Sony may have temporarily shut down George Hotz and fail0verflow, but not before their work reached other hackers. In the wake of discovering the PS3′s root key, some individuals are running homebrew applications and backed-up games running on the PS3. Once such application allegedly allows a user to trick the PS3′s Trophy system.

By now we’ve all heard about the biggest security breach in the PS3s history. Hackers were able to find the PS3s root key which is used to authorize games before they are played. This discovery opens the door to a whole mess of homebrew applications and potential piracy on a massive scale. The PS3 will have no way of knowing the code it’s being commanded to run is not from Sony. Sony said it would address this issue through firmware updates, but the extent to which the PS3 was hacked seems to go beyond a simple system update. Sony may have another way to fix this security breach by bricking consoles altogether.

The PS3 was hacked for a period of time. Homebrewers were able to create a USB device that allowed any game to be copied to an external hard drive. To Sony, this only meant one thing. Piracy. The company released firmware updates for the PS3 that disabled unauthorized USB devices and blocked the PS3 Jailbreak software from running. It even placed its anti-piracy firmware within Medal of Honor, making it impossible to play without updating. The hacking community wouldn’t go down that easily.

It’s been a long time coming, almost two years, but Knytt Stories is now on the DS! The free homebrew game has been appropriately dubbed Knytt Stories DS and can be played an practically any DS flashkart. I’m sure you could play it on a DS emulator on your computer too, but at that point it’d be easier to just go pick up the PC version!

Knytt Stories began as a 2D platformer, with a level editor, created by Nifflas. You can load up original levels, each of which is its own complete story. Nifflas released original levels to go with Knytt Stories, like “The Machine,” “Gustav’s Daughter” or “A Strange Dream,” all of which are wonderful, but the real joy comes from downloading and experiencing all of the fantastic custom stories out there, like “Dark Sky of Wish Mountain,” “The Great Race” or “A Knytt in Time.” The only thing each story has in common is that a girl named Juni is typically the heroine and she is unable to attack.

If you visit the Knytt Stories DS page, you’ll find the program waiting to be downloaded. The Knytt Stories DS download includes the game program and one story, Nifflas’ “The Machine.” There’s also a separate Level Expansion Pack that includes four more stories from Nifflas already formatted and ready to work with Knytt Stories DS…

Korean company Gamepark Holdings Co., Ltd., has released the GP2X Wiz handheld game system and… what, you though Nintendo’s DSi was the only new handheld on the block?

The Wiz will be offered early May 2009 in the US through various web sites – although it is available now on the GP2X Store – for $179. Part of the excitement surrounding the system is that it runs on Linux and will have an open SDK, meaning just about anyone can make games for it.

I’ve been toying with the Korean game system for about a week and I’m pretty impressed. And by “toying” I do mean more than just playing games. Here’s a look at the hardware, the games mine shipped with and some initial impressions.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Bob’s Game. When I first heard about the game that Robert Pelloni spent five years making, I was impressed and interested to see what the finished product would look like. Then, the viral campaign kicked in with the self-imposed isolated sit-in and his demonstration at the Nintendo World store, and I lost interest in the whole endeavor. When I heard the demo was released, I decided to give Bob’s Game one more chance.

Pelloni recently released demo one for Bob’s Game – an .nds file that is compatible not only with the GBA/DS emulator no$gba and most DS homebrew devices. The brief demo is available for free via the Bob’s Game site and gives everyone the chance to play through the game’s introduction, as seen in one of Pelloni’s many YouTube videos…

The DS homebrew Twitter application has just received an update. DSTwitter v1.1 allows users without a cell phone or computer nearby to keep up with what their Twitter friends are up to and keep their Twitter friends appraised of their actions.

DSTwitter seems fairly easy to use. Of course you need a Twitter account to use it. Once you’ve made one, you’ll need to make sure your DS’s Wi-Fi is set up. (This means getting out one of your Wi-Fi games like Animal Crossing.) Once that’s done, you create a DSTwitter configuration file that has your account information and the DSTwitter program onto your flashcard. That’s it! Now you should be able to Twitter away on your DS.

Since Nintendo has been lax in providing a portable version of its legendary fighting game Smash Brothers, fans are taking the matter in their own hands. A German man known as Fuzzy is working on Super Smash Bros Rumble. The first demo of the game was released July 1, 2008 and is 873kb.

The YouTube video of Super Smash Bros Rumble gameplay gives an idea of how the demo of the game works. A user boots up the game, chooses the single player Solo mode and then begins fighting as Mario against another Mario. Everything looks very polished and the characters look good so far. The menu screen also shows a Wi-Fi button, indicating that future updates of the game may include either local Wi-Fi or maybe even Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection support.

Click through to watch the YouTube video of the demo…

Fans of shooting games and DS homebrew should start rejoicing right around now. They should probably start thanking Asbjørn Djupdal, Morten Hartmann and Kyrre Glette as well, since efforts from the three created Retrorocket. Djupdal and Hartmann were inspired by Thrust (Atari 2600) and TurboRaketti II (Amiga), and decided that those games belonged on the DS, so they set to work on a pretty homebrew application.

Retrorocket offers more than some commercial games. All of the Thrust levels and TurboRaketti II maps are available for play. Plus there is a RTS strategy mode where you can enhance your shop by collecting items and multiplayer collection games. Multiplayer games can even carried out over local WiFi as well. Also Glette assisted the duo by programming in map autogeneration.

Title: Anguna: Warriors of Virtue v0.94Price: Free ($10~15 on a cartridge)System(s): Gameboy AdvanceRelease Date: July 9, 2008Publisher (Developer): Game by Nathan Tolbert, art by Chris HildenbrandESRB Rating: N/APros: It’s a free, well-executed action RPG for a system which is no longer receiving commercial releasesCons: There are no towns to visit and only five dungeons to explore.Overall Score: One thumb up, one thumb down, 75/100, C, ** 1/2 out of 5

Anguna: Warriors of Virtue is a Legend of Zelda style RPG that simply offers an enjoyable, dungeon crawling experience. Some amazing homebrew GBA games exist on the internet and Anguna is one of them. It may not have all of the features of a full-fledged action RPG, but Nathan Tolbert has put together an extraordinary game that deserves a play-through.