Dop-IOS MOD is a modification of the application Dop-IOS that allows you to choose which IOS you would like to use to install other IOSes (with the trucha bug if you like).
Changelog
v5.0
Mirror of the update made to Dop-IOS v8; All IOS installations updated to reflect the current state of the Wii
Hackmii have stunned the wii scene with a quartet of new releases and most importantly fixes the attempt by Nintendo to kill homebrew:
heres the release notes:
As you all know, Nintendo pushed a huge update yesterday. Turns out it’s a rather lame attempt to block, among other things, our installer. They also remove The Homebrew Channel and DVDX on every system menu startup, but for that they just hardcoded the used title IDs. So let’s play this silly game: let’s switch title IDs!
Beware: Everything installable with this installer works with every system menu version, you do not have to update to v4.2! We even advise you not to update! On the last article bushing wrote:
The [boot 2 update] code [from Ninty] is so buggy that we decided to write our own for the HackMii installer.
It’s really sad, but that wasn’t exaggerated at all. The first reports about bricks due to this official boot2 update are reported on Nintendo’s forums. Replies, which Ninty doesn’t like, are getting deleted. Anyway, it’s up to you if you want to risk it.
If you already updated to v4.2, this version is the only one that works. If you don’t have HBC installed, use e.g. Indiana Pwns to launch this installer.
If you want to update to v4.2, you should install HBC before updating. Because of the new title IDs, the HBC and DVDX version from this installer won’t get deleted on v4.2. Installing the new HBC before updating ensures that you have a working HBC afterwards.
If you updated to v4.2:
BootMii/boot2 was wiped only if your boot2 version was v2 or v3. Just reinstall it.
BootMii/IOS will still be there.
DVDX got deleted, reinstall it.
General advice: Don’t use some random update application, just update through the system menu if you really want to update.
General note: If you install anything with this installer version, update all the components you have already installed. E.g.: BootMii required some changes too, so the HBC with the new title ID gets loaded.
Note about DVDX enabled applications: Because of the new title ID, all current applications will fail to load DVDX. libogc needs additional code that checks for the new title ID. All DVDX enabled apps need to be recompiled afterwards.
Because Ninty fails to deliver new features with the latest update, I guess we have to compensate for that. Focus on this release are the promised improvements for HBC.
The changelog:
HackMii installer (v0.5):
New exploit to enable (un-)installation of all components on fully updated Wiis.
Fix hangs on some setups (they’re all related to retarded IOS patches).
BootMii beta 4 (v1.1):
Properly write the keys to nand.bin.
This fixes the “NAND dump is from another Wii” issue on restoring beta 3 backups. If you don’t know how to fix those dumps, you have to backup the NAND again. Dumps from all other versions are not affected.
The Homebrew Channel v1.0.5:
Faster startup.
Prefer boot.elf over boot.dol when launching apps.
New shiny fonts, tweaked to the last subpixel.
Widescreen support.
If your Wii is set to 16:9 in the system menu options, HBC won’t strech the picture like it did on older versions. Unfortunately the fonts might look a little weird then, it really depends on the used display unit. Blame the lack of true widescreen support on the Wii for that.
Grid view.
Hit 2/Y while browsing applications to switch between the old and the new view. This shows 4 columns on 16:9 setups, 4:3 users only get 3.
Device hot-plugging.
You can remove and insert devices (front SD slot, USB mass storage, and SDGecko in both slots) at all times now without reloading HBC.
To change to another device, hit 1/X to bring up a simple option dialog.
Application sort order.
You can now choose how to sort the shown entries. Current options: either by the name or by the release date.
Note that for the latter sort order a valid release_date tag has to be present in the meta.xml file.
Again, hit 1/X for the options dialog to set this.
wiiload overhaul.
On-the-fly compression: Uploaded files are automatically compressed on PC side: This makes it way faster, especially on bigger files. ScummVM, anyone?
Improved USBGecko support: Faster uploads, and you don’t have to stop reading debug messages from the device while uploading files.
libftdi support: Because ftdi-sio fails, especially on OSX.
Note: Because of these improvements, older wiiload version and 3rd party upload clients are incompatible. Use the bundled v0.5, binaries and source code are included.
Basic application management.
To add apps: Just wiiload a ZIP archive, it will then get extracted to the active device. The ZIP file must be structured in a certain way, check this description for the details.
To delete apps: There’s a new button on the application dialog.
DVDX:
Allow PPC side hardware access.
Also known as the magic HW_AHBPROT register.
TMD version bumped to 2, in case anyone needs to check for e.g. HW_AHBPROT.
Either grab the new installer here, or use the HBC online update (a confirmation dialog should pop up when launching HBC).
As always: Please link to this post instead of mirroring the binary, thanks.
Your yellow ball will be fired automatically.
You must destroy blocks all with your yellow balls.
You must dodge both yellow balls and red bullets.
Push R(or X) button for more bullet storm !!!
Enjoy.
20090928 ver0.15
Start at Tension Level 3.
Tension Levels are 5 steps.
Add time bonus +10sec at each stage end.
Ubisoft's sales numbers for the Nintendo DS platform are down this year compared to 2008, as part of the global slowdown following the economic collapse.
According to the publisher's UK Games For Everyone boss, Mark Slaughter, Ubisoft's aim this year is to defend the market share established by the Imagine range of games for girls as the company builds up to another busy Christmas period.
In an interview looking at the success of the Imagine range, and the challenges of bringing it to market, Slaughter explained that the company's big marketing spend, combined with strong retailer relationships, were two factors that helped the games to cut through a crowded DS marketplace last Christmas.
"But I think we face similar challenges again this year, because of the way the DS market is declining - and things change over the period of a year," he explained to GamesIndustry.biz. "What we did last year was set out our stall quite early, we shared with retailers exactly what we were going to do and showed them our level of investment, and our plan.
"They got behind it, and the momentum then - from advertising through to retail support - really delivered strong sales in the last five or six weeks of the year. I think we sold 300,000 units in the last four weeks of 2008, and I think that was the evolution of all of the different factors - strong selling, a strong retail team, strong backing and significant marketing spends with Fearne, Holly and the X-Factor.
And when questioned further on his comments regarding the DS market's decline, Slaughter added some more details.
"I mean the DS market from last year to this year, in terms of software sales," he said. "Overall, for everybody... there is a decline in the DS market in its entirety. So instead of that being a growing market, within Ubisoft we have to find out how much of that pie we can actually defend.
"It's our objective this year to actually maintain market share," he continued, going on to explain some of the reason for the downturn. "Pricing is very important, and where people may have been buying two or three games last year, this year they may only be buying one. The average purchasing is going down.
"There is still a massive installed base, so the market is still there - but I think you've got to be clever about what part of that market you're taking. We're still forecasting big numbers this year for Imagine.
The beginning of the week was very hectic side of the PSP scene, thanks to Yoshihiro, a member of the team GENyUS. He first proposed a firmware installer, and has recently posted a utility to play on a Custom Firmware PSP games require the latest firmware.
What are its features?
* Install official firmware 6.00
* Install custom firmware 5.50 GEN-B2 on any PSP flashable
* Install any official firmware
* Convert Kit Despertar del Cementerio V8 kit XGEN Pandora able to flash any PSP2000 (excluding TA088v3) and PSP1000 directly 5.50GEN-B2
What's new in version 2?
* XGen Updater:
Changing the location of "Flash install CFW 5.50 GEN-B2, which is now in the forefront of the menu
Support Official Firmware 6.0 and added a test tool for the latest encryption keys Sony
The VSH Menu has been corrected for Custom Firmware 5.50 GEN-B2
* XGen Pandora : Changing the location of "Flash install CFW 5.50 GEN-B2, which is now in the forefront of the menu
The VSH Menu has been corrected for Custom Firmware 5.50 GEN-B2
One option for the test kit Despertar del Cementerio V8 that will get you started on the M33 firmware from your memory card
What are the differences between XGen Updater and XGen Pandora?
The differences between these two utilities is that XGen Updater will directly install the Custom Firmware 5.50 GEN-B2 on the console.
The Pandora XGen will update the kit Despertar del Cementerio v8 to install it on 5.50 GEN-B2 when used (instead of 5.00M 33).
Thanks to the author:
My Hearing and Chris-m for the beta test on PSP Slim.
Microsoft has issued a statement downplaying the Halo 3: ODST "Unreadable Disc" reports that surfaced last week.
"We are aware of a very small number of people who are reporting they can't play the game," the platform holder told Eurogamer.
"We are looking into it, but at this point it doesn't appear to be a widespread issue."
A 35-page thread reporting the issue on the Bungie forums has now spread to over 60 pages with members still frustrated at the lack of communication from either developer or publisher.
The disc-read error occurs on some Xbox 360s during the Halo 3: ODST's campaign, rendering the game unplayable from thereon out. Other games, including Halo 3, are reportedly affected as collateral, and there are even mentions of hardware problems following the error.
Bungie is busy gathering data from those affected.
Despite the problems, Halo 3: ODST went straight to number one in the UK chart yesterday after selling 64 per cent of its week one total within the first 24 hours.
Sony Computer Entertainment has moved to play down concerns from some sections of the retail sector surrounding the imminent launch of its PSPgo handheld, telling GamesIndustry.biz that most companies "were really quite fine with it".
The news comes a day ahead of the release of the new download-focused device, and following several weeks of reports centred around a number of retail stores across Europe which are refusing to stock the hardware.
But according to the PlayStation Portable product manager in the UK, Claire Backhouse, the reaction was a lot more muted than anticipated.
"We were very aware of concerns when we went into it and I actually expected a lot more negative responses than we actually got," she explained. "They were really quite fine with it."
"They see it as a way of getting people into the store because it's new interest, a new product. And they've had such strong sales as well of PSP 3000 almost off the back of it," she added.
Blackhouse went on to explain her view that those sales were in part due to a knock-on effect of bringing out a new tier of hardware.
"If you bring out a new product, people aspire to that but they might not buy it, they might buy the PSP 3000 instead. Especially if they're part of a family - dad might buy the PSPgo but the kids might get PSP 3000s. I think that works quite well for us."
Microsoft has announced the availability of a new retail bundle for its Xbox 360 Elite in the US in time for the Holiday season.
The Elite Holiday Bundle will sell for USD 299 and include two games - LEGO Batman from Traveller's Tales and Black Rock's Pure.
The pack will also include a wireless controller and headset, as well as a 120GB hard drive - but it won't include an HDMI cable, preferring instead the composite A/V version instead.
Meanwhile Microsoft has also released new colours for its Xbox 360 controllers, which are now available in the US in red, blue and pink.
The platform holder's USD 50 rebate on Elite consoles, announced earlier this month, ends on October 5.
Microsoft will launch its Christmas marketing campaign in the UK tomorrow with a firm emphasis on communicating the non-gaming capabilities of the Xbox 360.
The platform holder has already begun its work with third parties, explained senior director for Northern Europe at the company's Entertainment & Devices division Neil Thompson, but there's much more to come.
"We have extensive above-the-line campaigns that have already kicked off, to be honest, with a lot of our third-party publishing partners," he told GamesIndustry.biz. You might have seen a lot of TV work we've already done around some great titles - The Beatles: Rock Band, and so on.
"But from October 2 we're launching our own TV work explaining to consumers the broader entertainment offerings we have on Xbox 360, which is going to centre on our music offerings, movie offerings - and then obviously the unique TV experience we've got in connection with Sky, and the Sky service we're bringing to Live.
"All of that is going to round out for us the broader entertainment platform that the 360 is, and we're working on some fantastic software titles from our end, such as Lips and Forza. Plus we've done a lot of work in the last few weeks, working with Activision on Modern Warfare 2, and other great titles that are coming out for gamers.
"So really it's an extension of what we were doing last year, with perhaps a little bit more emphasis around the broader entertainment offering, as well as all the great games that will be available."
The campaign follows an extensive television advertising spend from Sony in its efforts to put a similar message out to consumers about its new-to-market PlayStation 3 Slim - but Thompson was firm that Microsoft's campaign isn't a copycat ploy.
"In some ways I wish we were that agile," he smiled. "No, we're just focusing on what we think are our core strengths. We think gaming is a core strength of ours, we think the breadth of our entertainment offering is a real core strength. And Live, in many ways, is just our unique value proposition.
"We're very focused on what we think we're offering to consumers, rather than what anybody else thinks they're offering them."
Sony has upped its commitment to digital content with the release of over 100 games on the PlayStation Store as it launches its new handheld, the PSPgo, across Europe and the US.
The revised hardware goes on sale from today, and is supported by new PSP games, classic titles previously available on UMD and Sony's latest digital initiative – the PSP Minis.
Clare Backhouse, product manager for the PSP in the UK, told GamesIndustry.biz that Sony intends to ride the pre-Christmas market and grab early gaming adopters before increasing marketing in the new year to focus on a wider audience.
"I think we're quite lucky we're launching two months before Christmas - I think that'll really help boost sales," she said. "With the campaign as well that we've gone for it's quite targeted. I think we'll see the early adaptors, the gamers, the technology guys getting into it first and I think it'll sell quite strongly prior to Christmas.
"Then you always have a bit of a lag in January and maybe you'll see at the start of the new financial year, next year, it pick up again with a wider audience I imagine. That's when we'll start talking about other entertainment functionalities as well," she offered.
Already live for US consumers, the PlayStation Store has been updated with over 100 downloadable games, including the highly-anticipated Gran Turismo from Sony, and multiple titles from all major publishers including Electronic Arts, Activision and Capcom.
Designed for shorter play sessions, the handful of PSP Minis so far includes Subatomic Studios' Fieldrunners, EA's latest take on the classic Tetris and Alien Havoc from Creat Studios. Minis are priced between £2.49 and £3.99 in the UK.
Sony has also released the 6.10 firmware update for the PSPgo, allowing Bluetooth tethering options and revising the handheld's media capabilities.
Tethering – which only works on the PSPgo – allows users to connect via Bluetooth to a device such as a mobile phone and use it to connect to the internet. A new-look MediaGo update also enables users to connect to the PlayStation Store via the PC and manage music, video and images.
The console retails for around £225 in the UK, with Sony yesterday telling GamesIndustry.biz that it expects around 60 per cent of sales for the new system to come from PSP-3000 users trading in their old machines for the new model.
We've heard vague allusions to Chrome OS hitting devices in the near future, but with Google's official stance that it won't be ready until sometime late next year, well, we were a little skeptical. Now we're hearing reports that Chinese netbook manufacturers are doing everything they can to get little Chrome lappies out onto the Asian markets by sometime next month, and we're still skeptical -- but intrigued. These devices from a company called Lemote run a MIPS-based CPU called the Loongson, which currently powers a custom flavor of Linux named, get this, Loonux. That OS has been receiving criticism for things other than its title, so it's not surprising that the company is interested in trying something new, apparently even if that new thing is still half-baked and rather doughy in the middle. That these devices currently sell for under $200 is even more intriguing, but even if they do indeed get a bit of shine next month don't expect to find one locally -- at least not for that price.
This is totally out of left field, but TmoNews (which tends to have a pretty solid track record when it comes to all things T-Mobile) is claiming that "select" G1s will be receiving Android 1.6 "Donut" starting... well, right about now. So much for any lingering worries that the first retail Android device was being left high and dry, eh? If everything goes well, the rumor goes on to say that myTouch 3Gs would be getting their own over-the-air upgrade in about 24 hours -- and like the 1.5 update before it, it'd likely be a staggered rollout to make sure that T-Mobile doesn't brick a bazillion phones in one fell swoop. Any G1 owners out there seeing anything yet? This sounds awfully quick, especially considering that the Dev Phone 1 just took delivery of 1.6 a handful of hours ago -- but hey, if it's true, we like T-Mobile's hustle.
We've heard plenty of arguments for high priced products before -- many of them from Sony, oddly enough -- but this has to one of the odder ones. Sony UK's Claire Blackhouse says that Sony was actually expecting a greater backlash from retailers than it got in regards to the PSP Go, and that many retailers are seeing the new launch as a way to get consumers into stores, at which point they'll realize they're too poor for a PSP Go and might end walking out with a PSP-3000 instead. Sadly, the logic sounds pretty sound, though Claire's own suggestions that some families might get a PSP Go for dad and PSP 3000s for the kids seems a little fantastical -- kinda hard for dad to rock those Hannah Montana UMDs, yeah Sony?
We've already seen Nokia's Maemo 5-powered N900 pull off some pretty fanciful tricks, but without qualification this is the one most dear to our hearts. Somehow or another, Konttori managed to get his palms around an N900 of his own, and rather than testing out the social networking abilities or battery life, he simply installed an SNES emulator, tweaked it to accept Wiimote controls and even connected it to his TV for a staggeringly authentic gameplay experience. Vicarious living is just a click or two away, so hop on past the break for a video of the action. Oh, and don't mind the baby -- he's not in the corner or anything.
Denizens of PlayStation Home should warm up the internet connection for tomorrow, as the latest and greatest update to the virtual hang out service will hit Thursday, October 1.
Version 1.3 of Home, as previously detailed, will add universal game launching from within the service. No need to stop doing the Running Man just to start up a Resistance 2 fragfest, as any title can be launched from Home as of tomorrow.
Of course, there's more to it than that, including new items, emotes and clothing categories. Plus, Home residents will be able to preview wearable items and furniture in real time. And soon you'll be able to eat shrink cakes and take pictures with an in-Home camera! Truly, we have finally jacked into the Matrix.
Steve Jobs said people don't read any more. But Apple is in talks with several media companies rooted in print, negotiating content for a "new device." And they're not just going for e-books and mags. They're aiming to redefine print.
Several years ago, a modified version of OS X was presented to Steve Jobs, running on a multitouch tablet. When the question "what would people do with this?" couldn't be answered, they shelved it. Long having established music, movie and TV content, Apple is working hard to load up iTunes with print content from several major publishing houses across several media.
Two people related to the NYTimes have separately told me that in June, paper was approached by Apple to talk about putting the paper on a "new device." The R&D labs have long worked on versions of the paper meant to be navigated without a keyboard or mouse, showing up on Windows tablets and on multiple formats using Adobe Air. The NYTimes, of course, also publishes via their iPhone application. Jobs has, during past keynotes, called the NYTimes the "best newspaper in the world."
A person close to a VP in textbook publishing mentioned to me in July that McGraw Hill and Oberlin Press are working with Apple to move textbooks to iTunes. There was no mention of any more detail than that, but it does link back to a private Apple intern idea competition held on campus, in their Town Hall meeting area in 2008, where the winning presentation selected by executives was one focused on textbook distribution through iTunes. The logic here is that textbooks are sold new at a few hundred dollars, and resold by local stores without any kickbacks to publishers. A DRM'd one-time-use book would not only be attractive because publishers would earn more money, but electronic text books would be able to be sold for a fraction of the cost, cutting out book stores and creating a landslide marketshare shift by means of that huge price differential. (If that device were a tablet, the savings on books could pay for the device, and save students a lot of back pain.)
