Article Detail - PlayStation Portable News

PSP Hacking - A trip down Memory Lane

Posted May 28, 2006 at 11:44AM by Pranav T Listed in: Hacks & Exploits Tags: Fanjita, nem, MPH, groepaz, hitmen, ps2dev, saotome, skylark, Niacin

286

PSP

Well, we’re at a crossroads with regards to PSP Hacking, what with the announcement of a PSP modchip. And coincidentally, I’d been working on an article pretty much related to the history of PSP hacking. So what better time to present it? Well here goes.

I'm sure our readers are quite curious about the history of PSP hacking. I can state that about 60%-70% of our readers have joined us within the last 6-8 months. And trust me, your time hasn’t been as exciting as the first few months after the release of the PSP.

We’ve had the firmware updates, the eLoaders, the ISO loaders, and loads more, and just about everyone knows about them. But far too few people know or remember the first few weeks/months when the PSP came out. Let’s go on a small journey, shall we?

First, let me introduce the guy who’s been one of the most instrumental people in PSP hacking:

Nem – the guy who started it all. You could call him the 'Father of PSP homebrew'. Yep, surprise! It’s not Fanjita. I’m actually surprised that few people know him. He’s the guy (along with SEC-Saturn Expedition Committee) who released the first homebrew application for the PSP, a Hello World application.

People who’ve been programming would know that the Hello World app is the first step to any programming. Whether its console hacking, or learning a new programming language, a Hello World application is the first step. And on the PSP, it’s even more important. Since the PSP is so tightly locked by Sony, a Hello World application is definitive proof that you’ve got code running. Sure, you always get the “crash” when you do something which wasn’t meant to be done, but a crash does not always mean that it can be exploited to result into something. A few examples would be glitched videos, images, or other files. Few of these glitched files have actually resulted into something. That’s the reason why a hello world app is the most important.

So let’s do a bit of a flashback, shall we?
First homebrew on a 1.0 – Hello World
First homebrew on a 2.0 – Hello World (Technically, the first homebrew was just a small app which painted the PSP's screen, but Hello World was definitive proof)
First homebrew on a 2.xx– I’ll safely assume that it was a Hello World app. Maybe someday, I’ll verify it with Edison Carter.

By now, I’ll assume that you know how significant a hello world app is. So let’s take a ride to a magical moment in PSP hacking. The first ever unofficial code on a 1.0. I’ll quote Nem from his post on the PS2DEV Forums.

hello world

“Greeting fellows. It's Hello World for PSP.
Hello World, PSP!
Runs only on PSP 1.00.
Place EBOOT.PBP at directory PSPGAMEHELLOPSP of Memory Stick, and
you will find HELLO WORLD at GAME -> MEMORY STICK of XMB.
To shutdown, hold up power switch several seconds, or remove battery.
All scratch code, compiled by ps2dev toolchain.”

Yes, this simple program was going to be one of the greatest moments in PSP homebrew history. Who would’ve thought that?

So what did Sony do? Release a new firmware 1.50, blocking all homebrew, before the psp was launched outside of Japan. (There wasn’t much back then anyways). The new US owners of the PSP woke up to a homebrew-less PSP! No emulators, no games, no homebrew. Period. The PSP community was once again in darkness. So what next?

PSP DEV

For some time, nobody knew. All the PSP users in the US and the World were praying for homebrew. And their prayers were answered. On June 15, 2005 (Less than a year ago!), a Spanish group called PSP-DEV (Comprising mainly of CybBlade, Pawstick and Killer-X, not related to PS2DEV in any way) released the first exploit for 1.50 PSPs, Swaploit. the method, crude. But who cared? Firmware 1.5 now had all the homebrew that 1.0 had been known for.

It worked by swapping Memory Sticks while starting the application. Like i said, crude. But definitely functional. But programmers are known for their laziness. Not while programming, but usually with everything else. So were they going to stop? Nope. Just a week after swaploit, PSP-DEV released KXploit. That finally meant that 1.5 homebrewers didn’t have sore fingers or broken nails.

PSP DEV

And then Sony released another update! Multiple actually, but commonly referred to as 1.5x. And a useless one at that. This was the first of many “security fix” updates. And it showed the lengths to which Sony would go, just to block homebrew. I’m not quite sure of the difference between 1.51 and 1.52. I read somewhere that the 1.51 psps were simply refurbished ones, and you shouldn’t have had one of them. Anyways, the 1.5x firmwares will go down in PSP hacking history as the only two uncrackable ones. There was no vulnerability discovered. I won’t say that they were uncrackable, just that nobody had a good look at them.

