Titus for the Atari ST (it was released for many platforms)

As more time goes by, the PSVita is getting more homebrew and lots of this is in the form of open-source game ports. This is especially great as they’re the only way to play some DOS and fanmade games on the go with a good way to actually control them (cough smartphones cough). This time around, OpenTitus got ported to the Vita by ‘usineur’ of Wololo /talk forums.

What’s OpenTitus?

OpenTitus is an open-source implementation of the game engine that drives the DOS version of Titus the Fox and Moktar. The game was originally released as ‘ Lagaf’: Les Aventures de Moktar — Vol 1: La Zoubida’ (Moktar) in France in 1991 and then got released in 1992 with Titus (the fox) as its protagonist rather than Lagaf (the French comedian the original game featured).

The plot of the game is that Titus’s beloved Suzy was kidnapped in the Sahara desert and he must go through 15 levels to get her back (Quite a Super Mario-esque story if you ask me). The game is a side scrolling game in which you’ll encounter various enemies such as dogs, giant bees, construction workers and others.

OpenTitus running on the Vita!

The control scheme is pretty straightforward although you need to do this trick to pause it:

• PS Button – Pause the game! (just press Continue from LiveArea to keep on playing)

How do I get it?

To get this homebrew, you need to do the following:

• Install the VPK file linked below on your Vita. There’s a VPK for the international Titus version and for the French Moktar version.
• This game doesn’t include data files so you need to provide them yourself. The game’s still sold on GOG so you could buy it that way but whether you choose to get it from ‘abandonware’ sites or not is up to you.
• After getting the files whatever way you please, copy the *.SQZ files to ux0:/data/titus (or ux0:/data/moktar for the French version). You also need to copy “music_ttf.bin” (or “music_mok.bin”) to the same folder for this to work. The music files are required for the game to work so make sure you get yourself proper data files or else the game will crash.
• Open the game and enjoy!

If you have any issues, report them to ‘usineur’ on GitHub by following the link below. The game port is also available on VHBB (VitaDB) but the data files aren’t included so you still need to provide them yourself.

OpenTitus Wololo /talk thread (download + more info): https://wololo.net/talk/viewtopic.php?f=116&t=48673

GitHub page (more info): https://github.com/usineur/opentitus/blob/vita/README.md