Good news! There's now a way to run UMD-only games on a PSP Go. The bad news: it's an unofficial exploit. Coders "Virtuous Flame" and "Coldbird" have released a "Homebrew Enabler" for PSP firmware 6.31 and 6.35. Using that, "Liquidzigong" was able to get the Prometheus ISO Loader program running on the disc-free handheld, allowing copied UMD disc images to be saved and run on the system.
After the break, you can see a demonstration of the hack, in which a user loads up Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep -- a high-profile title never released on PSN. While we can't speak on the legality of using this method to back up your UMD games and play them on a Go (and then on the go), we can confidently condemn the use of this exploit to play games that aren't yours.
PSPgo can now be had for $99.99 with a pricematch and coupon at Target.
STEP 1: Get Radio Shack's weekly ad with the $149.99 PSPgo in it. STEP 2: Go to Carl's Jr./Hardees and buy a Green Hornet key chain for $2, this comes with a $50 off PSPgo system coupon to Target. STEP 3: Go to Target and price match the PSPgo, once they do show them the coupon. STEP 4: Enjoy your $99.99 PSPgo
@Fuzi0n Almost tragic that I don't live in a Hardee's/Carl's Junior Market, because I would totally do this. Any way you could hook me up with a coupon?
@Fuzi0n Sorry rookie, might want to check your facts. Allow me to show you how Target runs a BUSINESS! Not a gamer charity. How does price matching work?
If you find an item in a competitor's printed ad that is priced lower than it is at your Target store, we will match the price. The competitor's ad must be local and current, and the product must be the identical item, brand name, quantity and model number. Target.com is excluded from our price matching policy. Competitor catalogs can also be ad matched as long as the catalog displays a valid date and meets all other qualifications. -- Can I use coupons when price matching?
A guest can use coupons when price matching per Target's normal coupon policy. When the guests presents a coupon(s), these steps will be followed:
Manufacturer Coupons: Manufacturer coupons will be applied after the price match is made.
**Target Coupons: Target coupons will be applied before the price match is made. If the competitor price is still lower than the price after the Target coupon has been deducted, the ad match can be adjusted to match the competitor's price. **
Said coupon is a Target coupon and will be applied before the Price Match, and will be matched AFTER coupon application. Your PSP go will still be 149.99 at best.
@Juri Whoa, easy tiger, don't make assumptions. I actually had no opinion on the matter as PS3 games would be kinda silly to pirate anyways: they're huge.
@Typhonic I've had one for a while and love it. I'll probably use this feature to finally play my legit UMD copy of FFT: War of the Lions because I'm tired of the bulky as hell PSP 1000.
@I am a machineee Piracy has nothing to do with it, but PS3 Hacking is why this came about. The PSP Master Keys were found this last week within the PS3 code that was recently able to be decrypted
Hey...that's been possible for a while. Where have you been? Seriously, us late 3000/Go owners have had homebrew and emulators since Half-Byte Loader came out last year. Couldn't do anything else, but it was still fun. And with the HENs out now, yeah, you can run emulators and homebrew with those too. Plus it's not hard to find a decently cheap PSP nowadays, so go for it! (Oh, and the games for it are pretty good, too.)
It would be nice to just have BbS and other UMD only games released on the PSN store.
I really dont know for sure but it seems to me that the costs of putting these UMD only games on the PSN store would be more than made up for by Go users as well as people opting for a digital copy instead of being tempted by Gamestops used UMD's when going into the store to by a physical copy.
I see no wrong with this, this is clearing bad on sony's part for putting out a console with almost no titles. I bought one and have yet to use it, it was the worst 250$ I have ever spent!
This would make me want to void any warranty etc so I could play my library of games that I don't want to have to buy again.
I already bought Monster Hunter Freedom Unite a second time so I could play on my Go, but besides that, I just want to have the rest of my games: Dead Head Fred, FF Tactics, Dungeons & Dragons Tactics, etc.
@ViralG This dosent update the firmware any,its a program that needs to be started everytime you turn on your psp from turning it off.
No need to void my warranty or risk "bricking" my PSP and i can now play Birth by Sleep,Final Fantasy Tactics War of the Lions and Crisis Core on my PSP GO.
@SgtDookie Ahh, thanks for the clarification. I thought it was one of those separate firmwares and not a program. At least it means I can keep all my information safe at the same time.
But yeah, I'm with you there, this makes it just that much better for Go owners.
If Sony had a program that allowed me to send them my near-perfect condition UMDs (without the entire case since I like to display my nerdhood) in exchange for download codes for the same product, I'd rather do that, but it's never going to happen, so I may use this sooner or later.
For now I prefer keeping my stuff legit as I still have a system I can play those UMDs on.
@Sly C Wow how did you not hear about fail0verflow's thorough hacking of the PS3? Is Joystiq the only news blog you follow? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcbaeKA2moE You must live in a box.
@DarkMirage While the key dump IS true, it doesn't necessarily mean it has any thing to do with this hack.
From what I've been piecing together, and this is from all the scattered news out there, this key will allow anyone to properly sign any app so that it'll play on any PSP unmodded and without a hack. Now, at this time, they're still working on building a program that will sign the apps, but nothing's been released yet.
As for this hack, it still requires to be run through a homebrew enabler, and that needs to be run through a save game exploit.
Unless you find a document that says "Virtuous Flame" and "Coldbird" had used this hey in helping with building the hack, I really doubt the key has anything to do with this.
What took them so long, I predicted this would happen 6 months after the thing came out. Maybe they were too busy hacking multiple version of the DS or the PS3.
@Sly C I get that it was too late for Sony to require PSN releases in contracts but it's a big deal that so many great games are missing. Sony should have done it right or waited because all they did now was hurt their brand and screwed themselves (they've decided games hate DD...we just hate half assed DD).
I kind of want a PSP Go now. Ever since the UMD drive on my PSP-3000 stopped working about six months ago I have only played PSN titles, so it would be nice to be able to play the 3 games I have on UMD again, even if it is a little shady.