By now, the people were becoming restless. There were hardly any good games out. And the psp had hardly delivered any of its “Personal Media Player” promises. Sure, you had movie playback, and mp3 playback, but that’s it. The movies supported were low-res mp4 ones and audio playback was only mp3 and atrac3. And this was attracting a lot of media attention. Sony had to do something to silence everyone. Enter 2.0

One of the first firmwares which tried to fill up the void which Sony had left after announcing great things before the PSP came out. It bundled a web browser, AVC movie playback and wav, mp4-aac audio playback, and support for a few new image formats including TIFF (more on that later), plus a few additions. Supposed to be the firmware which forced every homebrew-lover to update, it did its job quite well. The web browser was the main reason why so many people upgraded. Although it received a lot of good reviews for having tabbed browsing, it was still another half-baked cake.

Since it borrowed netfront’s code it also shared a few irritating things with the original. It ran out of memory too early. And it didn’t support Flash. People were once again discontented. The various “please make a downgrader” threads on every PSP community forum are witness to that fact. The hacking community had another challenge on its hands. Were they going to be successful?

For some time, nobody knew the answer. And then it happened! It was known that the PSP was using libTIFF to display the TIFF images. And there was a known vulnerability in the version which the PSP was using. So, Skylark, Niacin and a 3rd anonymous person tried to exploit it. And they were greeted by success! Using a buffer overflow in the library, they were able to paint the screen with color. And it was quite a big achievement. But it still didn’t run code.

TIFF - Image 1

It was now time for the second stage. Exploiting the hole so that useful code could be run. And Groepaz of “Hitmen” group was the first successful person to display “Hello World” on 2.0 PSPs. The homebrew community, now quite aware of the significance of “Hello World”, was thrilled to hear of this great news. It was now time for the real homebrew to come by the truckloads.

TIFF - Image 2

But it didn’t happen. The process to develop exclusively for 2.0 was still difficult. You needed a bit of Assembly knowledge, which was hard to come by, since most of the developers were still new to development itself! Around this time, MPH released a downgrader out of the blue. Nobody was expecting it. But sure as hell, after the multiple fakes by shady people, this was the real thing! And it created a huge buzz. All the PSP sites which hosted the downgrader faced huge traffic due to the mad rush. And again, the forums were alive with people who were new to the whole 1.5 “KXploit” thing. And this time, the community welcomed them with open arms, making multiple guides, and in general, easing the newbies into the “1.5 scene”

But there were a few who didn’t want to give up the new Web Browser and AVC movie playback. They waited for a solution. And it came in the form of an Eboot Loader which loaded 1.0 eboots on 2.0. And again, unlike what most people think, it wasn’t Fanjita who created the first Eboot Loader for 2.0 PSPs. A guy by the name of Saotome was the first successful person to load 1.0 eboots on 2.0. Although it only ran a few eboots (including Nem’s original Hello World app), it was definitely a start.

And this was the time when Fanjita showed up. Yes, this late! And one more thing, his first homebrew wasn’t the Eboot Loader. It was a Tetris clone, made for 2.0 using the TIFF exploit. Then on, he borrowed Saotome’s Eboot Loader code and got to work on it, creating his own Eboot Loader, now known as eLoader. The rest is history.

Right now, with firmware 2.70, we stand at a similar situation. Although a lot was promised, including a Flash Player, it was once again, a half-baked cake. Few hours after the new firmware’s release, there were complaints that the Flash capability was severely limited and not quite up to the mark. And it was true. So once again, the homebrew community is waiting for a miracle. And they’re justified in thinking so. Sony has thrown the gauntlet by blocking the GTA exploit. But the “hackers” have come up with one of the most popular solutions. A modchip. Whether it’s real or fake, I can’t tell, because I myself don’t know for sure. But regardless of that, it’s got people excited again. And that’s what I love to see. And by the way, I’m rooting for homebrew, as always. What about you?

Note: I’d like to extend my greatest appreciation to everyone who’s been mentioned in this small article. Plus, I’d like to thank the whole PS2DEV community for making the PSP what it is. It would have been a dark place without you guys. And prayers go out to CybBlade's family. CybBlade lost his battle to cancer sometime in the last year. I hope you're busy in heaven hacking God's PSP ;)

A big "Thank You!" to Sony for the PSP, and a big "No Thank You!" for blocking homebrew.

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56 Comments

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by Sheir (Unregistered) - 2006-05-28

» Forgot to mention PA?

