Homebrew users banned from upgrading [Update 1]

by Andrew Yoon { Mar 29th 2007 at 3:15PM }

Members of the QJ forums seem upset that they can't upgrade to Sony's latest official firmware. Why? Because they've been using custom firmware on TA-082 PSPs. The 3.30 firmware installer doesn't seem to run on these modified systems, giving a mysterious 'DRNffffffd7 error code." These glitches seem to mirror the many found when Ratchet & Clank was released. So much for respecting the homebrew scene, huh?

Firmware 3.30 gives users some important functionality, such as official support for full-resolution videos and free internet access at T-Mobile Hotspots nationwide. For now, it seems as though users of custom firmware will have to wait until Dark_Alex and the rest of the homebrew community work their magic again.

[Via PlayStation]

[Update 1: A patch has been released for those with TA-082 motherboards. You must restore your system to 1.50, then run this patch, in order to run Sony's official upgrades. Via PlayStation.]

Tags: 3.30, custom firmware, CustomFirmware, homebrew

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

mjalelmand @ Mar 29th 2007 3:20PM

Serves 'em Right, I say. That's what you get for modifying a product that the company doesn't want you to.

txa1265 @ Mar 29th 2007 3:53PM

Why am I having a hard time finding sympathy for a crowd that consists largely (not entirely, but the majority) of people doing this so they can used pirated games ... ?

sponge_killer @ Mar 29th 2007 3:55PM

So if Sony is making PSP owners choose between their firmware or Dark_Alex's firmware, is this kinda, sorta allowing homebrew?

God of War is the ONLY GOW @ Mar 29th 2007 3:58PM

Go SONY!

SKI @ Mar 29th 2007 3:59PM

If Sony is making PSP owners choose between official firmware or use Dark-Alex's firmware, is this kinda, sorta allowing homebrew?

Saigon @ Mar 29th 2007 4:18PM

"So much for respecting the homebrew scene, huh?"

I think it's more like they're not respecting pirates, and trying to deter potential ones.

h0mi @ Mar 29th 2007 4:41PM

So if I have custom firmware but decide to upgrade to sony's official firmware, this doesnt work? I'd think Sony would want to convince people to move _away_ from the homebrew firmwars.

Dave @ Mar 29th 2007 4:44PM

Users of Dark_Alex's firmware can downgrade to official 1.50, and then upgrade to official 3.30. Sorry, Homebrew wins again.

SuicideNinja @ Mar 29th 2007 4:45PM

This cat and mouse game is really annoying. This type of thing doesn't happen on the DS.

It sucks how everyone who likes homebrew is instantly labeled a pirate. There is some pretty cool homebrew out there that is way more useful than anything Sony provides.

mahes @ Mar 29th 2007 4:55PM

I love the self-righteous comments from "official" users. Have you guys even SEEN the homebrew programs out there? When I go out. I could understand the assumption that everyone was using the homebrew-friendly firmware to pirate if the programs and games being released because of it were crap. But there's stuff out there that wipes the floor with COMMERCIAL apps released on the system. So please just get off your high horse. Half the crap that's on your console is because of these awesome hackers. Anyone who has done business with Sony knows they would NOT push the envelope on anything without competition being there...

Saigon @ Mar 29th 2007 5:23PM

@Mashes With the exception of the mjalelmand's comment, nobody here implied that all homebrew users were pirates. Also, I do know ALOT about homebrew, and there is very little about it that impresses ME. So why don't you get off your high horse, and stop suggesting that anybody who doesn't use homebrew, has a useless device. Stuck up retard, LEARN TO READ!!

Extinction @ Mar 29th 2007 5:26PM

"This cat and mouse game is really annoying. This type of thing doesn't happen on the DS."

Actually it does.

-Users of the first version of flashMe found their systems bricked completely when the first online capable games came out, which were programed to overwrite flashme.

-The passkey1 was locked out via hardware revision

-And now Nintendo is revising the Wii motherboard to deter modchips

Abscissa @ Mar 30th 2007 2:07AM

"Serves 'em Right, I say. That's what you get for modifying a product that the company doesn't want you to."

That's one of the most asinine things I've ever heard. Anyone who wants to exert control over a product I've legitimately bought and paid for can kiss my ass. If they sold me the product, then the product is no longer their's, it's mine.

mahes @ Mar 29th 2007 5:55PM

Saigon:

i think it's you who's mistaken, my friend. there are 3 comments, not 1 that bashes he homebrew "scene" (2 that openly do so, on that merely suggests a condescension towards it. i never implied at any point that their "legal" system was useless - merely that they shouldn't condemn that which paved the way for the features they have. and to help you with the inevitable flame that will follow this comment, go here: http://www.insultmonger.com/generators/index.htm hopefully you'll come up with something better than "stuck up retard", lol...original.

tenmohican @ Mar 29th 2007 6:52PM

didnt really like the idea of flashing my psp more than needed, doing the homebrew route doesnt make the psp much more attractive unless u prefer playing pirated games, which I personaly have no arguement against other than it is a deterrant for companies to put money into a game that just gets pirated anyway.

