This upgrade will allow you to play homebrew software that requires the 6.xx Sony OFW.

Requirements:

Fat PSP (My PSP is version PSP-1001 Mobo TA-081)
Previous custom firmware, not sure if this works from the OFW (original firmware)
Battery charged above 80%, I kept mine plugged in aswell.

It clearly states when the upgrader loads up that you will need a Fat version PSP, if you do not have this type of PSP this firmware is not for you!

Step 1:

Download the firmware package here xgen-550gen-d3.zip.

Step 2:

Uncompress the .zip file you just downloaded.

Step 3:

Hook up your PSP via the USB cable, and copy all the files and the PSP directory to the root directory of your PSP’s memory stick. At this point the PSP folder you are copying will be merged with the current PSP folder on your memory stick.

Step 4:

Go to the games menu, select the upgrader and press x. Say “Enter” at the first screen that comes up.

Step 5:

Select “Flash Install CFW 5.50 GEN-D3″ and watch it. Once the upgrade is complete, you will be prompted to restart or turn off your PSP. I chose to restart mine.

Step 6:

Reconfigure your settings. The PSP will revert back to factory settings because the nvram gets wiped during the installation.

Step 7:

Enjoy

Basically you walk around a world that is based on an invisible grid. You use the objects around you to collect items from within the level, avoiding the monsters and traps.
The graphics in the game are alright, nothing spectacular, but they get the job done. I feel creativity is lacking in this section, everything just feels so bland.

I personally found the game to be very repetitive, and got bored with it after about 20 levels. You definitely have to be a fan of these types of puzzle games to really be into them.

In my opinion this game has no replay value, unless you want to master each level and set records with your times. Even though there were pick-ups, monsters, and traps, the game failed to excite me. I am a fan of puzzle games, but this one seemed to lack creativity.

I definitely did not enjoy this game. I would only recommend this game to people who were fans Chips Challenge.

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Loco Roco is a very fun game which style reminds me a lot of Katamari Damacy. If you enjoyed Katamari Damacy, you should for sure enjoy this game.

The mechanics behind this game are really simple, you press the L shoulder button and you tilt the screen left, you press the R shoulder button and you tilt the screen right, press them both and you make your Loco Roco bounce. You also eat flowers and bugs throughout the level. The flowers make your Loco Roco grow a little bigger by generating another, and the bugs are like coins.

Loco Roco plays somewhat linearly, where you must roll and bounce your Loco Roco from the start to the end of each world. There are many obstacles through-out each level. It’s a really fun game if you are looking to add something lite to your gaming collection.

The graphics are very simple and cartoon-ish, but they work well with the overall theme of the game. The same can be said about the in-game music.

Overall this was a really fun game to play. I enjoyed it a lot. Simple to pick up and play. More games like this need to be released for portable consoles.

Idle sequences
When playing, split all of the Rocos apart in a safe place (or at a place where they will not fall). After awhile they will start to play with each other, “dogpile” the person singing the chorus, or line up in a line and count to the number of Rocos you have in Japanese.

Gameplay is set to the beat of the music as you build up chains of explosions with the objects that float on-screen in the virtual world. The bosses require you to explode chains to defeat them. Some of the objects give you a quicken powerup that makes the chains appear on the screen faster, with more objects in each chain. Once you build up to the maximum value of the quicken powerup the game is running at 100% and can be pretty intense.

There are 4 modes of single player gameplay. Arcade, Caravan, Boss Attack, and Original. Arcade is the main mode of play. You progress through each stage unlocking them for play in caravan mode. In Caravan mode you choose levels to play that you have already unlocked in the Arcade mode. Boss Attack is exactly how it sounds, you skip each stage and head straight for the bosses. Original allows you to play the original version of Every Extend.

Networked mode only supports Ad-Hoc, meaning you can’t play over the internet, you have to be within range of the person you are playing against. However, Game sharing is supported and you can share a demo version of Every Extended Extra with your friends. Bonus!

Bonus: Every Extended Extra comes with the Lumines 2 demo. So if you haven’t checked that title out yet, here is your chance to check out the demo.

