Developer/hacker Josh Axey releases his Vita hardware research
Josh Axey, who’s been an active “under the hood” vita hacker for several months (and temporarily a blogger on this site), recently released his investigation files on the Vita hardware/software exploit.
Now, before people jump up and down, the files contained in there will probably not teach anything new to anyone who’s looked deeply into the Vita already. There’s no breakthrough exploit, nothing in the files is stuff that you couldn’t find on your own with some research, or that Josh_Axey hasn’t already shared on his twitter account.
What’s interesting about the archive though (1.46GB uncompressed) is that it shows us what type of data one collects as they investigate some “black box” hardware. The archive is an interesting mix of pictures of the vita and its internals (that range in quality from “informative” to “totally unusable” – what the heck is wrong with your camera, Josh???), AutoCAD files, random logs, notes, and megabytes of hardware specification documents from various manufacturers.
This confirms even more that console hacking today goes one step further than the “hobby” it used to be 5 or 10 years ago: deep understanding of everything related to the industry (“how do competitors build their memory cards? Are there similarities we can look into?”) seems to be required to get a basic grasp of the console hardware.
Those interested to download Josh’s archive can find it below
Downloads
Download SCE PS Vita – Hardware – Josh_Axey here.
(Additional credits available in the readme)
first
Congrats. Someone give him a cookie for posting a few seconds before mine with a useless comment 😛
(ll) <—— itz an oreo
Looks like it’s old rusty and spoiled. Congrats, u just wasted a penny or two on an unknown person for the sake of another unknown person.:p
BTW can I have a beer?
(&)? <—- Here'z ure beer. Don't drink it, it'll give you cirrhosis (spelling?) of the liver.
I thought it was an oreo with a tapeworm… darn
When you say it that way, it just seems like you’re jealous.
Ban. Both.
This is interesting information regardless how “insignificant” it may seem to users or other hackers who have done the same thing.
I have been following Josh_Axey for a while and have continued to be impressed with his work.
I am curious as to whether or not he intends to continue his research.
Really kinda reminds me of iOS hacking. So simple in the beginning, but watching it grow and evolve makes you see how big it’s gotten. So big that, like this, developers have just thrown in the towel. And in this case it’s even worse because the people who gave up are right. It’s not as useful as it used to be to have a hacked portable in your pocket. Then to add even more, it’s doubtful that Sony is going to release another handheld after this. Really kinda depressing, all this community having the potential to just dissolve in the next few years.
Josh,you done great pribulsky!!
It would be great if someone can actually take a vita memory card attach to a SD card or usb adapter so people don’t have to waste $$$$ on memory cards
Vita cards have a DRM layer that needs to be cracked before anything like that can happen and it will almost certainly never happen unless a major leak from Sony happens again. In short, you’re stuck with Vita memory cards and the sensible thing to do is to get a 64GB one now before they get discontinued and the price rises astronomically.
It would be great if someone can actually take a vita memory card attach to a SD card or usb adapter so people don’t have to waste $$$$$ on memory cards
It would be great if someone can actually take a vita memory card attach to a SD card or usb adapter so people don’t have to waste $$$$$$
on memory cards
I see u itch when u say $$$$$$, Its common, even Bill Gates itch when he says $$$$$$
Does this mean downgrading to lower firmwares without doing motherboard swaps
I’m going to have to say it… Homebrew is dead.
No one needs hacking these devices anymore, unless you’re looking to run piracy.
Let’s face it, we have smartphones with bluetooth for emulation.
Handhelds are assimilating into smartphones and tablets.
You want to make apps and games? Grab the PSM SDK, or sign up as a developer, it’s free now.
You could do things Sony wouldn’t normally allow you to do with hacking, but then again what would that be? And why this device when we have other much more powerful and practical devices nowadays?
As a diehard PSP-Hacking and Vita fan, I’ve moved on…
I’ve downloaded Unity, as well as other SDK’s that allow me to make games and apps on the Vita.
The only reason I’d use hacks at this point…. is piracy.
Any other use is so fruitless that it simply does not justify the time or effort with this amazing but now practically dated & subpar hardware.
#SorryNotSorry
PSM is being deprecated though: http://wololo.net/2015/03/12/goodbye-playstation-mobile/
But I already got a PSvita because I wanted to play DS games and better dos games on my handheld. I have old firmware and one day someone might figure it out and I can play pokemon games I haven’t played yet and the original TES and FO games on it.
I realize there is better alternatives for this but the fact that I have something else that can also do it is just a fun for me.e
You can do all that on android. Something that is far easier to program and manipulate. A platform that cycles through hardware so fast it’s easy to get adequate, cheap hardware and simply buy a $30 controller attachment or simply make your own.
Even if the Vita were fully cracked open it would be fairly pointless to exploit it outside of a novelty aspect. Which, as we’ve seen, only lasts for a year or two before that fades.
I still think “piracy” is an important thing to achieve. Not to steal games but to have the games you PURCHASED not stolen from you through arbitrary decisions by Sony. Until games are LEASED and not PURCHASED (ToS and EULAs mean nothing. You can’t sign away certain rights) I have the right to fairly use my content and not have it stolen or no longer accessible.
If gaming companies would no longer have carts that said purchase for digital goods, but lease to finish the transaction, I wouldn’t have any arguments. Until then, piracy is where it’s at for consumer rights and homebrew was always smoke and mirrors.
Vita piracy is pointless aswell since vita has no games
Is this winamp on the right monitor in the last picture?
Yes, it is.
this is*
Your first reply is correct in English.
Hey, Wololo, thanks for the new features for whether or not to get comment notifications 🙂
Honestly not sure how that got there, or why they weren’t here before…
last $$$$$$
nope.avi
josh with all due respect, you are a gadget man
hacking is now only for piracy? i think everyone is forgetting there is one more thing besides pirating and homebrew. something called GAME MODS. Modding games is fun and can only be achieved when the PS4/Vita are fully jailbroken
Lol moding cool.
Thks dude looks like you did some cool work yo.
Thanks for all your efforts. Lotsa work was put into this release of info and I appreciate it. Got mixed feelings about all these hacking comments. On one hand I’m sure there are more “open” platforms out there. On the other hand, I gotsa vita and I wanna use my BOOKr on it to read Light Novels from Baka Tsuki.. And when I get bored, I can flip over and play my Disgea 3. Then I can watch an episode Bakamonogatari I downloaded. Maybe Grind out some more gears In Atellier, then go back to reading More Highschool DxD light novel in BOOKr again. Stoopid cool otaku platform. And dumb stuff Sony no want us to do that..