1st July 2007, 6:50 PM
(This post was last modified: 18th July 2007, 9:02 PM by Dark Jaguar.)
Hey presto! Remember those load time issues? Well I can't say anything for the DS version (seriously, when you are using a cartridge, you do whatever you need to to get rid of load times, no excuse there), I fixed load time issues on the PSP version. Basically, I made use of a feature my PSP's hacked firmware has had for a long while now but I never really took advantage of. I downloaded a little file manager app and while I was messing around with it, I noticed it had a "UMD ripper" feature, which made Sony's idea of copyright protection via propriatary format an embarresment. Basically, it just copies the disk to a .iso format USING SONY'S HARDWARE. Harsh :D. While I'm sure that plenty of people have been using this for illicit pirating and so on (seriously, buy the games people), it has a great use as I've found.
Basically I ripped the game directly off the UMD (and was I ever surprised to find that even with the enhanced music, it's still just a 140 or so MB game total, so I had plenty of space). After storing it in a special "ISO" folder that's been sitting empty on my memory card (created by the firmware hacking program I used to get my special hack on) I found the entire game sitting right inside my memory card "games" option. A disk needs to be in there, but it doesn't need to actually be the original disk, allowing me to bring along a number of PSP games when I go out without dragging along some case, so long as one of them is a UMD in the PSP. Anyway, point is, loading from the memory card is so much faster than the UMD that the load times have vanished almost entirely (exceptions being the initial startup of the game), so I now have a seamless battle experience.
Anyway, for anyone that hasn't updated their firmware yet who might want to start fast-loading their PSP games, or just having a bunch with them on a single card, a new Lumines exploit now lets you downgrade all the way from 3.50 and then you can update to the latest hacked firmware of your choice and join in the fun-venture.
Anyway, here's the links you'll want for all the tools you'll need.
http://www.noobz.eu/joomla/ - Downgrader
http://m-33.narod.ru/ - Firmware hack for upgrading again to super special mode.
http://www.geocities.jp/mediumgauge/ - The file management homebrew app with the UMD "ripper" feature (the page is in Japanese, just click download, and don't worry, the app has an english language mode you can select from the start, though the controls are a bit tough to learn)
http://pspupdates.qj.net/index.php?pg=49&aid=83908 - Here's a link to an app for you to convert those PS1 games of your's to PSP executables if you should want to. If it says files are missing, look at the "popstation" folder you can find in one of those Dark Alex custom firmwares at the link above, just pick the newest version that actually has a popstation folder for the latest version of those files.
http://www.imgburn.com/ - This is the best free app I found for ripping those PS1 games so you can convert them.
http://www.realtech-vr.com/nogravity/psp/ - I found this amazing little freeware homebrew game some time ago. Still just a demo but pretty nice looking, and fun too.
I guess I added a few more tools there. Anyway, for the like 3 of you that have PSPs, maybe these will be of interest to you.
Oh, here's something I found interesting. That "Dark Alex" guy apparently found a new special bit of code in the latest Sony firmware for running UMD games off a memory stick. That's probably for some future download store option (which I say is good news, but I do like to save memory card space so I'll probably still just get the UMD versions and convert them with this program when I feel like taking one of them with me). The thing is, the guy plans on making use of that code instead of his own ISO loader solution, which I suppose means I won't even need a UMD in the drive, though really I'm not sure why (except for load times) I'd even bother sticking a game on my memory card unless I was also wanting to carry around a UMD. Still, it'll be a nice feature to have.
Basically I ripped the game directly off the UMD (and was I ever surprised to find that even with the enhanced music, it's still just a 140 or so MB game total, so I had plenty of space). After storing it in a special "ISO" folder that's been sitting empty on my memory card (created by the firmware hacking program I used to get my special hack on) I found the entire game sitting right inside my memory card "games" option. A disk needs to be in there, but it doesn't need to actually be the original disk, allowing me to bring along a number of PSP games when I go out without dragging along some case, so long as one of them is a UMD in the PSP. Anyway, point is, loading from the memory card is so much faster than the UMD that the load times have vanished almost entirely (exceptions being the initial startup of the game), so I now have a seamless battle experience.
Anyway, for anyone that hasn't updated their firmware yet who might want to start fast-loading their PSP games, or just having a bunch with them on a single card, a new Lumines exploit now lets you downgrade all the way from 3.50 and then you can update to the latest hacked firmware of your choice and join in the fun-venture.
Anyway, here's the links you'll want for all the tools you'll need.
http://www.noobz.eu/joomla/ - Downgrader
http://m-33.narod.ru/ - Firmware hack for upgrading again to super special mode.
http://www.geocities.jp/mediumgauge/ - The file management homebrew app with the UMD "ripper" feature (the page is in Japanese, just click download, and don't worry, the app has an english language mode you can select from the start, though the controls are a bit tough to learn)
http://pspupdates.qj.net/index.php?pg=49&aid=83908 - Here's a link to an app for you to convert those PS1 games of your's to PSP executables if you should want to. If it says files are missing, look at the "popstation" folder you can find in one of those Dark Alex custom firmwares at the link above, just pick the newest version that actually has a popstation folder for the latest version of those files.
http://www.imgburn.com/ - This is the best free app I found for ripping those PS1 games so you can convert them.
http://www.realtech-vr.com/nogravity/psp/ - I found this amazing little freeware homebrew game some time ago. Still just a demo but pretty nice looking, and fun too.
I guess I added a few more tools there. Anyway, for the like 3 of you that have PSPs, maybe these will be of interest to you.
Oh, here's something I found interesting. That "Dark Alex" guy apparently found a new special bit of code in the latest Sony firmware for running UMD games off a memory stick. That's probably for some future download store option (which I say is good news, but I do like to save memory card space so I'll probably still just get the UMD versions and convert them with this program when I feel like taking one of them with me). The thing is, the guy plans on making use of that code instead of his own ISO loader solution, which I suppose means I won't even need a UMD in the drive, though really I'm not sure why (except for load times) I'd even bother sticking a game on my memory card unless I was also wanting to carry around a UMD. Still, it'll be a nice feature to have.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)