PSP debug access by keyboard?

[Kuriatsu]

hihi,

I recently got some PSP prototype UMDs and 2 of them seem very similar(if not the same as retail) and I figure that they are finals.
However, I was curious...The seller said one of them had debug but it was only accessible on a psp dev unit.
True to his word, its not available on a PSP emulator or PSP standard unit.

I was wondering if there was a way around that restriction potentially.
I was thinking, maybe there are keyboard shortcuts that are set up, that don't work on emulators?
Does the PSP work that way? are there commands that are on a PSP dev unit that are only on a psp dev unit?

I apologize for my ignorance.

 

[WorldGenesis]

There are hardware-based dip switches on the units themselves that are only accessible and do nothing (functionality API-wise) on retail units. These are available on both the Testing and Development Tools. There's no API call that allows devs to differentiate whether somethings running on a Tool or Retail unit, maybe the additional memory and/or dip switch detection.

There's also no USB or keyboard functionality as far as I know, but depends on the game itself, *some* games may be developed in a PS2-like environment and then ported over to PSP in later stages (ATV Off-Road Fury, Resistance Retribution) which may provide a different debugging setup.

 

[Kuriatsu]

Oh, I see...That makes things a little harder....I'd prefer not to have to get a dev unit itself just to test these things... (though I do want one, they're just too expensive at the moment)
Thank you.
I figured I'd ask because any attempt to run the games from an iso either on the PSP or otherwise cause crashes when changing the areas for at least 2 of these 3 builds, which is near unheard of itself.
So I suppose it is possible that that they have unique triggers that are hardware dependant...

 

[WorldGenesis]

Oh, I see...That makes things a little harder....I'd prefer not to have to get a dev unit itself just to test these things... (though I do want one, they're just too expensive at the moment)
Thank you.
I figured I'd ask because any attempt to run the games from an iso either on the PSP or otherwise cause crashes when changing the areas for at least 2 of these 3 builds, which is near unheard of itself.
So I suppose it is possible that that they have unique triggers that are hardware dependant...

Testing Units are *fairly* cheap on eBay (though depending on the seller they might sell a Test Unit as a 'development tool')

It *is* possible to fake the dip switches in custom firmware on the retail units theoretically, since the games read a specific call that can be overwritten via a plugin. This might be something I could look into easily

Untold Legends has a neat debug info feature when the first switch is toggled so could use that a starting point XD

 

[Kuriatsu]

Can you please check into that? I would appreciate it. I will too of course.
Whats the physical difference between a testing unit and a development tool?

 

[WorldGenesis]

Can you please check into that? I would appreciate it. I will of course too.
Whats the physical difference between a testing unit and a development tool?

No problem, am actually working on that now

The Testing Units are basically giant PSP towers, there's very little debugging functionality, it does provide DVD-R reading, dip switch (GPI) and general-purpose output LEDs (GPO) and memory crash debugging.

The Development Units have an on-board hardware module that can communicate with the PC over an ethernet connection (DECI2). This allows development environments to run executables quickly without writing a DVD to test things out

 

[Kuriatsu]

I would likely want to go for a testing unit if we can't find a plugin...
Thank you so much for your help
edit: though if a development unit came along for a great price I'd easily go for that.