Wololo has officially released the Half-Byte Loader for the PlayStation Vita, calling the project: VHBL.

The VHBL is a port of the PSP homebrew loader that will allow users run any fan made PSP game up to firmware 6.60 and Vita 1.61.  Despite it’s limited access to the Vita’s hardware, you can still use the VHBL to run emulators for legacy consoles like Game Boy, Nintendo 64, Sega Megadrive, NES, Super NES, etc.

Important:

• VHBL does not technically allow you to play any pirated PSP or Vita games.
• Although VHBL is free and open source, the current version relies on a vulnerability in a specific PSP game (Motorstorm Arctic Edge) that you need to buy from the PSN. VHBL comes with no guarantee, especially I cannot guarantee it will work on your Vita, so remember that you pay for a PSP game, and not for anything else. I do not do refunds for the money you gave to Sony
• It is super easy for Sony to patch the vulnerabilities used by this tool, given the amount of control they have on the PS Vita. VHBL runs fine on firmware 1.61, but for all I know it is possible for Sony to patch the game’s vulnerability without a firmware update. So, once again, before buying the game and downloading VHBL, you need to understand that you pay for the game, and VHBL is a bonus that might or might not work

VHBL is now available for download.  All you need is a copy of Motorstorm Arctic Edge on from the PlayStation Store. Download the version that matches your version of the game:

• EU Version
• JP Version
• KR Version (Seen at least on the HK store)
• US Version (not very useful)

How to Install and Run HBL

• Turn off all wireless connections on your PS Vita (WiFi, Blutooth, 3G if available), and connect your Vita to your PC via OpenCMA.
• Extract this HBL archive in your CMA PSP Savedata folder. It is a folder on your PC named PSSAVEDATA/[lots of random characters here]. If you don’t know where it is, check your settings in CMA
• Connect your PS Vita to the PC through the CMA, it should give you the possibility to copy the savedata from your PC to the Vita. If not, you probably extracted it in the wrong folder. (Note: You will also want to install some homebrews with a similar technique, read the section below)
• To run HBL, start the Motorstorm game, select “Load” in the savegame menu, open the HBL savegame, then go to “Wreckreation > Time Attack” and select “No”.  You should now see HBL running.

Below is a video from Wololo demoing VHBL:

For more details and instructions, head to Wololo’s VHBL page.