Article Detail - PlayStation Portable News

The icons of PSP hacks and homebrew development

Posted Mar 28, 2007 at 01:42AM by Jerico G. Listed in: Opinions & Analysis Tags: Fanjita, Sony, Ahman, Dark-AleX, Exophase

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The Icons of PSP hacks and homebrew development - Image 1

A lot of you folks may have totally forgotten about it, but last Saturday (March 24) was a very important day for us PlayStation Portable owners. That day marked the date Sony unleashed its latest handheld to North American shores. Yes, it's been two years since we've first held the sleek black rectangular-shaped contraption in our hands and marveled at its graphical prowess and multifunctional capabilities.

Its first few months filled PSP owners with frustration though. It would be remembered that before PSPs were launched outside of Japan, Sony released its very first firmware update thus blocking homebrew for gamers around the world who just bought their handhelds. With a handful of measly launch titles, disappointing UMD movies, and no homebrew, the PSP was nothing more than an expensive piece of mp3 player for many. It wasn't surprising then to see a brand new PSP left lying around the household untouched. Until devs laid their hands on some...

The PSP development scene is right where it is right now, not because of Sony's marketing schemes, but because of the sheer ingenuity of our numerous developers. THEY made the PSP the multimedia device its creators billed it to be. THEY brought the PSP to the heights it's currently in. THEY realized the PSP's true potential. So it should not come as a surprise that this post is all about THEM.

So to celebrate the second birthday of our North American PlayStation Portables, we're going to feature the guys who really made this gadget the gadget it is now. Think of it as our own makeshift Hall of Fame for PSPs. They are the icons of PSP homebrew development.

The gods of PSP applications
Sony made us believe the hype about the PSP being a multimedia wonder. These devs laboured hard to actually make the PSP an efficient multimedia machine. In other words, they didn't merely plan, they made it happen. Among the notables are Ahman (creator of arguably the best organizational program/shell for the PSP - iR Shell); Raf (maker of PSP Radio, a radio music streaming PSP application); and DickyDick1969 (PiMPStreamer coder, a video streaming application for PSP). There are lot more PSP applications developer out there, you could see them all here.

What made them famous: For turning the PSP into something its original creators have failed to do - a true multimedia device.

The fathers of PSP emulators
They are the folks responsible for making full use of the PSP's hardware advantages. Tweaking left and right, nonstop, these guys have made our handhelds a virtual time machine. The more popular ones include: Yoyofr and Laxer3a (parents of the SnesPSP emulator responsible for allowing us to play with Super Nintendo games in our PSP); Ruka (creator of the most reliable Nintendo NES emulator for the PSP - Nester J); and, Exophase (maker of the Game Boy Advance emulaGame Boy Advance emulator for PSPtor for PSP - gpSP).

Other guys worth mentioning are PSMonkey (master of Monkey64, a Nintendo 64 emulator for PSP), ZX-81 (an emulating machine with projects ranging from MSX to Amstrad CPC emulators), and NJ (another monster coder with NEOGEO, CPS1PSP emulators among other under his belt. We have more, and you can all meet them here.

What made them famous: For giving us our own gaming time machines.

The Icons of PSP hacks and homebrew development - Image 1

The heroes of hacks and exploits
Now these are the guys who started it all. The trailblazers and frontliners of war whom Sony has waged against us. They paved the way for all the homebrew goodness we're currently enjoying. In fact, we could liken them to the Spartan warriors of old. Pardon my geekiness, but here's a convo I've envisioned if Sony ever decided to send an envoy to negotiate with our PSP community hackers.

Sony: A thousand company-paid coders descend upon you! Our firmware updates will be so thick, it'll blot out the Sun!
PSP Hackers: Then we will hack in the shade.

Back to business, though. Here are our well-respected developers.

Nem: The true father of homebrew. This guys started it all. He, along with the SEC-Saturn Expedition Committee, released the first homebrew application for the PSP, a Hello World application (the very first step to any programming). And since the PSP is so tightly locked by Sony, a Hello World application is definitive proof that you've got code running.

What made him famous: Provided the keys for the locked gates of homebrew heaven.

PSP-DEV: There was an age when the PSP owners were lost in a sea of darkness. Sony unleashed its then most powerful weapon, the PSP firmware 1.50, right before the first PSPs hit North American shores. PSP users sailed blindly without homebrew and kickass games, until a Spanish group called PSP-DEV (comprised mainly of CybBlade, Pawstick, and Killer-X) burst into the scene. They made what could be considered the very first exploit for North American PSPs - the Swaploit. It is a method of swapping Memory Sticks while starting the application, hence the name. Crude, yes, but it gave the PSP owners their first glimmer of hope that someday, homebrew will be smoothly launched on their handhelds.

