The Simple Guide to your new Firmware 1.50

[motz]

I'm sure many thousands of you have just downgraded to Firmware 1.50 and are wondering "Whats all the fuss about?". Well, I have written this guide to explain everything you'll need to know to enjoy your 1.50 PSP! This guide is really aimed at new users who are not familiar with firmware 1.50 and its abilities.

Intro

Firmware 1.50 allows you to run "homebrew" on your PSP, higher firmwares do not directly have this ability. Firmware 1.50 allows you to do much more with your PSP than the higher firmwares, due to the large amount of homebrew developers who sacrifice their free time to provide you with free games, apps and more!

So what is homebrew then?

Simply put, homebrew is "homemade" games and applications etc. for use with your PSP. PSP homebrew developers do not work for official gaming companies like Ubisoft and EA, nor do they get paid. Therefore, homebrew is 100% free!

What you need to know

Firmware 1.50 allows you to almost anything to your PSP! This section of the guide will explain everything about the PSP Firmware and will not affect most of you.

-Flash

The PSP stores 2 directories where the PSP firmware is stored and read. These are named "flash0" and "flash1". The critical system files are stored in flash0, corrupt files in flash1 can normally be repaired and will not brick (break) your PSP.

You cannot directly access the flash without special tools such as ThemePSP or X-Flash. It is not recommended that you attempt to modify your PSPs flash as it could result in a brick (unless of course you carefully use any of the 2 apps mentioned above).

Applications like ThemePSP will allow you to do all sorts of things with your 1.50, including changing the background, font, bootsound and gameboot screen. Other applications will also allow you to speed up your PSP, including over-riding the chip to 333mhz instead of the standard 222mhz.

-XMB

The XMB is what you see when you turn your PSP on (in other words, the main menu :D )

-Emulation

An emulator is an application for the PSP which allows you to run games or other apps which have not been designed for the PSP. For example, DGEN allows you to play Sega Genisis games on your PSP.

Recommended Homebrew

X-Flash (http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=32232) - Flash modication tool (make sure you know what you're doing ;) )

Theme PSP (http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=29667) - Another flash modification tool designed for changing backgrounds and fonts etc.

IRShell (http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=32848) - Shell replacement for the PSP

ThrottleX (http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=32878) - Fun, puzzle style driving game

PSPMillionaire (http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=15387) - PSP version of the popular TV show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire"

PSPMonopoly (http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=24723) - PSP version of the board game "Monopoly"

PSPRadio (http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=22305) - The name says it all ;)

DevHook (http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=29911) - Allows you to emulate firmware 2.71 on your PSP

DGEN (http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=26396) - Sega Genisis Emulator for the PSP

PiMPStreamer (http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=34308) - Allows you to stream PMP movies

PMP VLC Player (http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=29282) - Another PMP media player

Harleyg's Custom Firmware .2 (http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=29391) - Custom PSP Firmware

Dark_AleX POC Custom Firmware (http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=29155) - Proof of concept custom PSP Firmware

gpSP (http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=33682) - GameBoy Advance Emulator

LUAPlayer + Interface Lua (http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=33784) - Modified version of LUAPlayer

Daedalus (http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=33580) - Nintendo64 Emulator

NesterJ (http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=21271) - NES Emulator

There are many more great apps available which haven't sprung to mind, if anyone else has any recommended apps, please simply reply to this thread.

I hope you've found this short guide useful. ;)

[Video_freak]

Wow. Noce guide motz. Here's a thread I sarted with my favorite emulators and applications:
http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=32912

[kyle2194]

VLC, not LVC (Video Lan Client)

[penileartery]

nice guide..covers most of the basics..after someone gets the hang of it thell understand it! good job.

[Kramer]

Nice guide but I think you should put Dark_Alex's POC custom firmware in there aswell.

[motz]

VLC, not LVC (Video Lan Client)
Yeah lol, that was a typo, I have VLC Media Player installed on my PC.

[jak66]

gpsp is a great homebrew, howd you forget it
and psprevolution
XMB stand for Cross media bar (if you want to confuse the new people, lol)
and setting your psp clock speed to 333mhz is restoring it to default speed
also you may want to mention pspbrew as, although its not homebrew, its really useful

[DefaultGen]

Yeah Devhook is probably important if they want to run all of their old games without updating :D

[Accordion]

…
heres some more recommended homebrew
lua player

and IRIS

and Sandbox

[Kramer]

lol im sure he didnt have time to put every great piece of homebrew in there and he did say it was a short guide.

