Play Field Portal 1.0.0

Play Field Portal 1.0.0

First stable release. Play Field Portal is an Android launcher inspired by the horizontal
cross-menu interface of a classic 2000s handheld console. It replaces the home screen and acts
as a unified frontend for emulated ROM libraries, Android games, PC-layer titles, and local
media, with full controller and touch navigation.

Downloads

Package	Description
PlayFieldPortal-1.0.0-full.apk (52 MB)	Complete launcher, including the Discord Social integration
PlayFieldPortal-1.0.0-lite.apk (8 MB)	Identical launcher without the Discord SDK
PlayField-Theme-Studio-1.0.0.msi (95 MB)	Desktop theme editor for Windows

Both APKs are signed release builds (versionCode 4, versionName 1.0.0, min SDK 29 /
target SDK 35). Distribution is side-load only; the app is not on the Play Store.

Due to the Folder Scanning changing since Alpha, please make a fresh install. The good thing is that we added Auto-Detect ROM scanning from a Root Folder. ES-DE Libraries are plug-n-play with this feature.

Release highlights

Custom theme system. Themes are built on a one-color cascade: a background and a single
accent drive the wave background, gradient, cursor, and icon tint. Any photo becomes a theme
with an automatically derived accent. Themes may replace 47 interface icon slots, override the
crossbar position per theme, and are shared as compact .pfptheme bundles.

Legacy .ptf theme import. Theme files created for the original handheld import directly,
including the earliest generation (circa firmware 3.70), whose LZR compression is handled by an
independently implemented decompressor — wallpapers from those themes now decode correctly
outside original hardware.

Theme Studio. A cross-platform desktop companion providing a pixel-parity preview of the
launcher interface across three surface states, HSV color pickers, an icon editor covering
every themeable slot with template export, crossbar alignment assist, batch .ptf conversion,
and a theme unpacker that extracts every resource of a legacy theme — wallpaper, embedded
preview, and GIM-format icons — as reference PNGs.

Discord Social, opt-in. Authentication uses the OAuth2 device grant via QR code; no
credentials are entered on the device. Features include a friends list with presence, activity
sharing (disabled by default), and voice chat with configurable push-to-talk. Tokens are stored
encrypted in the Android Keystore. The integration is a build-time flavor, allowing the Lite
distribution to omit it entirely.

Storage without broad permissions. ROM libraries, music, video, photos, and backups all
operate through the Storage Access Framework on user-granted folders. The application does not
request all-files access.

Input parity. Complete touch navigation (discrete swipe stepping, tap-to-point, edge-back)
alongside full gamepad support; on-screen affordances follow the most recent input method.

Hardened file handling. All externally sourced theme content is parsed defensively: bounded
reads at every entry point, image dimension validation before allocation, archive and
decompression budgets (per-record and total), and path-traversal rejection — verified by a test
suite that includes golden files and crafted hostile inputs.

Changelog summary

Complete details in CHANGELOG.md.

• 1.0.0-alpha.1 (2026-06-28) — Launcher foundation: crossbar shell, ROM library scanning,
  artwork scraping, emulator launch pipeline, controller and touch input.
• 1.0.0-alpha.2 (2026-07-01) — Interface authenticity and audio: shader-based wave
  background, faithful cross layout with the two-pane drill flyout, menu sound effects,
  complete Music section with background playback; initial security hardening (intent
  sanitization, network policy, encrypted secrets).
• 1.0.0-alpha.3 (2026-07-02) — Photo section, migration of ROM libraries to the Storage
  Access Framework (removing the all-files permission requirement), live status bar,
  theme-loader hardening against malicious archives.
• 1.0.0 (2026-07-07) — Custom theme system with the .pfptheme format and 47 icon slots,
  legacy .ptf import (zlib and LZR), Theme Studio with theme unpacker, opt-in Discord Social
  with Full/Lite build split, PC game import, ES-DE ROM root autoload, full touch navigation,
  and release-build hardening.

New Features

Themes & personalization

• Make a theme from any photo — pick a picture, PFP sets the wallpaper and derives the theme color automatically
• Import real PSP themes (.ptf) — your official PSP theme files convert straight into the launcher
• Share themes — export a .pfptheme file to a friend, they import it with one tap
• 12 PSP-style color schemes with live preview, including the month-changing Original
• Icon color tinting — recolor every menu icon with one swatch
• One-tap theme reset back to the stock look
• Theme Studio — a free desktop app (Windows/Mac/Linux) with a live launcher preview, icon editor, batch PSP-theme conversion, and a PTF unpacker

Discord built in (Full version)

• Sign in by scanning a QR code — no password typing on the handheld
• See your friends online and what they're playing
• Voice chat rooms with noise cancellation, game/voice audio balance, and push-to-talk that works over a running game

Games

• Everything in one place — retro ROMs, Android games, and PC games (Winlator & friends) side by side
• Import PC Games — auto-detects your PC launchers and pulls their games in
• Drop your ROM folder in, done — auto-detects consoles from ES-DE-style folders and builds every Memory Card in one scan
• No storage permission needed — everything works through folder picking, even SD cards and USB drives
• Box art, banners, and logos fetched from SteamGridDB; Favorites and custom Collections

Media

• Music player with playlists and background playback — keep listening while you game
• Video library with thumbnails, resume-where-you-left-off, and your choice of player
• Photo viewer — albums, fullscreen browsing, and set-any-photo-as-wallpaper

Feel

• The authentic flowing wave background and pixel-measured PSP crossbar layout
• Full touch support — swipe, tap, edge-swipe back — that gets out of the way the moment you pick up a controller
• Menu sound effects, live status bar, tablet scaling
• Lite version — 8 MB instead of 50 MB if you skip Discord

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Screenshots for most of these live in docs/screenshots/ and the README gallery.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to u/SilverLoc (johakovi) for their support and contributions throughout development—
this release is stronger for it.

Thanks as well to everyone who tested builds, filed issues, and provided feedback across the
alpha cycle. I really want this to be a Community Project, that grows together with everyone just as the PSP Scene did back in the day. I created a Theme Studio in hopes that people will take this and create the magically customization that we all loved from the console. Once again, thank you all. Also please feel free to drop any bugs/glitches you come by. I will do my best to improve. But I also need some time to game myself. lol. As always. Happy June 15th!