How to sign PSP back-ups bigger than 728 MegaByte

[Moogle of Death]

How to sign PSP back-ups bigger than 728 MegaBytes




Developer Takka has incorporated to the last revisions of ISO_Tool the option to sign backups with Fake_NP9

Fake_NP9 is a tool that give us the possibility to sign our own backups so we can launch them in Official Firmware (OFW), and without the need of installing a Custom Firmware (CFW) or Homebrew Enabler (HEN).
With this tool we can take as BASE any game download from the PSN Store (Welcome Back program freebies is a given ), which this tool will allow us to sign any backup that has the same or inferior size as the BASE game.

In this case I'm going to use ModNation Racers as BASE ... next are some requirements necessaries to be able to sign backups using ModNation Racers as BASE:


Requirements:

• PSP with at least OFW 6.20 installed (newer versions are OK)
• Only backups in ISO format can be signed (sorry but no CSO format allowed)
• For better results it is recommended to use CLEAN backups (you may or may not have problems signing patched backups)
• It is important to copy over to our PC the BASE game and its LICENSE

Before we start

• Make sure you have the latest ISO_Tool ( ISO Tool can be found here : http://goo.gl/EN5uj)
• Make sure the game you want to sign is of equal or lesser size to the one being use as the BASE.
• In this tutorial my European ModNation Racers is 1.3GB from the PSN Store, and I'm gonna sign European Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories which is 1.2GB in size.

First Part : Creation of the FAKE_NP Data File

Spoiler warning:

Move through the XMB menu of our PSP and go to the GAMES tab and launch ISO_Tool




Put the arrow pointing to the game we want to sign




Press the △ button and a pop-up SYS MENU window will appear.




Now move the arrow next to the Make fake_np Data File option and press X ... a new window will appear




Move the arrow pointing at the BASE game (UCES01327 ) we are gonna use and press X ... a new pop-up window will appear




Select the YES option and wait until the FINISHED message window appear




Press the X button and the application will return to the Main Menu.

This Step we just did we wont have to do it again, because the BASE game Data has been stored in an ISO_Tool Folder which we can use any time we want to sign a game

Second Part : Signing of the Backup Game

Spoiler warning:

Again at the Main Menu we select the game we want to sign (Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories in my case) and press X ... a new pop-up ISO MENU window will appear




Place the arrow next to the Convert fake_np option and press X ...a new Select Data Path window will show up




Now we select the Data we previously create (ModNation), and press X ... a new pop-up window will appear






Select the YES option and wait until the process is done
Process time can vary, in my case it says 15:16 minutes as you can see in the image above, but end up taking around 19 minutes.




When done the FINISHED window will appear, Press the X button and the application will return to the Main Menu.
To Exit from ISO_Tool press the HOME button.

Now in the GAMES tab we can verify that we have our backup game (Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories in my case) SIGNED by checking up the Information




Game Sharing and Obtaining other Region Licenses

Sharing of Signed games bigger than 728 MegaBytes is possible but some criteria need to be met.

Games signed using a USA version of a game as BASE can only be played on the PSP that owned a license of that same game version.
IE.: If a game is signed with Modnation USA as BASE, only PSP that owned the USA version license of Modnation will be able to play it, people owning the EUR or JAP version of same game will get a message stating that no license was found.
Same goes for the other Regions as each region have their unique GameID.

Because of this if such a signed game is to be shared, the uploader must provide info regarding which game was used as BASE to sign the game to be shared and its region so people wanting to download and play such game know before hand if it will work on thir PSP or not.


I,f as most of us, you only have the license of just one region do not despair ... there are ways to get a legitimate license of other regions. Try googling "Sharing of PSN games on PSP"

Notes, Precautions and Advises

There is the possibility of some backups not working after being signed

It is important to make a backup of our BASE Game (Eboot from PSN) and its License in a safe place on our PC

Once we have made our First Part of the Tutorial we can delete the BASE Game from our Memory Stick or Storage Unit to save space.

Warning : the BASE Game we have to delete it via PC ALWAYS, because if it is done from the PSP directly it will also delete the License from the Memory Stick and any game signed with the BASE Game will be unplayable

Do not intent to use a PSX/PSOne Classic Game as BASE because it will not work for this.

IMPORTANT : The backups game that we signed with this method will ONLY WORK in the PSPs that have Bought, Download and Activated the same BASE Game from the PSP

Because of this, it is important that if any backup is signed with the intent of SHARING with others, let's them know which game was used as BASE to sign any backup game.

But more important will be for sharing communities like this one, to pick a BASE game in common for the signings of games that need a License ... hopefully whoever decide to sign a game we can only hope that they do it with either one of the PSP Welcome Back program Free games as the one used in this tutorial (The other one would be Little Big Planet, which is actually Bigger than ModNation Racers.)