Emulation and Homebrew on PSP slim

[sonnreign]

Like some of the other noobs, I'm sorry if I'm posting in the wrong area but I really don't know where to get started. I just picked up a PSP slim this evening with firmware 3.60 on it and one of the reasons I got it was I was pysched to play some of the old NES and SNES and N64 games on it. I also would liek to get some of the homebrew games. I just don't know where to get started. I see newer firmware (3.70) is out but didn't upgrade or anything as of yet.

I read the post on how to install emulators but didn't know if it worked the same way for the version I am running and there's not a lot on the newer firmware.

I also don't know if I can ruin my system from trying any of this emulation stuff and just picking it up tonight, I kinda wanted to not destroy it right away.

Some help (or links to help) would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[canadianbacon]

http://www.pspmod.com/forums/firmwar...-psp-slim.html

[sonnreign]

thanks, canadianbacon. before i get started, could anyone answer -

-does it ruin your battery when you make it an unbricking battery and what does this mean, "There is no permanent unbricker for the psp slim, only the usual recovery mode, so be careful when you mess in the flash. "?

-i'm just worried i'll make my PSP useless if i do something wrong.

thanks again.

[andre0407]

Oh hi there.
Ok, basically the flash files are files inside the PSP's internal memory; it's what makes the PSP tick at the very core. So, by installing a custom firmware(cfw) on a PSP you are actually making modifications to the flash files. Thus, do use caution(battery at full, plug in the charger etc)when updating/ downgrading/ installing cfw on your PSP. If you follow instructions you should be fine.
And you need someone with a cfw- installed PSP to help you make the Pandora Combo( the battery and the "magic memory stick"), so try asking around for help.
And... welcome to homebrew.

[sonnreign]

well the link canadianbacon supplied will make the memory stick and battery, right?

if you mess up your flash can you restore your PSP, memory stick, and battery back to factory defaults?

i saw another post about motherboards - is my motherboard relevant to emulating/homebrewing?

[sonnreign]

Hi again, I've been spending lots of time looking around on the boards for answers to my questions and I started trying out this unbricking process tonight and I wasn't having much luck. A few more questions if you guys have the time (I tried doing searches for them and looking through posts but couldn't find answers)

1. What does it mean when it says there is no unbricker for a PSP Slim at this time? How will that affect me if I unbrick it using Pandora and a Magic Mem?

2. Some posts say you need a separate battery? Do I? I was under the impression you could pandora your current battery and then covert it back to prevent it from running in service mode.

3. A lot of people are saying to backup the flash 0 - how do I do this?

4. If I do need to have a separate battery, should I look into buying one already converted or ? Any light on this would be greatly appreciated.

One answer I did find is that running mspformat.exe DRIVE doesn't work on Vista. That shouldn't be a problem for me to use a CPU with XP.

If anyone can help I'd appreciate it. I'd also love to chat with anyone over AIM if that'd work too. My SN is - seigneur2000

Thank you much!

[andre0407]

Some answers to your questions(may not be the best... just trying to help)

1. The actual pandora's battery and memory stick combination is actually for the original("fat") PSP, and it serves 2 purpose: 1. To unbrick the fat PSP or
2. To downgrade the fat PSP from any firmware version to 1.5.
Thus for the PSP slim, what was released was an extension of the ipl for the Slim, meaning it could NOT unbrick the Slim nor downgrade it, but instead to install a cfw on it. The only thing about it is that there is no way to unbrick it since there's no unbricker released for the PSP Slim yet, so you need to exercise the usual cautions,

2. You don't really need a separate battery to make the Pandora Set; there is an option in the Pandora Battery Creator menu that allows you to revert it back to normal mode, or you could make a dump of the original settings in your flash 0 first then restore it after you are done. You WILL, however need a fat PSP with homebrew capabilities to make the Pandora Set.

3. You can't access your flash 0 in a official Sony firmware. However, if you are talking about the fat PSP that you are going to make the Pandora set on, you could go to recovery menu-> advanced -> toggle flash 0, then copy all the files you see via USB connection into your computer. (But why are you going to backup the flash 0 to make the Pandora set I don't understand... you don't really need to.

4. If you don't own a fat PSP or know someone with a fat PSP that is homebrew- compatible you will need to source for help. Try your local gamestore for more help. Because I live in Asia I don't really know what it's like over at your side, so... good luck to you. Only advice is don't get scammed into buying a "converted" battery at ridiculous prices...

Yeah and I can't figure out how to use cmd on Vista too. So stick with an Windows XP( I made mine on it).

Hope I helped.

[sonnreign]

Thanks much andre0407 for your tips - I never got the impression from canadianbacon's link above that i would need a "fat" homebrewed PSP to make the stuff for me.

Unfortunately, I don't think most gamestores will help with modding - if any other users here on PSPMod could help a fellow out in trying to get it up and running homebrew and emulators, I'd greatly appreciate it.

I even think it might be cool down the pike to try and create some games for this beast; but I have to figure out the basics first.

Yeah Vista threw out a "write error" message when you try to mspformat which I saw others were having issues with in other threads. I have a CPU with XP here at home but since I won't be making the pandora set on my slim anyway (because you mention I need a fat PSP), then I guess I won't try it on XP with my current setup.

[lancermagi]

For PSP slim compatibility
http://www.pspmod.com/forums/firmwar...ty-thread.html

For upgrading to 3.60 m33, use the 1 bacon gave and
Install M33 On Slim - Complete Guide - MaxConsole Forums

Includes how to convert pandora batt to normal batt in 5 steps.

These are for your convenience though, since you dont have a fat psp, there isnt much you can do about it.