Soon to be released: HENkaku – Vita homebrew for everyone
It seems that in the last few months a group called molecule (which consists of yifan Lu, Davee, Proxima and xyz) has worked on a way to easily use Homebrew on your PS Vita.
They decided to call their project HENkaku (変革), which is the first HEN for the Playstation Vita. HENkaku will of course support the most recent system software 3.60.
courtesy of Davee
Some of you might remember Rejuvenate, a hack that required the PSMobile application, a computer and it did only work on selected firmwares and devices.
Developers have created a lot of cool homebrews for Rejuvenate, but it was unfortunally too hard to use and therefore not that great for the average person.
Any Rejuvenate compatible Homebrew will be HENkaku compatible as well (with minor adjustments), as long as the Rejuvenate Homebrew was created as initially recommended (binary compatible with the Vita’s native loader).
What can you do with HENkaku?
HENkaku enables you to install PS Vita Homebrew as bubbles on your PS Vita’s Homescreen by disabling the filesystem sandbox.
It is a native hack that lets you access the Vita’s memory card (via FTP), install .vpk homebrew packages (Vita packages?) and even a bit more.
Just think of it as jailbreaking your iOS device (e.g. iPhone) or rooting your Android device (e.g. Tablet).
HENkaku won’t allow you to run any kind of PS Vita warez, piracy or “backups”, how people like to call them, at least not out of the box.
Encrypted game data cannot be decrypted via HENkaku and it won’t disable any kind of DRM.
HENkaku is designed to let you run Homebrews on your PS Vita, it is not for piracy, and that’s it.
Which firmwares & devices are supported?
HENkaku supports all current Playstation Vita devices (fat, slim, TV), but only supports the PS Vita system software 3.60. It does not and will not support any higher firmware in the future.
Be sure to update to 3.60 if you want to use HENkaku and never update to a higher firmware if you intend to keep using HENkaku on your device.
What else is required? Any games as exploit?
HENkaku does not require any game software as entry-point for the exploit, it only requires your FW 3.60 PS Vita’s Web browser, a memory card with available space (at least 10MB), an internet connection and an FTP client on your Computer (we recommend FileZilla).
Thats it. No games or any fancy stuff required. Just your device, default accessories, an internet connection and a Computer.
How do I install HENkaku?
HENkaku can easily be installed via your PS Vita itself. You dont need any fancy PC programms (like a Jailbreak/Root does), just your PS Vita’s Web browser.
Simply visit https://henkaku.xyz via your PS Vita and click on the “Install” button (keep in mind that this does not work until it has been officially released).
If you happen to fully reboot your PS Vita (or if it runs out of juice), you have to re-do the procedure of installing HENkaku via the Web browser.
If HENkaku is running, though, you are free to use it and switch between Homebrew apps as often as you want, as long as you dont (fully) power off your device.
When will HENkaku be released?
HENkaku’s official release is going to be this Friday, the 29th July 2016, at 09:00 (UTC+0).
Source via Yifan.Lu.
FIRST!
Hmmm…
but updating either my 1.81. or 3.50 ps vitas for this. is kinda unethical for me.. maybe my pstv.. but what about the whitelist.. switch(won’t that be affected if I update?)
I’m with you. I have an official one which I use for emote play and my secondary one for playing my psp homebrew and “backups”. I’m still on uno 2.02 and love the ease of it and don’t see me leaving it anytime soon.
It won’t. Even if you lost the change, this grants file system access, so you can reapply it.
I find it funny Wololo never post my comments and asks for 24h to do so, only to find out it never happened, but when it comes to FIRST comments, it’s right there like it was no big deal. Go figure.
Nice! It is something like thethered jb on iphone 🙂 Shame that they will not develop it to newer fw’s
Very interesting, glad to see something was being done in the background!!
So do we have another toolchain to develope homebrew ? And do the HENkaku still need to be reactivated daily like Rejuvenate ?
Exciting news! Already noticed some change on the subreddit Vitahacks, was wondering what it ment.
This might be good for the scene!
awesome, good job everyone!!!
one step in better direction, i hope we can see permanent HEN soon 🙂
after 9 years in developer….. (“tf2”)
This is the only time I have ever called FIRST because if this turn out to be true this could be the biggest thing to ever happen to the Vita (past present and future)
However this is Wololo after all so when Friday rolls around we will see if it actually works (why not just do it right now?) and if its as good as it sounds.
