The new Vita-only users may not be aware of one of PSP’s greatest homebrew softwares, the iR Shell. iR Shell was developed by AhMan. It’s a program that basically changes the whole PSP’s GUI(Graphical User Interface) to a whole new Windows Vista like interface. It supports firmware 1.5, all OE revisions except for 3.30 as well as Team M33′s custom firmwares up to 5.00 M33-6 and 5.50 GEN, and can also run under 1.5 & 2.71 emulation under DevHook on PSP Phats (1000s).This ancient homebrew is not only known for its looks, but also the nifty feature it offers. It is an alternative to a launcher as seen on androids. It allows you to access and manipulate files on your computer, including a music player, image viewer and lots more handy features. It also includes plethora of advanced features that may not be very friendly to a regular user.
Some of the pretty neat features it includes are as follows:
USB Host: With USBhostFS, you can browse your Computer’s hard disks or
CD/DVD ROM drives via a USB connection from your PSP. You’ll need to install the usbhostfs driver on the PC and then run the nethostfs.exe server application before you can use this feature. USBhostFS can also be used as a PSP keypad redirection to PC keyboard or Joypad. For this to work you’ll need to enable the option “Redirect Keypad to Host” under iR Shell Configurator.
Nethost: With NetHostFS, you can browse your computer’s hard disks or
CD/DVD ROM drives via WiFi on your PSP. This is a bit more complicated since it is wireless and involves working internet connection. Unlike USBhostFS, you’ll need to enable PSP keypad redirection with -s option. (This tells the NEThostFS to enable keypad redirection.) You’ll also need to enable the option “Redirect Keypad to Host” located under the iR Shell Configurator when using keypad redirection.
With these 2 features (USBhostFS and NetHostFS) you can launch your PSP homebrews or backups from your PC via USB or WiFi. This helps to give your PSP unlimited storage! There is no need to have everything stuffed into your PSP anymore. When using Infrastructure WiFi you can even access these files located on your home PC via a wireless hotspot through the internet. Also take note for these features to work you’ll have to install the USBhostFS and NEThostFS drivers on PC (available on both Linux and Windows).
File Management: Includes a basic file manager. This also allows you to browse files on your memory stick, UMD disc, PC hard disks or DVD Rom drives via USB or WiFi as I mentioned above. You can even open all these files directly from any of these devices. The supported files include Atrac3s, Bitmaps, ISO Backups, Jpegs, PMF movies, PNGs, PBPs (Homebrews games and apps) PDF files, PS1 games, Rar and Zip files and text files.
iR Commander: You can only use this feature with the PSP 1000 because it includes infrared. It allows you to control various home appliances and other infra-red based equipment. It has built-in IR codes (Pronto Hex Codes) for more than 2000 devices! In iR Shell there is an icon on the top bit, called iR View and it has some preset devices in there one is the original Xbox. You can download other configurations to control other things.
External Control: The ability to control your PSP via an external keyboard or an external joypad/game controller. Yes that’s right you can use your Xbox controller to control movement, in games or wherever its necessary.
Mutli-tasking: This is the iR Shell’s main feature. The ability to multi task, unlike the PSP’s XMB which is very limited. This feature allows you to multi task between a UMD, Homebrew Game/App, ISO backups and PS1 games. This is what makes the iRShell more like another OS for the PSP. I wouldn’t call the XMB as much of an OS, because there is absolutely no sort of multi-tasking feature at all. The only ‘multi-tasking’ seen on the XMB is viewing a picture while playing music. Thanks to a few plugins, we can now do some multitasking like playing music while playing games or apps.
PS1 Games Multiplayer Support: Last but not least, it also includes some black magic that allows you to play multiplayer on PSX games via adhoc! Although this feature isn’t perfect, it has only been seen on iR Shell (At least for the PSP). This is a feature that isn’t even included in Sony’s official firmware. This is done via USBhostFS or NEThost.
These features are what makes iR Shell so fantastic! We do have separate plugins that allow us to do certain things that iRShell offers, for example Remote Joy Lite lets you stream your PSP’s screen on your PC. You can simply enable that plugin, and it allows you to do just that, whether you’re in GAME or VSH. One thing that no one has gotten their hands on is the Multiplayer Support for PS1 games. No one’s heard from AhMan for a while now, and unfortunately the source isn’t available either, but that doesn’t stop this homebrew from gaining its honor. There are lots more other things about this shell that I can discuss, but If I were to do that I could probably go on forever. Some of the features can be seen on Custom firmwares or as separate plugins today.
So what do you guys think? Do you think there should be another iR Shell? Not exactly the same, but with a different look or some sort. Do you think the Vita deserves one, when or if, it gains a Native hack?
If you’re willing to give it a shot, you can have a look at this tutorial by Ruyor.
Take note that some things don’t work on PSP Slim and Phats that are on 6.20 and over.