How the Sony Playstation Portable PSP Security was defeated | MVG

From a simple 'Hello World' program in March 2005 to the easy to install Custom Firmware we use today. This is the story of how Security on Sony's first handheld - the PSP - was easily defeated and the game of cat and mouse between Sony and Hackers that ensued. Hackers won and ultimately the PSP became a completely open system for all revisions of its hardware.
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#Sony #PSP #Hacking

[@Longlius]

You're the doom port guy? Dude, your port was the first homebrew I got running on my 1.50 PSP. Absolutely legendary.

[@thewarden6050]

This mans a legend and historian.

[@EPurpl3]

FBI: finally!! it's him :D

[@457Deniz457]

@@EPurpl3 :D

[@Xanderboof]

699 likes, nice

[@leftyitr]

Mine is still running 1.50 lol

[@jopeteus]

Fun Fact: The first time I played DooM was on PSP. Never knew it was your port!!

[@realcartoongirl]

whose port

[@tylerfigueroatf]

@@realcartoongirl bruh 😂

[@Kalvinjj]

@@realcartoongirl didn't watch the video yo?

[@TheJLF65]

He mentions his port, but there were several ports to the PSP. I made one based on sdlDoom that could be networked with my port to the Dreamcast and a PC running sdlDoom.

[@johndripper]

I played it on mobile phone didn't know it was like crisis of the 90s lmfao

[@_colonial_]

I wonder if a really smartass dev could: 1) Make a game with a backdoor disguised as an oversight 2) Release on console of your choice 3) Leak the "discovery" into the homebrew community 4) Sit back and laugh as your sales figures soar into high orbit

[@imnotprisma]

Getting a console dev kit is kinda hard tbh

[@troy0h]

@Mustache Merlin didn't the guy shove like the entire Ruby coding language into his game though

[@EeYahe]

@@troy0h I believe it was a IDE/debugger that was intended to be found and hopefully get people into programming

[@vasilkarazhekov1805]

I think part of the Switch's sales success is due to the widely available homebrew.

[@musiscarrinu3470]

You could get sued if you were found out

[@Roxor128]

When he said "a very popular first-person shooter", I immediately thought Doom. That game is the king of ports. It conquers every platform.

[@bluedogz1624]

Even MP3 players.

[@Shiba9870]

Even on a calculator

[@DocTime56]

Yup, if it exists and can run code, there's a port of Doom for it

[@UKEDNHAT7]

Very true

[@idontknoeausername1624]

Also bc it's in the thumbnail

[@Slash27015]

Running Win95 on an overclocked PSP made me the coolest kid in school. Also Tekken 5

[@TheMeowthTeamV2]

nice

[@benjasine3472]

nICE

[@PROSCOPEGaming]

nice

[@user-yt7fo3xp6s]

ภเςє

[@philm.7317]

иïcэ

[@friedzombie4]

I remember "making" a pandora battery by cutting a few of the connectors on a standard battery to cause the short that forced the PSP into safe mode. Was the very 1st hardware hack I ever did. Thanks for this trip down memory lane!

[@BlackRoseCloud]

I did the same! I was just a teen, me and a friend really wanted homebrew on our psps so he gave up his battery for science and using nothing more then a damn steak knife I modded the battery and had us up and running by the end of that night.

[@archgirl]

It was just 1 pin. Paired with a “Magic Memory Card” it was the keys to the whole thing. 😁

[@krlos_amg]

@@archgirl and what did the magic MC had I mean, it is a normal memory stick, but what software does it has?

[@danielotano9956]

Dude Nice

[@Kippykip]

@@krlos_amg It was literally a regular memory stick with some recovery files and boot stuff on it.

[@Onshki]

"Just like hello world every system needs Doom." Any computer without Doom on it isn't a computer. It is simply incomplete. Doom is as necessary as a motherboard to a computer.

[@beastofbeasts2433]

I have it and I create maps for it xD.

[@Nostalgieletsplays]

But my pc doesnt have doom on it... is this a problem?

[@beastofbeasts2433]

@@Nostalgieletsplays Download it, then.

[@meetrasurrik6982]

Nostalgie Lets Plays yes

[@VectraQS]

My 386 begs to differ, it really doesn't want to play Doom.

[@EposVox]

You are a goldmine of information, my man.

[@undefined7141]

Good mine of information that leads to theft of IP and makes him a hypocrite; why did he charge money for his game or not offer it for free?

[@orangegreen9636]

@@undefined7141 what are you talking about

[@sammymcfone8281]

if you are talking about shantay. That isn't his ip BUT he was hired to write a gbc emulator. He was hired by the original owner of the ip so no theft and it's not his ip so obviously they are selling it to switch gamers. He's allowed to do commercial work.youtube doesn't own him.lol

[@TobiEstosWorld]

DooM HAS TO run on EVERY Single System with a Display!!!!