I was around from the beginning of PSP hacking, when we still used the Swap method.. I say some credit should go to Penny-arcade, for getting a lot of people (Including myself) tuned into PSP hacking.

by Kenney - 2006-05-28

» Yay!

Great article, I think I didn't know like 60% of the stuff just said! =O

by Ortix (Unregistered) - 2006-05-28

» Great

So nice... i almost made me cry..

Dang.. this is like listing miricales like the time jesus was born. It makes me feel like that:P anyways.. nice article!

by Bundy - 2006-05-28

» Fs

Great article.

by dan (Unregistered) - 2006-05-28

» start

i was there from the start and right now im at 2.7 and i can only pray that they hack it

by pj1115 (Unregistered) - 2006-05-28

» wow!

this is really informative, i was on the scene from the start, but i had no idea about names etc. Thanks everyone, for making the PSP the ultimate portable device.

(On a side note, thanks for the psp sony, and also, homebrew probably doubled your sales. ;-) )

by PSP Pro_1 (Unregistered) - 2006-05-28

» *sighs* What a pain, having a 2.70...

It's true, 2.70 is a pain. But LocoXploit are fighting for a place in the history of the PSP, and rumoured modchips are floating around. If anything, a downgrader will come in weeks.

Now, I'd like to thank QJ.net for this PSP History session. Never heard of Nem before.

So, let us hope a new paragraph in this article will be written, 2.70 Homebrew!

by wicked (Unregistered) - 2006-05-28

» indeed

i've been around since the beginning... i've been reading all the updates eventhough i didn't have a psp a while back.... memories...

i like the old pspupdates better than this one...

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by Teggles (Unregistered) - 2006-05-28

» 1.51

Contrary to your post, 1.51 HAS been hacked. You have to replace the DATA.PSAR in an UPDATE EBOOT.PBP. And no, they weren't "refurbished" - their update EBOOTs were released.

by DkP (Unregistered) - 2006-05-28

» Great Article

This has made my day and inspired me to code homebrew for the next gen things when I get older

by Pranav T - 2006-05-28

» To #9:

Wrong. 1.51 was never hacked. Replacing the DATA.PSAR in the update would invalidate the private key, rendering the UPDATE useless. Get your facts right.

by ^_^ (Unregistered) - 2006-05-28

» great article

Hope for more thing like this. ^_^

by eddie (Unregistered) - 2006-05-28

» to wicked

I agree with you #8, I think the old pspupdates website was better, but i'm kinda adjusting to this. I'm glad to see an old veteren :)

by lilbart90 (Unregistered) - 2006-05-28

Ive been here for 1 year this june 26th. Ive been a permium member since August 4th. I have really enjoyed this website over the past year. Its never gotten old. I visit this website at least 3 times a day. And everytime i look theres something new. Even tho my psp is updated, there is much more then that. Expecailly since this site got a new makeover, with all new info pages. its been great. This is truly and most deffinatly the MOST Informative gaming website on the planet. There is no second guessing it, and all those spin off websites, are just copying QJ.net because this site is superior.

by Justin B - 2006-05-28

» Article

For my insight into a very similar topic, see my PSP Birthday Post -

http://www.qj.net/index.php?pg=49&aid=12385

It isn't decorated with many pictures, but it offers my recap of the PSP Homebrew and the PSP itself throughout the year.

by Fozzybear (registered, but too lazy to log in) (Unregistered) - 2006-05-28

» good article

(just wanna say that I've been here since like early May of 2005 when the PSP was pretty much JUST released in America)

And the PSP would not be NEARLY as cool as it already is without all of the AWESOME homebrew stuff. Thanks everyone who worked/is still working on PSP homebrew!

by 1.5owner - 2006-05-28

» awesome

well, i, like many, preferred the old psphacker.com. Still, this site is the best at keeping me updated with all the homebrew news

this article is awesome. PSP homebrew has gone so far since the hello worlds and tetrises of the old days. Now we're close to full N64 emulation! I really wish i knew how to code, and i will when i get older

who cares if 1.51 was cracked? Just upgrade to 2.0 and downgrade to 1.5 from there, like i did when i got a 1.51 off the shelves.

this modchip will be the death of $ony's homebrew crusade and a great victory for us More victories include ISO/UMD loaders. $ony loses!

I think $ony deserves a big F*CK YOU for blocking homebrew and making new developers' lives miserable. Congrats!

