Play Station Portable Homebrew - History of Homebrew - Dark_AleX

Dark_AleX

Dark AleX (aka Dark_AleX, Dax) is a Spanish programmer who writes homebrew applications for the PlayStation Portable. Dark AleX, as well as other variations of the name, is a pseudonym under which he works. One of the drawbacks of downgrading the PSP is that new official media may require the presence of a new firmware edition. Dark_Alex had released a custom firmware called "Dark Alex's Open Edition firmware" or "Custom Firmware (CFW)" which opens the firmware but allows users to use the existing feature set of the current edition. Sony quickly patched the firmware again, continuing the cat-and-mouse game with the hackers and users. In 2006 Sony released six updates to the system firmware and in 2007 they released another six updates. In July 2007 Dark_AleX officially stopped his work on the PSP, citing perceived problems with Sony as one of the reasons for his departure. Some people even suggested that Dark_AleX was paid by Sony not to release any more custom firmware, but Sony denied this.

Custom Firmware allows the running of unsigned code such as homebrew applications and UMD backups, emulators for other consoles, as well as PlayStation games when the disc images are converted into PSP format.