PSP unlock in Tampa

[Thrak]

Hey, was just wondering if there's anyone in the Tampa/St. Pete area who has a PSP with a Pandora battery that'd be willing/able to unlock a slim for me once I pick one up. I've been thinking pretty heavily about getting one for a while now, to play with all the homebrew stuff and convert my old PSX games to play on the PSP. Not sure that I really want to spend $50 on an Ebay auction that may or may not work though. Thanks.

[frederec]

Well, if you get no takers in Tampa, I've got a Pandora's Battery I'd be willing to lend out, if you're willing to pay for shipping to and from Houston.

Wow. Out of curiosity I checked what Pandora's Battery has been going for on ebay. It seems to be hovering around $75. That's nuts.

[Lutheran]

Well, if you get no takers in Tampa, I've got a Pandora's Battery I'd be willing to lend out, if you're willing to pay for shipping to and from Houston.

Wow. Out of curiosity I checked what Pandora's Battery has been going for on ebay. It seems to be hovering around $75. That's nuts.


You can buy the datel pandora battery for 30 bucks and make the memory stick by yourself even without a custom psp firmware.

[frederec]

You can buy the datel pandora battery for 30 bucks and make the memory stick by yourself even without a custom psp firmware.

That's cool. I made my own after I got a spare battery for $10. Thrak: if you can find them for $30, that would probably be the easiest way to do it if you don't know anyone. (And I guess that gets back to the point of the thread...)

[Lekon]

Where do you get a Datel Pandora? I had an unlocked psp fat... that just died. I'd like to get an unlocked slim, but didn't know any place to get a pandora for it.

[Thrak]

Thanks guy. I've been thinking about just picking up a Datel battery, and I did see a few guides to making a magic memory stick of my own. Probably would be best to have my own battery for the future anyway. I guess I should actually pick up a Slim at some point first though :)

[Thrak]

Lekon, there's some on Ebay, but I also saw this site (http://www.phiine.com/shop/) which looks a bit more reputable than your average Ebayer.

BTW, why did you disappear from my PS3 friends list?

[Gilius Thunderhead]

Lekon, there's some on Ebay, but I also saw this site (http://www.phiine.com/shop/) which looks a bit more reputable than your average Ebayer.

BTW, why did you disappear from my PS3 friends list?

Uh oh. I detect drama on a level approaching "OMG I'm NOT IN UR MYSPACE TOP FIVE" in that post.

Don't take me seriously. You'll look funky.

[Lekon]

Lekon, there's some on Ebay, but I also saw this site (http://www.phiine.com/shop/) which looks a bit more reputable than your average Ebayer.

BTW, why did you disappear from my PS3 friends list?

Odd, you're still on my list, but I haven't had my PS3 online in about 2 and a half months now, Maybe its inactivity? I've been moving and only recently fired it up again. Since I've only been playing Dynasty Warriors Six (Import) I didn't see a reason to hook the cord back up.

[Gorvi]

Thrak, if you find one in the Tampa/St Pete area, I may be interested in borrowing it as well. :)

[Philonious]

I never bothered with custom firmware, but aside from emulating older consoles what are the major benefits? PS1 games now play through the PS3, annoying but effective, and converting video isn't a huge problem. What would people say are the biggest advantages? I recently picked up a slim, but have a fatty kicking around too, so I'm either going to sell it, or make it custom.

[Gorvi]

I never bothered with custom firmware, but aside from emulating older consoles what are the major benefits? PS1 games now play through the PS3, annoying but effective, and converting video isn't a huge problem. What would people say are the biggest advantages? I recently picked up a slim, but have a fatty kicking around too, so I'm either going to sell it, or make it custom.
I couldn't care less about any use other than playing PS1 games (that I already own, I have a huge PS1 collection) on the PSP. Games like Tactics Ogre, Ogre Battle, Front Mission 3, Persona 1 & 2, and quite a few others. I've always had a ton of PSP games to play, so I've never really pursued custom firmware, but it'd be nice to have I guess.

[theevilnarwhale]

Decided what the plan is yet thrak?

[frederec]

I never bothered with custom firmware, but aside from emulating older consoles what are the major benefits? PS1 games now play through the PS3, annoying but effective, and converting video isn't a huge problem. What would people say are the biggest advantages? I recently picked up a slim, but have a fatty kicking around too, so I'm either going to sell it, or make it custom.

The main reason I use it is to play games off the memory stick instead of the UMD. This decreases load times (especially for the fat) and isn't as big a strain on the battery. With a large memory stick, you can practically carry your whole PSP library around with you and not have to worry about swapping discs (especially if you like to play games that are freaking tiny like Puzzle Quest or Bust a Move).

There are many emulators, which are nice, and the PSone compatibility is also very nice, but you already know about that. Recently custom firmware added the ability to handle multi-disc PSone games whether or not they allowed saving between discs (a problem if you wanted to play Metal Gear Solid or Parasite Eve).

