noob here, need some help

im lookin into buying a psp soon, and setting it up wiht some homebrew, how do i make sure i get the right one with the right firmware for it?

And what extra stuff do i need to get to set it all up?

thanks

Ok, just so you know I don't have many links handy, so you'll have to look up some of the stuff I tell you.

Ok, here you go (Click on show):

Spoiler!

1) PSP
Most people would recommend getting a 1000 series (fat) psp, which I agree with, they are more durable (except for the umd drive) and can run the 1.5 kernel which some homebrew needs to be able to run.

Sites to look at: http://dark-alex.org/index_psp.php

2) Firmware
If you want to run the newer games and the features from Sony's latest official firmware then go with the latest m33 firmware (with the 1.5 kernel if you listened to me about the fat psp)

If you only want to use your PSP for homebrew and psx games then I'd suggest 3.52 m33-4 for some of the best plugins + the ability to use sleep mode with homebrew

Sites to look at: http://dark-alex.org/index_psp.php http://alek.dark-alex.org/filez/psp_fw/

3) Things you'll need
Probably the most important thing you'll need is a pandora battery. There are 3 ways to get this:

1) Buy it (recommended way): You can buy these online for a pretty good price

2) Soft mod a battery (other recommended way): You can use a program to convert the battery into a pandora battery and back to a normal one, however, you need a psp with 1.5 or custom firmware to do so

3) Hard mod a battery (not recommended): If you open the fat psp's battery you can pull up a pin to make it a pandora battery. Be warned though this could damage your battery. I used this method since it was the only one I could use and ended up cutting my battery life in half

You need the pandora battery and a magic memory stick to switch your psp to custom (m33) firmware, which is needed to play homebrew and ISOs (hopefully the ones you own legally)

Note: A pandora battery cannot be used as a normal battery, to change a soft modded battery back to normal, plug in the ac adapter, power on your psp put in the battery, take out the ac adapter and run the program again, to change a hard modded battery back to normal just push the pin you pulled up back down.

4) Other stuff you should know
After you mod your psp check the psp announcements page for psp news, applications, and games. Feel free to ask for help or make comments on these here forums. And always remember:

THERE WILL BE NO TALK OF ISOS OR PIRACY ON THE DCEMU FORUMS

That may have been a little more then you asked for, but I'm fairly certain you wont have very many questions after that:thumbup:

PM me if there is any part of it you don't understand

Thank You!

1) I disagree, theres much more room for devs to fiddle with on the slim, the slim is also lighter and has double NAND / RAM / VRAM so it is open for much more in the homebrew scene. DO NOT GET A FAT PSP You will be wasting your time and money.

2) 4.01 M33-2 is stable enough for use with anything.. Its infact more stable than 3.52 M33-4 as suggested.

3) yes yes yes

4) yes yes yes.

All ISOS are illegal, you cant discuss them on DCEmu regardless.

Wally

Wally is right on just about everything but I dissagree with him on the Phat vs Slim issue. I have a Slim and a Phat and the Phat is way easier to run homebrew on. With Slims you have to run in TimeMachines 3.40/150 hybrid CFW which requires the use of a pandora battery to run, or you have to use eLoader and deal with a lot of double game icons, half of which you cant use. Also, when developing the MMSX in my sig it was a lot easier to get applications and or games to run on the Phat.

Its true that the Slim has more RAM and all but in my opinion Phats are way better...

Also, in darkricu2000's spoiler it says "Note: A pandora battery cannot be used as a normal battery". This is complete BS. You CAN use a Pandora battery as your only battery if you have to but if you ever format the memory stick you made into a MMS, or buy a new memory stick, you'll have to run pspgrader (or a similar program) to inject the IPL Loader so that the PSP will boot correctly.

In other words: If you use a Pandora battery as a normal battery any memory stick you use has to have an IPL Loader on it or the PSP wont boot right...

The slim is no harder to homebrew than a fat. You still need to find a pandora battery anyway for a fat these days.

You don't need time machine to run homebrew, you can just put it in game and it should run..

If it doesn't and its source code is out, i'll port it to the slim.

Wally