Framerater is pretty much the only professional YouTuber to have devoted any attention to PSP homebrews. It’s easy to see why - the PSP is too old to be relevant, but not retro enough to engender nostalgia. There are few views to be had from reporting on a niche scene on a niche platform.

To his credit, the guy devoted two lengthy videos to the homebrews made for the system. Here’s the full list of the homebrews he covered (where I could identify them).

I’ll start the listing from the second video, because the first only had ports of pre-existing games. And ports are pretty boring to write about, let’s face it.

DoomPSP

In fact, Framerater starts the video by reporting on the Doom port by Lantus - DoomPSP. Lantus himself made a name for himself as Modern Vintage Gamer on YouTube.

Only the first couple of versions carried Lantus’s signature. This is because the Doom port he started was improved by several other coders in the months after he released it.

Or made worse - it’s not like there is any way to know without testing every single revision. Framerater’s score: 3/5.

Shadow Warrior

Another port. Shadow Warrior. I can’t find anything about the author(s) of the port. If you’re out there, unknown coder, come and claim your glory. And learn to write a readme, how long can it take to write to lines with your name after spending weeks porting a game? Framerater’s score: 5/5.

CounterStrike Portable

Third brew, third port. From the looks of it this could be any of the countless (attempted) ports of CounterStrike to PSP. Judging by the name alone, this is probably CounterStrike Portable by Stealth Kill. No rating from Framerater, as he couldn’t find a working link for the game.

Sonic Robo Blast 2

The next entry is a port - but of a homebrew fan game, which is alright in my book. Sonic Robo Blast 2 was ported to PSP by AlamGBC - I think. At least, I found a post of his lamenting that he couldn’t debug the game as long as needed before releasing it. And indeed, it seems to suffer from stability issues. Framerater could not get it to work on a real PSP, either.

PSP Connect 4

Connect 4 was made into a PSP homebrew several times (why?). The one in the video is certain to be PSP Connect 4 by Team Sushi, as it is the only one made in 3D.

Mario Boat

Mario Boat is a Lua game by FouadtjuhMaster.

Rockbot I

Rockbot I is a multiplatform homebrew game by Boberatu that continues to receive updates, most recently in December 2020.

Battlegrounds III

Battlegrounds III by Alex Wickes is one of the most technically impressive homebrews on the system, so it would have been odd to skip this one.

The Newton War

One of three PSP homebrews named after the 17th century British scientist, The Newton War was created by another technically artful bunch - Realtech VR. The Realtech team would deserve a homebrew review all on their own.

Kurok

MDave’s Kurok is one of the few FPS games on PSP to have a solid single-player experience - homebrew or not - so it’s no suprise to see it included here.

Nibbler

Nibbler by Insoft is a recreation of an arcade game. Or so says Framerater, I wouldn’t know.

iDaft

iDaft isn’t really a game - more like a soundboard app of sorts? This homebrew by Matias Najle and Miles was included in the video, so it makes its way into this list, regardless.

No Bugs Allowed

No Bugs Allowed by Shpuld is another Quake mod for PSP. It is remarkable for showing that an FPS game can still control well, even with just one analog stick.

CSPSP

CSPSP is far and away the most popular multiplayer homebrew game for PSP. The game was created by Kevin Chen and over the years it has been maintained by… too many people. Not being lazy, but you’ll have to check the readme for the full list.

The game is still maintained to this day - or at least to 2019, when the last build was released. This is another game that richly deserves his own separate post.

Space Ball

Space Ball by Mills is looking pretty impressive - especially for a Lua game.

Metroid Escape Mission

Metroid Escape Mission is a fan game created by Chus. The last release, version 2.5, was released in 2014 - pretty recently by PSP standards.

PSPokemon Grey

PSPokemon Grey is another fan game with a list of credits that runs way too long. There is a reason why most teams of developers choose to go by a collective name. Perhaps they couldn’t settle for one?

Slender Portable

There are three ‘Slender’ games for PSP. From the video, the version being tested was most likely Slender Portable, the work of Scatterbox, Seniormeatbox, Gresh1234, Adzie.

Breakout

Breakout by Jairo David is one of 11 clones of the game that are archived in the PSP Homebrew Library.

CarroPX

CarroPX is another work by Chus, making him the first developer to be represented twice on the list.

CarroPX is actually part of a whole series of PX-themed homebrews: Rana PX by Sting18, SerpientePX by Klozz and TankePX by MABZ complete the collection. They’re all pretty good games in their own right.

Laserix 4

As its name implies, Laserix 4 was just the last in a series of puzzle games, only the last two of which were developed by Sunny. It looks like a fun concept, but did it really need to be remade three more times?

Xonergy

Xonergy is an infinite runner created by Team Zenyth.

Las Adventuras de Santa Claus

The Christmas-themed Las Adventuras de Santa Claus by Sting18 barely gets a mention in the video. It’s hard to see why - it’s no better or worse than many other brews on the list.

Worm Warrior

Worm Warrior is the work of cdoty.

Runaway Car

Runaway Car by frankdrey and 10$man is another homebrew where the objective is to dodge obstacles that pop up on the screen.

Brain sleep, must tired

I must say I have gained a lot of respect for YouTubers from writing this. I’m not even halfway through one half of the video, and I’m already pretty tired. Making videos of games for a living must not be as easy as I imagined. YouTubers may be sellouts, but they sure aren’t lazy.

Framerater covered four times as many homebrews as I have by this point, and he only got a little over 30,000 views for his trouble. That’s not enough ad revenue for a cheeseburger. If you’re a PSP fan give the guy some extra clicks, for Christ.

UPDATE: second part here