One of the most important, and often overlooked, aspects of any homebrew project is its distribution, and long-term preservation, on the internet. It may seem like a minor issue, but the reality is that some homebrew projects are at risk of disappearing at any moment, potentially becoming inaccessible to everyone.
Why does this happen with homebrew projects and not with regular games? The answer lies in the distribution model. While commercial games are usually available through official platforms like Steam, homebrew titles rely on wherever the developer chooses to upload them. Depending on the developer, a project may be hosted in one or several places (some more reliable than others). Another key factor is the community distribution behavior. Commercial games are frequently reuploaded across the internet, often driven by piracy. Homebrew projects, on the other hand, are rarely mirrored, as they are typically free and users assume they will always be available through official channels.
The problem is that not all platforms last forever, and not all developers remain active to maintain or reupload their projects. This is especially critical in niche scenes like PS1 homebrew, where projects are often distributed as standalone builds without centralized hosting. Imagine a developer who uploads their project to a file hosting service like Mega, and for whatever reason the file gets removed. Not only is the developer’s work at risk of being lost, but an entire community loses access to a piece of its shared history, in a scene where the goal is to keep the platform alive even decades later.
This reflection isn’t purely hypothetical. There are already real cases where PS1 homebrew projects may have been lost forever and it’s likely that many more have disappeared without being documented or even noticed by the wider community.
A major example is the shutdown of PSXDEV, once one of the most important hubs for the PS1 homebrew community. The forum was full of technical information, discussions, tools, and also hosted numerous homebrew projects created by its users. While many of those projects were fortunately mirrored elsewhere, others depended entirely on that platform. When the forum went down, those projects effectively disappeared.
We don’t know how many projects have been lost, but we were personally aware of one specific case: version 2.0 of Snake PSX. While version 1.0 was still available on the official page, the improved version had vanished. We reached out on Reddit to see if anyone had a backup of the lost version, but initially, there was no success.
However, about a month later, something unexpected happened. The original developer of Snake PSX, rubixcube6, came across our post. Fortunately for everyone, he provided a new download link for version 2.0, along with the source code and project assets. He also updated his official page to include the latest version.
We’d like to give a huge thanks to rubixcube6 for restoring his project and for sharing its full source and assets, helping keep the PS1 homebrew community alive and growing.
A Small Dilemma
To close this article, we’d like to share a reflection about project preservation and distribution.
A key question arises: should this website provide direct download links ourselves (for example, via file hosting services)?
There are two situations to consider.
The first is when a project is already available through official channels. In this case, we believe it is not appropriate to redistribute it ourselves. Not only would it be unnecessary, but it could also reduce traffic to the developer’s official pages and diminish their visibility. Developers deserve recognition and control over how their work is shared, and part of our role is to direct users toward those original sources. We see ourselves as a bridge between users and the homebrew community, not as a replacement for the developers’ own platforms. Providing alternative download links could unintentionally weaken that connection and reduce engagement with the original creators.
The second scenario is when a project is no longer available through official means. This is a very different situation. One of the main goals of this website is to help preserve PS1 homebrew projects. For that reason, we keep backups of the projects featured on our site in case their original sources disappear. If a project becomes unavailable, our first step is to try to contact the developer. However, if no response is received after a reasonable amount of time, we believe it is ethical to host the project ourselves to ensure it is not lost. Every project is part of the history of the homebrew scene, especially for PS1, where the community continues to grow. Losing these works would mean losing part of that history. In such cases, preservation becomes more important than strict distribution control. Under those conditions (no official access and no response from the developer) we commit to keeping these projects alive for the community.
If you're interested in more stories like this and want to stay up to date with the PS1 homebrew scene, feel free to check out our YouTube channel, where we’ve recently shared gameplay of Tetrade, a Tetris-style game for PS1.