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.
You can even run GTA 3 (rebuilt in the Liberty City Stories engine) on your PSP-1000 if you’d be so inclined after jailbreaking!
I interviewed the folk behind it (Barcode Studia) a little while ago, and they made sure that not only was the game emulateable but playable on every PSP model, including the PSP-1000 :)
https://gardinerbryant.com/rewriting-liberty-city-an-interview-with-barcode-studia-on-rebuilding-gta-iii-for-psp/