Apple also recently had several executives from one of the largest magazine groups at their Cupertino's campus, where they were asked to present their ideas on the future of publishing. Several mockups of magazines were present in interactive form. It is presumed that more talks took place after the introduction and investigatory meeting. Some magazine company is also considering Adobe Air as a competing option for digital magazines, but without a revenue/distribution system that iTunes has, it seems unlikely.
I haven't heard anything about traditional book publishers being approached yet, but given the scope of the rest of the publishing industry's involvement, it's not hard to imagine they're on board as well. (If you know something, please drop me a line.) Update: Reader Tom reminds me of this Andy Ihnatko rumor, from several sources, that Apple is receiving truckloads of books at its HQ. It's a thin line to draw, but its something.
Another source corroborates that the January announce date others have reported is correct within the month, with this information heard from a high level.
Some I've talked to believe the initial content will be mere translations of text to tablet form. But while the idea of print on the Tablet is enticing, it's nothing the Kindle or any E-Ink device couldn't do. The eventual goal is to have publishers create hybridized content that draws from audio, video and interactive graphics in books, magazines and newspapers, where paper layouts would be static. And with release dates for Microsoft's Courier set to be quite far away and Kindle stuck with relatively static E-Ink, it appears that Apple is moving towards a pole position in distribution of this next-generation print content. First, it'll get its feet wet with more basic repurposing of the stuff found on dead trees today.
The new PSP Go system is a sleek and lightweight system at just 160g, around 43% smaller than the PSP 3000. the sophisticated and stylish design incorporates a sliding 3.8-inch display screen, delivering the same high resolution and vibrant visuals as the current PSP-3000 model.
Leveraging PlayStation Network and digital content exclusively, PSP go system features 16GB of internal memory as well as expandable storage via Memory Stick Micro (M2) to store plenty of games, videos, photos, and music. The PSP go system is designed for the digital lifestyle, offering on-demand entertainment to consumers who want to download content directly to their device anytime, anywhere* over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. RemotePlay features also allow remote access to files on your internet connected PS3 via wireless internet when you're on the move.
Games include LittleBigPlanet, MotorStorm Arctic Edge and Gran Turismo and many more available for download in the future.
Long story short, I got bored a few days ago, so I wrote out the whole music engine in assembler, got bored again, and ported it to the DS just cos I can =D
Sonic AS has 16 channels polyphony for the DS, and variable polyphony on the GBA. It has support for variable music players, and the DS version can handle PCM8/16 and ADPCM data, as it uses the hardware channels. The GBA version can also have either nearest neighbour interpolation (that is, no interpolation; this is fast), or linear interpolation, with .23 fixed point accuracy, which can be toggled by changing the variables in sasInternal.inc.
Since it's written in all assembler, the memory footprint is rather low.
All processing is done on the ARM7 side, with the ARM9 simply signaling to play/stop, etc.
As per usual, it comes with all sources, assets, etc., and yeah.
You can get it here.
I think that's the final music player I will code, as I am finally happy with it, so yeah, no more spam from Aik-kun. ^_^'
Long story short, I got bored a few days ago, so I wrote out the whole music engine in assembler, got bored again, and ported it to the DS just cos I can =D
Sonic AS has 16 channels polyphony for the DS, and variable polyphony on the GBA. It has support for variable music players, and the DS version can handle PCM8/16 and ADPCM data, as it uses the hardware channels. The GBA version can also have either nearest neighbour interpolation (that is, no interpolation; this is fast), or linear interpolation, with .23 fixed point accuracy, which can be toggled by changing the variables in sasInternal.inc.
Since it's written in all assembler, the memory footprint is rather low.
All processing is done on the ARM7 side, with the ARM9 simply signaling to play/stop, etc.
As per usual, it comes with all sources, assets, etc., and yeah.
You can get it here.
I think that's the final music player I will code, as I am finally happy with it, so yeah, no more spam from Aik-kun. ^_^'
PSP CheatUp is an application designed to simplify the task of updating the cheat codes through the use of the PSP’s Wifi and a wireless internet connection. Currently the application can automatically detect and install cheats for CheatMaster Fusion, coderPR, CWCheat and NitePR. .
Feature Summary
The following features are available in PSP CheatUp:
Download and install cheat updates for most PSP cheat engines.
Update application from PSP.
Display the Changelog and Gamelist of the last download cheat update.
Display the last update date, time and filesize of the cheat database.
Changes in version 0.20
Added: Application can now be updated from the PSP (Other > Check for Update).
Fixed: Crash when showing Gamelist or Changelog if cheat archive has not been downloaded.
Fixed: Bug which caused old cheats to be removed even if user says no. Please note that old cheat files will still be overwritten by the new ones, this is meant to prevent nitePR, CMF and coderPR files from being removed if codes don’t exist in the DB.
Other: Application now checks to ensure you have downloaded cheat archive before allowing the user to install cheats.
Other: The user is now presented with an overwrite message before allowing them to install cheats.
Other: If the cheat database is already the same as the one on the server the user will no longer be prompted to update.
Changes in version 0.25
Added: Support for DarkCheat, DayPR, FreeCheat and IcyPR (note most/all other nitePR clones including MKULTRA should use the nitePR option).
Fixed: The CWCheat POPs database is no longer erased as there is currently no POPs database included in the download.
Fixed: Improved the error handling of the Wifi download code.
Other: Removed random background colours so the lateral menu colour matches the background colour. Download and Give Feedback via Comments
We've seen a few odds and ends on the ODROID -- an Android-powered gaming device due this December -- but we've never gotten a look at the handheld in action. That all changes today, as we're privy to a new video of the spec-stacked (833MHz Samsung S5PC100 CPU, 512MB RAM) gamer taking an SNES emulator out for a spin. As you can probably guess, the device doesn't flinch at a screenful of Space Megaforce sprites, but that's not surprising given the horsepower. Now if only someone could get this configuration into a phone. While you impatiently wait for that to happen, hit the clip after the break to see what kind of damage the ODROID does on its own.
The menu system 4.2 for the Wii seems to be a worry for the hack, the fault Bannerbomb of Comex which was blocked with the new updated Nintendo sees operational again with a new release exclusively on Wii in version 4.2. The principle remains the same but this time directly on the SD card icon on this menu that the launch takes place.
Welcome return to the scene of Mediumgauge that, after months, updates its useful homebrew PSP Filer, this time at version 6.2. For the few who did not know this program, PSP Filer allows you to fully manage the content of your memory stick. It would indeed be possible to move or create new folders, run homebrew, open file format .zip / .rar and also back up your UMD.
More in the changelog below.
Changelog v6.2 - 6.1:
Quote:
Note: v6.2 is only a bug-fix release of v6.1.
v6.2
- Fixed a bug that was crashing the program when opening a file. RAR
v6.1
- Changed the directory structure and 3.00 to 1.50 kernel
- Changed the name in the XMB for 1.50 kernel and 3.00
- Fixato a bug that occurs after editing a file
- Fixato a bug that occurs after editing a file in RAMDISK
- Fixato a bug that was crashing the Filer if you edit a file of 0 bytes
- Added the ability to copy files over PSP-2000/3000> 32MB on RAMDISK
-- Changed the default name given to back up the UMD
- Fixato a bug that was crashing the filer if, during the backup of UMD, he was a bad sector
- Added an option to transfer files via Ad-hoc (only for kernel 3.xx)
- Fixato a bug that would restore the Filer to the folder defualt boot
It has come to my attention that the Tucker Max movie “I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell” has come out. Last year I was approached by that movie’s prop department to come up with a “highly customized Xbox 360 controller for a game-obsessed character.”
Above you can see the result. It didn’t have to actually function but I insisted it did. I actually built 2 of them since movies always have backup props (well, mine don’t). The idea was the controller had a lot of “business” potential - that is to say the character could move around it with and act out functions in an overstated manner.
Having not seen the movie, my question is “Did it make it into the final cut?” Please let me know, I am curious!
The coder jas0nuk, who also PSPident issue a new update for PRXdecrypter, homebrew can extract and decrypt PRX modules present in all the official updates, custom firmware, games and even demos. Among the novelties of this release, the 2.25, the addition of keys dell'EBOOT. Bin for firmware 6.00 and the last 6.10.
Following the full changelog and the link to download.
As we know from Previous newsThe new PSP Go! currently mounted a motherboard TA-091 and installed the 5.70 firmware as of departure. Now the site CnGBA.com come the first photos of a new motherboard for the fourth review of the Sony console. It is the TA-094 and almost certainly increases the protection from any type of hacking. At the hardware level, therefore the new consoles have enough armored, given the now well-known pre-IPL.
Dop-IOS MOD is a modification of the application Dop-IOS that allows you to choose which IOS you would like to use to install other IOSes (with the trucha bug if you like).
Changelog
v6.0
The downloadable IOS List is actually up to date now.
WiiBuilder is a Windows software to use for Wii homebrew development.
Changelog
Version 1.4
Option to choose the version of the HBC running on the Wii
Compressing the file before sending it, available for HBC 1.0.5
ZIP file could be sent to HBC 1.0.5
MOD file converted to C array
Tabs are replaced by buttons
SNES emulator has been updated recently. Changes:
- fixed loading of files and folders containing non-ANSI characters (Chinese, Japanese, etc);
- fixed a slight lag on startup due to the new file browser;
- fixed path selection setting, screenshots will now be saved to the correct directory;
- hid memory editor scrollbar since it does not work yet;
- disabled window positioning on Linux due to bugs in the Compiz compositor
added icons from the Tango icon library to the menus and panels.
PlayStation 3 continued to hold its position as the second most popular console in Japan this week, but sales dropped 22 per cent on last week – indicating that popularity is starting the wane.
Unit numbers of 39,960 were sold, compared to 51,055 last week. The DSi continued to outsell all of its rivals with sales of 63,342, down slightly on 66,073 last week.
PlayStation Portable and Wii also saw significant declines in sales, with the former selling 17,334 down from 21,073, and the latter 11,731 down from 16,698. DS Lite, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 2 held their positions in terms of popularity, with 360 sales still low at 4854.
In the Japanese software chart, the Pokemon titles that have been sitting in the top two positions for two weeks following their release are relegated to numbers two and three as the consistently popular Tomodachi Collection retakes the top spot with a sales increase of 34 per cent.
After selling huge numbers which, combined, have now topped two million, Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver both saw sales sharply drop this week by 69 per cent for the former and 71 per cent the latter.
PlayStation 3 title Tales of Vesperia dropped one place and 77 per cent of its sales this week to take the number four position.
Meanwhile Wii Sports Resort re-entered the top ten from number 11 to number six and UK chart topper Halo 3: ODST debuted at a more modest number nine in the Japanese sales chart.
The full Media Create Japanese hardware chart for the week September 22-28 is as follows:
01 Nintendo DSi – 63,342
02 PlayStation 3 – 39,960
03 PlayStation Portable – 17,334
04 DS Lite – 15,057
05 Nintendo Wii – 11,731
06 Xbox 360 - 4854
07 PlayStation 2 - 2347
The full games chart for the week September 21-27 is as follows:
01 Tomodachi Collection (Friend Collection) (DS)
02 Pokemon Heart Gold (DS)
03 Pokemon Soul Silver (DS)
04 Tales of Vesperia (PS3)
05 Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu Portable 4 (PSP)
06 Wii Sports Resort (Wii)
07 SaGa 2 Legendary Secret Treasure: Goddess of Destiny (DS)
08 Dragon Quest IX: Defenders of the Starry Sky (DS)
09 Halo 3: ODST (360)
10 Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Tag Force 4 (PSP)
Nintendo has told our sister site >Eurogamer that UK Wii consoles broken by firmware update 4.2 will also be repaired free of charge, as in the US.
"We are aware of a very small number of reported problems with Wii consoles after updating to the Wii System Menu 4.2," said the platform holder in a statement.
"The symptoms described usually occur when a Wii console has been modified. However, there are a very small number of people reporting problems when a system has never been modified.
"If anyone is experiencing problems with their Wii console after downloading Wii System Menu 4.2, and believe their system has not been modified, please contact our customer service centre. If we find that you have a normal system and the update has caused your system to not work, we will repair it at no charge," added the statement. "Please do not return anything to our customer service department without contacting them first for advice."
The problem occurs during installation of firmware version 4.2, which reportedly crashes part-way through the update. The firmware was designed by Nintendo to clamp down on modders and the homebrew movement.
Fan of Lemmings? You've gone around the 292 levels of Lemmings DS and you want more! It is possible "Lemmings Mario Bros DS"A pack of custom maps proposed by Madmaxou which includes 85 levels and 14 music on the theme Super Mario Bros..
Quote:
After install lemmings ds in your micro SD, you must place the folder SUPER MARIO BROS LEVEL in:
- Lemmings DS
- Levels
--- 1 Player
---- Custom
Place this folder in the Custom and make sure that:
- Lemmings DS
- Levels
--- 1 Player
---- Custom
SUPER MARIO BROS ----- LEVEL
And in this case there is:
Mario Bros. Begin.lds
Mario Bros. Level 1-1 A.lds
.......
If it does that, it will not work:
- Lemmings DS
- Levels
--- 1 Player
---- Custom
SUPER MARIO BROS ----- LEVEL
------ SUPER MARIO BROS LEVEL
Well, now start Lemmings DS, go into the Custom Level menu, then play!
NOTE: If you already have a game folder in Custom, you need to play with the buttons navigate left and right
Bootmii Booter is a small (almost useless) program meant to be chosen as installed file in preloader. this (as the name says) boots the Bootmii IOS using a IOS_Reload. using this as installed application makes it so you dont have to start the homebrew channel and then load bootmii
Nintendo's finally dropped the curtain on Miyamoto's "Demo Play" idea for upcoming New Super Mario Bros. Wii and it turns out the option is less of a handholding through the entire game and more of an instructional tool on overcoming those tough spots.
Nintendo of Europe updated its site, saying that while watching the demonstration go down in real time, the player can choose to intervene whenever they wish and take control themselves. We can't imagine the need for this system much in NSMBW, though. We're sure the game tape can be solved through a combination of running, jumping and, uh, running and jumping.
Atari800 is an emulator for the 800, 800XL, 130XE and 5200 models of the Atari personal computer.
It can be used on console, FrameBuffer or X11.
See http://atari800.sourceforge.net/ for further informations.
PSPATARI is a port on PSP of the version 2.0.2 (April 08 2006) of Atari800 from Petr Stehlik.
GP2X-Atari is a port on GP2X of the PSP version.
Many new features have been added since latest GP2X-F100 version.
How to use it ? Everything is in the README.txt file.
After the Game Decrypter, Yoshihiro released a patch that makes it compatible irshell, the best alternative to shell XMB originally developed by the coder Ahman, also compatible with the latest Custom Firmware 5.50GEN-B2.
To follow the instructions to apply the patch and two links for download: one containing only the patch, the second link is a pack that includes the latest version of iR Shell, and also the patch to be applied to start the shell on 5.50GEN - B2.
Instructions for the patch:
Quote:
E 'must be present on your PSP, the latest version of iR Shell available
- Copy the folder 550 in January irshell PSP / GAME
- Start the
- Press to patch irshell
From Freeplay we have this video (watch it by reading more), in where he has updated an exploit for working on the PSPGo models.
Even though the name of the game neither sound is shared, you can bet that this is real, an old exploit that has been modified in order for working on this models... and also on all firmwares and models. However, it looks to be just user-mode.
Looks like there are many other exploits that might still work, but if Sony made the right decitions on the 6.00+ upgrades, most probably a kernel jump won't be available. At least considering what we know atm.
New update from homebrew jas0nuk for his PRXdecrypter, in connection with version 2.3. This program allows you to extract and decrypt the modules. Prx contained in the official firmware, in custom firmware, in games and demos. PRXdecrypter also allows you to decrypt the file EBOOT.bin, as well as the Game Decrypter recently released by Yoshihiro.
More to follow.
Changelog v2.3:
Quote:
- Added the option "Analyze files" which shows information about the files unmodified
- User module keys Appearances 6:00
- Fixed some bugs related to the decryption - extra data added to the decrypted files
- Rewrote the kernel modules 2.xx + to allow so fewer external files and a cleaner code
- Rewrote the part of code compression on
Juanwc has released a new version of the gameboy emulator for the gp2x, heres whats new:
New graphical modes: Notaz scale on gpSP, Scale2x, Scale53x.
- Fixed a bug on the palette change function and on the clock menu.
- Great changes on core to make it portable (Wiz/Pandora). Includes Pickle's Wiz code.
- Internal clock advance for games that support it (Pokemon Gold).
- New default config for A button, as a lot of people asked, so it's no longer necessary to edit the config file.
- Preliminar support for SuperGameboy. Borders work well, but not palettes. An option to save SGB border and use it on normal mode is included.
- Fixed lots bugs.
Pickle has released a new version of the Duke Nukem 3D engine for the Wiz, if you have never played the game you are missing out on an all time classic game.
Introduction
PSP CheatUp is an application designed to simplify the task of updating the cheat codes through the use of the PSP's Wifi and a wireless internet connection. Currently the application can automatically detect and install cheats for CheatMaster Fusion, coderPR, CWCheat and NitePR. The cheat files are hosted by GBAtemp.
Feature Summary
The following features are available in PSP CheatUp:
Download and install cheat updates for numerous PSP cheat engines.
Update application from PSP.
Display the Changelog and Gamelist of the last download cheat update.
Display the last update date and time of the cheat database.
Changes in version 0.26
The following changes have been made in version 0.26:
Added: Support for starPR and HackME.
Added: Detection of bluePR.
Fixed: Download errors which happened after a failed download attempt.
Fixed: If no cheat engine was active no item would be selected by default in the cheat engine select lateral menu.
Other: Increased message buffer sizes to 16KB so I can show you longer update messages and notices.
Our Developer uPSP_08 has just released a new version of his homebrew PSPMoney. With this tool you can convert to different currency.
Changelog:
Now a total of 35 currencies (for gold and Iraqi dinar away)
New intro screen with loading bar
Exchange rate updates are now coming from the European Central Bank
The language is automatically selected (can also be set manually)
All code is now in a file, sort code and improves
All the necessary images / variables are loaded at the start => run faster in the program itself
Pleaser brings us his latest homebrew, it's Taupe Chrono. The goal is to hit as many moles as possible in the allotted time. To hit a mole, you must press the button corresponding to the hole. Note, however, the moles are rogues, more moles you hit, they become more numerous.
You have 100sec or 1 minute 40 seconds to hit the moles.
You can choose between 3 levels of play, "Easy", "Medium" and "Difficult".
Each level of difficulty decreases the time during which the moles are in the air.
America wasn't the only nation visited by the specter of techno-death this past week when Wii System Update 4.2 was released upon the unsuspecting masses. A number of UK Wii owners have also complained the maligned patch has bricked their unmodified gaming hardware. Don't be sad, our overseas compatriots! You're not alone in your anguish.
Fortunately, Nintendo recently confirmed to Eurogamer that the "very small number" of UK-based owners of 4.2-bricked Wiis can get the same free repair service we're eligible for. As long as you haven't diddled around with your console's guts or brains, you can send in your dead Wii for resuscitation at zero cost. Or rather, Wiisuscitation. (Man, Wii portmanteaus are never going out of style.)
The new 250 PS3 Slim might be listed "in stock" on Amazon.co.uk, but it's not arriving until October 6th according to the online retailer. This particular model, however, is up for sale right this instant at some unnamed retail store in Europe -- even though it's hanging out behind a rather messy help desk in this particular shot. Either way, folks in Europe with a hankering for hard drive don't have long to wait!
Who knows what it is about the PSP that engenders such a loyal following of hackers -- both on the hardware and software side. Some of the hardware hacks we've seen are no doubt more impressive than others, but they're all united in a common disregard for warranties and for the most part a deep affection for LEDs. The first PSP Go mod we've seen, done up by roro3030 over at AcidMods, keeps things simple with some strategic, tasteful white LED placement. It's all internally powered and pretty seamless, and provides a nice jumping off point for a community that will be no-doubt eager to consume the PSP Go as a new challenge -- even if the rest of us are busy making frowny faces at that endlessly derided price tag. Video of the lit-up Go is after the break.
The game's back on. Palm just announced the availability of its 1.2.1 update to WebOS for the Palm Pre and, well, that's it for the time being. It fixes Exchange mail syncing issues experienced by some users, which is nice, but for everyone else it re-enables media sync with iTunes 9.0.1, with or without the USB-IF's support. In fact, Palm has signaled its commitment to its rogue approach by improving synchronization with the Photos app to keep the album structure in tact while allowing lower-resolution images to be synced to the Pre. Oh happy day -- enjoy it while it lasts Pre owners.
It's done. iPhone OS 3.1 has been jailbroken for the iPhone 3GS now by the Dev Team. The catch: You need to have already Pwnd it at 3.0 or 3.0.1—you can't jailbreak 3.1 directly, for now.
There have been image stabilization iPhone camera apps before, but not until 3.0 have they had adequate access to the hardware to do proper processing. Pro-Camera is one of these.
Wow, as if we needed more incentive to not invest in the PSPgo, a new trend has arisen during the first day of Mini availability. The same games cost more on the PSP/PSPgo than they do on the iPhone/iPod touch.
Examples:
Unfortunately, the system is setup to charge the consumer at maximum from the get-go. Games from the App Store start at free. PSP Mini games start at $5.
The fact of the matter is, the iPhone gaming experience isn't all that great. Full-fledged PSP titles should cost more than tiny downloadable apps any day. But there's no good reason for gamers to pay a premium on PSP titles that are available for less on other platforms, just because they generally pay more for games.
There are multiple fingers to be pointed here. Sony, for not allowing free games, which would inspire some price competition. Sony again, for skimming who knows how much off the top of the price point. (In comparison, it's known that Apple takes 30% off of the iPhone App Store sales.) And the publishers, who decide to set their games at prices of up to two or three times the cost of the iPhone version.
But the worst part? Not only is the content of overlapping titles generally no better than the iPhone; sometimes it's worse.
You see, PSP Minis can't have any network or online features. Nor can they support camera peripherals (a major focus of DSiWare innovation) or DLC. Kotaku just reviewed iPhone port Hero of Sparta. On the PSP it costs triple what you'll pay at the App Store. Their review? "Simplistic controls, muddled graphics and abysmal sounds turn what was a fantastic iPhone game into a oddly disjointed Playstation Portable experience." Kotaku's review of Tetris was much better. But you know what? Tetris costs twice as much on the PSP as it does the iPhone.
Some will say, well, you get what you pay for. But that's entirely our point. If you glance across the two platforms, you aren't getting what you're paying for. You're either getting less, or you're getting a lousy port or, best case scenario, you're getting basically the same thing for more.
Granted, PSP Minis are very new (they just launched today). The platform is young. And kudos to Sony for making the digital leap.
But Sony's most loyal fanbase—those frequenting PSN and checking out Minis on day one—shouldn't subsidize a company's foray into the new digital era. Especially given the relatively high price of the PSPgo, at least compared to other portable devices with a lot more processing power, I think the option for free game downloads—at least for a few approved titles—would be a reasonable thank-you.
I mean, even Apple, who doesn't provide the most open platforms in the world, has realized the merit of free app/game distribution. One, they're already making money off the hardware. And two, getting someone visiting iTunes will also get that someone to at least get a glimpse of what else iTunes is selling. Lure them in with a free game and they'll be more likely to purchase one later.
Stop pricing these games so high, Sony. Open up your platform, just a crack, make yourselves competitive with the App Store. Because, at the end of the day, we'd all prefer to be playing these iPhone games with full-out controllers. But right now there's quite a lot more iPhones and iPod Touches out there than PSPgos. Don't blow your (only?) shot to win us back.
Screwing around with the sorting feature on the PSPgo, someone's found there's only one way to arrange games and folders - by their expiration date. Expiration?
Renting a movie off of the PSN, now, that's something that would expire, and we're all familiar with that. Fareo at the Retail Gamer posted these shots with the same quality applied to games. And, purely speculation here, he reasons that since PSPgo owners are no longer able to rent games from GameFly or anywhere else - lack of the UMD drive and all that - such a service would only make sense. Wouldn't it?
Sure. This isn't a completely foreign concept. Sony's also surveyed the acceptability of such an idea.
Sure, Gran Turismo PSP is a fine game, as portable driving sims go, but after coveting the playable Phantasy Star Portable 2 at Tokyo Game Show, a return to the original PlayStation Portable outing is something I have a hankering for. Honestly, Gran Turismo is work. Phantasy Star is for fun. And weekends were made for fun, right?
I'll have some Demon's Souls to play (again, for a review) but really wish my Xbox 360 disc drive was working. That Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection is taunting me with its accurate Medieval Madness recreation.
What about you, dear commenter? What's new and being played on your console, PC or handheld this weekend?
In a meeting last week with a game developer at the Tokyo Game Show, I asked them if they were planning on trying to incorporate in-game video capture into their title. The type you see in Halo 3.
The answer was interesting and, I believe, accidental.
"We'd love to have video capture in our game, but why work on something that the platform holder is already developing," said the developer, who I'm keeping anonymous to cover for his accidental slip-up.
When I had a chance to sit down with Microsoft's Scott Austin, director of digital games at Live, I asked him about the concept.
Could the ability to capture and share videos from games be the next big software development for the Xbox 360?
"We are always thinking about ways that Live at the platform level can make games better," Austin said. "I'm not going to comment on video capture, but you can assume we are thinking about ways to make things more interactive.
There have been a lot of external "studies" on the failure rates of all consoles, not just the Xbox, and the numbers have been all over the map. The only people that know the actual numbers work for Microsoft, and the numbers are not something Microsoft or any other company would typically disclose for competitive reasons. What I do know is that more than two years ago, Microsoft addressed this issue by extending the warranty to three years for consoles with three flashing red lights. More recently, we extended this coverage to include the E74 error message as well. We continuously invest resources to improve the reliability of our products, and we believe that this issue is largely behind us. Xbox 360 is pleased to maintain the title of "most played console," and is grateful to our loyal and engaged customers, the majority of whom continue to have a terrific gaming and entertainment experience.
Hello homebrewers!
I had recently become very interested in Nintendo DS homebrew games and apps, so I thought a good way to start was with PAlib! I just compiled my first game.
A little background on this game:
I was in my computer programming class (of which I was just relearning everything I already knew anyways) and the class was assigned a project. The project was to create a game in BASIC that would teach elementary school kids some kind of skill (spelling, speed math, history facts, etc). The game I made was called FireWall. In the game, there were viruses trying to attack a computer. Each virus had a multiplication expression and the computer had a number on it. You had to click the correct virus to keep playing the game.
To my surprise, many of my highschool friends really liked the game. So for my first homebrew game, I decided to create a remake of FireWall (not a port! the DS one is still very different).
So I hope you enjoy my first DS game.....and GIVE FEEDBACK!!!
Im on holiday at the moment, main reason for my rather sporadic newsposting but im trying my best, but anyway to all those who have brought a PSPGo so far, how does it feel to you ?, is the gaming experiance better?, have you brought any games so far using your PSPGo.?
Platform: NDS
Publisher: Mindscape
Developer: Le Caillou
Genre: Mini-games
Players: 1, and that’s too much
Overview :
So, you think that some Japanese games must travel towards Europe in order to discover how potentially funny they are? Well, don’t be in error. In Europe, we HAVE original games. Let me introduce you "Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis".
First, "Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis" is a movie about an employee of the French post company willing to end his carrier on the Côte d’Azur, in the south of France, quickly. He is told that he must faint to be an handicapped person in order to have that promotion. Unfortunately, he fails, and he’s sent in the north of France because of that failed trick. There, he’ll meet the local population (The "Ch’tis" (pronounce "Shtee")) and will learn how to live with them. Although it doesn’t sound original, this movie drained ONE THIRD of the French population into the theatres.
Mindscape France wanted to share the success the movie had and decided to make a videogame from it, allowing to a miserable studio a miserable budget for its development. And the main question was: “How could they make a comedy movie into a videogame?” The answer was: by making a partygame like WarioWare! Sounds easy, no?
Unfortunately, WarioWare is and still will be the master of partygames.
Gameplay :
The game only needs a stylus. Before each minigame, a breif summary tells you how to play it. The main problem is that the recognition of the stylus is nearly broken. That’s quite annoying if the minigame is based on action. Another main problem is that despite the explanations, you still don’t know how to cope with the minigame you’re playing. And every error will be granted by the same actor repeating “It’s Nooooooooooooooorth!” over, and over.
Oh, there’s a minigame where you must avoid cars. One where you must go the slowest possible on the motorway. One where you must set the right amount of coffee and chicory without knowing how many coffee you must pour in your cup. And on, and on.
But the worst is coming: the developers even managed to f*ck up a HANGMAN GAME! Imagine a hangman game where you have only three letters visible out of 26. Imagine a hangman game where you have to tap in order to barely scroll these letters. Imagine a hangman game where you MUST NOT THINK, but scroll randomly and hit the letters, hoping they will unveil the word written in the local dialect. How fun it is.
Graphics :
They are just plain ugly. Because of the time and the money allowed to this project, the characters look like early version of Miis. The textures are horrible too.
Sound :
We can hear gimmicks taken from the movie, but they are repetitive and way too short. The music is also forgettable.
Replay Value :
Normal people will throw the game away in a few minutes, mad people who will finish the game in a couple of hours will put it inside a drawer and never pick it again.
Conclusion :
With all that criticisms, will I tell you to avoid this game at all costs? Heck, no! Since this game is exclusively sold in France, if you have some family living in Normandy or in the southwest of France, tell them to buy this masterpiece of crap! It was so unsuccessful that the game is sold only five euros in some places!
There is still some time, Sony announced that future users of the PSP Go no longer have the option to remove the battery, all for a matter of hacking the machine, including the famous Pandora battery as assessed on the first generation PSP.
Yesterday a photo was published showing that the battery is not really united in the console, in fact the only thing "preventing" it to be removed is a sticker "Warranty void if removed" (Warranty void if removed) .
The Pandora is therefore perhaps not dead yet? Only the future will tell.
Are PSP Hackers to take on the PSPGo and destroy Sonys new vision of a digital only future?, they lost the battle with UMD PSPs now lets see if we can beat them on the digital front.
WebOS 1.2(.1) is here, and yes: It broke homebrew. Amazingly, it only took devs about two days to bounce back. Here's how to bring hundreds of free apps, tweaks and themes to your Pre, without flashing your firmware.
Why Homebrew?
Paid apps are due in the official App Catalog any day now—actually they're running a little late—meaning that the app selection is probably about to get a lot wider, and basically better. But webOS development is limited in scope, and App Catalog applications will never be able to theme your device, access 3D APIs that aren't in the MojoSDK, change your homescreen layout, or add an onscreen keyboard.
Pre homebrew is as much about adding apps that Palm has been so slow to approve as it is tweaking your handset. Think of it like jailbreaking an iPhone, except that it's easier to do, and the benefits are much, much greater.
(This guide owes a huge debt to the PreCentral forums, where the developer of WebOS Quick Install, with others, have collected most of the necessary resources. Recognition is nice, but donations are better. If you find WebOS Quick Install useful, send Jason a few bucks.)
Europe is getting a bunch of 250GB PlayStation 3 bundles. Besides coming packaged with a game and sporting a bigger hard drive, the bundles also have something else going for them:
New box color.
Pictured is supposedly the box for Need for Speed: Shift. We dig the gray-silver. It's so sophisticated.
Earlier this year, Nintendo announced that it and 54 software game companies were filing a lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court against companies that import "R4 Revolution"-type devices, using the Unfair Competition Prevention Law as the legal grounding.
According to Nintendo, such devices hurts the growth of the entire game industry and steps must be taken regarding the legality of R4 carts. It's important to note that this legal injunction is for Japan only.
Nintendo is asking for the cease of marketing, sales and importation of these Chinese-made devices. The R4 allows easy software piracy by fitting right into the DS's cartridge slot. Data is stored on a Micro SD and downloaded from websites via a flash drive, and the R4 has a small slot that the Micro SD card goes into.
In addition to the suit, Nintendo is turning the heat up on retailers who sell the devices by launching website devoted to collecting information about R4 sellers. "It's getting increasingly difficult to track down R4 sellers as day by day they get more ingenious, flourishing online and complicating matters," said Nintendo in a written statement. Because of this, Nintendo is calling on the strength of the masses to eradicate the sale of these devices.
The website Nintendo has set up has an anonymous form that can be filled out. Selectable choices include retail stores, internet shops, online auctions selling R4 devices. Another choice includes "game software uploads" — or those sites or individuals making DS games available online. There's also spaces for dates and time, a box for details and another box for the shop's address or home page.
As recently as last week, countless retailers in Tokyo's Akihabara and Osaka's Den Den Town were openly carrying and selling R4 devices.
Independent videogame developers across the world are concerned at the lack of deals being made in the business as publishers pull back to focus on core products.
According to several companies that GamesIndustry.biz has spoken to there is a fear that the lack of commissions as things stand will lead to a relatively bare slate for the 2010-11 period.
One such developer is Tantalus, whose CEO Tom Crago explained that he hoped publishers would enjoy a strong Christmas, and that the New Year would see a flurry of activity.
"Absolutely, we hope that will be the case," he said. "From our point of view we're heavily dependent and processes of publishers. We hope their outlook is rosier, particularly into 2010 and 2011, and that the volume of titles that are being commissioned increases."
But Crago, who is also the president of Australia's trade organisation - the GDAA - expressed his worry that even projects given the green light then would be subject to pressure.
"You get into this cycle of titles starting too late, not having enough time to do the job that you'd like to do on that game. We'd like to prevent that," he explained. "From a publisher standpoint you can understand the wait-and-see approach, but there needs to be a meeting in the middle."
FIFA 10 has shot straight to number one in the latest UK chart and become the second biggest all formats launch ever in the UK after GTA IV.
The game generated 48 per cent more sales than last year's FIFA 09, and steals the second best-selling game crown from GTA: San Andreas, which launched on PlayStation 2 in 2004.
Xbox 360's share of sales was the highest with 48 per cent, while the PlayStation 3 was 46 per cent and six per cent went to the remaining formats.
Last year's instalment was split similarly between Microsoft and Sony with 42 per cent and 40 per cent respectively, however the remaining formats secured a larger 18 per cent share. The sales put the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game at numbers five and six respectively as the fastest selling single format releases to date.
Elsewhere in the top ten, Nintendo's Professor Layton and Pandora's Box held onto second place for another week, selling just 300 copies more than last week's number one – Halo 3: ODST – which dropped 75 per cent in sales and to the number three position.
Need for Speed: Shift dropped one place to number four, just ahead of Wii Sports Resort, which held the fifth position for another week with a 33 per cent jump in sales (thanks in part to the new GBP 179.99 Wii Sports Resort hardware bundle).
Guitar Hero 5 dropped two places to number six and MySims Agent climbed from last week's launch position of number 16 to number seven.
The UMD release of Gran Turismo on PSP got off the mark this week debuting at number 12. A download version of the game is being given away free to early PSPgo adopters.
Other new entries in the top 40 were Tecmo Koei's Ninja Gaiden: Sigma 2 at number 26 and Deep Silver's Risen at number 29.
The full Chart-Track UK all formats chart for the week ending October 3 is as follows:
01 FIFA 10
02 Professor Layton and Pandora's Box
03 Halo 3: ODST
04 Need for Speed: Shift
05 Wii Sports Resort
06 Guitar Hero 5
07 MySims Agents
08 Colin McRae: Dirt 2
09 Mario Kart Wii
10 Batman: Arkham Asylum
It was just over 10 years ago that Sega made the ill-fated move to release the Dreamcast, taking it down a road that would result in the company ditching the hardware scene entirely -- well, almost entirely. Out of the deal we got this wonderful white console, which Jay Hauf has remembered with this bit of simple hackery. He's popped the D-pad out, removed the controller's bottom-mounted cable, threaded an iPhone dock through, then, apparently, went back to creating cute little box-headed figurines. It's perhaps not the most amazingly complex controller mod of all time, but a worthy one nevertheless.
It was just over 10 years ago that Sega made the ill-fated move to release the Dreamcast, taking it down a road that would result in the company ditching the hardware scene entirely -- well, almost entirely. Out of the deal we got this wonderful white console, which Jay Hauf has remembered with this bit of simple hackery. He's popped the D-pad out, removed the controller's bottom-mounted cable, threaded an iPhone dock through, then, apparently, went back to creating cute little box-headed figurines. It's perhaps not the most amazingly complex controller mod of all time, but a worthy one nevertheless.
More fuel for the Apple Tablet rumors. According to the NY Times, several former Apple employees say a PowerPC-based prototype was developed in 2003—but it was too power-hungry, and Steve Jobs felt it was limited to bathroom Web-surfing
features
Stunning environments with tracks modeled after the rugged, snow-covered Alaskan landscape creating the most treacherous racing conditions yet
Eight vehicle classes, including the nimble Snow Cat and more forceful Snow Plow designed to help you tackle the Alaskan terrain
Global leaderboards to show off the top ranked players in all game modes, including single player Time Attack
Robust vehicle customization lets you upgrade various parts including wheels, exhaust, spoilers, sponsorship stickers, and liveries
Customizable soundtrack that lets players add music from a memory stick to create a full list of customized tunes for each race
description
MotorStorm's breakneck racing festival moves to the unpredictable terrains and harsh temperatures of Alaska. In true MotorStorm style, players will throw traditional offroad driving and caution to the wind where the ultimate goal in the festival is to not only win, but to survive.
