Marking the first in Homebrew Idol 2: HyperHacker’s Luna — the fully customizable PSP shell written in LUA. HyperHacker sells his work best:

Luna is designed to replace the XMB, and to be completely customizable. Luna skins are Lua scripts (hence the name), which gives them total flexibility without involving any difficult hex editing or dangerous flashing. 3D menus, background music, animation, alpha blending, whatever you want. You could go all-out and make a 3D world like Super Mario 64, jumping into paintings to run games. Or you could keep it simple, and have a text-based menu and maybe a background image. Or anywhere in between. You can even have no interface at all, and just assign a game to each button.

Documentation is included (see readme.html) to help get you started, namely when it comes to creating your own skins. And right away, you should know how to disable sound effects: edit Luna/lua/boot.lua and set “EnableSound” to false. Keep that file open and look around, there are other configurable options that may be of interest.

Keep in mind; this is beta, which means:

1. Not all of the built-in programs work yet (but you can launch XMB as if it were a homebrew app to use them), and
2. The skin API could change in future versions. Once the final version is out, backward compatibility will be maintained as much as possible. I appreciate any feedback on the API design while there’s still time to change it. (Take a look at the comments in main.h to see what’s already planned, though.)

Download:
Luna v74720
Luna source code

- release / discussion thread -

- source: hyperhacker

Now if only you could program your PVR with this, you’d be laughing, but instead, see what shows you’re missing while out ‘n about with R T’s PSP PPG — the Portable Program/TV Guide for your PlayStation Portable. It’s actually put together quite nicely, ch-ch-check it out…

PPG is a TV guide for the PSP that uses the XMLTV format to generate listings. The original program was developed as homebrew software and is a first class example of what can be achieved by the unsung bedroom programmer (Pay attention Sony).

There’s a PPG tutorial available right here. Learn how to use PPG and generate your own up-to-date listings, otherwise, listings will be generated Sunday and available for download Monday.

PPG comes UK-ready; UK station icons included (unzip ppg-images.zip).

Download: PSP PPG v0.22

- source: agilemonkey

Another day, another PSP Video Converter (PSPVC) release from Nick. Convert just about any video format to a compatible PSP format, real easy like too. And good news for Windows Vista users — PSPVC now plays nice with Vista’s UAC security.

PSPVC v3.44 changes:

• Updated FFmpeg engine
• Added a codec pack check
• Fixed yet another queue bug
• Fixed a bug when converting videos without audio
• Fixed a fade in/out bug in “Tweak Image”
• Made PSPVC fully UAC friendly

Download:
PSPVC v3.44
CCCP Codec Pack (Required)

- source: pspvc.nswardh.com

Here’s a bang-up example for those looking to enter Homebrew Idol 2: drawing 3D environments with “Ray-Casting.” Labyrinth is a LUA-coded homebrew game stemming from Roland Y., which showcases the visual effects of Ray-Casting. There isn’t much to Labyrinth — navigate through the environment and locate the exit before time runs out. But like I said, Labyrinth’s main aim is for demonstration purposes, not game play.

See the Ray-Casting tutorial to get started.

Download: Labyrinth

- source: roland.xtreemhost.com

Mr. Shizzy sharing the shizz — CXMB Manager Beta 1. Catalog, organize, and sort your CTF theme collection. That’s it, that’s all.

 

CXMB Manager Beta 1 features:

• Allows you to store unlimited CTF themes.
• Allows full screen previews.
• Fully functional favorites list. (Add, remove, ect…)
• Does not interfere with being able to apply ctf themes in xmb.
• Allows importing of custom_theme.dat from Flash1.
• Allows information to be stored/displayed for each theme.

Download: CXMB Manager Beta 1

- source: dcemu

We’re back! It’s Homebrew Idol 2 all up in this piece — more homebrew & more prizes comin’ comin’ atcha… Last year MK2k took home the Idol top spot, this year — it could be you! Developers, coders, and programmers — this is your time to shine…

Homebrew Idol 2 rules:

1. Your submission must incorporate 3D rendering, or at least the visual 3D concept (i.e. Ray Casting). We recommend using the LTE Studios Engine or the Raptor 3D Game Engine, or whatever you’re comfortable with.
2. One (1) entry per user; although, like last season, you may change or submit a new entry at any time, rendering your previous submission null. You may also update your entry as many times necessary before the contest’s end.
3. You must submit your entry to the PSP Programming Section of our forums with the thread title “[Homebrew Idol 2] <Your Entry>”. As well, email homebrewidol@psp-hacks.com with entry details — name, brief summary of your entry, author, etc…
4. Source code. You may choose to include your source code for educational purposes; however, it is not mandatory. If you include your source code, remember that you are the sole owner of your code and we will not take possession or use your code without your given permission.
5. You must include a new PSP-Hacks Homebrew Idol 2 splash screen somewhere in your program — preferably at startup — incorporating the new Dashhacks logo (feel free to change the colour as you see fit).
6. All entries must be received by 12:00AM EST (midnight) May 31st, 2009.

