newbie at USING the PSP w/GTA-LCS

Hi all,

(Moderators: If this message is improper, please re-locate or delete as your rules dictate.)

I have purchased by PSP and a new GTA solely with the intention of doing homebrew. The first roadblock came when I tried to set up the Cygwin \ PSP toolchain. After numerous downloads (5+ hours each!) and numerous erases, I have condensed the entire development environment a 20 minute exercise! That's right, I can (and have on numerous PC's) go from clean machine to successful compiling in 20 minutes. I fought this battle for 8 days, just to be able to homebrew. Well, yay, I got there. The next step is setting up the PSP to use homebrew, and that is where I stumble. All the tutorials about eloader and save game and etc., usually have a step that says something like "select the eboot program from the menu". The problem is, I don't know what the %^&%^*^% that means. There is no menu in GTA to select from! Somebody needs to tell me specifically which button to push to load a homebrew. (Note: The GTA is the old version that has not been "fixed", and the PSP is 2.6). And, while I'm on the subject, what's with the GTA anyway? Why do I have to wait almost 5 minutes for the credits to roll by before I can start to play? And, when I do play, where is the SaveGame function? And how do I talk to the memory stick? I can't find the ^%&^&*@ "which-button-to-push" information in either the PSP manual or in any docs for GTA! Why do I go on about this? To make you a deal...I'll trade any PSP gameplaying expert who has 0% success in setting up the development environment, my 20 minute installation method in exchange for some SPECIFIC, STEP BY STEP instructions on how to make the PSP load homebrew. Heck, if you live close enough to me, I'll buy you dinner as well.

Someone, anyone, please help!

Thanks

Charlie

Slightly off topic, if you wanted to do homebrew, did you consider a PSP 1.5/2.0 or a GP2X.

ok.. www.noobz.eu, GO there DL Eloader 0.97. It comes with an installer. Select autoload ELOADER in the installation menu, and select the letter of your psp when it's in USB mode, and there you go. DL Emenu, same process. DL some homebrew. For example dl.qj.net. Follow the instructions in the readme. Usually you place the game folder into your (w/e your letter is):/psp/game folder. Then start up your PSP and load GTA, the eloader should start right up. ENJOY!! Now let's hear your 20 minute thing..

After you install the Super Bock eLoader that Dale pointed to, let GTA boot up - hit X to skip credits. Then push Start button on PSP to bring up GTA menu. Highlight GAME and pick LOAD GAME. If you have a saved game you'll see it and the Super Bock eLoader should also appear as one of your saved game specifically it's stored in the 5th folder incase you have a game stored there it will overwrite it. Pick the eLoder saved game and it will bring you into menu.

Ok, we're getting close. But I must emphasize that my problem is ...how to do that stuff in GTA. The "X" to skip credits is a big help. And I found LOAD GAME! (It took quite a while...apparently the game has to play itself first? I must have pushed that darn button 20 times!) But the next item, "If you have saved a game..."? How do I save a game in the first place? Or, do I not need to actually save a game if the eLoader thingy is there?

I'll get back here after I check out the Noobz site.

As for the other rev PSP....umm...no:) Seriously, I just ran out and bought whatever was on the shelf about 1 week ago. THEN I started to see what was what on the 'net, and here I am.

How do I upload the 20 minute stuff so it appears as a DL link in this forum?

Thanks

Charlie

Ok, back again. Got the eloader0.97, dated April 4, 2006. Right one? (Don't know about the "super" part, thought).

Got eMenu v0.1 from another site.

Guess what? Now I need to get the USB cable! Never realized that the PSP didn't come with one, and those I have here are not the right size connector.

Thanks for all your help, I guarantee I'll have more questions after I get the cable. As I said, STEP BY STEP, including what buttons to push and when. OF course, once I get it working, I can document it.

-----------------------------------
Notes on the 20 minute stuff:
It's a 150Mb ZIP, expands to almost 400Mb.
It must be put on the C drive.
It's Cygwin PSP development, which means coding in C/C++

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Back in a day or two
Thanks again
Charlie

ok. go get that cable and we will see you back. lol Where did you get the precompiled cygwin thing? I know of devkitPSP, and I know of Xorloser's toolchain.

