I’m pleased to announce the opening of a new subsection of this website, wololo.net/downloads, a database with download links to thousands of homebrews.

Some of you might have noticed the new “random homebrew” link at the top of the pages of our /talk community. If you haven’t, give it a try, it’s a fun way to discover new homebrews.

This is just getting started (let’s say it’s a beta version), and for now lots of downloads are actually linking to external sites, but I will progressively add direct links to my server (something that was, until now, done manually and sporadically in some of my blog posts)

Why yet another Homebrew database?

There are dozens of websites around here that host homebrew downloads, why creating yet another one?

Well first, this is a convenience for me as my server is hosting more and more homebrews, and without a perfect memory of the actual blog post in which I posted the link, it is difficult to find them. So I do hope it will make it easier for people reaching this site to get what’s directly available here, and for me to keep track of the homebrews I host.

Secondly, I think most of the major scene websites out there don’t care enough about the homebrews they host, and especially version numbers. It’s always very difficult to know, when you reach a download site, if you are downloading the latest version of a homebrew, or if you’re just getting a super old version, and missing on the new version, hosted on the exact same site… In order to avoid that kind of thing, I put some emphasis on version numbers for each of the homebrews. If you reach a download page on /downloads, the default behavior is to show you the latest version of the homebrew. You can of course browse older versions, but the site tries to make it clear and point you to possible newer versions.

/Downloads also allows several download links per homebrew. In the long term, this should allow us to avoid a game from being just a dead link, and have several possible links for a single game.

Ideally, I’d like /downloads to be community-driven: let people enter their own homebrews, etc… only time will tell if I can put enough efforts in this section of the website to make it easy for you guys to provide new links and homebrews.

In the meantime, you can rate each homebrew, no login is required, just click on the stars and you’re done (don’t hesitate to root for your favorite games/utilities!), and if you spot a missing homebrew, just send me a link and I’ll do my best to add it! Oh, and don’t hesitate to let me know if you spot any bugs!

go to /Downloads