[@frozenlicks]

Thats so true man, I was even shocked when theres a port of doom in a calculator

[@verylongchannelhandle]

Except the iPhone X :/

[@panzerstef]

Including the Macbook Pro touchbar

[@ThePapanoob]

You phrased it wrong! Ive seen systems without a screen play it aswell 🤣

[@TobiEstosWorld]

@@panzerstef yeah when I heard of the MBP Touch bar im freaked out xD but hey apple gives the bar an own ARM cpu ( that got hacked ) so that it got always enough power also at a permanent 100% main cpu usage, so the touch bar "should" never stack or lagg. So a pretty well decision

[@terranotator]

The PSP was amazing, had so much fun modding my PSP back in the day and introduced me to so much interesting topics. Dark Alex was basically my childhood hero.

[@centralbunniez5533]

i love the cat and mouse game between hackers and sony lol

[@thewinner4319]

@@centralbunniez5533 true XD

[@tonyhawk1948]

I haven't heard that name in so many years. So many memories when I was 12 trying to run backups

[@Ichijoe2112]

The PSP was amazing at playing movies here in Germany. The few games that did come over, were massively overpriced trash for what it was. 60€s+ for a portable Game? Go home S0NY you're drunk! Also as good as the PSP was.... The Vita kicks the ever loving snot out of it. Its not even a contest in 2022. The PSP is dead, long live the Vita.

[@Ichijoe2112]

@@centralbunniez5533 Also wasn't the PSP kinda responsible for the fall of the PS3 too? Given they had a somewhat shared OS? At least that's how I understood it at the time. Of course leaving the Private Key in Code probably never helped em any.

[@SarcasticIndeed]

Damn, I remember being ~10 yo and, having no cash to spend on a Pandora's, looking up guides on how to open up the battery, cut a circuit, do a custom firmware installation, and then use a graphite pen to restore the circuit. It's still amazing to me that it worked.

[@lotan9398]

Wow, we have the same story 😂

[@Kapin05]

Wait a minute... Nem? Nem as in the creator of Nem's Tools for the Source Engine?? Holy shit this guy gets around

[@GoTeamScotch]

The PSP was one of the first consoles that I modded as a young teenager, which subsequently sparked an interest in software. Years later, I am now working as a full time software developer and those early days tinkering with the PSP definitely had a hand in that. The original Xbox was also a tremendous system for that. It was fascinating to see how much more usefulness you could squeeze out of the hardware that would have been otherwise somewhat limited. Great video, as always!

[@schemar17]

When I was a younger I'm 17 now I was able to hack the PSP and ps3 and mess around with the codes I have to ask how can I become a software engineer??

[@HDsKillzProductionS]

lol same ...

[@shuriken204]

Same! Except now I do 3D modeling and level design! The PSP basically put me on the tech road and I’ve never looked back!

[@yousefeno]

SONY: lets see how they can hack this update Hackers: BATTERY!!!! SONY: WTF!?!?!?

[@DxBlack]

*_UNLIMITED POWAHHHH!!~_*

[@neyoid]

Sony; haha! We are unhackable! internet; you suuuuuure?

[@trulahn]

Sony's solution to this is the completely proprietary memory card used in PS Vita that didn't come with the hand held and that they still charge an arm and a leg for. Even if you hacked the Vita, you still have to buy their ridiculously priced memory cards.

[@Teixas666]

Sony:"Damn it!!"

[@radarridr]

@@trulahn Although nowadays they are pretty pointless since we have sd2vita.

[@realtec4632]

Ironically. These consoles where these situations happen. End up being the most memorable consoles in our childhood.

[@NathanaelDuke]

Pandora’s battery softmodding was my side hustle when I was in the Army.

[@jacksonace7279]

Open up it’s the IRS

[@skideric]

Still got my Pandora !

[@onehappynegro]

the connections you get in the army is sort of like a mobster movie. people had different rank outside the military rank. we had a guy that always bougt _orn magazines and i was second in having them. we had a dj that subscribed to cd music weekly (pre internet guys) so we had the latest eurotechno pirated on tapes weekly.

[@licentiousdreams]

@@onehappynegro Second in line for the magazine still seems like a bad spot. Almost as bad as using your friend's mouse who lives in the family basement. Sticky pages and sticky buttons are never a good suprise.

[@Kazukamichan]

Duke I charged people in highschool for custom softwares loaded with apps and games.

[@Omegavirus94]

good old PSP time, one of the best handhelds ever for me

[@iShionSinX]

Are you telling me you dont use yours anymore?! HERESY!

[@superrookie7553]

I still use it

[@Journey_Awaits]

The charging hole on mine got borked, oof

[@kzed]

i was more a Nintendo kid (I had a dsi)

[@kzed]

And still have a switch

[@DrBagPhD]

I was a teen when the PSP released and I remember picking one up and following the hacking scene closely. It was a really exciting time and this was a wonderful retrospective, thanks for the great video!

[@itemushmush]

Same! Custom firmwares which emulated the hackability of 1.5 with later v3.xx were awesome :) so many great memories brought up by this video!

