Following the success of community-created hardware offerings for the PSVita such as the SD2Vita and PSVSD, many people got interested when VitaDock was announced. As a result, its IndieGoGo campaign received over €16,000 (~$17,700) but after various delays and issues, its creator xCorra seems to have disappeared and now, Crash-Cortez has publicly shared the software that made it tick for individuals who wish to create their own dock.

What is VitaDock? What happened to it?

VitaDock is a Raspberry Pi-based dock for the PlayStation Vita which lets you easily stream its screen to a television with Xerpi’s udcd_uvc plugin.

Thanks to the convenience it provides, there was a good deal of interest in the VitaDock but things seem to have gone wrong (Image from xCorra’s YouTube channel which is still up)

This dock, which is compatible with both the PSVita Phat (OLED) and Slim, was originally announced this April by the Croatian xCorra and the initial units were slated to be shipped in May. After gaining some traction, xCorra added some more VitaDock production waves with shipping estimates ranging from June-August and everything seemed fine for a while.

However, problems started cropping up when the shipment date got closer and this list describes them in chronological order:

• In late May, shipping of the first batch had to be delayed by 2 weeks due to an unfortunate family situation – up till here, nobody was concerned
• In late June, after a month without any updates, xCorra claimed that IndieGoGo hadn’t released project funds yet although he didn’t give details on how he’d proceed
• In late July, he claimed that production would be starting in 10 days – at this point, some individuals started getting concerned as the update frequency was pretty abysmal
• In late August, xCorra released the software for the dock on a subreddit that he’s now made private and claimed that shipments were to go out in September

  The campaign received a lot of support but now, things don’t look great..

• A few days before xCorra claimed he’d be shipping them (Sep 12), he asked his backers whether they wanted a Raspberry Pi 3 or a Raspberry Pi 4 with the latter option adding a one week delay.
  • In early October, he opted to use a Raspberry Pi 3 citing lack of feedback from backers even though the comments section was full of people wanting to wait for a Raspberry Pi 4
• On the 7th of October, xCorra said that he shipped the first dock and shipping them out was going to be slow but steady in the coming weeks.
  • On October 3, a Reddit user wrote a review of the PSVita Dock and compared it to a PSTV meaning that some units were sent.  Update: The review isn’t of the dock but of the dock’s software running on the author’s Raspberry Pi so it’s still unclear if any units were sent
• A few days ago, xCorra completely disappeared from the internet putting the project into limbo

Following a report by Crash-Cortez, it seems that xCorra deleted his Reddit account (u/xCorra), his GitHub, his Twitter account and made the r/psvitadock subreddit, which contained lots information about the dock, private which has led many to believe that xCorra might not intend to keep up his promises relating to his IndieGoGo project. Other than that, many people have commented about being scammed on the IndieGoGo campaign page and xCorra has not responded to any of them.

An attempt by myself to reach out to him on Discord didn’t lead anywhere which doesn’t sound good for anyone who backed the PSVita Dock…

What did Crash-Cortez share? Can I make my own dock with it?

Thanks to Crash-Cortez’s gesture, it’s possible to create your own VitaDock provided you have a Raspberry Pi 3B+!

In light of the above situation, Reddit user Crash-Cortez decided to share the software that came with VitaDock so that anybody with a Raspberry Pi 3B+ could create their own dock.

This was made possible as he had copied all VitaDock files to his own personal GitHub and the stuff he shared includes:

• A modified version of Xerpi’s udcd_uvc plugin
• A Linux-based distribution to install on the Raspberry Pi along with VLC setup scripts for the best experience
• The SwitchToPSTV application which lets easily you enable/disable the MiniVitaTV plugin
• Instructions on how to set up everything

Other than sharing software for one to create their own dock for the PSVita, Crash-Cortez is also working on a streaming solution that uses MPV which might give better results than VLC if optimised correctly so that’s something to keep an eye out for.

Conclusion

As for those who backed the PSVita Dock (or VitaDock as many call it) on IndieGoGo and didn’t receive it, things don’t look great as IndieGoGo doesn’t provide refunds when campaign owners don’t keep up their end of the bargain provided that contribution funds were disbursed/released. According to their refund policy, one has to contact the campaign’s owner to get their money back but it’s doubtful that xCorra wishes to receive such requests since he deleted the main avenues of contacting him.

The post PSVita News: Crash-Cortez publicly shares VitaDock software after xCorra, its creator, seemingly disappears from the internet! – IndieGoGo backers brace yourselves appeared first on Wololo.net.

During the last few days, console hacking scenes have been jam-packed with news and the trend continues as today, we have some potentially huge news for the Switch and a bitter-sweet release related to the PlayStation Vita!

Switch Rumour: TX Reseller claims that Team Xecuter have been able to hack newer Switch and Switch Lite consoles

The fusee gelee exploit uses a vulnerability found in the Tegra X1 SoC but Nintendo swiftly patched it out meaning that many Switch units are currently unhackable

As most readers of this website know, the Nintendo Switch has been hacked for over 1.5 years when Kate Temkin released the Fusée Gelée exploit and this led to the creation of many homebrew, CFWs and even an Android port. However, this exploit made use of a hardware vulnerability found in the Switch’s RCM mode (similar to Recovery Mode) and shortly after its release, Nintendo started producing ipatched Switch units which had the vulnerability closed meaning that the Fusee Gelee exploit was unusable on them. As a result, ipatched, mariko (new Switch units with a better battery) and Switch Lite units are effectively unhackable with the exception of ipatched units running FW 4.1.0.

While a GBATemp admin received confirmation that it’s true, you still shouldn’t go sell off your hackable Nintendo Switch for a mariko unit just to get better battery life.. yet

Now, everything might just be about to change as GaryOPA posted some pretty shocking news relating to currently unhackable models on his website MaxConsole and respected gaming/hacking website GBATemp. This news states that MaxConsole got in touch with a trusted reseller of Team Xecuter’s offerings (such as the Xecuter SX PRO) and were told that Team Xecuter have come up with a hacking solution that works on all currently available Switch models including the Switch Lite, ipatched models and the recently-released mariko units which are tougher to hack. While this sounds like excellent news, it’s important to note that there seems to be no proof of this new hack so this rumour should be taken with a grain of salt for now but Costello, a GBATemp administrator, received confirmation from SX Team that the hack is indeed real so only time will tell.

As per MaxConsole, the trusted reseller said the following: “TX has recently taken the time to demonstrate to us some of their Work-In-Progress. Notably for ‘patched’ and ‘mariko’ units which is very advanced, and works flawlessly. We were not given a firm date or prices yet, but knowing TX we know the price will be very reasonable. We also saw early beta for Switch Lite console as well.”

PSVita News: David-Ox shares 3D printing files for VitaDock

Unfortunately, the VitaDock campaign didn’t go well but enough things have been released so that one could create their own dock

Moving to the PSVita scene, folks who worked with xCorra to make VitaDock a reality have shared even more stuff following his disappearance from the internet. This time, Reddit user ‘David-Ox’, who was the 3D designer for VitaDock, has publicly shared the 3D designs for the ill-fated hardware accessory allowing individuals to create their own dock even if they don’t have a 3D printer thanks to services like NinjaPrototype.

The files, which are shared on Thingverse, include STL files created by CAD software which can be printed and some previews in PNG/JPG format so that you can better see what you’re printing. If you decide to print the dock, you’ll also need to have a Raspberry Pi 3B+ (other models will work but require you to set up stuff on your own) to use the VitaDock software which has been shared by Crash-Cortez who helped develop it.

The 3D printing files can be found here. David-Ox notes that xCorra owes him a good deal of money for his work on VitaDock so he’s currently accepting donations to his PayPal account which can be found in this link.

Conclusion

Thanks to the 3D printing files shared above, somebody else might pick up the VitaDock project and perhaps could start selling them on eCommerce websites such as eBay that have some form of buyer protection so maybe, we’ll be seeing a revived version of the VitaDock sometime in the future! When it comes to other news, Cxbx-Reloaded (original XBOX emulator) received an Aug-Oct progress report and a pre-release demo disc of TLZ: Wind Waker has been released which might be of interest.

Featured images uses content from MaxConsole.

The post News: [Rumour] Team Xecuter have been able to hack newer Switch and Switch Lite consoles; David-Ox shares VitaDock 3D printing files for anyone who wishes to create their own dock appeared first on Wololo.net.

This week was jam-packed with noteworthy news for many hacked consoles including the Switch, PSVita, PS3 and even the PSP but now, things seem to be going back to normal. In this article, we’ll be looking at the release of eBookReader 0.3.0 which brings support for two highly popular formats and the PSVita homebrew released this week with particular attention to NoAutoAVLS.

Switch Release: eBookReader 0.3.0 released with ePub and CBZ support

Similar to many eBook viewers, eBookReader for the Switch has a dark mode for easier reading in low lighting situations (Image Source)

Other than being a gaming console, the Nintendo Switch is also a small tablet even though Nintendo doesn’t really embrace that side of it since they didn’t pack in a web browser, eBook reader or even a music player! However, the homebrew community is all about making consoles more useful and as a result, a developer by the name of SeanOMik decided to create an eBook reader for the console (i.e. Horizon OS) and appropriately named it ‘eBookReader’ when it was released this September. The homebrew also has some useful features including landscape/portrait support, dark mode and the ability to save the page you were on.

Now, eBookReader 0.3.0 has been released and it comes with:

• Improved PDF support so the likelihood of the homebrew crashing when opening certain PDFs is lower
• Full support for ePub, CBZ (many comics/manga are in this format) and XPS files meaning that some very popular formats are now supported
• The above was achieved thanks to work by Moronigranja

To grab eBookReader 0.3.0 and turn your Switch into a Kindle, follow this link to grab the NRO.

PSVita Releases: NoAutoAVLS, Heart Of Darkness port and two original games

With NoAutoAVLS, you can get rid of AVLS for good on your European PSVita! (Image Source)

This week, the PlayStation Vita hacking scene suffered a considerable setback after the creator of VitaDock, xCorra, seemed to have disappeared from the internet leaving most if not all backers with absolutely nothing. In light of this, people that worked with xCorra for VitaDock’s software (Raspberry Pi image) and the 3D design were nice enough to provide the files they had so others could create their own VitaDock. As a result, Vita-related news on Wololo this week was focused about VitaDock but there were also some notable homebrew releases which we’ll be looking at now.

