On the subject of hacking, where do I start?

[XularusXIII]

I want to mod my old brick PS2 & DS Lite, make sure I have the best emulators for my Wii, and would like to know if there's any way to go about procuring a PS3 at FW3.55 or lower. Where do I start? There's so much info available here, it's mindboggling! Also, is there any way to fix my DS Lite's L&R buttons? They're dusty from being kept in my pocket, and won't work well.

Before anybody mentions it, this: http://gbatemp.net/threads/ps2-softmod.101682/ is full of broken links.

 

[Rydian]

For PS2 stuff, IIRC you just either use a PS2 AR, an exploitable game, or get somebody with an already-hacked unit to install FreeMCBoot onto a memory card for you. Never done it myself though.

DS hacks aren't softmods (except for one for the DSi that cannot be gotten anymore and only like ~200 people got it when it came out), they use flash carts.
http://gbatemp.net/threads/ds-dsi-3ds-hacking-f-a-q.278137/

The Wii emulation sticky is a good start, though it needs to be updated as stuff like RetroArch came out.
http://gbatemp.net/threads/emulator-status-updated.260782/

 

[xist]

For PS2 modding go here
http://gbatemp.net/threads/free-mcboot-install-service.309572/