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Unlockable: Boss Attack
You must finish Arcade mode once to unlock Boss Attack.
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Sony has released a couple firmware versions since my last posting, but here is a tutorial for getting the OE version of 3.40 running on your PSP. I am going to structure this HOWTO a little bit as a test, if you like this structure, let me know.

*NOTE* You will need atleast 75% battery charge. You may also want to have your PSP plugged into the wall just in case. You will also need a larger memory stick, the 32mb one doesn’t cut it. 1 gig sticks are uber-cheap now.

Step 1:

Download the 3.40 OE-A Firmware, uncompress it, then copy the uncompressed files as follows:

PSP 1.50 Firmware: You will place the uncompressed files in /PSP/GAME

PSP 3.XX OE Firmware: You will place the files in /PSP/GAME150

Step 2:

Goto the game menu and run the 3.40 OE-A Update Maker. This will take a couple of minutes to create the DXAR file.

Step 3:

You will need to access the USB menu on your PSP go into the oeupdmaker directory and copy the newly generated data.dxar file to the 340oeflasher directory.

Step 4:

Once again go back to the game menu and now run the 3.40 OE-A Firmware Install. You will need to agree by pressing X. This will check the integrity of the DXAR file before attempting to flash the firmware to prevent bricking. Once this is complete, press X to turn off your PSP. Turn your PSP back on, and you are now running 3.40 OE-A!

This is the easiest way to upgrade your PSP. I upgraded mine in under 10 minutes following these exact steps.

3.10 OE-A and OE-A’ boasts an impressive list of feature updates including:

3.10 OE-A Changes

  * Change from 3.03 firmware to 3.10.
  * 4th level of brightness (aka battery eater) can now be selected also without ac adaptor.
  * Changes in hen core:
    - Static user elf’s can now be executed in the 3.10 kernel. (this includes snes user version between other programs)
    - Tyranid’s patch (added in 3.03 OE-C) consequences was not explained very well in the changelog of 3.03 OE-C:
      o For programmers: it allows kernel modules to have user imports, making kernel programming in 3.03/3.10 less strict.
      o For users: plugins and applications that worked in 2.71 SE, but not in OE, *may* now work in 3.03OE-C and 3.10 OE-A.

Note 1: the installer will disable all plugins to avoid incompatibilities when booting. You can enable them again in the recovery menu.

Note 2: the plugin to load 3.02 pops won’t work anymore in 3.10 OE, due to some changes in pops modules structure (meaudio fused with popsman, idcanager/idmanager behaviour slightly changed). A new plugin for 3.10 could be written next week.

3.10 OE-A’ Changes:

  * Corrected a bug that caused Metal Slug 6 (from Metal Slug Anthology), and other umd/iso games containing a static elf to show error 0×80020148.

To upgrade to firmware 3.10 OE-A’ you must first be running 3.10 OE-A, so we will start by upgrading to that firmware first.

Step 1. The first thing you will have to do is download all of the files needed for the upgrade.

310oe_a.rar
310_a2update.rar

Step 2. First you will need to upgrade to 3.10 OE-A before you can go to OE-A’. Uncompress the 310oe_a.rar and copy the contents to /PSP/GAME150 on your PSP using the USB file transfer mode. *NOTE* If you are upgrading from PSP 1.50 firmware just copy the directories to /PSP/GAME.

Once these directories are copied, go to the game menu and run the 3.10 OE-A Update Maker. This step will take a little bit, so be patient. Now would be a good time to make sure your PSP is plugged into the power and not running off battery mode. You will need to have your battery at, at least 75% for the upgrade to be a success.

Step 3. After the Update Maker is complete, initiate USB file transfer mode again and go into /PSP/GAME150/oeupdmaker and copy the data.dxar file to /PSP/GAME150/310oeflasher. Once this file is copied over, exit the USB file transfer mode, go back to the GAME menu, and run the 3.10 OE-A Firmware Install.

Once the installer loads up press the X button to continue with the upgrade. It will now verify the data.dxar file and proceed with the upgrade. Once the upgrade is complete you will then press X again which will turn off your PSP. Turn the PSP back on manually.

You are now running the 3.10 OE-A firmware.

