Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2008 2:19 am1. In many cases, there will be no additional cost to you. However, if you buy a brand new PSP, it will have a newer battery, and you may want to buy an older battery and make a Pandora's Battery. What that does is unlock a "service mode" on the PSP and will return the PSP to firmware 1.50. In doing so, you will then be able to upgrade to any firmware you want. Coders have released dozens of "custom firmwares" which are easy to install and pack more features than standard firmwares. There's even a recovery mode so that you can't brick/ ruin the PSP 
2. I'd argue that the PSP is much more cost effective to use homebrew on than the DS. The only outstanding costs that you might incur are around $25 for a battery (or a fee for someone to do this for you) and/ or "x" amount of money for a larger memory stick option. I've always used a 1gb card. At one point I had 3 of them, but still, 1gb should be fairly adequate. A 1gb memory stick pro duo can hold hundreds of NES, SNES, Genesis roms etc. and still should leave quite a bit of space for some UMD .ISO backups or Playstation 1 games. However, if your primary concern is playing .ISO files or ROM files, you may want to invest in a larger memory stick. It's common to find 4gb memory stick pro duos for less than you spent on your slot 1 flash cart.
3. The PSP requires only 1 thing: custom firmware. Like I said earlier, getting custom firmware may cost a small amount of money if you buy a new PSP because you'd have to either buy an older battery or buy a "Datel battery", which should work as a more commercialized Pandora's Battery... though I haven't used one of those. There's also people that will do that service on ebay for you, as well as third-party places to buy pre-made Pandora's Batteries and "magic memory sticks". I wrote a tutorial for creating a Pandora's Battery/ magic memory stick that you may find extremely useful. If you need to do the steps yourself, that's a foolproof way to getting it done.
Anyways, I'm one of the head administrators of this website. I know 99% of everything there is to know about the PSP and have been using and reading about homebrew since the PSP was released. If you ever need help or assistance, please contact me via AIM @ "DarkPacMan77" - same name. In fact, I've had that screen name since 3rd/ 4th grade (I'm now 19).
-DarkPacMan77-
2. I'd argue that the PSP is much more cost effective to use homebrew on than the DS. The only outstanding costs that you might incur are around $25 for a battery (or a fee for someone to do this for you) and/ or "x" amount of money for a larger memory stick option. I've always used a 1gb card. At one point I had 3 of them, but still, 1gb should be fairly adequate. A 1gb memory stick pro duo can hold hundreds of NES, SNES, Genesis roms etc. and still should leave quite a bit of space for some UMD .ISO backups or Playstation 1 games. However, if your primary concern is playing .ISO files or ROM files, you may want to invest in a larger memory stick. It's common to find 4gb memory stick pro duos for less than you spent on your slot 1 flash cart.
3. The PSP requires only 1 thing: custom firmware. Like I said earlier, getting custom firmware may cost a small amount of money if you buy a new PSP because you'd have to either buy an older battery or buy a "Datel battery", which should work as a more commercialized Pandora's Battery... though I haven't used one of those. There's also people that will do that service on ebay for you, as well as third-party places to buy pre-made Pandora's Batteries and "magic memory sticks". I wrote a tutorial for creating a Pandora's Battery/ magic memory stick that you may find extremely useful. If you need to do the steps yourself, that's a foolproof way to getting it done.
Anyways, I'm one of the head administrators of this website. I know 99% of everything there is to know about the PSP and have been using and reading about homebrew since the PSP was released. If you ever need help or assistance, please contact me via AIM @ "DarkPacMan77" - same name. In fact, I've had that screen name since 3rd/ 4th grade (I'm now 19).
-DarkPacMan77-