Developer’s Corner: Dark Alex, the PSP scene’s God of War
(Developers Corner will serve as a tribute to the pillars of the PSP homebrew community. Basically, we’ll be running a series of posts highlighting the achievements of a particular hero of homebrew. It’ll be rundown of their major contributions to the PSP homebrew scene, think of it as our online hall of fame for the guys that make PSP a true multi-media device.)
Since this is the very first Developer’s Corner post we might as well greet the PSP scene with a bang, and nobody gives a louder bang than hero of homebrew Dark AleX. If I’m to liken DaX to a popular video game character, it has to be God of War’s Kratos. Granted he’s no Zeus (that’s got to be Sony, they made the PlayStation Portable after all), but Kratos has no qualms smiting the mighty God of Gods when he feels like it. That’s exactly what Dark Alex is to the homebrew community, the lone force that occasionally kicks Sony between the legs with his PSP firmware hacks. Yes he’s a badass, but he’s our badass.
So just who Dark AleX really is? He’s the guy that sired golden custom firmwares, the very same dude that rescued us from the dark days of various official firmwares, and the man responsible for playable PS1 backups in our PSPs. And yes, he’s also the cool guy that’s got a marijuana leaf url icon (can’t get any more badass than that) plastered in his website.
The chronicle of Dark Alex awaits after the jump!
(Developers Corner will serve as a tribute to the pillars of the PSP homebrew community. Basically, we’ll be running a series of posts highlighting the achievements of a particular hero of homebrew. It’ll be rundown of their major contributions to the PSP homebrew scene, think of it as our online hall of fame for the guys that make PSP a true multi-media device.)
Since this is the very first Developer’s Corner post we might as well greet the PSP scene with a bang, and nobody gives a louder bang than hero of homebrew Dark AleX. If I’m to liken DaX to a popular video game character, it has to be God of War’s Kratos. Granted he’s no Zeus (that’s got to be Sony, they made the PlayStation Portable after all), but Kratos has no qualms smiting the mighty God of Gods when he feels like it. That’s exactly what Dark Alex is to the homebrew community, the lone force that occasionally kicks Sony between the legs with his PSP firmware hacks. Yes he’s a badass, but he’s our badass.
So just who Dark AleX really is? He’s the guy that sired golden custom firmwares, the very same dude that rescued us from the dark days of various official firmwares, and the man responsible for playable PS1 backups in our PSPs. And yes, he’s also the cool guy that’s got a marijuana leaf url icon (can’t get any more badass than that) plastered in his website.
The Chronicles of Dark Alex
Period I: Downgraders
He bursts into the PSP a year ago carrying the flaming torch of 2.60 downgrader, and since then there’s been no looking back. The links below should lead us to posts made during those sweet days (downloads included, I figured taking a peek at them would be fun, at least for the sentimental among us).
June, 2006
Downgrader Test for 2.50/2.60 – There and Back Again
Download: 2.60 Downgrade Test v0.4 – Source Code
July, 2006
2.5/2.6 Downgrader FINAL Released!
Download: 2.5/2.6 Downdater (Downgrader) Auto Final
1.50 -> 1.0 Downgrader in Progress + Forum Announcement + Released
Download: 1.50 to 1.00 Downgrader “Downdater 1.00“
October, 2006
Dark AleX’s Generic Downgrader- Now Downgrade to any PSP firmware from 2.71!
Download:2.71 Generic Downgrader
December, 2006
2.71 TA-082 Firmware PSP’s Now Able to Downgrade!
Download:TA-082 Downgrader for 2.71 Firmware
Period II: Homebrew Enablers
Back to Kratos reference: Just like how Kratos defeated Ares minus his Blades of Chaos, Dark Alex was resilient enough to find the proper alternative to homebrew-less, then-uncrackable firmwares. Thus homebrew enablers were as valuable to us then as the Blades of the Gods was to Kratos, so these series of useful PSP applications should definitely make our to-look-back list.
September, 2006
Dark Alex’s 2.71 XMB Homebrew Launcher! Homebrew from the Game Menu!
Download:Dark Alex’s 2.71 XMB Homebrew Launcher Proof-of-Concept (Revision A)
Homebrew Enabler for 2.71 (Revision B) Starts PSP Utopia
Download:Homebrew Enabler for 2.71 (Revision B)
Dark AleX’s Homebrew Enabler updated to Rev.C! Now load all your user-mode homebrew in 2.71!
Download:Dark AleX’s Homebrew Enabler for FW 2.71 (Revision C)
Dark AleX’s Homebrew Enabler for 2.71 – RevD (HEN D)
Download:Homebrew Enabler for 2.71 – Revision D
Period III: Custom Firmware
Custom Firmware is Dark Alex’s masterpiece. This is his Blade of Olympus, a weapon even Zeus (in this case, Sony) fears. With CFWs installed in our PSPs, we can enjoy full features of the latest official Sony firmware, along with the ability to load homebrew and PS1 backups directly from the PSP’s xmb. This achievement cemented Dark Alex’s legacy.
October, 2006
2.71 Custom Firmware SE-A released by Dark_AleX!
Download: 2.71 Custom Firmware SE-A
December, 2006
Custom Firmware 3.02 OE-A released by Dark AleX!
Download: 3.02 OE-A by Dark AleX
Dark AleX’s 3.02 OE-B released!
Download:3.02 OE-B by Dark AleX
January, 2007
Dark AleX’s 3.03 OE-A’ released
Download:Dark AleX’s 3.03 OE-A
3.03 OE-B Released – Movie Madness!
Download: 3.03 Open Edition Revision B
February, 2007
3.10 OE-A custom firmware out and about
Download:Dark Alex’s 3.10 OE-A custom firmware
April, 2007
Dark AleX releases 3.30 Open Edition Revision A
Download: Dark_AleX’s 3.30 Open Edition Revision A
Dark AleX update of the week: 3.40 OE-A and 3.30 OE-A’
Download: 3.40 OE-A by Dark_AleX
If you still have any qualms on just how big Dark Alex is, I suggest you go over the links above. The Kratos comparison isn’t a stretch, actually Kratos would do well to take some “class” pointers from DaX. Anyway, be sure to give our PSP homebrew God of War some love, and watch out for the next outing of Dev’s corner.
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