There have been a lot of discussions on how PsP ROMs could be played on either the PsP or the PC. A lot of people don't know that there are no legal commercial PsP games that can actually be downloaded over the internet. If there are, they are bootlegs and are covered by the law.
First off, Sony played it safe by using Universal Media Discs (UMD) for the PsP. So this means, it is impossible to just download full (commercial) PsP games and burning them to regular mini discs then playing then on your PsP. Much more so on the PC. There has been no fully functional emulator that has been able to play a PsP Rom fully.
Sony has made it very tough for people to make a backup of their games and there are no UMD burners and readers available in the market. Sony has bared that it has no intentions of releasing these UMD writers and readers so as to curb piracy. But time will tell, past security developments have been tried and done by other gaming companies and some people have found ways of going around these measures.
What PsP owners can look forward to are PsP game demos or PsP games that are created by unlicensed PsP game developers. By installing an emulator to your PsP, you will be able to play PsP ROMs in it. But first, what you need to do is to find the PsP ROMs that you will install.
As our title suggests, it is very hard to find commercial (full) PsP ROMs if they do exist, if they do, they are probably illegal. What you can find however are game demos. So, the next thing you will do is to download the PsP ROM that you want and save it to your computer first. This may require a little research to look for the websites that offer downloads of PsP ROMs.
After saving them on your computer, what you need to do now is to find an emulator that you will be able to download and install to your PsP. As a reminder, make sure to find an emulator that works with the version of your PsP, so it would be wise to first check what version your PsP is.
After downloading the emulator file, you need to extract the files in a folder, make sure you remember where you put it. Next step is to connect your PsP to your computer. You then go to the USB options area of your PsP. Then on your computer, open up the drive that represents your PsP. Open the PsP folder. Inside you will find the game folder, double click to open it. Drop inside the game folder, the unzipped files of your emulator from your computer. Drop inside the emulator folder your saved PsP ROMs.
The next step is to disconnect your PsP from your computer then go to your memory stick. Inside, look for your emulator folder. Usually it is found at the top since it has just been newly installed. Run your emulator by clicking the X button and look for your PsP ROMs inside. Then it's just a matter of playing and enjoying your PsP ROMs.