PSP Hacks · Hacks, Cracks, Mods, Homebrew, Utilities

Two more DOS classics ported by developer Deniska; please welcome the PSP-enabled versions of Nicky II and Bermuda Syndrome. Ring a bell? If not -

Nicky II is an Amiga/DOS platformer by Microids published back in ‘93.

Nicky II PSP Screenshot

The sequel to Nicky Boom; this time Nicky must find out who has been removing ladders and blocking off caves in his homeland. The gameplay is essentially platform, with multi-directional maze-like levels. Beating the obstructions requires occasional brainwork — hidden ladders are easy enough to uncover, and there are lots of hidden sections to look for. The levels are colourful, and the game has a cute look making it appear suited to younger players. Mirrors are placed around the levels, which transport you to a random place.

Bermuda Syndrome is a side-scrolling action adventure game from Century Interactive released in ‘95. You’ll need to download the demo or full version to get this working. See README_PSP.txt for info on that.

Bermuda Syndrome PSP Screenshot

You’re a pilot of a B-17 bomber in 2nd World War. After you’re shot down by German fighters, you crash land through some sort of time hole in a strange world, where both dinosaurs and humans live. The first thing you have to do is save a princess; she’s your companion throughout the game.

Note: both these homebrew ports require custom firmware 3.xx. Enjoy!

Credits:

Nicky II:
Alain Lambin - Graphics / Sound / Music
Dominico Manfredi - Original game programming
Gregory Montoir - Cross-platform game engine recreation
DENISKA - PSP port

Bermuda Syndrome:
Century Interactive - Original game creation
Gregory Montoir - Cross-platform game engine recreation
DENISKA - PSP port

Download:
Nicky II PSP
Bermuda Syndrome PSP

- source: deniska.dcemu.co.uk

Deniska scores a hat trick with some side-scrollin’ homebrew goodness… This time ’round we have Jazz JackRabbit now fully compatible with [custom] firmware 3.xx; I’m looking at you Slim owners.

Jazz JackRabbit for the PSP is ported from Alister Thomson’s OpenJazz — a re-crafted version of the Epic MegaGames classic.

Jazz JackRabbit changes:

• Added support for Slim PSP
• bundled with shareware version of the game

Download: Jazz JackRabbit v0.02 (source include)

- source: deniska.dcemu.co.uk

Chalk up another for Deniska… It’s an older homebrew release, but with newly added support for the PSP Slim.

Reverzi PSP is a clone of the classic strategy game, Othello; also known as, Reversi. The objective: occupy the majority of the board with your starting colour/piece. Check out Wikipedia to further enlighten yourself.

Reverzi PSP features:

• Basic sound support
• Music support for tracker (s3m, xm, mod) and Ogg-Vorbis files. Just rename the file in one of those formats to song1.xxx and drop it in to music directory if you want music on the background.
• 3 difficulty levels settings for AI
• modable design - just edit the graphics in the img folder to create your own skins.

Download: Reverzi PSP

- source: deniska.dcemu.co.uk

Simon Fuller ain’t got nothin’ on Homebrew Idol… Marking the fourth entry in our homebrew competition is Deniska with BINIAX2PSP — the PSP adaptation of Jordan Tuzsuzov’s BINIAX2.

Biniax-2 is a game of logic and reaction. The 3 game modes allow you to play against the time, pure tactical play or challenge with a friend in a multi player game.

GAME RULES: The player moves a single element around a field of pairs of elements. You can take a pair if it contains your element. When a pair is taken, player’s element becomes the other element of the taken pair. Sometimes the field is scrolling down (the scrolling elements can push you down) and the goal of the game is to stay as long as possible on the board.

Nice work, Deniska.

Download: BINIAX2PSP v1.0

For a complete Homebrew Idol rewind, click here.

Deniska has shared two homebrew updates… The much-loved OpenTyrian port, sitting stable at version 1.0, and Hex-A-Hop. Both games now compatible with the PSP Slim. Get down.

Tyrian is an arcade-style vertical scrolling shooter. The player controls a space ship fitted with different weapons and enhanced energy shields. Money is earned by destroying enemies and grabbing bonuses, which is then used to purchase upgrades such as weapons, shields, energy generators, and different ships from interlevel menus. The game is fast paced and presents a variety of enemies and bosses.

This is a PSP adoptation of Hex-A-Hop, a puzzle game based on hexagonal tiles, by Tom Beaumont. The objective is simply to destroy all the green hexagonal tiles on each of the 100 levels. As you progress through the game, more types of tiles are introduced which make things more difficult and interesting (hopefully).

Download:
OpenTyrian 1.0
Hex-A-Hop

- source: deniska.dcemu.co.uk

Two updates, each a few days old, but still worth mentioning…

By now you’re vastly familiar with both homebrew releases. Deniska has OpenTyrian — relive the classic top-down shooter on the PSP — sitting at version 0.9 now. As well SofiyaCat with PSPTube 20080109. Enjoy YouTube & Dailymotion video clips direct on your PlayStation Portable.

What’s new? –

PSPTube, I’m not entirely sure. Although I notice the ability to delete videos from your favourites.

OpenTyrian 0.9:

• music volume increased
• Christmas mode activation dialog added
• based on the latest (674) revision of OpenTyrian

Download:
OpenTyrian PSP (Full) | OpenTyrian PSP 0.9 (patch)
PSPTube 20080109

- source: dcemu & coocan

We fatties have been using MapThis for quite some time; well, some of us anyway. Now you — the young Slim fit PSP owners, who use a generic GPS receiver — can transform their hand held into a device capable of locating your very existence in this universe.

