Using PSPExp

The same on every board. Everything here is done with the PSP's own buttons; the board needs no screen, keyboard or mouse.

The same buttons everywhere

The launcher

It opens on the home screen: five big tiles, Favourites, Games, Emulators, Apps and Settings, with what each holds underneath and, below, Play again with what you played last (it starts afresh; the game's own saves are there as always) and, while music is loaded, Now playing (or Paused) with the song. A note at the top shows music playing, a pause sign that it is paused.

 12:04 Sat 03 Oct (bell)2          PSP 76%  |  headphones 40%  wifi  plug  board
     (star)    (GAMES)   (joystick)   (apps)   (gear)
   Favourites   Games    Emulators     Apps   Settings
                         34 games
                 (>) Play again  GoldenEye 007
 (X) Open                          SELECT Notifications  START Search

Left and right pick a tile, cross opens it; down then cross plays what you were playing (or opens Music, on Now playing; left / right between the two).

Inside a section, the same five run down the left as the rail, and the section's shelf runs to its right: games and ROMs as discs with their cover in the window, apps and settings as icon tiles. The one you are on is larger and glows; its description shows underneath, and who draws it: PSP renderer (the PSP's graphics chip, most games) or Board GPU renderer (the board's own graphics chip, each frame sent to the PSP as a picture: SuperTuxKart, the Nintendo 64 on a Pi). Emulators has one tile per system you have ROMs for, with its console's picture (the N64's controller, a Game Boy...), like the home screen's; cross on one opens its ROMs ("Emulators > Nintendo 64"), circle goes back.

 12:04 Sat 03 Oct                  PSP 76%  |  headphones 40%  wifi  plug  board
 [star]   | Games                                                 12 games
 [GAMES]  |   (disc)   (DISC)   (disc)   (disc)   (disc)  >
 [joy]    |   Quake  Cave Story OpenTyrian  ...
 [apps]   | Cave Story
 [gear]   | a short description of the game
          | Game  /  PSP renderer
 (X) Play  ([]) Favourite  (/\) Details  (O) Home  SELECT Notifications  START Search

Notifications

What PSPExp has to tell you shows as a banner at the top of the screen, whatever you are in (the launcher, an app, Files, the terminal), one after another when several come: updates for your packages or for the PSP, a game that could not start, a battery running low (the PSP's or the board's), the board losing its network, Bluetooth headphones gone, storage nearly full, an install or a Wi-Fi join that finished.

Nothing is lost when you look away: the bell next to the date in the top bar counts what you have not seen. In the launcher press SELECT to open the list (or, on the home screen, up from the tiles to the bell and cross), the last 50, newest first:

• cross: go where it is about (Packages for updates, Settings for the network or Bluetooth), when there is somewhere to go;
• square: remove it; START twice: clear them all;
• circle: close.

While you play, nothing interrupts the game: what came meanwhile is summed up in one banner when you are back ("3 notifications while you played") and waits under the bell.

Scripts and programs on the board can send their own (pspexp-notify: see the cheatsheet).

Playing

Cross on a game starts it. The launcher shows the game with "Starting" and a turning wheel, which the PSP keeps on screen while the game loads, until the game's first picture; when the game ends, the launcher comes back by itself.

A game that cannot start says why at the bottom of the screen: Warcraft, for example, when the data from your own copy is not on the board yet.

To leave any game, hold START + SELECT. After a second the game is asked to quit; still held after two, it is ended, and a game that hangs while closing is ended a moment later. Many games also have their own Quit in their menus.

Each game comes with its buttons mapped for the PSP (the analog nub as a mouse pointer in the point-and-click adventures and strategy games, as the d-pad in others). Triangle on a game in the launcher shows its details.

Packages: installing games

Apps > Packages lists what your board can install, in three sections: Games, Emulators and Apps (L / R switch). PSPExp itself is the first entry under Apps: when it says Update, cross installs the new PSPExp (and the PSP's runtime with it); then Settings > Restart PSPExp, and Settings > Update the PSP when the launcher offers it. When a new PSPExp is out, the launcher says so ("A new PSPExp is available"; choosing the notification opens Packages on it), and a section with updates shows how many next to its name. It opens with "Reading the packages" for a moment while it reads the list.

Each game's entry says its renderer: PSP (SDL or OpenGL games, drawn by the PSP's graphics chip) or Board GPU (drawn by the board's own graphics chip and sent to the PSP as pictures; only on boards that can, the Raspberry Pi).

A few games come with terms to accept first (Unreal Tournament: the Epic Games Terms of Service; Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory: id Software's licence agreement; Diablo: DevilutionX's licence). Packages shows them with where to read them; cross accepts and installs, circle declines and nothing is downloaded.