One of these releases is NoAutoAVLS by SKGleba which can be seen as the indirect successor to the NoAVLS plugin released back in 2017. AVLS (Automatic Volume Limiter System) is a ‘feature’ that limits the headphone volume in order to prevent ear damage present on most European PSVita models. Contrary to NoAVLS, NoAutoAVLS isn’t a plugin but instead it does a small modification to idstorage to toggle a flag meaning that the change is permanent and persists even when the PSVita isn’t in hacked mode.

To download NoAutoAVLS, either grab the VPK from here or download it from VHBB. You may view its README here.

Other than NoAutoAVLS, the following PSVita homebrew also got released this week:

• A port of Heart Of Darkness (HODE) for both the Vita and the Switch by usineur
• An Asteroids clone written with Game Maker: Studio by KimsoftStudio
• Bot-R, which is a Unity game written by Anchitpatra

Conclusion

Other than eBookReader for the Switch, Lockpick_RCM also received a substantial update and MAME 0.215 got released which brings support for many more systems. Furthermore, it’s been rumoured that patched Switch units including mariko and Switch Lite devices have been hacked which is something you should definitely read about it if you haven’t already!

The post News: eBookReader 0.3.0 released for the Switch with ePub and CBZ support & a look at this week’s PSVita releases including NoAutoAVLS by SKGleba appeared first on Wololo.net.

With the work of many dedicated developers, hacked consoles gain numerous extra abilities but continued support is required to make them work as best as possible. In this article, we’ll be looking at an update to the immediately popular Sys-con sysmodule for the Switch and recent developments relating to Linux on the PSVita by Xerpi.

Switch Release: Sys-con 0.3.0 with remapping support, no more blinking LEDs on PS3 and X360 controllers and user reports of the sysmodule functioning in handheld mode

2 days ago, Cathery released Sys-con for the Switch which is a sysmodule (plugin in Sony jargon) which lets you use wired DualShock 3, XBOX 360 and XBOX One controllers with your console for a better gaming experience.

DualShock 4 support will probably be coming within a week if the current development momentum keeps on going!

Until yesterday, it was thought that Sys-con only works in docked mode but then user reports came in showing that it worked in handheld mode as well which prompted Cathery to update the project’s roadmap to officially include handheld support. 

Other than the good news about handheld mode, Cathery has released Sys-con 0.3.0 which is a noteworthy update that brings:

• A configuration folder (sdmc:/config/sys-con/) from which you can modify stick/trigger deadzones and remap inputs thus giving you more control over your experience
• Xbox 360 and Dualshock 3 LEDs no longer blink when using this sysmodule
• An issue in which some Microsoft controllers weren’t connecting properly has been fixed
• Support for other CFWs like ReiNX and SX OS is now officially acknowledged

Furthermore, some more good news dropped hours ago and that is a promise of DualShock 4 support in 5-6 days published on Ko-fi.

To grab Sys-con 0.3.0, follow this link and check out the README before installing it. You may donate to Cathery on Ko-fi for her work.

PSVita News: Xerpi makes noteworthy progress with Linux on PSVita and manages to get screen output!

Heading over to the PSVita scene, Xerpi never seems to get tired of pushing the boundaries of what can be done on the PSVita and he appears to have picked up work on porting Linux to the console again.

Getting Linux to run adequately on the Vita won’t be a piece of cake but Xerpi does like a good challenge like with the groundbreaking udcd_uvc plugin!

According to the commit history and some information from Xerpi himself, the following progress seems to have been done in relation to Linux and low-level hardware support:

• The Baremetal loader, which is a kernel plugin letting you run payloads without the PSVita OS underneath, has evolved into a library with a sample rather than just PoC (proof of concept) sample code
  • This makes writing software using baremetal functionality, such as the PlayStation Vita Bare-Metal Linux Loader, much easier
• The Baremetal library supports a certain degree of hardware initialisation including controller input, screen initilisation and the setting up of a framebuffer meaning that Linux can now output an image on screen!
  • As a result, UART is no longer needed for output
• FatFs, which is a low-level module for reading/writing FAT/exFAT devices, has been ported to the Vita and it’s currently being used by Xerpi to read the Linux image and Device Tree prior to loading Linux itself.
  • Write support hasn’t been tested yet

To find out more about Xerpi’s work, check out the vita-baremetal and vita-baremetal-linux-loader GitHub repositories and head over to the #general channel of the HENKaku Discord channel where Xerpi discussed a bit what he’s been up to.

Conclusion

Other than great news for the PSVita and Switch, there’s exciting news on the iOS jailbreaking front as well since checkra1n (iOS 13 jailbreak using an unpatchable BootROM exploit compatibile with A5-A11 devices) is expected to drop tomorrow. However, there have been some rumours that the jailbreak tool will initially be macOS, which is somewhat credible considering previous trends, so you might need to borrow a Mac this weekend if you want to jailbreak iOS 13 ASAP!

The post News: [Switch] Sys-con 0.3.0 released with remapping support, DualShock 4 support coming in 5-6 days + reports of working handheld mode & Xerpi doing further progress with Linux on the PSVita managing to get screen output! appeared first on Wololo.net.

Due to the sheer popularity of emulation, many talented individuals spend hours upon hours researching ways to get better performance and increase accuracy. In this article, we’ll be looking at how Frangar managed to achieve full-speed GBA emulation on the PSVita after 3 years looking for a bug & the Dolphin October 2019 progress report!

PSVita News: Frangar manages to get full-speed GBA emulation after fixing bug in RetroArch’s gPSP core

Full speed GBA emulation with RetroArch’s gPSP core is coming soon to your PSVita!

Considering how old the GameBoy Advance is, it’s no secret that the PlayStation Vita has enough power to emulate it at full-speed because after all, even the PSP can do a good job at emulating it. However, achieving full-speed emulation in some games has been challenging up till now, especially with RetroArch’s gPSP core, even though LOLIcon (a plugin letting you overclock your PSVita to 494MHz) alleviates the issue somewhat.

Now, full-speed GameBoy Advance emulation will soon become a reality thanks to Frangar’s work on RetroArch’s gPSP core. This work involved him finding and fixing a bug in gPSP’s dynarec which caused it to not work properly and cause stuttering on the PlayStation Vita thus giving good-but-not-perfect GBA emulation. Frangar says that, from his tests, he noticed significant performance improvements although he hasn’t tried all problematic titles so more testing will show the complete implication of his bug fix.

Frangar’s bug fix has already been merged into the master branch of RetroArch’s gPSP core so RetroArch 1.8.2 and the next set of nightlies are likely to include the fix so that it can be enjoyed without having to compile the updated core yourself! Currently, it’s not known how gPSP’s performance compares to mGBA’s with this fix.

Wii Emulation: A quick look at Dolphin’s October 2019 Progress Report

As usual, the folks behind Dolphin are hard at work improving the emulator and have published yet another well-written and detail progress report for the progress done this October.

The main points of this progress report include:

• The removal of XAudio2 from the Windows port of the emulator
  • Since June, Cubeb has been the default audio backend on Windows and this provides better latency so it was deemed that XAudio2 was no longer needed

    With features added this month, you can now control the infrared pointer with a DualShock 3/4 on your PC thus making some games like Resident Evil 4 easier to play since you’re no longer subject to the problems that Infrared reception and a WiiMote bring!

  • If your backend was XAudio2 and you use a nightly build that doesn’t include it, your ‘Audio Backend’ dropdown list in Settings will look empty but Cubeb will still be used. It’s advised to select Cubeb manually if you used the XAudio2 backend before to avoid any unexpected issues due to the empty dropdown list
• The Expression Parser received significant improvements which include a much easier-to-use interface, many new expressions and an expression verifier
• The CPU Emulation Engine options have been moved to the Advanced tab in the Settings dialog box
• Game verification is now done by checking the hashes of your game ROM/dump against data from Redump.org
  • You’ll be notified if the image you’re emulating is corrupted/broken
• Support for motion control with some controllers like the DualShock 3 and 4 among a few others
  • This feature allows you to use the accelerometer and gyroscope to simulate a Wii Remote thus improving the gameplay experience in some cases – more information can be obtained from the progress report as it’s a pretty complex feature
• Some performance improvements on Android devices sporting Mali GPUs and support for Vulkan Exclusive Fullscreen Mode
• A section of the progress report also tackles the phenomenon of Windows Defender’s AI thinking that Dolphin’s updater.exe is a trojan

To read the full progress report, grab a cup of coffee and follow this link; if you want to try out the nightlies that sport the changes mentioned above, click here to download them.

Conclusion

For more stuff related to emulation, Cemu [Wii U emulator] 1.15.18 has been publicly released (changelog) and Yuzu can emulate Luigi’s Mansion 3 intro sequence at full speed but the game crashes once you get into the actual gameplay – Ryujinx allows you to actually play the game although performance won’t win any awards up till now [video].

The post Emulation News: Frangar manages to get full-speed GBA emulation on PSVita after fixing bug in gPSP’s dynarec & a quick look at Dolphin’s October 2019 progress report appeared first on Wololo.net.

About two weeks ago, a rumour arose that newer Switch units and the Switch Lite were hacked by Team Xecuter and now, more information has been made available hinting that a release may not be too far off. In this article, we’ll be looking at recent developments on this story together with a look at a highly useful plugin for PSTV and PSVita consoles.

Switch Rumour Follow-up: Team Xecuter shows upcoming modchip to MaxConsole News Team member which is said to be compatible with newer Switch models and Switch Lite

While the news about Team Xecuter’s rumoured hack sounds great, it must be noted that no definitive proof has yet been published so you might want to hold off swapping your original Switch unit for a Mariko (neon) unit with better battery life… for now

Around two weeks ago, GaryOPA wrote a post on his website MaxConsole and on the frontpage of GBATemp that Team Xecuter had been able to hack newer Switch units (ipatched & mariko) and the Switch Lite.

However, this revelation still has no tangible proof associated with it other than the words of a Team Xecuter trusted reseller so its credibility is in a grey-area even though a GBATemp administrator received confirmation from SX Team that their hack is indeed real.