Lunatics must race against vicious opponents in arctic conditions and deal with the dangerous Alaskan terrain featuring sudden avalanches, broken ice bridges and three different, and completely unforgiving, racing altitudes.
The game features MotorStorm's breathtaking racing action alongside online multiplayer where you can race against other players using Infrastructure Mode on PSP® system to make it to the summit of the online global leaderboards.
Help find the missing parts for Snork’s fantastic flying ship during this adventurous journey. When the ship is built Moomin can fly out to sea and try to find the source of “The Mysterious Howling.”
features
Adventure Game with Puzzles
Use the touch screen and stylus for simple point-and-click gameplay
Several mini-games offer hours of entertainment
Intended for players age 3-6
Vivid Environments
description
The summer is nearly over and Moomin is getting ready for the annual Autumn Party. But there are many things that must be done before the big night - and Moomin needs all the help he can get.
Join the residents of Moominvalley as they prepare for the Autumn Party. Visit the wizard's tent and gaze into the magic crystal ball. Help Moominpappa test his speed, or visit the Snork in his workshop and see what he's up to. Collect all the pieces to Moomin's Autumn Party activity and get everything ready so that the party can start!
features
Choose your very own style – make-up, dresses and more!
Get the moves and learn how to pose!
Terrific mini-games to challenge you!
description
Gorgeous dresses and awesome locations! Enter the fantastic world of fashion! Discover the style that suits you best! Find out what it takes to become a top model and create your own look! Have tons of fun as you glide through the glitter and glamour of a catwalk career starting with the first casting session at a model agency and culminating in a fabulous photo shoot on a Caribbean island!
features
Each mini-game solved throughout the investigation gives players valuable pieces of evidence to help solve the case.
The literary world of the Hardy Boys is brought to life through classic video game point 'n click style gameplay. Check out the Hardy Home, Bayport Police Station and other places most have only experienced through the pages of a book.
Features the voice and likeness of Hollywood teen stars Jesse McCartney and Cody Linley as Frank and Joe Hardy.
Use your cell phone to give pal Nancy Drew and other characters a call and get insight on the case.
Choose Your Dialogue - choose from a variety of responses to make your Hardy Boys' experience your own.
description
In The Hardy Boys: The Hidden Theft, the vault of the Spencer Mansion is robbed, and the Bayport Police call on the Hardy Boys to help tie up some loose ends, but they soon find themselves in the middle of a major criminal investigation that takes them on an adventure all over Bayport, and even into New York City. But the pieces don't add up, and Frank and Joe find themselves embroiled in a drama of sinister proportions. Is the recent theft linked to something from the past? Can Frank and Joe find and decipher the clues in time to prevent another crime from happening?
features
Four modes of entertaining and competitive gameplay. In Career Mode gamers will need to understand the equipment, topography of the lakes, and specific fish behaviors in order to succeed. Players will be guided by the true rules of tournament bass fishing just like they would if they were fishing in real life
Ten of North America’s greatest lakes are realistically depicted, so players can recognize key landmarks and find their favorite fishing spots
The Strike features a large variety of fresh water fish, including Largemouth bass, Smallmouth bass, Striped bass, and Kentucky spotted bass, Walleye, Northern and more. Each lake also contains a legendary fish of record proportions that will challenge even the best players and experienced fishermen
Players can tailor their equipment by going to the Bass Pro Shops in-game store to select lures, rods, and reels. Players can also win new boats by winning tournaments
The Strike tracks players’ fishing data, ranging from the number of successful casts to the most popular lure. The game also tracks the total weight of each species of fish caught and individual lake totals, tournaments won, etc.
Xbox 360 players will be able to post their fishing stats to online leader boards for the world to see their results
description
The Strike combines authentic environments based on real lakes, engaging gameplay with accurate fish and lure behaviors, and a highly interactive fishing pole controller that allows players an immersive fishing adventure. Players can enjoy 3 different game-play modes including Quick Fish, Career and Bass Pro Shops Invitational Tournament, or compete with friends in mini games like boat races and casting challenges. The lifelike fishing pole peripheral lets the player cast, jig, set the hook, and fight as if a real fish were on the other end of the line. The game takes players to some of North America’s most famous fishing hot spots and features eleven types of game fish including Largemouth, Smallmouth, and Striped Bass as well as Northern Pike and Muskie. In addition, realistic lake bottom topography, real-time time–of-day light effects, advanced graphics, and authentic fishing gear from the Bass Pro Shops stores, all combine to offer virtual anglers the most comprehensive fishing game experience to-date.
An advanced FIFA Soccer 10 features core gameplay refinements based on responsiveness and intelligence, plus a completely overhauled Manager Mode that includes more than 50 major improvements.
Three new innovations change the player control experience in FIFA Soccer 10. The first-ever true 360° dribbling system gives players finer control of the ball, enabling them to find spaces between defenders that previously were not possible.
Using an all-new animation technology, skilled dribblers now have the ability to face the defender and use highly responsive lateral dribbling to skip past him.
An innovative concept called Freedom in Physical Play enables players to perform wider dribble touches and new collision sharing creates a varied, less predictable, and extended fight for possession between the dribbler and a defender.
The Asian versions of the game have arrived:
Xbox360™
FIFA Soccer 10 ASIA US$ 49.90
FIFA Soccer 10 US US$ 64.90
PlayStation3™
FIFA Soccer 10 US US$ 64.90
FIFA Soccer 10 ASIA US$ 49.90
FIFA Soccer 10 World Class Soccer JPN US$ 78.90
Nintendo™ Wii
FIFA Soccer 10 US US$ 54.90
FIFA Soccer 10 World Class Soccer JPN US$ 64.90
PlayStation2™
FIFA Soccer 10 US US$ 34.90
FIFA Soccer 10 World Class Soccer JPN US$ 64.90
Nintendo DS™
FIFA Soccer 10 US US$ 34.90
Sony PSP™
FIFA Soccer 10 US US$ 44.90
FIFA Soccer 10 ASIA US$ 42.90
FIFA Soccer 10 World Class Soccer JPN US$ 54.90
Game Guide
FIFA Soccer 10 Prima Official Guide US US$ 19.90
features
World-renowned creator and character designer Tetsuya Nomura and his team once again unite the magical world of Disney with the characters of FINAL FANTASY, inviting fans to an enchanting gaming experience
Multiplayer Mode – for the first time in KINGDOM HEARTS. Four players can team-up as their favourite Organization XIII members
Fully 3D environments and characters, gigantic boss battles and an orchestral soundtrack push the Nintendo DS capabilities to the full
A wide variety of missions to complete across a range of huge worlds. Lots to explore including Standard Missions, Trial Missions and multiplayer Mission Mode
Limit Breaks! The special near-death ability from FINAL FANTASY VII is brought to the world of KINGDOM HEARTS allowing for explosive special attacks
Panel System – organise your weapons, spells, abilities and even levels with this new system that makes you strategically think about what you can carry
description
In KINGDOM HEARTS, Sora turned the Keyblade on himself in order to release Kairi’s heart, but his heart was also released in the process. This brought about the creation of Roxas, Sora’s Nobody. Unlike most Nobodies, however, Roxas has no memories of his past. He joins Organization XIII and slowly begins to discover the truth behind his existence and the Organization itself. He meets and befriends the fourteenth member of the Organization, who also has no recollection of her past. What will Roxas see during his time in the Organization? What is the connection between him, Sora and the fourteenth member? And what becomes of them? Dive into the heart of the KINGDOM HEARTS storyline’s biggest secrets.
features
Compete in time, point and collection based challenges with the option of playing through the story or fueling the excitement with added goals
Expansive sandbox type gameplay and real time destruction allows gamers to destroy what they want, when they want, WHERE they want!
Twist your way through crazy objects and comical characters expanding your tornado by auto collecting or implementing the advanced chain collecting-mode for more skilled players to snuff out villainous creatures
description
Harness the power of a raging tornado and battle the forces of evil in an effort to save to world! Sinister forces have deceived you to believe that your destructive behavior will save an epic hero. In reality, you’re working for evil. Take control of a dynamic tornado as you tear through open environments chewing up the landscape and spitting out everything in your path. The more you destroy, the bigger you grow as you work against time based, collection and point challenges in the search for hidden elements and enemies from another world. Watch the debris fly as you leave a trail of destruction, as you battle bosses and defeat the forces of evil. The world is your playground, tear it up!
features
The player starts off as a human that seeks to reconcile and recreate old alliances with the dwarves, halflings, and elves. As the story progresses, the player can choose a character of any of the races, each with specific strengths and weaknesses that can be customized further
With five basic job classes (Fighter, Mage, Priest, Thief, Bard) and numerous advanced classes each with their own specific skills, abilities, and weapons and equipment that change the appearance of the player’s character, the customization options are almost limitless
Battles take place in real-time, and all enemies are visible on the field map with no random encounters. These foes may be fought or avoided as the player sees fit
Specify the race and job class of your accompanying party members as you hire mercenaries at the local tavern
Party up with a second player online to explore the land of Eldar together
description
The lands of Eldar have long been known as the origin of chaos, a place where monsters and demons wreak havoc, indiscriminate in their madness. Legend tells of how the Spirit King, whose coming was heralded in by a meteor shower, gained control of the creatures and waged an unrelenting war upon civilization. Order and life were brought to the brink of destruction, but an alliance of the four races was able to drive them back and seal the evil. Centuries more have passed and once again the lands are slowly being overrun by the reemerging monsters. Without a known cause or even a united front to repel them, it would seem that this time, Eldar will fall. It is up to the main character to take up the forgotten mantle of the hero, reunite the races, and confront the hordes of monsters.
track listing
A-Punk - Vampire Weekend
All Along The Watchtower - Bob Dylan
Back Round - Wolfmother
Cigarettes, Wedding Bands - Band Of Horses
Deadbolt - Thrice
Demon(s) - Darkest Hour
Fame - David Bowie
Gamma Ray - Beck
Gratitude - Beastie Boys
Hurts So Good - John Mellencamp
In My Place - Coldplay
L.A. - Elliott Smith
Lonely Is The Night - Billy Squier
Lust For Life (Live) - Iggy Pop
Make It Wit Chu - Queens Of The Stone Age
Runnin' Down A Dream - Tom Petty
Sex On Fire - Kings Of Leon
Six Days A Week - The Bronx
Sneak Out - Rose Hill Drive
Song 2 - Blur
Woman From Tokyo ('99 Remix) - Deep Purple
No One To Depend On (Live) - Santana
Done With Everything, Die For Nothing - Children Of Bodom
Scatterbrain (Live) - Jeff Beck
description
Living room legends will rock any way they want in Guitar Hero® 5.
The entire set list is at your finger tips from the start, featuring genre-defining hits from some of the biggest rock artists and bands of all time, including The Rolling Stones, The White Stripes, Kings of Leon, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Santana and Vampire Weekend.
You will take complete control as Guitar Hero 5 allows you to personalize and customize how you experience music by being able to play with any in-game instrument combination -- multiple vocalists, guitarists, bassists and drummers, in any game mode.
With the game’s all-new Party Play Mode, getting the band back together has never been easier. You can now jump in or drop out of gameplay seamlessly, without interrupting their jam session. Elevating the Guitar Hero® series to new heights with unmatched social gameplay, an enhanced style, new in-game artists and more rock legends, Guitar Hero 5 features new surprises and challenges that will fire-up long-time fret board fanatics and create a new generation of addicts.
features
All inputs are performed using the stylus on the Touch Screen, including a revolutionary new trackball that controls Dorothy’s direction and speed based on how the trackball is rolled with the stylus
Turn-based combat can be automated with computer suggested moves for easy, one-touch implementation. For experienced RPG players, actions can be customized manually and additional hidden boss battles await
A new interpretation on one of the most beloved tales of all time, showing what happens after Dorothy and her friends reach the Emerald City
Ranking among some of the best visuals seen on a DS, the brilliant colors of the Land of Oz come to life, while the original soundtrack captures the spirit of the magical land
description
Dorothy, together with her dog, Toto, has been swept away from her home in Kansas by a tornado, only to realize that she has touched ground in an unfamiliar new land. A voice calls out to her to follow the Yellow Brick Road if she wishes to return home, but that path is an arduous one with multiple obstacles and foes. Three of the foes bested by Dorothy on this path; Scarecrow, Lion, and Tin Man, offer to join Dorothy on her journey. As the four new friends complete the journey to the end of the Yellow Brick Road, they encounter the larger than life Wizard of Oz within his magical castle. Despite his almost limitless power, there are four witches running amuck within his land that he just can’t control. Dorothy and her friends are tasked with defeating the witches with a return trip to Kansas as the reward, but is this new mission beyond the Yellow Brick Road everything it appears to be?
features
Craft your own unique sound like the professionals
Arrange full-length songs in minutes using Timbaland's library of loops and sounds
Perform professional-sounding music right out of the box
description
BEATERATOR brings the power of music-creation to the PSP (PlayStation Portable) system, PSP (PlayStation Portable) go system and PlayStation Network. ROCKSTAR GAMES and multi-platinum selling producer TIMBALAND have designed an incredibly simple to use and portable music making application that allows everyone to create their own music anywhere.
Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 3 video-game console outsold Nintendo Co.’s Wii for the first time on a monthly basis in Japan in September, after a price cut, according to market researcher Enterbrain Inc.
From Aug. 31 to Sept. 27, 309,939 PS3s were sold, a monthly record for the console in Japan since it became available in November 2006, the Tokyo-based research firm said in a faxed statement today. Nintendo’s DS Lite and DSi handheld players came a close second with a combined 297,060 units.
Sony has told GamesIndustry.biz that sales of PSP hardware are up over 120 per cent in the UK, following the launch of the PSPgo.
Sales of the PSP-3000 have also grown, as the hardware benefits from the release of the long-awaited Gran Turismo for PSP on UMD and EA's FIFA 10, which this weekend broke records for the franchise.
"PSPgo has performed in line with our expectations, driving 100 per cent incremental volume for the category and has benefited the broad PSP portfolio with PSP-3000 also enjoying a big lift," said SCEE in a statement.
"PSP software sales also having been a standout with both new releases GT PSP and FIFA 10 performing well."
The new PSPgo launched last Thursday and sells in the UK for around GBP 224.99. Early adopters are able to download a free copy of Gran Turismo PSP until October 10, and UK consumers can also access a deal which allows them to download another three games for free if they register with Sony online.
When contacted by GamesIndustry.biz this morning, Chart-Track in the UK said it would not reveal any independent sales data for the PSPgo.
"It's a new format and we are simply not revealing the figures for public consumption," said director Dorian Bloch.
Update: Sony has clarified that sales of the PSP hardware are up over 120 per cent compared to the previous week. The PSPgo sold as many units as the PSP-3000 during the period.
Eurogamer reports that five UK retailers have cut the price tag of Sony's PSP Go handheld after its initial launch. Argos is selling it at £220 while Amazon UK, GAME, HMV and Play.com have cut it down to £200.
Astounding but not surprising, still would this price drop tempt any of you to get one? Leave feedback via comments.
As if there couldn't be any more Call of Duty-related revelations today, Modern Warfare 2 has seen a slight delay on PC.
That's according to a report by Electronic Theatre, which claims that the PC version of the game will now arrive a fortnight later than its console cousins on November 24.
File this under rumour for now. We've contacted Activision UK for comment.
Square Enix has passed over a localised version of the Japanese Final Fantasy XIII trailer, which was showcased at the Tokyo Game Show a few weeks ago. It's the perfect excuse to watch the glorious seven-minute long trailer all over again. But if you don't like the sound of English boys and girls, hit this link to watch it in Japanese. We won't hold it against you.
Team XCM is gearing up to release two new products. The first product is the XCM Multi-Charger that allows you to charge multiple USB devices at the same time.
XCM Multi-Charger for cool consoles, unlike another brand of multi-charger, XCM Multi-Charger not only can be used on iPhone™, PSP™ series (from 1000-3000 series), NDS™ series (NDS, NDSL, NDSi) but also the Xbox 360™ controller, PS3™ controller and more...(all device which uses USB 5v input will be supported, such as the Nokia™ mobile phone series etc).
The second product is an updated version of the Cross Battle Adapter. (no picture of product available yet)
The Cross Battle Adapter 2.0 is an adapter to allow you to connect your Xbox 360 wired controller to your PS3 console for use with PS3 games.
The XCM Cross Battle Adapter 2.0 is built with a new function for swapping the controller’s triggers and bumpers. You can also swap the functions of A, B, X, Y buttons (Example: Set the function of A button to the X button or set the function of B button to the Y button, etc) and swap the functions of 2 analog sticks as well! The PS3 Six Axis mode is also supported.
GRRLIB is a C/C++ 2D Graphics library for Wii application developers. It is essentially a wrapper which presents a friendly interface to the Nintendo GX core. With it, coders can quickly and easily start creating graphical applications.
As of v4.1.0, GRRLIB is supplied as a standard C/C++ library (aka. archive) called 'libgrrlib'. Because GRRLIB processes JPEG and PNG images, it requires the installation of the 'libjpeg' and 'libpngu' libraries. 'libpngu', in turn, requires 'libpng' and 'libpng' requires 'libz'. GRRLIB also has FileIO functions to allow real-time loading and saving of graphical data, and thus also requires 'libfat'.
4.1.0 - October 5, 2009
Completely new file structure with sub-folders:
libgrrlib <- 2D graphics library
+-- libfat <- File I/O
+-- libjpeg <- JPEG image processor
+-- libpngu <- Wii wrapper for libpng
+-- libpng <- PNG image processor
+-- libz <- Zip (lossless) compsression (for PNG compression)
Installer for vendor libraries (jpeg, png, pngu)
Makefile for GRRLIB
Many (all suitable) functions are now inlined
Support for the recent changes to libogc
Alpha compositor function added
Correct use of pointers (no more struct passing)
Speed improvement, bug fixing and more...
emukidid posted this interesting article over at the emulatemii site:
Since that first post I made, all the way back on the 27th of May 2007 over at tehskeen.com .. the emulator sure has progressed! Back at the time which I created that thread, I considered myself a rather experienced coder, but nothing could’ve prepared me for the long road of development we had ahead of us. Looking back, I think we were all a little naive at how quickly this could be done. It wasn’t until we had an alpha version out that we realized what hard work lied ahead of us. Wii64, then known as mupen64gc simply because we only thought it would ever run on a Gamecube, would soon change my knowledge of N64 hardware, coding and debugging forever.
It was only a few months after that post in which tehpola (mainly) and I quickly got together a mupen64 port which would actually do something on a GC. One of the first games we ever saw emulated in mupen64gc was Rampage World Tour. I remember it would run with bad graphics, no sound, very bad input, direct saving (which would take up to a minute each time a single byte wanted to save), and on top of all that, it wouldn’t even reach past 4 or 5 FPS before eventually crashing anyway due to a limited software rendering graphics plugin. We eventually got Super Mario 64 to work with the software rendering plugin at around 4-5FPS too, but we soon realized we would need a better hardware accelerated plugin.