[@kylejamusic]

yeah for sure I felt like I was hacking the matrix when I finally got CFW

[@4otko999]

lol, same. i remember the tiff exploit, although in my head it was png exploit for some reason. and patches from sony, they are the worst lol. but then i sold my psp, never regretted anything, all the good memories

[@shlipon4927]

Sony: "we had fixed our psps from hackers" Hackers: *"there's another"*

[@mr.stephena2527]

Shut yo punk ass up

[@SwiftCreationStudio]

@@mr.stephena2527 someone has mental issues

[@warstaa]

@@SwiftCreationStudio I agree lmao

[@SwiftCreationStudio]

@@warstaa to be fair it's a wide statement. Obviously _someone_ does but random indifferent aggression with no clear reason other than an admittably cheesey joke is a sign of some mental illness, I can only assume comes with being _da realist_

[@warstaa]

@@SwiftCreationStudio I'm quite dumb so I dont understand half that Lol

[@Giganotti]

Sony: *Releases a firmware update* Hackers: "Ahh call an ambulance! But not for me."

[@IlDeimos]

Modders will never give up, never. They will beat any security, no matter how long it takes. A PS3 CFW released a week or so ago that works on ALL PS3 consoles. lol

[@kastiloshepherd1892]

Link plz

[@DataStream3]

@@kastiloshepherd1892 Here you go: www.psx-place.com/threads/update-ps3-hfw-hybrid-firmware-4-84-2-ps3xploit-han-flash-tools-restored-for-4-84-ofw-users.23094/

[@smokeinc9800]

yup even ps vita currently have a 128gb ps vita and i can play psp games ps vita games and psx games and all hlmebrew best handheld ever tbh

[@dethskullcrusher]

Is not CFW it's called HFW, is not as good as custom but you can run homebrew to a certain degree.

[@xonarey1259]

That's Hybrid Firmware, So It Doesn't Add Anything CFWy, It Only Brings Back A Bug From The Past.

[@JohnnyCanal]

The memories darkalex lol

[@linus__nigga]

lol🤏😎

[@AndyHope970]

I remember waiting after each update release only for it to be broken and exploited the following day

[@ericherstedt3217]

I'm gae

[@fudgerounds91]

"Oh hey, we can homebrew the PSP, what should I m-" Doom.

[@AcidzDesigns]

This has brought back so many amazing memories with my friends Story time: At Christmas me and all my friends got psp's for presents and the first thing i done was look at modding them, wasn't long till every person in my street had a modded psp and we all sat in our friends back yards playing the games that we all could play together over ad-hoc, even took some of them apart and swapped like buttons and front case parts. Those were the days

[@RoryBarnes]

Bonus fact, the Pandora's battery exploit was discovered because Sony forgot to take it out of a customers system that they returned, I believe for repairs. Went something along the lines of "Hey internet this battery looks weird, *insert story*. It got sent to a member of the hacking community that figured out it was to be used in combination with a Magic Memory Card which was reproduced shortly after. 14 year old me was the go-to kid in school for putting a custom firmware on anyone's PSP who asked.

[@cf105cp]

Yep, I remember that. It was about the time the PSP 2000 was going to be released. They held off on releasing it just to make sure it works on the new 2000 series which it did. I modded allot of friends PSP's using that exploit. I still have the battery and memory stick (I lost the firmware for the batter so it is stuck in permament pandora mode, that computer I dumped the OG battery firmware on died years ago. I bought another spare battery when Blockbuster was closing so it's ok).

[@cf105cp]

Actually it wasn't the battery they left in. They left the memory stick with the files in the persons PSP which then showed the battery had a firmware that can be changed and put the PSP into service mode. I bet that employee got fired. LOL.

[@robertbcreid2427]

Sony: *give psp with battery*

[@TTTKyouma]

yup! the PSP was my very first console that I modded. modified the battery into a pandora and then downloaded a homebrew version of the first Zelda game. Since then everyone who had a PSP came up to me to have theirs modded. I still mod people's consoles to this day LOL

[@pkemr4]

I remember having to make my own pandora battery, that shit was scary for my young mind.

[@jasonakers6538]

Same here. I still have the modded battery, somewhere.

[@stan464]

This^ i had to slice a Trace on the Battery Board but it still somehow works as a Normal Battery! lol

[@Jaylin7878g]

I felt like I was a pro hacker when I did it lmao. Was so surprised when everything worked

[@joed239]

same here! i accidentally bricked my psp 2000, and i had to diy my own pandora battery. 😅

[@DavidAlsh]

Oh dude! I can't believe the Doom port was your work. It was one of the first homebrew games I had played in my life! Honestly, learning to mod my PSP as a kid is the reason why I am a software engineer today.

[@GamingForst1]

cool

[@AlexanderGarcia-uv7in]

I remember me and a friend hacking the psp at the same time using a YT tutorial video and skype 🤣🤣

[@lilk1dgamer439]

Tony Asshat no one cares Asshat

[@user-zl5cv6vw2m]

@Neil S You seem friendly.

