I know what you’re all probably thinking, and no, that is NOT a typo in the title of my post! Homebrew developer Wololo has created a game based entirely on Magic: the Gathering to play against an AI opponent on your PSP called Wagic, The Homebrew ?!.

You start the game with a random collection of cards to use to build your first deck. As you play against the computer and start winning, you’ll be earning credits to use to buy additional cards in the Shop. There is an incredibly detailed instruction manual that comes when you download the game, so be sure to read it! Having played Magic: the Gathering in actual card form before, this game looks to have a lot of promise and is definitely visually impressive!

A lot of work has gone into the game since it’s initial release, check out the full list of extensive fixes after the jump.

Download: Wagic, The Homebrew ?! v0.1.0

Re-blogged from our sister site: Nukoda.com

Here is a complete list of all of the errors that have been corrected since both the alpha and beta releases of Wagic, The Homebrew ?!:

• Mana abilities of special lands such as Cascade Bluffs
• Problems when Ascendant Evincar and Goblin King are in play at the same time
• Problems with wither sending a creatures to the graveyard several times
• Volcanic Eruption
• Mana ability for creatures such as Llanowar elves or bird of paradise is now subject to summoning sickness
• Shop bug when buying a booster/starter after playing
• The AI can now use a few spells with one target, such as lightning bolt, or a few auras, etc…
• Some graphical improvements in the game screen (shadows, background, targetting…)
• Added between 150 and 200 new cards from 10th Edition, Eventide, and Shards of Alara (ok, I’m cheating, some of these cards are just available in Revised with a different design)
• Improved the _cards.dat configuration files, allows a bit more scripting without recompiling (destroy, bury, damage,…)
• Added new card abilities : Persist(untested),haste,Exalted,Legendary(Untested), Wither
• Now possible to play without the card pictures (I plan to do releases without the pictures in the future, for bandwidth and legal reasons)
• You can now sell cards in the deck editor with the X button (not extensively tested). Do not forget to save before going back to the main menu, even if you didn’t update your deck.
• The shop now shows you the contents of the booster/starter you just bought (not very usable yet). Click X to close it !
• (Internal/windows version): Added a small test suite for automated tests
• Hybrid Mana cost
• (Internal): Counters system. No cool graphical representation yet.
• Bug Fixes:
  • Auras should now go to the graveyard if their target goes to the graveyard
  • First strike/double strike should now work correctly
  • Activated abilities : can’t use activated abilities with a Tap symbol for creatures that have summoning sickness (except in some specific cases where the bug remains, such as mana producers)
  • Birds of Paradise: can now add green mana
  • Animate Dead
  • Drain Life
  • Goblin Balloon Brigade now doesn’t have automatic flying
  • Keldon Warlord’s power/toughness decrease if a creature is put into a graveyard
  • Paralyze is now put into the graveyard if its target is put into a graveyard

Homebrew developer dark-jey has released his second version of PSP Royal Casino. For those of you who may not have heard of the title before now, it consists of three typical casino-style games: Blackjack, Poker and a slot machine.

In version 2, a lot of the bugs concerning RAM and the music have been corrected, the menus have been improved, and the spelling errors have been removed. Keep in mind that the game is in French, but that shouldn’t be too much of an issue, as the games themselves are pretty straightforward. 

Download: PSP Royal Casino v2

Re-blogged from our sister site: Nukoda.com

Seeing as I’m a huge user of the Google Maps application on my Mac, I think that PSP-Maps is an excellent homebrew application for when I’m planning to be on the move. Developer Royale has gone ahead and written a program that incorporates three different mapping programs: Google Maps, Microsoft Virtual Earth and Yahoo! Maps to generate the information.  

PSP-Maps v1.4 fixed up a couple of major problems with the software, including crashing whenever you requested t “Get Directions”.  You can also now save your favorite locations with names. Check out the full tutorial on PSP-Maps here. One thing to note when using this application is that if you get a “Image not Available” image on the screen, then you have either zoomed in too close or there isn’t any information available for the selected location.