A little bit of trivia, we actually emulated the public domain ROM “Fire Demo by LaC” before anything but we didn’t see it running as the software graphics plugin was rendering the screen too dark
Very shortly after our initial work and after our search for a graphics coder, sepp256 joined the project. He was keen to learn about the N64, and showed us quick results by porting the mupen64 software rendering graphics plugin to work with some GX hardware acceleration and Super Mario 64 was running at around 35% of the speed. Around this time (October 2007), we released the first alpha for the general public to see, known as the “Basic GX Build” which was followed shortly by the “DVD Loading Build”, enabling users to load ROMs from their Gamecube DVD drive. These builds had quite a large number of graphical glitches, extremely screechy audio, and general lack of features, however the emulator was starting to show positive progress.
As time progressed and we entered the new year of 2008, there was new hope on the horizon, Wii homebrew would soon be possible thanks to Team Twiizers, so we were quite motivated to move forward. The mupen64gc project would continue, with many bugfixes, a GUI with a menu system now slowly coming together, threaded audio emulation, a ROM cache, a TLB cache, native saves working and even more graphics plugin bugfixes and improvements than you could poke a stick at! There was yet another alpha version released for the GC at this point to show the public some more progress, labelled “New Year’s Edition”. This was the first official alpha release to feature the GX graphics plugin and the version 1 menu (pink coloured backdrop made by brakken from tehskeen).
Shortly after this, we were given the ability of being able to load homebrew on the Wii (thx Team Twiizers!), this was great news for us as we would now have so much more CPU horsepower and memory to play with, not to mention the new peripherals. It didn’t take us long to have our code working on the Wii, and we quickly realized how much more power we had in our hands thanks to the Wii. Word got out around the scene, and we were special enough to have a build labelled “Wii64 Tiizer Edition” be included in the Homebrew Channel initial release. This alpha build was pretty far along, but used a very early port of the glN64 graphics plugin port and the Pure Interpreter for everything.
After May 2008’s Tiizer edition release, we started to see a very large influx in the amount of unofficial builds popping up with Wiimote support, and 100’s of different button mappings and other attempts to better the emulator. As a result of this, we were bombarded with bug reports which weren’t even ours to fix, and even more so, there were bugs introduced in the unofficial builds because of bad tool chains people were using to build the emulator which took us a while to track down the causes of (thinking they were problems in our code too). After that, things went a little quiet for a bit as we all continued on with our real lives, but development continued to trickle into the public googlecode repository as we made changes.
Shortly after this time, sepp256’s port of Orkin’s glN64 graphics plugin work was showing major progress and we would soon have a working port on the GC/Wii with hardware acceleration via GX. Although, this was never yet marked with a milestone alpha version as there was a silent boom of progress in another part of the emulator we were awaiting to happen. Around early January 2009 and after a few rewrites, the dynamic recompiler was actually starting to run games and most homebrew demos. This was not a quick step, and whilst things were actually starting to run on the new core, there were major issues. The first notable thing to run on the dynarec was “Fire Demo by LaC” .. which is quite interesting since it was the first thing to run on the pure interpreter. By “run”, you’d all probably think, full fps, etc .. , but in truth, it only executed enough code to emulate 90 video interrupts which showed us about 3 frames of graphics on screen. It wasn’t realized until I coded a N64 demo by hand to print the instruction execution count to the screen that we would need to be a lot more accurate in our emulation.
During early February 2009, we decided to setup a private SVN to get us through what was basically going to be a complete rewrite of the most major part of the emulator, the MIPS to PPC dynarec. You can imagine our relief at the time, it would be the first time in a long while that we could now work on the crucial parts of the emulator at our own pace and not have to worry about people compiling every single small changed revision and making complaints. We did this because the working copy of the source code would be obviously broken until major work was done in the areas of the Dynarec and the menu.
During this time, there was a great increase in progress, tehpola was hard at work on the dynarec, sepp256 was making progress in leaps and bounds on the glN64 bugfixes and the new menu system, and I was tinkering with various areas of the emulator such as thinking about ways to fit the expansion pak support into the emulator and testing everyone’s code out. From this point on, the positive progress never stopped, sure there were hard times when we would find bugs that not even days of debugging would solve, but we always moved on. Some bugs were so hard to debug on the Wii that tehpola found it easier to resolve them by porting his dynarec to the PS3 (which is further explained in this article).
In about a 7 month period after this, which leads us up to this beta 1 release, to sum things up, we managed to transform the emulator to go from only running 3 frames of a homebrew demo to playing The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask with 2xSaI filtered textures, framebuffer effects, expansion pak support, all at a very playable frame rate with a nice new menu backing the emulator with artwork from Wii homebrew artist drmr.
The future of Wii64 is looking pretty optimistic with many bugfixes and optimizations up our sleeves to better it. We expect to have a minor version out shortly to address some of the bugs which users have come across in beta 1.
I hope on behalf of the team that everyone enjoys emulating their old favourites with the Wii64 beta 1 release as much as I had developing and testing the emulator. Since release, we have had some very positive reviews from you all, which have provided us with motivation to get working on beta 2 and making the emulator more compatible and feature rich in the coming versions. We also really appreciate everyones support towards our hardware and hosting donations fund.
emukidid posted this interesting article over at the emulatemii site:
Since that first post I made, all the way back on the 27th of May 2007 over at tehskeen.com .. the emulator sure has progressed! Back at the time which I created that thread, I considered myself a rather experienced coder, but nothing could’ve prepared me for the long road of development we had ahead of us. Looking back, I think we were all a little naive at how quickly this could be done. It wasn’t until we had an alpha version out that we realized what hard work lied ahead of us. Wii64, then known as mupen64gc simply because we only thought it would ever run on a Gamecube, would soon change my knowledge of N64 hardware, coding and debugging forever.
It was only a few months after that post in which tehpola (mainly) and I quickly got together a mupen64 port which would actually do something on a GC. One of the first games we ever saw emulated in mupen64gc was Rampage World Tour. I remember it would run with bad graphics, no sound, very bad input, direct saving (which would take up to a minute each time a single byte wanted to save), and on top of all that, it wouldn’t even reach past 4 or 5 FPS before eventually crashing anyway due to a limited software rendering graphics plugin. We eventually got Super Mario 64 to work with the software rendering plugin at around 4-5FPS too, but we soon realized we would need a better hardware accelerated plugin.
A little bit of trivia, we actually emulated the public domain ROM “Fire Demo by LaC” before anything but we didn’t see it running as the software graphics plugin was rendering the screen too dark
Very shortly after our initial work and after our search for a graphics coder, sepp256 joined the project. He was keen to learn about the N64, and showed us quick results by porting the mupen64 software rendering graphics plugin to work with some GX hardware acceleration and Super Mario 64 was running at around 35% of the speed. Around this time (October 2007), we released the first alpha for the general public to see, known as the “Basic GX Build” which was followed shortly by the “DVD Loading Build”, enabling users to load ROMs from their Gamecube DVD drive. These builds had quite a large number of graphical glitches, extremely screechy audio, and general lack of features, however the emulator was starting to show positive progress.
As time progressed and we entered the new year of 2008, there was new hope on the horizon, Wii homebrew would soon be possible thanks to Team Twiizers, so we were quite motivated to move forward. The mupen64gc project would continue, with many bugfixes, a GUI with a menu system now slowly coming together, threaded audio emulation, a ROM cache, a TLB cache, native saves working and even more graphics plugin bugfixes and improvements than you could poke a stick at! There was yet another alpha version released for the GC at this point to show the public some more progress, labelled “New Year’s Edition”. This was the first official alpha release to feature the GX graphics plugin and the version 1 menu (pink coloured backdrop made by brakken from tehskeen).
Shortly after this, we were given the ability of being able to load homebrew on the Wii (thx Team Twiizers!), this was great news for us as we would now have so much more CPU horsepower and memory to play with, not to mention the new peripherals. It didn’t take us long to have our code working on the Wii, and we quickly realized how much more power we had in our hands thanks to the Wii. Word got out around the scene, and we were special enough to have a build labelled “Wii64 Tiizer Edition” be included in the Homebrew Channel initial release. This alpha build was pretty far along, but used a very early port of the glN64 graphics plugin port and the Pure Interpreter for everything.
After May 2008’s Tiizer edition release, we started to see a very large influx in the amount of unofficial builds popping up with Wiimote support, and 100’s of different button mappings and other attempts to better the emulator. As a result of this, we were bombarded with bug reports which weren’t even ours to fix, and even more so, there were bugs introduced in the unofficial builds because of bad tool chains people were using to build the emulator which took us a while to track down the causes of (thinking they were problems in our code too). After that, things went a little quiet for a bit as we all continued on with our real lives, but development continued to trickle into the public googlecode repository as we made changes.
Shortly after this time, sepp256’s port of Orkin’s glN64 graphics plugin work was showing major progress and we would soon have a working port on the GC/Wii with hardware acceleration via GX. Although, this was never yet marked with a milestone alpha version as there was a silent boom of progress in another part of the emulator we were awaiting to happen. Around early January 2009 and after a few rewrites, the dynamic recompiler was actually starting to run games and most homebrew demos. This was not a quick step, and whilst things were actually starting to run on the new core, there were major issues. The first notable thing to run on the dynarec was “Fire Demo by LaC” .. which is quite interesting since it was the first thing to run on the pure interpreter. By “run”, you’d all probably think, full fps, etc .. , but in truth, it only executed enough code to emulate 90 video interrupts which showed us about 3 frames of graphics on screen. It wasn’t realized until I coded a N64 demo by hand to print the instruction execution count to the screen that we would need to be a lot more accurate in our emulation.
During early February 2009, we decided to setup a private SVN to get us through what was basically going to be a complete rewrite of the most major part of the emulator, the MIPS to PPC dynarec. You can imagine our relief at the time, it would be the first time in a long while that we could now work on the crucial parts of the emulator at our own pace and not have to worry about people compiling every single small changed revision and making complaints. We did this because the working copy of the source code would be obviously broken until major work was done in the areas of the Dynarec and the menu.
During this time, there was a great increase in progress, tehpola was hard at work on the dynarec, sepp256 was making progress in leaps and bounds on the glN64 bugfixes and the new menu system, and I was tinkering with various areas of the emulator such as thinking about ways to fit the expansion pak support into the emulator and testing everyone’s code out. From this point on, the positive progress never stopped, sure there were hard times when we would find bugs that not even days of debugging would solve, but we always moved on. Some bugs were so hard to debug on the Wii that tehpola found it easier to resolve them by porting his dynarec to the PS3 (which is further explained in this article).
In about a 7 month period after this, which leads us up to this beta 1 release, to sum things up, we managed to transform the emulator to go from only running 3 frames of a homebrew demo to playing The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask with 2xSaI filtered textures, framebuffer effects, expansion pak support, all at a very playable frame rate with a nice new menu backing the emulator with artwork from Wii homebrew artist drmr.
The future of Wii64 is looking pretty optimistic with many bugfixes and optimizations up our sleeves to better it. We expect to have a minor version out shortly to address some of the bugs which users have come across in beta 1.
I hope on behalf of the team that everyone enjoys emulating their old favourites with the Wii64 beta 1 release as much as I had developing and testing the emulator. Since release, we have had some very positive reviews from you all, which have provided us with motivation to get working on beta 2 and making the emulator more compatible and feature rich in the coming versions. We also really appreciate everyones support towards our hardware and hosting donations fund.
When Microsoft told us that the new 802.11n adapter for Xbox 360 would be "another choice for consumers," we began to develop these crazy hopes that it would give consumers the choice to pay less than a hundred bucks for wireless 360 connectivity, either through a lower price point for itself or with a price drop on the existing wireless adapter.
If GameStop's listings are any indication, however, that's not to be. According to the retailer, the new device will sell for the same $99.99 as the current Wi-Fi adapter upon its release on November 3. Though there's still hope for the price on the existing adapter to drop, it too is currently listed at $99.99. Basically, consumers will now have the choice of which wireless protocol they prefer.
Sony may still have officially been using the less-than-imaginative "Motion Controller" name for its, um, motion controller at the Tokyo Game Show last month, but it looks like some developers working with the technology weren't sticking as close to the script, and may have revealed the project's proper codename. As Joystiq notes, Sega producer Yasuhito Baba referred to the device as "Sphere" during an interview at the show, and Polyphony Digital's Kazunori Yamauchi also seemed to respond to the "Sphere" name without missing a beat when asked if Gran Turismo would support the peripheral. So, certainly less of a mouthful, and not exactly the worst of names if true -- in fact, it's such a good codename that none other than Microsoft has already adopted it for one of its projects.
Hey, not all mods are outlandish and creepy. Some are just plain old... utilitarian. Acidmods got a request for a modded Xbox 360 controller that would move the X, Y, A, and B buttons and the right joystick. The fully functional finished product looks a little odd to the eyes, of course, but it's also done so well that it looks like a stock unit. As you'll see in the video after the break, the modded controller would take some getting used to for most of us, but it sure has character.
As of last week the Playstation Store is the only place PSPgo owners can go to pick up their games. Just how do the prices of the Sony-operated online store compare to the prices of the same games sold as used at retailers?
We checked with four online retailers and online shopping services to see how their prices compared to the ones found in the online Playstation Store. The results? A little surprising.
With only half of the top-rated Playstation Portable games (shown in order of ranking) currently available online, it's hard to do a meaningful comparison. It is interesting that the inability to find a particular used title can drive up the price in a store, but doesn't seem to impact its price online.
While the difference for many of the available games online often isn't substantial, the Playstation Store's relatively high price for a game like Wipeout Pure, which has been around for awhile and will run you nearly half the price in a store, is troubling. http://kotaku.com/5374014/psp-game-p...re-vs-used-umd
It's tough to know just how often this particular problem is occurring, but we've heard a fair share of reports on the Zune HD's otherwise gorgeous OLED display having performance glitches. And needless to say, you'd notice it.
A version of the Free60 JTAG/SMC Hack has been released for Falcon (v3) motherboards. This modified NAND image will boot your Falcon Xbox360 right into XeLL (which allows you to boot linux distros or run libxenon homebrew software) - just like the Xenon version released a few weeks ago.
From the readme:
[quote]
Finally the Falcon JTAG Hack is here
This is newest XELL (compiled 05.10.09) inserted into 5770 Falcon-Kernel.
Don't wonder about the Filesize, its correct like that. It just flashes the beginning of the NAND so your console specific data like MAC adress will stay.
Of course you should have a working backup of your NAND before you proceed.
Just flash with:
* LPT
nandpro lpt: -w16 falcon_hack.bin 0
* USB
nandpro usb: -w16 falcon_hack.bin 0
Copper, already author of several emulators of arcade games for the DS offers "Pang DS" which emulates 8 roms for MAME games & Pang Super Pang.
History:
--------------------------------------------------
V1.0: 05/10/2009
* First release
* Version compiled with devkit pro libnds R26 and 1.3.8 + (FIFO debugged)
* The rom file is unzipped automatically by the emulator
* Saving the hi-scores
* Save the state of the emulator
* Best viewed with scrolling
--------------------------------------------------
List of supported sets:
--------------------------------------------------
Pang (World)
Pang (bootleg, set 1)
Pang (bootleg, set 2)
Buster Bros.. (U.S.)
Pomping World (Japan)
Super Pang (World 900914)
Super Pang (Japan 901023)
Super Buster Bros.. (U.S. 901001)
The grey market in China for consoles - including PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox, Xbox 360, Wii and GameCube - stands at an installed base of around 2-3 million units, according to Niko Partners' managing partner Lisa Hanson.
Of those hardware platforms it was estimated that around 750,000 Wiis were brought into the country unofficially last year, alongside around 625,000 Xbox 360s - which all adds up to a lot of lost revenue for the platform holders and Chinese government alike, with the latter a good reason for consoles to become legal in the country.
"Well there are about 2-3 million units sold illegally at full market prices now for consoles - and those people have to seek them out," she told GamesIndustry.biz during an interview at this year's Games Convention Asia in Singapore.
"PS2, PS3, Xbox, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, GameCube... it all exists. The PS2 is very popular because there are so many games available for it that are pirated," she continued. "PS3 is less popular because it's more expensive and it's more difficult to get the pirated games, but Wii outpaced PS2 last year - I think we estimated 750,000 Wiis were sold in 2008, along with 625,000 Xbox 360s.
"This is all lost revenue for Microsoft and Nintendo, and it's also lost tax revenue for the Chinese government. And more importantly to the Chinese government it's a loss of control of the content - so it's really in their best interests to get out the stick."
Niko Partners believes that the market in China - predominantly PC online gaming - will be worth USD 3.65 billion this year, and will rise to USD billion by 2013 as the number of online gamers jumps from 60 million to 100 million in that time frame, but even that estimate is based on slowing growth in that time.
"On a compound growth rate it's only about 19 per cent, and we've had huge growth over the last few years," she explained. "2008 over 2007 was something like 73 per cent, and the year before that was about 70 per cent. This year versus last year it's about 35 per cent growth - and that's with World of Warcraft being offline for a while.
"As we have slowing growth, basically to keep our forecast reasonable we're pulling down the growth as much as we can. By 2013 we're sub-20 per cent for the revenue growth, but we still have this big boom in internet users. So the sub-segment of total internet users who will be gamers is about 100 million."
Sales of the PSPgo have got off to a slow start, online retailer ShopTo has told GamesIndustry.biz, and the console's lack of physical software has meant consumer incentives in the form of bundles haven't been possible.
"PSPgo has seen a slow start for ShopTo and we have kept stock quite tight in consideration. We remained at the RRP for PSPgo so that we can achieve the maximum margin considering that there will be no further software sales for this format for us as an e-tailer," said the company's CEO Igor Cipolletta.
Sony insisted yesterday that sales of its updated handheld were in line with expectations and that sales of PSP hardware overall were up over 120 per cent following the PSPgo's launch last Thursday.
PSP product manager Claire Backhouse recently told GamesIndustry.biz the company was anticipating sales of PSP-3000 would increase off the back of the new model's release. "If you bring out a new product, people aspire to that but they might not buy it, they might buy the PSP-3000 instead. Especially if they're part of a family - dad might buy the PSPgo but the kids might get PSP 3000s. I think that works quite well for us."
But despite these assurances, Cipolletta hasn't seen a rise in PSP-3000 sales. "PSP-3000 has not yet seen an uplift and until the stronger software titles are released we don't expect a significant upturn," he commented.
"We had a fantastic pre-order quantity for the PS3 slim and consumer appetite for that has remained strong with the great bundle deals promoting the new release games such as FIFA 10 and NFS Shift."
The important difference between the two new hardware SKUs is software, said Cipolletta. "Not being able to bundle the PSPgo with physical software or accessories means that the consumer offer is standard and then price becomes the key issue."
Some retailers have already begun discounting the console's price however, just five days after its launch. This morning, HMV, GAME, Play.com and Amazon all starting to offer the hardware at GBP 199.99, down from the RRP of GBP 224.99.