Now, more information has been made available (GBATemp/MaxConsoles) regarding this relevation/rumour but this time it’s from MaxConsole News Team member ‘ub3r1337’ and it states that Team Xecuter’s upcoming hack comes in the form of a hardware mod with two variants being available, one for Classic units (original, ipatched and mariko) and another for the Switch Lite. Furthermore, some important points about the nature of the hardware mod were revealed which include:

• The hardware mod needs to be installed on the Switch’s motherboard and indications are showing that some degree of soldering will be required.

  Some websites like DG Chips are already taking pre-orders for the upcoming hardware mod meaning that a release might not be too far off

  • However, Team Xecuter ‘held back from claiming [that] it’s fully solder-less’ meaning that the hardware mod for Classic units might allow for a solder-less installation although this is said not to be recommended
• According to ub3r1337, the Classic variant of the hardware mod is ‘probably under production and should be available soon’ meaning that Team Xecuter might come up with an official announcement in the coming weeks
• When it comes to an ETA, Team Xecuter refused to give an estimate although GBATemp user ‘Diogo097’ contacted a TX reseller who claimed that the hardware mod should be released by January 2020
  • Some resellers including DGChips and MOD3DSCard are already taking pre-orders for the hardware mod lending a somewhat higher degree of credibility to the whole story

Like the initial revelation, it must be noted that no tangible proof of the hack or hardware mod are currently available. Unfortunately, ub3r1337 wasn’t allowed to take any pictures or videos so until now, it’s still recommended to treat this news item with caution and still view it as a RUMOUR.

PSVita News: LOLITA500 and LOLITA444 plugins released

Moving away from exciting rumours, the PlayStation Vita scene received something tangible, in the form of two kernel plugins, which can be used right here and now. These two overclocking-related kernel plugins, by Team CBPS member teakhanirons, are called LOLITA500 and LOLITA444 and they aim to make overclocking much the PSVita and PSTV much easier.

LOLITA500 allows you to fully unleash your PSVita’s power provided you don’t care too much about battery life

Thanks to these plugins, one needn’t mess around with the menus found in current overclocking solutions like LOLIcon and PSV VSH Menu which not only make the overclocking process take longer but don’t always play nice with certain games and homebrew. As per the release post, the LOLITA plugins come with the following features:

• A system-wide overclock to 444MHz (LOLITA444) or 500MHz (LOLITA500) meaning that the higher clocks are also present in the web browser, LiveArea and all games/homebrew you use
  • This is always on as the plugins have no menu system
• Less complex than full overclocking plugins which have a menu meaning that compatibility issues with Adrenaline and other software are fixed
• The higher clock speeds are hooked meaning that even if games try to set the clock themselves, the clock speeds will stay maxed out
• Power limits are disabled so you can have full brightness and enabled Wi-Fi all the time

It must be noted that having a 444/500MHz overclock all the time on your PSVita will lead to higher battery temperatures thus potentially increasing the rate of your battery’s degradation. As a result, it’s recommended not to use these plugins continuously for hours with everything maxed out if you’re using a PSVita. On the other hand, if you’re a PSTV user, it’s probable that your console will be just fine even if you run LOLITA500 provided your console has adequate ventilation.

To grab the plugins, follow this link and put the SKPRX’s path in the *KERNEL section of your taiHEN config.txt

Conclusion

Other than the two overclocking plugins mentioned above, the PSVita also received Activate.VPK 1.2 which is useful for test/devkit owners and vitaVoyager 0.6 for regular users which fixes dynarec issues with this Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force Holomatch port. On a completely unrelated note, Google published their lineup of 12 launch games to be available on Stadia when it launches next week and a new trailer for the Sonic movie has been released which greatly improves Sonic’s model according to popular opinion.

Featured images uses content from MaxConsole.

The post News: [Rumour Follow-Up] Team Xecuter hack for newer Switch consoles & Switch Lite said to be a hardware mod and some resellers are taking pre-orders; PSVita gets LOLITA500/444 plugins for always-on overclocking and power restriction removal! appeared first on Wololo.net.

Following the failure of the crowd-funded VitaDock, in which its creator xCorra disappeared from the internet, the folks working on it decided to share their work and keep on supporting it which has encouraged users to build their own DIY VitaDock. Now, Crash-Cortez has released the final version of the VitaDock VLC software for those who want to create their own dock!

What’s VitaDock? What does VitaDock VLC include?

When announced, the VitaDock campaign was pretty popular and it managed to raise around $17.7k but xCorra didn’t deliver in the end

VitaDock was a community project started by xCorra which aimed to create and produce Switch-like docks for the PlayStation Vita. These docks, which connect to a TV via HDMI, allow one to connect their PSVita to a built-in USB port (and headphone jack/bluetooth for audio) and seamlessly play on a bigger screen thanks to Xerpi’s udcd_uvc plugin. Unfortunately, the project fell apart as xCorra disappeared from the internet and this obviously left many people  disgruntled. In light of this, the VitaDock Team decided to release the software for the Raspberry Pi powering the dock and the 3D design files in case anybody wanted to manufacture one of their own.

Now, Crash-Cortez, a member of the VitaDock Team, has released the final version of VitaDock software which makes use of VLC before moving on to create versions that use mpv instead.

The VitaDock VLC image comes with many essential utilities built-in together with a bunch of scripts to make life easier!

This image, which was created with the help of m0tie, includes the following features:

• A custom build of VLC configured with optimal settings for streaming the Vita’s screen
• Software for receiving the PSVita’s audio via Bluetooth
  • This removes the need of having to connect your console via the 3.5mm audio jack
  • There’s support for the internal Bluetooth chipset of the RPi 3B+, 3A+ and 4 but not for the 3B
• An on-screen keyboard for easier management when far away
• The ability to automatically start and stop the VLC stream when you plug your PSVita in or take it out
• Enable/Disable scripts for boot video, Vita notification and boot text
• Built-in SSH Client and FileZilla installed
  • The username and password for SSH are found in the link below

 Which Raspberry Pi models are supported? How well does it work and how do I use it?

This version of the VitaDock software supports the following Raspberry Pi models:

• Raspberry Pi 3A+

  The range of RPi models supported is pretty good now but do note that RPi 3A+/3B+ can run for more money than an RPi 4 on certain marketplaces!

• Raspberry Pi 3B+
• Raspberry Pi 4B
• Raspberry Pi 3B but you need a Bluetooth dongle to get wireless audio
• Crash-Cortez said that tests are ongoing for Raspberry Pi 2 support but current indications show that the device is a tad too underpowered.
• A test build of the VitaDock software is also available for the RPi Zero

As per tests from Crash Cortez on a Raspberry Pi 3A+, this build of the VitaDock software provides pretty low latency and allowed him to enjoyably play Dragon’s Lair,a game that requires pressing buttons at precise moments in time.

To use it on your Raspberry Pi, you simply need to write the image to an SD Card by using a tool such as Rufus or Etcher, follow the on-screen prompts and you’re ready to go. Crash-Cortez advises against updating when using the VitaDock VLC image as that may wipe the special configuration files that the image comes with.

Conclusion

Perhaps someone will start producing VitaDock units and selling them on a marketplace with buyer protection, such as eBay, so that users who simply want a plug-and-play dock could finally get one and more people enjoy the work of the VitaDock Team [Bu (m0tie), ZoidBerg and his wife Si, David-OX, SilentNight and Crash-Cortez himself]! Till then, you’ll have to build your own VitaDock which isn’t too difficult and could serve as a fun DIY project to do during the weekend.

A recent update on the VitaDock page claims that refunds will be issued in the following months although this should probably be taken with a pinch of salt as its veracity hasn’t been confirmed.

VitaDock VLC Final Release Page (+ Download Link): https://github.com/CrashCortez/vitadock-vlc/tree/master/release

The post PSVita News: Crash-Cortez releases polished final version of VitaDock VLC Image for creating your own PSVita Dock – Compatible with Raspberry Pi 3A+, 3B, 3B+ and 4! appeared first on Wololo.net.

With the Nintendo Switch getting more popular and exclusive titles becoming more numerous, emulation efforts keep being revved up. As a result, Pokémon Sword and Shield are already in-game on both Yuzu and Ryujinx. We’ll also be looking at a savegame modding tool for the game and an update from the folks behind reF00D to make the last games/updates for the PSVita playable on FW 3.60+!

Switch News: Pokémon Sword and Shield already in-game in Yuzu & Ryujinx + PKHeX updated with support for it!

Recently, it’s become quite a common occurrence that when a Switch game is released, it can already boot and get in-game on emulators for the console.

Pokemon Sword and Shield are already showing promising results in Yuzu which is pretty surprising considering the Switch isn’t even 3 years old! (Source)

The latest games in this trend are Pokémon Sword and Shield, two games released yesterday, which are in-game on both Yuzu and Ryujinx with much better results in the former as it’s seeing much more development going into it. According to a tweet by Yuzu’s team, the game gets in-game and seems to be rendering pretty well but a few bugs need to be fixed before the title is fully playable. However, this hasn’t detracted people from trying it on their own machine and a video by YouTube channel ‘Danzel SH’ shows promising results, especially in battles, on an i5-8400 with a GTX 1060 3GB VRAM!

Other than showing promising results when emulated, these games already earned save editing support thanks to an update to PKHeX which was made possible thanks to help by SciresM and sora10pls. In the most recent 19/11/15 release, the following features are supported for Sword/Shield:

• Initial Legality Checking – this is still experimental
• Bag Editing
• Pokédex Editing
• Trainer Info Editing

Other than support for the Sword/Shield games, the latest release also received numerous bug fixes and .NET Core 3 support in WinForms builds so it’s still recommended you update if you use it for editing the save files of other games.

To grab the latest version of PKHeX and make the Pokemon Sword/Shield a tad easier, check out this link. To use modded save files, your Switch obviously needs to be hacked!

PSVita News: reF00D keys.bin file receives update to fix incompatibilities with latest games and updates

Apparently, some developers are still releasing games and updates for the PSVita so now, you can play these on FW 3.60/5!

