and know whether or not it sucks) and FF7 Snowboarding on there.