i just got a new Sony PSP, way cool, and I found a great web site about hacking the PSP. On the site they say that it’s totally legal, but is it? Should I do it? Oh, and what is homebrew?
Let’s start with the easy question: it’s definitely not illegal to hack your PSP, whether that means you want to take a diamond-tipped drill and put small holes in the screen or whether you want to push it in directions that the developers didn’t intend, even running programs not officially endorsed by Sony Corporation for the Playstation Portable (PSP). It’s your PSP, after all.
There are limits to this freedom, however. You couldn’t pull the “operating system” off the PSP, decompile it to some sort of source code (e.g., a human-readable programming language) then either profit from it or post it to the Internet. That’d be a violation of trade secrets, copyright, and, probably, patents owned by and licensed by Sony too.
With that out of the way, let’s tackle the more important question: is it a good idea to hack your PSP?
In my opinion, no, it’s not a good idea. Unlike many devices, the PSP has a bad habit of freezing up into an unrecoverable state if it’s hacked incorrectly or maliciously, a term that the PSP hackers call “bricking” to refer to the device being about as useful as a brick when that happens. Scary given that you’ve probably spent $200 or more on the unit.
Don’t get me wrong. I am delighted that there are hackers out there who are pulling the PSP apart and figuring out other ways to expand it, and it’s darn cool that there are free games and other software available on the Internet for the brave PSP users who are willing to go beyond the narrow confines of Sony’s Official and Endorsed Use of the Playstation Portable. More power to them – in fact, I wish Sony supported them in their efforts and it’s a bit baffling to me that they have to operate under the proverbial radar.
But when I think of my trusty airplane companion and try to balance the fun and cool factor of downloading a game someone on the ‘net wrote for the PSP against the requirement that my PSP stay at an earlier firmware version, one that probably prohibits me from playing most of the recent games released from Sony and its partners, and the fact that ending up with a “bricked” PSP is a greater than zero percent chance and, well, I haven’t risked it yet.
You will need to make up your own mind in this situation, obviously, and I am hoping that some of these PSP hackers can pop onto the site and add some thoughts about risk and reward, about how they manage to run home-made (“homebrew” is a synonym) games on their PSP and also keep it ready to play the latest commercial titles, and whether they’ve ever bricked a Playstation Portable of their own.
Good luck to you. Be careful out there!
Note: This Q&A was written by Drew “flyboy” Crouch of the AskDaveTaylor editorial team.
I had a psp 3000 that was 6.60, and now it is soft modded and says 6.60 PRO-B9. Just added software. i have emulators and such for 6 systems (nes etc.) and it plays psone isos. i have not ever tried to go on sony psn network with it, as i dont know if id get a ban for it. when i turn it on, it still says and acts factory. I have to run the fast recovery to put it to modded so as i can see the emulators and psone games.it works great. have had no trouble and i played many great psp titles on it. and attn:FERNANDO LOUIS SOH **NOONE OPENED IT UP FOR THAT, as it is a soft mod . took less than an hour
To answer psp036’s question, you can unbrick a PSP with a Magic Memory Stick (mms) and Pandora Battery. (You can make your own, but a Pandora Battery requires physically opening a battery and cutting a wire). Just Google it for directions.
You don’t even need a mms or Pandora Battery. I modded my PSP 3000 with a CFW update (a file that the PSP thinks is a sony update, but installs a CFW). You don’t even need to downgrade it, the update actually required the newest update.
I used GODPRO-B Updater if you were wondering, just Google it.
-DR.J
Hay i was upgrading my psp 3001 version 5.50 Gen c full to 6.60.Then i drop it and the batter the battery came out from the psp.I tuen the psp on green lights flashes but nothing appears on my psp’s screen.how to i fix this problem e-mail at only_psp@yahoo.com
Hello again,
I also wondered that what i heard from my uncle is true as he said that i have to sent it to a shop to hack it and the person in the shop will remove something or add somethig after removing the whole psp and fix it back is that true??
Yours sincerky,
Louis