Step 4. Now proceed with uncompressing 310_a2update.rar. Go back into USB file transfer mode and copy over the 310_a2update folder to your /PSP/GAME150 folder. Exit USB file transfer mode, go into the GAME menu and run the 3.10 OE-A’ Updater. This will quickly update your firmware and exit back to the XMB. You are now running the 3.10 OE-A’ firmware.

Step 5. To clear up space on your memory stick you can now go back on your PSP and delete all of the files we copied over.

Enjoy your updated firmware!

Any questions or concerns? Please post them in the comments section.

Step 1:

You will first have to upgrade to 3.02 OE-A then to OE-B before you upgrade to 3.03 OE-B. So the first thing you have to do is download 1 of the following files:

For 1.50 firmware download 3.02 Basic Installer for 1.50
For 2.71SE firmware download 3.02 Basic Installer for 2.71SE

You will not need both files, so download 1 of them. Once you have the installer downloaded to your computer, plug your PSP in and activate USB file transfer mode.

*NOTE* I backed up and formatted my memory card before installing the firmware updates, you may want to do this aswell. You will also have to have atleast 75% of the battery remaining or you will not be able to upgrade.

After activating USB file transfer mode, run the installer, choose the drive your PSP is setup as, and hit next. The installer will do everything for you. You may notice the installer stop at 37%, but let it copy all files, so sit back and relax. Once all the files are copied, exit USB file transfer mode, goto the game menu, access the memory card and you will see the Launcher for the 3.02 updater. Execute this.

You will have to agree to the agreement, do this by pressing X and the update will now start. Once the update is running DO NOT turn off your PSP, or remove the memory card! When the update is complete, it will advise you to restart your PSP manually, you can now do so.

When you restart your PSP you will get a message saying the configuration is corrupt and has to be rebuilt, dont worry, press O and re-configure your PSP.

Congratulations you have no updated too 3.02 OE-A!

Step 2:

You will now have to upgrade 3.02 OE-A to 3.02 OE-B, which is easy, just download oeb.rar which is the upgrade file. Again, reactivate USB file transfer mode on your PSP and extract the contents of oeb.rar to GAME\GAME150 on your PSP memory stick.

*NOTE* You may have to create the GAME150 folder in the GAME folder.

Once everything is copied, run the updater from the Game menu on your PSP.

Easy enough, you are now upgraded to 3.02 OE-B!

Step 3:

Now to actually upgrade to 3.03 OE-A.

First you will have to download 3.03OE-A.rar Once the files are downloaded, initiate USB File Transfer mode on your PSP and extract 3.03OE-A.rar to GAME150 in the GAME folder on your memory stick. Once all the files are copied, close down the USB File Transfer Mode, and goto the Game Menu, and run the 3.03 OE-A Updater.

Again, you will have to agree to the agreement by pressing X and the update will now start. Once the update is running DO NOT turn off your PSP, or remove the memory card! When the update is complete, it will advise you to restart your PSP manually, you can now do so.

This time I didnt receive an error stating that anything was corrupt, and everything booted up just fine.

You are now running firmware 3.03 OE-A!

Step 4:

Now you are good to update to 3.03 OE-B. Download OEB_UPDATE.RAR. Once the files are downloaded, once again initiate USB File Transfer mode, and uncompress the contents of MS_ROOT to the root folder of your PSP.

Once this is complete, exit USB File Transfer mode, and execute the 3.03 OE-B updater from the Game menu. As soon as this is complete you will be fully updated to the 3.03 OE-B Firmware. You can confirm this by going to the settings menu on your PSP and looking inside of the System Information menu.

Step 5: (Optional)

You may want to now format your memory stick again before copying any of your old files back. If you do this step, you must then initiate USB File Transfer mode once more, then go into the GAME folder, and create GAME271 and GAME150.

All of your old homebrew software can now be placed inside of the GAME150 folder and will still run. Ultimately GAME271 is for stuff that runs on the 2.71 firmware.

If you have any questions/concerns or comments. Feel free to comment below!

The installation is almost the same as the DevHook 0.50 installation however a couple of the steps are different. For instance, the supplied .bat file didn’t do its job properly so each step will be explained here.

Connect your PSP to your computer using the USB port and initiate the USB file transfer mode. I recommend making a backup of your memory stick first. I went as far as backing up my memory stick then formatting it to install DevHook 0.51 on a fresh stick. Follow the on-screen instructions. You will be prompted to choose which version to install. I chose the Full Install.

