A few weeks ago I wrote about taking a chance on a cheap “junk” PSP-2000 from Japan, replacing its faulty charging port, and ending up with one of the nicest handhelds I own.. One of many PSP’s I’ve bought though.
Quite a few people here on Lemmy reached out afterwards asking about jailbreaking, or just sharing that they planned to buy UMDs for it. I guess this article is my answer (or maybe just yet another thinly veiled excuse to write about my favorite old handheld…the PSP) to that.
Rather than another super technical wiki, I wanted to write a bit of step-by-step with just pictures of all of it. I cover installing ARK-4 custom firmware, setting up a microSD card, loading games, movies and music, a handful of homebrew recommendations. I really, really love Sony’s PSP. I think as far as industrial design language goes, you just can’t beat it.
So if you’ve recently picked up a PSP, are thinking about picking one up, or have one sitting in a drawer gathering dust, I hope this helps you give it a second life!
And if you don’t want to read through, then ask me here and I’m more than happy to recommend things to you.
I got a PSP 3000 in 2012 and jailbroke it. It was part of a long line of jailbroken portables:
DS Lite: 2010
PSP 3000: 2012
OG 3DS: 2019
OG Switch: 2024
Then I got a Steam Deck in 2025 and could run all of the games from those portables without having to jailbreak anything. Glad I got it while the price was reasonable!
My Steam deck is my go to emulation machine outside of ds/3ds. I still prefer to use my modded new 3dsXL for that. It’s been a long time since I broke that thing out though. More of a collectible at this point.
Great post as always. That white PSP looks so slick compared to my crusty silver one… I’m jealous!
Thank you so much!
…mostly for turning a blind eye to what is obviously just a giant and elaborate excuse for me to write about the PSP again!!!
I got lucky buying this white one for roughly $33 USD :)
Don’t lament your silver though! They’re so beautiful, and all those marks it has just shows the history of it in your possession!
:)
I have an old modded PSP 2000 from 15 years ago. Haven’t used it in ages but I have fond memories of emulating old pokemon games on it. Might boot up Pokemon Unbound to see how it looks.
Go get it out!
I think PSPs are super viable, even today. I use mine more than two of the retro handhelds I have which run 16GB of RAM. Looking forward to how you find it regardless though, after such a long time of not using it
I have an old PSP 2000 sitting in my closet that still works. This is a great resource man! Looks like I got another weekend project. 🫡
You’re welcome!!!
Have fun!
Psp jailbreaking achieved perfect ease and reliability. It really is the gold standard… I’ll never sell mine, even though I use the steamdeck these days for a handheld.
Gives me hand cramps though (psp).
My wrist never really recovered from claw gripping my way though Monster Hunter Freedom Unite.
I remember bricking my 1000 with an official update. It might be salvageable, I haven’t tried in years. I think my wife’s 2000 is still modded and working fine in a drawer somewhere.
This can be done with any PSP. It is awesome.
Thank you. I have to break mine back out now. Last resource was wolo?..
That’s a name I haven’t thought about in a long time
I just did this to a psvita last week. Sd2ps and pkgj are amazing
I used to have a PSP2000 that lasted me quite a bunch of years, hacked to hell back in the day. It was truly glorious. I’m now considering a Vita. It should be about as easy too, right?
They’re about the same now. You can do temporary or permanent. You can get a SD card adapter to not use their proprietary storage.
And then you can install all psp stuff done there too.
I traded mine in when I got a steamdeck, I went back to a PSP instead of a vita for it’s size. Just installed a usb-c charger mod on my psp2000 too.
Perfect, thanks! I might consider just emulation on the Deck, too.
I’ll recommend RetroDECK for emulation on the Steam Deck!
Yeah…I made a mess with these emulation center apps, and they’re all over the place now, with barely anything working. I’m considering a full reinstall, because there’s folders somewhere it still catches on during a reinstall.
Thank you for putting this all together! Any idea if the PSP-1000 would work with the same setup? I’ve got one collecting dust that I would love to try this with.
Yes, absolutely no difference! It works just the same :)
Excellent, you’re a gem!
You can even run GTA 3 (rebuilt in the Liberty City Stories engine) on your PSP-1000 if you’d be so inclined after jailbreaking!
I interviewed the folk behind it (Barcode Studia) a little while ago, and they made sure that not only was the game emulateable but playable on every PSP model, including the PSP-1000 :)