Now the good stuff; the prizes:

1. First place winner will be rewarded with $1,000 CAD (Paypal only). That’s right $1,000 bucks courtesy of Dashhacks Inc. and PSDonkey.
2. Second place will receive a new Xbox 360 donated by Yoko_kyuubi.
3. Third place prize has yet to be determined and will be updated soon.

Yours truly was the only judge with the power to crown last year; this year things are a little different… Our staff members will be responsible for selecting the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners. Homebrew Idol 2 policies and rules are subject to change at any time. We’ll keep you posted should that happen. Until then — good luck and have at’er!

Questions, comments, concerns — please leave ‘em here.

Klutsh & RainMotorsports grace us with convenience at its finest… Here we have another Windows app to easily create a magic memory stick for use with a Pandora battery.

As illustrated in the screen shot, PSP Grader not only creates a magic memory stick, it packs a few additional options: inject an IPL only, clean the Pandora stick ridding any files created by PSP Grader, and the ability to change the default trigger to load Pandora when you’re ready.

Now you just need the Pandora battery itself; use this tool (with an already hacked PSP) to create/convert one. Otherwise you can hard mod an existing battery; see here or here.

Features

• Download the eboot straight from the app!
• Load eboots stored in ZIP files.

Coming Soon:

• RAR & 7z Loading – Rar loading didn’t make the port to pascal but only due to time restraints, it and 7zip loading are planned!
• Backup Script – Once again due to time constraints a backup function didn’t make it. Grader never had one and mine never worked to begin with so I put this off till it could be done right!
• SPEED – While this app is no slower than anything I have written before it is slower than Grader 6. We have already begun finding ways to speed up the app and it will be sped up soon!

Download: PSP Grader v008

- release / discussion thread -

Before time began, there was the Cube — I’m talking the Rubik’s Cube! I just had the opportunity to spend a few moments playing with EXTER’s clean crafted Rubik’s Cube for the PSP, and while I suck, you may have the skill and dedication to solve this bad boy. Or — just cheat by holding L+Start to easily impress your unsuspecting friends. Then re-scramble the cube (hold Start) and do it all over again.

Download: Rubik’s Cube

- release / discussion thread -

Now you’re playing with power! Introducing NoEffex’s FX PowerSpoof plugin. You know when certain [game] updates require 75% or more battery power to install, well this little doozy of a plugin will simply bypass that reporting a 100% charge each time. Easy does it.

The main use for this is those games that install updates sony-style, and require 75% or so battery, when that is totally unnecessary and a waste of your time, because if you run out of battery – oh well, start over, nothing harmed, as it does not flash a thing.

How NOT to use:
During flashing things that require 75% battery. Not a bright idea. You can, but if you screw up, not my problem.

How it works:
Patches

1. scePowerGetBatteryPercent to always return 100 via jr ra->addiu $v0, $zero, 100
2. scePowerIsLowBattery to always return 0 via jr ra->addu $v0, $zero, $zero
3. scePowerIsBatteryExist to always return 1 via jr ra->addiu $v0, $zero, 0×0001

THEN

Unloads itself, so it won’t make your kernel memory all lame and sliced up

Download: FX PowerSpoof

- release / discussion thread -

More sites, more fixes, more awesome — JK108’s Ultimate PSPTube v1.8. Use it and tune in to all 33 of these sites: CrunchyRoll, Dailymotion, Google Video, Guba, LiveLeak, MegaPorn, MegaVideo, MetaCafe, MuchoSucko, MySpace Videos, MyVideo, NothingToxic, Pornhub, RedTube, Revision3, Shufuni, Spike, StageVu, ThatVideoSite, TheTend, TNAFlix, Tube8, TubeIso, Tudou, VBox7, Veoh, VidMax, Vimeo, Wanktube, xHamster, XVideos, YouTube, and Yuvutu.

Ultimate PSPTube v1.8 changes:

• Spike is now included
• Revision3 is now included
• TheTend is now included
• Added special searches for MetaCafe
• Made small improvements to the description filter
• Fixed a bug in StageVu where the thumbnails weren’t showing as the site changed
• Fixed a bug in CrunchyRoll that caused it to reach the end of results on the first page
• MuchoSucko script is fixed after the videos stopped working
• Google Video script is fixed after the videos stopped working
• MegaVideo and MegaPorn thumbnails now don’t show to stop the search from being slow

Download: Ultimate PSPTube v1.8

- release / discussion thread -