Download: PSP-Maps v1.4

Re-blogged from our sister site: Nukoda.com

Earlier this month I made mention of a homebrew title called Age of Nations. I’ll give you a very brief synopsis of the game in case you missed my earlier article.  Basically, it’s a real-time strategy game that been coded in Lua for the PSP by homebrew developer seanpaul223.

A lot of work has gone into this next edition of the game, including an entire rewrite of all of the programming.  A lot more functionality has been added in the form of resource gathering abilities. Another major change has been made to the actual controls of the game, so if you’ve been playing previous versions make sure to check out the QJ.NET PSP Development Forum to get the latest control details. You can read up on all the changes made in v3 after the jump.

Download: Age of Nations v3

Re-blogged from our sister site: Nukoda.com

Here is a list of all the changes and updates that have been made to Age of Nations v3:

• General
  • Code rewritten entirely
  • Added basic AI
  • Added Age-Update feature
  • All bugs have been fixed
  • Added music
• Gameplay
  • Player has resources to manage: food, gold, wood and stone
  • Possibility of creating new units: each units created requires a certain quantity of food, which reduce food resources
  • Each units created is independent from others. It has its own health and job, along with many other things
  • Each unit can look for food and wood on a map to increase the player’s resources. Just give him the order
  • All natural resources such as wood and fruit are limited. When there’s no more resources on a tree, it disappears from the map
  • Natural resources now regenerate automatically
• Units – four types of units can now be created:
  • Peasants: they deal with collecting natural resources and building tasks
  • Soldiers
  • Archers
  • Riders
• Buildings
  • Peasants can build Houses, which increase the Population Limit
  • Peasants can build both Barracks And Stables, are used to make military units

With how busy my life is, I’m always looking for ways to make things just a little bit easier.  For me, this always includes writing lists and notes; I’m actually an obsessive list-maker, and I’m not ashamed to admit it! Along comes this neat little homebrew application called PSPNotes v0.1 by developer Mickael2054 and my life has the potential to get a whole lot easier to manage. 

The application, written in Lua, gives you the option of writing in English or French.  There is a known bug with the program that you should be aware of if you’re planning on using the French though, it seems to have some trouble displaying letters with accents, so keep that in mind.

The controls are very straight-forward:

: Create a new note 
: Read a note 
: Delete a note 
: Launch the credits 
 +  + : Return to Main Menu & Language Selection screen

I know I’m not the only one that will find the ability to whip out my PSP when I’m out of the house to jot down a quick note quite useful!

Download: PSPNotes v0.1

Re-blogged from our sister site: Nukoda.com

Homebrew developer seanpaul223 has released the second version of his real-time strategy game, Age of Nations, for the PSP.  The game has undergone a complete over-haul, basically starting from scratch with the Lua code completely re-written to bring you all a better game! This project is based on the PC game, Age of Empires.

You can see a list of all the new content that has been added to the game after the jump.

If you choose to download and install this game, keep in mind that it is still in the demo phase and there are bound to be bugs that the developer is still unaware of. You can contact seanpaul223 on the QJ.Net PSP Development Forum to notify him of any issues you have with the game.

Homebrew developer PSProgramer has released version 0.02 of his role-playing game, Uncharted Lands, for the PSP.  This second release of the game fixes some of the issues that arose with the first version that was released on July 18 and adds quite a bit of functionality to the game as well.  This is definitely to be expected as v0.01 was initially released merely as a proof of PSProgramer’s overall concept and only included a simple demo along with a couple of maps. 

