Complete Tutorial

Introduction/Custom Firmware:

To tell you the truth, I’m not an expert on Custom Firmware (CFW). I didn’t want to brick my PSP, so I went to an expert (a game store) and pay them to install CFW into my PSP. So, instead of a step by step instruction on installing CFW, I will only tell you a thing or two about CFW, simply for your basic understanding.

Firmware is the software/program that the PSP uses to read the data (music, movies and yes, games) so you can interact with them (meaning: listen to music, watch movies, and play games.) Original firmware provided by Sony can only read games from UMD. To be able to read downloaded games stored in your memory stick, you need CFW. A genius named Dark Alex (we are forever indebted to him!!) hacked the original software and create these custom firmwares. There are several versions, following whatever update version Sony has released. The man hacked every single one of them (I told you we are forever indebted to him).

Okay, this is what I mean by basic understanding: if you haven’t got it so far, the point is, you can’t play downloaded games if you don’t have a CFW installed in your PSP. If you only have the original firmware, you can only play with your UMD. The next question would logically be…

How to acquire this CFW? It’s simple. Browse the threads in this forum. Lots of information, instructions and how-tos about that subject. Hako and Tasha (among others,) who provided you with the games, also provided you with the CFW links. They also give you a step by step instruction on how to do the installation. However…

VERY IMPORTANT: I must warn you that a mistake in the installation process, or let’s say you run out of power in the middle of the installation process and your PSP turned off by itself, then you run the risk of bricking your PSP. What’s bricking?

It’s the term they use when your PSP is rendered totally unusable and irreparable. You can’t do a darn thing to your PSP anymore. It’s dead. It’s useless. Now, due to the shape and size of the PSP, it’s like holding a brick in your hands. Hence the term “brick.”

So, like I said in the beginning of this introduction, I didn’t want to brick my PSP, so I went to an expert and pay them to do the installation. So, (and I have repeated this many times over in several different posts) unless you’re really really positively sure that you understand the instruction and have full certainty that you can install the CFW yourself, I suggest you do the same thing I did: go to an expert.

Downloading games:

As you read Hako, Tasha and Joker’s thread, they offer so many games to download. But how to do that? Simple, just click the link and follow the instruction. However, some sites don’t come with instructions, so here goes:

1. Finding the games

You go to the thread. Hako, Tasha and Joker had posted some links to the games they uploaded to various file sharing sites. So the games are not actually here in this forum. They’re kept on other sites, file sharing sites such as megaupload, rapidshare, ifile.it, Adrive, and perhaps other sites.

Find those posts and you can browse for the games. Find the games you like. There’s the title and the picture of the game. Most importantly, there’s the link of the game downloads. Usually below the picture and usually divided into several parts.

Here’s some example image:

2. Downloading the games

Click that link and you’ll be redirected to the file sharing site. Let’s review one by one.

Megaupload:

In general it looks like the image below. What you need to do is see that three letters there (in this example “NTV”) and type it into the box next to it, then click the download button.

Another page will open. There’s a countdown going on for about 45 seconds. Just wait patiently until it’s over and the button will read “Free download.” Then you can click that button.

A small “File Download” window will open. Click “save”.

Another small “Save As” window will open so you can choose where (which drive/folder) you want to keep this file. I’m sure you understand enough to be able to take it from here by yourself.

The download process will instantly begins. Then you can wait (or go back to your job, as I know some of you are doing this at work) until the download is finished.

Rapidshare:

The page would look like the image below. As I’m sure most of us don’t have premium account at Rapidshare, then you should click the “Free user” button. Anyhoo, I’m positive people who have premium account there wouldn’t be needing to read this.

A new page will open. A countdown will start. Wait (impatiently if you wish) until it’s over. Then the big “download” button will appear. It’s so big you can’t miss it. Well, what are you waiting for? Click that button.

Precisely like the previous steps, a small “File Download” window will open and you can take it from there. If you can’t, read the last two steps of instruction for Megaupload above.

ifile.it:

And this is by far my favorite file sharing site! The BEST! Thanks to Hako for placing most of his downloads here. You can use download manager software (you can’t use this with Rapidshare), instantly available (no waiting), you can do multiple downloads at the same time and the download speed is considerably faster than the others.

So if you’re redirected to this site, you will be asked to request download ticket, so you do that by clicking it.

Okay, next, what page will appear? If you’re not in the process of downloading another file from ifile.it at that moment, you will go directly to the download page. But if you’re in the process of downloading another file from ifile.it at that moment (multiple downloads,) you will go to the confirmation page first. It looks like this

It’s simple, really. Just type in the character (letters/numbers) and click OK. Then you will go to the download page. However…

and I really have no idea why, because this is so inconsistent in my experience, sometimes the site thinks you’re already downloading another file when you’re actually not. So the confirmation page appear. And sometimes, you’re doing multiple downloads without catching a single confirmation page. You go straight to the download page.

Okay, no need to fret about it. Machines make mistakes too, you know. If you get the confirmation page, just type in the characters and click OK. If not, fine, just download right away. As simple as that. And the download page looks like this. Simply click the download link. The rest is the same. Choose a folder and download will begin instantly.