The Wii price cut has given sales of the console a significant boost, Nintendo US president Reggie Fils-Aime has said, and with key holiday releases such as Super Mario Bros and Wii Fit Plus the platform holder hopes to attract even more buyers to the console.
By combining the price reduction with marketing incentives such as getting potential consumers to try out Nintendo products, Fils-Aime hopes the company will attract the "fence sitters" to the machine - that is the 50 million US consumers who say they are interesting in videogames but do not have a console. The number of people in this category is 150 million globally, he revealed.
"There are literally millions of consumers out there who want a Wii and had been on the sideline," he told the FT. "They'd been waiting for that little nudge to go out and pick it up - the price decline, the sampling, the launching of key software like Wii Fit Plus - we believe it's what's pushing them over the edge to get into the category."
While the company said it was too early to release precise sales figures, Fils-Aime said the consumer response had been very strong to the Wii price reduction.
This year, sales of the console have dropped off, with August seeing a 39 per cent year-on-year decline according to NPD figures. In the five months following April, sales were 50 per cent below last year's levels and major releases such as Wii Music and Animal Crossing performed below expectation.
However, Fils-Aime said the biggest releases had been kept back to the second half of 2009, with Wii Fit Plus, Wii Sports Resort and Super Mario Bros all being saved for the holiday season. He added that over 140 new Wii titles were being launched by third-party publishers over the next three months.
The Wii's price was reduced by USD 50 in the US at the end of September and by 20 per cent in Japan.
"EyePet is now out of holiday," a SCEA representative told us rather succinctly, confirming an initial report from Gamervision. The PlayStation Eye-enabled virtual pet has been stealthily pushed out from its planned November release into the increasingly crowded waters of 2010. SCEA explains that its marketing team "will spend additional time to continue educating consumers and retail channels, setting the table for a successful product launch." Essentially, not enough people are excited about EyePet yet for it to warrant a holiday release.
Initial plans had EyePet releasing in two varieties: alone; and bundled with the camera. However, considering another big Sony product -- also coming in early 2010 -- requires use of the Eye, Sony may pursue a completely different marketing plan altogether.
You read enough of these and you begin to understand why giant corporations have huge legal divisions. A Florida man filed a class-action suit on Friday saying his PS3, purchased Jan. 3, 2009, was bricked by September's firmware 3.0 update.
John Kennedy filed his complaint against Sony Computer Entertainment America on Oct. 3 in, where else, federal court for the Northern District of California. That would be San Francisco.
The suit's complaint mentions two things: one, "that as a general rule, Sony ‘encourages' PS3 owners to install the latest version of system software, Sony required users to install the Firmware 3.0 update." Two: a Sony forum featured enough complaints about the Firmware causing console failures that Sony responded with a firmware FAQ.
At this point we put on our hushed baritone court-reporter fine-print voice: Class members demand declaratory relief, compensation and restitution for breach of implied warranty, negligence and unjust enrichment.
After mere hours of App Catalog-stravaganza, the paid apps have been removed for the time being by Palm due to a major flaw in purchase verification. From what we've gathered from the seedy underbelly of the internet, an exploit involving building your own dummy application with the same name as a paid application allowed folks to download a free "update" to these falsified shells and score for-purchase apps galore without dropping a cent. Whether or not this was the only exploit afoot we're not sure, but it sounds like plenty of folks found ways to nab apps for free because Palm has clamped down hard on distribution for the time being. Optimistically, the company claims it should have the Catalog back up by tomorrow morning, but if the failure is really as severe as it sounds, we won't be holding our breath.
Well, things just got interesting. The very evening of the App Catalog's launch of paid apps, Palm has made a very different kind of announcement: it's going to let developers skip out on the App Catalog if they so choose. Devs will be able to submit an app to Palm, who will turn around and give them a URL for open distribution of the app over the web -- without a review process getting in the way! The App Catalog will still exist for those who want to use it of course, with a $50 entrance fee to get an app inside -- and we're guessing it'll remain the only way to distribute paid apps -- but the new URL distribution should decentralize things just a little bit. In other good news, Palm will be dropping the $99 annual developer fee for folks building open source apps, and hopefully that free ride applies to App Catalog entry as well, though now there's web distribution to make it less of a sticking point. Palm's also going to open up its analytic data to developers, and even is giving away Pres and Touchstones to the audience members of the little shindig privy to this announcement -- clearly the company is making a strong play for developers, and who doesn't like to be loved?
I am releasing the first version of linux device driver for xbox 360 audio. you can get source from here: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=SVAUYFBL. The device driver is alsa compitable, so basically you can compile mplayer and then it should play various music formats for you easily. It supports both analog stereo and digital spdif (only dobly digital by now). Thanks for tmbinc for his finding on 360 audio hardware details and his help on debuging the code. The license for the code is GPL.
features
Combines traditional 2D platformer gameplay with stunning full 3D graphics
Control all three heroes taking advantage of their individual strengths, weapons, and skills
Travel across a brand new fantasy world in this immersive platformer
Avoid deadly traps while using each character’s special abilities to navigate challenging puzzles that all have multiple solutions
Search for powerful items and weapons that will make your heroes stronger
Increase your characters skills and attributes as you gain experience
description
In a kingdom facing chaos and forbidden magic, three heroes are bound (whether they like it or not) by a powerful artifact called "the Trine". Only this unlikely trio can put an end to the reign of the dark sorcerer that rules the kingdom. Pontius the Brave, Amadeus the Magnificent and Zoya the Silent will have come to together and use their different skills in order to face danger and restore peace.
features
Challenging Storymode with 20 levels
3 difficulty settings from beginner to expert
Unique 3D Sudoku Ball™ feature for a brand new puzzle experience
90 standard Sudoku puzzles plus additional Story puzzles add up to 240 Sudokus in total
description
Sudoku Ball™ – Detective is Sudoku with a twist: play your favourite puzzle game in a completely new, entertaining detective scenario, and experience multitudes of challenging puzzles to solve a mysterious crime! An exclusive Sudoku ball design adds even more to your Sudoku experience.
Inspired by murder mystery games and famous English detective stories, in Sudoku Ball™ – Detective the player takes the role of a detective in a small town where a murder has been committed.
It is up to you to find the murderer, by completing different styles of Sudoku puzzles representing separate stages of the investigation:
Search clues, pick locks, investigate evidence in the lab, and chase your suspect!
DECA SPORTS, the hit sports compilation game that has had over 2 million units shipped, is back with this exciting multi-sports competition across 10 NEW sporting events! With easy-to pick up and play controls just like before, DECA SPORTS 2 will make all of your family and friends experts in a broad multitude of new sports. From the familiar to the lesser-known international games, DECA SPORTS 2 includes: Ice Hockey, Dodge Ball, Tennis, Darts, Speed Skating, Mogul Skiing, Petanque, Kendo, Motorcycle Road Racing, and even Synchronized Swimming!
Now the Locker Room features a Team Editor, where you can custom-create your teams! Personalize everything from their names, colors, emblem, and even the looks and sporting attributes of the players themselves. Also included in the Locker Room is a Tutorial Mode, in which you can practice and learn the nuances of each of the 10 sports!
Just like the first game, DECA SPORTS 2 comes with a single player mode in which you can play Open Match (one game in one sport), Tournament (one-sport bracket-style), Challenge (complete a specified goal in a sport), or the ultimate competition in Deca League (vs. 4 teams in all 10 sports).
However, there’s something incredibly new in this sports compilation. DECA SPORTS 2 now has not only local multiplayer, but also online multiplayer! Face off against friends and family, anywhere in the country, in 2-4 player competition in Open Match, VS., and Tournament modes. As the only Wii sports compilation game that utilizes the Nintendo® Wi-Fi Connection for online multiplayer, DECA SPORTS 2 allows you to compete against other ‘DECAthletes’ across the country!
Become the ultimate Big-Game Hunter! Travel the globe across five continents as you hunt the world’s greatest trophy animals. Your hunting and survival skills will be put to the test as you face dangerous game, treacherous environments and more!
features
Hi-end next generation arcade style controller
Turbo (20times/sec) function can be set up on all buttons.
With toggle switch, the stick control can be directed to PS3 controller's directional pad, left stick, or right stick controls.
The 8 main buttons are designed and placed on same layout as the arcades.
Recommended for fighting, action, shooting, FPS, and other games that are available through PlayStation Network.
Sanwa stick and buttons
description
Play your action and fighting games that way it should be played; in the arcade style. You can set turbo on all buttons to speed up your fight and make your string of combos smoother.
The layout and size of the buttons are loyally made according to the arcade game machines to give you the most realistic arcade gaming experience as possible. The controller is compatible with all sorts of games available on the PlayStation Network, so get your controller as you start downloading.
features
Supports PC (Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista) & PS3
Tripple Mapper software supported. True feeling with Mouse, Keyboard and Joypad support.
Joypad USB2.0 firmware
Highest class 8 directions lever and micro switch buttons
Two vibration feedback motors
Turbo function support
description
The Fanta Stick is compatible with both PlayStation3 and PC, so if you enjoy games from both platforms, this is the controller for you. The chic, silvery stic is easy to install and use, the package comes with the installation CD and manual, so there is no need to look for help through the internet every five minutes.
features
Suitable for DJ Max and many other PC Music Games
Handmade artwork, Slim design & Arcade game feeling
Tripple Mapper Technology supported
Micro Switch Buttons
Foot Pedal
Compatible with Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/Vista
description
DJ Max has captured the hearts of many though its stylish graphics and hip songs and gamers who have never had a chance of playing it in the arcades regret not having had this exciting and fun experience.
Realizing how popular their franchise is, the developers decided to grant the gamers' wishes by transforming their home into the arcade with this easy to install controller.
Push your keyboard aside and plug this chic, glossy box into your computer then launch your game. With black and white keys, the controller imitates the synthesizer and DJ turntable. Let your sense of rhythm overwhelm you in this game.
Small and easily storable, this is a companion piece to all music game fans who wants to have a fuller immersion into the popular, colorful franchise.
features
You will fight against the Confederates (and the Union at times), facing a staggering number of troops, all fighting in unison. Ready, aim...steady men...FIRE!
You will jump from the trenches in WWI to lead an attack against the Huns. You will fire artillery to hit distant targets. You will defend to the last man!
You will fight in Pompeii, while Mt. Vesuvius is spewing ash and fire into the atmosphere. You will fight amongst a frightened population, fleeing for their lives
Play From Opposing Sides Of Conflicts Nearly every time period offers game play from each side of the conflict. In trying to keep history pure, you have to undo mistakes you make, which may require fighting from the other perspective to "mend"
Unleash Hell With Futuristic WeaponryWhat could you have done with an automatic rifle during the Civil War, or some futuristic laser sighted pulse cannon in the trenches of WW I? There are times where you have no other choice but to bust out the big guns
description
In DARKEST OF DAYS , you'll get to experience some of the most varied gameplay ever released in one title. Things will never get stale as you travel to distant times and fight alongside people from that time period. Fighting in Antietam (the bloodiest day of the American Civil War) feels much different than fighting on the side of the Russians at Tannenberg (where the Russians withstood 140,000 casualties in WWI).
Whether its in Pompeii, Antietam, WWI, WWII, or Little Big Horn you will fight with real weapons from the time period. You will battle against enemies that fight in different ways, all reflective of how fighting was done at the time.
Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection faithfully recreates eight of the most memorable tables from the golden age of pinball in photorealistic 3D. Working closely with Williams to ensure authenticity of each of the games, the collection is highlighted by some of the most popular and innovative Williams pinball tables, including Gorgar, the first-ever talking pinball machine, Black Knight, which introduced "Magna-Save" and Bonus Ball, and Space Shuttle, which took the pinball industry by storm in 1984.
Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection faithfully recreates eight of the most memorable tables from the golden age of pinball in photorealistic 3D. Working closely with Williams to ensure authenticity of each of the games, the collection is highlighted by some of the most popular and innovative Williams pinball tables, including Gorgar, the first-ever talking pinball machine, Black Knight, which introduced "Magna-Save" and Bonus Ball, and Space Shuttle, which took the pinball industry by storm in 1984.
Newly released on worldwide import ($2 shipping worldwide ) from Superufo.com.
The highly acclaimed Gran Turismo franchise makes its equally highly anticipated debut exclusively on the PlayStation Portable (PSP) system, introducing the most ultra-realistic racing experience ever on a handheld. Buckle up as you prove your driving skills on 35 tracks and trade and share over 800 stunning cars. With its unrivaled graphics, ad hoc multiplayer support for four racers and bonus feature for Gran Turismo 5 on the PS3, Gran Turismo continues to lead the pack, now on the PSP system.
Dynamic Vehicle Roster
Developed by Polyphony Digital Inc. for PSP
Over 800 vehicle models
Over 30 Tracks from Around the World
Players can share and trade the vehicles they have acquired throughout the game with others
So I've finally finished the long delayed update to LuaPlayer Euphoria V7.
There are huge improvements across the board, and a host of new features.
Here is the change log :
Info :
So obviously there has been huge improvements to LuaPlayer Euphoria and it is now shaping up to be a much more stable feature packed LuaPlayer. The VFPU math library should be used as a replacement for most of the math functions (as it's way way way faster). ie : instead of math.floor() use Vfpu.floor().
Source :
The source code is now available to developers also @ Google Code.
Looking for developers :
I am also looking for any interested developers to help me with this project, as it's becoming a bit much for me, and progress is too slow with just one developer. If your interested send me a pm or post in the release thread @ RetroEmu.com.
As usual if you get stuck, find a bug, want some tutorials etc, head on over to the Official Forum.
Future plans :
Add VLF library
Fix the damn wifi (which i cannot seem to do)
Add adhoc support
Add Tilemap support with collision, and multiplatform map editor
Add more 3d stuff
Add Chipmunk physics library
?
For a full list of all the functions (new and old) added by LuaPlayer Euphoria, please see the "Functions List.txt" file included in the download. (An online documentation system with samples is being worked on.
To see samples of all of the functions (new and old), please look in the samples directory, included in the download.
Tekken 6 is set to be bundled with 250GB PlayStation 3s in the shops, if a rather official-looking image that's appeared on the internet is anything to go by.
According to this report, the bundle - which was apparently pictured on an official Sony website - will cost an estimated 349 Euros and presumably be out for Christmas.
When contacted, SCE UK told CVG: "We're not doing that bundle but one of the territories might be."
250GB PS3 Slim bundles currently in the shops are set to be joined by Uncharted 2 on October 16.
SNK Playmore is bringing Metal Slug back in a big way on the PSP. The publisher announced Metal Slug XX (Double X) today in Japan. This new entry in the classic side scrolling arcade action shooter series is set for Japanese release on December 23.
Series fans can look forward to more of the Metal Slug we all know and love. While SNK Playmore promises high quality sprite visuals that make the most of the PSP hardware, we're certain you'll recognize the game as Metal Slug when looking at the first screenshots we've posted.
On the content side of things, SNK Playmore is promising seven stages, some with branching paths. Two players can team up for the stages thanks to the included ad-hoc co-op mode (both players will need their own copy of the game, though). The Combat School mode from the original Metal Slug X is in here as well, featuring over 70 missions.
There's no word yet on a US release, but a new Metal Slug sounds like a perfect addition to the PSP library anywhere in the world! We'll let you know if we hear anything.
Jayenkai proposes an adaptation for the DS "Gets blockman"He recently encoded on PC. It is like a pacman but with a very attractive option because if you lose go back to a square already passed.
By opening its archives, Jayenkai we noticed that another achievement that we had not seen "Blockman. Another Pacman like, where you must save your children and bring them to the door, avoiding the ghosts of the famous series.
It 'was released a new revision, the 1191, the Jpcsp, the emulator PSP for PC sviulppato in JAVA homonymous team. This update corrects some bugs to improve the stability of the emulator. I remember that for proper implementation of the program, which allows you to run some homebrew like those found in the archive, you need to install Java on your PC.
More to follow.
Changelog:
Quote:
- Rev1191: Fix for PlayChapas: texture_buffer_width Can Be Smaller than texture_width: AVOY
- Rev1190: refixed based ge command. (please see line 3986 if it does not break games, fix lighting in few games)
After the release of the hack for Xenon and Falcon motherboards, today we get the Free60 JTAG/SMC XeLL Hack for Zephyr (v2) motherboards! This NAND image will boot your Zephyr Xbox360 right into XeLL (which allows you to launch linux distros or run libxenon homebrew software).
From the readme/nfo:
[quote]
Finally the Zephyr JTAG Hack is here
This is XELL (compiled 11.09.09) inserted into 4558 Zephyr-Kernel.
!Fixed Version! USB Support was broken
Don't wonder about the Filesize, its correct like that. It just flashes the beginning of the NAND so your console specific data like MAC adress will stay.
Of course you should have a working backup of your NAND before you proceed.
Just flash with:
LPT
nandpro lpt: -w16 zephyr_hack_updxell.bin 0
USB
nandpro usb: -w16 zephyr_hack_updxell.bin 0
An update of the NES emulator My Nes has been released.
Quote:
Version 0.3.1.1 :
Up To BETA !!
* PPU improved, more games are playable (more than 900 games)
* Add support for mappers #: 4, 7, 9, 10, 11, 22, 34, 64 and 66
* Draw size can be changed also video filters
* Supports 16-bit & 32-bit colors in video
* Debugger removed.
VisualBoyAdvance Rerecording is a Nintendo GBA and GB/GBC emulator (based on VisualBoyAdvance).
Quote:
r154
Prevent a sort of buffer overflow problem which was occurred on state load of GBA games.
win32: change the behavior of movie read-only toggle slightly.
If we were tickled by how quickly the PSP Go was hacked, we must say that we're surprised at how long it took for this bad boy to get KIRFed. And as most shanzai manufacturers do, they packed as many features into this portable as they could: 4.3-inch display (compared to the PSP Go's 3.8-incher), all kinds of retro gaming support (including NES/Famicom, Gameboy / Gameboy Color, SNES, SFC), a camera of some sort, FM radio, microSD card slot (the device's only form of storage), TV out, and generous video codes: RM, RMVB, AVI, WMV, ASF, MPG, MPEG, MPE, MP4, DAT, and MOV. Not exactly "aspirational" at $84, but we'll take it nonetheless.
"Xbox comes from a gaming heritage, and is expanding into a broader entertainment brand," Microsoft's Robbie Bach told us earlier today at its first Open House event in New York. Powering Xbox's expansion into "broader entertainment" is the upcoming Dashboard update, scheduled for beta release later this month. Four services included in the update will expand the 360's social networking and multimedia capabilities: Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm and Zune Marketplace.