[@_GTX1650]

@Franky Padilla Tony asshat

[@titangamingbot2521]

@Franky Padilla stfu

[@titangamingbot2521]

@Franky Padilla right stop talking about yourself no one gives a shit

[@Mrcaffinebean]

I remember modding my battery and creating a magic memory stick! Pretty amazing how Team Noobz figured that out. The PSP was the peak of handhelds IMO.

[@cf105cp]

The reason they figured it out was all due to Sony. I remember being on gamefaq forums when they allowed homebrew talk on there and that was revealed. What had happened is someone (I forgot the user's name, it's been a long time) bricked their PSP. So they sent it into Sony to be fixed. Well Sony fixed it BUT left their memory stick in the PSP and sent it back to the user. Then those files were anyalzed and that is how they found out about the battery firmware along with the magic memory stick. It was just before the PSP 2000 was released. They held off on purpose with this info just to make sure it worked on the PSP 2000 as not to tip off Sony.

[@BIGGIEDEVIL]

The peak of hand helds? Switch is far superior and better in every way

[@smokeinc9800]

same i created one using cmd command promt lol then magig memory stick creator came out using command prompt to create one was fucked up i took me hours. i use my cousins hack psp to hack mine before u need another psp that is hacked to do it

[@MrLachapell]

@@BIGGIEDEVIL bitch the swtich released last year

[@TheMC1X]

@@MrLachapell And the PSP didn't had drifting issues or bending issues. I had a PSP 1000 for almost 10 years until the negative terminal of the charger corroded so badly it killed the system. RIP to my buddy.

[@HeroAcer]

Adrenaline is a gift from God to play on Vita

[@jnrois]

A god named TheFlow

[@ModernVintageGamer]

God = TheFlow

[@jamespreen8438]

the god that keeps on giving!

[@slliks67]

Retroarch on the Vita as well

[@lalihowoop6691]

y'all need hz. Muhammet

[@RobertD_83]

Wish I still had my psp. I freaking love that thing. And somehow I didn't even know it was modable. Had it for a few years and ended up selling it to a friend for a Christmas gift for his son. Didn't really want to get rid of it, but making a kid's Christmas was enough for me.

[@TheNiteNinja19]

Now you can pick them up pretty cheap. And if you can fix electronics yourself, getting a broken one and fixing it is even cheaper. Just picked one up on eBay that needs a new screen (lines going through it, other than that, working) for $14 USD. I accidentally dropped my other one so the screen is still good, I'll just swap it in.

[@Custnam]

I remember Dark Alex and cutting batteries open to mod them. Great times.

[@DJV94022]

Now we kswapping hondas

[@mathieulh]

At the risk of reviving old drama, there are a few things wrong with your video: 1. The MPH downgrader is a blatant rip off (including the actual code) from my and Yoshihiro's SXT downgrader, this is also the very reason as to why we have never heard of MPH after the release of "his" downgrader. 2. Team noobz did not release the Pandora hack, team C+D (which I and most team members were a part of) did. 3. Firmware 1.00 did have an executable trust policy enforced on PRX, only vanilla ELF encryption wasn't enforced 4. As a clarification SE, OE and M33 firmware were all created by the same team (Dark_Alex, Adrahil and I) that is from 2.71 SE to 5.00M33. All existing cfw are still mostly based on our code. Which was either published or leaked (through private sharing to other developers) on multiple occasions. I shall add that SE, OE and M33's core and patches are for the most part based of Devhook patches 5. Before CFW were even a thing a solution to run the latest firmware from 1.50 existed called Devhook, developed by Booster, which was revealed much later on, to actually be an alias of mine. Devhook works by abusing the reboot.bin functionalities used by Sony to reboot the psp's modular kernel everytime a game is started or exited (to get back to the vsh), there is no such thing as multi tasking on a psp.

[@r3dKoola1d]

Thank you for mentioning Devhook, that saved me from buying two PSPs

[@chossy5098]

I remember those days well You,Jason UK ect.. It was fun working with you guys and testing your stuff.

[@Socalsayten6six6]

Thank you for all your hard work !

[@FarhanIshrakAhmedUchchash]

I really thank you from the bottom of my heart for allowing us poor people to enjoy so many games. You guys are the Robin Hood of tech world.

[@the_chomper]

sure you did, an al gore invented the internet.

[@randomweeb6997]

Man, Pandora batteries bring some memories. Everyone was making them and hacking their PSPs.

[@Dionycio00diaz]

I remember my brother trying to make one by opening a battery and flipping a pin up, after I saw him do it, I told him he didn't have to do that, there was a command line exploit via PC that could be used to disable that pin, and later a home-brew program that could turn it back and forth from Pandora to a Regular battery.