There are also a number of homebrew games that have been released, mostly shooters and puzzle games from what I've noticed. People have also done things like add support for IR keyboards (for the fat), the ability to play with the screen outputting to your computer (like the slim now does for the tv), and add the ability for the slim to charge via usb even when it's not specifically in usb mode.

Something I saw as a proof of concept a while ago, and would like to play for real, is support for multiplayer PSone games over Ad-Hoc mode. But it's been a while since I'd heard about it, who knows.

[theevilnarwhale]

http://us.codejunkies.com/Products/PSP-Battery-Service-Tool__EF000530.aspx
Man I am just necroposting all kinds of psp threads today. Is the above link what I need to do custom firmware?

[frederec]

http://us.codejunkies.com/Products/PSP-Battery-Service-Tool__EF000530.aspx
Man I am just necroposting all kinds of psp threads today. Is the above link what I need to do custom firmware?

I've not seen that before, so I can't comment on whether or not it will work. Before this, I've only heard of two methods for modifying the battery into Pandora's Battery: 1. Modify the battery using an already hacked PSP and the appropriate homebrew. 2. Physically modify your battery by removing a particular pin.

Of course, if you have no access to other people's hacked PSP, and your firmware is old enough, you can do the old hacks using either Lumines or an original copy of Liberty City Stories.

However, if this package is legit, this might be a nice alternative. I'm a little surprised I haven't heard of it around the various PSP hacking sites. If you try it, let us know if it works.

[theevilnarwhale]

I have a slim so the GTA thing won't work for me. And I have yet to actually find anything as to whether or not it will work. I spent a good couple hours searching the psphacks forums to no avail. The way they type there is maddening.

[frederec]

I have a slim so the GTA thing won't work for me. And I have yet to actually find anything as to whether or not it will work. I spent a good couple hours searching the psphacks forums to no avail. The way they type there is maddening.

I found some people mentioning that it seems to work okay. http://www.pspmod.com/forums/hardware/28052-datel-battery-service-tool.html

Of course, there's always the chance that they're plants, but on something like this, I don't think it's too likely. There also seems to be a decent number of them. So this might be a good affordable way to mod your battery.

[theevilnarwhale]

Wait a minute. Do you need CFW on a fat to make a pandora? I thought you just needed a fat.

[pseudopseudo]

Wait a minute. Do you need CFW on a fat to make a pandora? I thought you just needed a fat.

Yes. I believe you do.

And as of right now, there isn't any other way to unlock a slim outside of the Pandora's Battery/MMS combo. Not that's been proven 100%, anyhow.

[theevilnarwhale]

crap. I thought you just needed a fat to make the pandora.

[DevilsFang]

If you ever get over to the Orlando/Kissimmee area, I have the battery and memory stick. I can install 3.71 m33-2. I have installed it on mine and a couple of friends, and have not had any problems.

You do need a fat with CFW to create both the memory card and battery unless you hard mod the battery. I had both (fat/slim) for a while and I just used my friends fat to create the new 3.71 installer.

BTW, what firmware version are you at now? I'm not sure how many versions the 3.71 m33installer will handle but I have installed over 3.71 and 3.72 offical firmware.

[theevilnarwhale]

I think i am going to try to downgrade the fat to the 1.5 kernel and go from there.

[oldjadedgamer]

The main reason I use it is to play games off the memory stick instead of the UMD. This decreases load times (especially for the fat) and isn't as big a strain on the battery. With a large memory stick, you can practically carry your whole PSP library around with you and not have to worry about swapping discs (especially if you like to play games that are freaking tiny like Puzzle Quest or Bust a Move).

This is my favorite part of using the CFW. I can keep my entire collection with me on one tiny memory card, have super fast load times, AND save my battery life.

I have a 4 gig stick now but I'm waiting on the 8's to come down so I can upgrade.

[Thrak]

Thanks to Narwhale for necro'ing this one. I finally decided to order one yesterday and it should be here tomorrow from Amazon. I'll either be using whatever Narwhale gets working (if he does :) or my friend will be mailing me his pandora/MMS once he does a few other mods in his area this weekend. Until then I'll just look at the shinyness.

[frederec]

This is my favorite part of using the CFW. I can keep my entire collection with me on one tiny memory card, have super fast load times, AND save my battery life.

I have a 4 gig stick now but I'm waiting on the 8's to come down so I can upgrade.

That should happen before too long, since it seems 16 gig sticks are coming out next month. Once that happens, the 8's should drop. I must admit, I'm a little glad their price has stayed somewhat constant for a while, since I bought one when it dropped below $150 last year. That sucker can hold quite a few games on it (as long as they're not huge).

