Although this tutorial describes how to get a SNES emulator running on PSP it can also be applied to running most homebrew.

 You'll need a copy of the great game Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and a PSP running firmware 2.01 or higher. (Note: PSPs with version 2.0 can also run homebrew using a different method than described in this article however, I suggest that if you have a version 2 PSP you find a reliable copy of the MPH downgrader and enjoy a version 1.5 PSP)  

On the computer:

• Download the file eloader096 made by Fanjita and Ditlew from [here]
• Connect your PSP to the computer via USB cable and select USB mode.
• Run the eloader096 file which will install the eloader (eloader = program that loads games from the memory stick)
• Download the SNES emulator from [here] Other SNES emulators have been said to work, but out of them this one worked best for me and actually emulated at SNES or higher speeds.
• Copy the file EBOOT.PBP from the zip and place it on you PSP in the directory K:\PSP\GAME\SNES9X (replace K with your PSP drive letter)
• Download a SNES game rom. You can find lots of rom websites by just Google-ing 'snes rom download' but my favorite website is [here] (Note: of course you should only ever download a public or unlicensed rom unless you actually own the game you're downloading, lol ;))
• Unzip the rom, which should be a .smc file, and place it in K:\PSP\GAME\SNES9X

On the PSP:

• Turn on your PSP with GTA: Liberty City Stories in the UMD drive.
• Wait for GTA to load. Once in the game press START and then go to GAME then LOAD GAME.
• Select the save file with the unusual icon in slot 5, which is the eloader.
• Select yes when asked if you want to continue and loose any unsaved data.
• Wait for the eloader to load then select the SNES emulator.
• Once the emulator has loaded select the game you want to play.
• Enjoy the old-school-ness of SNES on your PSP!

Tweaking the Emulator's Settings

Once you start your game you might notice that it runs quite a bit slower than the original version on the SNES. You can fix this by changing a combination of three things: Auto Frameskip, Frameskip and PSP Clock.

Some of this info can be found strewn about in the emulator's readme, but I'll repeat it here all together for your benefit.

Auto Frameskip: with this turned on the emulator regulates the amount of frames being produced per second and makes the game generally run slower than normal due to CPU restrictions. By turning this feature off your PSP can put out more frames and hence make the game run quicker. This is also sometimes known as TURBO MODE.

Frameskip: with Auto Frameskip turned off you can raise the number of additional frames displayed per second. The higher this value the quicker the game runs but also the choppier.

PSP Clock: This value determines the number of Hz that your PSP CPU is running at. 222Hz is normal, raising this value makes you PSP less stable but faster. I personally raise this value because I find that Auto Frameskip itself doesn't quite cut it. A warning though, some games will crash if you raise this value to 333Hz or even 266Hz so you'll have to do a bit of trial and error. While running at 333Hz I find that I don't have to use the other two features, except when I want to run in turbo mode. If you are going to raise the Hz I suggest doing it one step at a time and going back to the game to check if it works before raising it more, I find this makes the game crash much less often.

Running Other Homebrew

To get a list of 'known' working homebrew using this method you can check out this website then click on 'Working EBOOTs (GTA)' on the left-hand side. (Note: I have had trouble running a couple of the emulators that are stated to work on this site, although this problem might just belong to me as I haven't heard anything from anyone else about it.)

Note: when given an option between a homebrew EBOOT for PSP version 1 or 1.5 choose 1 as it runs better with the eloader.

Wrap Up

At the time this article was published all the links were up to date and files current. If you think any of this information is incorrect or links broken/out-of-date then please feel free to contact me. You can find my email in A Little About Me below.

Thanks to everyone who worked towards to running homebrew on the latest firmware versions of the PSP. Remember though, if there is a great game out there that you love buy it, because if you don't there wont be many more great games to come.

Well, that's all folks! I hope you enjoyed my first article here on i-hacked and found it helpful. If you liked it please tell all your friends.

A Little About Me:

Name: Matt/Matthew
Handle: adrelith
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Occupation: Full-time student (year 11)
Hobbies: Computers, console games, PSP, manga, anime, music, reading

Contact:

    Email: adrelith@gmail.com
    MSN: onesmellytaco@hotmail.com