A bunch of VHBL “proof of concept” ports surface for the latest vita firmware
We’ve been a bit quiet on the hacking front recently, but that’s not the case of hackers who have been hard at work to port our beloved VHBL to more exploits. Although VHBL does not offer the same level of functionality as TN-V, it is still a great tool for those of you who want to run homebrews (in particular emulators) on your PS Vita.
What is VHBL?
VHBL (a.k.a. Vita Half Byte Loader) is a homebrew loader for the Playstation Vita, running within the vita’s PSP emulator. It lets you run PSP homebrews and emulators on your PS Vita (check here for a list of emulators you can run on your Vita). In order to achieve that, VHBL requires an exploit in an official PSP game: people who want to install VHBL need to buy a legit license of the exploited game from the PSN Store, and typically install a crafted savedata for that specific game. The crafted savedata tricks the game/vita into running unsigned content, in other words, homebrews and emulators.
We’ve done dozens of VHBL releases on this site in the past, and the pattern is always the same: people who want to get VHBL on their Vita need to act fast, as usually within hours of announcing the exploitable game on this site, Sony takes the game down from their store, until they can announce a new version of the firmware that patches the vulnerability, at which point they usually put the game back on the store.
Long story short, VHBL is a cool piece of software for your Vita, but releasing it is kind of a pain, and there is no saying if all these VHBL ports floating around will ever be released. Nevertheless, here are the ones I’ve spotted so far:
Famous Japanese hacker 173210 is showing a proof of concept on ABCanG1015’s exploit. The picture shows it running on a PSP, but that’s usually the first step before a full port to the Vita:
VHBL on @ABCanG1015 ‘s Exploit pic.twitter.com/HlEA4sKVQ5
— 173210 (@173210) April 26, 2014
This video by Wistine showcases VHBL running on firmware 3.12. Wistine has confirmed to me that it still runs on firmware 3.15:
The Z also revealed popular Menu 138 running on VHBL, with a selection of Homebrews, running on a vita firmware 3.15, in the following tweet:
Another great game got fixed, but VHBL is still available 🙂 #psvita #firmware315 pic.twitter.com/vgNlKHvpWg
— The Z (@The_Zett) April 30, 2014
So that’s 3 so far, and I’m sure more are in the wild. If you’re on firmware 3.15 and hope for homebrew to come to you, I’m convinced it’s going to happen soon.
Cool
Hi , It’s a pretty good news ! personally i prefer to keep my 3.10 firmware 🙂 🙂 anyone knows if there is a CMA fonctionnal ?
Open CMA Is your best alternative if you want to transfer via USB, if you want to transfer vita games you need a ps3 or a backup of the game in your PC, you also have Vita FTP as a homebrew or if you are running TN-V check the FTP incorporated functionality
I keep missing out on the exploit releases, but I seriously want to play the PSP Star Ocean games on my Vita. It’s so frustrating that so many good PSP games are still not up on PSN so I can freaking buy them for a third time.
*Im convinced it’ll happen soon*
I LOVE YOU WOLOLO
What happens when sony releases a new firmware and I want to update because of ps plus free games, can I continue playing emulators? Thanks for answering…
If you have a private exploit (likely found by yourself) and sony didn’t patch it, yes you can.
@Wololo
I assume when you said “(check here for a list of emulators you can run on your Vita)” You meant to link to my VHBL thread?
Well, you didn’t add the link..
Here it is for those that don’t already know:
http://wololo.net/talk/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=10859
I’m confused. Why are the games displayed on that picture from twitter? NPJG00034 loco roco jp and NPJG90070 1million ton no barbarra. Is this a mistake? everyone should download the demo on PSN store then.