A Vita2D-based, GPU-accelerated port of the classic Amiga FPS Gloom (including Gloom Deluxe, Gloom 3 and Zombie Massacre) for PlayStation Vita and PSTV. Based on version 3.0 of the original SDL ZGloom-Vita port.
ZGloom-Vita-Vita2D is a Vita2D version of ZGloom-Vita-SDL with GPU rendering.
It brings the Amiga cult FPS Gloom and its successors to PS Vita / PSTV with a fixed renderer, stable framerate options and extra visual effects – while staying faithful to the original gameplay.
Compared to the original Vita SDL port, this Vita2D version adds and improves:
-
🧮 Optimized & fixed renderer (GPU-based)
– Vita2D GPU rendering for smoother visuals
– Optimized and cleaned-up renderer code -
⏱️ Stable framerate options (50 / 30 FPS)
– In-game option to choose between 50 FPS and 30 FPS
– Both modes tuned for stable framerates on PS Vita / PSTV -
🩸 Improved blood & visibility logic
– Blood is now correctly occluded by walls when enemies are beside or behind geometry -
🔫 Correct muzzle flash behavior
– Fixed bug where sideways movement caused the muzzle flash to appear from the side instead of the weapon -
🎛️ Better menu navigation & controls
– DPAD navigation now loops through menu entries
– Circle = go back
– Square = value lower
– Cross = value higher -
🎨 Atmospheric post-processing overlays
– Optional vignette overlay
– Optional film grain
– Optional scanlines
– All fully configurable through the in-game options menu -
⚙️ Toolchain & size optimizations
– Toolchain finetuning for up to ~4% smaller.vpksize
– Slight performance improvements thanks to cleaned-up dependencies -
🔊 Higher-quality audio defaults
–SDL_mixerand LibXMP player configured for 44 kHz (previously 22 kHz) for improved sound quality -
🧹 General cleanup & UX polish
– Menu items and descriptions revised and optimized
– All compilation warnings removed
– Non-used dependencies cleaned up
Gloom was a 1995 Doom-like first-person shooter from Black Magic Software for the Commodore Amiga. It featured very messy and meaty graphics and required a powerful Amiga at the time (an A1200 with 030 CPU was still on the low end).
The engine later powered several related games and successors, including:
- Gloom Deluxe / Ultimate Gloom – enhanced graphics and effects
- Gloom 3
- Zombie Massacre
- Various full-game conversions of other 90’s Amiga titles
ZGloom is a modern reimplementation of this engine, and this project is the PS Vita / PSTV Vita2D port of that reimplementation.
Some screenshots of ZGloom-Vita-Vita2D running on PS Vita:
You can download the latest pre-built .vpk here:
👉 Latest ZGloom-Vita-Vita2D release
The release supports:
- Gloom (Classic)
- Gloom Deluxe / Ultimate Gloom
- Gloom 3
- Zombie Massacre
You still need the original game data files (see below).
Gloom was made freely available by its developers here.
Other official games using the Black Magic Gloom engine such as Gloom 3 and Zombie Massacre are available on Aminet.
You can:
- Use files from your original game installation, or
- Download the free releases (thanks to Gareth Murfin for permission)
- Download the latest
.vpkfrom the Releases page. - Install the
.vpkon your PS Vita / PSTV using your preferred homebrew method (VitaShell, etc.).
After extracting the game data on your PC, copy the folders (depending on which games you want to play) to the following locations on your Vita:
ux0:/data/zgloom/gloom
ux0:/data/zgloom/deluxe
ux0:/data/zgloom/gloom3
ux0:/data/zgloom/massacre
Once the files are in place, launch ZGloom-Vita-Vita2D from the LiveArea and select the game you want to play.
ZGloom can play in-game music using any module format supported by XMP (e.g. .mod, .xm etc.).
-
Put your module files into the
sfxsfolder of the game data. -
Add a line like the following to the game script:
song_blitz.mod
You can use multiple song_ commands in the script, which enables per-level music, each level using its own track.
If you want to build the .vpk yourself, you can use Linux or WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) plus VitaSDK.
I am using Ubuntu on Windows with VitaSDK.
apt-get install make git-core cmake python
Follow the instructions on VitaSDK.org (see "VitaSDK Installation" and "porting libraries" sections):
export VITASDK=/usr/local/vitasdk
export PATH=$VITASDK/bin:$PATH # add vitasdk tools to $PATH
git clone https://github.com/vitasdk/vdpm
cd vdpm
./bootstrap-vitasdk.sh
./install-all.sh
Install the LibXMP Vita port (see the VitaSDK library porting section for detailed instructions).
Inside the repository root:
./build.sh
This will generate the .vpk package that you can install on your PS Vita / PSTV.
The licensing situation around the original Gloom source is a bit unusual:
The Gloom source release says only the
.sand.bb2files are open source, but the Gloom executable bakes in some maths lookup tables (generated by the.bb2files), bullet and sparks graphics, and the title screen for Classic Gloom.
This port follows the original release and does not include the Classic Gloom title screen and similar executable-bundled assets. Instead, it may display alternative imagery (e.g. the Black Magic logo image).
-
LibXMP – MED / module playback
– http://xmp.sourceforge.net/ -
SDL2 and SDL2_mixer – cross-platform media & audio (for sound)
– https://www.libsdl.org/ -
DeCrunchmania C code by Robert Leffman (license unknown)
– http://aminet.net/package/util/pack/decrunchmania_os4 -
VitaSDK – open SDK for PS Vita homebrew
– https://vitasdk.org/
ZGloom-Vita-Vita2D is:
- A Vita2D version of ZGloom for PS Vita and PSTV
- Based on the SDL Vita port (version 3.0)
- Compatible with Gloom (Classic), Gloom Deluxe / Ultimate Gloom, Gloom 3 and Zombie Massacre
It aims to provide a fast, GPU-accelerated, and polished Vita experience of the classic Amiga Gloom engine, with modern conveniences and visual tweaks but without changing the core gameplay.
Keywords / Topics:
amiga • gloom • vita • psvita • homebrew • zgloom • gloomdeluxe • zombiemassacre • vita2d • ps tv shooter
If you enjoy it, feel free to ⭐ star the repo so other PS Vita & Amiga fans can find it more easily.