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PS4 CFW and Hacks       Thread starter misthalu       Start date Jun 24, 2019 at 4:13 AM       21      
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Following the first Blu-Play homebrew game release and 8-bit Memoirs eBook, the team behind Ukko's Journey is back: LuBlu Entertainment is creating their 2nd Blu-Play game these days, titled The UFO Game! 🛸 👾
New Blu-Play Homebrew Game in Development The UFO Game! 2.jpg

An Asteriod-like game

The UFO Game! is strongly inspired by a 38 year old game for the 2nd generation game console Philips Videopac G7000, named Satellite Attack. (The Philips Videopac G7000 was the european version of the Magnavox Odessey2 in the states, and the same game for the Odessey2 was called UFO!. In this article we'll use the names of the European model).

You can consider The UFO Game! to be a kind of modern version of Satellite Attack. At least that was the thought behind the project.

When looking at Satellite Attack (which you will in a minute), it is clear to see that it was heavily inspired by the even older game Asteroids, but as with all Videopac G7000 clones of various games, it adds a few twists and changes compared to the original game, often resulting in a very different gameplay, which you will either love or hate.

I could attempt to explain the gameplay of Satellite Attack here, but it would be much easier for everyone if you'd just watch this video from Classic Game Room instead.

For more videos and stories about Videopac G7000 games, you can check out 8-bit Memoirs.

As you can see in the video from Classic Game Room, the firing mechanism is somewhat out of the ordinary. And this is something you'll either find hilarious, or else utterly hate. The UFO Game! is obviously only for those who'll find it hilarious.
New Blu-Play Homebrew Game in Development The UFO Game!.jpg

A dedicated Blu-Play game

While LuBlu's first Blu-Play game was just a port of an old JavaME cellphone game of theirs, (Ukko's Journey is actually 10 years old today), The UFO Game! can be categorized as a dedicated Blu-Play game: It is written specifically for the platform and therefor tailored to fit the characteristics of Blu-ray.

One example of this is the use of videos: The UFO Game! makes heavy use of videos for backgrounds, rather than having the game engine draw a lot of graphics.

This basically means that any CPU hungry background graphics rendering has been moved away from the graphics engine of the game, to the video player of the console. And this results in less work for the game engine, effectively giving the game a higher framerate, and a more impressive look.

Not that we're in need of higher framerates for Blu-Play games. (At least not on the gaming consoles). Ukko's Journey, which does not use videos for backgrounds, still runs with about 170 fps on PlayStation 3. It's another matter for standard Blu-ray players though. (Yes, you can play these games on a standard Blu-ray player too! See a comprehensive list of platforms here).

So as you can see, there's plenty of CPU power for any average homebrew game with the Blu-Play platform.

Interested in developing your own Blu-Play game?

See the Blu-Play developer pages on the official site here.

Online highscores

Like Ukko's Journey, The UFO Game! is planned to offer online highscores, for the PSX homebrew community to compete against each other - something LuBlu Entertainment feels ought to be a part of far more homebrew games.

Release date

The UFO Game! is strictly a sparetime hobby project, which generally means that development is slow. It's a few minutes here and there, in between job and family and other obligations. It is therefor impossible to say anything specific about a release date, but it should be some time within 2-4 months.

Follow this thread for news about the development. Feel free to post comments or questions.

The UFO Game! - Blu-Play game WIP
Blu-Play game: "The UFO Game!" for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4
 

Comments

Well, if you don't like it, you can make click the X of the top right and return to you world. Close well when leaving. And there they have it, other stupid ungrateful little boy.

@misthalu Thanks 4 sharing
 
Blu-Play games doesn't require old firmware nor jailbreak. That's one of the great things about it. You can enjoy the commercial games and homebrew on your console - without doing any hacking or modding. Isn't that great?

Jailbreak only comes in handy because it lets you play the ISO from harddisk, instead of needing to burn a disc.

Of course homebrew isn't for everyone. It is a big interest for some though - in some cases bigger than commercial games even, however strange that may sound to some people. I can't even remember what the last commercial game I played was. Just doesn't interest me. All new games seems to be 3D shooters, and the last one of those that got me hooked was the first "Unreal Tournament".

But whenever someone releases a homebrew game, then I'm very curious. Maybe partly because it's bound to be a bit retro, and I'm all in favor of retro'ish games. But also simply because gamedev is a hobby of mine.

At my age gaming is mostly about the nostalgia. And the challenge in creating a game (preferably from scratch rather than using a framework) is much more fun than playing a game. Be warned: It may happen to you too some day. ;)
 
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