While the PSVita’s lifespan has more or less ended, a few games and updates are still trickling through and these may require firmware 3.70 or above thus rendering them unplayable on earlier firmwares as reF00D only allows you to launch games requiring FW 3.69 or earlier on these FW versions. That has now changed as the developers behind it, which include scene veterans dots_tb/CelesteBlue/Princess Of Sleeping, have released an update to its keys.bin which modifies the artificial firmware range hard-coded into it since the keys on FW 3.70+ are still the same as FW 3.69’s.

With the modification, the maximum firmware version has been changed to FW 3.99 which probably needn’t be changed again as the PSVita’s firmware updates are unlikely to reach past the 3.xx series. As a result, it’s safe to say that all games and game updates requiring firmware 3.70 or newer, such as heck-Diver, can load on older firmwares such as 3.60 and 3.65 unless Sony decides to change firmware keys which it hasn’t done in the last few firmware updates!

To use the updated keys.bin file, all you have to do is install reF00D normally but use the just-released keys.bin file instead of the ones linked to in the installation instructions.

You can download the updated keys.bin file for reF00D from Team CBPS Forums by following this link.

Conclusion

On a concluding note, it’s worthwhile to mention that Cathery has updated Sys-con with DualShock 4 support letting you use it wired to the Switch Dock with no extra hardware. When it comes to iOS jailbreaking, checkra1n 0.9.5 has been released which is a recommended update since it fixes even more bugs!

The post News: Pokémon Sword and Shield in-game on Yuzu & Ryujinx + Save Modding Tool PKHeX updated for it & reF00D keys.bin updated to support latest game updates by modifying artificial firmware limit! appeared first on Wololo.net.

While one of the hottest topics related to gaming in the last few days was the launch of the Google Stadia, the PSVita scene saw some good news thanks to 2 releases. In this article, we’ll be looking at the useful Volume_Profile plugin and a port of the popular Super Crate Box game albeit with some added stuff to make it even better!

Plugin Release: Volume_Profile by Marburg of Team CBPS

Recently, it seems that Team CBPS is on a roll when it comes to releasing plugins for the PlayStation Vita, first with the LOLITA500/444 plugins last week and now with Volume_Profile by Marburg (cuevavirus).

Volume_Profile provides a feature that you probably use without even knowing it as it’s available on iOS and other platforms (GIF can be seen in the GitHub link below)

This quality-of-life plugin, which is based on a pretty simple concept, automatically saves and switches volume levels whenever you connect or disconnect your headphones. In other words,  the functionality of the plugin can be described as follows:

• If your PSVita is currently emitting sound from its speakers (i.e. no headphones are connected) and then you connect headphones, this plugin takes note of your current volume level and changes the volume level to the same level you had when you last used headphones
  • As a result, you’ll avoid getting very loud sound blasted into your ears immediately when you connect headphones
• On the other hand, if your PSVita currently has headphones connected and you disconnect them, the plugin takes note of your current volume level and proceeds to change the volume level to the same level you had when you were last using the speakers

When it comes to installation, you can get volume_profile on your system by downloading it from the link below (in SUPRX form, as it’s a user-mode plugin) and putting it under the *main section of your taiHEN config.txt. The plugin supports FW 3.60 and 3.65-3.73 and AVLS functions normally when using this plugin.

To read more about volume_profile and download it, check out its thread on Team CBPS’ forums or its GitHub page.

Game Release: Super Crate Mod by JeffRuLz345 of Reddit – An enhanced port of Super Crate Box

Moving over to a game release, this time around we have Super Crate Mod which is an enhanced port of Super Crate Box, a game that was officially ported to the PSVita in 2012.

While Super Crate Boy has pretty simple gameplay mechanics, it’s not that easy to play and can keep you hooked for a while! (Screenshot from Super Crate Mod on my PSVita)

Super Crate Box, by Vlambeer, is a free 2D game with pixel-style graphics in which enemies continually spawn from the top of the map and you must kill them using an assortment of different guns which can be obtained from crates that spawn at random places in the map. Other than that, it also contains various unlockables such as maps and weapons so that it provides a sense of progression.

Switching focus to Super Crate Mod, its author has made the following changes compared to the official port which generated the ideal game for him:

• The game runs at 60FPS instead of 50FPS
• No more letter-boxing as the game runs at 16:9 (widescreen) rather than 4:3
• The Unused Challenge Mode and Napalm Launcher weapon have been restored
• Some features from the iOS version including the Vlambeer character and some modifications to the main menu
• The tutorial has been made optional and it’s been moved to the Level Select screen
• A memory leak was fixed
• Many other minor tweaks and fixes which can be viewed in the Reddit thread below
• From a short period of testing on my console, I can confirm that Super Crate Mod works extremely well and exhibited no obvious issues whatsoever

To learn more about Super Crate Mod and download its VPK, follow this link to its Reddit Thread. The game is also available on VitaDB but it crashed VHBB when I tried downloading it on my own device.

Conclusion

Switching over to other news, Google Stadia, which was released yesterday, seems to be receiving mixed reviews with Forbes saying that it’s a disaster when it comes to input lag but The Verge had somewhat better results although it’s disputing that the 4K stream is really 4K. Furthermore, Valve has announced that it’ll be unveiling Half-Life: Alyx on Thursday which might the long awaited Half-Life 3 sequel… just in VR.

The post PSVita News: Team CBPS releases Volume_Profile plugin which saves & switches volume levels for headphones/speakers & enhanced Super Crate Box port released! appeared first on Wololo.net.

From time to time, older emulators get updates which fix bugs while bringing minor features but No$GBA 3.0 broke the norm as it’s mostly focused on efforts relating to 3DS Reverse-Engineering. In this article, we’ll also be looking at MAME 0.216 and 3 recently released PSVita plugins namely AnalogsEnhancer 1.1, reScreeny and 0syscall6.

Emulation News: No$GBA 3.0

No$GBA 3.00 is out and it improves some low-level stuff relating to the DSi and lets you disassemble 3DS FIRM/MCU files for development!

No$GBA is a GBA, DS and DSi emulator by Martin Korth which has been around since 2001. Over the years, the emulator saw numerous updates and before DesMuMe matured, it was the emulator of choice for many who wanted to emulate the Nintendo DS.

While its popularity nowadays has declined a bit, it’s still used for certain games and it’s the best-working DSi emulator currently available with Reverse-Engineering efforts still ongoing.

Now, No$GBA 3.0 has been released which is more of a developer-oriented release but also brings some improvements to the DSi emulation functionality. The update includes:

• DSi emulation received some low-level tweaks such as an 8MHz SPI bus clock and some things related to MMIO
• When setting up controls, you are now able to assign DEL/BS keys and the disassembler supports a new opcode
• Many more components of the Nintendo 3DS (both old and new) have been reverse-engineered
  • Thanks to this, more documentation about the 3DS is available when it comes to emulating it which may led to better 3DS emulators down the line
• You can load and disassemble 3DS FIRM and MCU files but it must be noted that no 3DS hardware is being emulated right now although this might change some day!

To grab No$GBA 3.0, follow this link to its webpage where you may also find donation links. This post on NES Forums by its developer also sheds more light on what’s been going on.

PSVita Plugin Releases: AnalogsEnhancer 1.1, reScreeny & 0syscall6

Moving over to the PSVita scene, the hottest release trend seems to be plugins as we have even more plugin releases with 2 new entries and an update.

Even though the PSVita has been hacked for over 3 years, it’s still receiving quality-of-life plugins which you should certainly try out if you’re still using your console!

Starting off with the updated plugin, we have Rinnegatamante‘s (Patreon) AnalogsEnhancer 1.1, a plugin to fine-tune the PSVita’s analogue sticks, and this brings along the ability to disable the ANALOG_WIDE patch included in the plugin which was previously always enabled – Configuration details have also been updated and may be accessed from here.

Switching over to releases, we then have:

• reScreeny, a plugin by Team CBPS member dots_tb which makes screenshots much easier to access via FTP/USB since it saves them in directories that make sense
  • Rather than being stored in ux0:/photo/SCREENSHOT/[two random letters], screenshots are now stored in ux0:/photo/SCREENSHOT/[Game Name]
  • It supports Unicode (i.e. non-Lating alphabets) and has adequate error handling when names are too long or have illegal characters
  • The plugin works with pngshot (higher quality screenshots in PNG format) and Adrenaline (screenshots from it will be placed in ux0:/photo/PspEmu)
  • You may read more about it by following this link to its Team CBPS Forum Post and download from its GitHub Release Page.
• 0syscall6, a plugin by SKGleba, which patches lv0’s syscall 6
  • This plugin, which is essentially an alternative to reF00D, lets you play games that require a higher firmware than you’re on (FW 3.69 games on FW 3.60 for example) and run revoked applications like the PSM dev app while also removing some other basic SELF checks.
  • You may read more about it from its GitHub README, join the discussion on its Reddit Thread and download it from its GitHub Release page.

Conclusion

Other than these releases, MAME 0.216 and the Pokemon Sacred Sword & King’s Shield Mod has been released for the Nintendo Switch for Pokemon Sword & Shield. As part of their Black Friday deals, Steam is selling the somewhat non-traditional Steam Controller for 90% off (€5.50 in Europe, link not sponsored) possibly in a bid to clear stock but do note that you still need to pay for shipping which may cost more than the controller itself!

The post News: No$GBA 3.0 released with DSi emulation fixes and ability to load/disassemble 3DS FIRM files & AnalogsEnhancer 1.1, reScreeny and 0syscall6 plugins released for the PSVita! appeared first on Wololo.net.

Thanks to many talented developers, the PSVita has many plugins to boast of but some of the most used are overclocking like PSV VSH Menu and LOLIcon. Now, PSVshell has been released which is yet another overclocking plugin but it aims to fix the issues encountered with the others while bringing its own features!

What is PSVshell?

PSVshell, by Electry, is a kernel-mode plugin for the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation TV which is currently compatible with firmware 3.60 and 3.65.

With PSVshell, you can set core frequencies in LiveArea and every other application with a very high degree of compatibility!

Similar to PSV VSH Menu and LOLIcon, this plugin is an overclocking plugin but it aims to provide a highly polished experience that includes a nice GUI and a high degree of compatibility.

