Hacking the PSP Blog

(UK) Game prices crash in sales frenzy

Gamers have plenty of bargains to choose from at the January sales, with Christmas number one FIFA ’07 going for under £20 at Amazon and £14.99 at Play.com on PS2. The High Street is also getting in on the act, with PS2 FIFA ’07 selling for under £25 at major retailers including GAME, Gamestation, HMV, Woolworths and Tesco.

And online even current Xbox 360 chart titles are included in the price bonanza, with Play.com offering Pro Evolution Soccer 6, WWE Smackdown Vs Raw 2007, Dead Rising and Saints Row all for £24.99, while next-gen FIFA ’07 and Need for Speed: Carbon are on sale for £27.99.

Amazon’s headline deals include Canis Canem Edit on PS2 for a bargain basement £14.99, GTA: Vice City Stories on PSP at £19.99 and The Sims 2: Pets on PS2 for £17.97, while its Xbox 360 range includes Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent for £25.97 and PES 6 for £24.99.

Leading specialist GAME is also shifting next-gen games at under £30, with Need for Speed: Carbon and Splinter Cell: Double Agent on Xbox 360 at £26.98 and £25.98 respectively. The retailer has a 'two games for £30' promotion running on DS and PSP titles, and also has releases like Brian Lara International Cricket and True Crime: New York City on PS2 for £4.98.

Read the full article here...

Neil Long
January 2, 2007

Source: MCV

2.80 to 2.71 Downgrader for TA-079 through TA-086 PSPs

Earlier today 0okm announced that he has created a 2.80 to 2.71 downgrader that is compatible with TA-079, TA-082, and TA-086 PSPs. What this means is that those of you that have 2.80 on TA-082 PSPs can downgrade to 2.71, then to 1.50 using Dark_Alex's TA-082 downgrader. Once at 1.50, TA-082 PSPs can upgrade to the 3.02 OE-B custom firmware. While this is exciting news, 0okm has decided against a public release and has asked that requests for the downgrader should be sent to him via email. I haven't has a chance yet to test this myself but I am waiting for a copy of it as of the time of this post.

You may email 0okm yourself to obtain the downgrader but as always be aware that firmware modifications can permanently damage your PSP beyond repair and render it completely unusable. If you do choose to try the downgrader then you use it at your own risk. I will post as soon as I am able to test the downgrader myself and share what the results are.

Should you be brave enough to try this yourself you'll need:

• PSARDumper
• Firmware 2.71
• PBP Unpacker
• eLoader 0.995 "Kriek"
• The downgrader (of course)
  

In order to downgrade you will need to follow these steps:

1. Open the 2.71 Update EBOOT in PBP Unpacker
2. Extract the DATA.PSAR file to a desired location on your PC, and move it to the root of the Memory Stick of a PSP with one of the following:
• FW 1.50\
• FW 2.71 with HEN-D
• Custom FW 2.71 SE
• Custom FW 3.02 OE PSP
3. Extract and run PSARDumper on the PSP mentioned in step 2.
4. Press circle in PSARDumper to dump without sigcheck and dump reboot.bin.
5. Once DATA.PSAR has been dumped to the Memory Stick, move the files to the PSP to be downgraded.
6. Run 0okm's downgrader using xLoader.
   

Via PSPUpdates