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Emulate the Amiga on your Sony PSP

PSP-UAE, How to Guide and it's current state of development

Before we begin

If you own a PSP and you're able to run homebrew, this is how to get UAE working on it.

What you need to run it is a Sony PSP with either one of those:

a 1.5 firmware version running
a 2.0 - 2.5 firmware with eboot loader
a 2.6 firmware with GTA: Liberty City Stories and GTA eboot loader
a DarkAleX firmware 3.01 OE-A or above
an Undiluted Platinum modchip with epsilon bios

If you happen to have firmware 2.71 or above you can't run homebrew unless you first use a downgrader to go back to firmware 1.5. Once you have done that you have the option to run the emulator from Firmware 1.5 or to then upgrade to one of the custom Dark AleX firmwares (which is highly recommended). Or you could install an undiluted modchop. You'll have to check your motherboard version first to do that, since the Undiluted Platinum modchip won't work with certain version of the PSP.

If you possess one of those you're ready to get started on...

STEP 1: INSTALLING PSP-UAE

You can download the newest PSP-UAE version from www.pspuae.com. This tutorial is using version 0.55a but the process is the same for newer versions. The emulator's interface may be slightly different in newer versions though.

If you open the downloaded zip you should see these folders and and readme file:

Connect your PSP to yor USB and copy the two folders i selected on the picture to your GAME folder on your PSP (example: E:PSPGAME)

Now you'll need a kickstart rom file, those are (as always) not included. You can use any kickstart roms but you absolutely need to have a kickstart 1.3 for PSPUAE to work. Copy the kickstart rom(s) into the __SCE__PSPUAE folder on your PSP, it should then look something like this:

Now if you have some game roms copy those into the disks folder on your PSP. In there:

If you are using 2.00 - 2.60 firmware you'll have to download the 2.00+ addon file from the PSPUAE site and install the included PSPUAE folder into the GAME directory as well. Those of you with a chipped PSP or a Dark AleX Firmware installed are able to start the Emu just like if you had a 1.5 firmware.

Now you are good to go!!

STEP 2: RUNNING PSPUAE

First of all a little word of advice: PSPUAE can be hazardous to your PSP because it overclocks the CPU to 333 Mhz, there are no known problems with overclocking the PSP that high yet, but i still need to warn you that overclocking might damage your PSP.

If you don't care about that you're free to carry on reading.

How to start the emu for the different firmwares:

1.5: All you need to do is boot up your PSP, go to GAME and down to memorystick and press X. You should see the PSP UAE logo in the list, select it and press X again.
2.00-2.50: Start your eboot loader and select PSPUAE.
2.60: Load GTA and goto LOAD GAME to start your eboot loader from there. There you can select PSPUAE and the Emulator will start.
Dark AleX firmware: same as 1.5
Undiluted Platinum modchip: same as 1.5

It will now load the kickstart 1.3 rom by default. So it should look like this:

Now press SELECT and you'll enter the menu:

Press X on Insert Floppy to enter the game selection:

Now press X again on DF0: to select the amiga disk file you want to mount, you'll see something like this:

Select a game and press X, you'll see it has successfully been mounted into the drive if it looks like this:

Now press O to return to the main menu and once again O to exit the Menu. The game you mounted will

start automatically. You'll see the loading indicator turn green just like in WinUAE.

If a trainer shows up requesting you to press the left mouse button press the L button on the PSP which corresponds to the left mouse button. (R is right mouse button)

Your game should start then, in my case it will look like this:

To EXIT PSP-UAE press SELECT again and goto Quit PSPUAE and press X to exit properly or just press HOME like in normal games.

STEP 3: PLAYING YOUR ROMS

In Games the main Controls are:

D-PAD -> Joystick
X -> Fire Button 0

Analog Stick -> Mouse movement
L -> Left Mouse button
R and O -> Right Mouse button

There is also an integrated keyboard available if you press ∆
You can use the D-Pad to manoever on it to select a key and X to press the highlighted Key.
Use O for ENTER and � to exit Keyboard
∆ in keyboard mode is for switching keaboard position from bottom to top of the screen and vice-versa.

More detailed controls are included in the readme in the PSPUAE zip file you downloaded at the beginning.

STEP 4: A SMALL USEFUL TWEAK

In the main Menu of PSPUAE in the Options Menu you'll find some useful details you can change like possibilities to switch from 4ch stereo to 2ch or 1ch mono.

But there is also the possibility to switch the floppy drive to TURBO mode which reduces loading time a bit. I recommend doing so because it really takes some time for the PSP to load your roms.

There is also an option to change your chipset configuration, i haven't yet experimented with it but i will eventually do so today.

HOW GOOD IS IT?

Well, the version number let's you know it's still not finished yet. All the games i've been trying til now have had serious Frames-Per-Second Issues (SWIV ran with 3-4 fps which is really bad...) and the sound still messes up a lot. For Compatibity all i can say yet is every game i tried started without problems, only Turrican 3 crashed during gameplay and left my PSP responseless, had to coldboot it. The graphics display flawless and i was even able to run Demos on it.

I guess PSP-UAE will still need a lot of development but it already gives an idea of what it can become in the future. If they keep developing it will work just great someday.

The best way to find out is try it yourself or watch these example videos: