Even thought some of us told you that there won’t be a christmas present for 2014, since the leaked september files for the firmwares 3.18/3.20 were supposed to be this years christmas presents, some others decided that it would not be okay to leave you guys hanging without a christmas present and those guys are the french developer Tomtomdu80 and his good friend mr.Gas.

Those 2 devs have decided to share one of the multiple methods we have to create and launch our own custom bubbles on the PS Vita.

But how does it work? Well…

Before we take a look at the tutorial of these guys, we have to take a look at the native side of the PS Vita and some of the starting parameters that are executed when launching content for the PSPemulator of the PS Vita.

originalpath=ux0:pspemu/PSP/GAME/NPUG80318& selfpath=ux0:pspemu/PSP/GAME/NPUG80318/EBOOT.PBP& discid=NPUG80318&parentallevel=3&gamedataid=&appver=00.00& bootable=1&category=EG

This is an example parameter of launching a PSP game on the PS Vita. We can see that the original path seems to be located in the ux0:/ part of the PS Vita, which then executed the PSPemulator alongside a file that will be launched inside of the PSPemulator, in this case it is the EBOOT.PBP file inside of the path /PSP/GAME/NPUG80318/.

The game (Game ID: NPUG80318) is Loco Roco: Midnight Carnival by the way, but that is not important – any PSN game can be used for this trick, just as a little side notice.

Additional starting parameters are added with an ampersand (the ‘and’ symbol – &). These starting parameters can be exploited with renaming a folder into NPUG80318&, while having the original folder NPUG80318 alondside it.

If you did this, and then dropped a fake_np signed EBOOT.PBP file, that uses the bought PSN game (any!) as a base, you will be able to launch your ‘fake signed’ game instead of the purchased PSN game. Oh, and the custom bubble appears after a quick database rebuild.

A little summary how to do this:

Rename a PSN games folder into (for example) ‘MyHomebrew&’.

Now create another folder inside of /PSP/GAME/ and call it ‘MyHomebrew’.

Drop a fake_np signed EBOOT.PBP into the ‘MyHomebrew’ folder.

Rebuild the database to make the bubble appear (or change its appearance).

That is basically it. Now I know that most of you will ask us ‘How to create a fake_np signed EBOOT.PBP file, that uses the PSN game as a base?’, and we have a solution for this!

Just follow KanadeEngel’s video on creating the fake signed EBOOT.PBP file, and follow my Video on doing the necessary steps on your PS Vita.

Keep in mind that the PSN games EBOOT.PBP file has to be bigger than the uncompressed content (GAME.ISO file) you want to sign! So compressing a “too big” game into .CSO, .DAX or anything else wont help you!

Keep in mind that in order to rename a folder on your memory stick, you have to have access to at least a working VHBL exploit, which enables you to run a PSP homebrew to rename a folder on your memory stick. As long as you are using an older firmware with a working exploit (e.g. FW 3.18 or 3.20), then you are easily able to recreate this.

For those of you currently running firmware 3.30+, you guys have to wait until someone releases a VHBL for those firmwares, unfortunally. But don’t be sad, we have good news!

Our forums user Crownable has found an usermode exploit in a PSP game, and he said he is going to release it, if it can be used for a VHBL.

With the custom bubbles around the corner, I bet (well, or hope…) that he is going to release this for the firmwares 3.30 – 3.35, instead of waiting for a new firmware like everyone else is currently doing.

Once again thank Tomtomdu80 and mr.Gas for this awesome christmas present, and be sure to check our blog to not miss our upcoming tutorial for creating your own fake_np signed Homebrews!

Merry christmas everybody!