Hey everyone,

Square Enix recently announced that Dissidia: Final Fantasy would be hitting Japanese stores just in time for Christmas, on 18^th December. Square Enix also announced that the game would be released in a bundle with the currently unreleased PSP-3000 model.

The PSP-3000 is basically just a PSP-2000 with added features such as a PS Home button, an anti-glare screen and a microphone. No word on whether or not the bundle will contain a special edition PSP (like many Square Enix and Sony bundles), however we’ll keep you posted.

It’s a well known fact that the PSP can play PlayStation games downloaded from the PlayStation Network, however it’s not a well known fact that the PSP can play any EBOOT PlayStation title as long as your system is set up correctly. If you’ve ever tried playing an unofficial EBOOT with Custom Firmware then you’ll know that you’re often greeted by “the black screen of infinite”, this method will show you how to bypass that screen and play absolutely any PlayStation title.

Alright, before you do anything there are several things that you are going to need to play PlayStation games on a PSP running custom firmware version 3.80 M33 all the way up until the most recent release, 4.00 M33. Before you do anything, check that you have what is required to complete this tutorial from the list below.

• PSP Running Custom Firmware Version 3.80 M33-4.00 M33
• Some form of connecting the PSP to a computer, whether it be by USB cable or Memory Stick Duo Pro Card Reader
• Popsloader 3.80 M33
• PSARDumper
• 3.72 Firmware EBOOT
• A PlayStation game EBOOT, our example in this game is going to be a Final Fantasy VII Multi-Disk EBOOT

Note: The following method is a proven, tried and tested method. There is absolutely no chance that doing this will brick your PSP as long as you are running CFW 3.72 M33+, preferably 3.90 M33 as this is the CFW I used whilst creating this tutorial.

1. First things first, connect your PSP to the computer by either using a USB cable or a Memory Stick Duo Pro Card Reader.
2. Once you’re connected, download Popsloader 3.80 M33 and extract the RAR Archive into the PSP/Memory Stick Duo Pro root folder. For example, extract the RAR Archive to ‘X:\’ meaning that the contents of the Zip Archive will be found in ‘X:\SEPLUGINS’ (X:\ stands for the USB slot that your device is connected to).
3. Alright, now you’ve got to download PSARDumper and extract the contents to ‘X:\PSP\GAME’, meaning that the contents of the Zip Archive will be found at ‘X:\PSP\GAME\newspsardumper’. PSARDumper will extract the official PlayStation emulator files from the official 3.72 firmware update that you will put onto your PSP in the next step.
4. Now download the 3.72 firmware EBOOT and copy it to the root folder, in doing so it’s location will be ‘X:\EBOOT.PBP’.
5. Turn on your PSP and navigate to ‘GAME > Memory Stick > NEW PSAR DUMPER’ and press X.
6. This will run the PSARDumper, a series of options will become available once the program is launched – just press Square and PSARDumper will begin decrypting the required files from the official 3.72 firmware update.
7. After a few minutes the process will be completed and you will return to the PSP’s XMB. Turn off your PSP and reconnect it to your computer.
8. The root folder of the PSP’s Memory Stick Duo Pro will contain a new folder containing the decrypted files called ‘F0’, from this folder you need to copy the following files:

‘X:\F0\kd\popsman.prx’, ‘X:\F0\kd\pops.prx’, ‘X:\F0\vsh\module\pafmini.prx’ and ‘X:\F0\vsh\module\libpspvmc.prx’

9. Once you’ve copied these files paste them into the ‘X:\SEPLUGINS\popsloader’ folder, renaming each file so that it has 372 just before the extension. For example, popsman372.prx.
10. If you so wish, you can now delete the F0 folder from the PSP.
11. Disconnect the PSP from the computer, and boot it up in Recovery Mode. For those of you who don’t know how to do this, hold down the R Button and flick up the power switch.
12. From this menu select ‘Plugins ->’ and click popsloader.prx [POPS] to enable the plugin.
13. Congratulations, you now have your PSP set up to emulate PlayStation titles such as Final Fantasy VII – if this is the first time you have ever ran Popsloader you’ll be given a list of firmware’s to chose from; just select the ‘3.72’ option. Make sure you chose 3.72 otherwise you’ll have to start the entire process again.
14. One last thing, Popsloader automatically launches upon selecting a game (you should store games in the ‘X:\PSP\GAME’ folder); if you want to play a PlayStation game make sure you have copied the game into the GAME folder - for example in Final Fantasy VII’s case it would be in the folder ‘X:\PSP\GAME\Final Fantasy VII\EBOOT.PBP’.

That concludes the tutorial on how to set up a PSP for emulating PlayStation games, however due to the nature of PlayStation games and the fact that they are not designed for playing on PSP (unless they’ve been released on the PlayStation Network), you will suffer from the occasional glitch. For example, sometimes when you are exiting a battle in Final Fantasy VII the screen becomes engulfed in weird little glitches; however there’s often a common fix such as exiting and re-entering the appropriate area.

By pressing the HOME button on your PSP you can change the emulation settings, for example choosing ‘Other Settings’ allows you to make the game widescreen; whilst changing the ‘Controller Settings’ can allow you to use the PSP’s Analog Stick rather than the default D-Pad. There is also an option to switch discs; however this only works with Multi-Disk EBOOT’s such as the one I used in the example.

Hey everyone,

With Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII’s release been only a mere nine days away, Square Enix have released some new, high quality images of the limited edition PSP that will come in a special Crisis Core bundle. Some of you may remember that the same limited edition PSP was sold in Japan, with only 77,777 units been produced.

As of yet we still don’t know how many of these limited edition PSP’s will be released nor do we have an exact figure on the bundle price.

Hey everyone,

Most of you will remember the Triple Triad game from Final Fantasy VIII right? Well an Italian team going by the name of TT-Team took upon themselves the task of making a MMO version of the Triple Triad game for PSP.

Of course it comes with new features, an entire variety of cards are now featured in the game, not only from Final Fantasy VIII, but the other Final Fantasy games including Final Fantasy XII! The features the Triple Triad homebrew boasts is EXP, Gil and the ability to win cards from opponents during play!

Triple Triad for PSP can be found on the PSP-Italia, however don’t be put off by the language because the game is available in English. I’d download it as soon as possible because no doubt Square Enix will shut down the project in a matter of days, just like they did with Chrono Resurrection.