[@johnreedy9098]

As a kid I remember cutting it open with a butter knife like an idiot, which then reacted with the lithium in the battery and started combusting and smoking everywhere while 12 year old me freaked out. Good times.

[@roygalaasen]

Dionycio00diaz I had an external device that did that same thing. I wasn’t aware you actually could do it from the PSP itself. I assume you would need one already modded one to do that though?

[@Dionycio00diaz]

@@roygalaasen yes, absolutely in order to run the homebrew that did it

[@johnmonsour962]

Yeah the program would flash the eeprom on the battery and change the serial number to 0x00000

[@raceface_m2579]

The PSP was the best handheld system I've ever had. It was also the first time I've ever gotten into system hacking haha. I had AIM, KZbin, and a plethora of emulators to roms to isos, oh man... that brings back a lot of memories. Dark Alex ftw!

[@juicebox90000]

This takes me back. I was a crazy psp hacker back in day. I even converted many friends to the psp scene. Some even going farther than I did. It truly is an amazing device and even reminds me of the nintendo switch, switch lite especially. Truly ahead of it's time. Also, I'm so glad you mentioned Dark Alex! Damn, it's been a hot minute since I heard names like that. There is a psp exploit/homebrew timeline online somewhere and it is truly a crazy story of what happened then.

[@nobatadared]

Ah! The GTA savegame exploit was what I did to hack my psp back in the day. Nostalgic

[@oldhunterraziel5327]

Been waiting for this one!! I recall the early PSP days fondly!! Thank you for the amazing content as usual.

[@FlintG]

Same! I even remember seeing pox and ragable from the two smart guys with the psp hacking 101. Still have my psp currently still hacked :)

[@lcrazy8l]

One aspect of those days I'm surprised wasn't covered more in video was someone had an almost "Virtual Box" / VM like Homebrew around the time of HEN enabler. I remember quite clearly that around OFW 2.71 (or 3.71?) it was possible to load a piece of homebrew that would run the most up-to-date version of Sony's firmware *entirely in ram*. In that way you could stay installed on a homebrew capable version but launch into the most updated FW and run a current UMD without issue. Turn off the PSP, reboot, suddenly you were back to 2.71 like nothing happened. I LOVED that - it's the part I remember most fondly. Honestly I never updated off 2.71 after that. I guess maybe it was defeated eventually but I remember it working just fine for a year or two after that point through each firmware release and was perfect for the remainder of the time I actually had an interest in the PSP's.

[@Zulf85]

@@lcrazy8l that's amazing! I need to downgrade a PSP to try that out if the files are still around for it

[@socommaster]

You forgot to mention that the only reason why the Pandora battery was discovered was because a Sony representative/tech left it in a psp that was being fixed and returned to a customer

[@socommaster]

Check out my instagram for rare playstations: @rareplaystations

[@the_egg_]

@@socommaster no

[@thomasglenn1365]

8:26 Dark AleX!!!, Now That's a Name that i've Not heard in a long time, a long time!

[@Haapavuo]

Dark Alex is actually very active in the PS4 emulation scene and is creating his own retargetable emulator called Orbital. And at the same time he is working for Microsoft / Xbox :) You can find project Orbital on Github. Alex also has done some major progress in the PS3 emu scene.

[@Haapavuo]

Here is his Github github.com/AlexAltea

[@Brealiq]

@@Haapavuo How do you know that this is DarkAlex? Besides the name "Alex" and the same country he comes from.

[@godonomas]

I had a pandora battery. My psp gave me so much fun back in the day. Til the day it finally died. I miss that old boy.

[@peteuk111]

I imported a second hand 1.5 from the US (to UK) Still working today :)

[@kylebowles9820]

I was all up on the PSP scene for a long time! Super fun! I still have my development environment set up. 'member how nerve racking downgrading was before Pandora and CFW recovery? 'member IRShell? 'member Lan.st? 'member CXMB? 'member when they found the web browser and PS1 emulator before Sony announced them?

[@Euquila]

Sony: "launch thousand missile attack" Hackers: "Pandora's Battery" Sony: ちくしょう

[@jaypostromboli-jpgamertv-457]

Sony has let out their inner Japanese.

[@reiniest]

@Retendo thats the point

[@jennytulls6369]

I have no idea what the Japanese text says, but this was funny anyway

[@jared1862]

japanese text says, "chikushou" which means, "damn it"

[@BogdanTheGeek]

It always baffled me to learn that the ds sold more than the psp, in europe every kid on the block had a PSP, half of which were modded. Edit: apparently the situation differes from country to country. I grew up in Romania and i am pretty sure the situation is similiar with most of Eastern Europe.

[@rvbrexer]

@Jamie Owns Except in France, I heard that it's popular there (still don't think It's more popular than Sony though).

[@8bitbubsy]

The PSP was more expensive, not every European kids were spoiled. Most kids in Norway at the time had a DS and not a PSP.