[BluDie]

What would be a good LUA player to use? I've always seen people marking out to it, I've just never sat down to download/use it.

[Accordion]

anything before verison 0.20

[drew4237]

i think you shoudl have started with basics like emus and games. and put the flash mods at the bottom and put a warning on it so people dont brick.
Congrates to all the new 1.5 users out there. i cant even explain how great it was to get to 1.5 from 1.52 then 2.0 for gta then i downgraded after i beat it.

[Veskgar]

Don't forget about:

NesterJ

Snes9xTYL 0.4.2 ME

Among many others. There sure is a lot to dive into if you are a new 1.50 user. Very exciting times for a lot of people.

[pspfan]

PiMPStreamer and VLC media player are both programs that stream NON-PMP files, NOT PMP files, to your PSP. They transcode them to the PMP format in realtime, but they do not stream PMPS, only other files, which is good because you don't have to encode your movies to PMP.

[splodger15]

nice guide

[uhoh_hotdogs]

Good guide, why not add the SNES TYL 0.4.2 emulator or the Nester J NES emulator?

[The_Ultimate_Eggman]

Great guide for those home brew and 1.5 virins out there.WELCOME TO THE LAND OF THE FREE all new 1.5'ers

[Gaileen M.]

what about daedalus r7

[Rocksil]

what of smashgpsp i heard its 1 of the best

[Sterist]

if anything, u should have thrown in Daeladus instead of gpSP

[pspfan]

Instead of gpSP? Are you joking? gpSP is amazing...you must have no respect for all the coding that went into it...

[motz]

Many of these apps are only being added to the list when I see an app in the comment. gpSP and Daedalus are both great apps and serve a completely different purpose so it would be silly to say one is better than the other. ;)

[AtariFreek]

Metal Blob \Solid, It's Awesome.

[Uruz 6]

Hey people aren't you forgetting something?
That's tight DEVHOOK!!!!

[jak66]

Recommended Homebrew


DevHook (http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=29911) - Allows you to emulate firmware 2.71 on your PSP

how exactly did anyone forget devhook when the link is in the first post

anyway another great homebrew (well i guess it depends on the person)
PSPRevolution

[SteveV2]

Instead of gpSP? Are you joking? gpSP is amazing...you must have no respect for all the coding that went into it...

Too true. It's not just the part about the amount of code, it's the fact it's a dam fine GBA emu! :D

[Kvonx]

Too true. It's not just the part about the amount of code, it's the fact it's a dam fine GBA emu!
Rightly said bra!!!
An how about my signature...........its true!!!;)

[PlayingKarrde]

Well SnesTYL HAS to be there. Simply the best emu on the PSP.

Others that follow close behind would be Capcom CPS2 and NeoGeo CDZ.

[Veskgar]

if anything, u should have thrown in Daeladus instead of gpSP
No way! While I have immense respect for Daedalus and the coder or coders working on it, games are only like 10-15 FPS if that and there is no SOUND. Thats not playable if you ask me. Its cool to see a N64 game displayed on a PSP, but if you can't play it in all its glory, its just not comparable to gpSP.

The Game Boy Advance has a larger selection of games than the N64 and many more quality titles IMHO. gpSP, only in BETA stage, plays TONS of GBA games FULL-SPEED with PERFECT or NEAR PERFECT sound and in-game saves work.

Again, its just my opinion but if Exophase implements all of the features he wants to in gpSP, it will easily be the BEST EMU for the PSP.

[pspfan]

PiMPStreamer and VLC media player are both programs that stream NON-PMP files, NOT PMP files, to your PSP. They transcode them to the PMP format in realtime, but they do not stream PMPS, only other files, which is good because you don't have to encode your movies to PMP.
Quoting myself because it needs to be changed...

[M!ckeY]

this is a nice guide :)

[Uruz 6]

how exactly did anyone forget devhook when the link is in the first post

Obviously it has been added after my post, my eyes still work you know?

[The_Lead_Factor]

How about adding Quake, Quake2, Doom, and SMM?

[Lolth]

Motz please put a warning on that theme psp, as it can brick your psp having just downgraded from 2.71, this is something i found out the very hard way.

Also great guide I used it to get some rocking homebrew (till theme psp partially bricked my psp)

[Luke_Rep]

How did you get parially bricked?

[pspfan]

There were reports that after the 2.5/2.6 to 1.5 downgrade, using ThemePSP could brck your PSP unless you updated to 2.0 and then downgraded back to 1.5. So I assume it's the same with the 2.71 downgrader.