r/Homebrews

I've recently come across a creator called 2009aero, who has been making experimental recreations of modern games on retro hardware.

In just a few months, he's shown PS1 projects based on:

• Minecraft
• GTA V
• Skyrim
• Elden Ring
• Final Fantasy X
• God of War
• Oblivion

He's also experimented with N64 projects such as GTA San Andreas and Dark Souls, and previously attempted to bring Pokémon Red to TempleOS using HolyC.

Here's the interesting part: none of these PS1 projects appear to be publicly playable or open source. They're essentially demonstrations showing what these games could look like running on hardware that was never designed for them.

And this seems to have created a bit of a divide.

For regular gamers, these projects are pretty amazing (see YT comments). Seeing something like GTA V or Elden Ring recreated on a PS1 is obviously impressive and makes for a great video.

But some people in the PS1 homebrew community (psxdev discord) have a very different view. I've seen the argument that these are essentially showcase projects: they're designed to demonstrate an impressive result and attract attention, but there's no released game, source code or technology for other developers to actually experiment with.

The sheer speed is also interesting. Seven different PS1 projects in around three months is a lot, especially considering the technical limitations involved in developing for the original hardware. Although 2009aero hasn't publicly explained how much AI is involved in the development process, so it's impossible to know how much AI, if any, was used.

Sapika_08 wrote our first feature for PSX Homebrew Games looking into 2009aero, his projects and this divide between the general gaming audience and the homebrew community:

GTA V, Skyrim and Final Fantasy X on PS1?

So I'm curious what do you think:

Are these projects valuable technical experiments even if they never become playable games?

Or is a PS1 homebrew project only really interesting to the scene if people can download it, study it and build upon it?

Hi everyone! I'm making a puzzle platformer for GBA and just released my first dev diary on why I chose to develop for the GBA.
Check it out if you're interested!

We are launching a Kickstarter very soon to make a physical version of the game so trying to get some eyes on the project.

Much love,

The Dare To Square team

We recently added Tiny Backrooms into our website, a small survival horror project by KasaBranca inspired by the Backrooms and classic PS1 games such as Resident Evil.

The project is made with Mipsync Engine, a new development environment specifically designed to create games for the PS1. It provides a Unity-like workflow with a scene editor, asset management, animation, UI and audio tools, while using its own scripting language, Mips#, which is similar to C#.

Since Mipsync is still very early in development, Tiny Backrooms is also one of the early playable projects made with the engine. The current build is very small, featuring only three prerendered areas, but it already demonstrates the foundations of a PS1-style survival horror game.

We've also included a short gameplay video so you can see the project in action.

We wrote a short article covering the project:

Tiny Backrooms

It's interesting to see new tools making PS1 development more accessible, and I'm curious to see what projects will come out of Mipsync as the engine evolves.

it's based on cx16-maze
currently it has 10 levels and can be beaten

hope you enjoy playing it :3