PS Vita Release: Heroes of Might and Magic 3 (HoMM3HD) 1.1.0

Developer Northfear has released version 1.1.0 of his Vita port of Heroes of Might and Magic 3. One particularity of this port is that it is based on the Android SO Loader, meaning it runs at a much higher speed than if it was emulated. For all intents and purposes, it is a native port of the Android version. Version 1.1.0 adds the following:

• Added gamepad controls (cursor movement with left analog stick, map scroll with the right one)

What is HoMM3HD (Heroes of Might and Magic 3 HD) for PS Vita

From the readme:

This is a loader of the Android release of Heroes of Might and Magic III HD Edition, based on the Android SO Loader by TheFloW. The loader provides a tailored, minimalistic Android-like environment to run the official ARMv7 game executables on PS Vita.

At the time of writing this readme, the Heroes of Might and Magic III HD Edition was delisted from the major Android storefronts. This loader (“port”) is intended to be used only by those people who bought the game prior to the delisting and still can legally access their own copy through the Purchased Apps list on Google Play.

With the original game delisted from storefronts (allegedly because it didn’t make enough money to justify maintenance costs), the target audience of this release might be limited, but here’s hoping that the game might come back eventually.

While you’re here, you might also want to check out Northfear’s port of Heroes of Might and Magic 2 for the PS Vita, and some of his many other ports. If you’ve grown up in the nineties there’s certainly something for you in there (Fallout 2, System Shock, Warcraft 2, X-Com…)

Download and run HoMM3HD

You can get the game from the project’s github page here.

Setup

The port has been tested only with the latest available version of the game (which is v1.1.6)

In order to properly install the game, you’ll have to follow these steps precisely:

• Install kubridge and FdFix by copying kubridge.skprx and fd_fix.skprx to your taiHEN plugins folder (usually ur0:tai) and adding two entries to your config.txt under *KERNEL:  

  *KERNEL
  ur0:tai/kubridge.skprx
  ur0:tai/fd_fix.skprx

Note Don’t install fd_fix.skprx if you’re using the rePatch plugin!

Note 2 You no longer need to install libgpu_es4_kernel_ext.skprx with version 1.0.1 or higher (since it’s already bundled with the game).

• Legally obtain your copy of Heroes of Might and Magic III HD Edition for Android in form of an .apk file and .obb files (main.1113.com.ubisoft.mightandmagic.heroesiii.obb and patch.1110.com.ubisoft.mightandmagic.heroesiii.obb are located inside the /sdcard/android/obb/com.ubisoft.mightandmagic.heroesiii/) folder. You can get all the required files directly from your phone or by using any APK extractor you can find on Google Play.
• Open the .apk with any zip explorer (like 7-Zip) and extract it. Copy libhomm3.so file (located in the lib/armeabi-v7a folder inside the apk) into ux0:data/homm3hd/.
• Open the main.1113.com.ubisoft.mightandmagic.heroesiii.obb with your zip explorer (.obb files are zip files just like .apk files so just rename the .obb to .zip) and extract the contents to ux0:data/homm3hd/.
• Same as before, open the patch.1110.com.ubisoft.mightandmagic.heroesiii.obb with the zip explorer and extract the contents inside the zip to ux0:data/homm3hd/.
• Install HOMM3.vpk (from Releases).

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