Got the USB cable, and managed to get it to work. I now see the PSP on my desktop PC as a removable disk. I think I am looking at the memory stick, right? And it disappears when move the PSP away from the USB menu selection. Is this correct?

Now, do I specifically need to play GTA to save it, or can I just transfer the data from the PC? From what PSP890 says, I don't need to actually have saved a game, just put the Bock thingy there. Is this correct? And what is the comment about the "5th folder"? All I see are directory headers like PSP and MP_ROOT, and under PSP I see things like GAME, MUSIC, etc. Nothing related to 5th folder!

At this point, I 'd be happy to see the good ol' HelloWorld text..yes, I have that already compiled.

---------------------------
20 minute stuff:
It's not really pre-compiled cygwin, as much as it is "Cygwin-Already-95%-Configured-For-Operation-On-A-PC-With-The-PSP-Toolchain-And-Then-Put-Into-A-Zip-File-With-Instructions-For-The-Remaining-5%". Made it myself...which explains why it's so big...at the time, I didn't know what or how much of Cygwin I'd need, so I took all the defaults. It probably could be made smaller, but if you think I'm going to suffer through all that again...??!! Is it in fact possible to upload a 150MB file here? Is it even allowed? Even more basic, does anybody care? :)

Thanks all, I'm off to try the eload thing.

Charlie

PS: Oops, almost forgot...what's the emenu thing?

Extracted eloader from the PC file, it went to the PSP. Here's the eloader details:
------------
Output folder: g:\psp\eloader
Extract: README.TXT
Extract: NECRONOMICON.TXT
Extract: gta200.nid
Extract: gta250.nid
Extract: gta260.nid
Extract: vsh200.nid
Extract: loader097.cfg
Output folder: g:\utils
Extract: EBOOT_signature.exe
Extract: touch.exe
Output folder: g:\psp\savedata\ULUS10041S5
Extract: DATA.BIN
Extract: icon0.png
Extract: PARAM.SFO
Extract: PIC1.PNG
Extract: tetris.bin
Create folder: g:\psp\savedata
Copy to g:\psp\savedata\
Copy failed
Output folder: g:\psp\eloader
Extract: loadmenu.tga
Extract: loadmenu097.pbp
Completed
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Note the "Copy failed" message, is it important?... however, all the other stuff worked.

Now, when I start the PSP with GTA inserted, and do the "X" thing, I eventually come up to a new screen (obviously, must be the eloader screen, but its definitely NOT the GTA game screen), that says "designed by el magnifico"...nothing like patting yourself on the back. Now, there are no entries in what I believe is the directory/files windows on this screen. And, after about 20 seconds, the PSP shuts off. I'm still playing with it, and, as you can see, I have not put any homebrew on it yet....this is mostly because I don't know where to put it. When I compile my own stuff (HelloWorld), I get a PBP file and an SFO file and and ELF file. What do I do with them?

I'll keep on trucking


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(Did this before I noticed the additional post)
Edit: Here's the results of my trucking:
If I exit GTA and get back to the PSP main menu, I can find something neat on the Saved Data Utility...there's an eloader graphic that looks like a couple of soda bottle caps, a picture of Mario, and other stuff. Cool! And it says "Slot 5 Homebrew"..so there's the slot 5 stuff, even if I don't know what it means.
********************


Thanks
Charlie

Ok. Congratulations, you got to the regular eloader menu. I suggest installing emenu next. It's simple, and efficient, and even has tips when you press the start button as well as sleep mode. Ok, go DL some homebrew. Then follow the readme. You need either the 2.xx+ or 1.00 version of homebrew. Not 1.50. And don't use the folders marked with %.( homebrew folders) You usually place the homebrew folder, or Eboot(in your helloworld thing) into the PSP/GAME/ folder. Go do that, and see if you have any questions.

EDIT: LINK TO EMENU http://files.fanjita.org/psp/emenu--v01.exe