PSP Firmware 2.5 & 2.6 hacked!

[SymetriX]

From PSP Updates (http://pspupdates.qj.net/Breaking-News-2-60-Firmware-Exploit-Found-Kernel-Access-/pg/49/aid/57216) :

Break out your calendars folks, because this may be a day that you want to mark as a pivotal day in the history of PSP homebrew. A developer known as hitchhikr of "hitchhikr SoftWorks" and coder companion Neural have come out with a Proof of Concept of a 2.50/2.60 Firmware Exploit! Once implemented and fine tuned for "normal user" use, this will bring 2.50 and 2.60 Firmware up to the same homebrew capability that 1.50 PSP owners enjoy with FULL kernel mode access - although Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories will still be required, just like with eLoader.
The article goes on to stress that this is not intended for the average user, but it's certainly a cause for celebration among the homebrew community.

It's also particularly bitter for Sony since they were done in with their own anti-homebrew measures:

The exploit takes advantage of an added security check in 2.50/2.60 Firmware for sceKernelLoadExec, which is responsible for loading EBOOTs, but Sony also accidentally added an overflow bug, which means this exploit will not work with 2.0 and 2.01 Firmware.
PSP Updates (http://pspupdates.qj.net/Breaking-News-2-60-Firmware-Exploit-Found-Kernel-Access-/pg/49/aid/57216) promises more news as developers burn the midnight oil to bring this exploit to the masses.

[Heretic Machine]

I really don't see why people bother with this anymore. It just encourages people to buy PSP's, people who are part of a market that Sony obviously doesn't want.

[Savok]

Scratch that, I get it now. Playing Pokemon and watching Sealab all at once here.

[mightbe]

Like Pumped'Up! Where's he been?

I don't bother any more because every couple of months I want to play a game and it requires the newest firmare to be installed in order to play it.

[Chameleo]

whats the newest firmware ver.?

[mightbe]

Don't have my PSP on me but I think it's the one that's on AC!D2.

[Savok]

Newest is 2.71 I think.

[Mozgus]

So does this damn PSP thingamajig have a game worth playing yet?

[Yeti2005]

I have the PSP and it sucks hard. I have the 1.50 firmware which lets me play homebrew apps and emulated games but honestly there's not enough good PSP games out for this system. It's cool that I can watch movies on my 1 GB memory card during plane trips but otherwise it's crap. I've been meaning to Ebay the damn thing for a while.

[rein]

I have the PSP and it sucks hard. I have the 1.50 firmware which lets me play homebrew apps and emulated games but honestly there's not enough good PSP games out for this system. It's cool that I can watch movies on my 1 GB memory card during plane trips but otherwise it's crap. I've been meaning to Ebay the damn thing for a while.

I like to read post that talk about there not being any games worth playing for the system by people who are still on ver 1.5 or lower firmware. :rolleyes:

[sonysyndicate]

So does this damn PSP thingamajig have a game worth playing yet?

Besides Grand Theft Auto: Liberty Stories the PSP is useless.

[Racknahm]

So does this damn PSP thingamajig have a game worth playing yet?
Lumines is pretty much the only PSP game I like.

[laggerific]

I really don't see why people bother with this anymore. It just encourages people to buy PSP's, people who are part of a market that Sony obviously doesn't want.

I agree...I've given up on the PSP homebrew scene...although the device is perfect for it, it's just too much of a hassle to keep up with if one is interested in playing any official games.
Sony's stance is lame...a real shame...even Bill Gates was starting to warm up to homebrew. Kinda like Bill Clinton was warming up to legalization of marijuana, after he could do anything about it (not saying he actually could have, but it could have helped).

[Demize99]

People who say the PSP has no good games must be fans of nintendo's style games, and they bought the wrong portable. I recently bought my psp and had 3 games ready for me to play that I love, and several more coming in the next month. But if I had bought a DS I might be saying it sucks, simply cause the games on it don't intrest me.