This plugin comes with many useful features which include:

• Obviously, it allows you to overclock every aspect of the PSVita including the CPU, GPU (ES4), BUS and XBAR
  • Like LOLIcon, you can overclock your PSVita’s CPU to 500MHz (494MHz in reality) which provides a small but noticeable boost over the 444MHz frequency that the PSVita can officially run at
  • Unlike LOLIcon, it doesn’t allow you to set your GPU frequency to 333MHz as it only seems to differ from the normal 222MHz mode in regards to stuff relating to the Vita’s codec engine rather than actual GPU cores thus no performance difference is noticed in games

    PSVshell also supports HUD mode which provides real-time statistics on how your system is doing performance-wise

• It comes with a pretty nice dark-mode UI rather than the console text-style UI of similar plugins
  • Other than being nice to use, it also lets you modify clock frequencies with a few button presses and save profiles
  • You can also see per-core CPU usage, peak load and some other statistics
• Unlike other overclocking plugins, PSVshell is a kernel-mode plugin so it works in LiveArea
• App-specific profiles are supported
• Games aren’t slowed down when you’re using the clock frequency menu and Adrenaline is supported
• 3 different UI modes which include ‘FPS Counter Mode (Top-Right)’, ‘HUD Mode’ (shows usage statistics & frame rate) and ‘FULL Mode’ (shows you the clock frequency menu)

From a brief testing session, I can personally confirm that the plugin works pretty well with the browser, LiveArea, Age Of Zombies and Fruit Ninja functioning without any hiccups.

How do I install this plugin? How do I use it?

Installing PSVshell is pretty easy but getting it to show may be a tad confusing at first

To get PSVshell on your PSVita, you have to:

• Download the plugin from its GitHub Release Page
• Copy it over to ux0:/tai/ or ur0:/tai/
• Open your taiHEN config.txt and add its path under the *KERNEL section (example: ‘ux0:tai/PSVshell.skprx’)
• Reboot your PSVita and enjoy overclocking without any major issues!

Using the plugin is pretty self-explanatory but getting it to show up the first time might be a tad confusing. To get it to show up, press ‘SELECT+UP (on your d-pad)’ at the same time and you’ll get the FPS counter. After that, press the button combination again and then do it again to get the clock frequency menu. To get rid of it, press ‘SELECT+DOWN (on d-pad)’ simultaneously until you get to the view mode you desire. More instructions can be found in the README below.

Conclusion

Without a doubt, this plugin is recommended for virtually anyone using a hacked PSVita since many games such as Borderlands 2 can use some form of overclocking in order to give you a smoother experience that should’ve been provided in the first place!

If you want your PSVita or PSTV ‘permanently’ overclocked to 444 or 500/494MHz, you might be interested in LOLITA444/500 by Team CBPS.

PSVshell README (check it out before installing it): https://github.com/Electry/PSVshell/blob/master/README.md

The post PSVita Release: Electry releases PSVshell, an overclocking plugin done right – Can run in LiveArea, no flickering menus, 500MHz overclock support, compatible with Adrenaline and more! appeared first on Wololo.net.

In its 3rd Christmas of having a widely-used native hack, the PSVita’s homebrew scene is still kicking and we just got Hyper Princess Pitch, a top-down shooter themed after the Christmas season! In this article, we’ll also be looking at the release of Volume_Profile 2.0 (now renamed to JAV) and Cathery’s feat of squeezing a FTP sysmodule into just 1MB RAM!

PSVita Game Release: Hyper Princess Pitch ported by JeffRuLz345

JeffRuLZ345 strikes again with yet another Game Maker Studio game port and this time, it’s Hyper Princess Pitch which the introduction has already revealed.

While short, Hyper Princess Pitch is pretty fun and has gameplay reminiscent to Super Smash TV (Screenshot taken during testing session)

This game, which is an Indie Title by Daniel Remar, is a Christmas-themed top-down shooter that has you playing as Princess Pitch trying to stop Mecha Santa from spreading happiness and cheer all over the world simply because you think these plans are ridiculous. Hyper Princess Pitch is a remake of ‘Operation:Carnage‘, a DOS title that has you playing as a guy trying to cause trouble in a fictional Earth controlled by aliens.

It’s noteworthy to state that the game is pretty short but levels have multiple paths and 5 difficulty levels exist so it’ll keep you entertained during any boring moments you might encounter during the Christmas season! When it comes to the PlayStation Vita port, a brief testing session conducted by myself went pretty well with the game performing very well, audio working just fine and the controls being mapped in a way that makes sense.

To grab Hyper Princess Pitch, you may find the link from its Reddit Release Thread or download it directly on your PSVita through VHBB as it’s available on Rinnegatamante’s VitaDB.

PSVita & Switch Module/Plugin Release: Volume_Profile/JAV 2.0 for the Vita & FTPd in 1MB RAM for the Switch

Moving on to non-holidays themed releases, Marburg (cuevavirus) of Team CBPS has released an update to Volume_Profile bumping its version to 2.0 and changing its name to  JAV.

If you’re ditching 3.5mm jack audio peripherals, JAV has your back (Image Source)

This quality-of-life plugin makes your PSVita remember the volume level you set for its speakers, headphones connected through the 3.5mm jack and Bluetooth audio devices thus removing the potential for annoying volume hikes when you plug in headphones after using the speakers. According to its changelog on Team CBPS’ forums, this update brings along:

• Support for saving volume levels (profiles) for Bluetooth audio devices
  • It can save volume information for up to 32 paired devices which should be enough for the vast majority of people
• The configuration path has been changed to ‘ux0:/data/jav’
• Visual (?) and Performance improvements
• On GitHub, its name has been changed to 自動オーディオボリューム (Automatic Audio Volume) for some unknown reason. JAV might be an abbreviation for its Japanese Reading

You may grab JAV 2.0 from its GitHub Release Page and it’s to be installed in *main section of your taiHEN config.txt.

You can now copy files to/from your Switch in background while being able to run other sysmodules!

Switching focus to the another scene, Cathery has released an optimised FTPd sysmodule for hacked Switch consoles coming after her popular sys-con sysmodule which lets you use DualShock 3, DualShock 4, XBOX ONE and XBOX 360 controllers on your Switch console. Compared to the original sys-ftpd sysmodle by ‘jakibaki’, which also lets you run an FTP server in background, Cathery’s sys-ftp-light only uses 1MB of RAM rather than 6MB which lets you run many more system modules at the same time on your console while also working on FW 9.1.0.

Other changes compared to sys-ftpd include:

• Sound was removed completely
• On Joy-cons updated to FW 9.0.0, the LED light turns off automatically after 10 seconds to prevent battery drain – this prevents the LED staying on forever when the sysmodule gets interrupted
• The ‘titles’ folder was renamed to ‘contents’ in order to conform to the new rules set by Atmosphere 0.10.0 and newer.
  • You’ll need to rename it back if you’re using Atmosphere 0.9.x or older

You may grab sys-ftpd-light and read more about it by following this link to its GitHub Release Page. Cathery may be donated to on Ko-fi.

Conclusion

Other than the above, SkyMM-NX (Skyrim mod manager) 1.1.1 has been released and if you’re a bit out of the loop, Microsoft has announced their upcoming XBOX console called the XBOX Series X (yes, that’s really what it’s called; link leads to a ‘The Verge’ article – Wololo isn’t affiliated with website) which might be worth reading about even though it’s pretty much a glorified gaming PC.

The post PSVita & Switch Releases: Hyper Princess Pitch (Christmas-Themed Indie Game) + Volume_Profile/JAV 2.0 (Bluetooth Support) released for the Vita & Cathery releases FTPd sysmodule using only 1MB RAM! appeared first on Wololo.net.

For Nintendo franchise lovers, Christmas has come early as Cemu 1.16.0 has just been released publicly so now, you can emulate the Wii U through the Vulkan rendering backend for free! Other than that, the PSVita also saw some love by receiving even more plugins with DolcePolce and MonAural this time around.

Wii U Emulation: Cemu 1.16.0c, with Vulkan support, is now publicly available to non-Patreon supporters!

A few days ago, Cemu’s Team finally released the 1.16.0 update for their emulator which brought about the addition of a Vulkan graphical rendering back end, a highly anticipated feature of the emulator that had been in WIP state for a decent amount of time. 

Cemu allows you to play many Wii U titles like Zelda BotW with good results! (Image Source)

However, this release was for Patreon supporters only and one had to pay $5/month to get access to it but now, the release has been made publicly available for free and the full changelog has also been published for everyone to read.

In its changelog, we find:

• The addition of a Vulkan renderer
  • Compared to the OpenGL rendering back end, this renderer aims to provide better performance especially on AMD GPUs since OpenGL drivers for these are nowhere as good as Nvidia’s offerings
  • It must be noted that Vulkan is no miracle-maker so if your system doesn’t have to power to emulate Wii U games, you’re probably still out of luck

    With Vulkan rendering, AMD GPUs can provide much better performance compared to OpenGL

• The shader cache received some updates including zlib compression for smaller cache files and cross compatibility with the Vulkan & OpenGL back ends
  • Thankfully, it’s backwards compatible with shader caches generated by Cemu 1.15.20 and older
• Graphics Packs Version 4 were introduced which add shader replacement support for Vulkan
• The game list now loads asynchronously and a migration assistant was added to help users of Cemu 1.15.10 and older with moving DLC
• Version 1.16.0c fixes the colours if Luigi sprites in Super Mario 3D World among fixes and minor features

To grab Cemu 1.16.0c and start emulating Wii U games through Vulkan, follow this link. The full change log can be read here.

PSVita Plugin Releases: DolcePolce & MonAural by Team CBPS

Continuing the recent plugin saga, Team CBPS members have released another 2 plugins for the PlayStation TV and Vita would could prove pretty useful to certain types of users.

Many games are barred from running on the PSTV for no good reason. With DolcePolce, everything runnable on a PSVita should also become runnable on a PSTV!