In the long run it hurts the game companies that develop those new games, as they now have to spend more $$$ to make the game DRM type of game to get paid for their work into it.

Now, why everyone doesnt just pirate everything and create advertisement $$ off the sheer ammount of traffic it would create is beyond me... kind of a uphill battle for both consumers and game producers with the DRMs on products.

wildweasel @ Mar 29th 2007 9:33PM

I'm a homebrew user, and I haven't bothered pirating anything at all. I'm actually quite satisfied with stuff like PSP Dungeons, No Gravity, rRootage, and the PSP port of Doom (of which my legitimately purchased copy of Doom 2 works quite well with). For this reason, I detest comments like mjalelmand's.

TwoLOUD @ Mar 29th 2007 9:07PM

I dont care what you morons say. Homebrew users 99% get it for illegal games. (as i said this before and will stand by it) Download games from torrents and use them so there cheap asses dont have to support the game companies. Im glad there 'trying' to stop this homebrew mainstream crap. But I as well as you people know homebrew will always be around. Its a sad thing to say 'i bought the system now its mind i can do what i want'. Which is true but thats not the point of this subject. I just bought me a kickass car. Now Im stealing the rims and sound system cause its the cool thing to do. Noobs.

Bedammit @ Mar 29th 2007 9:39PM

OK...
Listen people...
When you buy a device, its yours.. you can smash it take it apart etc.
This is wholly different than theft.
So those of you who think that Homebrew should be completely stopped, better be driving completely stock cars. After all it is YOUR choice to modify it and if that voids a warranty so be it. There are no laws against it and you are actually PROTECTED by US law to do such manipulations personally.
I dont support game theft... however I do support Homebrew...
What needs to happen is a third party company needs to sell a game that is playable on homebrew. Maybe make it an MMORPG or something that would have a monthly subscription.
Homebrew is actually IMPROVING the platform as can be seen by the latest feature in the 3.30 release.

And TwoLOUD.
IT IS THE COOL THING TO DO.
The current generation of gamers and technology lovers are wooed by flexibility. That is what makes some products sell!
Consider the Linksys WRT54 wireless router.
There are TONS of public firmware out there. Given it was originally developed on a linux public license and the source is freely available. The mere fact that people are interested and are modifying is something that SHOULD be embraced. Business have to figure out how to make this ingenuity pay them also. If that means higher priced units and lower priced games
voila!
I better not hear.. oh but the PSP isnt open source...
Thats not my point ... its the interest in modifying that I am speaking to.

If game vendors want to sell games they need to lower prices...
19 bucks gets me to buy a game that I want almost every time.
I have to go..
I need to put some tin foil on my antenna to get a better signal...

oh wait..
thats modding...
I guess I shouldnt do that ...

hmmph!

Bedammit

txa1265 @ Mar 29th 2007 10:22PM

I fully support homebrew - and wish that Sony did.

I fully abhor pirated software and the lazy, self-rationalizing jerks that use it. And I wish Dark Alex would take the initiative to include something so that people could run games off memsticks *only* is they had the UMD's to do the initial rip.

That would be 'fair', wouldn't it - if you don't support that you must be a pirate!

Kichigai Mentat @ Mar 29th 2007 11:24PM

If Sony gave me the ability to run my own PlayStation games on the PSP, it'd be a long ways toward me giving up custom firmware. If they let me customize my XMB with different waves (not *just* backgrounds) would be nice. How about this: if Sony *listened* to its customers, there probably would have been less of a call for this. I didn't hack my XBox to play downloaded games (I BOUGHT my copy of Halo 2 on launch date. I BOUGHT my copy of Halo when I got my XBox), I hacked it for XBMC. If Sony gave us full-resolution video and RSS (Web RSS too) when we asked (or at least without homebrewers having to hack it in first), people probably would care less about it. They'd all be like "why should I risk my warranty? I already can do that with my PSP."

The reason Sony is in trouble with homebrew is because they ignored their users, and forced them to make less-than-authorized modifications to their system in order to get what they want. Want proof of another situation like this? See XBox Linux. People wanted Linux on their XBoxes, MS wouldn't give it to them (big surprise), so the XBLin crew had to crack the kernel, and people figured out how to use that for their own purposes.

Sony did things right with the PS3, however. They gave homebrew users a sandbox so that they can run whatever they want on the PS3, but the important, secure parts of the PS3 kernel (including the BD-ROM DRM subsystem) are not available for tinkering with. Most people feel pretty content with that. Now if only they did something like that with the PSP...