[@JimPanzeeEsq]

I dunno if it was brand recognition, advertising or what, but grandmas knew what a DS was. I had both PSP was the superior system but DS just had more games. Same with 3DS & Vita. I think also, simply buying an R4 card & just plugging it in was much easier for most.

[@MarcoMazziniYT]

Northern Italy here, and I can assure you that around 1 in 20 kids in my town had a PSP back in the days. DS was way cheaper, games were way cheaper, no need to take discs with you. The lucky kid with the PSP never played it in public or shared it because of the fear of ruin it.

[@rvbrexer]

@@MarcoMazziniYT hey, do uou need a PSP? I'm selling mine.

[@bobsagget823]

3.71 m33-2 best firmware of all time

[@luisgeraldes32]

why?

[@oldhunterraziel5327]

Goldstripe still prefer neurons ME firmwares but luckily we can have both with the click or a button to switch.

[@ALEXGAYMAR2312]

6.20 bro

[@Macho_Man_Randy_Savage]

Remember having that one lol

[@Dionycio00diaz]

Agreed, 3.71 m33-2 was I think the only firmware that could run Mortal Kombat Trilogy Perfect still to this day

[@ThaJuiceLord]

This brings back so much nostalgia. The psp was my first foray into homebrew. My first hack was doing the solder on my battery to enable the pandora exploit during the 3.xx era. I was only 14 back then and I used to charge my friends a fee for the same service. Good memories. Love the video man.

[@8KilgoreTrout4]

Might sound silly but man I appreciate the camera, seating and head positioning. Makes the editing look so nice and keeps my attention fluid. Really solid content here

[@wheelotimexqwepoiqwe1082]

All my good memory of PSP coming back! Thank you for the video.

[@BAD361]

dark alex, team pro, pandora, 1.5 fw, man... those were the days, i remember using my pandora battery to hack psp's for my classmates... i still use my psp slim to this day, one of my all time favourites. And great video, MVG, was very happy to relive those days!

[@motoemnk3839]

PSP 2000 series was the best :) Most say the 3000, but they got scanlines :D

[@avann2006]

Thanks for this video! I dug up my old PSP the other night on the Dark Alex 3.5 mod and it's still awesome...I don't think any other video game platform comes close to how amazing the PSP exploits were back in the day...I miss those days!

[@DkingE39]

Hey I appreciate you guys efforts back in the day. I was heavy into this stuff and wanted to thank the community and the forms for that run back in the day.

[@spendle]

I remember when I first hacked my PSP via a TIFF downgrader. I didn't learn about homebrew until I was on version 1.52. I still have a PSP-1000 model with the PRO-C CFW on it. I don't think I'll ever get rid of it.

[@lukebrommage2420]

I remember back in the day I had a ‘pandora battery’ that when you put it in the PSP it would install a firmware that you could then install pirated games onto, not that I did of course...

[@roygalaasen]

I had a device with one button on it. You just placed the PSP battery, pushed the button and then the battery would be a Pandora battery. Put the battery back in and it would be normal again. (Sure the serial number would be initialised to something other than it was originally, but it did work without destroying the battery to make it pandora.)

[@robertbcreid2427]

@@roygalaasen *noise*

[@roygalaasen]

@@robertbcreid2427 how come?

[@steelbear2063]

And now you can just download some files and boom, PSP is hacked. Glorious

[@pv8685]

thank you so much for doing so! you spawned an entiry mod community back in the days. there were maby 100 possible doom mods back than (from counter strike to everything) and all this started by your port. great job.

[@SwiftCreationStudio]

13 years later and I still want to go back and mod one again it was the perfect portable

[@DrKMaTaaDoR]

You and MLiG are the only people I’ve ever supported on patreon. I regret nothing. I only regret not being able to support you guys more.

[@Robo4720011]

Wow this was great trip down memory lane indeed! I remember following all of these exploits in the psp hacking scene way back in middle school.

[@bunnyr31]

psp was my go to handheld, i dont do much with the homebrew scene but whenever i see one of you videos about whatever console i have to watch it so much information.

[@antikz3731]

I actually made my own Pandora’s battery on a psp-2000 by taking a utility knife to a certain circuit. When I was done installing cfw I took a pencil and connected the circuit back together by just shading it in with the graphite. It was crazy

[@AndyMitchellUK26]

I picked up one of the Datel battery service tools and I still have it :) Just drop a battery (with the circuit in as Sony removed it eventually) and press the button and voila, a service battery. Press the button again and it turns it back in to a normal battery.

[@antikz3731]

Andy Mitchell that’s cool bro!

[@YouTubeUserCx]

I did that too. Twice haha. Felt thrilling.

[@Ahmednea]

Loved the storytelling of this video. I paused the video and bought a PSP GO from eBay before finishing it.

[@rvbrexer]

If there's someone from Italy watching this video: go to e-Bay and buy my 1004 fat psp, it's complete with box, two extra UMDs and all the original accessories and manuals (minus the final part of the earpieces), and it's only 46 euros tinyurl.com/y2f5gtxe P. S. there's a guy there selling the same psp as mine (the value pack) for 150.