Here are the details on what you can expect with this newest version:

• 5 outside Maps and 4 indoor Maps
• fixed pause menu
• main menu – (fully functional)
• items shop interface
• weapons shop interface
• NPC characters – (moving characters, functions have been made, and will be fully implemented next release)
• beginning night time function (it’s function is made and is in the file, just hasn’t been activated in the game because it lags too much)
• early sign reading/talking function
• state system created, and functional

The developer has indicated that we can expect a considerable amount of time to pass before the next version of the game is released as he is working on some BIG things, including a battle system and additional maps, among numerous other things.

Download: Uncharted Lands v0.02

Re-blogged from our sister site: Nukoda.com

Having just recently jumped onto the microblogging bandwagon myself, I know just how addictive it can be to want to comment on every single thing and thought that you do/have throughout any given day. There are several popular social networking websites out there, including both Plurk and Tumblr; the biggest, by far, is Twitter.

There is some pretty exciting news on the homebrew front for my fellow addicts, BadBoy has written an application for the PSP which will allow you to post text updates of up to 140 characters and send it directly to Twitter, provided you have a working WLAN connection for your PSP.

The app, called p-twit! is still in beta, currently sitting at version 0.02. With this newest version, anything sent from your PSP will indicate that it was sent “from p-twit!” once it appears on Twitter, instead of the generic “via web” that would normally appear. The only thing to keep in mind if you choose to go ahead and install this application is that it doesn’t currently support IR keyboards, although this may be coming in the future.

I’m more of a Plurker than anything else, but this is a good step in the right direction if only to make sure that everybody can keep up-to-date with my daily goings-on, even when I’m on the go. Maybe somebody could come up with a p-plurk! app?

Download: p-twit! v0.0.2

Re-blogged from our sister site, Nukoda.com

People are skeptical when they downgrade as they fear of making their PSP “bricked” or non-functional. Well the Noobz team have made sure this downgrade is as simple as simple can be. At no point should you feel stuck in downgrading. As long as you can read and understand English, own a PSP with firmware 3.50 or below and a copy of Lumines (Any version such as platinum ETC), then you can downgrade. You may also want to try out the ‘Illuminati Hello World’ homebrew that you can try on a 3.50 PSP to get the feel of downgrading. You can see ‘Illuminati Hello World’ below:

With this new downgrader, it detects which motherboard your PSP has and downgrades it to that type. This way, its safer than just guessing. You may want to ask, ‘But all this downgrading must break PSP’s?’. Well thats were you are wrong. The Noobz team say that if your PSP breaks then you either didn’t follow the instructions 100% or you are one of the unlucky percent that just break.

Overall, I think anyone who has a PSP should take a look into the homebrew scene as it offers a wide scale to view your PSP from. I know that everyone that I helped to downgrade said that they fully enjoy their PSP’s now and it brings a whole new life to the PSP area.

Hope you enjoyed this as I am really exited for you guys as I want you to join me into the homebrew scene and take full advantage of your lovable handheld’s

Cheers
-Matt

If you don’t feel like you’re ready to make the downgrade leap, the Noobz team has also create HEN 3.03 which installs a temporary patch in the memory of the PSP and puts it in a 1.50-esque state allowing you to run homebrew almost as if you had firmware 1.50 installed. The only downside is that the patch goes away after the PSP is fully restarted, so you will have to run it each time you turn on your PSP. Note that the patch persists in sleep mode. You will still need an unpatched copy of of GTA: LCS for this.

To determine whether a copy of GTA: Liberty City Stories is patched or not, look at the firmware update included on the UMD. If it contains the 2.00 update, it is unpatched. Patched versions contain higher version updates.

Please note that while the Noobz team has tested this exploit to be highly successful, there is still a small chance of brickage as usual with all homebrew that modifies the firmware of the PSP. If you are ready to take that risk for the sake of homebrew, checkout PSP Updates for more details and the installation procedure.

Booster has released version 0.51 of Devhook with full support for emulating firmware version 3.01!

I do not have a PS3 to test with, but from what I understand the downloadable PS1 titles fully work with this emulated version of the 3.01 firmware. Homebrewers rejoice!

