PSVita/Switch Releases: Julius, a Caesar 3 port (Vita), Jump’n’Bump (Vita/Switch) and Super Mario War 1.0 (Vita) released – You can now go back to Roman times on your Vita with its newly released Caesar III port!

Around the time of TheFlow releasing his modoru downgrading utility, various PSVita developers decided to enlarge the console’s homebrew game library to make hacking it even more worth while. This time around, we have Julius (a Caeser III port), Jump’n’Bump (also available for the Switch) and a fully stable version of Super Mario War for the Vita!

Julius, a Caesar III port, has now come to the Vita!

If you like city building and the Roman Empire, then your PSVita’s value has increased drastically as devnoname120 got it a Caesar III port called Julius with some help from Rinnegatamante and rsn8887!

If the Caesar series is your thing, then you’ll be pleased to know that the Vita is now capable of running Caesar III natively!

As the source code of Caesar III isn’t publicly available, Julius is an open-source implementation by @bvschaik_ of the classic 1998 game that was created by Impressions Games and published by Sierra On-Line. Julius aims to use the exact same logic as Caesar III and is also fully compatible with save games from it.

From my observations throughout a short playing session, I observed that:

• Performance-wise, Julius is quite good and I observed no lag in a mostly empty map
• The touchscreen is used for main input as it controls the cursor
  • Unfortunately, tapping the screen doesn’t register as a left click so you have to press X/O for a left/right click respectively
    

    For now, naming the governor is something you’ll have to live without!

• Audio and sounds work as intended
• There doesn’t seem to be any way to pop up the on-screen keyboard so your governor’s name will have to stay “The new governor”
• Sadly, you can use the left/right analogue sticks for mouse control which makes it a bit difficult to point to smaller elements if you don’t have a stylus

To grab Julius and go back to Roman times on your PSVita, you can grab the VPK from this link or through VHBB as it’s available on VitaDB. As Caesar III isn’t a free game, you must supply the data files yourself,which can be obtained legitimately for a few bucks off GOG/Steam, and put them in ux0:/data/julius. I can personally confirm that the GOG files work just fine.

Jump’n’Bump released for both the PSVita and Switch

For quite a few months, rsn8887 has been treating the Vita and Switch equally when it comes his homebrew releases and now, both consoles got a port of Jump’n’Bump.

If you have friends that like jumping bunnies and competitive gaming, then Jump’n’Bump is an ideal game for you! Just make sure that no controllers get harmed while playing it…

This game is a multiplayer-only game in which all players, up to a maximum of 4, play as rabbits that have to stomp each other in order to make the other rabbit explode and score points. It’s a pretty simple game that can be quite fun with friends but unfortuantely, the Vita/Switch versions don’t have any way to turn on AI characters so there’s no way you can play this alone.

The game works pretty well and it has the following Vita/Switch specific features:

• On the PSVita, it supports Bluetooth keyboards with which multiple people can control bunnies simultaneously
• On the Switch, USB keyboards are supported if you want to use keyboard input
• Split-joycon mode is supported on the Switch

To get Jump’n’Bump, simply follow this link and download the VPK/NRO file for your platform of choice. This game is also present on VHBB since it’s on VitaDB.

Super Mario War is now fully stable on the PSVita

As recently mentioned, the Switch already has a port of Super Mario War and while the PSVita also had a port of this game by Rinnegatamante, it wasn’t fully stable.

Super Mario War is a competitive multiplayer game that also has to do with stomping on other characters but gameplay-wise it’s more advanced compared to Jump’n’Bump

Similar to Jump’n’Bump, Super Mario War is a multiplayer-focused game in which you must stomp on other Marios to score points and it has Super Mario Bros 3-esque graphics and sounds. To spice up gameplay, it has many different game modes like jail/coin collection and many maps so you and your friends are unlikely to get bored of it very quickly. Thankfully, it also has easily accessible AI functions so you can play alone or add another computer-controlled player or two when playing with family/friends.

Now, the PSVita’s Super Mario War port has been updated to version 1.0 which comes the following updates:

• Random game freezes have been fixed thanks to some fixes in the AI code
• The controlled crash function when pressing the R trigger has been removed as it was only there in version 0.9 to make debugging easier

To grab this updated version of Super Mario War, follow this link to get the VPK or grab it directly off VHBB because it’s available on VitaDB.

Conclusion

Without a doubt, hackers are an important part of the homebrew community but it’s also important to note that homebrew developers are equally as important because without them, there would be little reason to hack your device in the first place!

To support them, you may give them a few bucks on Patreon (if they have it) and remember to follow them on the in-line Twitter links above to get the latest news from them 🙂

Rinnegatamante’s Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Rinnegatamante

Rsn8887’s Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/rsn8887