Did/does a PS1 homebrew scene exist?

[noiseredux]

Just curious.

[Hateshinai]

I do remember having a CD with a Master System emulator and ROMs once.

[noiseredux]

besides emulators though -- were there ever homebrew releases? I would have assumed so as the PS1 could read CD-R's pretty easily, so I would figure it would have had a dev scene. But surprisingly I can't seem to find much info on it. Surprised me.

[swiftzx]

besides emulators though -- were there ever homebrew releases? I would have assumed so as the PS1 could read CD-R's pretty easily, so I would figure it would have had a dev scene. But surprisingly I can't seem to find much info on it. Surprised me.

What about homebrew with the Net Yaroze?

[noiseredux]

besides emulators though -- were there ever homebrew releases? I would have assumed so as the PS1 could read CD-R's pretty easily, so I would figure it would have had a dev scene. But surprisingly I can't seem to find much info on it. Surprised me.

What about homebrew with the Net Yaroze?

my understanding is that any games made with Net Yaroze could only be played on a Net Yaroze console -- not burned to a disc and played on a PS1. So that was limiting.

[Niode]

besides emulators though -- were there ever homebrew releases? I would have assumed so as the PS1 could read CD-R's pretty easily, so I would figure it would have had a dev scene. But surprisingly I can't seem to find much info on it. Surprised me.

What about homebrew with the Net Yaroze?

my understanding is that any games made with Net Yaroze could only be played on a Net Yaroze console -- not burned to a disc and played on a PS1. So that was limiting.

Official Playstation Magazine put out a 'demo' disc that contained a bunch of Net Yaroze games playable on an unmodded PSX. Some of them were particularly good. I remember one of them being some sort of cross between Worms, asteroids and descent. You were in a ship and had velocity/gravity to deal with in enclosed environments with the aim to shoot down your opponent. It was 2D. Wish I could remember the name of it...

[noiseredux]

yeah I knew about that disc Niode, but that's an "official" release really. I guess I'm just shocked that if CD-Rs could be read (pretty) easily on a PS1 that there wasn't a lot of homebrew dev.

[nextvolume]

Yes, a PS1 homebrew scene existed, famous groups included Hitmen, Padua and Napalm... and the scene still exists, but most of the people are not very active and have not released anything (yet?). I'd say that compared to several years ago, the scene is much more alive. When I started programming for this console, I was shocked at how little there was that wasn't done with Net Yaroze. I wouldn't really consider Net Yaroze stuff as homebrew as it is not really autonomous, you had to get Sony's authorization in any case.
This console is very easy to program for, and it's very common so finding replacement parts isn't hard at all... I myself have 5 PS1s. Homebrew dev for it except for the work done by the demoscene groups had never much stamina behind it and when the PS2 was released, it seems that most preferred to jump to it abandoning the old console... that's the bad truth behind many devs, this happened to the GBA as well.

Today there is my software development kit if you want to develop games for the console, and I have talked about my homebrew for this console on here in March (click here). For discussion about homebrew/development, there is the psxdev Yahoo Group (running since 1998, now under new management, I am a moderator there) and the #psxdev IRC channel on irc.freenode.net

I have been thinking of opening a message board about PSXdev, maybe someday I will do it.

[noiseredux]

wow thank you nextvolume. This is great info.

I like how you brought up GBA as well. As you may (not) know, I'm a huge GBA fan and I pay close attention to its homebrew scene. Of course it kills me that the scene isn't bigger than it is, as the GBA is incredibly simple to get into programming with if you are already familiar with C/C++ not to mention the SDK's that have become available such as HAMLib and even entirely free textbooks on the subject, such as the amazing one by J. Harbour. I suppose the harder to find/more expensive cartridges are the biggest deterent when compared to the likes of Dreamcast's easily produced discs.

At any rate, thank you again for giving me some new reading material to jump into. I'd love if you stuck around here as well. It seems you'd definitely fit in here should you choose to become more active.

[Haunted360]

Sorry for the bump, but it is for a good reply...

Want to do PlayStation 1 Homebrew Development?
Check out http://psdev.psio.com.au/