This version also fixes most issues with the PSP HOME button, thanks to a patch by Nymphaea. It finally allows to run HBL from the memstick on a pspgo, and should fix the issue with controls introduced in R97.

I haven’t fully tested this release, but it’s been tested by a few people already, so I believe it’s good to go. For those who ask, R98 was released a few hours ago, but had a bug that prevented it to work correctly on a 6.20 PSPGo

Download here, as usual

I also didn’t include the SDK for the US version when I released my own Hello world, so I’m fixing the mistake here.

• Hello World for Everybody’s golf (EU) by FrEdDy (Hello world + SDK)
• SDK For Hots Shots Golf: Open Tee (US) by wololo (SDK)

People who want to download HBL for Minna no golf (JP), or the US hello world, or the JP Hello world for minna no golf 2, can check my previous article.

I’ll be busy like never for the next week or so in real life, so don’t expect too much from me on the port for now. Maybe some of the other devs of HBL will be working on it, otherwise please be patient. Merging J416’s port into our SVN and making all these regions’ exploits compatible with HBL is currently my main priority, so be sure that as soon as I have free time I’ll be working on that

Of course, if people want to provide exploits for Hot Shots golf 2, and everybody’s golf 2, please feel free to do so. The more the merrier!

I haven’t tested HBL through this exploit yet, as I wanted the news out of the door asap, but I’ll be working on merging this port into the HBL SVN codebase in the days to come. Download links below.

HBL Currently only works with the Japanese version of Minna no golf, but Mamosuke confirmed that a similar exploit exists in Minna no golf 2, and I confirmed that the exploit exists in the US Version, “Hot Shots golf”. We will be working hard in the days/weeks to come, to adapt HBL to as many versions of the game as possible, meanwhile, here’s a summary list:

• Minna no golf portable (JP UMD): Exploitable, runs HBL (J416’s port)
• Minna no golf portable (JP PSN): Probably Exploitable, untested
• Minna no golf portable 2 (JP UMD): Exploitable, Hello World by Mamosuke
• Minna no golf portable 2 (JP PSN): Probably Exploitable, untested
• Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee (US UMD and PSN Version): Exploitable, Hello World by wololo (SDK)
• Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee 2 (US UMD): probably exploitable
• Everybody’s golf (EU UMD and PSN Version): Exploitable, Hello World by FrEdDy
• Eveybody’s golf 2 (EU UMD): probably exploitable
• Everybody’s golf 2 (EU PSN): probably exploitable

Do NOT buy the non JP versions of the game just based on hope. As long as nothing’s released, a promise is as good as a fake. Only trust releases. In other words, consider that for now, HBL only works with the JP version of the game!!!
Enjoy

I’ve received a bunch of questions regarding this release, so let me answer a few of them quickly: I am not directly related to this release therefore I don’t control the release date. Regarding the port itself, I assume that j416 adapted HBL R85 to his exploit (that’s the revision he was working on when he started). Neverheless, once his sources are released, we will do whatever we can to merge j416’s code into our SVN, so that both the Patapon version and this new version get synchronized to the latest revision.

Currently the HBL has only be adapted to the Japanese version of the game as far as I know. But the US version is vulnerable too (and, most likely, the EU version as well) so I believe porting it to this version will be doable in a reasonable amount of time.

This version of HBL will probably have performances similar to the HBL on PSP 3000/2000 on 6.20. The PSPGo on 6.20 had a “perfect syscall” mechanism (thanks mostly to JJS’ work), but it relied on a small kernel vulnerability which has apparently been patched.

Remember, this is an exploit in a UMD game, and HBL will only allow you to play homebrews. Don’t buy the game for an insane price.

Update: I could confirm that the US version of the game is exploitable as well, as I managed to write a Hello world for the US version

Coder J416′ s announced a few hours ago that his port for HBL on 6.31 is ready.

He had encountered issues unloading the main module of the game (understand: freeing some Ram for homebrews) so his work was delayed and the port of HBL wasn’t as easy as expected, but he figured out a solution to this critical issue yesterday, and announced that his code is almost ready. He announced on his blog that the release, as planned, would be done this month, most likely in less than a week.

The game used for the exploit is available on UMD and its name will be announced soon as well. It hasn’t been confirmed yet if this game is available on PSN (I’ll update this post as soon as I know). JP, US and EU versions of the game exist, although for now the exploit only works on the JP version (mostly because no hacker has worked on the US/EU versions yet, but there’s a good chance the exploit exists in those versions too, which we will of course investigate).

I will keep you updated as I get more news, if you can read Japanese you can follow the news on mamosuke’s blog or j416’s blog. I am not directly involved with this port (which was entirely done by j416) so I haven’t personally tested it yet, but mamosuke and j416 have kindly kept me updated in the past weeks (thanks guys ).

I’m extremely excited to see the results. Please keep in mind that HBL “only” allows you to play homebrews, so when the name of the game is released, please don’t buy it for an insane price if you’re expecting to play pirated games, or you’ll be disappointed. Also be sure that Sony will patch this exploit soon after it is released, so I think people who are using HBL with the patapon exploit should keep using it. Upgrading to 6.31 for the ability of playing network games, or connecting to the PSN, will probably just last for a few days/weeks before the exploit gets patched.

Stay tuned

Although I don’t understand the root cause yet, this issue can be fixed simply by opening the file hbl/hbl_config.txt with your favorite text editor (for example notepad), and removing this line:

force_exit_buttons=0×00000009

Then save the file, and you’re good to go. Of course, the “force exit” functionality will not work anymore, but I guess it’s better than have your homebrews do crazy stuff.