[dead_parrot]

I have a DS, which I love, and I recently bought a PSP. The only game I have for it is Daxter right now, but it's an awesome game. I'll be picking up GTA so I can play emulators. There are a lot of games I'm interested in buying for the PSP; that's why I waited until it had a decent library of games before I purchased it. The game library isn't as good as the DS's, but I knew that going in. To me, the system is worth having so I can play retro games on the go as well as having a portable console with games that I personally would enjoy playing. It's not going to give me any unique experiences (aside from Loco Roco, probably), but I have my DS for that.

[baz]

Locoroco rocks, but my DS gets about 10x the playtime of my PSP.

[mightbe]

So does this damn PSP thingamajig have a game worth playing yet?
My list of solid PSP titles:
Lumines
Metal Gear AC!D 1&2
GripShift
Burnout Legends
Wipeout

Great rentals:
Me and My Katamari
SOCOM
Capcom Classics Collection Remixed
Exit
Untold Legends

[Varsity]

Got to say, I'm impressed that memory leaks are the only way through the firmware's protection. Sony are doing a good job on it, regardless of whether or not you think they should be. :p

[dead_parrot]

I'm definitely thinking of picking up Exit. I love the art style, and the 100 extra missions available for download off the developer's website are really appealing. Wipeout Pure looks really fun, and I might import Gitaroo Man Lives.

Are there any good fighting games on the system yet? I know Tekken Dark Resurrection is coming out soon, but is there anything out now worth playing?

[OrangePulp]

I agree...I've given up on the PSP homebrew scene...although the device is perfect for it, it's just too much of a hassle to keep up with if one is interested in playing any official games.
Sony's stance is lame...a real shame...even Bill Gates was starting to warm up to homebrew. Kinda like Bill Clinton was warming up to legalization of marijuana, after he could do anything about it (not saying he actually could have, but it could have helped).

PSP is, if I recall correctly, sold at a loss. That being so, they need people to buy games and UMD movies to make money on it. So there's no reason for them to endorse people playing old, emulated games on it, since it (potentially) takes away from game sales. That and the fact that if you can run an emulator, you can probably run a downloaded game.

[fahrvergnugen]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I just went to 2.7. :(

[rainbowblack]

This was news a month ago, i've been using the GTA exploit well over a month now

[mightbe]

Are there any good fighting games on the system yet? I know Tekken Dark Resurrection is coming out soon, but is there anything out now worth playing?

The darkstalkers title is a great game but the D-pad sucks so much ass for fighting games due to its mushy nature. The best fighting game handheld ever? The NeoGeo Pocket Color. That little clicky stick owns.

[Mozgus]

My list of solid PSP titles:
Lumines
Metal Gear AC!D 1&2
GripShift
Burnout Legends
Wipeout
I don't see how racing would work on a handheld. It never has before. Not with me anyway. It would have to be a slower breed of racing, like Mario Kart.

I tried the GBA port of Lumines but I just didn't get it. I'll stick with Tetris and Puzzle Fighter.

[kikinchaz]

I used to have a DS and 4 games - Mario kart,Mario 64,Animal Crossing, Tony hawks. And sure...it was a nice console. Touch screen felt great. But then when you looked at the release calender for the games there was hardly anything decent coming out, just a bunch of gimmiky, childish games.

Then you look at the PSP , and you have some quality releases such as Daxter, Socom, Syphon Filter, New Metal Gear, Vice City Stories - the list goes on. So due to this i sold the DS and all its games because i have much better quality games on here that would give me no reason to want to play on the DS yet the PSP actualy has some real modern console quality games which I have an urge to play at any time.

ChaZ

Edit : Seriously go check out the release calender in the UK for DS titles on somewhere like Gameplay.com
Its awful! Its just a bunch of peripherals, retro releases, unhyped releases and...mario!? :eek:

[holysin]

Does the PSP have good games? Yeah, there are some fun games, but I don't believe there are any "system sellers" here. Nothing that you simply HAVE TO PLAY, there are too many ports, too many half-assed games.

Does the PSP have good graphics? For a portable, yeah. But with next-gen consoles becoming current-gen, the psp's psOne-quality graphics (with texture filtering) just don't make it for me.

