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

Well it works...sort of. What a kludge. I can imagine the effort the guys had to go through just to get it this far.

Anyway, I have to get into GTA, using 2 X presses at 2 screens, and eventually the eload menu shows up, with HelloWorld...and I can run it! And when I exit my brilliant app, it says "please wait....".....forever. I have to remove the batteries to get out. (Hmm, you don't suppose it's my superior program, do you?)

Anyway, I at least have a starting point, and maybe the next homebrew I use will be somewhat smarter at exiting.

Stay tuned for the next exciting adventure of "Really out-of-it Newbie".

Thanks all, and anyone wanting the 20 minutes, let me know, even via PrivateMessage.

Charlie

Instead of taking out the batterie you can also just hold the power button up for about 15 sec to do a hard power off.

You can press L1+R1+start to go back to eloader from almost any app. then you can press start there and it will exit. the whole process takes about 5 seconds. lol and I don't really know why you're having so much trouble, it took me 5 mins to get set up. but it's cool, it let's me help someone else. :)

"L1+R1+start"...ok, I'll investigate that, thanks. I have held the Power button up, but only for about 5 seconds as that seems to work under "normal" PSP operations.

1. It's hard to push the buttons, especially the joy stick.
2. When I push the button, nothing happens..so I push it again...then, 10 seconds later, there's the result from the first button push...unfortunately, there's that damn 2nd button push that I can't
unpush...so, the PSP continues on to who-know-where. As a result, I now push the button once and wait and wait and wait. If I've timed it right, I get result, but if I time it wrong, and have to do the 2nd button push, well, I've already waited haven't I?
Thus, from PSP poweron to eloader menu is on the order of 2+ minutes (also, I powerup with the memory stick and GTA already in place - wonder if that slows things down?). That why I emphasize the step-by-step concept. A good instruction set concept for me would be (assume already at PSP menu) :
1. Push button X
2. Wait 10 sec
3. Push button Y
4. Wait until PSP screen says {whatever}
5. Push ...
etc.

And I still have to learn what things like R1 means.

I expect that this is all PSP-centric user stuff, which comes with experience (I hope), and eventually I'll get it. However, my goal is not to get homebrew to work to play games, but rather get homebrew to work so I can figure out HOW it works. I'd really like to meet the guys who somehow figured out the GTA exploit in the first place. How did they do that? Someone got a PSP emulator? Maybe a MIPS decompiler? Maybe some source code? THAT kind of stuff is my forte, and that's where I want to get.
At the same time, I am paranoid that I don't brick the PSP, so I make sure everything is pre-planned and verified before I do it. Thus, I research things like "Do I plug in the PSP cable before or after I turn power on?"...and that information goes into the proper spot in the step-by-step instructions, which need to be at the level of a mentally challenged fifth grader.

Maybe it's my engineering background, but I like everything to be consistant, repeatable, and explained and consistant and repeatable :)

So I still have dumb-but-interesting questions, like, what/why is the Mario-and-bottletop screen there? What is it for? At what point in GTA should I NOT press a button? And eventually, of course, what's the fastest button sequence to get me to (in this case) the eloader?

And that, my helpful friends, is why it takes me so long, and why I insist on more details than just "do this...".

You have all been extremely helpful, and I think I've got enough knowledge to be dangerous. So, assuming I don't brick the dang unit, I'm questing for more knowledge and the next level. Anyone who cares to join me is welcome.

Thanks again,
Charlie

I think that Eloader is closed-source, at least I haven't seen any source code relating to the GTA exploit.

That certainly makes sense, of course. It's just that it seem to operate so arbitrarily each time I restart it.

And GTA is very difficult to comprehend ... how would I know to push X to skip the credits unless told, and I still can't find the "save game" magic.

Almost all of the homebrew I have DL'ed does not allow a smooth exit back to the PSP menu.

and etc...

Oh well, I am appeased by the fact that everyone else has to go through this too, which only serves to heighten my respect for the work that these people have performed in bringing homebrew to us little people.

Charlie

The games I've tried allow exit to emenu and then PSP like this:
Press and HOLD for a second then let go the top Left Clear Button (L1) and the top Right Clear Button (R1) and the Start button. From emenu exit to PSP menu by pressing Start.

Hah! it's the "hold for a second" trick! Guess I need to work on my reflexes.

Positively last question (today). How do I save a game? I have fought GTA to get to the room where I have to change clothes, and there is a blue icon that says something like "save #1". Assuming that is the save game point, how do I activate it? And can I review my game saves in the middle of the game, without actually loading them, then return to the game? (oops, that's two questions!)

Thanks
Charlie

save the GTA game ? or homebrew?
to save GTA go to a safe house when not on a misson and walk in the little disk icon.
You can review your game saves by going to GTA's menu(start I think), and going to game save menu.

Thanks, that's sort of what I thought. If you remember, or you play the game again, you will see that instructions similar to those appear when I walk into that building (so now it's a safe house?) where I change clothes..there is a disk icon. When I walk into that, it does disappear. And I have done that numerous times (that, at least, is somewhat intuitive), but I have yet to see the actual save appear on the memory stick. Thus, my repeated question on what should be a simple subject.

I'll try it again shortly. (Don't tell anyone I'm PSP-ing here at work!)

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Edit: Just checked again. After going to the safe house, changing clothes, and walking into the save icon, I use the start button to get to the menu. Then I try to delete stuff (just to prove it's there) and all I get is a "no data" message. Is this first save icon just for the instructions, or should there actually be a save of my current status?



Thanks
Charlie

If you save first, it will be a save of your current status. You can also quit GTA and go to the regular psp's game menu and click on savedata and see your save.

No, it doesn't. That's the problem. Here's what I do:
1. Format memory stick
2. Start GTA
3. Play to first safe house.
4. Enter house, wait out instructions ref clothes and savegame
5. Do NOT change clothes, go directly to icon displaying "Backup #1" text
6. Icon disappears, instructions appear again.
7. Exit game via "home" button.
8. Go to "Saved Data Utility", push "X", message is "There is no data"
9. Go to "Memory Stick", shows "Free Space 30MB" push "X", message is "There are no games"

Thanks
Charlie

backup #1? I've never seen that text. Did you finish the first mission? Like when you walk into the icon, it says something like do you want to save? then you click yes and it says don't remove MS, and the MS light comes on? that should work!