[@ScourgeOTG]

Seeing some of those names from "the days" bought back some serious nostalgia for me. Great video! Now I just need to find some adePSP archives for his LCS cheat engine mods.

[@TakeYorTen]

Ah the days of Dark Alex and his custom firmware releases. I even modded one of my batteries to make it a "pandoras" battery. Great times.

[@Dimensiom]

I played DOOM on my PSP back in the day. Now I know who made that possible.

[@sabin1981]

Dark_Alex!! Man, his CFW releases were absolutely incredible

[@Dionycio00diaz]

He was the reason to buy 2 PSPs,lol

[@Dionycio00diaz]

@S A i think that was dark alex too

[@megascorchertv]

The PSP modding days were my favorite BY far! What a glorious time to have that machine, it was so capable! So much goodness!

[@jul1440]

My favorite PSP homebrew app was IRShell. It used the built in IR port to send files and control devices. Loaded with thousands of remote controller codes, I used to control TVs and cable/satellite boxes everywhere I went (schools, waiting rooms, restaurants, etc.), use it as a wireless (line-of-sight) controller for my PS2, or send rom files and game saves to my wife's PSP.

[@Yolligraphone]

Great video, dude. I remember being in middleschool and having this one friend who was super into modding his PSP. He showed me so many cool things. I ended up buying another battery to make my original into a Pandora Battery by opening it up and removing one of the connections inside. It was pretty weird opening up a battery to be able to play homebrew! After that, a whole world of possibilities opened up. Now my PSP's power light doesn't even turn on when I plug it in, and I suspect it's because I stored the console with the battery inside.

[@alexandreberthault9942]

Pretty interesting, I remember the time when I installed all this stuff on my PSP, it was amazing! The best portable console to me, at least, the only one I still use now. Good work, you brought me so many nostalgic memories 👍

[@Tehblood]

What a time that was. Man I remembered most all of this

[@jasonscott6171]

This takes me back. I was the kid in high school you went to for upgrading your psp to custom firmware. I even got into modding with sound reactive and pressure reactive shoulder buttons, added a second analogue stick and even took out a umd drive and put in a decent sized 2w speaker. And now I am an electrical engineer...

[@jorge201021]

Back when megaupload was a thing and 009 system tutorial videos. But wow, i never knew i would see the face of the person who ported room to the psp. Really, big fan. I never would have played the original room of it wasnt for you. Really had a great time!

[@minecruzer99]

Very interesting! Its always nice to see quality videos from you every Monday morning

[@MobCat_]

arrr man the memorys of making Pandora batteries. the first few I made where dangerous AF befoul the ability to soft mod them came out >__

[@renakunisaki]

Yeah, I remember slicing open the plastic shell of the battery and being suuuuper careful not to puncture the cell... Fun stuff. Still have that battery too, wrapped in tape with DANGER written on it :D

[@MatthewGallagher93]

This throws me back to middle school! A lot of great evenings were spent chatting on myspace and watching homestarrunner videos on my PSP. Modding my PSP really gave me an appreciation for the inner workings of computers at the time. At one point, I even had a pandora's battery and magic memory stick and I would flash PSPs for other kids on the bus before school.

[@DrDornon]

This brought me back to being in school and getting a PSP and doing all these mods. I remember being so excited for each new homebrew release. This was one of the best handhelds ever. I miss it.

[@eduardoavila646]

Actually the 6.60 pro custom fw is not the end. Sometime after that, another team actually found out a way to write down the custom fw without bricking the psp 3000's (and the 2000s wich came with the protected boards) wich couldnt initially be flashed, only patched in ram non-permanently. And that one is actually pretty recent. (2015-6?)

[@cf105cp]

Nah, that is older than that. I have been using it on my PSP 3000 since about 2012 or so .

[@eduardoavila646]

@@cf105cp Really? Until 2016 i never heard of it. And from what i saw it only worked in 6.60

[@cf105cp]

@@eduardoavila646 Yeah you are right. 6.61 Pro-C is the last one. The one previous 6.60 is the one I was using for quite a while since 6.61 firmware didn't get released until 2015. 6.60 Pro CFW was still usable on the PSP 3000 but couldn't be permaflashed. I use 6.61 Pro CFW but I don't have it flashed on my 3000. I am too lazy for that. Since I just leave the files on the mem stick and just do a quick 30 sec launch and done if I need the CFW on.

[@eduardoavila646]

@@cf105cp Tbh i think i wrote it wrongly, i think i am actually at 6.61 proc. I probably was in 6.61, i will take a look

[@TheBrendanMcCoy]

You may be thinking of when they found out how to sign homebrew to run without the need of CFW or HEN, since signing it made it appear as legitimate. At the time though the scene was mostly dead so not all homebrew got signed.