What made them famous: Served as a lighthouse for lost PSP owners.

MPH: There was time when the PSP community seemed to be immersed in darkness. PSP owners have barely enjoyed homebrew via exploits made in the 1.50 firmware, when Sony began a barrage of firmware updates bringing it up to firmware 2.0. Back then it served as a vast sea for PSP owners stranded in the island of firmware 2.0. Nobody could crack it, until MPH came along out of the blue with a working 2.0 to 1.50 firmware downgrader. We were rescued, and the happy days were here again.

What made him famous: Saved drowning PSP owners from the sea of firmware 2.0.

Fanjita and Ditlew: Just the mere mention of their names brings shudders to any learned PSP owner and perhaps even developers under Sony. They have been frontliners right from the early days of PSP hacking, and even now a lot of coders respect them. Ever since the development of Eboot Loader (or, as you may now call it, eLoader), these guys have had a hand in most firmware cracks, downgraders, and existing exploits for the PSP. Their insights demand respect, and rightfully so.

What made them famous: Served as the vanguards of PSP development.

Booster: Here's the father of one of the PSP development's many breakthroughs. The creator of the one of the most commonly used emulator/application for PSP, DevHook (or Device Hook) has truly raised the bar of hacking for PSP. When Sony was dishing out firmware updates like there was no tomorrow, not a few of our companions in the crusade were able to resist the tempting new features the latest updates offer. Yes, true, a few remained loyal, and Booster rewarded them in full.

His application have been sought by many (a lot of those were the same ones swayed by the firmware updates). And why not? It has given PSP 1.50 owners the best of both worlds - homebrew heaven, and the ability to load the higher firmwares and enjoy the new features (and games that require it) that come along with it.

What made him famous: Became the Alchemist behind the "boost" of PSP enjoyment.

Dark_Alex: ... Silence ... True enough, whenever Dark_Alex speaks (or in our case, makes a post on his website) everybody listens. Why is he a PSP development icon? Let me count the ways: Firmware cracks, downgraders, popstations, and of course, custom firmwares. The darkest days of the PSP were right between firmware updates 2.50 and 2.82, and Dark_Alex was there to lead the crusade toward the light. When Sony came up with a plan to market PSOne games to the PSP, Dark_Alex was there to provide an even better way to play your PS1 backups in your PSPs.

Mt. Olympus has mighty Hercules, the Norse Gods have Thor, and the PSP homebrew community has Dark_Alex. He's every homebrew user's hero. 'Nuff said.

What made him famous: He is the Hero of homebrew.

The most important icon of them all:
(If you'd like to know who's being whispered in hushed tones across the internet as the most important person behind the success of PSP homebrew community, just highlight the following text with your mouse, by dragging your cursor over it)

YOU

Yes, you. None of this would have been possible without you, us, everybody. The guys mentioned above achieved what they did not because they wanted it solely for themselves, but out of desire to share it with the whole PSP community. It is within our ranks where great coders like Nem, Fanjita, Ditlew, Dark_Alex, Booster, and the rest came from, and it's definitely where the future greats will come from.

You shared their frustration every time a hard-to-crack firmware is hurled at us. You egged them on when they're on the brink of breakthroughs. You basked with them under the rays of triumph every successful hack. And you showed them your gratitude for all of this. So to YOU, we extend our thanks.

Postscript: Let's offer a moment of silence for CybBlade of PSPDev whom we lost to cancer back in 2005. We're sure he's now cracking God's PSP up there.

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by xnjcx2008 (Unregistered) - 2007-03-27

» Amen

God bless you all. Also thank you QJ for your awesome blogs ^_^

Re: W. Jones (Unregistered) - 2007-03-27

» I Agree

"God bless you all. Also thank you QJ for your awesome blogs ^_^"

I agree with this person. All you PSP devs. out there are the greatest. Sorry to here about CybBlade too. Props to you all.

Re: w00t (Unregistered) - 2007-03-28

» pathetic

LAME! LAME! LAME! This is bs!!!111

Homebrew sux big time. Let me ***** the ways:

- no support for 3.10 oe top_menu plugin.
- to date no workable keyboard
- no usb usage, meaning to put other USB devices such as wireless, ethernet, non-psp cameras
- not ALL areas are customizable leaving a weird uneasthetic mix of $ony icons and homebrew.
- LINUX inexistant? I mean c'mon h4x0rz cracking 360 trillions times more powerful than psp, Linux on PS3, Linux on the DS for christ sake!!! What about the PSP? HELLOOO???!! LINUX is what determines how hardcore homebrew should be, no some suck LUA crap, and psp programming.

I could go on with the list, but believe this not an achievment to gloat and to celebrate.