I hope it does work, it would be great for the Vita and a lot of fun. VITA TV with emulators on a TV screen would be awesome!
But this is Wololo after all , the same site that claimed they had a Wii U hack to release for Christmas, then the new year, then 6 months later. All of which never happened until a year later when a completely different Wii U hack came out.
And the same site that claimed that we were just around the corner of loading our own CFW or Linux or whatever we chose to do with the new PS4 because of a bug that was discovered in the Blu Ray Live function when a movie was being played…..
Or the ninja releases that kind of aloud for your 3ds to almost play a homebrew title…. if you had another hacked 3ds to complete the process of course…………….
I will have to come back and eat my words if this ends up being true.
Any hackers out there manage to get the site working now????!!??
> VITA TV with emulators on a TV screen would be awesome!
Sad that this is all people can think about when homebrew is mentioned. It’s not even a great solution because of the PS Vita resolution being scaled up to 720p, and then the TV scales it to its native resolution. Assuming that you’re running the emulator without any scaling of its own.
Cemu 1.4.5 and this – Oh Yea 😀
Apologies for the stupid question, but this doesn’t replace/install anything in the system’s OS, right? (similar to PSP HENs like TN and ChickHEN)
It can’t be done before 3.60 ? If it is not, that’s doll…
Could a 3.50 psvita works ?
Thanks.
it has to be on 3.60, it cant be higher or lower than that
this was probably the most promising vita info i ever heard
haaaaraaaaambaaaeee
I knew it! After these last months of silence, there has to be something big comming out! Good job guys! You make my favorite handheld’s scene alive! Molecule, You totally rule 😀
Man, thanks The Zett first for writing this article or you would have been in the blue and updated your vita to > 360 and lost the brilliant oppurtunity. Then thanks the main workers 🙂
After all this tom and jerry chasing,, finally a stable, no external software needed homebrew for vita is coming, *** all those money ( > $100) we spent on paid homebrews which were not even native 🙂
Thanks The Zett 😀
ALL HAIL HENKAKU!
Nice work guys. I’m excited for this yet cringing at the thought of having to update my vita. I could never get rejuvenate to work anyway so I haven’t had a taste of native homebrew yet. Hows the psx emulation?
Are you seriously asking about PSX emulation on a PS Vita? You know, the device backwards compatible with the PSP, which had its own PSX emulator?
can we play psp games using this?
I have a psvita 3.18 with ecfw and a pstv 3.20 with the white list hack. I wonder if it’s worth updating for this.
If I update my PS Vita I will lose my TN-V, ARK, so no, thanks.
Sometimes a great sacrifice is needed to rise higher.
you wont if they are in bubbles.
3.60 has no (PSPemu) kernel exploit, thus they wont work.
Richter Belmont The Pirate! Dont Be Stupid And Update, Maybe Someone Finds Way To Run Ark through Henkaku.
Or Native Piracy (which sucks for someone like me cuz i like to pay for things unless it turns out crapp), but you seem like a licensed pirater :p
Why they won’t support higher firmwares?
Because Sony will patch the exploit in the next firmware
why not lower firmware?
so people wouldn’t have to lose their bubbles??
Yes, but do they not plan to update it eventually? Is it actually just going to be a fw 3.60 only hack? I’m really, really grateful for this hack, don’t get me wrong, but if they don’t plan on ever updating it, it’s a bit of a let-down.
Finally!! Can’t wait to have some new emulators and overclock the Vita.
Maybe i’ll be able to play Assassin Creed, Borderland and especially Jak and Daxter without an headache !!!
Do you think it’s possible?
Or the CPU speed limit is coded on the game so he can’t use the added speed even if the CPU is overclocked?
This, like all hacks, is extremely illegal. Sony likely is already planning legal action against Henkaku, and possibly even this website.
Lol.
Finally a chance of a decent media player, fingers crossed KODI / OpenElec port.
Dusty Enemy Crabs prepping ofw3.61
Neato! I hope this reignites the Vita scene.
The only reason piracy is so looked down upon in the wololo and molecule circles is due to fear of legal action right? I mean history proves that piracy enabling devices are most successful. PC and GoG being the biggest examples.