Adrive.com:

Quite the opposite to ifile.it, this is by far the worst file sharing site I‘ve ever experienced. I can’t help you with this site, because I have tried to download from this site several times, and never succeeded even once. I thought I’ve had everything done. Javascript is active and everything. Still I can’t download from this site.

So, I forget this site, and so should you (if you have the same problems I did.)

Okay, perhaps there are other file sharing site the guys are using to store their games. But I won’t get to that. If you have enough experience with file sharing sites, I’m sure you can do it yourself elsewhere. Now let us assume you got the file downloaded into your hard drive. It’s always a .rar file. A compressed file that needs to be extracted before it can be used. You need WinZip or WinRAR to open/extract .rar files. I’m sure you have one handy on your PC. If you don’t, these guys also have a link for you to download. And now we shall go to the section of…

Extracting .rar files:

After the download process finished, open the folder where you put the .rar file (or files, if it’s split into several parts.) Double click on that file and WinRAR will automatically open the file. If it’s multiple .rar files, then you simply need to save all parts in the same folder, and open (double click) the first file (the part1 file). The rest will be automatically detected by WinRAR.

In this example, I use a single .rar file

At some point you will be asked for a password (if you download from Hako’s thread.) The password is hako. After you double click the .rar file, a WinRAR window will open. You can already see your .iso or .cso file there. Simply click the Extract button.

You will be asked to choose a drive/folder. Do so, or simply click OK to extract the file into the same folder where you keep the .rar file(s).

Although it’s not recommended, you may pull your hair or bite your nails while waiting for the file to be extracted. It shouldn’t take that long though. When it’s done, close the WinRAR window and return to the folder where you keep your file. You can already see a folder with the same name as the .rar file(s).

UPDATE: Since C. Jackson uploaded some files with 7-Zip compression format, and some of you are not familiar with this format, I add this to make life easier for you…

Installing 7-Zip Software:

First of all, you need to download the file. It’s not a hassle. The file is small and the installation process is not complicated. Click here to download the file. Download the 7z462.exe file. The image below shows you the 7z462.exe software file and some example game files.

Double click the 7z462.exe file. Depending on the setting of your PC, you might (or you might not) get this window as shown in the image below. If you do get that security warning window, simply click “Run”. It’s okay, really.

Then you will be asked to choose a folder, where you want to install the software. Simply clicking “Install” would be enough.

Before you could say “Installation complete” the installation process would be completed and you’ll see this window. Simply click “Finish”.

Extracting 7-Zip files:

After installing 7-Zip, you’ll get an additional command on your right click menu. Return to the folder where you keep the 7-Zip game files. In this example, we have 2 part files, ending with .001 and .002

Simply (it’s always simply, isn’t it? Well, it is simple…) right click on the .001 file. Choose 7-Zip on the right click menu where another menu will appear. You can either choose “Extract files… or Extract Here).

Another window will appear where you can choose location/folder and choose some settings and where you’ll get to type the password. So do that (in this particular case, the password is cjackson) and click OK.

At this point the extraction process is complete. Let’s go to the next section.

Copying the game into your PSP:

Open (double click) that folder and you will see the .iso or .cso file that you saw earlier in the WinRAR window. Right click that file and click “copy”

Okay, now this is a bit tricky. Don’t plug in your PSP yet. I can’t simply call your PSP “Drive F” or “Drive G” since it would vary depending on the drives already present on your PC. If you’re not sure about this, then why don’t you open (double click) My Computer icon on your desktop so you know exactly what your drives are.

In this example, you can see that I have four physical drive here. C for a system drive, D and F for my data drive, and E for my CD drive.

Okay, now I plug in the PSP into my PC (meaning I connect the PSP to my PC via a USB cable) then press x at the USB connection icon (as I have the 3.90 CFW) or automatically detected for more recent CFW. When I plug it in, my PC will register the PSP as Drive G as shown in the image below

Now, in your case, it may not be Drive G. After you know exactly what drives you have on your PC before plugging in your PSP, then plug it in to see what drive comes up (usually titled Removable Drive). That’s your PSP drive.

Okay, now there’s nothing you want more than opening that drive, where you see a bunch of folders inside, where one of them is… yes, you guessed it right, the ever lovable ISO folder. Open that folder.

Inside the ISO folder, simply find an empty area and right click your mouse and click “paste”

Hold on to your fart, guys and girls. The copying process is underway. It could be a few minutes if it’s a big file. But after that agonizing few minutes, you’re done! Unplug your PSP and go to the Game Icon on your PSP, then press x on the memory stick icon. VOILA! There’s your newly acquired game, ready to be played and loved by you!

Now all you need to do is spend a few minutes thanking Tasha, Hako and Joker for the games. Thanks, guys!

And with that thank you note, I shall close this step by step instruction for now. There’s more things to do with the PSX Eboot games. But that’s another story for another time. In the mean time, enjoy the games, guys!

UPDATE: That PSX Eboot is no longer another story for another time. It’s right here right now! So, enjoy!

Source:

Spider

Moderator