With Dark AleX not releasing any custom firmware versions for the official ones Sony has rolled out recently, other dev teams have come up with their own CFW releases. One of the most prolific is the team behind the GEN CFWs, who teased and promptly launched CFW 5.50GEN-B this week. We heard silence gaming-side this week, but hopefully that'll change in the next seven days. This week also heralded the end of the Sony-supported PSOne homebrew program, Net Yaroze.

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General Homebrew News:

• Yaroze PSOne development program shutting down. Link

Homebrew Applications:

• OneManga PSP Client v0.2 gets new UI, speed improvements. Link
  
• VSH Menu Color Changer Plugin. Link
  
• MusicPRX Mod for CFW Enabler v3.50.Link
  
• Custom Firmware 5.50GEN-B:
• Custom Firmware 5.50GEN-B coming soon.Link
  
• Custom Firmware 5.50GEN-B now available. Link
  
• Bookr-Mod 2009-07-01 now supports CFW 5.50 and PSP-3000 via HEN. Link
  

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Not a lot of people knew about Sony's Net Yaroze program for the PSOne, but it was still a sad day when we heard that the program was being shut down after a dozen years of existence. It was early proof that Sony wasn't all the way against homebrew even though the program was introduced only after the PSOne was discontinued.

Some of the games that the program produced were rather run-of-the-mill, but there were gems like Time Slip, which seems to be the Yaroze game that most people remember. It had this mechanic where you could use your past self to help you in solving puzzles, something that the newly-announced PSP title echochrono is bringing back in a sense.

Nowadays, homebrew on Sony consoles is still alive and well thanks to the effort of developers and coders making their own apps and games for the PSP. It may be going against Sony's wishes, but the fact remains that the PSP homebrew community has a rather sizable population. Sony has even begun making moves into opening up the PSP to more independent developers with the PSP Go and the reduced SDK price.

Only time will tell if Sony and the PSP homebrew community eventually come to terms (never on the piracy issue though). At least for now we have homebrew-capable PSPs to play with, and devs are still working hard to bring homebrew to those with non-capable PSPs. See you guys again next week for another edition of the PSP Homebrew Weekend Warrior. Keep brewing!