Most of you know that the PSP has a PS1 emulator that requires games to be bought through the PS3. Well, that sort of stinks so some nice person has created a hacked firmware that allows the PS1 emulator to play any PS1 games - that means all those PS1 games you have lying around.

It took me ages to get it working but I ripped Castlevania SotN and gave it a try and it's fantastic. The sound seems a little muffled. Not sure if that's just the crappy PSP speakers or something that happens during the ripping process. Aside from that, it's spot-on. Even playing an hour of SotN really brings home how much better it is than the more recent efforts. It's not just nostalgia - it's an excellent game.

Many of my PS1 games are pal and apparently they're a bit jumpy (a shame as my Wipeout games fall into that category) but you US folks won't have that problem. About to try ripping Silent Hill now to see how that plays. If you have a PSP with firmware 2.8 or 1.5, you can install this new firmware and it's well worth a go.

It's an exciting boon for PSP owners, that's for sure.  Although my PSP is 2.8, I've got a TA-082 motherboard, so it's a no-go for me.  >_<

I've heard that some ISOs can turn out surprisingly huge, so unless you have a large capacity memory stick, you can really only have a few games with you at a time.   Also, what about multi-disc games?  How would they work? 

Are there any compatibility lists floating around?

Well I'm not well up on everything and not so technically minded so right now I only know the basics. Not sure if there are compatibility lists anywhere but there could well be. I tried US Silent Hill and it works like a dream. I also tried EU Wipeout 2097 and couldn't get it to work - no idea if that was my ripping process or if the emulator can't play that game.

Though it is populated with the type of people you'll find at gamefaqs boards, the boards at pspupdates are usually good for compatibility lists and so on.

With multi-disc games, I'm really not sure. Right now, I can't see any way of them working unless they let you save at the end of each disc. The FFs definitely let you do that but I can't remember what it's like on Xenogears and I'm pretty sure MGS doesn't let you save at the end of the disc. Could turn out that some multi-disc games are unplayable passed the first disc. It's possible there's already a workaround for this though.

As for size, Silent Hill turned out just over 600MB for me and Castlevania and WO2097 were just under.

Edit: Actually, here's a current compatibility list - http://www.ps3news.com/forums/playstati … 44819.html

^_^ x 1,000,000

I found out about this last week and nearly jumped through the ceiling. 
So far, I've ripped and loaded my copies of Tales of Destiny and Legend of Mana, and I'm able to enjoy these games in a completely new way.  The lack of L2 and R2 buttons probably won't bug me too much. 

I mean... the last time I played Legend of Mana was probably 5 years ago.  I've played Sword of Mana more... and I see all kinds of similarities, which will probably help me understand the game.  I think most people hated it because of how much was going on, and how non-linear it was.  Anyway, I digress--

I ordered a 4GB MemStick Pro Duo (SanDisk) from frys.com for 79.99.  I can't wait to load up all 4 disks of FF9 on there.  I've actually never played it more than about 5 hours in.

No problems here to speak of.  Music in both ToD and LoM sounds wonderful through headphones, and I haven't run into any glitches yet that really get in the way (though there may have been some missing text in the very beginning of LoM, but I haven't compared it to the PSX hardware to be sure.)

There are countless threads on this at psp-hacks.com and ngemu.com and... well, any website you can think of that focuses on emulation and has a forum.

Thank you, Sony, once again, for making your stuff so easy to hack.

Angela, it might interest you to know that there is now a downgrader for your motherboard. If I'm correct, that should mean that you can avail of this PS1 emulator. This article below says that TA-082 owners can downgrade from 2.8 to 2.71 and then, from there, to 1.5 to install the custom firmware. It's a bit of a journey but could be worth it depending on your interest.

http://pspupdates.qj.net/Firmware-2-80- … /aid/77986

Ahh, that's interesting development.  I just may give it a go, now that I'm thinking how infinitely cool it would be to play the likes of Klonoa, Einhander, Chocobo Racing, and the Bust A Groove series on the go. :)   I hope they get Brave Fencer Musashi working, too; I'd seriously be all over that.

I can't think of many games that require the use of those buttons (aside from FFVIII).

So far, it sounds like the PSP is useful for everything EXCEPT playing games designed for it. I'm almost starting to want one, what with SNES and now PS emulation... I should have added it to my Christmas list!

Can I know though, what would happen with games that require the L2 and R2 shoulder buttons?

There are several different ways of mapping the buttons. The default is that L2 and R2 are mapped to the left and right of the analog thingy.

I just got my PSP when I came back from vacation...and found it had 3.01 firmware (along with the dreaded TA-082 motherboard).  So, it looks like I'm going to have to sit on the emulation sidelines for a while.  At least I can now play Tokimeki Memorial on the go.

Could be worse. You could have 3.04 firmware. I don't know why Sony is bothering to force update after update on the user. It's not like they've ever succeeded in preventing their hardware from getting hacked.

Thanks for the answer, Jay.

Another question, if I got a new PSP, would it be hard to hack it to the customware? I guess I probably won't be getting it anytime soon, but man, just thinking about Final Fantasy Tactics and playing PS1 games on the go..

That's a tough question to answer. It all depends on the firmware. Apparently there are ways of telling what you're getting but I don't know them. As things go on, it will be harder to get certain firmwares but newer firmware will pretty much always be hacked eventually. I'd say, if you decide at some point to get one, really do your research at the time to give you the best chance.

mmmm Final Fantasy Tactics on PSP - well they are re-releasing it in Japan for the PSP with added cutscenes and Onion Knight job - fingers crossed it heads states side, so I can grab a copy from my import shop here in the UK!