CyberWolfBia
I talk more about games than I play them
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Yes, I'm doing another Zeebo thread, since I believe I have earned the badge of the one (or very few) of this forum that does indeed own a Zeebo!
Quick catch up on what on earth is even a Zeebo, it's a digital-only console (first of its kind) made by TecToy in 2009 released on Brazil (its native country) and Mexico. Aiming to offer affordable and legal games for the tax heavy and low income countries where the big boy consoles (Wii, Xbox 360, PS3) couldn't. It ended being a monumental failure in all fronts, especially due the hardware being so uncapable of doing anything that could impress and being a gigantic headache to develop for.. with the biggest issue being BREW, a popular mobile OS/Chipset provided by Qualcomm back in the day.
The Zeebo had a very short lifespan, with its storefront being up from 2009 to 2011; And being a digital only console, with its own currency (ala WiiPoints), made it a very hard system to preserve.
Thankfuly, the tech behind the console is not very much secure, and eventually Zeebo became open-wide to hack; getting a fullset of games (57 only) is a reality, since they were all dumped as soon it was possible; Though the fact it needs some hardware mods, the components being so fragile/cheap and the scarcity of replacement parts, made the hacking proccess harder than it needs to be.. with currently only two reliable experts in Brazil that provide the service for Zeebo owners, including adding a new internal eNAND memory (which is notorious to fail very early);
Despite of Zeebo being filled with mostly early BREW flip-phone games*, there are legitimately good and exclusive titles worth of discussing and played, including its very own Double Dragon game, great conversions of Quake 1 and 2 by TecToy themselves and all the 1st Party efforts they offered by the end of the console's life.
* personally speaking, even though they are mobile games, the fact they were altered to play on a console, even if the quality is questionable, they are already better on a fundamental level.. with actual buttons for starters!
Well, I said it was the short version, so I'll let you with the Stop Skeletons From Fighting (Derek and Grace) documentary on the system; and they are now playing and reviewing every single game on the channel right now; I greatly recommend their content!
The Zeebo was always a very obscure system, with very low interest of the emulation scene; There's the Brazilian niche that was always fidgeting around the topic, but beyond homebrew ports that popped up in the last few years, not much was developed to give access to Zeebo games other than playing on actual hardware; Heck, general BREW emulation on itself was always very rudimentary.
Now, we are getting somewhere! Infuse, it's new BREW emulator by Tuxality that is already booting up Zeebo games! A video below shows Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D (with my beloved spatula hands Crash
);
As you can see, it's still very early and glitchy, and the emulator has ways to go until it gets ironed out to a public release; but it's a giant step on the accessibility of those games;
Only now the Zeebo is a topic that is being discussed by the world at large with an enthusiasm beyond the bubble that saw the thing more than just a collector's item (that goes for absurd prices on eBay for foreigners), and ripping assets is already much easier now, for example;
Hopefully we can return to this thread to report more development on the matter soon, but for now, I needed to share the news and get more people aware that the Zeebo is close to be finally enjoyed by more people!
The full details on the emulator you can see on this video (and its description)
Quick catch up on what on earth is even a Zeebo, it's a digital-only console (first of its kind) made by TecToy in 2009 released on Brazil (its native country) and Mexico. Aiming to offer affordable and legal games for the tax heavy and low income countries where the big boy consoles (Wii, Xbox 360, PS3) couldn't. It ended being a monumental failure in all fronts, especially due the hardware being so uncapable of doing anything that could impress and being a gigantic headache to develop for.. with the biggest issue being BREW, a popular mobile OS/Chipset provided by Qualcomm back in the day.
The Zeebo had a very short lifespan, with its storefront being up from 2009 to 2011; And being a digital only console, with its own currency (ala WiiPoints), made it a very hard system to preserve.
Thankfuly, the tech behind the console is not very much secure, and eventually Zeebo became open-wide to hack; getting a fullset of games (57 only) is a reality, since they were all dumped as soon it was possible; Though the fact it needs some hardware mods, the components being so fragile/cheap and the scarcity of replacement parts, made the hacking proccess harder than it needs to be.. with currently only two reliable experts in Brazil that provide the service for Zeebo owners, including adding a new internal eNAND memory (which is notorious to fail very early);
Despite of Zeebo being filled with mostly early BREW flip-phone games*, there are legitimately good and exclusive titles worth of discussing and played, including its very own Double Dragon game, great conversions of Quake 1 and 2 by TecToy themselves and all the 1st Party efforts they offered by the end of the console's life.
* personally speaking, even though they are mobile games, the fact they were altered to play on a console, even if the quality is questionable, they are already better on a fundamental level.. with actual buttons for starters!
Well, I said it was the short version, so I'll let you with the Stop Skeletons From Fighting (Derek and Grace) documentary on the system; and they are now playing and reviewing every single game on the channel right now; I greatly recommend their content!
The Zeebo was always a very obscure system, with very low interest of the emulation scene; There's the Brazilian niche that was always fidgeting around the topic, but beyond homebrew ports that popped up in the last few years, not much was developed to give access to Zeebo games other than playing on actual hardware; Heck, general BREW emulation on itself was always very rudimentary.
Now, we are getting somewhere! Infuse, it's new BREW emulator by Tuxality that is already booting up Zeebo games! A video below shows Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D (with my beloved spatula hands Crash
);As you can see, it's still very early and glitchy, and the emulator has ways to go until it gets ironed out to a public release; but it's a giant step on the accessibility of those games;
Only now the Zeebo is a topic that is being discussed by the world at large with an enthusiasm beyond the bubble that saw the thing more than just a collector's item (that goes for absurd prices on eBay for foreigners), and ripping assets is already much easier now, for example;
Hopefully we can return to this thread to report more development on the matter soon, but for now, I needed to share the news and get more people aware that the Zeebo is close to be finally enjoyed by more people!
The full details on the emulator you can see on this video (and its description)
