So official firmware 6.00 is here. As with every OFW release, there's bound to be speculation about what steps the homebrew community would counter the new protections it puts into place, and who do we all turn to but Dark AleX? Those hoping for a 6.00 M33 release will likely end up waiting in vain, however.


Thanks to shadownhero for the tip!

The good news is, Dark AleX isn't leaving the homebrew scene. That's what Dark-AleX.org webmaster announced earlier this week. The bad news is, not a lot of homebrew traffic went past our PSP blog during the past seven days. Still, there's a little something for homebrew afficionados past the jump. Hit it and check out this week's PSP Homebrew Weekend Warrior.

A couple of days ago, the PSP homebrew community was in shock as we found news about the Dark-AleX.org forum closing down. What could be the meaning of this? Does this mean there's no more homebrew slices of heaven from Dark AleX himself? Not exactly.


Thanks to hender and dargx001 for the tip!

Quite a few theories sprung up during the latter half of the week when it was announced that Dark AleX's forums were shutting down. Did it mean that the homebrew legend was leaving the scene? Did Sony shell out the cash to shut him up? Are we going to see a new version of the retire-and-reemerge trick?

Yeah, theories. While we wait for word from the "Dark" one himself, let's take a look at the week in homebrew.

Alek, the Admin and Webmaster of Dark-AleX.org, has announced that they are closing down the sites forum after more than one year of existence. The Dark-AleX.org forum is the home of Dark AleX's great homebrew releases, a place for various developers to chat and exchange ideas and a great reference for the homebrew community.


Discuss: QJ.NET's PSP Development forums

The Red Bull PSP team has released a new mod for Despertar del Cementerio, the "Universal Unbricker" from Dark AleX.  This time, the team has created a DC mod for the official PSP firmware 5.55 that allows you to test the firmware without the UMD.


Download: Despertar del Cementerio v8 Mod for OFW 5.55
Discuss: QJ.NET's PSP Development Forums

PSP firmware 5.55 has been spotted again, but this time it's not just in Japan. As shown in the YouTube vid in the full article, the PSP version of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra apparently comes with and requires 5.55 in order to be played.

Navarrito dropped a line back in our forums to give us a quick heads up on the new update for Dark AleX's PSARDumper, care of Red Bull PSP. This app decrypts files from only part of the 5.50 firmware.


Download: PSARDumper5.50
Visit: QJ.NET PSP Development Forum

The Red Bull PSP team has dropped by our forums to release a mod of Despertar del Cementerio v8, a "Universal Unbricker" from Dark AleX. The application allows you to install all 5.50 custom firmware like Gen or MHU, 4.01 M33 and emulate 5.00 M33 using the memory stick.


Download: Despertar del Cementerio v8 Mod
Visit: QJ.NET's PSP Development Forums

While most of the coders out there work within the same circles, one of them seems to be standing on the outside, causing his own storm of sorts. External from most of the drama, StrmnNrmn is happily living in his own world, giving us one of the greatest homebrew emulator projects for the PSP: the Nintendo 64 emulator, Deadalus PSP. As a tribute to Daedalus' third year anniversary this month, here's your QuickGuide for reminiscing (or catching up!) on the life and times of StrmnNrmn so far. Strap into your seats, we're heading into the eye of the storm!