PSP Homebrew Roundup

The PSP has a thriving homebrew scene, despite the continued attempts by Sony to thwart custom firmwares with unrelenting updates. Hackers are a resourceful bunch, though, and Sony has yet to put an effective nail in the coffin of homebrew. That’s good news for those of us who enjoy running programs and playing games from an independent community with tons of ideas and skill. It’s their abilities that give the PSP increased longevity and ultimately make the handheld more than a portable game playing machine.

With the recent announcement of a Lumines exploit that effectively downgrades every model of PSP, allowing for the running of homebrew applications, the scene has been reinvigorated. While I’m not going to go in to any detail about how you can hack your PSP to run homebrew, I will spotlight a few choice programs that make this minor hassle worthwhile. There is no shortage of resources on the Internet that will teach you the basics of how downgrade your PSP and I urge you to explore the possibilities.

PSP Rhythm 7.1

PSP Rhythm is a nifty music application that features sample playback, effects manipulation, a grid-based sequencer and a song arranger. You can easily take audio samples, alter them in a wide-variety of ways and even record your songs in CD-quality. The slick interface makes it easily accessible and simple to use, though it’s not for beginners.

Get PSP Rhythm 7.1

PiMP Streamer

Just as Tversity is a great application for streaming unsupported video formats to the Xbox 360, so to is PiMP Streamer, a real-time audio and video streaming program that supports most of the popular formats and works flawlessly through a WiFi connection.

Get PiMP Streamer