Check out qj.net for all the necessary downloads to get this bad boy up and running.

[tags]Devhook, PS3, Firmware, Emulation[/tags]

Those of you out there who are fans of both the PSP and DS and own one of each (I happen to fall into the category) might be interested to know that a coder out there has written an app where you can play Tic-Tac-Toe across the two systems via Wifi.

I just somewhat finished my first DS app. Thanks to El_Hobito’s PA_Lib Wifi Setup App, I was able to quickly code something up.. I had to do this for a school project, and I got enough done for that.. The code is really messy, and all IPs are hardcoded.. I am not sure when or if I’ll actually finish it, but it does work..
So you can check it out, and play tic tac toe using WIFI. On my site I also posted the PSP code too, so you can play a game against someone with a psp!

This game is the first of it’s kind, that I am aware of, that has the two portable systems speak to each other. Hopefully this will open up the flood gates for more of the same!!

Download DS version.
Download PSP version.

iR Shell 2.2 Final is released. The is the final release of iR Shell and thank you for everyone’s support. I hope all of you enjoy using iR Shell as much as I enjoyed developing it. Goodbye!

So with that 2.2 is out, and sadly, that is that for this terrific piece of homebrew.

I personally would like to thank Ahman for all that he has done for the homebrew community. Other homebrew authors rallied around iRShell and created some great plugins to allow for some great features. So download, use and support this great piece of homebrew. Version 2.2 brings up some great additions:

1. The Homebrew directory can be customized under iR Configurator. You can change it from original /PSP/GAME to anything you like. Pls note if you relocate the homebrew directory, XMB won’t be able to launch them.
2. You can now organize your homebrews into various sub-folders, such as:Emulators, Games, General Utilities, WiFi Applications. This will help to organize your homebrews and make it easier to locate a specific one easier. It also helps to speed up the APP view. The sub-folder must be in the syntax of “$name$”. The 2 dollar signs are used to signify this is a folder which contains various homebrews.
3. The File Manipulation has been updated for the APP view, so that you can create, rename, delete directories as usual. Pls note when you create directory under APP view, you don’t need to put dollar signs and the system will add them automatically.
4. A new PMP Mod AVC 1.02M plugin by Magelo is included. In order to avoid conflicts with the original PMP Mod 2.02. This new AVC plugin will use extension name “AVC” which means you’ll have to rename your pmp avc files to name.avc. The original PMP movie files will still be name.pmp.
5. A new beautiful skin “Vista Clarity” by PSPHax0r9.

Download IRShell from iRShell.com

Users of a 2.80 firmware PSP can now rejoice, the first piece of homebrew using the recently found libtiff exploit is now out there. Noobz brings you a version of Tetris that runs on your 2.8 PSP. Simple download the Tetris package, extract it to your ms0:/PSP/PHOTO dir and play away.

While a bit simplistic, this shows us that playable homebrew on a 2.8 PSP is a reality. If I were you I would hold off on installing that 2.81 firmware update.

[Update 1: I neglected to mention in the article that this runs on any PSP with firmware 2.0 - 2.8, I just stressed the 2.8 fact due to it being so damn cool :)]

Download 2.8 Tetris from fanjita.org

Dark_Alex in conjunction with Mathieulh has released the first known 2.71 downgrader. The 2.71 downgrader is a port of the old 2.50/2.60 downgrader to use the recently discover libtiff exploit. The procedure is almost identical to that of the 2.50/2.60 downgrader except this time around you won’t need GTA. As always, be very cautious. Homebrew applications like this that write the PSP’s flash memory and can potentially turn your PSP into an expensive paper weight. If you do decide to go through with it, be sure to read PSP Updates’ spiel about it; you’ll also find the download links there.

Update: Dark_Alex and Mathieulh have released a bug fix for the 2.71 downgrader to fix premature bricking if the flash process failed.