All right, first things first… Congratulations to all the Homebrew Idol 2 contestants. All developers did an outstanding job with crafting their 3D-enabled homebrew. So let me do a quick round of shout outs to each and every dev. (in no particular order): hardhat, Slippy, pspflashsystem, SG57, Brick, Calv!n (I’m really looking forward to Zombie Desert updates), Xfacter, Code Tactics, HyperHacker, and Greg “xigency” Tourville.

Now lets get down to business. We deviated from last years voting system where I was the one and only person responsible for deciding the developers’ fate. This year we voiced the opinion of the public as well as the forum staff. This spreadsheet explains all that.

So without further ado — The Homebrew Idol 2 winners:

1. SG57 with Light Cycle 3D
2. Brick with PSPMarble: Orchestra SensatioN
3. Xfacter with Battlegrounds 3

Again — props to everyone who participated… The top 3 — check your private forum messages, you’ll be hearing from me shortly.

Homebrew Idol 2 wouldn’t have been possible without the help of PSdonkey, Street Fighter 4 master yoko_kyuubi, oyabun, BCman, and pirata nervo. Kudos team, thanks again.

Tune in next season –
Same Dashhacks Time; Same Dashhacks Channel.

- Homebrew Idol 2 (HBI:2) Recap -

Prepare yourself — you’re about to experience some of the most well crafted and coolest homebrew to date, I’m talking Homebrew Idol 2… So get up off your chair or couch and give these fine developers a round of applause. Check it…

Listed in no particular order are the final entries for Homebrew Idol 2:

(click the title for the forum thread; image for a larger screenshot)

Chronicles by xigency

Hardhat’s Battle Arena by hardhat

faintRedux by Slippy

labKillHomer3D by pspflashsystem

Light Cycle 3D by SG57

PSPMarble by Brick

Zombie Desert by Calv!n

Battlegrounds 3 by Xfacter

Apollonia v0.04a by Code Tactics

Luna by HyperHacker

Official HBI:2 voting is underway and you may participate right here. You will need to be a registered forum user for your vote to count.

Download:
Homebrew IDOL 2 Download Pack (All Entries)

Individual Downloads:
(coming soon…)

The Homebrew Idol 2 mailbox is filling up… For those who wish to participate and have yet to submit their homebrew creation, the deadline is tonight at midnight — June 7th 11:59 PM (or 23:59) EST. We’ll also accept entries submitted on the hour. Submit your homebrew to homebrewidol@psp-hacks.com and start a thread in the PSP Programming Forum; please leave behind the appropriate details.

So this is how it’s going down… A bundle pack of all HI:2 entries will be distributed amongst the forum/staff members. Given is 5 days to play, test, and report any bugs encountered. Bugs are to be reported in each individual forum release thread. Find them here. Should the developer decide they may use this time to fix any reported issues.

Official voting begins June 13th and will be open to you, the reader. At that point all entries will be available to download from this here front page. Voting ends June 15th and stay tuned when we announce the Homebrew Idol 2 winner on the 16th. If you care to get an early start — visit the Development Forum.

Good luck!

Two things: 1) Homebrew Idol 2 is in full effect; 2) Dashhacks will be laying it down at E3 this year. With that said, in effort to avoid hectic & conflicting schedules, the deadline for your submission into Homebrew Idol 2 has been extended to June 7th. This will provide ample time to publish, review, and vote on Homebrew Idol 2 entries. And believe me — some of the upcoming ‘brew is going to kick serious ass.

All final entries must be submitted by Midnight June 7th via email to homebrewidol@psp-hacks.com, and posted here in our forums with the thread appropriately titled, “[Homebrew Idol 2] <Your Entry>.”

Furthermore, developers have been contributing and providing great insight to aid in the development of your 3D app or game. See here, here, and most importantly, here.

Lastly, the prizes –

1. First place winner will be rewarded with $1,000 CAD (Paypal only).
2. Second place will receive a new Xbox 360 donated by Yoko_kyuubi.
3. Third place is another cash reward of $250 CAD (Paypal only).

