Is there any kind of technical write up of how this was accomplished? Looking at the Git history of the branch that introduced the plugin[1] was a bit rough, but I did find an interesting commit[2]. That commit looks like it patches some other code (apparently some pspnet_apctl.prx module)[3] but maybe all the discussion was in Discord and it's not been written up elsewhere?
It's probably unreasonable to ask for such details without delving into how PSP software images are structured and learning that ecosystem. Also maybe it's obvious for someone with a more low level understanding of the WPA 1 vs. 2 differences. But here I am unreasonably curious. :)
Absolutely love the PSP - it was such a mind blowing piece of hardware at the time. The portables in my life were an iPod and a Game Boy Advance. Then a buddy of mine showed me the model he had just imported from Japan running Wipeout - it was hard to believe my eyes.
It truly felt like the future in a way very few pieces of tech have managed to pull off since. One of Sony’s peak accomplishments.
I have my own special experience with the PSP, totally unrelated to games. Back in 2009 I was deployed to the middle east. At the time, connectivity was difficult: we used phone cards to call back home. One alternative was that you could use Skype on the PSP, and the cost of a call was very cheap. I remember hanging out in random cafes (probably the Cinnabon outside the Navy base in Bahrain) using their Wi-Fi to call home. Thanks for the reminder of a great memory!
It’s a beautiful thing that people are still keeping the homebrew PSP scene alive. PSP homebrew is what got me into programming and security in the first place.
Sick, I still have mine and now I won't have to turn off security on my hotspot for the PSP to connect. Last year I spot welded a panasonic prismatic cell from a toughbook onto the original psp batt board to get a decent batt. The chinesium ones wouldn't last and my original was long dead.
I wonder if we'll start to see services that allow you to download home-brew directly onto the PSP now (similar to Vita services), instead of having to transfer everything over SD cards.
Damn it's been 20 years since the PSP.... loved that thing growing up.... So much Monster Hunter Freedom Unite... grabbed mine off the shelf after all this time just to feel it again and the battery is almost 1 inch thick.... Guess it's time to go through some of the old electronics and recycle the batteries before they either off gas, or catch something on fire...
I still have my PSP 3000 (bought over a decade ago), which is in great condition, despite the frequency I whip it out and have fun playing the classics.
I mostly just play vanilla single-player games on it, so there's rarely a need to bring it online. But when that occasion appears, it can be really cumbersome. I keep a cheap mobile hotspot around and have it work in WEP mode, just for bridging my PSP to other WiFi networks. I will definitely try this instead.
That said, I think a great feature of PSP (and other old-gen handhelds) is, it can work great while being completely offline. I think I will keep it forever, or until they stop making new batteries for it.
I still have mine (PSP 1000 ), such an amazing piece of tech. I did an IPS screen mod over covid, it made it 10 times better - no more ghosting of the display and vibrant colours!
I wish someone did this for the Nintendo DS or added WPA3 support to 3DS. I haven't seen any public RE effort going into replacement WiFi modules of those.
There are two important things about wololo. One they did the jailbreak to PSP. And they made https://github.com/WagicProject/wagic (the best open source alternative to Magic the Gathering).
What is more impressive, that Moment fella solved that 20y, considered very hard evident by the in Discord's bot's response, issue within 3d after joining the scene.
When I had a DS Lite when I was younger, it was annoying to me that I couldn't connect to the Wi-Fi at home. (IIRC) It only had WEP, instead of WPA(2?).
The 20 year old PSP can now connect to WPA2 WiFi Networks
(wololo.net)450 points by zdw 15 February 2025 | 123 comments
Comments
It's probably unreasonable to ask for such details without delving into how PSP software images are structured and learning that ecosystem. Also maybe it's obvious for someone with a more low level understanding of the WPA 1 vs. 2 differences. But here I am unreasonably curious. :)
[1] https://github.com/PSP-Archive/ARK-4/commits/rev160/
[2] https://github.com/PSP-Archive/ARK-4/commit/edcc6f01618e3e45...
[3] https://www.reddit.com/r/PSP/comments/1igh5c9/wpa2_support/m...
It truly felt like the future in a way very few pieces of tech have managed to pull off since. One of Sony’s peak accomplishments.
I believe that's a hardware limitation of the radio, which software won't be able to change.
It’s really lovely to see that we can keep making them useful and relevant.
PSP was so great that just seeing the screenshot of the WiFi networks trigger in me a nostalgic tear :’)
The PSP is fantastic, I use mine often.
Would love to see similar for the Sidekick, although I know hardware limitations will make that much less likely to materialize anything meaningful.
I just want to flip it open to respond to a text message one more time.
This is pretty awesome though to see new life breathed into these devices. I know the Vita has a big community around homebrew and emulators.
I still have my PSP 3000 (bought over a decade ago), which is in great condition, despite the frequency I whip it out and have fun playing the classics.
I mostly just play vanilla single-player games on it, so there's rarely a need to bring it online. But when that occasion appears, it can be really cumbersome. I keep a cheap mobile hotspot around and have it work in WEP mode, just for bridging my PSP to other WiFi networks. I will definitely try this instead.
That said, I think a great feature of PSP (and other old-gen handhelds) is, it can work great while being completely offline. I think I will keep it forever, or until they stop making new batteries for it.
Source: the PSP Discord.
And finally non-political articles here lol