.FLYINGHEAD HACKING THE PSP
.TITLE Macrofire for the PSP
.AUTHOR James Booth
.SUMMARY The analog stick on the PSP isn’t exactly the most reliable design, it’s prone to drifting and breaking. The Macrofire utility can correct that drift and create user-programmable button-macros. Read on to find out how Macrofire worked for Editor-at-Large James Booth
.OTHER
As I’ve stated in other articles, the PSP’s analog stick isn’t exactly the most reliable design. They’re prone to breakage and drifting. With the Macrofire utility, not only can you correct that drift, but you can also program button-macros for your favorite games on Sony’s Playstation Portable shown in Figure A.
.FIGPAIR A The Sony PSP (Playstation Portable).
In order to use Macrofire your PSP will need to have custom firmware installed. A [[http://www.computingunplugged.com/issues/issue200910/00002431001.html|previous article]] in Computing Unplugged provided instructions on how to install a custom firmware, but you’re on your own in locating the necessary files, as well as in locating Macrofire. A quick search on Google or Yahoo! will head you in the right direction.
.BREAK_EMAIL To learn more about Macrofire, read on by clicking here.
Due to the underground nature of custom firmware and the applications that go with it, be sure to use caution when searching for the files, there are some nefarious characters out there who will disguise viruses and malware as useful utilities; we’re providing this material for information purposes only.
.H1 Installing Macrofire
To install Macrofire on your custom firmware-enabled PSP, copy the "macrofire.prc" and "macrofire.ini" files to the SEPlugins directory of your Memory Stick as shown in Figure B.
.FIGPAIR B Copy the Macrofire files to the plugins directory.
Then, either create or edit the games.txt, vsh.txt, and pops.txt files in the SEPlugins directory and add the "ms0:/seplugins/macrofire.prx" (without the quotes) to each file and save, like the example in Figure C.
.FIGPAIR C Edit the games, pops, and vsh files.
To enable Macrofire, enter the Recovery menu by holding the Right Trigger during the boot process; remember, this only works on a PSP with custom firmware installed. Use the arrows to navigate down to Plugins and select by pressing the X button. In the Plugins menu, Enable Macrofire in Pops, VSH, and Games by selecting and pressing the X button as in Figure D.
.FIGPAIR D Enable Macrofire in the Recovery menu.
Exit the Recovery menu and the PSP will boot. You can now activate the Macrofire menu by pressing both Volume buttons at the same time, shown in Figure E.
.FIGPAIR E Press both Volume buttons to open Macrofire.
Because the PSP resets each time it loads a game, wait until you’re actually in the game before you open and set the parameters in Macrofire. Unfortunately, the readme file that comes with Macrofire is not in English, but if you look around you can find one; and if not, it’s pretty intuitive to configure.
.H1 Configuring Macrofire
When the Macrofire interface opens, you’ll need to actually turn it on by selecting "Macrofire Engine" and pressing the O button to toggle it on as in Figure F.
.BEGIN_KEEP
.FIGPAIR F The Macrofire menu.
.END_KEEP
You’ll need to toggle Macrofire on each time you use it; unless you’re savvy enough to edit the macrofire.ini file, where you can set the startup status to On.
The most useful utility in Macrofire is the analog stick calibration utility. With the analog stick remap shown in Figure G you can reset the X,Y coordinates of the analog stick to offset any drifting due to the stick going bad.
.FIGPAIR G Correct the drift of a bad analog stick.
The X and Y Origin coordinates are the base, centered settings; as you can see, the values are the same as for the Adjusted X,Y coordinates. The Raw coordinates are the offset your stick is actually registering, and the analog stick direction shows the movement of your stick if you rotate it or if it’s actively drifting in one or more directions. Adjust the Origin coordinates to match the Raw coordinates and your analog stick will be recalibrated.
.H1 Macros
Another strongpoint of Macrofire, and the inspiration for its name, is the programmable macros. Figure H shows the built-in functions the PSP buttons can be configured to produce.
.FIGPAIR H Macrofire’s built-in key functions.
But creating your own macros is what Macrofire is all about. Suppose a particularly effective combat move requires pressing Square, Square, X; with Macrofire, you can program that sequence of presses to a macro and assign it to a single button, or more convenient pair of buttons. The user-macro creation menu is shown in Figure I.
.FIGPAIR I Create your own macros for replicating multiple-button presses.
Sadly, I couldn’t get the programmable macros function to work; it seemed to freeze up during the recording process, requiring me to remove all power from the device in order to reset. And with the instructions not being in English, it was a bit difficult to troubleshoot.
.H1 Conclusion
Wrapping it all up, even without the programmable macros working properly, Macrofire is a great little app in that it allows you to recalibrate a failing analog stick, thus getting a bit more life out of it before needing a replacement. For that reason alone I give Macrofire a three out of five.
.RATING 3
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
Learn about [[http://www.computingunplugged.com/issues/issue200910/00002431001.html|hacking your PSP’s firmware]].
Learn more about [[http://www.us.playstation.com/PSP|the Sony Playstation Portable]].
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.BIO