I personally don’t care about piracy and have stated a couple times that it’s a matter of personal choices. With that being said, I prefer talking with people who are enthusiast about homebrews and hacking rather than piracy. To put it a bit inaccurately but maybe more boldly, I favor people who are interested in the programming/boundaries breaking/hacking side of things rather than “just” gaming. I’m rarely on the side of people who think it’s ok to screw developers off their money. But again, personal decision and I don’t judge (I’ve pirated my share of games when I was in high school, aeons ago, so who would I be to judge?).
That’s my personal take. As far as this website is concerned however, for legal reasons we do not condone piracy and cannot distribute/promote tools that are clearly illegal.
That’s fair, I just don’t understand people who treat piracy like a boogeyman. The only games that need DRM are zero effort games like CoD and SFV. I love how well the Witcher 3 is doing despite being able to have its files just dumped onto a USB stick and played just like that on any PC.
You’re kidding, right? The PC hasn’t been a platform to take seriously until Steam arrived to the scene, offering a unified platform, storefront, and DRM. That’s why lots of releases are only on Steam these days, and don’t appear on, say, GOG.
Consoles like the PSX and DS were very succesful and had lots of piracy, but correlation is not causation. They were successful enough that piracy didn’t have too big of an impact on sales.
On the PSP on the other hand, piracy was rampant, but it wasn’t that successful in the end. Sure, lots of consoles were sold as a result, but software sales remained low. By the time 2010 rolled around, releasing software for the PSP was seen as not financially viable, while the DS still thrived.
Another example is the Wii, but in a different way. It was a big success from the start, but mostly thanks to casual gamers who bought the consoles and some casual games. Software sales for traditional games fizzled out thanks to piracy, and by 2010 those developers had given up and only released shovelware.
Isn’t the Vita doing what the PSP did though as far as pricing goes? Just saying, but of course a crappy product at an unreasonable price is going to be pirated or if it’s just at an unreasonable price. You have to make sure your consumer base can afford your stuff in the first place if you don’t want piracy.
It’ll work until i reboot my Vita, but my question is what happens to homebrews after restarting console? Are they gone or just won’t work until i install this again? Because if this website will be gone, i’ll be left with 3.60 Vita unable to run any homebrews (Actually i’m more interested in TN-V and ARK).
I can install tn-v when I have HENkaku?
Can you play psp games with it?
Why doesn’t it work on lower firmware I’m on 3.51 🙁 I wanna keep my firmware that low.
Will I’ll be able to use PSN while the hack operates? Or just restart the console so that its disabled?
Ok, I kind of stopped messing with my Vita right when Rejuvenate came out. I’m on 3.18 and I have Gladiator Begins and Talkman Travel Tokyo. TNV is installed with some emulators and a PSP game. I remember doing a PSV Unlocker through email, but I don’t think I did anything with it. (It was for Rejuvenate I think…)
1. Do you think I should update?
2. If I update, can I keep TNV by using some bubble thing? (Some people have commented to make TNV/ARK/VHBL bubbles.) If yes, how can I do this, and do I lose any features of TNV?
TNV/ARK will be broken, only homebrew bubbles will work and even though the bubble will still be there it will just load into a blank white screen so only time will tell if it’s possible to potentially do some “trick” to re-enable tnv/ark again but otherwise we will have to wait for another kernel exploit to epsp mode. Apart from losing tnv/ark this new hack is actually 10x better than psm/rejuvenate so if you don’t mind losing it for awhile i would definitely update.
Have they stated agree they are protecting against piracy? Cause if they are they’re hurting the scene still. Homebrew and emulators are amazing but I want a full fledged kernel/cfw so we can make PSP/psone bubbles of the games Sony won’t give us. Not necessarily piracy but because I have tons of classics that they won’t let me have on one of my favorite pieces of hardware.
So I guess I can’t use this on 3.18? I really do not want to lose TN-V
This is exciting news but I do need some help here, fact being that I haven’t used my vitas for a while. Which vita should I update to 3.60, 3.18 or 3.51? Any logical and practical assistance will be greatly appreciated.
I’m curious.. with this would it be possible to develop some homebrew that can give read/write access from using the usb connection to a PC? it would make file browsing and transfers a heck lot easier and more user friendly if that’s the case.
glad to see this, might swap it out for my vhbl bubble on fw3.60 just to give it a try