While each individual service may not offer the same value that Netflix did when it debuted with the NXE last year, it's hard to ignore the breadth of added functionality offered by this new Dashboard refresh. Yes, it's true that the Xbox isn't the most ideal platform to tweet from. And yes, it's unlikely that you'll spend hours sitting in front of your TV listening to online radio. However, each service adds new reason to stay connected to the Xbox ... and adds more purported "value" to that Xbox Live Gold membership. http://www.joystiq.com/2009/10/06/ha...tplace-on-xbo/
In his latest "debriefing" on IndustryGamers, EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich suggets that the average score for Wii games may be improving because a significant portion of titles aren't being reviewed. Strictly comparing January to June, in both 2008 and 2009, the analyst group graphed the total number of titles released for the three major platforms and the percentages of those titles that were not reviewed (see above). The number at the bottom of each bar represents the number of titles released for the platform in the stated time period; while the percentage at the top corresponds to the quantity of those titles that was not reviewed.
Divnich recognizes that "while the Wii has experienced a rise in average review scores (from 60 to 66 in one year), this has come at the benefit of critics ignoring some titles that could have possibly dragged down the Wii's average." However, it's possible that such reviews could have also raised the average score -- we know, that's unlikey, but still. Additionally, the report notes that the unreviewed Wii games weren't "core-targeted titles," which also holds true for unreviewed games on Xbox 360 and PS3.
Divnich maintains that Wii games are getting better, but he concludes, "It is just coming at the cost of not reviewing the increase in casual and low-budget titles." He believes that a similar issue could appear occur with respect to PS3 and Xbox 360 as the consoles' casual demographics increase in conjunction with the continued growth of their install bases.
During a recent interview with CNBC, Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime addressed the Wii's recent price drop (surprise: it's seen positive results) and the company's strategy for the upcoming holiday season. The manufacturer is counting on a strong showing for its DSi handheld, with Reggie revealing that 2.2 million units have now been sold, presumably in North America alone.
Of course, Nintendo couldn't have possibly sold that many handhelds without the help of retailers and according to Reggie, Walmart has been the biggest customer. We're not surprised -- Walmart is supernatural, after all.
We've heard the woes of app developers waiting for payments, but at least there were still payments to get back then. Lately it looks like the App Store goldmine has dried out and developers are barely getting by, app-by-app.
At an Microsoft event today in New York City, exec Robbie Bach talked about how the pricing for the upcoming motion controls Project Natal will work.
According to Variety, Bach said that the pricing will start high and decrease over time. "Relative to Natal," said Bach, "we'll see how the pricing cost works out. But people should except that it will go through the usual price curve."
The tech was first demoed at E3 in Los Angeles earlier this year. Microsoft seems to be approaching Project Natal as its own platform, and not simply a peripheral. When asked when Project Natal will no longer be referred to by its code name "Natal", Bach replied, "When we tell you to call it something else."
Oh.
Elsewhere during the event, Bach discussed mobile gaming, possibly feeding the flames of those waiting for a portable Xbox gaming device. According to Bach, "The portable market is important." He's right, it is. But important enough for Microsoft to launch its own platform? Continuing, Bach stated, "So in the gaming space, you need to make a fork in the road decision on whether you're going to do a portable device or focus on phones. The way technology is advancing with phones, [they are] going to be a very strong platform. The only think holding it back today is battery life."
Copper has released a new version of his arcade emulator for the Nintendo DS that supports the Pang games, this release fixes bugs and supports the following games:
Pang (World)
Pang (bootleg, set 1)
Pang (bootleg, set 2)
Buster Bros. (US)
Pomping World (Japan)
Super Pang (World 900914)
Super Pang (Japan 901023)
Super Buster Bros. (US 901001)
Tantric has released a new version of his Nes Emulator for Wii/Gamecube:
3.1.0 - October 7, 2009
* New default palette - more accurate colors!
* Revamped filebrowser and file I/O
* New timing and frameskip code - allows PAL gamers to play NTSC games
* Fixed FDS/Game Genie errors
* Many, many other bug fixes
Tantric has released a new version of his Nes Emulator for Wii/Gamecube:
3.1.0 - October 7, 2009
* New default palette - more accurate colors!
* Revamped filebrowser and file I/O
* New timing and frameskip code - allows PAL gamers to play NTSC games
* Fixed FDS/Game Genie errors
* Many, many other bug fixes
Tantric has released a new version of his GBA Emulator for Wii/Gamecube:
2.0.8 - October 7, 2009
* Revamped filebrowser and file I/O
* Fixed MBC2 saving/loading
* Fixed some GB-Z80 instructions
* DVD loading in GameCube should work now (untested and unsupported)
* Many, many other bug fixes
Tantric has released a new version of his GBA Emulator for Wii/Gamecube:
2.0.8 - October 7, 2009
* Revamped filebrowser and file I/O
* Fixed MBC2 saving/loading
* Fixed some GB-Z80 instructions
* DVD loading in GameCube should work now (untested and unsupported)
* Many, many other bug fixes
mc707 issue a useful program for PC called Eboot Patcher. This application will allow you, once decrypted file EBOOT.bin games that require firmware 5:55 with programs like Game Decrypter or PRXdecrypter, to patch this file to make the game compatible with custom firmware 5.00M33, 5.03MHU (ie the Custom Firmware Enabler) and 5.03GEN-A.
Quote:
- Decrypt the EBOOT. Bin the game chosen with Game Decrypter or PRXdecripter (recommended second) and copy the files on PC
- Start PC program Eboot Patcher (the executable is named Patch.exe) and clicking on Browse, select the EBOOT. Bin by patch
- Click on Go! to patch the file
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The next Xbox 360 dashboard update, which will include Facebook, Twitter and Last.FM integration, is going into public beta later this month, according to a Microsoft representative at today's Microsoft Open House event in New York City.
Jennifer Puzio-Brookes, an Entertainment Manager for Xbox, showed off the update in a behind-closed-doors session, and it seemed to include all of the major features promised in Microsoft's E3 press conference. Puzio-Brookes mentioned that a public beta will be released "middle-towards-end of October."
The best Sega Mega Drive/32X/CD/Master System/Game Gear emulator for Windows has been updated. Changes:
- Made some changes to the config options. Hopefully this fixes a problem some people were having where Windows would fail to size the window correctly, although I cannot reproduce this problem.
- Moved SMS controls into main controls window, matching the other builds.
- Fixed a couple of problems relating to SMS controls.
- Fixed preferred country detection order - at some point a couple of them got switched somehow.
- Various SMS fixes.
- A few minor 32X bugfixes and tweaks.
After a disappointingly anti-climactic reveal at E3, Sony's PSPgo finally arrives on retail shelves this week - or at least, on the shelves of the majority of retailers who are supporting the device, while a fringe of refuseniks continue to decline to sell a console they'll never be able to sell games for.
This unseemly spat with a small group of retailers is far from the biggest pothole on the PSPgo's rough road to launch. The console, its functionality and its price point have been confusing, annoying and disappointing a broad cross-section of consumers, market commentators and industry professionals since the system first took a bow in Los Angeles.
The most obvious and oft-repeated criticism of the platform is the most simple - it offers no upgrade path for existing PSP owners. If you've bought a PSP previously, and own some UMDs for the machine, forget about the PSPgo. Lacking a UMD drive, it won't be able to play your discs - and after hinting at a service which would swap UMD copies for digital downloads, Sony has now announced that it'll do nothing of the sort. An offer of a few free games from a limited list for previous PSP owners is fairly weak compensation (and so far available only in Europe).
Of course, having to re-purchase content in a new format isn't an entirely new experience for consumers - although we've had it easy in recent years, since our CDs could be ripped to create MP3s, and our DVDs play perfectly happily on our Blu-Ray players. One could compare the move from UMD to digital download as being similar to moving from a tape Walkman to a CD Walkman - same content, slightly improved user experience, but you had to buy all your albums again.
That's not a defence which is likely to calm any of the consumers annoyed at Sony's back-pedalling on the whole UMD conversion issue, though. The affair stings all the more because it carries such a heavy burden of "I told you so" for many consumers and professionals alike. UMD has been utterly despised since the outset, marked out as a doomed format since the day it first crawled, ill-conceived and unloved, onto store shelves.
The reality has always been that UMD sucks battery life, contributes to massive load delays and makes the console ridiculously noisy for a handheld. Sony argued its corner for years, and even now protests that it will continue to support UMD-toting PSP owners with the PSP-3000 hardware. For now, that's fair - but it's still obvious that PSPgo is a major step down the road to obsolescence for the format, and it doesn't change the fact that if you want Sony's new console, you'd better be prepared to pay for your games and movies again.
This isn't necessarily an unsurmountable problem for the PSPgo. After all, if the hardware is attractive enough, consumers will, ultimately, suck down their pride, open their wallets and buy into the new system. Good hardware design and compelling features can overcome almost any level of consumer antipathy, in the long run.
It remains to be seen whether the market judges the PSPgo to be worthy on those grounds. The machine is certainly attractive enough, handily ticking the boxes marked slim, light and sleek. Personally, I remain totally disappointed by Sony's lack of foresight regarding additional functions for the system - including things like a camera, microphone or GPS module as part of the hardware would have seriously set this apart from its predecessor. Like much else with the device, this feels like a missed opportunity.
Again, I can see the counter-argument to that point - that including those devices (tiny, inexpensive hardware, to the extent that even Apple's low-priced and diminutive iPod Nano now sports a camera) would have pushed the cost of the system up. Perhaps that's the case - it certainly brings us neatly to the question of cost, at least.
The PSPgo is too expensive. Vastly too expensive, for what the system is - nothing more than an existing PSP in a nice case, with the UMD drive removed and a bit of cheap flash memory slapped on in its place. There's precious little extra functionality, no new headline feature to shout about - no camera, no touchscreen, no GPS, no 3G connectivity. It's just a PSP with a big memory card and a nice bit of industrial design. In itself, that's not a terrible thing - but what I've just described should be positioned at the same price point as the previous PSP models, which should then receive a price drop to open up a new market segment. Instead, PSPgo is being positioned in a "premium" segment of the handheld market - a segment of which, to be blunt, I'm not convinced of the existence, at least not in any great scale.
The irony is that the question marks and uncertainty around PSPgo contrast most strongly with another recent Sony hardware release - the universally acclaimed PS3 Slim. This was exactly how hardware redesigns and relaunches should be handled. Announced only weeks before hitting retail, the PS3 Slim created huge excitement in a short space of time. Recognising that it brought with it a smaller form factor and minor benefits rather than revolutionary change, Sony positioned it alongside a price drop for the whole console range - and reaped the reward in the form of vast, vast sales. Along with fantastic software like Uncharted 2, it has set the PS3 up for a fantastic winter season - probably its healthiest quarter in the market so far.
The PS3 Slim launch showed Sony firing on all cylinders, understanding its market and its competencies and creating a product, business model and marketing drive that drove the PlayStation - temporarily, at least - right back to the top spot in this business. The fire and intelligence that drove Sony through the PS1 and PS2 eras is still there - but on PSPgo, it seems to be utterly lacking.
Upstream consumers don't like it, because it offers them no upgrade path. It's too overpriced for downstream consumers. It desperately wants to compete with iPhone, yet balks at emulating any of the functionality that would allow it to do so. It feels like a solid concept that was tugged in every direction by competing needs and ideas within Sony, and has ended up unloved and directionless. The market may well judge otherwise - for Sony's sake, I hope it does - but from where I'm standing, PSPgo looks like an extremely weak launch. This was an opportunity to redefine the PSP and bring the fight to the doorstep of the firm's rivals in handheld gaming - but that opportunity, sadly, has sailed right past
The managing director of the UK's largest independent games chain, Chips, has told GamesIndustry.biz he expects the PSPgo to "fail miserably".
Revealing his views on the newly released digital handheld, Don McCabe said: "My own personal opinion is that it's a no-go. I've been to a number of presentations to see if there's anything there and I don't feel it'll go anywhere to be honest.
"I'm 99.9 per cent sure it's going to fail miserably, in which case it's going to put back other potential people coming into that digital space."
This failure could be a positive for retailers of course, who stand to lose out on sales of software and trade-ins if digital sales completely take over from boxed ones. "From a retailers point of view the PSPgo is a good idea," he said.
"I heard from someone at Sony saying 'this steps our authority on the digital space and signals our intent,' and actually what I think is that they'll scare the crap out of anyone else who tries to follow."
McCabe's comments follow those of ShopTo CEO Igor Cipolletta, who confirmed to GamesIndustry.biz that sales of the PSPgo for the e-tailer have got off to a slow start. Part of the problem, said Cipolletta, is that retailers are unable to discount the console's relatively high price in the form of bundles, due to the absence of physical software.
But a secondary issue, said McCabe, is that while publishers see tremendous growth possibility in digital downloads, they are currently struggling to make profit from them.
"Everybody looks at Apple and says two billion downloads - well, yeah but out of two billion downloads I'd say maybe 70 per cent of those have been free. And of the ones that they've paid for they'll have paid pennies for.
"Apple's a tremendous success story for Apple, it's not a tremendous success story for anybody else."
As such, digital is a pipe dream at the moment, added McCabe, who compares its current state as "like the dotcom boom".
"It's going to come, no matter what, but a very small amount of people are actually going to go on to make any money out of it. One or two will make serious money and they'll be held up as 'you too can do this'. Whenever you see anyone producing fantastic figures, just ask them how much they actually made from it."
Sony Amercia's Jack Tretton has said that the company is willing to take more risks than its competitors, although he sees both Microsoft and Nintendo's financial positions as enviable.
"We like to see ourselves somewhere in the middle. We don't have unlimited money, we cater to a more mass market audience, we're willing to take a little bit more risk than a competitor like Nintendo," Tretton said in an interview with Forbes.
"We like to say the environment where PlayStation wins is best for this industry, because we have a brand that can play on a worldwide basis - young and old, male and female - where our competition tends to be relegated to either select regions or select consumer audiences."
Nintendo has been catering to the same audience for 20 years, according to Tretton, and reaps the financial benefits of knowing its consumer.
"[Nintendo] know what they do well and they stick to it," said Tretton. "They deliver a casual, youth-oriented entertainment experience, it's very enjoyable after 20 years, and they make money. They print money. Their profitability is their key focus. I think that's enviable."
Microsoft has time to be patient in the long-term with its videogame business, said Tretton, in part due to the amount of money it can afford to pump into the console market.
"I love their money. I mean, they've got more money than God," he said.
"They can afford to be more patient. We're very profit-driven. We're interested in a return on investment in a fairly short period of time. I think Microsoft's will to go at it from a much more steep curve in terms of profitability."
Nintendo won't be cutting the price of the Wii any further in response to slowing sales and the sluggish economic climate, and will instead rely on innovation to drive consumers to buy its products.
Speaking in an interview with CNBC, NoA president Reggie Fils-Aime said consumers will spend provided they're given great value for money.
"We say that based on the experience of launching the Nintendo DSi this past April, we've already sold 2.2 million units, so we're feeling very good about the holiday," he commented.
"We define value as what you get for what you pay. With Wii - with the USD 50 price drop - you're getting a lot more value."
Console sales for August versus July show that Wii sales are up ten per cent. The Xbox 360 has seen a six per cent rise since its price drop, and PlayStation 3 a 72 per cent rise after a price drop and the introduction of the new slim model.
A further price cut for Wii however is "absolutely not" going to happen, said Fils-Aime.
"We lasted 34 months without having to cut the price. We were able to reach over 20 million consumers here in the US at USD 249. The next group of consumers we will get at this USD 199 price point, and we've already seen very strong results after just one week on the marketplace."
He pointed out that instead innovation and new experiences will continue to drive sales - "it's going to be our solution to this current economic environment" - and that Nintendo is dedicated to delivering this innovation with products such as the DS Vitality Sensor.
Fils-Aime also assured consumers there would be no stock shortages from Nintendo this Christmas.
"We're prepared. We have a tremendous amount of product in inventory, we've been flowing product in for retail. We do not expect to have shortages on our products.
"If we do experience them, I'd love to have that problem, but we're not seeing that this year."
It's been what, five whole days since we've heard any fresh rumors on the Apple Tablet. That ends today with DigiTimes claiming that Foxconn (aka, Hon Hai Precision) not Quanta has secured manufacturing rights to Apple's "tablet PC." Its sources claim that the device will focus on "e-book functionality" and hit the market in Q1 with initial shipments set in the 300,000 to 400,000 range -- a modest, but healthy number when you consider that Apple sells about 2.6 million Macs per quarter. DigiTimes claims it will have a 10.6-inch panel (not 10.7- or 9.6-inch) and that the panels could be sourced from Innolux Display, not WinTek. If nothing else, at least the Taiwan-based rumor monger has quit calling the device a netbook as all these rumors coalesce around a Q1 launch.
Mary Jo Foley over at ZDNet is reporting some interesting tidbits of information she gleaned from the Microsoft Open House today. Foley spoke with Jose Pinero (Director of Communications for Microsoft's TV, Video and Music Business), who confirmed that Zune's next step will be to mobile phones, but that a "timeline for when that will happen" hasn't been discussed. Really? Not even discussed yet? Now, we've been hearing about (and hoping for) Zune on Windows Mobile phones for quite a spell now, so while we're glad to hear it's still a priority, the lack of a timeline is a bit disappointing. Foley also questioned Pinero about about the possibility of Zune Pass subscription services showing up on Apple devices (and others) at some point in the future. He indicated that Microsoft is "evaluating a lot of options in terms of platforms," which is basically a reiteration the company's Zune-stance all along -- that it's a media service, rather than merely a device. So we're not going to freak out over that yet, though we have to say we'd love to see Zune cropping up all over the place.
Sony Computer Entertainment America has begun selling PlayStation Network content via online retailer Amazon.com.
The service is so far only available in the US, and features over 200 items including new games such as Fat Princess and classics including SOCOM and Twisted Metal.
"We are excited to expand our current library of videogame platform downloads," said Paul Ryder, vice president of consumer electronics for Amazon.com.
"PlayStation Network games are an important addition and we plan to continue making it easier for customers to instantly enjoy new content as well as their favourite games from the comfort of their living rooms."
Amazon already sells WiiWare and Xbox Live titles through its online store.
The war on terrorism can be a real hassle, just ask anyone who has flown recently. Fortunately, science and the Wii have joined forces to try and cut-down on those mammoth airport security lines with the Fidget Monitor.
CNN walks us through a number of experimental programs being tested by Homeland Security's Future Attribute Screening Technology, or FAST.
The different systems check a person's heart rate, breathing, eye movement, body temperature and, yes, fidgeting.
There are a number of different devices and technology involved in all of this detection, from thermal imaging to cameras used for eye tracking. But the most interesting to many of you will likely be the improvised fidgeting monitor.
Researchers took a Wii balance board — a device people stand on to interact with certain Nintendo Wii video games — and altered it to show how someone's weight shifts. Studies are now under way to determine whether there is a level of fidgeting that would suggest the need for secondary screening.
Fortunately, the screening wouldn't rely strictly on a person's Wii Fit Age to determine if they're a terrorist or not. Instead, screeners would look at all of the body signs before unjustly labeling a nervous flier a possible suicide bomber.
