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.