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by Tanner (Unregistered) - 2006-05-28

» Great Article

I was around with all of this and the most difficult time was when 2.0 wasn't hacked and there were people that claimed downgraders and the whole thing with WAB and Yoshiro. It was madness. But we lived through it. One thing is that i will never update again. I've got my 1.5 Machine that runs anything and I'm Happy with that.

by Anday23 (Unregistered) - 2006-05-28

» @ number 9

Hacking consoles means to run unsigned code on that very same platform , or to modify it hardware-wise so it accepts and aknowledges running or doing whatever you want without getting "rejected". As Pranav said , "Get your facts right."

Then again , at the article itself (in other words , at Pranav T.) I'm really glad that you took the time to review the whole PSP hacking/homebrew history... Some of the BEST coders and hackers and the ones who instigated such scene , really DO! need to be mentioned , especially CybBlade , he might not be amongst us anymore but we will ALWAYS remember that very day where him and other members of PSP-Dev finally enlighted the 1.5 world and gave birth to 1.5 homebrew.

I'm really happy that such an article was posted , and then again .. I'd have to thank the whole QJ.net crew for organizing and maintaining such a BIG network with , not only PSP news but other topics as well , such as the new gen consoles , and keeping it all up to date.

Thanks as well to Pranav T. for taking the time to do his research and use his memory to remember all these little details and for taking the time to write all the article.

Also a Big shout to the whole PSP Devs and community!

Later.

by TekDekDude (Unregistered) - 2006-05-28

» Umm

Good post, but lots of mistakes.

by dynezxice (Unregistered) - 2006-05-28

» back up ur statement!

mistakes such as?

by MGSnake727 (Unregistered) - 2006-05-28

» brings back memories

this article brings back alot of memories. i spent most of my summer staying up to date on the latest psp news last year and look forward to doing it again.

i still say you should just kill qj.net and bring back psphacker.com but maybe thats just because some of the best psphacking happed back then.

by Rags (Unregistered) - 2006-05-28

» nice

Nice I liked it, Sony doesn't want ppl to have a good machine they want money, hackers actually want ppl to have a good machine and a modchip will make the PSP the greatest handheld ever created, Sony really pisses me off theu are holding the PSP back it has so much potential and they only let a fraction of its power because they'll lose money to ppl who don't buy the games and download Isos off the web, like it matters, anyone that wants to do that would pay etra for a 1.5 PSP and do it anyway Sony will never achieve nothing and sooner or later they will lose the fight that's the truth.

by Pranav T - 2006-05-28

» To #20:

Care to back up your statement?

by Bob (Unregistered) - 2006-05-28

» I don't think Sony have realised they'll be hurting themselves blocking Homebrew

Where are the next set of programmers for the PS whatever meant to come from? (If they ever even get past 3, which would surprise me after PSP and everything announced about the PS3.)

Homebrew was giving programmers practice, getting them better, helping them get onto proper stuff. Homebrew got them into Sonys consoles, let them see how they work, got them to enjoy them.

Now what have we got? No homebrew, potetntial programmers getting bored and stopping.

They are actually hurting themselves a bit by blocking off homebrew. I could understand if they would take in eboots off of their site where people could post them, if they like them they could sign and distribute them. But they don't even do that. They just shove it in our face.

by J (Unregistered) - 2006-05-28

» ahhh memories

I've been on the scene from the start. Watched it all come together slowly but steadily. Rock on homebrewers!! If it wasnt for the support of all of them the PSP would have been just another "so-so" gimmick in its infancy IMHO. Sony owes this community alot because they showed users what the PSP could be one day, multifunctional and not just some lil kids toy.

by Addison B. (Unregistered) - 2006-05-28

» awesome

Great article! I've been on pspupdates and psp-hacks since July 05 and have yet to be disappointed! It's awesome to remember some of this stuff, I remember when the first "hello world" was run on 2.0 and I jumped back from the computer and enthusiastically told the first person I saw, my dad, and he looked at me like I was some kind of idiot! Ah, good times! I didn't even have 2.0, I was just happy that they could all join in on the fun!

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by scabo19 (Unregistered) - 2006-05-28

» nice

Good article.I've only been around since nov las yr but I knew most of what you said there(except Nem)

by Andrew Briggs (Unregistered) - 2006-05-28

» Yeh I Remember...

...Buying 3 PSP's on the Japanese launch date and just using 2 for home use and 1 for modding. The PSP really has potential and is getting better and better all the time especially in the homebrew community/underground

by Your name (Unregistered) - 2006-05-28

» Message

Bang my wife

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