Homebrew may live in a dubious legal middleground, giving ethical issues to developers and gamers alike, but it doesn't mean we can't celebrate the homebrew release of a classic game like Hexen II on the Sony PSP.
Developed by Raven Software, the PSP port of Hexen II is based on the PSP port ofQuake and uses the original source code for Hexen II as a base. Good thing id Software has a policy of releasing the source code for its older games freely, eh?
It may not be a killer app, but maybe the homebrew scene can continue to attract gamers towards the PSP which, as Sony itself points out, doesn't really have any must-have games yet and is lagging behind in the handheld wars:
"Clearly on the software side, any real killer title will galvanize the sales...there have been a number of titles that have been terrific, but not the one title that defines the product." Said Robert Wiesenthal, SCEA's chief financial officer, according to Games Radar.
Apparently, Hiroshi Kamide, the director of the research department at KBC Securities Japan, agrees with him; "If you look at the availability of software, there are a lot of games for the PSP but none that are particularly successful... You don't see any million-seller games for the PSP but you do hear about them for the Nintendo DS."
On the other hand, the DS has had homebrew versions of games like Quake and Heretic in development for a while now. Obviously the PSP is a better platform for 3D gaming though, with it's more powerful hardware helping it punch out the required FPS without trouble, so now that the foundation is laid maybe we'll see a few more homebrew releases like this in the near future.
Which handheld do you prefer, the DS or the PSP? Have you tried homebrew yet and what has your experience been? Let us know what you think about it in the forums.
Developed by Raven Software, the PSP port of Hexen II is based on the PSP port ofQuake and uses the original source code for Hexen II as a base. Good thing id Software has a policy of releasing the source code for its older games freely, eh?
It may not be a killer app, but maybe the homebrew scene can continue to attract gamers towards the PSP which, as Sony itself points out, doesn't really have any must-have games yet and is lagging behind in the handheld wars:
"Clearly on the software side, any real killer title will galvanize the sales...there have been a number of titles that have been terrific, but not the one title that defines the product." Said Robert Wiesenthal, SCEA's chief financial officer, according to Games Radar.
Apparently, Hiroshi Kamide, the director of the research department at KBC Securities Japan, agrees with him; "If you look at the availability of software, there are a lot of games for the PSP but none that are particularly successful... You don't see any million-seller games for the PSP but you do hear about them for the Nintendo DS."
On the other hand, the DS has had homebrew versions of games like Quake and Heretic in development for a while now. Obviously the PSP is a better platform for 3D gaming though, with it's more powerful hardware helping it punch out the required FPS without trouble, so now that the foundation is laid maybe we'll see a few more homebrew releases like this in the near future.
Which handheld do you prefer, the DS or the PSP? Have you tried homebrew yet and what has your experience been? Let us know what you think about it in the forums.
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