The future of HENkaku: what’s next for PS Vita hacks?
HENkaku was released a bit more than 2 months ago and resuscitated the PS Vita scene. After weeks of frenzy and several releases, we’re now entering a bit quieter phase. Still a steady amount of cool releases, but the initial passion is now leaving room for what I hope is going to be long lasting love.
So what can we expect for PS Vita hacks in the mid to long term future?
Improved emulators
The PS vita impressed us with a collection of emulators running almost out of the box as soon as Henkaku was released. We’ve been seeing steady improvements on these emulators (Retroarch started adding dynarec support recently, meaning more speed improvements), and we should expect them to easily top what was doable on the PSP.
Emulators on the PS Vita dramatically extend the library of games on the device, and I would expect this to keep being one of the main targets for people hacking their PS Vita.
There’s also the expectation to see more and more emulated systems supported, in particular through Retroarch.
More Homebrews
We’re driving the GekiHEN contest with a few other sites of the Vita scene. It runs through January, so you still have lots of time to work on your homebrew and submit your entry.
My personal motivation as a sponsor of this event is to give people motivation to write more homebrews and keep the scene alive. The cash prizes are a forcing factor to ensure we’ll see cool homebrew show up, and avoid people “calling it a day” once we only have emulators.
I’m looking forward to seeing cool utilities, homebrews, ports, and maybe more!
Custom Firmware?
Do we need a “custom firmware” on the PS Vita? I’d say that this would be the next cool thing to explore: an all-in-one solution to add features to HENkaku. Maybe better integrated support of custom themes, support for plugins in every mode of the Vita, better music or video players, a cool integrated options menu that would include all of the registry hacks and more… Most of that could be made available through homebrew, but I think a fully integrated solution would be pretty cool.
Cheaper Memory Cards?
There’s been ongoing hardware work to try and reverse engineer the PS Vita memory cards. The sony proprietary cards are overpriced, and everyone’s looking forward to the possibility to use nano SD cards instead of the Vita memory sticks.
Although that work is not directly related to software hacks such as HENkaku, there’s a possibility that having access to the OS through HENkaku could help making progress on these. There might after all be ways to hack the firmware at runtime in order to accept some different (less “secure”) memory cards?
PS vita Emulator
Work on a PS Vita emulator would be to me the next big step in the Vita Hacking process. With full access to the system, it is my understanding that there should now be possibilities to fully reverse engineer the system, which typically is done by the people trying to write an emulator.
I’m honestly surprised to not have seen several teams working on this by now, although I have to assume this is happening but most serious teams are probably keeping their work under wraps until they have something useful. It might take years, as console systems are becoming way more complex than they used to be. There’s also the grey legal are in which such projects evolve, which might be impacting the enthusiasm of some hackers.
Last but not least, for those of you expecting a Vita hack for Firmware 3.61 or above, I’ve answered that question in details here: Should you expect a hack for Vita firmware 3.61? Spoiler alert: your best bet is to buy a 3.60 PS Vita.
Where do you think the Vita scene is headed next?
First!
CFW please and cheaper storage 🙂
First IDIOT of this forum
This is not a forum.
he doesn’t know this
yeah.. blackjesus is just *** for being jealous. Poor guy.
I came in the first posters face, and I also would love some cheaper storage.
A cheap storage method would be great, but i’d like a more efficient way to play backups, be able to update and install dlc like the 3ds.
Correct!
as long as users as protected from unnecessary access from malicious homebrews automatically and not just via warning that can still be skip users will be wary of new homebrews and might affect homebrew development.
do normal user really need access to those partition and extra permission just play homebrew or their pirated games?
cant we have a normal Henkaku with limited access and a dev denkaku with extra access mush like rebug and normal cfw
Which game is the one displayed in the emu picture? Or is it just a demo?
prothesenpeter I think it is actually a PSP game final fantasy or something on a PSP emulator for PC with max settings and high resolution settings and enhancements turned on but I could be wrong
It’s Super Metroid for SNES. Not Final Fantasy.
