Release Roundup: MicroChip, SwitchView UI 0.1.1, Basilisk II 0.3.1 and updates to ZeldaROTH/3T
Sometimes, weeks come by in which there’s a lot of activity in the Vita community. That means that not all homebrew releases and updates can get an article so “Release Roundup” articles are here to keep you updated on what’s happening at the side.
MicroChip – S/CHIP-8 emulator released for the PSVita
The games for the Atari 2600 are quite primitive in the graphics and game play department but they still work pretty well. Games developed with the CHIP-8 interpreted programming language for the Telmac 1800 and other machines are much more primitive. While something being primitive isn’t a bad thing, I personally think that the S/CHIP-8 is a tad too primitive for today considering it was used for mid-1970s microcomputers with a full 4K of memory!
If you want a blast from the past (about 40 years ago), you can grab the emulator from the link below. It’s pretty interesting to check out with some ROM sets that can be easily found online. You won’t be wasting much space on your Vita since the ROMs are about a kilobyte large at most
Rinnegatamante’s emulator is pretty feature packed so you can mess around with save states, key bindings and even use a debugger. Any issues should be reported to Rinnegatamante.
Basilisk II Vita 0.3.1
With Basilisk II 0.3.1, the following has been added:
- You can now use ‘imaps’ to map the Vita’s buttons to keys on the emulated Mac. While this is great, it’s a little complicated to set up so hopefully, meetpatty will find a way to make it easier to configure the mapping files by creating a small application to generate them on a computer or on the Vita itself.
- The emulator can now change floppy disks/CDs (ISO files) on the fly by just press the ‘SELECT’ key. Key maps can also be changed in this way so you can have different key maps for different games if you figure out how to actually create them.
To download the updated version of the homebrew, follow the link below. There’s also a link on how the key maps work.
Any issues should be reported to its porter, meetpatty.
Updates to ZeldaROTH/3T
ZeldaROTH 1.1 brings the following:
- Performance was improved so now you get better frame rates!
- Downloading extra data files isn’t needed any more as the needed files are now in the (~25MB) VPK file itself.
- A new keymap got implemented.
Zelda3T 1.1 has got the following:
- More memory leaks were fixed.
- The data files are now integrated into the (~27MB) VPK file so you don’t need to worry about downloading extra data files.
To get these homebrew game ports, just follow the links below. Any bugs should be reported to their porter, usineur.
SwitchView UI 0.1.1
SwitchView UI, the Nintendo Switch-esque game launcher for the Vita, got two of its major bugs patched up:
- You can now open system applications thanks to a fix provided by SKGleba.
- System protected and nonpdrm games now show their icon thanks to a fix by MyLegGuy.
Hopefully, the launcher becomes able to fully multitask so you won’t need to re-open it everytime you open a game.
To get
the updated version, follow the link below. Any issues should be reported to VitaHEX.
MicroChip /talk thread (download link + more info): https://wololo.net/talk/viewtopic.php?f=116&t=48620
Basilisk II Vita 0.3.1 download link: https://github.com/meetpatty/basiliskii-vita/releases/tag/v0.31
ZeldaROTH 1.1 /talk thread (download link + more info): https://wololo.net/talk/viewtopic.php?f=116&t=48619
Zelda3T 1.1 /talk thread (download link + more info): https://wololo.net/talk/viewtopic.php?f=116&t=48604
SwitchView UI 0.1.1 /talk thread (download link + more info): https://wololo.net/talk/viewtopic.php?f=116&t=48629
Information on how to set up Basilisk II’s key bindings (scroll down for the actual post by “J.F.”): http://paczkowski.dk/mirror/forums.ps2dev.org/viewtopicd6ca.html?t=3741&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=390
FIRST!!!!!
Remapping does not work. I changed it to how I wanted it, but it still did not do anything in Basilisk. I found the Key Bindings File in the Unix Folder and Mapped it correctly. Changed the /\ to 1 and O to 2, but it still ended up staying as Command+Q and W
Also Noticed for the Vita, it does not have the Rear and Back TouchScreens.