[@Berd95]

You forgot to mention the m33 and GEN Firmwares. EDIT: He showes the m33 firmware in the video, but didn‘t mention it when he talks. Since I was just listening to the audio of that video, I didn’t notice that, I‘m very sorry Fun Fact, m33 was also dark alex :D

[@jamarforsythe7262]

He said that many times in the video, don't know what video you were watching...

[@Berd95]

Jamar Forsythe I watched it again, he didn‘t mention it anywhere

[@jamarforsythe7262]

8:23 plus all the screens show DA and M33 clearly on the screen for you to take notice of instead of ignoring to try and prove your point

[@jamarforsythe7262]

Even at 9:05

[@Berd95]

Jamar Forsythe I‘m not trying to proof my point. I listened to the video in the background, which means I didn‘t see the screens. Therefore I also didn‘t see the mention of m33, sorry, I was wrong I

[@CreativeGeoff]

The PSP was amazing. When I got my PSP-3000, the first thing I did was download the custom firmware. I was able to run so many games through just a simple app. Still have it to this day. Great video!

[@quackmandoo]

Such a good episode, SO MANY memories, I know I played your Doom at some point as well, ran dark alex firmware, seeing all those old websites and softwares was super cool! Keep up the great work!

[@Momo4060i]

Yay finally some more PSP content :3 I just love the Psp. It's such a great handheld and easy peasy to modify.

[@allawy]

Yeah, it really is. It's still my main emulator today

[@Momo4060i]

@@allawy same here :)

[@Gianmario1104]

And its successor, the PS Vita, is even better! :D

[@Momo4060i]

@@Gianmario1104 vita is quite interesting but as of now still too expensive in my opinion especially those damn memory cards. And the Psp is way easier to hack than the vita.

[@funnychimpdotcom8455]

MVG; I've got class to get too. Now is not the time

[@ModernVintageGamer]

Sorry bro lol

[@shawng9541]

Watching this gave me so much nostalgia! The PSP was an amazing system and the whole custom firmware thing got me into "tinkering".

[@FLyyyT_]

man this is throwback, this stuff brought me to your channel, great work on the vid

[@AsterixOC]

Man this brings back some good ol memories. I had a lot of fun with the psp's homebrew.

[@EsPoReNg]

I still have my magic memory stick and pandora battery lying somewhere around.

[@hanbohong9544]

🥺This video brings up so many good memories. I still remember how astonishing when I first saw PSP games like "whhhaaat? Can you play with this quality but on handheld?!"

[@paulosantos9299]

Amazing video, spent my afternoon watching your other videos similar to this about other consoles, very interesting, I got into the PSP scene when the firmware was 6.20 I believe, I had no PSP prior to that so I missed on all of this and I was even too young to remember, it was nice to now know the fully story, I also just got a PS Vita a few months ago and I am very curious about how all this started, how we got to this point in which it is so simple to run homebrew and use things like SD2Vita, hoping you make one about it next!

[@necrotic256]

Ahh, i remember that hunt for the 1.50 psp's back in the day when i was looking to get one. Man, that brings back memories

[@Kimomaru]

Wow, this is a really good video. Well done!

[@MrKikoKz]

I remember those days with such nostalgia... I lived PSP hacking scene period while I was a kid and it was incredible. I've spent a lot of time just informing myself about last hacking news, day after day. When Pandora's Battery came out, I was amazed about its functions and how it could be definitively useful. Thanks for this video that allowed me to jump into the past and memories.

[@ThatGamePerson]

This was the modding community I got most into. I remember you could make your own pandora battery by cutting one of the traces on a normal 1000 model battery.

[@AtomicSpyAirsoftRO123]

That GTA Liberty City Stories Theme Song, it just warms your soul.

[@no_4259]

Oh, the old PSP. Such a beautiful machine. I still have mine with a 5.50 CFW, but I want to upgrade it to 6.61 Infinity.

[@trelard]

4 years after this video was posted and it's the first time I've seen it. Great video. Brought back some awesome memories for me. It was an exciting time as a PSP owner.

[@DtsProjects]

so glad i stumbled on one of your videos awhile back. love learning the history on some of this stuff. thanks man!

[@zues121510]

Man I wish there were more portable sony consoles so that MVG can make more videos on them! I've never really used anything other than nintendo systems, but I got a psvita a big ago and I fell in love. Wish it had gotten better numbers.

[@KvetoslavBastard]

I remember waiting for 6.20 CFW (I think it was Prometheus) on Christmas, it was best gift I've received :D

[@Matanumi]

that was an amazing present for sure

[@xdxxdxdxdxdxdxdxdxdxdxdxdx8578]

It wasn't promethius it was totalnoob it was release on December 24, 2010 in my timezone lol I can't believe I remember it. Aka 6.20tn hen via using the patapon exploit to launch the kernal exploit.

[@pheoix]

This was an awesome video. I remember going to gamestop in freshmen year going through all their used psps to check a hacking compatible firmware lol. The guy was like wtf. Awesome times. Wish the video was longer! Or for other systems like the psvita.