PSVita > State of Emulation (on the device)

[thatgui]

So, I wanted to let go of my old NAS and traded it in for some server hardware (hello Core i3, goodbye C2D E8500) and a pretty banged up Playstation Vita.
I get two games with it too, some 3D shooter (I guess) and a Lego game (which probably is as boring as the rest of the other ones, except LCU of course). Looking in online stores and the Playstation store, I realized that (as I am totally not into jrpg n stuff) the supply of interesting games is rather sparse. So I thought of hombrew, or emulation to be more specific, but as far as I can see (depending on the OS version) the situation on the Vita is rather dire.

Does anyone know wether emulation is still a thing on the vita? I don't require much, Gameboy and NES emulation would be enough, SNES would be the icing on the cake.
So far my research brought up that emulation accessing the vitas hardware directly is currently not possible anymore (at least if the latest OS update is installed). But how about emulators in the Vitas "PSP emulator", is this still a thing ? Or does someone even have links to tutorials and emulators to get things working ?


Some else remembers people writing that one should not buy a Pandora, because the Vita is much more powerful and will have emulators of all sorts in no time? It seems (now) history has proven them wrong or

 

[benoitb]

Firmware:
<=3.51 : native homebrew, native emulators like retroarch. However native hack is a hassle to start. PSP games and homebrew. If you have a really old firmware (don't know which) you can also emulate PS1 games with sound.
3.52 - 3.55 : PSP games and homebrew, same capabilities as a PSP
3.57 : nothing, unless you've set up VHBL before upgrading

I am on 3.55, and PSP emulation is great for me as I mostly emulate Megadrive and Neo Geo. PSP hack is convenient to launch.

wololo.net is a good source of info for instructions on how to proceed and a list of good PSP emulators.

Don't know what kind of games you like, but I own 13 original games on the Vita and I believe anyone could easily find between 5-10 games they love on this system. It really has quality handheld titles.

 

[thatgui]

thanks for the quick summary

Firmware:
3.52 - 3.55 : PSP games and homebrew, same capabilities as a PSP
3.57 : nothing, unless you've set up VHBL before upgrading

Does this mean, if I have some version below 3.57 currently installed, I can install vhbl, upgrade to version 3.57 and still use and install emulators, or would I need to keep a version lower then 3.57 ?
[doublepost=1454073072,1454056057][/doublepost]bummer..it already has 3.57 on it. Not crossing fingers for someone finding a new game bug to make us of, I guess I am able to afford a Pyra before that.

 

[Alperoot]

Too bad. I have the same exact situation (a PS Vita runs on 3.57) but I probably won't be able to buy a Pyra :*( Guess I will just wait until something like Rejevunate (probably spelled it wrong) comes out for 3.57.

 

[thatgui]

So I took the plunge and invested 20 bucks in a Playstation store card to buy Metal Gear Solid something to use the latest exploit. It worked, but man emulation/homebrew on the vita is a real mess, so many different versions of homebrew software and so many dead links. I even almost bought another PSP game in order to use another savegame to transfer hombrew onto the vita, or better into the psp environment on the vita. Luckily I stumbled over a youtube comment saying "download a save file from the internet" and from there on I at least got Nester J working - which is a great emulator btw., I rather would have paid the developer the 7.99 I paid for the psp game. But no luck with Masterboy, PSPFiler oder SNESTy they show up in the VHBL menu, but do nothing when I try to start them. Maybe I have more luck with Picodrive..

But it was a good reminder, to support HW-Manufacturers that give their customers more freedom

 

[benoitb]

Yes it's a pain. Have you setup the FTP server for Vita ? That eases things a lot.
Don't make the same mistake I made: when transferring files by FTP, force your client to transfer only 1 file at a time. Transfering in // will corrupt files randomly. I lost an evening, thinking I did not convert my MVS roms correctly when it was the FTP transfers that were corrupting my roms.

I have a working MVS and Megadrive emulators. We could share our best emulators for the Vita in this thread if you feel motivated.

 

[thatgui]

We could share our best emulators for the Vita in this thread if you feel motivated.

While its a kind offer, I am afraid I have to decline, as in the end, most contribution will probably come from you as I have no real motivation to drive that any further. This may change when I am done with NES emulation, or someone is able to provide a way for creating custom bubbles again (its a bit tedious one always has to repeat the whole process of starting the exploited game and loading the exploit, starting the menu and then eventually start the emulator).
But as soon as the Pyra is available and I am able to afford one, the motivation to use the Vita is probably gone. Its a nice little machine and its a bit sad that Sony was never able to bring it to its full potential, but its "proprietized" beyond reason and the game catalogue is a bit disappointing for me (but that may be due to me having no history with any Playstation product and an "aversion" to japanese comic/manga/art style and JRPGs).

 

[benoitb]

I also guess my Vita will be used much less once the Pyra arrives. But as I am found of Japanese games, I will probably keep using it.
If I do create an archive of working PSP emulators for Vita someday, I will post it on these boards.

 

[Klumpen]

I guess for emulation with a big screen and this kind of form factor, this may be better:
https://www.dragonbox.de/de/365-gpd-q9-android-konsolen-4260416650305.html

How much is a used Vita going for atm?

 

[thatgui]

How much is a used Vita going for atm?

I would say 60€ if your lucky and not too finicky, with 80-85€ average and ~100-110€ with a little more extras (bigger memory card and games) of course prices get crazy around christmas and eastern. And there is a not so small chance that you would need to buy a PSP game (8€ average) in order to get homebrew working, unless you buy a Vita with an already used exploit.

From my point of view, a Vita is only a good deal if you are really interested in the titles that the Vita has to offer, or if you want to use it as an "addon" for your PS3/4 (I made a quick test with my brother in laws PS4 and it worked quite well). But otherwise I think you are far better off with a (used) device like you suggested. The device is just too locked down: even when things were "better" a few months ago while the rejuvinate hack was still a thing and homebrew was able to use the full potential of the vita it (as far as I understand it) was a real pita to start homebrew applications and games. Currently only homebrew inside the PSP environment is possible which limits it to the PSPs capability in terms of emulation, which means not fullspeed N64 emulation at max (and no PS1 emulation). As far as I could find out the homebrew scene for the Vita is really small and I don't think it will grow much unless Sony decides at some point that the "arms race" with crackers isn't worth it anymore.
With Android you may lack the commercial titles for now, but have a huge library of games and software, more options in terms of emulators, no need to hassle around with exploiting things and cumbersome reasearch and installation of emulators and you don't have to pay ridiciously high prices for Sonys special Memory Cards (no SD-Cards)