The PSP is becoming a hotbed for independently developed apps.

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Homebrew Confidential

By Danny Webb

(September 23, 2005)

Hundreds of owners of Sony's PSP and Nintendo's DS hear the deafening chant of handheld dissenters saying that the dearth of good games makes their systems a poor purchase. The PSP owners hear that all the current releases are just ports of pre-existing games. The DS owners hear that same chant but also hear that theirs is a “kiddie” system that should never be seen in the hands of a full-grown adult. Hundreds of owners hear these complaints and say, “So, what?--we're in it for the hacks.”

The homebrew and hack/mod scenes for the DS and, especially, the PSP are as large as they are creative. Owners of these systems who are willing to do a little work can get their hands on an amazing variety of software developed by a legion of skilled programmers not held back by concepts like marketability and, some would say, legality. The list of available applications is too long to list here, but what follows is a roundup of some of the coolest, most useful products of the homebrew community.

Sony PSP

The PSP homebrew scene is easily the more active of the two, likely due to the ease with which the PSP communicates with PCs and the raw power that it has to throw at tasks. Unfortunately, if you buy a new PSP, these homebrew applications will not work. So far, only users who own systems with Firmware 1.0 through 1.5 can run homebrew software. So, if you have a new system or have updated your firmware on your older system, these programs are currently unavailable to you.

The worst part about Sony’s hostility is their biggest weapon—forced upgrades. A number of new releases in Japan have forced Japanese PSP owners to upgrade their firmware to play them. Just this month, the first U.S. game to force an upgrade to a non-hackable firmware was released (Namco Museum Battle

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Collection). There are a number of programmers, however, working on fixing the problem either through hacking the current firmware or figuring out how to downgrade a system to an earlier firmware.

Emulation. The most attractive and active applications in the homebrew world are emulators—programs that allow one system to play the software written for another, usually older, system. Currently, the PSP has working emulation of the Atari

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2600, Atari 800 series, NES, SMS, SNES, Genesis/Megadrive, TG16 (Pc Engine), Amiga, Neo Geo CD, Neo Geo Pocket, Wonderswan, and even x86 PCs. This means that PSP owners have access to nearly every great game made before 1995. The legality of emulators isn't really in question, but the legality of the use of roms (digital images of the actual games) is, so be sure to check the laws of your country, state, or province before participating in the emulation scene.

Using the x86 emulation, one user has even managed to get a version of Windows up and running on the PSP (though I can't imagine why he wanted to). I was able to use the x86 emulation to run a couple of older PC games that won't run on my current PC (Lemmings and King’s Bounty, for the record). With USB 2.0 connectivity, “installing” the game on the PSP is fast and easy.

Applications. The PSP, out of the box, allows for browsing the web (most recent update), and playing MP3s, video files, and UMD movies, so it is already a fairly full-featured system. However, the homebrew community has added some cool apps to its arsenal. A small sampling follows:

Web browsers

An AVI player

BMP and JPEG Viewers

PC-like file managers

E-book readers

Universal Remote Controller

Calendar

Notepad

Paint programs

Wi-fi Multi-tester

Games. As you might expect, many of the homebrew apps are games. Some of these games are really simple time wasters while others are simply amazing. I currently keep Doom PSP (a full featured port of the original with support for Heretic and Hexen) on my memory card at all times for some quick, old school FPS action. Tons of other games are available. Here is a short sample of the games available:

Tetris
Angband
Arkanoid
Bejeweled
Blackjack
Doom

Dr Mario
Freecell
Ghost In The Matrix
Heretic
Hexen
Kaboom
Lulines
Nethack
Pokothin 2
Pong
Pacman
Go
Solitaire
Puyo Puyo
Quake
Scorched Earth

That’s a pretty long list and it is only a fraction of the games available for download.

In all, I've gotten as much fun out of the homebew community in the six months since I purchased the PSP as I have from the work of professional developers. That will likely change with all of the great games scheduled for Q4 2005, but I'm certainly not going to upgrade my firmware any time soon.