Do you feel a bit overwhelmed with the amount of information out on different sites but are too worried about asking the "wrong" questions?
Dont worry hopefully some tips I have here will give you an idea of the different possibilities that your Jailbreak PS3 is capable of.
First off the PS3 scene has branched off into some drama filled kids playground that I feel has taken away from the fun of owning a piece of hardware that can operate beyond the scope that it was initially intended for. That's all I have to say on that matter since if you are reading this you do not need to know about any of that.
Now hopefully you have a console that is on a modified 3.55 firmware, I say this because to get the most out of a PS3 we want to be able to use tools that can not otherwise work on a higher modified firmware.
If your console is already on a 4.xx+ modified firmware then you have 2 options.
Option 1. Use the Rebug '999' Downgrader developed by the very talented and active Rebug Team. A zipped link can be found on their website: rebug.me
Option 2. Dont worry about it and skip straight to Multiman
So for those of you that are either on 3.55 or use the Rebug '999' Downgrader to get there will want to QA flag your PS3. If your firmware does not have the Rebug toolbox lets make this the very first thing to install on your console. We can find a link to the pkg on the rebug site: rebug.me
Installing Packages.
Installing Packages is quite simple. Once you have downloaded a pkg we will need to copy/move it onto a FAT32 format usb stick. If your PS3 does not recognize your usb stick it is probably the wrong format and will need to be formatted with something like http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm
We need to copy over just pkg file(not any folders that the pkg file may be residing in) to the root of your usb stick.
So now that we have copied the Rebug Toolbox pkg to the root of the usb stick we go to the Install Packages option on the game column of of the XMB and install our package. We can leave our usb in for the time being, preferably in the rightmost usb port.
Now find and open the new app that we have just installed and navigate to the rightmost column and hover over the Toggle QA Flag and activate it. It should now show as enabled. Scroll down from Toggle QA to the Export Flash to File option and backup your flash to your usb. For best results you will want to try this back up option more than once and compare your different results to be sure you got a perfect back up.
If you are unfamiliar with FTP we will instead install Multiman onto your PS3, you'll need a recent version and also look for one that is signed for 3.55.
Now we want to find a developer app from the very, very smart PS3 dev Flatz. Flatz developed a tool that does away with the need to install linux to retrieve our eEID rootkey.
You can read some more info here: http://psx-scene.com/forums/content/eeid_rkdumper-dump-eeid-root-key-gameos-no-otheros-required-2481/
Once you download the eeid_rkdumper pkg install and run the tool and once finished we will load up multiman and enable the mmOS/file manager mode or if you are well versed in the world of FTP fire up your favourite FTP program on your PC and access your PS3 hard drive from there while running the Rebug Toolbox(which has built in FTP access).
We need to open our hdd0(sometimes referred to as dev_hdd0) folder so we can get to the tmp folder. In here we will find the root key and copy and paste that to our usb stick via mmOS(press circle for copy/paste/move functions) or FTP over to our PC.
We will want to keep the eid root key AND our PS3 flash in multiple safe and secure storage drives as well as on our PC, so expect to make about 3 or 4 copies.
Now that we did the "boring" part we will need to go back to the rebug.me site and grab their latest version of modified 4.21 FW dubbed the Rebug 4.21.2 REX firmware. I will explain why we go with this instead of 4.30 modified version. We have more options with 421.2 REX firmware rather than Rebugs 4.30 CEX firmware. Even the 3.55 REX variant has more options than the 4.30. What options you ask? Well we can launch games over our network without needing to buy a DRM dongle like Cobra dongle. In other words 4.21.2 can do everything that 4.30 does plus a little bit more :)
Once installation of 4.21.2 has finished its time to to do our very first safety precaution spoofing.
Spoofing is fooling the PS3 into thinking it is on a higher firmware than it is actually on and will stop accidental updates.
Delete the Rebug Toolbox on your XMB and go to Package Manager on your game column, when you open it you'll see the Install Package Files which is where we need to open the PS3 Hard Disk that Rebug toolbox package resides in. Navigating will look like: Package Manager>>Install Package Files>>PS3 Hard Disk>>REBUG_TOOLBOX_02.01.00.pkg
Once this firmware specific version is installed we run the program and find the system mode option and change it to Rebug Mode
In rebug mode your PS3 will think it is on the latest update and you wont be prompted to update your console.
