The team over at Noobz.eu have now released a downgrader for firmware 3.50. Thats right. A downgrader. This means that (as of time of writing) all Sony PSP’s can be downgraded to firmware 1.5.

What does this mean? It means that the world of homebrew, custom XMB themes, and the PSone emulator are all available to those of you willing to downgrade then upgrade to the 3.40OE custom firmware by Dark_AleX.

I’ll admit I’m shocked at the speed this downgrader has been developed, given the exploit was only found a short while ago, but I don;t think anyone will be complaining.

Those PSP owners who have the official 3.30 Sony firmware upwards should take special note about the issues with trying to use official Sony firmware updates once you have committed to downgrading.

Before we get started, let’s have the obligatory warnings:

Any downgrader carries some risk of permanently damaging your PSP. We’ve done everything we can to remove as much danger as possible, but if you choose to use this downgrader, you are accepting all of the risk involved. Nobody else will be held responsible for any damage to your PSP, howsoever caused.

Recent Sony official firmwares (3.30 onwards) have included checks that block upgrade from previously-downgraded PSPs with TA-082 or later motherboards. If you use this downgrader on such a PSP, you will lock yourself out of official firmware updates – although you will still be able to use new OE firmwares when they are released. We intend to release a tool to allow a return to official firmwares in the future.

This software is provided free of charge, so that you can use legitimate homebrew on your PSP. You are explicitly prohibited from selling it, or using it to pirate commercial games or applications. If you want to play a commercial game, do the decent thing and support the developers by buying it. If you don’t, then YOU are contributing to the death of the PSP software industry.

I’d like to take this opportunity to echo the Noobz team’s thoughts quoted above. If you are planning to downgrade and then use a custom firmware, please don’t see it as a mechanism to pirate games, it harms both the PSP and the industry as a whole.

Full instructions and the download link for the software can be found on the Noobz website.

Noobz.eu have announced that an exploit in the PSP game Lumines will allow all PSP’s to run homebrew software.

This means that owners of PSP’s with firmware 1.5 all the way through to the current 3.50 firmware will be able to run homebrew software if they own the original Lumines PSP game.

At the moment, there is only a simple ‘Hello World’ program working with this new exploit, but it will only be a matter of time before most homebrew will be ported to the new exploit, and a downgrader made available.

Following research in conjunction with Archaemic, Noobz are proud to present the first ever all-firmware exploit for the PSP. Based on Lumines, the “Illuminati” exploit is a user-mode exploit using a buffer overflow in the savedata file – similar to the GTA exploit.

That’s right – if you’ve got a legal UMD copy of Lumines, then you can run homebrew on your PSP – whatever the firmware version. That includes v3.50! Right now, the only homebrew is the Hello World demo released below – but in future we intend to release a HEN and downgrader.

To make the exploit work:

* Check that you have an EU or US version of Lumines (ULES00043 or ULUS10002). Currently we don’t have a version for the Japanese version, but we’re working on it, as soon as we get hold of a Japanese UMD.
* Extract the contents of the ‘MS_ROOT’ folder from the ZIP file into the top-level of your memory stick. (HINT: If you wind up with an ‘MS_ROOT’ folder on the stick, you’ve done it wrong).
* Start the game, and as soon as it gets to the ‘Press START’ screen, press START. If you wait until the demo has started, the exploit may not work.
* The screen should go blank, and the exploit will start after a few moments. It doesn’t do anything except look pretty at this stage – but feel free to enjoy the first homebrew on your v3.10 – v3.50 PSP

So, for all those who have been asking about when a downgrader for firmware 3.30 to 3.50 will be available, the wait will soon be over.

Expect a response from Sony in the form of a new firmware version to patch the security loophole soon.

If you’ve not got Lumines, you can grab a copy from Amazon : Lumines (Aff link, buying via this link help this site).

You can check out the latest PSP adverts from Sony here (external link).