Half byte Loader R97 and wMenu 0.3

August 8, 2010 in HBL, release | 55 comments

This revision fixes a few minor bugs, some of them might be important to you.

  • 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

FutureProduceFur


Half Byte Loader R96 a.k.a. JJS rocks

August 1, 2010 in HBL, release | 118 comments

If you haven’t noticed, the latest cool updates to HBL are thanks to our genius fellow coder JJS. JJS recently found a way to perfectly estimate most syscalls on most models of the PSP. What this means to the end user is that for example your favorite emulators will now run at full speed without the need for a configuration file, and without sacrificing stability. It also means that some homebrews will now work better (JJS mentions that Opera mini on the Java VM now works perfectly fine without stopping during the install process).

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 :)

It’s legal to hack your PSP…unless it’s a Phat

July 29, 2010 in hacking | 39 comments

(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 :)

Half Byte Loader on OFW 6.30

July 27, 2010 in HBL, hacking | 154 comments

Mamosuke just informed me that coder J416 started porting Half Byte Loader to firmware 6.30, based on his game exploit previously found on 6.30.

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 ;)

15 Backgrounds for HBL and wMenu

July 25, 2010 in HBL | 20 comments

Thanks to the folks at advancedpsp.tk who created a bunch of cool wallpapers to use in HBL, here are 15 (actually 17, but 15 sounds cooler!) wallpapers for wMenu 0.2, to enjoy with your Half Byte Loader.

Download

To install, just unzip the file in your hbl/menu/Res folder, where you can already see other images (logo.jpg, bg.jpg, etc…). wMenu will automatically loop randomly through your backgrounds.

Please create more and share them :)

Enjoy!

Wagic campaigns – Brothers war

July 25, 2010 in Wagic | 7 comments

As we released Wagic a few weeks ago, I announced the “Story Mode”, a mode in which you can write your own campaigns and you own scenarios. A few people started playing with it, and I’d really like to see more cool stuff like this in the weeks to come!

Today I want to introduce Abrasax’s Campaign, Brothers’ war, a brilliant story in which two brothers fight for power and knowledge. The campaign contains a deep scenario, with several dozens of “chapters”. Each chapter of the story takes you to a challenge, which is sometimes an enigma in which you’ll have to use your cards wisely in order to complete it, or sometimes a duel against the AI, with very specific decks.

Overall this campaign is terrific, it will keep you occupied for a few hours (good luck against the Roc, that one is quite complex!) and I hope to see more people creating such entertaining stories in the near future!

Download and discussion here

Note: there is unfortunately a memory leak in the current version of Wagic, so on the psp you might have to restart the campaign a few times when the game starts to get slow. Don’t worry though, your progress is automatically saved :)

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