The first one of these is DolcePolce, a plugin by SilicaAndPina that gets rid of the blacklist that Sony imposed on the PlayStation TV which impedes the user from playing various game titles, sometimes for no discernible reason. While getting rid of the PSTV blacklist is nothing new and solutions, such as AntiBlacklist, have been around since the early days of HENkaku, DolcePolce has some chief advantages over some of these which include:

• Persisting after a database rebuild
• Compatibility with PSM, PSP and PS1 titles
• Support for DLC and updates

If you have a PSTV and want the ability to run everything the hardware is capable of running, follow this link to Team CBPS’ forums for more information. Downloads can be found on GitHub & BitBucket

MonAural provides some audio management features similar to accessibility options on Android/iOS

The second one, by cuevavirus (Marburg), is called Monaural and it allows you to manage some aspects of audio output on your PSVita. Currently, it lets you toggle mono audio on/off together with setting the Left/Right Balance which might come in handy if using defective headphones or suffer from lack of hearing in one ear. Its release post mentions that there’s no processing lag thanks to the usage of ARM NEON instructions.

Monaural comes in 2 parts namely a kernel plugin and a management application which lets you set the aforementioned audio settings yourself.

You may grab Monaural from its GitHub Release Page and view its post on Team CBPS’ forums.

Conclusion

In other news, a tfp0 exploit, which works on A12/A13 devices, for iOS 13.3 has been teased by @08Tc3wBB although it’s unclear whether it’ll ever be publicly released; you may see this Reddit thread for some discussion on the matter. Other than this, Luke Usher has published the Cxbx-Reloaded November Progress Report which may provide an interesting read to some.

The post News: Cemu 1.16.0c publicly released with Vulkan renderer and shader cache improvements; 2 new PSVita plugins (DolcePolce & Monaural) released by Team CBPS appeared first on Wololo.net.

While the PlayStation Vita had the potential to be more than just a gaming console, its limited success outside of Japan hindered the development of more smartphone-esque features. However, Sony released an eBook Reader for the Japanese market, which didn’t make to Western markets, and thanks to CtrlAltGraphene and MatNyaga, it received an English translation and the ability to add your own books. In this article, we’ll be looking at how to install and use their work!

Part I: Installing the patch & translation on your PSVita

Contrary to many mods for the PSVita, getting the E-Book Reader to work requires more than just a simple VPK/plugin installation since it involves the installation of a PKG, 3 plugins and a translation patch. It’s important to be at your PC and have a USB cable handy since this tutorial will require the use of QCMA. If you’re an absolute beginner, this tutorial probably isn’t for you since some bits are left out for brevity’s sake.

You’ll be starting your journey with QCMA & Package Installer to get the ‘Reader’ app on your PSVita

The steps for the first part as follows:

1. Before starting, you need to be able to install PKG files on your PSVita – This requires you to have QCMA installed on your PC and Package Installer on your PSVita
   • On FW 3.60, you can use SilicaAndPina’s PKGENABLER to enable Package Manager – If you’re on another firmware, you’ll have to look around yourself since I can’t personally confirm which package enabler solutions work on those
   • Alternatively, you may log into a Japanese PSN account to get it from PSN. It’s also possible to use other software, that’s not exactly legal, to get the E-Book Reader on your PSVita
2. Proceed to install the E-Book Reader’s PKG which can be downloaded from the Reddit link at the bottom. You’ll also have to install rePatch reDux0 2.71 & 0syscall6
   • If you had previously installed/used the application, uninstall it and remove any files bearing its title ID (PCSC80012) from ux0:/user and its sub directories

     After installing the Reader app on your PSVita, you’ll need to update it by pressing the Update Button on its LiveArea bubble (not shown here)

3. After getting it installed, press the update button on its LiveArea bubble as the mod requires version 1.62 (latest version at the moment) of the application – This step must be done for the patch and translation to work
   • To get the update button, you may need to open the application at least once.
4. Download the translation patch and the plugin [the plugin makes the reader app work better, has additional translations and lets you add your own books from ux0:/book] from this link
   • 4 different versions of the plugin exist with fake authentication/guide book on or off.
5. Extract the ZIP file you downloaded from the step above and place the ‘PCSC80012’ folder (from Translation/rePatch inside the ZIP file) in ‘ux0:/rePatch’ while putting ‘ReaderMod.suprx’ (from Plugin/) in ‘ux0:/tai’
6. Reboot your PlayStation Vita to enable the plugins you installed in step 2
7. Run the ‘Reader’ app and if it loads up in English, you’re clear to move to step 8
8. Go back to VitaShell, open taiHEN’s config.txt, create a section called ‘*PCSC80012’ and add ‘ReaderMod.suprx’ to it
9. Reboot your PlayStation Vita and open the ‘Reader’ application again
10. Congratulations, now you’ve successfully installed Sony’s official E-Book Reader application on your PSVita together with the English patch and the plugin letting you add your own books among other things

After finishing this section, you’ll get an English UI and the groundwork for adding your own books finished!

Part II: Adding your own books to the mix

Now that you managed to successfully install the eBook Reader application and have it in a language that you can understand, adding your own books is up next. To do this, you have to:

1. Download Vita Book Edit to a Windows PC

   Vita Book Edit works well enough despite the bug described in Step 6

   • This application lets you add your own books to the PlayStation Vita
2. Connect your PSVita to your PC via USB
3. Open VitaShell, put in USB transfer mode and press SELECT to enable it
   • Your PSVita should now be connected to your PC as an external USB device like a pen drive
4. Open the Vita Book Edit utility you downloaded in step 1
5. Press ‘ux0: Location (Memory Card)’ and select the drive your PSVita is mounted as (E: in my case)
6. Press ‘+ (Add Book)’, select the ePub file you wish to add, fill in the details and press ‘Save Details’.
   • Only ePub files with png/jpg/svg files as pages are supported (not plaintext ePubs) so you might need to do some conversions yourself. Kindle Comic Convertor helps you convert CBZ files and image sets to the supported ePub format.
   • In version 0.5 of Vita Book Edit, there’s a bug in which ‘cover.jpg’ might not be generated in the directory of the new book. To remedy this, add a cover.jpg file to ‘ux0:/book/00000000BLKSTOK1/book[num]’.
7. Congrats, you have successfully imported your own book.

The Sample Book (provided in the ZIP file mentioned in Step I) is now present in the bookshelf in all its glory!

Conclusion

Without a doubt, the efforts to get Sony’s official E-Book Reader to work with user-imported books and in English have produced some pretty cool results which the developers behind it should be applauded for. However, its official instructions are a tad sparse and the Vita Book Edit utility can afford to see some fixes (and perhaps the ability to automatically convert plaintext ePubs to the accepted format) so we’ll see what the future holds for the project!

Reddit Release Post: https://www.reddit.com/r/vitahacks/comments/e7lndq/release_ebook_reader_pcsc80012_translation_custom/

For a hassle-free eBook Reader that’s not as pretty as this one, use Bookr Mod.

Misc Screenshots

Viewing the translated manual

Actually adding a book through Vita Book Edit

The post PSVita Tutorial: How To Use Sony’s Official E-Book Reader in English with your own books! appeared first on Wololo.net.

If you got yourself a hack-able Switch for Christmas or are hoping on receiving one tomorrow, then one of the first things you’ll be doing is exploring and installing homebrew. With Homebrew App Store, this can actually be done on-device without requiring a PC and now, it’s received an update to make it much better! We’ll also be looking at Deadly Hallows, an original homebrew PSVita game that might be worth checking out.

Switch & Wii U Release: Hombrew App Store 2.2 with no loading screen, recovery mode & many QoL fixes

With Homebrew App Store, you can easily browse and install homebrew directly on your Switch/Wii U!

It’s no secret that the Switch has a huge homebrew library and obviously, an easy way to install homebrew on the device itself is highly desirable so 4TU Team decided to port the Wii U’s ‘Homebrew App Store‘ to the Nintendo’s latest console and did a pretty good job at it.

Among its features, we find a UI that can be controlled through the touch screen, the ability to download/install homebrew on the device itself, use sorting filters and the ability to search for homebrew/themes together with providing a detailed description including screenshots when you select a certain piece of homebrew.

Now, version 2.2 has been released with many minor but welcome improvements that aim to improve the user experience before anything else. According to its changelog, this update comes with:

• The removal of the initial loading screen thus letting you use the application faster
  • Now, the images and meta-data of entries are downloaded on-the-fly while using the application
• A progress bar is now displayed when files are being extracted from a ZIP archive when you’re installing a piece of homebrew
• A recovery mode has been added which can be accessed

  With the latest updates, Homebrew App Store loads more quickly and shows you a progress bar while files are being extracted together with many subtle improvements!

  by repeatedly pressing the L/R trigger – no further information seems to have been given on what it does

• An on-screen quit button has been added and files are now downloaded to disk rather than memory to avoid filling it up unnecessarily.
• On the Switch, themes are no longer included in the ‘All Apps’ category and Wii U-style banners are used if the application is running in homebrew-mode
• A detailed credits screen, the abstraction of UI components into a single library called Chesto and some other minor improvements for both the Switch & Wii U

To grab Homebrew App Store and get installing homebrew on your Switch & Wii U with little effort, follow this link and get the NRO/RPX file.

PSVita Release: Anchitpatra releases Deadly Hallows, an original Unity-based game

With HENkaku approaching its 4th Christmas tomorrow, the PSVita is still receiving a good deal of homebrew and development with a good deal of releases from Team CBPS and other developers. However, this time we have something a bit different with an original game by Reddit User ‘Anchitpatra‘ who has been dabbling in PSVita development for quite some time.

Deadly Hallows may be a different game from what you’re usually accustomed to and makes it a point to be as mysterious as possible!

This game, which is based on Unity, is called Deadly Hallows and according to the description of a YouTube video demonstrating it, it’s a horror adventure game which has been in development for 2 months. From a brief playing session, I can say that the game seems to work pretty well and it does its best to provide an eerie atmosphere coupled with fitting music and a pretty mysterious story. It’s important to state that Anchitpatra has designed the game in a way that makes it challenging to figure out what to do next so don’t get discouraged too easily

To grab it, you may either download it from its MEGA/Mediafire links on its Reddit Thread or install it directly on your console via VHBB. For some reason, the bubble didn’t show up on my PSVita so I had to open it via VHBB.

Conclusion

Staying on the topic of homebrew releases, MenosGrante has released Rekado 3.3.1 for the Switch with Hekate 5.1.1 support & higan v107 was released 2 years after higan v106 together with an accompanying article describing its emulator hierarchy.

