A few weeks ago I wrote about taking a chance on a cheap “junk” PSP-2000 from Japan, replacing its faulty charging port, and ending up with one of the nicest handhelds I own.. One of many PSP’s I’ve bought though.
Quite a few people here on Lemmy reached out afterwards asking about jailbreaking, or just sharing that they planned to buy UMDs for it. I guess this article is my answer (or maybe just yet another thinly veiled excuse to write about my favorite old handheld…the PSP) to that.

Rather than another super technical wiki, I wanted to write a bit of step-by-step with just pictures of all of it. I cover installing ARK-4 custom firmware, setting up a microSD card, loading games, movies and music, a handful of homebrew recommendations. I really, really love Sony’s PSP. I think as far as industrial design language goes, you just can’t beat it.
So if you’ve recently picked up a PSP, are thinking about picking one up, or have one sitting in a drawer gathering dust, I hope this helps you give it a second life!
And if you don’t want to read through, then ask me here and I’m more than happy to recommend things to you.



Oh cool! I had no idea Aliexpress would be the go to for something like that. They’ve always been my last resort option.
I thought Instagram was just for sharing photos and video? I didn’t know you could buy stuff on it, neat. Thanks :)
Technically it is, but there’s a huge scene of influencers who have set up shop on there and run their own businesses. There’s a bunch who run ads, but you pay a crazy bit of money on top of what you’d pay on Aliexpress, just because they hope to rope in people who don’t know any better!
And like I said, if Etsy is more your scene, there’s a bunch there last time I looked!