Playstation Home Preservation

For those that don't know, Home was an online-only 3D videogame for the PS3, and had its servers shut down a number of years ago, and the only way to get it was to download it off the PSN Store or from the XMB during the open beta. That makes preserving it rather difficult, however even worse is that it had a HDD reservation of 3, 6, and 12GB, (default 3GB) for downloading areas, clothes, etc., which if you exceeded the space allocation, started overwriting older, pre-existing data. I copied my install off my PS3, and I'm not exaggerating when I say I've scoured nearly the whole internet for what I could find (mostly just base PKGs and updates, some still missing). I have ~50GB of data, but I'd say at least half is still missing (mainly areas, A.K.A Spaces), and most data came from Archive.org.

So in short, the only source of data for this game left is PS3s that had it installed 2015 and earlier, so if anyone who played it still has their PS3 and still has it installed, I'd appreciate it if any of you would copy and upload it to me. Any other data such as packet captures, or any random files you happen to have would also be helpful.


The PlayStation Home installation can be retrieved by jailbreaking your PS3 and copying the data from /dev_hdd0/game/NPIA00005 (Open beta) and /dev_hdd0/game/NPIA00005DATA, or /dev_hdd0/game/NPEA00013 (Closed beta).

Links to packages still hosted on Sony's servers (zeus, ares, a0, b0, sonycoment, etc.) would also be appreciated. Here's a list of the (known) versions I have and need, according to datomatic.no-intro.org and what I've found:
missing - 0.7.7, 0.8.6, 0.9.8, 1.03, 1.04, 1.32, 1.40 , 1.50, 1.55, 1.64, 1.65, 1.66, 1.70, 1.75, 1.80, 1.82, 1.83, 1.84, 1.85, 50.13
have - 0.31, 0.8.3, 0.8.6, 0.9.4, 1.00 (NPEA), 1.00 (NPIA, PS3 firmware 2.20 & 4.40), 1.00.07, 1.01, 1.02, 1.10, 1.11, 1.17, 1.21, 1.22, 1.23, 1.35 (retail & QA ver), 1.36 (retail & QA ver), 1.41, 1.61, 1.86, 1.87



I read the file sharing guidelines and presume public file sharing of this game is okay (but if not please let me know). You can also contact me at suiginnoame@gmail.com. I plan to eventually throw everything I have on Archive.org.

 

I have an old install I never played on my old phat. I never installed very many things besides areas and stuff IIRC. I stopped playing around 2010. Wondering if its worth repairing the YLOD on it/extracting the HDD from it for. Would love to help. Cheers.

 

I don't think removing the HDD would help, as far as I know you need the eid root key to decrypt it, which can only be obtained from the console while it's working. But if you'd be willing to reflow it, jailbreak it, and pull what's on there, that would be extremely appreciated! As I said, the bulk of what's missing is areas/spaces so if that's what you have, that'd be great!

 

I didnt know if there was a program to terminate the bias on PS3 HDDs (like what a TSOP xbox can do) since I have a couple other CFW PS3s and it would have been easier for me to transplant that HDD into one of mine. I can just like, reflow the points with fresh solder right? A lot of people say to use a toaster over which doesnt sound very proper and it seems I can just re-solder the points and itd work fine. Neither are an issue since I already have solder equipment and PS3Xploit makes having equipment to JB obsolete! I'll update you as I continue with this project. Thanks friend!

 

The chip that fails is the Nvidia RSX (the GPU) because of shoddy production around that time. The chip is mounted as a BGA (the solder joints are underneath the chip, not through-hole or on the side). But the problem isn't actually the solder, it's the chip itself. So yeah, either an oven or a heat gun (hair dryer maybe?) is needed. Soldering iron won't do anything. Thanks for the effort! Hope it goes well.

Also, I don't know what the status is on just moving the HDD of one PS3 to the other. I'd assume you still need the eid root key (if anyone's even implemented a tool for that). The PS3 HDD is linked to the PS3 it's formatted in. Put it in any other PS3 and it'll tell you that you have to format it. But who knows, maybe there's a workaround now. I'm not intimately familiar with this stuff anymore. Lol.