The post Switch & PSVita Releases: Homebrew App Store 2.2 (Switch/Wii U) released scrapping the loading screen while bringing many notable improvements & Anchitpatra releases ‘Deadly Hallows’, an original horror game for the PSVita! appeared first on Wololo.net.

As we all know, the last Christmas of this decade is over and the emulation scene has seen two noteworthy releases namely RetroArch 1.8.2 and DolphiniOS 1.1.0. In this article, we’ll be looking at these two releases and why you should probably go install them right now on your devices!

RetroArch 1.8.2 released with OpenGL 1 driver for the PSVita, Manual Content Scanning, more accessibility features among other things

Ever since RetroArch 1.7.9, the team behind this multi-emulator & game-engine front-end promised more frequent stable releases and they’ve been pretty successful in keeping this promise as there have 4 such releases in the last 3 months. Compared to the previous release, RetroArch 1.8.2’s changelog is pretty beefy and has something for most supported platforms rather than being a mobile-oriented update so without further ado, let’s look at what it brings to the table:

• Improvements to the PlayStation Vita port especially when it comes to video rendering

  RetroArch 1.8.2 brings about an Open GL 1 video driver to the PSVita which will hopefully bring hardware acceleration to some cores

  • The Vita2D video driver, which is used by default, now implements support for menu widgets (video showing these in action on PC)
  • An OpenGL 1 driver has been implemented for the PSVita which will come in handy when Libretro GL 1.x support is finished since this would allow OpenGL-accelerated cores to be brought over to the PSVita (perhaps a native Nintendo 64 emulator will come out of this)
  • The above driver makes use of VitaGL and has been made possible through Rinnegatamante’s efforts. Furthermore, the folks behind RetroArch encourage users to support a bounty, by Rinnegatamante, for bringing HW Context Support (Hardware Acceleration) to OpenGL 1 since could potentially lead to improve performance in HW-accelerated on the PSVita, 3DS and PSP.
    • Another bounty having to do with bringing hardware acceleration to RetroArch on the Vita is present and has received a good deal of funding but according to Rinnegatamante, this only brings improved menu performance and support for post processing shaders rather than hardware acceleration in RetroArch cores despite talk of this being possible early on in the bounty’s lifetime. It’s still unclear what needs to be achieved in order for the bounty’s money to be released.
• Support for manual content scanning
  • This lets you do content scanning without passing through RetroArch’s databases although it’s recommended you set some scanning options before you let it go through large folders
• The ability to update all installed cores by pressing a single menu option
  • This option can be accessed by going to the Online Updater and selecting ‘Update Installed Cores’
• The introduction of accessibility features for blind users which include a narrator for reading on-screen text in emulated games
• An improved FFMPEG core which provides much faster video playback on Windows/Linux thanks to it being hardware accelerated
• Numerous UI improvements, fixes to Vulkan on Android and many other smaller changes which can be read about in further detail by following the link below

To read more about RetroArch 1.8.2 and their plans for the immediate future, check out the release post on their blog. You may download RetroArch for the platform of your choice from this link.

DolphiniOS 1.1.0 released with performance improvements, support for motion controls and more

Following the publishing of a pull request for iOS support in the Dolphin emulator for GameCube and Wii consoles, OatmealDome has pressed on with their work in a separate fork despite the pull request still being Open (not accepted/rejected yet). Earlier this month, a version 1.0.0 release was published and this meant that a pre-compiled binary with some usage instructions was provided for the general public to play around with.

On my iPad Pro 10.5-inch (A10X), Mario Kart Wii works pretty well and playing through the first two tracks of the Mushroom Cup provided excellent results!

Now, version 1.1.0 has been released which brings about some pretty major things which include:

• Better performance on all devices since the latest version of MotlenVK is being used, fast texture hashing was re-enabled on A10+ devices (The A9 SoC doesn’t support CRC32 intrinsics) and the Dolphin core was recompiled as ‘Release’ in order to make use of better code optmisation
  • On an iPhone X, this resulted in a 15FPS increase (45 to 60FPS) on the Wii Sports Resort title screen
• The WiiMote’s motion sensors can now be emulated with your iDevice’s motion sensors which allows you to do spin moves in games like Super Mario Galaxy and Kirby’s Adventure
• Touch screen pointer emulation is now more accurate although pressing near the edges of the screen might behave oddly at times
• In Wii games, one can change the emulated controller by choosing one of the following
  • GameCube controller
  • Wiimote
  • Sideways Wiimote (useful for titles like Mario Kart)
• When in portrait mode, the game screen on the iPhone has been moved so as not to overlap with the touch controls, experimental support for Chimera has been added and installation progress logging is more verbose so as to help with troubleshooting

OatmealDome states that work on adding controller support (MFi) for a better gaming experience is currently going on and a UI revamp may also be coming along thanks to work by Magnetar.

You may grab DolphiniOS from its Cydia Repo to get public/stable releases. OatmealDome also provides early access to beta builds on Patreon for those who pledge $3 or more per month.

Conclusion

For more emulation news, you may be interested in reading RPCS3’s September 2019 Progress Report which was published on Christmas Day and perhaps this Hidden Palace Entry on a prototype released yesterday for a port of Akira on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis which never saw the light of day.

The post Emulation News: RetroArch 1.8.2 with OpenGL 1 driver for the PSVita paving way for HW-accelerated cores, manual content scanning & more; DolphiniOS 1.1.0 is out with notable performance improvements, motion control support among other features! appeared first on Wololo.net.

Hacked PlayStation 4 owners rejoice as Christmas has come a bit late with the release of a RetroArch port to this homebrew-depraved console! Other than that, the PlayStation Vita also received some love with the release of  Electry’s  VitaGrafix 5.0.

PlayStation 4: RetroArch 1.8.1 port gets released with 25 cores

About a year ago, some progress was being made on getting RetroArch, a pretty popular emulator & game engine front-end, ported to the PlayStation 4. This progress consisted of BigBoss getting RetroArch and some cores running on the console which was greatly aided by the fact that OpenGL ES supported was added to liborbis. However, developments about this mostly quieted down after January/February even though work kept going on.

After quite a long wait, RetroArch for the Playstation 4 is now here and many cores seem to work pretty well (Image from GBATemp Release Thread)

Now, the work and effort of Flatz, Frangar and BigBoss has finally paid off since OsirisX has just released a native PlayStation 4 port of RetroArch 1.8.1 for hacked consoles running FW 5.05. Currently, the port contains 25 cores which include emulators for:

• Nintendo consoles including the NES, SNES, Nintendo 64 (currently in experimental state), GameBoy, GameBoy Colour GameBoy Advance (GBA), VirtualBoy and the Nintendo DS
  • A GBATemp user states that Nintendo 64 emulation is pretty slow
• Sega consoles such as the Genesis/Mega Drive, Sega CD & 32X
• The PlayStation 1, WondderSwan, Neo-Geo Pocket, Atari Lynx, arcade machines with MAME, MS-DOS via DOSbox and the ever-present 2048 core

When it comes to importing games on RetroArch, you can load them from both the HDD and a USB device; BIOS files are to be placed in the subfolders found in “/data/retroarch/system”. OsirisX notes that more cores will come in the future and eventually, the PlayStation 4 port will be merged into RetroArch’s main branch which would allow it to be updated in line with official RetroArch releases; this might not take long as Frangar has expressed interest in helping out.

To grab the RetroArch 1.8.1 PKG to install on your PS4, follow the MEGA link on its GBATemp Release Thread. If you wish to see it in action, GBATemp user ‘tecniqueza’ has published a YouTube video demonstrating how well cores work.

PlayStation Vita News: Electry releases VitaGrafix 5.0.0

While the PSVita has a 960×544 screen and is capable of pushing past 30FPS in many games, some developers decided to lower game resolutions and introduce FPS caps in order to preserve battery life or get a better frame rate in the former case. However, circumventing these limits isn’t impossible to do and as a result, many have had a go at doing so with Electry providing VitaGrafix, an all-in-one plugin supporting many popular titles letting you get past the aforementioned limits.

Some titles like Persona 4 Golden run at a lower resolution than 960×544 like 840×476 but can easily have their resolution upped with little to no performance penalty!

Now, version 5.0.0 of the plugin has been released which comes with:

• A rewritten parser/interpreter which changes some of the ‘patchlist.txt’ file’s syntax while retaining compatibility with patches compatible with version 4.x of the plugin
• Support has been added for per-self headers in config.txt letting you use separate options in PSVita titles that come with 2 or more games (like GoW Collection which includes GoW 1 and 2)
• An internal log buffer has been added thus reducing game startup times together with an option in ‘config.txt’ to disable logging
• Support has been added for a 20FPS option, per-game patch lists and in-line comments on the same line as code (used when defining patches)
• Electry notes that version 5.0.1 will be coming soon as titles with multiple resolution patches like Ninja Gaiden 2 may crash if not all resolutions are specified

It’s also important to state that VitaGrafix Configurator (a GUI tool for specifying VitaGrafix’s settings on the PSVita itself) is currently not compatible with VitaGrafix 5.0 but its creator Kirezar promises to update it in the future.

To grab VitaGrafix 5.0.0, follow this link and check out its GitHub Wiki for installation/configuration instructions; you should also look at its official patch list to see which games are supported. You may also be intersted in PSVShell by the same author which is an excellent over-clocking plugin.

Conclusion

Other than these releases, the 3DS also received some stuff including TwiLight Menu++ 11.2.0 and a full English translation for Rocket Slime 3.

The post News: RetroArch FINALLY gets released on PlayStation 4 with 25 cores including PS1, MAME and experimental Nintendo 64 emulators & VitaGrafix 5.0.0 released for the PSVita with re-written parser and more appeared first on Wololo.net.

With the year coming to an end, both the PSVita and Switch received some homebrew releases/updates with the former seeing updates to some popular software and the latter getting a port of two early 2000s titles. In this article, we’ll be looking at these hyomebrew/plugins which are probably some of the last released with a 2019 timestamp!