Nicolas Doucet, a producer and art director at Sony Computer Entertainment's London Studio, has suggested that PS3 titles The Getaway and Eight Days have not been completely axed but instead "just put to one side".
The title's had been presumed cancelled after Sony said in June 2008 that production of both games would "cease immediately due to the redistribution of resources and budget". At the time, a Sony UK representative assured CVG that both titles had been "completely cancelled" and wouldn't be resurrected at a later date.
"I would not say they have been abandoned, just put to one side," Doucet, who's currently wrapping up work on EyePet, told GameKult (via GameSpot). "The studio just wanted to focus on its strengths, EyeToy and SingStar. Given the potential of EyePet, priorities have been changed, but the other projects aren't dead yet."
Doucet added that "much work had been done" on the titles. "I think they were just over halfway through. They had a plan, everything was ready... Most importantly, The Getaway and Eight Days are still there."
M! K, author of several applications for the DS, offers a first draft of "TheSmsCenter" which will allow you to send SMS (Short Message System) for free from your Nintendo DS. An inclusion in the service in question is required in advance to benefit only in France and Italy.
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In a preview .. big news and production / dev homebrew that term has arrive .. (more 10mois of dev though)
Purpose: Sending SMS from your DS / DS Lite / DSi ... not a fake but a reality thanks to Mik and homebrew called TheSMSCenter
homebrew will be release soon .. it will be downloadable for free .. it's going to need beta testers .. so go there happily and make up any bugs / problems to correct and improve service
The service will be available for sending SMS in France and Italy ... other "roads" will open (USA, UK, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, etc ...) based on feedback from users and if support is obtained .. (is not won, or the time I submitted this project to the engineer in orange .. I was kindly sent to competitors .. history kicked into touch ... ImagePost sankyou Orange France)
short despite having received no support ... the achievement of that homebrew was possible ... to send free SMS is possible here is the proof .. now the various lobby / operators may not wish to be that this is spread .. they still count you sell at high prices sms
To use the service must be registered, have a valid email address and mobile number as well (you can tell me that it's no good but then we have to do it otherwise there would be abuse and this allows identify the cases or those who would / could try to be malicious using this service)
The user may decide to send sms on mobile in France or Italy .. every 3 minutes .. yeah have to put "safety net" to prevent spammers .. useless to try to send sms a premium-rate numbers .. it will not work ImagePost
In short this homebrew is just a demonstration of the interaction between the mobile and handheld console Big N.. I will not dwell on the technical side .. ya just a little SMPP, GSM Modem, SMS Server Routing , Database SQL, etc ...
Operation:
DS / DS Fat / DSi ---- --- BASIC SQL Server Routing SMS
!----------- SMPP ----------------- Mobile Phone
!------ -------------- Modem GSM Mobile Phone
Wifi Connection between homebrew and SQL Base, SIM card and GSM modem (not legal) or SMPP Service (backup day or GSM service this project will be sadly cut by the mobile operator) for connections between server routing SMS and the mobile network
In short, a true gas plant ImagePost .. the big question will be tested to the load and ensure that we can maintain the free service .. so functional as it is an amateur project be indulgent.
The Team Twiizers proposes a new version of Installer HackMii, containing a new version of the homebrew channel "The Homebrew Channel 1.0.6 '. In fact, the version 1.0.5 contained a bug that freezer console.
For those who already have the Homebrew Channel installed and want to switch to firmware 4.2, you must install the HBC v1.0.6 DVDx v2 and foremost. For others, you should use the new Indiana Pwns exploit to launch the Installer.
HackMii Installer v0.6 is capable of installing:
* BootMii beta 4
* The Homebrew Channel 1.0.6
* DVDX v2
Quote:
HBC v1.0.5 freezes. Like forever. But only for some users. Fixed that, and some other minor hiccups. Launch HBC to update it. Now grab fresh install. BootMii and DVDX unchanged.
Sure, Android is a brand new operating system at a seemingly huge disadvantage to other, more entrenched household names like Windows Mobile or Symbian. Well, all that could change -- at least according to research just released by Gartner, Inc. The company's report claims that Android could claim upwards of 14 percent of the global mobile operating system share by 2012 (it now has less than 2 percent). This would make it the number two (behind Symbian OS) phone OS in the world. The main factors behind this surge, according to Gartner's report, are the fact that Android is a Google-backed proposition, a company which will continue to offer more cloud-computing services and apps which will increasingly draw users into its web. They also note Android's "blend" of app heaviness (making it like the iPhone) combined with the task-mastering of Windows Mobile and BlackBerry smartphones. We'll let you know when Grandma Elly has a Sholes -- that's the real test of success and popularity in our world.
brkirch and Link provide an update of the Gecko OS they resumed development following the departure of nuke, it has broken all relations with the middle of the hack Wii.
This "new" version, though unofficial, has received approval from the development team responsible for the USB Gecko (although it is possible to use Gecko 1.9.x if you do not have the USB Gecko).
New / fixed:
- Use cIOS temporarily disabled. The System Menu 4.2, which uses the stubs IOS249 planted Gecko. Workaround: Use an old IOS35 or 36 via DOP-IOS
- Changing the ID Homebrew Channel and now formerly HAXX JODI (HBC 1.05 and 1.06)
- Possibility to use wallpapers widescreen and alpha
- Fixed code for loading files dol / elf
- Changing the method of prevention for the error 002 on the channels
- Added the hook on the selected channel patch
- Added a workaround for the problem with the function ES_Identify revisions in the new IOS
Last Friday, a blog entry at Capcom Unity (that was mysteriously pulled) revealed the names and dates for a number of "UMD Legacy" titles for re-release on the PlayStation Store:
October 8: Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Dark Tower October 15: Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max October 22: Capcom Puzzle World October 29: Maverick Hunter X November 5: Megaman Powered Up This list completes the lineup of un-UMD'd games promised three months ago (and tosses in Capcom Puzzle World for good measure). While Capcom has neglected to price any of these titles, previously released Legacy games are currently $19.99 each on the PlayStation Store. Unsure of the veracity of the pulled info, we confirmed with Capcom's Chris Kramer who told us that the "titles are correct and the dates should be fairly accurate" though he did admit that it's "hard to pin down digital release dates almost until they happen."
Still unaccounted for? Those PS1 old-timers you've been waiting forever to buy again: Dino Crisis, Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3.
PSP minis are supposed to introduce bite-sized iPhone-esque games to Sony's handheld. While minis feature small file sizes and reduced functionality, they certainly don't carry smaller price tags. The first batch of minis have all been priced between $4.99 and $9.99, making them no cheaper than the average PlayStation Network exclusive. Which sounds like the better deal for $9.99? Yet another version of Tetris ... or the 3D online multiplayer shooter Syphon Filter: Combat Ops?
Even worse, many of these minis are priced higher than their iPhone counterparts. While Hero of Sparta costs $1.99 on iPhone, it costs $5.99 on PSP. Fieldrunners costs $2.99 on iPhone, but $6.99 on PSP. We chatted with SCEA's Eric Lempel to talk about the lack of apparent value in the minis program. He explained that Sony has no hand in determining the prices of minis. "As far as pricing goes, the publisher of the title sets the pricing," he explained. When quizzed if publishers were allowed to create a $1.99 game on PSP, he told us: "Yes, absolutely."
Lempel agrees that publishers must seriously think about the kind of prices they're setting on the Store, to ensure their content offers the same value as other PSP titles. "I think they have to carefully look at that, carefully price their content. Minis was intended to be something a little different and we wanted to see a lot of different types of content through minis. If it's not priced correctly, consumers may be turned off at the proposition and say 'I'd rather just go for this kind of stuff instead of minis.'"
Speaking at the First Annual Microsoft Open House in Manhattan yesterday, E&D Division prez Robbie Bach danced around the issue of pricing the company's upcoming motion tech for Xbox 360. "Relative to Natal, we'll see how the pricing/costs work out," Bach said. "But I think people should expect it to be like other things: We work through the price curve, just like we have with other products."
Though muddled, Bach's comment does not suggest that Natal will hit retail costing an arm and a leg (geddit?), but rather the device's launch price will be set high enough for significant discounts to go into effect over time. Using Wii as the bad example, Bach emphasized that Nintendo's launch price and its new discounted price aren't notably different. "When you start at $249, I don't know that a [price drop to] $199 -- I don't know how much difference that's going to make in the marketplace," Bach observed. "We'll see.
The PSPgo launch was not without controversy, but it seems to have reinvigorated the Playstation Portable market.
Last week I checked in with Sony Computer Entertainment of America to ask how the PSPgo was impacting hardware sales and what sort of impact they were seeing on the Playstation Network.
It's had a very positive impact, Patrick Seybold, Sr. Director, Corporate Communications and Social Media for SCEA, told Kotaku today.
The launch of the download-only device has "generated strong consumer interest in the overall PSP platform and the PlayStation Network's digital content offering," he said.
In the three days following the launch of the PSPgo Seybold says that their "top retail partners" saw a 300 percent lift in PSP hardware sales compared to the same period the prior week in the U.S. Seybold says that the launch also generated a "significant increase in revenue for PlayStation Network, driven by a 200 percent lift in PSP game downloads purchased from PlayStation Store" in North America.
Sony declined to give any specific sales numbers for this story.
The platform owner did that they think the growth will continue.
"With several blockbuster games launching digitally and on UMD in the coming weeks — from LittleBigPlanet to Assassin's Creed Bloodlines —," Seybold said, "we expect this momentum to continue and look forward to a strong holiday season for both the PSPgo and PSP-3000."
Seybold's comments echo what officials in the U.K. have said, pointing to a jump in sales the week of release.
We're big on 64-bit OSes, 'cause ours computers eat memory like this Obama eats children's dreams, but Microsoft's thinking about going 128 bit as soon as Windows 8, and most definitely by Windows 9.
The Xbox 360 may be getting its own retro-themed arcade space, an environment that looks remarkably similar to the one competitor Sony offers in PlayStation Home. The above pictures come from a rumored survey hinting at an "AvatArcade."
Andy Phifer, like many of us, faced a glowing red ring on his nonfunctional Xbox 360. Facing an RRoD warranty technicality, he sent Microsoft $100 to make necessary repairs. Things didn't go so well. Here's his story
Yoshihiro has just released a new version of Game Decypter, the now famous program that allows you to patch the file EBOOT.bin game that, for proper operation, requiring only the firwmare 5.55. In this new release, v4.0, the coder has introduced compatibility with the 5.00M33 Custom Firmware 5.03GEN and without having to use PC programs such as the Eboot Patcher released yesterday by the coder mc707.
More to follow.
Procedure:
Quote:
- Button : Allows you to patch the games to make them compatible with CF 5.50GEN
- Button : Allows you to patch the games to make them compatible with CF 5.00M33 and 5.03GEN
UPDATE v4:
- Fixed some compatibility issues with the CF-A and 5.03GEN
StartPatch is a homebrew application that patches your System Menu v4.0, v4.1, or v4.2 in a similar fashion as StarFall. It is based upon Menu Patcher by Isaac356.
When questioned about the possibility of a dedicated gaming handheld vs a phone with multimedia functionality, Microsoft's Robbie Bach expressed his hesitation to enter either market to attendees of yesterday's.First Annual Microsoft Open House. The Entertainment and Devices division prez said, "The portable market's an interesting market ... you have to decide which direction the market is going." Rather than pursue the phone with gaming/media functionality route that Apple has taken, Bach thinks current technology simply isn't good enough yet.
"You have to decide if the dedicated devices in the portable market are going to continue to grow, or whether the phone that you get is going to get powerful enough and battery power management is going to get good enough that people are going to look at it and say 'No, I just want one device that's going to have some games on it, some music on it, some video on it.' I'm probably more biased to think that's the direction where the market is going."
Though he didn't mention an iPhone competitor or a dedicated gaming device, Bach hinted at the possibility, saying the Xbox and Zune are integrating at "a steady drumbeat." That steady drumbeat likely won't lead to much in the coming months though, as he noted, "There is a CES two years from now where people will look back and say 'Wow! Look at everything they did.'" At that point we'll only be four years from flying cars and hoverboards, so let's hope that Microsoft has some serious future stuff up its sleeves.
It's in danger of becoming a lost art. Video game developers, increasingly focused on community building, cooperative play and massive online interactions, seem to have forgotten the satisfaction of the solo experience.
As once singular experiences give way to more multiplayer, more cooperative gaming, we can't help but wonder: Is the single-player-only game in danger of becoming extinct? And if it is, who's really to blame?
The annual pre-holiday game release flood, now spilling into early 2010 thanks to numerous delays, is filled with marquee multiplayer-driven blockbusters—Modern Warfare 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Halo 3: ODST. It's also filled with brand new names, games from developers who have seemingly capitulated to the rising clamor for more multiplayer.
"[Multiplayer is] the most requested feature we get," says Todd Howard, executive producer of The Elder Scrolls series and Fallout 3 at Bethesda Softworks, so far resistant to the trend this generation. "So we do consider it every time... and every time it loses, but I suppose you never know."
Entering the multiplayer fray soon are titles like Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Naughty Dog's sequel to its purely single-player PlayStation 3 debut. The list also includes BioShock 2, due much later, but also based on a title lauded for its story-driven solo experience and Brutal Legend, famed designer Tim Schafer's first stab at a multiplayer game.
Also due this November is the game that could outsell all of those highly anticipated releases, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, a four-player cooperative spin on the side-scrolling formula.
While the latest Nintendo platformer may not be the first game in the series to sport a multiplayer component—portable games Super Mario 64 DS and New Super Mario Bros. both featured wireless multiplayer modes in a much more limited capacity—rarely has a Mario Bros. game focused so heavily on cooperative play. Not since, well, the original Mario Bros.
There is some cause for concern for the solo-only player. Massively successful games like Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Valve's Left 4 Dead offered shorter campaign modes in favor of a more robust multiplayer feature set. And StarCraft fans may be more than perturbed about the late release of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, already sliced into three campaigns, largely due to delays with Battle.net, Blizzard's multiplayer service.
If more publishers and developers follow suit in shifting more focus to multiplayer, will the lone wolf suffer?
The addition of multiplayer to games that have relied on their single player strengths is done for a number of reasons, the most obvious of which is that the game buying public has simply come to expect it as a series sequelizes and evolves. It's an oft-demanded feature from the community, even in series that tend to be strictly single-player.
While Bethesda's epic role-playing games tend to be limited to solo adventures these days, the developer has flirted with multiplayer in the past, with Howard pointing to games like The Terminator: SkyNET. But he sees the tacking on of multiplayer as a potential distraction.
"With the big RPG stuff, I think adding multiplayer distracts your efforts to put the best massive single player experience you can out there," Howard says. "I'd rather use that development time to make the core experience of being a lone hero better."
That distraction was a common concern among PlayStation 3 owners when Naughty Dog and Sony lifted the veil off Uncharted 2: Among Thieves' multiplayer features. Fans lamented that co-op and deathmatch would ill-fit the game and, worse, could detract from the solo adventures of star Nathan Drake.
"Right at the start of the development of Uncharted 2, we decided that we wanted to create a multiplayer game," explains Richard Lemarchand, co-lead designer at developer Naughty Dog. "During production, the single player and multiplayer designers sat together in the same room, and the majority of the artists, animators and other team members that worked on the multiplayer levels worked on parts of the single player game as well. This meant that the quality bar of each part of the game was constantly being inspired and raised by the other parts of the production, and that everything came together with a really cohesive feel."
Fortunately for fans of the single-player Uncharted: Drake's Fortune campaign, Naughty Dog didn't sacrifice that portion of the game at expense of adding a handful of multiplayer modes. In fact, they offered a longer single-player mode
"We had lots of reasons to [add multiplayer] — we love multiplayer games and really liked the idea of Nathan Drake's play mechanics in that context, we wanted to develop ourselves technologically in an area that we hadn't touched for a few years, and, if we're totally honest, we thought that we might see some bonus sales as a result."
That's one of the other key reasons developers add multiplayer components to their games, to ensure that a consumer looking for something to play beyond the eight to twelve hours needed to complete a solo campaign will still see value in their purchase. It's a feature that publishers hope will dissuade consumers from renting or reselling their games.
Games like Bethesda's Fallout 3 and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion help retain their value with much longer campaigns and a regular flow of single-player downloadable content, an alternate solution to the multiplayer extension.
"It comes down to doing whatever you need to do to keep people playing your game for months on end," says Cliff Bleszinski, game designer at Epic Games. "The guys at Bethesda realized this with Fallout and are doing what is essentially episodic content with their expansions. Make them keep the disc and keep the game on their mind. That's the goal."
Even without that after-market, post-campaign content—like Gears of War's regular stream of multiplayer map packs, a tactic that has worked well for the Halo and Call of Duty series—Bleszinksi still believes the single-player game can survive.
"It's still possible for an entirely single player game to do well," he contends. "Look at how Assassin's Creed cleaned up at retail. BioShock did well also, although they're adding a multiplayer component in the sequel."
While successful, the addition of multiplayer to the multi-million unit selling BioShock may be illustrative of the changing expectations of consumers. If there's little to do but replay a narrative-driven campaign, many gamers appear quite happy to resell their discs and move onto the next game.
"The best way to combat people trading in your game is to simply make it better in whatever way works for you," argues Todd Howard. "People trade in cars with poor value. Our DLC is a good way to add to the value of the base game and give folks yet another reason to keep playing."
Or consider Nintendo's solution — add a multiplayer component to just about everything, even if the game has a lone wolf history like Punch-Out!! or Super Mario.
The Wii's online multiplayer capabilities may not be as robust as those offered by Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, Steam or Battle.net, but multiplayer matches of two to four people on the same couch, each armed with a Wii Remote, may hold equal appeal to Nintendo's expanded audience. And if Nintendo is selling extra Wii Remotes, they're likely finding it appealing too.
The four-player New Super Mario Bros. Wii one-ups the traditional platformer experience, ensuring that players needn't wait their turn to play as Luigi or be relegated to the simplified co-op present in Super Mario Galaxy.
The success of Wii Sports, Wii Play and Nintendo's ensuing first party titles, with their local multiplayer appeal, may not be limited to just Wii games.
"It's interesting how many people have told us that they played Uncharted: Drake's Fortune with their spouse or another family member in the room, which perhaps marks the arrival of a new and different kind of multiplayer gaming!" notes Naughty Dog's Richard Lemarchand. "I'm partly joking, and partly serious –- as games hit higher bench-marks of quality as entertainment, I think we're going to see people finding new ways to enjoy them together in groups, whether it's SingStar parties or an evening in on the couch with some popcorn and Uncharted 2."
That said, Lemarchand says that, at least at Naughty Dog, storytelling is still important. "Even though multiplayer gaming has exploded in popularity in the last few years, and attracted a lot of business interest as a result, I think that single player gaming has a really healthy future."
There are 
6501@release_610,v55286@release_610,20090918: 
