The Simple Guide to your new Firmware 1.50

September 2nd, 2006, 18:28 Posted By: motz

I'm sure many thousands of you have just downgraded to Firmware 1.50 and are wondering "Whats all the fuss about?". Well, I have written this guide to explain everything you'll need to know to enjoy your 1.50 PSP! This guide is really aimed at new users who are not familiar with firmware 1.50 and its abilities.

Intro

Firmware 1.50 allows you to run "homebrew" on your PSP, higher firmwares do not directly have this ability. Firmware 1.50 allows you to do much more with your PSP than the higher firmwares, due to the large amount of homebrew developers who sacrifice their free time to provide you with free games, apps and more!

So what is homebrew then?

Simply put, homebrew is "homemade" games and applications etc. for use with your PSP. PSP homebrew developers do not work for official gaming companies like Ubisoft and EA, nor do they get paid. Therefore, homebrew is 100% free!

What you need to know

Firmware 1.50 allows you to almost anything to your PSP! This section of the guide will explain everything about the PSP Firmware and will not affect most of you.

-Flash

The PSP stores 2 directories where the PSP firmware is stored and read. These are named "flash0" and "flash1". The critical system files are stored in flash0, corrupt files in flash1 can normally be repaired and will not brick (break) your PSP.

You cannot directly access the flash without special tools such as ThemePSP or X-Flash. It is not recommended that you attempt to modify your PSPs flash as it could result in a brick (unless of course you carefully use any of the 2 apps mentioned above).

Applications like ThemePSP will allow you to do all sorts of things with your 1.50, including changing the background, font, bootsound and gameboot screen. Other applications will also allow you to speed up your PSP, including over-riding the chip to 333mhz instead of the standard 222mhz.

-XMB

The XMB is what you see when you turn your PSP on (in other words, the main menu )

-Emulation

An emulator is an application for the PSP which allows you to run games or other apps which have not been designed for the PSP. For example, DGEN allows you to play Sega Genisis games on your PSP.

Recommended Homebrew

X-Flash - Flash modication tool (make sure you know what you're doing )

Theme PSP - Another flash modification tool designed for changing backgrounds and fonts etc.

IRShell - Shell replacement for the PSP

ThrottleX - Fun, puzzle style driving game

PSPMillionaire - PSP version of the popular TV show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire"

PSPMonopoly - PSP version of the board game "Monopoly"

PSPRadio - The name says it all

DevHook - Allows you to emulate firmware 2.71 on your PSP

DGEN - Sega Genisis Emulator for the PSP

PiMPStreamer - Allows you to stream PMP movies

PMP VLC Player - Another PMP media player

Harleyg's Custom Firmware .2 - Custom PSP Firmware

Dark_AleX POC Custom Firmware - Proof of concept custom PSP Firmware

gpSP - GameBoy Advance Emulator

LUAPlayer + Interface Lua - Modified version of LUAPlayer

Daedalus - Nintendo64 Emulator

NesterJ - NES Emulator

There are many more great apps available which haven't sprung to mind, if anyone else has any recommended apps, please simply reply to this thread.

I hope you've found this short guide useful.

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