PSVita Releases: RealYoti updates VitaShell, Download Enabler, NoLockScreen and NoTrophyMsg with FW 3.72/3.73 support

To end the year on a good note, RealYoti has released a couple updates for some of TheFlow‘s work to fully support Firmware 3.72 and 3.73, two firmwares both supported by h-encore².

There’s no good reason to stay on FW 3.72/3.73 but if you’re heck bent on staying on the latest firmware then RealYoti has released some essential updates which you’ll surely find useful! (Image of Modoru – a downgrading utility)

The software that’s been updated includes:

• VitaShell 2.0 with full FW 3.73 support
  • It’s unclear as to what ReralYoti’s work actually brings along but it seems to add some offsets to the ‘_shellKernelMountById’ and ‘module_start’ methods as per a commit.
  • VitaShell 2.0 officially supports FW 3.72
• Download Enabler with FW 3.72 and 3.73 support as it was broken on these according to user reports
• NoLockScreen with FW 3.72 and 3.73 support
• NoTrophyMsg with FW 3.72 and 3.73 support
• *UPDATE: Usbmc with FW 3.69-3.73 support by theHeroGAC
• *UPDATE: Gamecard to microSD adapter (gamesd) with FW 3.73 by theHeroGAC

It’s important to state that it’s generally not recommended to stay on FW 3.72/3 due to h-encore²’s low success rate and lack of homebrew/plugin support so if you’re on those firmwares, you should probably downgrade via Modoru to FW 3.60/5 if your console supports it which also grants you hacks at start-up or FW 3.68 if it doesn’t.

You can download RealYoti’s VitaShell from here and the plugins from this link.

Switch Release: Serious Sam TFE and TSE ports released thanks to fgsfds

If you’re interested in ports of FPS games to the PSVita and Switch, then you’ve probably head of fgsfds as he’s ported Half-Life 1 to the PSVita and Quake I/II/III to the Switch among other many titles. Now, he’s released a port of Ryan C. Gordon’s fork of the Serious Engine for hacked Nintendo Switch consoles which lets you play both the classic versions (not the HD remakes) of Serious Sam The First Encounter (2001) and The Second Encounter (2005); both of which are pretty well-received FPS PC titles of last decade.

Feel like some Serious Sam on your Switch? If so, fgsfds has got you covered even though the port is a tad rough around the edges!

According to the port’s release thread on GBATemp, the port is a tad janky and barebones and comes with a few issues which include:

• Long loading times
• Performance isn’t great, especially in some levels, due to dynamic lights
  • Thankfully, these can be disabled by changing the ‘shd_iAllowDynamic’ option in Scripts/PersistentSymbols.ini although some levels depend on having them enabled to be fully playable
• The demos that come prebundled with the game are desynchronised
• While it has multiplayer support, most PC servers run version 1.07 of the Serious Engine but the Switch port is based on version 1.10 so you may not be able to play on many of them
• The framerate is quite low in the menus and the NETRICSA menus can’t be controlled although they can be quit from by pressing the ‘+’ button
• Other than these, there are some peculiarities detailed in the ‘Notes’ of the GBATemp thread linked below which you should surely read about.

To play some Serious Sam 1/2 on your Switch, you can grab the port’s binaries from this its GBATemp Release Thread. You need to provide the game files for the classic versions yourself which can be purchased online from websites like Steam/GOG (currently on sale on both websites).

Conclusion

Other than these releases, GoldLeaf 0.8 is out for the Switch and Cemu 1.16.1 is out for Patreon supporters and it brings some Vulkan optimisations and other fixes; a public release will land on January 3. You may also be interested in some hacking presentations relating to the PS3, PS4 and the 3DS which PSX-Place has done some nice coverage of.

The post PSVita & Switch Releases: VitaShell, Download Enabler, No Lockscreen and No Trophy Msg updated with FW 3.72/3.73 support & Serious Sam 1/2 ported to the Switch! appeared first on Wololo.net.

With the first 2 days of 2020 already being over, the holiday season is coming to a close but don’t let this sadden you too much as some noteworthy homebrew has descended for both the PSVita and Switch! In this article, we’ll be looking at LowMemMode for the PSVita and RussellNX for the Switch.

Switch Release: RussellNX, by tijesef, released allowing for the creation of homebrew Game Maker Studio 2 games!

For quite some time, homebrew developers for the PlayStation Vita have been able to easily port Game Maker Studio games to the console thanks to SilicaAndPina’s G*Maker released in late 2018.

There are quite a few Indie GameMaker Studio titles that received ports to the PSVita thanks to G*Maker and these can now come to the Switch although their code needs to be converted to GMS 2. (Wasteland Kings is shown in the image)

As a result, the console received numerous Game Maker Studio-based homebrew game ports such as Deltarune Chapter One, Wizard Wizard, Wasteland Kings, Spelunky Classic HD and many others.

Now, Nintendo Switch homebrew developers have just gained similar abilities thanks to RussellNX, a tool by tijesef (Nik) which allows you to easily make GameMaker Studio 2-based homebrew games provided you have the GameMaker project available. In order to use this tool, you need to have Game Maker Studio 2 installed together with the 2.2.3.344 runtime. After installing GMS2 and providing a keys.txt (prod.keys) file used in building the resultant binary, you simply open the tool and set a few options which then results in an NSP file which can be installed on a real Nintendo Switch through tools like Goldleaf & Awoo Installer.

As RussellNX contains Deltarune’s exefs, no links will be provided even though the game itself is free because there may be legal issues. However, finding the tool online isn’t difficult and make sure you grab version 1.0.1 which fixes saving!

PSVita Release: GrapheneCt releases LowMemMode which allows limited multi-tasking on more games!

The PSVita natively allows you to open certain applications while you have a game open in background… unless it uses enlarged memory!

Anybody who has tinkered a bit with the PlayStation Vita knows that you can’t open multiple applications/games at the same time with the exception of system applications and a few 3rd party applications like LiveTweet which have a specific bootparam set.

However, some games like ‘Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana’ make use of enlarged memory which adds 29/77MB to their available memory pool and as a result, you can’t open applications that have the aforementioned bootparam set, with the exception of the Settings app, while the game is running.

Now, GrapheneCt has released LowMemMode, a user-mode plugin which gets around this limitation and allows you to launch other applications (which have the bootparam set) in LOWPHYMEM mode when games that make use of enlarged memory are being played. It’s important to note that not all applications may run/work properly and some may not launching by throwing a ‘C1-2609-7’ (SCE_KERNEL_ERROR_CANNOT_ALLOC_PHYMEMLOW) error. As of right now, only Firmwares 3.60 & 3.65 are supported so you’ll have to downgrade with Modoru if you’re on a higher firmware and wish to use LowMemMode.

To grab this plugin and make use of every single bit of memory on your PSVita when playing certain games, check out this link to grab the SUPRX file and install it under the *ALL section of your taiHEN config.txt file.

Conclusion

Other than these releases, it’s now possible to emulate the StudyBox, a Famicom (Japanese NES) peripheral which utilises tapes for data/audio rather than floppy disks and has around 50 pieces of software available for it.

The post PSVita & Switch Releases: RussellNX gets released for the Switch allowing for the creation of homebrew GameMaker Studio 2 ports & LowMemMode plugin for the Vita allowing you to multitask with certain apps while playing games using extended memory! appeared first on Wololo.net.

Plugin-mania seems to have continued on the PlayStation Vita and this time, we got a highly requested plugin letting you play music in background! Other than that, the PlayStation 4 has also seem some love again with its RetroArch port being updated with 12 new cores which we’ll be looking at in this article.

PSVita Release: Music Premium, by cuevavirus of Team CBPS, is out letting you play music in background

As evidenced by the introduction, Music Premium is a kernel plugin for the PlayStation Vita which lets you play music in background from the official Music application everywhere.

The PlayStation Vita’s music app is now infinitely more useful as you can use it for background music playback while gaming!

This is an extension to functionality that’s offered natively by the PSVita’s firmware which allows you to play music in background in LiveArea and some applications but not games.

Music Premium, by Team CBPS member cuevavirus/Marburg, is based/inspired upon MusicNonStop, a recently-released plugin by GrapheneCt with the same functionality, with the addition of some of its own features which include:

• Full compatibility with all games/applications including TheFlow’s Adrenaline
• Game sounds aren’t disabled when music is paused
• It lets you enable global music playback with only a single line of config (not sure about what’s meant here)

As this plugin has you using the Music app, you’ll have to either import your own music via QCMA or import them on-device through cnsldv’s Media importer by placing your MP3 tracks in ux0:/music.

To grab Music Premium and start playing your own tunes while gaming, follow this link and install the plugin under the *KERNEL section of your taiHEN config file.

PS4 News: RetroArch port receives update with 12 new cores & fix for launching games from playlists

Moving over to the PSVita’s big brother and Sony’s current home console, the PlayStation 4 has just received a pretty significant update to its RetroArch port released about a week ago. RetroArch is a popular front-end for numerous emulators/game-engines available on a wide variety of platforms including the PlayStation Vita and Nintendo Switch.

RetroArch for the PS4 now comes with more cores and lets emulate the DS and Sega Saturn together with some other systems!

This update, which is labelled as ‘r2’, comes with the following additions:

• 12 new cores which include:
  • Two Mupen64 cores which provide slightly better Nintendo 64 emulation
  • DeSmuME for Nintendo DS emulation
  • 5 FB Alpha cores (Arcade)
  • 2 Mednafen cores, one for the PC-FX and another for the SuperGrafix
  • Yabause for Sega Saturn emulation together with fMSX
• Launching games from playlists now functions as expected

To grab RetroArch for the PS4 r2, you can head over to its GBATemp Release Thread which contains both download links and more information.

Conclusion

Other than the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4, the Nintendo Switch and Emulation scenes have both seen some pretty significant stuff as well such as the release of Atmosphere 0.10.2 for the former (which disables hid-mitm by default) and the public release of Cemu 1.16.1 in the latter which comes with numerous optimisations to the recently-introduced Vulkan rendering backend together with a few other improvements (changelog / download link)!

The post PSVita & PS4 Release: Music Premium released for the PSVita allowing for background music playback in games & RetroArch for PS4 gets updated with 12 new cores including DeSmuME, improved N64 cores & FB Alpha appeared first on Wololo.net.