SKI @ Mar 30th 2007 12:01AM

This is from reading Dark_Alex's OE custom firmware readme files:

" Because official SCE updaters don't work in that 1.50 kernel environment (because they need some vsh files not available), i've included with this package a flasher that lets to flash any official update from 1.50-2.71 to your psp. To use it, copy the files inside inside "flasher for recovery/RECOVERY" in /PSP/GAME/RECOVERY/ and the official SCE updater renamed as UPDATE.PBP in the same directory, and run the program through the recovery option."

It tells you not to try to update. And if nothing from the homebrew scene impresses you, you must not have looked. psp-news.dcemu.co.uk

yourmomsucks @ Mar 30th 2007 1:26AM

whatever dark alex will continue to release his custom firmware and all this stuff will be included..as long as companies keep releasing game systems people are gonna be curious as to how they can expand on an already good thing. its just human nature.

Muu @ Mar 30th 2007 10:02AM

It's too bad for Sony that the 'hardcore gamer' types are also the ones most likely to not have the spending power to purchase too many games -- either that, or they have the purchasing power but have too many other options open to them, that they will take the backroad on some to pay for another.

When all's said and done 40 bucks for what could be 10~30hrs of wasted time is pretty good. Of course, that money could be spent on new clothes, movie nights, snacks, eating out, etcetc. Since they can copy the movies, music and some games, those get spent on that other stuff.

I think other markets have already begun adapting to this though. You have the case of Asian countries, where MMOs have become the mainstream. If you gotta pay by the month, then it doesn't make a difference if the original game was purchased illegitimately.

Then you have Japan, where pretty everything goes through the ugly mess known as media mixing. So we're left with a game, a comic book about the game, an animated series sort of related to the game, memorabilia, dolls of the female leads, snack crackers, novels, CD compilations, arranged songs sung by the voice actors in the game, you name it they have it.

Chris @ Mar 30th 2007 11:24AM

Let me assure you this, a good number of the hardcore homebrew community have absolutely no interest in playing commercial games. They're more interested in the random apps and wow factor of developing things on their own. How is this any different than developing freeware on a PC?

For someone like me, I use the custom firmware because I'm interested in playing my old SNES games that died when my SNES went capoot 9 years ago and using the full resolution of my PSP to play videos I've converted from my DVDs. Is that such a bad thing?

And the last game I bought for my PSP was a 'full price' $39.99 for MLB 07: The Show. That is the 8th game I've purchased at full price (MGS:PO is amazing, btw for anyone who hasn't played it), so stop calling anyone that uses custom firmwares/homebrew as no good hackers that like to steal.

McRussel @ Mar 30th 2007 2:11PM

If game developers don't support the hacked firmware I run on PSP, I won't buy their games. Ever. I already hacked it. I'm not going back.

If game developers want to get my attention, they'll have to make the PSP games more affordable. They will have to make sure the game has awesome online play too. I hacked mine for cost effectiveness. If they don't compete with piracy, they are just losing my dollars. Game companies MUST make games that run on the latest hacked firmware from Dark Alex. I only have a 1gb memory card...so there are games I will buy, like Test Drive Unlimited. but the point I'm trying to make is....

IF YOU MAKE GAMES THAT DON'T RUN ON MY HACKED FIRMWARE, I WON'T BUY THEM!!!

txa1265 @ Mar 30th 2007 3:22PM

So far as I could read, there are plenty of games you are already 'not buying', but playing through your 'cost effectiveness' solution ...

wa2egp @ Mar 31st 2007 1:34AM

I support homebrew as long as it results in having individuals develop new games or applications. I might be in the minority but I'd like to see someone reverse engineer the USB port, make an adapter and use it for a USB keyboard and develop some applications like a text editor, simple spreadsheet and the like so the PSP can be also used as a PDA. Imagine working on a letter, sending it, then playing a round of SOCOM. External camera and record video on the memory stick. The possiblilties are endless.

russ99 @ Apr 4th 2007 9:37AM

If sony were smart, they'd introduce some kind of code that restricts the use of UMD disc images. That would force the game pirates out of the system and let the people who us homebrew (unsigned applications) to get the most out of their systems legally and without these constant "security" firmware updates.

Then everyone would be happy, and Sony would sell more PSPs.

PETER @ Apr 5th 2007 7:46PM

Well Sony did things right with the PS3 which allows you to do alot, even more so than a xbox 360 and Wii put together. If you own a PS3 and do these kinds of things then you know what I mean. But Sony has to and must come up with something more interesting for the PSP or it will continue down the same road as last year.

Cody Baker @ Apr 5th 2007 11:21PM

pretty annoying... gotta admit sony needs to step up a bit more to improve the software before i give up custom firmware. i got it just so i could rip MY copy of FFVIII (which i paid $20 for) to play on my psp. and i love it. i now use psp radio (doenst take the money out or anyones pocket) and PiMP Streamer (which is something that people have been doing with computers for years, and its all MY media, and the location free player is just one huge ass rip off) however, i DO use gPSP to play the legend of zelda games, but even if i bought them for the gba, i dont think anyone but gamestop would make their 15 pennies.