ARK, the Custom Firmware for PSP (compatible with both PSP/Vita) was recently updated to version 4.20, but it seems the latest release introduced a bug with 1.50 PSP Homebrew. If you like your old school, “kernel mode only” PSP homebrew, you might want to update to revision .05, which fixes the issue.

What’s ARK for PSP/PS Vita

The PSP is one of the best homebrew devices. It had a striving community, and a lot of developers pushed it to its limit, in particular with emulators that achieved incredible performance for those days (ok, I won’t pretend it’s the best way to play emulators nowadays though, but it still works great for older generation consoles such as the NES, SNES, GBA…).

Running a Custom firmware on the PSP turned a decent console into an insane beast. And the same remains true on the PS Vita: As the Vita has a full fledged PSP emulator embedded, it is possible (and recommended!) to install a PSP Custom Firmware on the PS Vita.

That’s where ARK comes into play, being a custom firmware that works for both the PSP and the PS Vita. It comes with impressive features (from the readme):

Features:

• Core system heavily updated from traditional CFW with new exclusive features.

• Inferno 2 Driver compatible with all formats (ISO, CSO, ZSO, JSO, CSOv2 and DAX).

• Popcorn controller for custom PS1 games. Compatible with PopsLoader V3 and V4i.

• Built-in No-DRM engine Stargate. Compatible with npdrm_free by qwikrazor87.

• Plugin support for PSP games, PS1 games and VSH (XMB), including the ability to enable and disable plugins per-game.

• Region Free playback of UMD Video on all PSP models. Change the region of your UMD drive on-the-fly.

• Compatible with all PSP models on firmwares 6.60 and 6.61.

• Compatible with all PS Vita models on firmware 2.10 up to 3.74, either official firmware or via Adrenaline.

• Compatible with 6.60 Testing Tool Firmware and Testkit Units.

• Compatible with 6.60 Development Tool Firmware and Devkit Units.

• Can be fully installed and booted on memory stick in compatible models via Time Machine.

• Can be used to unbrick any PSP using Despertar del Cementerio in combination with a Pandora or Baryon Sweeper

• Minimalistic: only 6 files installed on PSP flash, CFW extensions are installed on memory stick.

• Resistant to soft-bricks, removing the memory stick is enough to leave it in a vanilla state.

• Custom game launcher with built-in game categories, file browser, FTP server and client, modernized look and more.

• Fully configurable via the XMB.

• Improved and powerful Recovery app.

• Compatible with PRO Online and Xlink Kai.

• Compatible with Legacy Homebrew via eLoader and Leda.

• Compatible with cIPL and Infinity 2 bootloaders for permanent CFW.

What’s new in ARK 4.20.05

Download and install ARK for PSP/PS Vita

To get Ark 4V20.05 stable, go to this specific release.

Alternatively, if you want the latest and greatest (automated builds with each commit), head over to the release section of the developer’s github to get the latest release.

Installation instructions in the readme.