The Pandora battery has really eliminated development on most other forms of downgrading or converting to CFW because the Pandora battery is universal, and works below the firmware level so that no specific firmware or additional tools/software are required to perform the process.
You CAN go to CFW without a Pandora battery... sometimes. It's just very dependent on the model and firmware of your PSP, that's all. The PSP-2001 (Slim) models, as far as I know, DO require a Pandora battery. The PSP-1001 (Fat) models that have version 3.50 firmware or older installed, combined with a physical UMD copy of Lumines, can be downgraded using a non-Pandora based downgrader.
Chances are, though, that you want a Slim, and I'd sure as hell go with one, too! You can buy a Pandora-type battery that is premodified (and generally hard wired) into service mode. They are not expensive if you search online (I like DealExtreme.com). Your only real necessity, then, is the Pandora magic memory stick that needs to be present for the process, and a friend with a Fat PSP is really what you need for that
Hope this helps
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