It’s Final Fantasy Type-0, a psp game I’m pretty sure.
Final Fantasy Type-0, psp title. Probably running on PPSSPP emulator.
It’s Metroid: Zero Mission for gba
cheap storage is what most people would look for imo.
i have a 64 gb its ore then enough but not everyone wants to spend that kind of money just for storage.
A cfw would be cool but not really necessary as henkaku is fine by me the way it is.
what would be really cool is a memorycard to usb adapter for a hdd on the pstv!
How long have u had the 64gb card? Mine lasted 2 years then died, but with all this excitement with henkaku Im tempted to bend over for Sony and get another one
3 years but i have many consoles so i do not only use the vita. Man I would be so *** if the card would die!
How about the mystery port of PCH-1000?
I think this is stupid but what if we can make from game carts into sd card adapter like cobra black fin?
This is actually a good idea, would make more sense because it can act like an R4 does for the ds
Id be interested if an android port would be possible at all, vast library of games.
Bluetoth keyboard and mouase contability in everything, even apps and games!
And a Notepad++ editor for the psvita so you can programm lua scripts without the hassle
to ftp the data around…vitashell only allow to use the keyboard when pressed (x)
>nano SD card
wait what?
That’s what I want to know.
some areas call micro sd cards nano sd cards
They meant micro SD. Also, in some countries, it’s called TF cards sometimes.
Maybe micro sd
YouTube homebrew again.
Rss reader, with audio and video playback.
Stream videos from NAS
better browser (hard one)
Ftp/file manager with touchscreen (no pc needed)
Kai (online server) like.
Cfw?
Hardware add-on for R2 / L2 (it’s your fault Sony) for ps1 and ps4 games.
Stream Videos From NAS Is an offical feature ^_^
We need an updated tutorial on battery mod that uses a Samsung battery instesd of the psp. Also no pcb is the okd tutorial even safe to use?
It would be great if someone could find a way to access the USB port on PSTV, potentially this coul be easier than a memory stick adapter…
PSTV already reads data from the USB but apparently only firware updates…
Yes I have read somewhere that its impossible because its not connected in the right way on the circuit board.
so i think without hardware mod no way.
But hey that would be the easiest if it could be done
I’m not sure about this… voltage polarity is correct (otherwise it could not recharge joypads)
The only other supported function is updating the firware from USB… if it can read and install firmware data why could it NOT read other data from USB? accessing the USB (even as a read only memory) would be a cheap and practical solution to expensive memory stick… moreover if some sort of media player would arise we would have a small little box packed with functions…
at the moment
I hope ur right 😀
Save converter for ps3 games
I have no problem paying for your games, but jeez Sony, the price of your memcards suck.
I understand the need to make them hard to reverse, but I feel saves could’ve been handled by on cart storage including anticipated DLC, for everything, encrypted sdcard, maybe even per psv encryption, but damn those Vita memcards
Give me a Dreamcast emu and I’m content with my Vita, maybe a Dolphin emu for GameCube too but that’s just wishful thinking 😉
Filler articles, obviously.
USB support for the PSTV 🙂
support for 3.18 (or at least TNV-11/PSP/PSX on 3.61). USB support for PSTV would also be great.
I hope you mean 3.60. also the pspemu was hacked already, so it’s just a matter of time until ‘eCFW’ works on 3.60.
I meant port it to 3.18 of course if the ecfw ever surfaces for 3.60 then it might be time to update.
3.18 has everything I want except the ability to play all my newer Vita games. But maybe that is no longer an issue with whitelist. (I assume it works on 3.18?)
Let’s get real, do you honestly believe people will honestly have a reason to buy the Vita if there is an emulator? Please don’t put that into place. It’ll kill the Vita and you know it. We are trying to keep the vita the alive, not kill it. They made a PSP emulator because PSP merely had its time.The Vita has POTENTIAL. Don’t kill the Vita, before it is truly born!
