Being hacked for a little under 3 years, the PSVita accumulated a large amount of utilities that simplify doing a lot of things from installing themes to extracting save games and even downloading more homebrew! In this article, we’ll be looking at 5 homebrew utilities that I personally think anybody with a hacked PSVita should install!
1. Vita Homebrew Browser (VHBB)
Recently having received a major update, Vita Homebrew Browser by devnoname120 is perhaps one of the most useful utilities available for the PSVita.
With VHBB, you can explore the vast majority that the PSVita homebrew scene has to offer and install on-device!
As evidenced by its name, VHBB is a piece of homebrew that lets you install other homebrew directly on your PSVita using Rinnegatamante‘s VitaDB as its source. Other than simply letting you install homebrew on your PSVita, it:
- Comes with excellent user interface
- Displays a short description and photo when selecting a piece of homebrew to install
- Supports looking up homebrew by name or by category
- Can be controlled by both the touchscreen and physical buttons and many other features
To grab VHBB and fill up your PSVita’s memory card/microSD with homebrew, check out this link. You may also grab a version that uses Wiki Homebrew Vita as its source to download software that isn’t available on VitaDB.
2. Vita Save Manager
Vita Save Manager, by d3m3vilurr, is a homebrew utility the need for which was created because Sony thought it would be an excellent idea not to allow the easy backing up/restoring of game saves.
If copying gigabytes to your PC in order to get a small save file is not your thing, you should certainly check out Vita Save Manger!
Unlike how it is on the PSP, you can’t simply copy save data from your PSVita to your PC but you have to use Sony’s official way which involves having to copy over the whole game whose save data you want via QCMA!
To fix this issue, Vita Save Manager was created and through it, you can easily back up and restore the save files of whatever game you have directly on-device, regardless of whether it’s digital or physical. Furthermore, you can also check out PSVita Saves if you want to get some publicly available saves that usually contain unlocked in-game material and more!
In order to get control on your PSVita’s save files, follow this link to download Vita Save Manager. Do note that the most recent version available is a Nightly (experimental) release but you can download 2.0.0 which is an official release although the Nightly version worked pretty well for me. Author’s donation link
3. Custom Themes Manager (CTManager)
Similar to how it is with saves, installing themes on the PSVita isn’t exactly a walk in the park and while there are many ways to get them on your console, Custom Themes Manager by Red Squirrel is by far the easiest one.
Custom Themes Manager is the ultimate utility for themes but do note that the repository it uses for themes is full of anime stuff
This homebrew is probably the only utility you need if you’re into theming your device as it has a barrage of features which include:
- Downloading and installing hundreds of themes from the PSVita Custom Themes repository
- The website isn’t being displayed too well at the time this article was written but it still works just fine
- Installing local themes
- Uninstalling themes
- Dumping official themes, installing themes on partitions other than ux0 and many other features
To pimp up your PSVita, make sure you grab CTManager from this link and enjoy browsing through the large number of themes available for download! Author’s donation link
4. Account Switchers
Unlike the PS4, the PlayStation Vita doesn’t have a multi-user function and as a result, you can only have one PSN account logged in at the same time.
If you have multiple PSN accounts, you can switch between them without much hassle thanks to the various account switchers available for the Vita!
This can be a bit of an issue if you have multiple PSN accounts for different regions or if you share a PSVita so to remedy this, various account switcher utility were released on the PSVita.
The main 3 account switchers, all of which vary a little in functionality and the method they use, are:
- Elpendor’s Account Switcher which I have personally used in the past
- SilicaAndPina’s Simple Account Switcher
- BaltazaR4’s Account Manager
To download the account switcher of your choice, check out the hyperlinks in the list above.
5. Pro Camera Vita
The PSVita’s camera is pretty bad even by 2011 standards but at least it has one and with Pro Camera Vita, things can actually be made to look a bit better
For some reason, Sony decided to give the PSVita two ridiculously horrible VGA cameras which most homebrew/games leave alone but VitaHEX Games actually went through the trouble of creating a pretty nice camera application for them. This application, which was released 2 years ago, is good enough to have replaced the stock camera application on my device and has the following features:
- The ability to modify the image’s brightness, contrast and white balance
- The ability to change between 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratio
- Many screen borders and filters
- Some other features like the ability to display a grid when taking a photo, a night mode and the ability to use both the front & back cameras
To get the best of the PSVita’s splendid 640×480 cameras, check out this link to grab Pro Camera Vita! Author’s donation link
Conclusion
Other than the 5 must-have utilities above, there are various others that you should check out which include TheFlow’s Modoru (not listed as one of the 5 because it’s something you generally only use once when hacking your console), Bookr Mod Vita by pathway27, VitaPad++ by Arkanite and VitaHEX’s numerous small utilities like Notepad Vita, SwitchView UI and Voice Recorder Vita.
Now, go fill up your PSVita / PSTV if you own one or go grab one right now if you can find it for the right price 😉
