DS offers Minesweeper without a PC, while PSP opts for an artistic Arkanoid

Another week, another slew of handy homebrew games, applications and happenings. So welcome back, bru fans, as we look at the great and the good that the develop-it-yourself community has to offer us this week.

In my rather unimpressive and well behaved youth, I remember whiling away many happy office hours with Window's Minesweeper. The simple addictive quality of the game meant it was worryingly difficult to resist having just one more go. (Perhaps that's why the company went bust?) As office rivalries inevitably developed into a high-score race I became something of an expert on that little grid-based game. (Nah, must have been mismanagement.)

It was with some delight, then, that I came across an updated and much improved version of the game for the DS. Nintendo's handheld system seems perfectly suited to the game with its touchscreen interface. Bitsweeper, as it is known, can be downloaded from here.

The good news is that as it does no writing to the cart, there is no need to DLDI patch it. You can just copy it straight into the root of your homebrew hardware.

Once you have it installed, start the game and you're presented with a clean, unchecked bitfield (read: minefield). The challenge is locating the hidden bits using just the numeric clues provided and therefore selecting the grid spots that surround them. Much like an in-depth Brain Training exercise, you can then make your way around the field, identifying the location of each bit. It's a simple (and familiar) concept but a dangerously addictive one. You'll soon realise a couple of hours has passed since you started playing.

After this high structure and rigidly technical game I was looking for something a bit more artsy on the PSP. And as is often the case with homebrewing, the perfect game showed up in the nick of time. Beaverz is a kooky hand-drawn game for PSP's with the 3.xx firmware. It can be downloaded here and then copied to your ://PSP/GAME folder.

Although the basic premise is pretty much just a simplified Arkanoid, the genius here is in the presentation. Rather than drawing high resolution images on his PC, the developer (Kenny) has scanned in some hand drawn visuals. The result is somewhere between interactive artwork and laid back video game.

And I really like it.

So there we have it. Another week, another drawer full of excellent homebrew wares to compliment you recent commercial purchases. Join us next week for another journey of discovery into everything homebrew.