Accept the license agreement, then select whichever drive your PSP is. The files will now be copied to your PSP.

The files are now copied to your PSP, you can hit the circle button on your PSP and exit out of USB file transfer mode. Now head over to the GAME menu, and select the PSAR Dumper. This will load a program that decrypts everything that is needed. Once the dumper loads, press the X button.

Once everything is complete, fully turn off your PSP. Don’t just put it into power saver mode, turn it right off.

Okay, you can now turn your PSP back on. Once again go and initiate the USB file transfer mode. Access your PSP through My Computer, you will see alot of files and directories. Some of these files and directories your going to move, or delete, some you won’t touch at all.

The first thing you want to do is access the folder labeled “f0″ and you will then find a folder labeled “kd” go inside of this folder aswell. Once you are inside of the folder labeled “kd” delete the file “audio.prx”

Now copy audio.prx from the “x:\temp” folder and put it back inside of “kd” folder inside of the “f0″ folder.

Now access the folder labeled “dh” and create a folder labeled “301″. Now move select the “f0″ folder and completely move it to the newly created “301″ folder, inside of the “dh” folder.

Now go back into the “temp” folder and move everything inside of it to “x:\dh\301\f0\kd”.

Now access the folder in “x:\dh\301\” labeled “f1″ and create the following folders: “dic”, “gps”, “net”, “net\http”, “vsh”, and “vsh\theme”.

You can now go back to the root folder and delete the “temp” folder, the “DH_README” folder, and the file labeled “DevHook Setup.bat”. Also while you are deleting stuff, you may go into the “x:\psp\game” folder and delete the PSAR dumper, as it is no longer needed.

Turn off USB file transfer mode and go back into the GAME menu. Now you can Launch DevHook 0.51.

Once you are inside of DevHook 0.51 go to the “FIRMWARE” menu and select the 3.01 firmware. You can now start DevHook 0.51 and watch your PSP boot into the 3.01 firmware.

Enjoy

Why?

Why would you want to downgrade your PSP firmware you may ask? There are lots of reasons someone would want to upgrade their firmware. Homebrew software probably being the largest reason to upgrade. 1.5 firmware seems to be essential if you plan on doing development with the PSP, or running software developed and/or ported to the PSP platform.

Emulation is another reason. Sure alot of the stuff being emulated is technically illegal, there is legitimate uses for some of the emulators out there. Bochs for example runs linux, windows 95, and attempts to boot a couple of the bsds. Is there a use for this? absolutely not. Is it cool? Of course. Also, emulators play a large roll in development for other consoles. Most people cant afford the expensive development hardware that is needed to get their game on a console, so emulation is the best way of playing their work.

How?

Its easy really. Goto this url, and download the full version of the downgrader. I read you get the best results when you format your memory card pre-downgrade, and even better results when you use the default 32 meg card. So I did both and the downgrade started on the second attempt.

After you have your PSP setup, plug in the USB cable, and enable USB transfer in the Settings menu.

Go into my computer and find out which drive letter has been assigned to your PSP, then run the downgrader. Follow the onscreen directions. You will be asked which drive letter your PSP is, select the appropriate drive and continue on. All the files will be copied to your memory stick.

Once this is complete, goto the photo section and load up whats on the memory card. You will get 1 of 2 results, either a red screen which is good, or your PSP will lock up, which simply means you turn it off, and restart. Continue this process until you get the red screen. When you get the red screen let the PSP do its thing until it turns itself off.

Turn your PSP back on, you will be prompted with an error. Don’t worry about this error, just hit the circle button and continue on. You will have to reconfigure all of your settings, but once you are in, voila. 1.5 firmware.

Who?

Anyone running the 2.71 firmware can downlgrade their PSP, except for the people with version TA-082 PSPs. To check if you have one of these open up the UMD drive and look along the top, if you have a version TA-082 you will see writing along the top of the exposed motherboard. It may say ic10003. Do not attempt a downgrade if you have this version. All other versions will have no text and are good to downgrade.

Caution!

Proceed with caution. I may have succeeded with my downgrade, and so has many other people. However I am not responsible if you brick your PSP.