Re: Philip (Unregistered) - 2007-03-29

» re w00t

Shut up w00t you sucks

Re: maniac (Unregistered) - 2007-03-31

» RE:w00t

oh, so u have made a better device that does all that plus more?

care to share your knowledge?

Re: t d (Unregistered) - 2007-04-18

» ...

"God bless you all. Also thank you QJ for your awesome blogs ^_^" agreed. and w00t, u do something better. u make a custom firmware with topmenu support. fanjita has already made a keyboard plugin, u make one. u add support for non-psp peripherals. u make every area customizable. u port linux to the psp. u make a whole new programming language for the psp. go on.

Re: Jimbojet (Unregistered) - 2007-04-23

» W00t the F*ck

W00t, dude what are you on about, show some respect I had my PSP a month and i was all ready considering trading it in because to me at the time it was a useless brick. I came across the homebrew community and my PSP is born again. I use it all the time. My bro doesn't have homebrew and because of that he hasn't even charged his PSP up for 6 months. Without homebrew PSP would be dead. My respect goes out to all the PSP devs and to CybBlade.

by obiwan (Unregistered) - 2007-03-27

» THREE CHEERS FOR HOMREBREW! HIP HIP!

I have to say the PSP hackzing boom was the most impressive display of what GOOD the internet can do for a community of game console owners... and they say this thing's only for pron, pffft. It shows what a diverse people can accomplish when they work together. WELL DONE. Still much to do also, so get to it!

One very notable and key figure in the success of downgrading and homebrew I think you missed was EDISONCARTER, who pspupdates named "the jesus christ of GTA". I'm beginning to think he really is jesus.

Re: Advertising -

Re: darth big man (Unregistered) - 2007-03-28

» but....

its still good for pron

by NICE! (Unregistered) - 2007-03-27

» I read every word of that!

Nice description and I have payed my moment of silence to those devs!
I did not know about the swaploit.

FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Re: god0fgod - 2007-03-27

» Swaploit

That was replaced by the kxploit a while back.

by Uhn (Unregistered) - 2007-03-27

» .

My salutations and respect, for the time and resources taken by every psp homebrew coder to make our psp a better gadget.

Re: ,, (Unregistered) - 2007-03-27

» ..

and great article too

by me (Unregistered) - 2007-03-27

» hurrah!

A fitting tribute to those who have maed the PSP usable despite £35 games and rubbishness froim sony.

by Sayenthy (Unregistered) - 2007-03-27

» error

Anyone else notice that Monkey64 is incorrectly credited as the creator of Daedalus? He did make an N64 emulator, but stopped working on it. Strmnnrmn does Daedalus. It's worth correcting.

Re: pj1115 (Unregistered) - 2007-03-27

» Yeh..

Noticed that, too.

Re: PSPZorZ - 2007-03-27

» f

Yeah, me too... I wonder when someone is going to fix that.

Re: Advertising -

Re: JATF (Unregistered) - 2007-03-27

» me also

Monkey64 is the name of the n64 emu that "PSMONKEY" made. He stoped developing it because his new job forbade it.

Re: PSPZorZ - 2007-03-29

» d

Okay, now it's fixed to say PSMonkey made Monkey64... but there's no mention of Daedalus and StrmnNrmmnmn! I don't see how Monkey64 gets mention, but not Daedalus.

by maher (Unregistered) - 2007-03-27

» pspisos

check this site everybody you will get excited

http://burjkhalifa.jconserv.net

by . (Unregistered) - 2007-03-27

» .

snifff... truly makes you feel proud...

by NateD0gg - 2007-03-27

» "PSP Hackers: Then we will hack in the shade."

I like that.

by Jish (Unregistered) - 2007-03-27

» Strmmnmm - Daedeus

Monkey 64 was the original developer to bring any hope of an N64 emulator, but he quit his emulator to work for a software company or team (?sony?, I think).

Strmmnmm was the developer that brought us a almost working N64 emulator, Daedelus.

Both are great devs!

by hotrodkid (Unregistered) - 2007-03-27

» >>> Homebrew Follower

special thanks to BOOSTER and Dark Alex....

you guys opened the doors to enjoy the best of both worlds!!!!!

by cruel.Angel (Unregistered) - 2007-03-27

» sniff

T_T it made me cry... CybBlade T_T

by adfo (Unregistered) - 2007-03-27

» i thought the psp

was oval

by A offended chinese taoist (Unregistered) - 2007-03-27

» offensive

"Postscript: Let's offer a moment of silence for CybBlade of PSPDev whom we lost to cancer back in 2005. We're sure he's now cracking God's PSP up there."

i find that offensive. i am a taoist (taoism) and i don't believe in any gods. i demand you take that off your site or i will boycott your site.

