PSP homebrew developer roe-ur-boat, author of AutoStart and Basket Catch, has released a new program called Home Viewer. It's a simple homebrew organizer that lets you sort through your homebrew.
You can sort your homebrew apps alphabetically or you can sort them manually. The dev also notes that future versions may include an MP3 player and other features.
Home Viewer has a search function and lets you run programs straight from the app. You can launch PBPs, ISO/CSOs and PSX games. Here are the controls for the program:
A strong Euro and game accessibility has turned Europe into the decisive market for Ubisoft titles. Talking to GamesIndustry, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot revealed that Europe is now the biggest market for the company:
First, our money - the pound or the euro - is very strong and because of that the turnover from those countries is heavier than they used to be. So for Ubisoft turnover Europe is actually more important than the US now, and by more than 5 per cent. It's become a very strong market for us.
With Europe's increased importance, it looks like it may soon be getting rid of its identity as a perennially shafted territory in terms of game releases, as far as Ubisoft titles are concerned, anyway. And since Ubisoft is the world's third-largest publisher, other companies may follow suit. Great news for gamers in the region who are constantly plagued by late releases.
This year's Austin Game Developers Conference is adding a nice twist to their event. It's not just gonna be about games, it's also gonna be about charity.
Yep, gamers who'd like to participate in the Austin GDC will not only be having fun by testing their skills as gamers, but will also contribute to a good cause by making a charitable donation. How? Simple. There's a US 20 entry fee for the Level Up Charity Games Competition, and everything will be donated to the ESA Foundation.
Marc Mencher, CEO of competition sponsor GameRecruiter, says this about their charitable deed:
We have a long-standing commitment to supporting the educational needs of minority and female students who are interested in being part of the video game industry. By providing this support to the ESA Foundation's Scholarship Program, we hope to allow deserving individuals to further their education and expand workplace diversity within our industry.
Scheduled for the September 17 competition feature titles such as:
GameStop may not be getting its share of PlayStation Network cards until next year, but PS3 owners in North America will be able to get the cards from three more retail outlets next month.
According to the official US PlayStation website, three new retail outlets will start carrying PSN cards in September: Blockbuster, 7-Eleven, and Riteaid.
Some reports are also saying that Blockbuster and 7-Eleven stores all over the world will start carrying the cards in September. More good news for PS3 owners who don't have a credit card handy.
The cards are already available at Speedway, Pamida, Meijer, and other locations.
A couple of minor updates found their way into the latest build of developer Hellcat's Pandora Installer for 3.xx kernels, bumping itself up to Revision 4b. The new version essentially includes support for the updated releases of several other homebrew utilities.
To be more specific, Pandora Installer now makes use of the version 7 of Despertar del Cementerio and version 0.4 of the ELF-Menu. Both these useful homebrew utilities were originally added in Revision 4 of the app.
Just a friendly reminder from the dev: please note that Pandora Installer only works on PlayStation Portables running on custom firmware and not the original PSP firmware. With that said, don't forget to browse through the Readme file before installing anything onto your handheld.
It's been over three and a half years now since the PSP has been released in Japan. And just last month, Sony announced that they've shipped some 10 million units of PSP to Japan retail. Now coming from Famitsu, actual sales totalled from the period of December 12, 2004 to August 24, 2008 have been tallied.
As of last counting, they've gotten 10,005,546 PSP units sold, to be exact. That's a lot of PSPs!
The numbers are consistent - Media Create reports that the PSP sells anywhere between 40 to 60 thousand units per week in Japan, and with the PSP-3000 announced, there's little doubt that PSP sales would end there either.
As for software, Capcom's dominating the PSP lifetime charts with their Monster Hunter Portable series, with Crisis Core sitting on third place, thus preventing the trilogy from getting a Top 3 sweep.
Meanwhile, Phantasy Star Portable, being the game with the shortest lifetime out of the top five, managed to just sneak into the all-time list - that's definitely saying something, compared to all the other games that have been released out there since the PSP's launch. Check it out:
Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (Capcom) - 2,396,642 units since March 27, 2008
Monster Hunter Portable 2nd (Capcom) - 1,706,387 units since Feb 22, 2007
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (Sqaure Enix) - 790,795 units since Sept 13, 2007
Monster Hunter Portable (Capcom) - 668,964 units since Dec 1, 2005
Phantasy Star Portable (Sega) - 545,242 units since July 31, 2008
First time homebrew coder PSPfreak2007 decided to take a brave stab at QJ.NET's PSP Updates Summer Homebrew Contest and entered an interesting new homebrew game into the mix. Entitled "THE WAY", it's basically a memory game with a simple yet challenging concept.
Coded in Lua, the goal of the game is to follow a predetermined path flashed at the start of each level. The player must then follow the same path through a grey and black grid once the highlighted squares disappears.
Considering this is a first attempt at a homebrew game, the program itself is well constructed and should provide players a quick distraction by going through all its levels. You can leave any feedback regarding the game by visiting the developer's project release thread, accessible through the link below.
A strong Euro and game accessibility has turned 
