HOW TO INSTALL AND RUN HBL ON EVERYBODY’S TENNIS

It is *strongly* recommended that you turn of all wireless connections on your PS Vita, and that you use OpenCMA on your PC instead of the regular CMA. 

This is recommended because otherwise your console has a way to force you to upgrade the firmware even before you get a chance to use the exploit.

Extract the HBL archive matching your version of the game in your CMA PSP Savedata folder. It is a folder on your PC named PSSAVEDATA/[lots of random characters here].

 If you don’t know where it is, check your settings in CMA
Connect your PS Vita to the PC through the CMA, it should give you the possibility to copy the savedata from your PC to the Vita. 

If not, you probably extracted it in the wrong folder. (Note: You will also want to install some homebrews with a similar technique, read the section below)

Important for owners of the European version of the game:Before running Everybody’s tennis, you need to change the language of your PS Vita/PSP to French. This is a limitation of the exploit for now, this might or might not change in future revisions. you can of course switch your console back to your own language once you are done playing with VHBL.

To run HBL, start the Tennis game, select “Continue” in the Main Menu. At this point, HBL should start

HOW TO INSTALL AND RUN HOMEBREWS

Installing homebrews on the PSP was an easy task. On the Vita, until better solutions are provided, it’s quite a pain in the ass.
The CMA will only let you copy savedata, and will not recursively browse folders.

To address this, HBL comes with a tool that can extract archives with a specific structure.Packaging the homebrew for installation on the Vita:
1) download PSP homebrews from your favorite website2) extract the homebrew somewhere on your hard drive, and with your favorite utility, zip it again with the *store* setting (no compression), in a file that you will name “install.zip”
3) take any PSP savedata (but not the one used for HBL!), and add the “install.zip” to that folder, in your PC CMA folder. so your PSP Savedata will look something like this:
in folder PSSAVEDATA/1a2b3c4def5678/UCUS12345000/ (or something like this) you will have the following files:
- ICON0.png
- PIC1.png
- DATA.bin
- PARAMS.SFO
- install.zip
Here you can download an example of packaged homebrew: DoomInstalling:
1) run OpenCMA on your PC, and CMA on your Vita
2) copy the previously packaged SAVEDATA (see above) with your homebrew in “install.zip” on your Vita
3) run HBL (how to run HBL is explained in the previous section)
4) navigate with the HBL menu to the SAVEDATA folder, then go to the folder you just downloaded (in my example, UCUS12345000), and clikc cross or circle on it
5) At this point, the HBL menu should ask you if you want to install the homebrew. select yes, and wait until HBL is done extracting your homebrew
6) The homebrew is now installed, and you can run it by going to the GAME folder, if everything went well, a new subfolder with your homebrew has been created here, and you can run the homebrew

OpenCMA is strongly recommended to install if you want to use VHBL. Open CMA is a tool by Virtuous Flame that allows you to copy files from and to your vita without being connected to the internet. This is useful, especially if you don’t want Sony to forcefully update your firmware.

Gravity Daze PS Vita skins available in March

Dezaegg are releasing official Gravity Daze skins for the PlayStation Vita. Two skin styles will be available on March 1 and each will will cost ¥1,480 ($19.30 US).

New Vita Launch Bundle finally makes 3G model attractive

US retailer Amazon started a promotional offer for the Vita 3G model launch: for 299$, people who buy the Vita 3G get a 8GB Memory card, 250MB of 3G bandwidth, and a free PSN Game. Since a memory card is compulsory for most games, and 4GB is the lowest you can get (and, if you plan to really use the console, it will not be enough), and knowing that most games are about 50$, this looks like a great offer, making the 3G model basically cheaper than the Wifi model.

This is proof that the 3G model is not getting the love that Sony was expecting, but if it’s cheaper, why would you not buy it? My Wifi model with a 4GB card and a crappy game was more expensive than this bundle.
Update: The fine prints reveal that this is not as good a deal as I initially thought it was: the “free” 250MB of 3G bandwidth is activated after your first AT&T plan, which means you have to subscribe to the AT&T offer, which makes that part no so attractive in the end. The game itself is also redeemed only if you subscribe to AT&T. This is still a good deal if you were planning on getting the 3G model, but not so attractive anymore if you didn’t have any plan to subscribe to AT&T with your Vita. Thanks to NitsudR for point this out!

And because it’s Amazon, people who already preordered a 3G model will also be getting this promotion

Ragnarok Odyssey demo downloaded 100,000 times

GungHo has announced that the Ragnarok Odyssey demo, released for the PlayStation Vita on January 19, has been downloaded a total of 100,000 times. To commemorate the achievement, the official Ragnarok Odyssey has been  updated with a new wallpaper.

Download your PSP games onto your PS Vita with UMD Passport

 

There have been some rumours going around that PSP owners will be able to import their current collection of games to their PlayStation Vita. This has now been confirmed true as Sony announced the UMD Passportprogram. The process, however, will not be free.

The steps in downloading your PSP games isn’t very tedious either. They are as follows (courtesy of Andriasang):

New releases for the Vita Console

With the PS Vita launch in Japan a success, Sony has announced just what games will be available on launch day for those in North America. Games will retail for somewhere between $9.99-$49.99, with some of those being downloadable titles that can be purchased on the Playstation Network, while others will be regular disk based titles available wherever you purchase your games.