PSP Firmware 1.5 – First Impressions
Well, I’ve now been playing around with my PSP that is now running firmware 1.5 for a couple of hours and I thought I’d post up my initial experiences with it. Having only ever owned a PSP with firmware 2.5/2.6, I wasn;t quite sure what to expect when downgrading the PSP firmware, so it came a slight shock to find things that I’d taken for granted in 2.6 not being available in firmware 1.5.
The most noticable of these for me is the lack of an easy way to customise the PSP’s wallpaper. A bit of research soon turned up PSPersonalize, a handy piece of homebrew that will write .bmp images to the PSP to use as backgrounds. The downside for firmware 1.5 is that the background images have to be 300 by 170 pixels, meaning that whatever image you use, it will be magnified to fill the PSP screen. For the moment I have just put a simple dark gray background on there, as the standard July colour of green wasn’t appealing.
The second issue of course is that most of the games I own require a much later firmware version than 1.5. Fortunately the Devhook software allows us to fool the PSP into thinking its running a later firmware version, so this problem can be avoided. However, I’m a little concerned that as newer games are released, the required firmware versions will not be emulated, meaning an upgrade may need to take place in order to play them.
I have managed to get caSTaway up and running, so I can play a bit of Midwinter and Stunt Car Racer on this glorious Atari ST emulator. PSP Radio works a treat, and PSPChess as always is a joy to play.
The next challenge is web browsing using firmware 1.5, something which I would like to get working even if I don’t use it that much.
2 Comments, Comment or Ping
VegaLA
Hi, I have to agree with your thoughts. I downgraded my 2.50 to 1.50 just last night and eagerly searched for Homebrew games online but the only one I found of interest is a horizontal scrolling Shoot ‘em up ! I installed the Dgen and Snes emus but I am having a hard time finding the Roms. With the lack of a web browser and not being able to play Street Fighter alpha 3 I am wondering if it was worth it ?
Jul 6th, 2006
Dave
VegaLA, there are quite a few homebrew applications that are worth a look, such as PSPRadio, which I’ve found runs better on 1.5 rather than 2.6.
I’ve not yet tried any of the SNES/Genesis/Gameboy emulators yet, so I’m unsure of any benefit of running them on 1.5 other than reports that they are a bit quicker.
NeoGeoCD is one of the best emulators, which runs fine on 2.6 so again there is perhaps little benefit to downgrading.
The biggest bonus with 1.5 is that homebrew runs straight from the PSP interface (XMB) rather than having to go through GTA.
For emulator ROMS, there are a few sites out there that are pretty good. Try using google, and searching for the word ‘rom’, and lets say, ‘hustler’, for example, and you should find something suitable.
Jul 7th, 2006
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