Multiman
Game Backups
This was once just a backup manager but the talented dev Deank has spent 2 years working and updating this program on a whole different path and MM now handles alot of tasks that in the beginning was left upto various apps. Multiman handles game back up, FTP access, file managing, plays music, has a picture viewer, acts as a frontend to other emulators and integration with Showtime media player. Also the network capabilities give us the ability to connect to PS3s worldwide to copy files, through to connecting your PC and loading emu roms, music and pictures. With a DEX conversion and appropriate PC software we can even load our PS3 games over the network.
If multiman isn't working now on your REX firmware you'll probably need to ditch the Multiman app you got earlier and grab one(the latest BASE version you can find) signed for 4.xx firmware. Make sure your PS3 is connected to the web before starting up MM and if prompted that a higher version we'll want to upgrade to the newest version.
Backing up games is rather simple. Just insert the PS3 disc you want to back up and load up Multiman. While navigating through the xMMb, which is multimans navigation menu that resembles the PS3 XMB, scroll over to the games column and you'll see your disc. Highlight the game and press Triangle(/_\) to open options menu. Hit the Copy button and choose where you will copy your game to. Rather simple isn't it.
Multiman has various ways of launching games since some games require different methods. Highlighting your game back up and pressing [ ](square) will bring up a game settings screen specific to the back up. You'll see on the left hand side various options which will help with the game launch(if needed).
If you can not get your game to launch normally you may want to check this site
http://www.pshomebrew.net/wiki/PS3_Backup_Compatibility_List and if a certain method is needed to run your game tick those options on the Game Settings screen.
Emulators
Retroarch
This is Squarepushers port and in actuality if he hadnt stuck around back in the day with his awesome updates to various emulators on the PS3 scene I would have updated my PS3 back in 2011.
So what is Retroarch you ask... heres a quote from Themaister's site(the author):
RetroArch is a multi-system emulator for Linux, Windows, Mac OS X and *BSD. It is formerly known as SSNES.
Its design and background is quite different than most other emulators as RetroArch does not implement an emulation core itself. RetroArch talks to libretro, a generic emulator core API. This means that RetroArch is core agnostic, and it does not care which emulator core is running.
Currently there are libretro implementations for systems such as SNES, NES, GBA, GB/GBC, Genesis, and even arcade games (Final Burn Alpha).
libretro isn't only usable for emulators. A preliminary port of an open source reimplementation of Cave Story has been ported to libretro as well.
RetroArch believes in modularity. The application itself is a command-line driven application suitable for HTPC and/or headless use. There also exists a GUI frontend for RetroArch, supporting every single config option available in RetroArch.
You can seamlessly utilize the GUI without thinking of RetroArch as a command line application, which is a probable scenario for most Windows and OS X users. RetroArch-Phoenix, the GUI frontend, can be found on GitHub.
For support, you should visit the IRC channel #retroarch @ irc.freenode.org, or the forum.
Retroarch is front end that allows me to switch from a nintendo emulator to a Sega Genesis emulator to play my Sonic the Hedgehog games and when I feel the need I can switch to FBA to play my arcade roms. The GUI is very minimalistic and that is the way it should be. All tasks and allotted memory is better spent on ensuring a great game compatibility. It has button mapping, shaders, a rewind function, the ability to play BGM while playing your favourite retro game, and even DLC such as borders, themes, and movelists that can be read while playing the game.
Roms are quite easy to store all you need is a folder titled ROMS. I usually split my roms into different folders such as fba, nes, snes, genesis... and place these folders into the ROMS folder. You can store this ROMS folder on the root of a USB or in hdd0 on your PS3. Oh you can even copy this ROMS folder onto your PC(I'll get into more detail about this later on). With Retroarch installed you'll be able to load the roms from multiman if you so wish or open the Retroarch frontend from the XMB, select your emu core: snes, genesis, nes etc and run a game.
Showtime
This is a Media Player from an awesome dev known as andoma and is a must have homebrew package on your PS3. This piece of art has network streaming, plugins for online tv channels, youtube, and support for various formats that make movie watching all the more enjoyable and easier.
Next weekend I'll give some insight into ReactPSN, DEX conversions and launching games from your PC over the network... without the need of any expensive dongles.