And finally — See you at E3 when we put an end to all those PSP2/PSP-4000 rumours. Holler if you’re in LA.

More Homebrew Idol 2

In a mere 4 hours time A_Nub rocks the Homebrew Idol stage delivering a fresh PSP version of “Cube Runner.”

Some iPhone or iPod Touch owners may be familiar with Cube Runner already; if not, the concept is a simple yet progressively difficult one… Guide your ship through the virtual terrain while avoiding all cube shaped obstacles, the further you progress the more strenuous it becomes.

Download: CubeRunner v0.3 PSP Demo

- release / discussion thread -

Marking the first in Homebrew Idol 2: HyperHacker’s Luna — the fully customizable PSP shell written in LUA. HyperHacker sells his work best:

Luna is designed to replace the XMB, and to be completely customizable. Luna skins are Lua scripts (hence the name), which gives them total flexibility without involving any difficult hex editing or dangerous flashing. 3D menus, background music, animation, alpha blending, whatever you want. You could go all-out and make a 3D world like Super Mario 64, jumping into paintings to run games. Or you could keep it simple, and have a text-based menu and maybe a background image. Or anywhere in between. You can even have no interface at all, and just assign a game to each button.

Documentation is included (see readme.html) to help get you started, namely when it comes to creating your own skins. And right away, you should know how to disable sound effects: edit Luna/lua/boot.lua and set “EnableSound” to false. Keep that file open and look around, there are other configurable options that may be of interest.

Keep in mind; this is beta, which means:

1. Not all of the built-in programs work yet (but you can launch XMB as if it were a homebrew app to use them), and
2. The skin API could change in future versions. Once the final version is out, backward compatibility will be maintained as much as possible. I appreciate any feedback on the API design while there’s still time to change it. (Take a look at the comments in main.h to see what’s already planned, though.)

Download:
Luna v74720
Luna source code

- release / discussion thread -

- source: hyperhacker

We’re back! It’s Homebrew Idol 2 all up in this piece — more homebrew & more prizes comin’ comin’ atcha… Last year MK2k took home the Idol top spot, this year — it could be you! Developers, coders, and programmers — this is your time to shine…

Homebrew Idol 2 rules:

1. Your submission must incorporate 3D rendering, or at least the visual 3D concept (i.e. Ray Casting). We recommend using the LTE Studios Engine or the Raptor 3D Game Engine, or whatever you’re comfortable with.
2. One (1) entry per user; although, like last season, you may change or submit a new entry at any time, rendering your previous submission null. You may also update your entry as many times necessary before the contest’s end.
3. You must submit your entry to the PSP Programming Section of our forums with the thread title “[Homebrew Idol 2] <Your Entry>”. As well, email homebrewidol@psp-hacks.com with entry details — name, brief summary of your entry, author, etc…
4. Source code. You may choose to include your source code for educational purposes; however, it is not mandatory. If you include your source code, remember that you are the sole owner of your code and we will not take possession or use your code without your given permission.
5. You must include a new PSP-Hacks Homebrew Idol 2 splash screen somewhere in your program — preferably at startup — incorporating the new Dashhacks logo (feel free to change the colour as you see fit).
6. All entries must be received by 12:00AM EST (midnight) May 31st, 2009.

Now the good stuff; the prizes:

1. First place winner will be rewarded with $1,000 CAD (Paypal only). That’s right $1,000 bucks courtesy of Dashhacks Inc. and PSDonkey.
2. Second place will receive a new Xbox 360 donated by Yoko_kyuubi.
3. Third place prize has yet to be determined and will be updated soon.

Yours truly was the only judge with the power to crown last year; this year things are a little different… Our staff members will be responsible for selecting the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners. Homebrew Idol 2 policies and rules are subject to change at any time. We’ll keep you posted should that happen. Until then — good luck and have at’er!

Questions, comments, concerns — please leave ‘em here.