Improve your memory with DS while PSP remembers Arkanoid
This week's homebrew round-up should take care of your spare time
Some weeks I have to scrabble around for some time before I manage to come across an entertaining piece of homebrew software. Today was different. While catching up with an old friend, we got to talking about how much we enjoyed DS games. Once the conversation had taken the usual route through Meteos, Phantom Hourglass, Advance Wars and Elite Beat Agents, I was surprised to hear him extolling the virtues of a homebrew title he had been playing.
The game in question was a recently updated affair called MemorizeME. The game is the creation of a developer known only as DarkChild (mysterious, eh?) and it revolves around honing your memorisation skills.
Each level presents a square divided in four equal quadrants. Within the square a series of increasingly complex symbols is flashed before your eyes. Your task, as the name suggests, is to memorise the order in which the symbols appear. You then enter this with the DS stylus to reproduce the pattern. This all sounds pretty easy but, like the Brain Training games, introduce a limited time and a few distractions and the result starts to challenge even the most photographic of minds.
To get going with the game simply download it from here and copy the appropriate .nds file to your homebrew card of choice. Besides the addition of new visuals this latest version also throws in a high-score module, which means you will need to patch the file in the usual way with the DLDI Patcher. Apart from that the installation is pretty straightforward and you should soon find yourself scratching your head trying to remember if it was a little fishy, or triangle that just popped up.
Over on my PSP I inevitably felt like finding something a bit less taxing on the old grey matter. And what better than an old arcade classic to sooth my aching cortex? PSP Arkanoid is a recreation of that much-loved paddle-enabled cabinet that used to lurk in the dark corners of pubs, bars and motorway service stations.
That the game is the first for the author, qubitz, is all the more impressive for his use of the PSP in portrait mode. By turning the handheld vertical he has instantly maximised the available space for the playfield – a simple but ingenious touch. This is a game for those of you with older PSPs; after a few weeks without finding any firmware 1.0 supported games, I simply had to share this.
To get started, download the file and copy the Arkanoid folder to your PSPGAME location on your Memory Stick. You should then be able to play to your heart's content. Now I could go on about the ins and outs of the game, but the developer has provided a great video tutorial here. Looks pretty impressive, I'm sure you'll agree.
That's about it for another week of homebrew goodness. A brainy puzzler and a timeless (and time-eating) bat 'n' ball game should keep you more than entertained until next time.