As far as I know, this issue only happens for psp2000/3000 owners with firmware 6.20. The PSP Go, in particular, is unaffected by this bug.

We’ll be working for a long term solution to this issue, but in the meantime, I wanted to let you know that we are aware of the problem.

By the way, you can follow the status of known issues here. This specific issue is tracked here

• First, a graphical glitch has been fixed. Because of that, Homebrews such as PSP Rhythm were technically unplayable (@Muffinhead: you owe me ). Others such as FCEUltra or Doom had minor graphical issues because of this.
• Additionally, I added a shortcut to quit homebrews that don’t have an “exit” button. Yes, the “home” button is still broken, but now you can exit most games by pressing select+start for a few seconds. (Note that some homebrews such as gpsp still crash upon exiting, this is unrelated). The “select+start” combination can be changed in the hbl config file, or even customized for each homebrew (as usual, by putting a hbl_config.txt file in the homebrew’s folder)
• The distrib version now ships with wMenu 0.3, which allows you to navigate in subfolders, so you can now split your homebrews in several folders if you use wMenu
• Other minor bugs were fixed, which shouldn’t make any visible difference (check the changelog included for details)

Here’s a video showcasing the new features

Download here

There’s a small drawback though. This update doesn’t improve HBL on firmware 6.20 for the PSP 2000 and PSP3000. JJS found a way to have it work on the PSPGo 6.20, but unfortunately it relies on a trick that works only for this model. I know I said a few weeks ago that it was fine to update to 6.20, and people will probably hate me for that, but hopefully we’ll make progress on these models and this firmware one day too.

For the models on which this change works (that is, all models and firmwares, except PSP2000 on 6.20 and PSP3000 on 6.20), emulators run at their native speed without a need to use any specific configuration overrides (actually, configuration overrides – a.k.a. syscall hooks – will not work anymore for models that have this perfect syscall estimation, because by definition, they are not needed anymore)

Here’s an example with Daedalus R13 running Mario64 on a psp go. both R95 and R96 are run “out of the box” with no specific configuration.

to make it clearer, this change improves HBL on the following machines: PSP1000/2000/3000 for all firmwares except 6.20. PSP Go for all firmwares, including 6.20. Of course, HBL is still compatible with all psp models up to firmware 6.20 included, and no, this change doesn’t magically bring compatibility with firmware 6.30 or 6.31, so don’t ask.

Once again a huge improvement to HBL, download here and enjoy

(image from concept-phones.com)

If you’ve been following hacking news of other devices, you probably know that recent updates in the US law finally confirmed that jailbreaking an iPhone is legal in this country. Out of curiosity, I read the original announcement from the US copyright office. Of course, I assumed it doesn’t mention the iPhone specifially, so maybe this change in the DMCA would have a positive impact on the PSP as well ?

It turns out that the hacking of the PSP remains in a grey area, as the article says:

The purpose of the proceeding is to determine whether current technologies that control access to copyrighted works are diminishing the ability of individuals to use works in lawful, noninfringing ways.[...]

Computer programs that enable wireless telephone handsets to execute software applications, where circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of enabling interoperability of such applications, when they have been lawfully obtained, with computer programs on the telephone handset.

So, you are authorized to jailbreak your iPhone, if your goal is to run software that you legally obtained AND that cannot run on the iPhone because of DRMs. In other words, it is alright to jailbreak a phone in order to run homebrews.

What I find annoying is that this precision in the law specifically mentions “wireless telephone handsets”…which the PSP isn’t…oh, but wait, Skype is officially provided by Sony on the PSP 2000, 3000, and on the PSP Go, so technically, these PSP are wireless telephone handsets…

Hence my cool conclusion of the day: in the US, hacking your PSP (for example using Half Byte Loader) to run Wagic is perfectly legal, unless it’s a psp 1000

By the way, it is wrong to say that it means that hacking a psp1000 is illegal in the US. It just means the psp1000 remains in a grey area because it is not a handled phone. Companies like Apple and Sony will always try to make you believe that hacking your device is illegal. The truth is, it’s not. Of course, hacking these machines will (obviously) void your warranty, and what you do with an unlocked device can be illegal, but that’s a different story.

Additionally, the update of the DMCA clears another area, for reverse engineering. It is now officially legal to look for vulnerabilities in video games, as long as your goal is to improve the security of the game and/or fix bugs. To quote the statement:

Video games accessible on personal computers and protected by technological protection measures that control access to lawfully obtained works, when circumvention is accomplished solely for the purpose of good faith testing for, investigating, or correcting security flaws or vulnerabilities, if:

(i) The information derived from the security testing is used primarily to promote the security of the owner or operator of a computer, computer system, or computer network; and
(ii) The information derived from the security testing is used or maintained in a manner that does not facilitate copyright infringement or a violation of applicable law.

I believe such a law was already clearly specified in many European countries, in order to protect Free Software and the right to fix bugs on systems you own, as well as IT companies that specialize in security.

In case you didn’t figure it out, I’m not a lawyer, so this article has absolutely no legal meaning

Before you get your hopes too high:

• I haven’t tested this and I don’t know the name of the game, but I trust mamosuke (and therefore J416 as well), so I know this is real
• This is still work in progress and might take a few weeks before it is usable
• This relies on a game exploit, which is not a Demo. It means that people would have to buy that game, and additionally, it will most likely be patched very quick on the PSN, so interest is limited for PSP Go owners (although rumors say that a solution exist against Sony patching their games on the PSN)

To mamosuke and J416: Good luck guys, you know my email address if you need help on this. Also, please keep in mind that HBL is GPL, so if you release this, we’ll be expecting the sources as well