Installing runs in the background: the progress shows, and the game appears in the launcher when done. A few games (the RPG Maker ones) are downloaded from their developers' own pages while they install, so those need the board online and take a few minutes (Theia: about 6 on a Pi). If a game's download fails everywhere (its site gone), Packages says so: put the game's file, as its makers released it, in /opt/pspexp/downloads on the board (with Apps > Files from a USB stick, for example) and install again; PSPExp checks it is the right file. PSPExp itself is updated the same way; after such an update, Settings > Restart PSPExp starts the new version, and Settings > Update the PSP puts the PSP's side up to date too.

Emulators and ROMs

An emulator package adds a system: NES, SNES, Mega Drive (with Master System and Game Gear), Game Boy and Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Atari Lynx, WonderSwan, and on a Raspberry Pi the Nintendo 64. It appears under Emulators once there are ROMs in its folder in the board's home folder:

On the Nintendo 64 the nub is the stick, cross A, square B, L the Z trigger, R the R button, START Start, and the d-pad the four C buttons (triangle is the N64's L).

New ROMs show up within seconds (or Settings > Library > Refresh library), with their titles cleaned up ("Legend of Zelda, The (USA)" becomes "The Legend of Zelda") and box art downloaded when the board is online (turn that off in Settings > Library > Box art). Games with battery saves keep them on the board. Only use ROMs of games you own.

Files

Apps > Files opens a two-panel file manager.

The drives include the board's storage, any USB stick plugged into it, and the PSP's own memory stick (drive PSP), while PSPExp runs. Copying between the PSP and the board is the easy way to bring ROMs, music or pictures over: put them on the stick with the PSP in USB mode, start PSPExp, copy.

Music

Apps > Music plays the music on your board, your USB sticks and the PSP's memory stick. Cross on a song in Files opens it here too. It has three views; START goes from one to the next:

• Now playing: the song, artist, album and cover, the time, and what comes next;
• Browse: your music folder, home, the drives, and the PSP's MUSIC folder. Cross opens a folder, or plays a song and the rest of its folder; square adds the song, or a folder's songs (with its subfolders'), to the end of the queue; circle goes up;
• Queue: the songs to come. Cross plays one, square takes it out.

The music goes on while you use the launcher, Files or the other apps; Now playing on the home screen, or Apps > Music, brings it back. In Files the song playing has a note beside it and its title shows at the foot of the panel; cross on it (or START > Music) brings Music back without starting the song over. Files' triangle menu has Add to the music queue, for the highlighted or marked songs and folders. Starting a game stops it.

The cover comes from the file, or a cover.jpg / folder.jpg beside it. MP3s are decoded by the PSP itself, on its second processor, the Media Engine: the board barely works and the cable carries a few kilobytes a second. WAV plays as it is; Ogg, FLAC, Opus and M4A are decoded by the board when it has ffmpeg. The note button needs the PSP's PSPExp from 5 October 2026 or later (Settings > Update the PSP).

Bluetooth headphones

On a board with Bluetooth (the Raspberry Pi, the GameShell), Settings > Sound sends all sound to headphones or a speaker instead of the PSP:

1. Put the headphones in pairing mode.
2. Settings > Sound. It scans for a few seconds and lists The PSP and the devices it found.
3. Cross on your headphones. They pair and connect, and the sound moves to them, starting at 40 % volume.

From then on:

• The PSP's volume buttons set the headphones' volume, in every game; a bar on the PSP's screen shows it, and the top bar shows a headphones icon with the level.
• Headphones back in their case: the sound returns to the PSP within a few seconds; out again, it moves back to them.
• The PSP in Sound output brings the sound back for good and lets the headphones go, so your phone or tablet can have them.
• Other headphones chosen in Sound output take over: the ones before are let go first, as with The PSP. One device plays at a time.
• Square on a device in the list forgets it; START scans again.

Bluetooth always adds a little delay. PSPExp keeps its own part small; what remains depends on the headphones.

The terminal

Hold SELECT in the launcher (or Apps > Terminal): the board's Linux shell on the PSP, with an on-screen keyboard. Up to four shells, colours, scrollback; vi and top work. On a Raspberry Pi 400 its own keyboard types into it too.

Settings

Settings shows its options in groups; cross on a group opens it (a group with a single option opens that option at once), circle comes back.

When there is something to do, it comes first, before the groups: Update the PSP (a newer PSPExp for the PSP is ready) and Restart PSPExp (after PSPExp was updated).

Apps > System Monitor shows the board's processor, memory, temperature, storage and network, and its programs (one can be ended from there if it hangs).