My PSP is still ver 1.5, and I use it a LOT. I'm always watching movies/tvshows and reading ebooks while on the go, I couldn't live without my psp and the 2gig stick, but I could certainly live without it if the homebrew scene never existed.

I also have a DS Lite, and I prefer it over the PSP when you take gaming in consideration. The DS's 3D graphics are even worse than the PSP's (no texture filtering, everything looks blocky), but many of it's games are 2D (you can't go wrong with 2D and portable). The DS has many system sellers, it's current game library is already great, and it can only get better as time goes by.

So it's DS for gaming, psp movies and ebooks.

[bone_matrix]

My problem with the PSP is that most games are pretty much straight ports of their console counterparts. I played Socom and Syphon Filter. The controls DO NOT WORK on the PSP. Definitly not enough to justify buying the handheld version over the PS2 version. There are some good games, but not enough that are different enough than their home console counterpart.

One could argue that about the DS, but I don't have a New Super Mario Bros. type game on my Gamecube, or Brain Age, etc.

[EvilBob46]

Edit : Seriously go check out the release calender in the UK for DS titles on somewhere like Gameplay.com
Its awful! Its just a bunch of peripherals, retro releases, unhyped releases and...mario!? :eek:

Zelda, Final Fantasy 3 Remake, Star Fox DS and Castlevania will be out before the year's out (edit: in the US at least. Importing can be done rather cheaply if you desire, and the DS is region-free). That's without the mario games you don't seem to like (although a Mario vs. Donkey Kong game and the sequel to Yoshi's Island look promising). All of these games will most certainly turn out fantastic (Star Fox Command is a 50/50 right now).

Zelda and FF3 Remake are hyped greatly. None of the games are really retro releases per se (FF3 is a complete remake of a game that never saw a US release).

IMO, it's not a bad list by any stretch of the imagination.

[Bone]

Got to say, I'm impressed that memory leaks are the only way through the firmware's protection. Sony are doing a good job on it, regardless of whether or not you think they should be. :p
Considering they introduced these memory leaks while patching the previous homebrew exploit, I'm not as impressed. I am pleased, however :)

As for those who say "you can't bitch about the game selection while running old firmware", I say, "bullshit". There are many ways to learn about new games, whether by reviews, demos, or playing someone else's PSP who was unfortunate enough to upgrade. The choice must then be made: is this one game worth me losing access to the stuff that really made my PSP purchase worthwhile?

So far, running 2.6, my answer is no- they haven't created a new retail game that will make me upgrade my PSP for it.

[Bone]

That being so, they need people to buy games and UMD movies to make money on it. So there's no reason for them to endorse people playing old, emulated games on it, since it (potentially) takes away from game sales. That and the fact that if you can run an emulator, you can probably run a downloaded game.
Ironically, Sony's stance towards homebrew is what's preventing me from upgrading my PSP and buying new games from them. So there IS a reason to not endorse, but at least tacitly allow homebrew to run.

Also, the eLoader created by Fanjita for 2.0+ firmware is designed to never run PSP ISOs (and it's a position Fanjita has committed to for the future). While this doesn't prevent playing N64, SNES, and GBA games, it does help prevent piracy of PSP games.

To me this is a prime example of Sony not understanding, and perhaps loathing, its installed customer base.

[Bone]

This was news a month ago, i've been using the GTA exploit well over a month now
This is not the same thing as the old GTA exploit, and it is news. This new exploit allows kernel mode access to the PSP like the previous hacks for firmware 1.0 and 1.5 did.

This means all your current homebrew on 2.6 will perform much faster, and we'll also be able to play all the games the 1.0 and 1.5 guys had that required kernel access.

[Pumped'Up]

Anyone have game tips playing Zelda Minish Cap on PSP VBA emulator? Fantastic game...THANKS NINTENDO!!!!

[mightbe]

Nope. I thoguth the PSP already did everything. Huh.

[Pumped'Up]

Everything? Not quite laddie. There are also several consoles not yet available. A PSone emu is coming soon from Sony themselves, and hopefully it'll be hacked somehow to allow it to work on fw 1.5 but if not that is fine - current firmware emus may work fine. Other emus that would be nice as well - Saturn and DS. ;)