If someone wants to really do something ***HOW ABOUT*** we all try go revive the lost Dreamcast Emulator FOR PSP that was closed source and forgotten 9 years ago!!! Almost ten!!! THAT WILL MAKE A CHANGE! THAT, WILL TEST THE TRUE LIMITS OF THE PSP!!! We say we are done with PSP, but truly we are not. And to prove it, we are literally using the Vita’s PSP emulator, just to get Emulators to work?! Let’s be real now?!
Are we? The things being run on Henkaku are *native* Vita apps, not things run on the PSP emulator. It used to be that way before Henkaku, of course.
In fact, they’ve only just recently hacked the PSP Emulator, and that function isn’t even in current builds yet. So how can we be ‘literally using the Vita’s PSP emulator, just to get Emulators to work/?
Ideas that i propose:
1 – loading games via usb pen drive, but vita must have otg usb
2 – streaming video from pc to vita via usb to use vita like a cheap vr screen to use with google card board (vita has gyroscope
Would be cool to see some sort of USB streaming for Vita, akin to umm..Remotejoy? That would be fantastic.
Program PS3 games convert psvita
Sony talk easy conversion no very hard.
Ex:Street Fighter vs Tekken.
My Dream:Ultra Street fighter IV PSvita
Sorry my inglish.
Straight up piracy is the only thing that will bring it back from the grave.Emulators are a waste of time you can play all those emulators on a pc. Not a lot of noteworthy homebrew games have been made either. Nothing too impressive
Piracy brings all consoles back from the dead , no surprise! but hey if there is no piracy then a console its not worth it ( for most people )
cusstome fw will be great
Dreamcast emulator for me!!!!
Dreamcast emulator for me!!!!
Dreamcast emulator for me!!!!
– otg USB cable
– hdmi out and cable with the hidden port
– a ps2 emulator
Don’t expect an otg usb cable… I believe the hidden port is directly connected to the battery. So again, don’t expect anything being done with it. I highly doubt the Vita is powerful for PS2 emulation…
First!
Has anyone figured out a way to make use of the Aux port on the 1000? I read that it was built as a video-out, and the only reason it doesn’t work is that it never had software written for it.
we would be better off just telling the vita to stream video to a PC
PSP and PSX backwards compatibility. Duh.
This would restore the Vita’s full capabilities (from a gamer’s perspective).
Emulators are fine and all, but the Vita has *built-in* support for PSP and PSX that’s currently locked, on HENkaku at least.
even since it came to my knowlegde that the team Cobra was working on some new hardware for the PS Vita, I expected it to be a competitor for the proprietary one. A faster, more reliable (seriously, I’m SICK AND TIRED of that C2-12828-1 error message popping up in the middle of my Helldivers gameplay every so often, it’s ANNOYING as heck!) and not-so-expensive-as-the-original memory card. Sony could’ve worked harder to bring better stability fixes to it, but do you seriously think they’ve bothered at least once to do that? No, they didn’t. I support another memory card for the Vita, even if that requires me to get a 3.60-based handheld.
We’re pushing out Henkaku for 3.61 firmware users on PSTV and Vita. Look forward to it guys!
Dang! Im new to Ps Vita and I just updated my Vita until i saw this website.
PS: I don’t have money to buy games Sad Life
sd card support for the game cartridge slot pretty please!!! 512gb sd card + vita = major multiple nerdgasms
I second this, I came just with the thought.
This is just the photographer in me, but i think it would be cool to have some sort of photo editor on the vita that would include CR2, RAW, and others. unless there already is, in which case I shall commence the hunt for it!
things we want.
-Micro SD card reader for the cartridge slot
-brightness limit remover for some games that max it out at 80%
-improved offline installer or a way to run henkaku on boot.
there is already an offline henkaku after you run it once. They also now provide the exploit for you to host it yourself, if you want to keep completely offline.
Cheaper memory card needs to come first b/c most of us already have a full memory card full of dumped games/DLC as it is. We cant even afford or think about psp compatibility with limited space
You are my aspiration, I possess few web logs and often run out
from brand :).