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Homebrew on Consoles Detailed
Yoshi writes "DCEmu have released an article detailing the current State of the Homebrew Scene on all consoles from the PSP to GBA and even to the Next Gen Nintendo Wii, the article explains whats needed to run emulators and games and if its worth bothering for each console."
Only two comments and the site is slowing down. Here is the coral cache.
Because we are the only dedicated Homebrew Network on the web covering just about all scenes (and if not then we will ) i feel its a good time to give a low down on each scene and some pointers about where they are going from my point of view.
First off though lets remind all that Homebrew is not the same as warez, its a shame that so many sites for the want of grabbing visitors post the warezy stuff but this network would rather not get shutdown by the likes of Sony, Nintendo Etc.
Also i would like to point out that each scene owes its life to the many hardware and software hackers who discover the exploits we come to enjoy so much today, they are then followed by the many worldwide coders who make the homebrew scene a free and enjoyable place to hang out and make friends etc.
Lets take a look at each scene.
Sony Playstation Portable
The PSP Homebrew Scene is the one getting the most attention at the moment and rightly so, the ease of getting homebrew to run on this up to the latest 2 firmware releases means millions worldwide can enjoy Games and Emulators for the price of a Memory Card and a copy of Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories depending on what firmware is on the PSP, even the latest firmware releases that support Flash only now have releases appearing and in the space of just over a year there has been hundreds of Games, Demos and Emulators. The power of the PSP makes it an awesome machine for Homebrew fans and once Kernal Mode can be accessed on higher firmwares than v1.5 then the possibilities get even better.
The PSP is the biggest homebrew scene for many years and with so many sites, coders and fans it can only get better. The soon to be Undiluted Platinum Modchip will open the door to everyone who wishes to run homebrew on any firmware, it will also open the door to kernal mode for all, so full speed Nintendo 64 and GBA Emulators come a step closer.
Finally later this year Sony themselves are releasing a PS1 emulator for the PSP so expect that to be a major pull for the handheld.
GP2X - The Linux Based Homebrew Console
The GP2X is a console that was made for homebrew fans and coders, it has a worldwide base of people coding Emulators and Games for it and with 2x200mhz cpus and 64megs ram it sure can deliver the goods. After a ropy start with GPL and firmware issues its now flourishing, Its a great console where teamwork has already delivered near on 200 releases for the system, key emulators for now and the future are the excellent Mame4 All emulator which gives you access to hundreds of arcade classics and the Playstation emulator for the GP2X should in time be running most games at near on full speed, great for fans of the original Playstation.
The GP2X with its dual processors in the future will most likely take over as the kingpin of Homebrew because of its pro homebrew stance and not to mention a fantastic community who are driven to make it a success.
The Nintendo DS
The worlds biggest selling console at this time but surprisingly not the most popular for homebrew fans.
Why is that, well most likely people dont realise that all you need to run homebrew on the Nintendo DS is the Console (obviously), and a Passkey/Flash Cart Combo (with mem card).
Once you have the hardware above then the DS with its touch screen is a monster in the waiting, already it has over a hundred homebrew releases for it but with the touch screen, microphone and rumble addon you have an excellent base for games and more, not to mention the wifi mode.
As with the commercial games the DS cant match the PSP for pure power but it can easily bypass it in the innovation dept just like the commercial scene. With the DS you can also play the many hundreds of excellent GBA Homebrew Releases.
The future for the DS looks awesome, Nintendo dont seem to bother too mu
WTF? who are you talking about?