Re: Advertising -

Re: jaja (Unregistered) - 2007-03-27

» Go ahead

Boycott it, who gives a *****? Freedom of speech, dum@ss.

Re: JCMC - 2007-03-27

» God

Ummm, you know taoist have Gods too? It didn't say, "We're sure he's now cracking the Catholic God's PSP up there" or "We're sure he's now cracking the Jewish God's PSP up there" or "We're sure he's now cracking Pangu's (The creator of the Universe for some taoist) PSP."

Its not making reference to any God. More of the ideal of CybBlade doing something better after his life. Have you ever though that meaning is greater then a word? Its stupid to believe that if something is said and it doesn't relate to your personal belief that its offensive.

Just be tolerant and let it go by. Oh and I don't really think a single person can boycott and make a difference. Maybe if you get a bunch of people to follow you, but whose going to fall someone so easly offended by a single word.

Re: PSPZorZ - 2007-03-27

» g

Taoists have gods, not a God, the fact that the word is capitalized means that it is referring to the christian God, which is a name and should grammatically be capitalized. The only "God" is the christian god. But besides that point, he even said he didn't believe in any god so, despite what some taoists might believe, he doesn't believe in God. But I'm not defending what he said... so what if you find it offensive, "A offended chinese taoist"? The writer may find it offensive that he isn't allowed to include anything about his religion, for fear of people of other religions getting upset. Boycott if you must, but this is America, and this writer has his right to free speech.

Re: . (Unregistered) - 2007-03-27

» .

THANK YOU FOR FEEDING THE TROLLS. Idiots.

Re: Your mom's box (Unregistered) - 2007-03-28

» Offended by chinese taoist

"i find that offensive. i am a taoist (taoism) and i don't believe in any gods. i demand you take that off your site or i will boycott your site."

I'm offended by the lack of grammar. It's sad in this day of age that religious *****s like this one brings up a tribute and can't even express it correctly. Go back to China.

Re: someon (Unregistered) - 2007-03-28

» CybBlade

if CybBlade believed in God...then it refers to CybBlade's belief

there's no reference to any other religion...its too broad

Re: GOD (Unregistered) - 2007-03-28

» piss off then

cus im realler than tao.....so u dont exist...so u dont need to piss off ;-)
GOD ROCKS..!!! TAO SUX COX!!

Re: Dear Mother *****ing Asian (Unregistered) - 2007-03-30

» ...

***** you. GOD is cool because GOD is awesome and GOD exists and GOD is GOD.

Anyway, you're the one not being tolerant of people who believe in God, because you don't want people to express their belief in God.

And yes I know im not tolerant either.... ***** Toeists

Re: ... (Unregistered) - 2007-03-30

» PSPz0rz you're an idiot

PSPz0rz go ***** in a hole. Christians, and Jews both believe in the same "God" and Muslims believe in the very same one with a different name... (Allah)

Re: blade s (Unregistered) - 2007-04-26

» taoist

who gives a ***** you freak

by pspEMPIRE (Unregistered) - 2007-03-27

» congrats

this left me eye-teary

:'-)

Re: babyboy (Unregistered) - 2007-03-27

» oh boy oh boy

it made me cry too... oh boys, you're all great. you're always welcome to bang me.

by MrDaBucket - 2007-03-27

» The "YOU" can be demanding....

And "YOU" should be thankful for these great people who do this ***** for free.

Kudos and thank you to Fanjita, Ditlew, Dark Alex and everyone else!

by you (Unregistered) - 2007-03-27

» yess

yes i am the best psp hombrew icon hahahha what losers. you should call me Dark_Tom. i think it works well

by B00STERLOVER (Unregistered) - 2007-03-27

» Yoshi and 0okm

Arent you forgetting yoshi?!? he was really influencial, and i hate when no1 gives him any credit! He was Behind most of those things, and helped out others on occasion too! and 0okm, hacking and soldering away 137 ballpin chips!

Re: FreePlay - 2007-03-27

» ... What?

Boy, are you out of your mind? Yoshi's contributions have been much less than the people mentioned here. Mostly he borrows other people's code, makes a few improvements, and releases it as entirely his own work. PSX-p, case in point.

Re: jdl11 (Unregistered) - 2007-03-27

» 0okm

Yeah, what about 0okm? When I bricked my PSP and I got a new one it was a TA-082. He is the one that made most of the TA-082 discoveries.

Re: rob (Unregistered) - 2007-03-28

» i agree about 0okm

there seems to be alot of hate, but, if not for him, it would have been another month before 2.8 TA-082'ers could downgrade. His 2.8 to 2.71 d/ger, though confusing, was amazing. 0okm is a great dev, and i am sad to see him ignored

Re: ... (Unregistered) - 2007-03-30