[Bone]

I never bothered with custom firmware, but aside from emulating older consoles what are the major benefits? PS1 games now play through the PS3, annoying but effective, and converting video isn't a huge problem. What would people say are the biggest advantages? I recently picked up a slim, but have a fatty kicking around too, so I'm either going to sell it, or make it custom.
I rip my UMD discs directly to ISOs, compress them to a CSO to save space, then play off the card instead of UMD and save time and battery life.

I also play a ridiculous amount of homebrew games, from Spider Solitaire to some really cool side-scrolling shooters and Geometry Wars-type games. I have an Atari emulator, NES emulator, and even an awesome implementation of Quake 1 with multiplayer support.

I have another program that lets my PSP act as a remote control for my Xbox Media Center (on my modded Xbox) so I can look through the playlist and stop/start movies and music.

And another program that is essentially a drum machine sequencer.

I'm currently running the latest hacked firmware, 3.90 M33 which is equal to the latest official Sony firmware.

[51|RandoM]

I rip my UMD discs directly to ISOs, compress them to a CSO to save space, then play off the card instead of UMD and save time and battery life.

Same here. Doing that and using a 3600 mAh battery means never running out of juice(have a charger at home and work too, just in case, heh).

[frederec]

I also play a ridiculous amount of homebrew games, from Spider Solitaire to some really cool side-scrolling shooters and Geometry Wars-type games. I have an Atari emulator, NES emulator, and even an awesome implementation of Quake 1 with multiplayer support.


I hadn't heard about the solitaire games, though it's not a surprise. I did a quick search, and the things I'm finding seem to be from a couple of years ago. Do you know if these work on a slim, or if there are versions that do? My wife would probably get more out of solitaire than me, and she's got a slim.

[Bone]

Pretty much all of the homebrew works across all the models, as far as I know. Some homebrew is specific to a firmware version- particularly older homebrew that was written for 1.5 compatibility. My phat running 3.90 M33 also has a plugin that enables 1.5 kernel compatibility, so I can run just about anything.

I'm not sure if the slims can run the 1.5 plugin, so they may be limited to only using 3.x compatible homebrew.

I use this site (http://www.psp-hacks.com/) to find homebrew. Often, the programs are available in both 1.5 and 3.x flavors, so you can grab what you need. I grab both, and attempt to run them to find which one works best on my PSP.

This site (http://www.psp-homebrew.eu/) attempts to catalog all homebrew and compatibility, but isn't updated a lot. Still between the two sites you'll find most of what you want.

[frederec]

Pretty much all of the homebrew works across all the models, as far as I know. Some homebrew is specific to a firmware version- particularly older homebrew that was written for 1.5 compatibility. My phat running 3.90 M33 also has a plugin that enables 1.5 kernel compatibility, so I can run just about anything.

I'm not sure if the slims can run the 1.5 plugin, so they may be limited to only using 3.x compatible homebrew.


This is what I was curious about. Currently sliims can't run 1.5, though DarkAlex is currently working on it.

The postings I found were from a couple of years ago, so I figured it'd be likely that these weren't set up to work on the slim. After looking at the psp-homebrew site (I go to psp-hacks a lot, but I find it's hard to find stuff on the site if it's a little old) it looks promising for slim compatibility. I'll have to try it out when I get home tonight. Thanks.

[theevilnarwhale]

How does downgrading using Lumines work? Anyone able to explain this to me?

[frederec]

How does downgrading using Lumines work? Anyone able to explain this to me?

First of all, you have to be running firmware 2.50 (or lower) on a fat. You then download the appropriate hack and put it on your memory stick. When you load Lumines, the hack starts running and it installs firmware 1.50. From there you can load up whatever custom firmware and homebrew you want. Also note, you have to have an official copy of Lumines, not an image.

This is almost the same as the Liberty City Stories hack, except that one worked with lower firmware and only worked with the first run of LCS. So you might have a copy, but it wouldn't run the hack (mine was this way, I had to borrow the right one from a friend).

[theevilnarwhale]

Ahh crap. firmware is 3.52. looks like I'm gonna need a pandora.

[frederec]

Ahh crap. firmware is 3.52. looks like I'm gonna need a pandora.

Yeah, the odds of someone running a firmware that allows use of the old game hacks these days is pretty remote. What makes it a little worse is I get the impression that since Pandora's Battery has been so successful in not just hacking, but also allowing someone to unbrick and restore their PSP, hackers have pretty much stopped looking for hacks like the Lumines or LCS hack.

[theevilnarwhale]

http://www.noobz.eu/joomla/news/datel-tool-batteries---buyer-experiences.html
Found this today. You would still need a CFW psp to make the magic memory stick.

[frederec]

http://www.noobz.eu/joomla/news/datel-tool-batteries---buyer-experiences.html
Found this today. You would still need a CFW psp to make the magic memory stick.

I don't think you need a hacked psp to make the magic memory stick, I think you can do it while being connected to a PSP. See this for example:
http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/552549