Once wired and configured properly you may take advantage of various satellites orbiting the globe. Position your exact whereabouts while mapping out routes to popular destinations and all that. But be careful, you may find yourself somewhere commonly referred to as the Twilight Zone.

MapThis 0.5.20 changes:

• Generic serial GPS receivers support (Holux gpslim236-240, M1000-1200 and others) for slim psp
• One version of the program (FW3.XX) supports both PSP-290 and Holux receivers.
• Type of receiver can now be selected via configuration screen:
  • ENABLESERIALPORT=1 - Holux / serial port gps devices
  • ENABLESERIALPORT=0 - PSP-290 support.

  Note that due to FW limitations the version for 1.0-1.5 firmware does not have support for PSP-290 receiver.

• WIFI upload should now work in all versions of the program. (must be enabled with LOADWIFI=1 flag)
• Variable map scroll speed (controlled via CURSORSPEED=..)
• Zoom in/out animation (toggled with SMOOTHZOOM=1)
• Smooth transition between 2D and bird-view modes
• Sound output controlled programatically in FW3.xx version. (applies to serial port gps devices only) If during program starup the audio/serial connector is not plugged in, the sound is routed to internal speakers.
• Rotating POI icons, better rendering of compass arrows, etc
• Numerous rendering optiomizations (as of v05.05)
• Misc bug fixes
• Code cleanup
• Source code included

Download: MapThis 0.5.20

Factory-made cables and parts for DIY projects can be purchased @ pc-mobile.net/pspgps.htm.

- source: deniska.dcemu.co.uk

Next time you find yourself waking up in a deserted parking lot or ditch, immediately start searching the unfamiliar area in hopes to locate your PSP. You never know where you’ll end up after a complete night of blacking everything out; but, remain calm, no need for the frantic behaviour, for Deniska’s “MapThis!” — the homebrew global positioning system (GPS) software — will aid in your state of confusion. Lock on target, and begin the long trudge home. Good luck!

0.5.01 changes:

• disabled map boundary restrictions: you should be able to follow a route off the map w/o annoying pop-up messages…
• better shared objects handling (seems to be very robust under 3.51 FW - no crashes yet)
• fixed relaxed lookup bug
• better zoom in/out logic
• new sounds
• better “speed limit” logic / graphics

You must install this update on top of version 0.5, fetch that here — MapThis v0.5

Download: MapThis! 0.5.01 Update

- source: dcemu

If Deniska’s original Kill Everything That Moves (KETM) wasn’t enough, DM Productions have released their own KETM adaptation — KETM: Iron Man Edition! Soar through the sky as Iron Man defeating various enemies in this fast paced tyrian style 2D shooter.

• 3 levels with different environments, music & bosses
• 14 enemies with unique attack patterns and adjusting hostility
• 7 primary weapons
• 4 secondary weapons (rockets, laser, bomb, rotating shield)
• 3 mods: original episode1, 1941 mod by bourbon_bot and Iron Man Edtion by 6riku6
• Fully modable design: you can change sounds, graphics, script your own attacking sequences and intensity.
• Source code & PSPSDK Makefile provided

Star Wars fans may find interest in this mod, too.

Download: KETM: Iron Man Edition

- source: DM Productions

Deniska has released MapThis v0.5, marking the 1 year anniversary of the popular PSP GPS-enabled software. Installation, controls, obtaining maps, and absolutely everything of importance can be found with the included documentation.

Now map your route to the closest beer store and pick up a celebratory case of Beck’s for Deniska! Cheers!

0.5 changelog:

• Birds Eye mode
• Inverted colors (night) mode
• Voice Prompts / Alerts support.
• Missing zoom layer rendering (only for gpsfs maps). MapThis! attempts to render a missing zoom layer with shrinked tiles fromthe next zoom level.
• Screenshots are saved in ms0:/PSP/PHOTO now
• Icons/sounds can now be located in either a particular map directory or system (system/sounds or system/icons) directory.
• POI and WAYPOINT files can now also be looked up from ms0:/PSP/COMMON
• Geodata can now be shared between maps if geodata.dat file is placed in the same directory as EBOOT.PBP.
• The program will attempt to load geodata.dat file in the current map directory first.
• New tiger line geodata for USA (2006se from 03/2007) compiled and available through gmdl18a and higher versions.
• Edit functionality added to “Configuration” screen. While in Configuration screen, scroll down untill the line that needs to be edited is on top. Press [X] to enter the edit mode. You can use up/down arrows to increment/decrement current character by 1. Use [START] to save or [SELECT] to cancel the edit.
• New current position prediction logic, hopefully resulting in smoother scrolling.
• A few rendering bug fixes in graphics routines.
• New parameters added to configuration file: STARTUPFREQUENCY, STARTUPSCREENMODE, NIGHTMODE, SPEEDLIMIT. SATINFOFREQUENCY defines cpu frequency on Satellite Info screen (PSP-290 only)
• Timezone parameter removed from configuration, timezone is determined based on your psp date/time settings.
• Localization support (language packs).
• PSP-290 version does not require prx files to run in non-gps mode.
• Attached sorce code adopted to the latest verison of PSPSDK

Download: MapThis 0.5

- source: Deniska’s PSP Development Site