DosBox is probably one of the most-remembered homebrew on PSP, not because of functionality but because of the coolness factor. This homebrew not only allowed you to play your favourite DOS games but also run Windows 9x/ME!
What is DosBox?
Dosbox is an open-source DOS emulator that’s been ported to countless systems including the Raspbery Pi and OpenPandora amongst others. You can play a whole library of old games and since there’s keyboard and mouse support on the PSP version, almost anything can open. What can be played however, is another story.
A bit about the PSP version
The PSP version is a port of version 0.71 which isn’t too old as the latest version is only 0.74. DosBox didn’t run too well and it could only emulate some less demanding games at lower resolutions.
Windows 95 on PSP via DosBox. You can even play Minesweeper!
It had the following issues:
- 640×480 looked stretched on the PSP (4:3)
- Speed wasn’t anything to be proud of
- Keyboard input was pretty annoying (even with keyhint in later versions)
- Mounted hard disk images didn’t allow you to save to them
What it had going for it:
- Decent support for older games (such as Commander Keen)
- Mouse support
- Ability to map PSP buttons to keyboard keys with a text editor
- Cool factor (come on, playing DOS games on the go back then was quite cool)
Commander Keen 4
The homebrew ought to have caught your attention if you were interested in any type of homebrew back then. Something that many of us have tried is running Windows 95/98 on their PSP. While it’s pretty cool and definitely doable, it’s almost useless because peformance is quite awful and not much runs. Windows 3.1 fares better but you still can’t save to disk..
Conclusion
This was quite a decent homebrew that some us spent quite a lot of time on. While not the best PSP homebrew, it’s still an interesting find and it’s the only way to run DosBox on the PSVita. DosBox for PSP works on the Vita, both on VHBL and Adrenaline. There’s a RetroArch version that doesn’t support keyboard input.. yet.
Download: http://www.theisozone.com/downloads/playstation/psp-homebrew/psp-dosbox-signed/
Thanks to developer “CrazyC” for this homebrew
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