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February 1st, 2008, 20:31 Posted By: Shrygue
via Eurogamer
Electronic Arts has announced it plans to make the components of The Orange Box available separately.
The Orange Box, you will recall, was originally released for PC and Xbox 360 in October, and PS3 a bit later. It was comprised of Half Life: Episode 2, Portal and Team Fortress. Kristan thought it was marvellous.
The three components have been available separately via Steam for some time, but now EA boss John Ricitiello has said individual box copies are also on the way.
Speaking in a conference all he said, "We are unbundling Orange Box and releasing separate PC SKUs, Half Life 2: Episode 2, Portal and Team Fortress." Nice one John, one wonders if your hair is made of real silver.
No word on a price or date yet, but we'll keep you posted.
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February 1st, 2008, 16:42 Posted By: JKKDARK
New versions of the Pinball machine emulators for Windows.
Changelog:
- Added support for Stern's "The Sopranos"
Version 1.58 (February 1, 2008) - "The complete series"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is more of a bugfix release. It does not implement any new features besides the inclusion of Zaccaria's "Ski Jump", which makes this series complete (with the exception of sound).
The first and probably most important issue is the bug fix for the PPS-4/2 CPU used on Gottlieb System 1 games. Version 1.57 had a bug left that kept the bonus from accumulating properly (or counting down, for that matter), and another "bug" that kept the game diagnostics / adjustment menu from progressing through its items. Actually if you look at the data sheets for the PPS-4, it seems the emulation was *correct* in 1.57 and now we had to deliberately introduce a bug so it works!? Well, never mind now - as long as it plays fine. smile.gif
Next, we are quite worried by the fact that many Gottlieb / Premier games have sounds missing, so some effort was put into getting these to work. Most notably, all of the drum sounds were missing from System80B games of the first generation. Well, not anymore now! wink.gif Also, the general output volume of the SP0250 sound/speech chip was too low so far, making most bass sounds almost inaudible, so we cranked that up!
Finally, Gerrit turned off the channel suppression feature of the OKI6295 ADPCM chip, so now essentially every started sound will play until it ends, or until it's cut short by another sound playing on the same voice channel. This, of course, is a step back in terms of hardware accuracy, so it won't last long... it was done as a quick fix to show the hardware is capable of producing more sounds than in did in previous releases, and maybe to find a way of getting it right someday.
For all 6-digit display haters out there, we added support for Oliver's 7-digit Gottlieb conversion roms. Doing so, Gerrit also extended the "bios" system to these games: you can now keep the System80/A system roms common to all of those games in the gts80 / gts80a sets, without the need to copy them into each and every Gottlieb rom set. Same goes for the sound PROM used on early System80 and late System80A games: these may go into gts80s / gts80as, who in turn inherit from gts80 / gts80a. Sounds complicated? Well - it's not.
However, as MAME architecture does not support multiple inheritance for games, this produces one little problem: some Gottlieb games (using the sound and speech board) have sound-only clones with completely different roms. These three games (Volcano, Black Hole, and Devil's Dare) need to be split into different sets now, as they don't have a single rom file in common. Also, the new 7-digit common roms must go into their own sets (eg. spiderm7) because those games already inherit from their 6-digit parents, and thus can't inherit from a common set with support for the 7-digit system roms anymore. This sounds even more complicated? Erm - well, maybe a little. wink.gif
So, have fun now and enjoy the most finite state of PinMAME there ever was.
Changes:
*** CORE/CPU ***
* Fixed two bugs in PPS-4 emulation (corrects Gottlieb System 1 games)
* Enabled missing drum sounds on Gottlieb System 80B games
* Increased general output volume of the SP0250 sound/speech chip
* Disabled muting option for OKI 6295 chip to produce more output in GTS3 games
* Fixed GI support for all five GI strings on Who Dunnit and JackBot
* Enabled sound solenoid outputs on Gottlieb System 1
* Removed tones from Cleopatra, Sinbad, and Joker Poker (those use chimes)
*** ROM SUPPORT ***
* Added Zaccaria Ski Jump
* Added Okaegi's 7-digit conversions of Gottlieb System80 games
* Added the "machinaZOIS" clone of ShaqAttaq, created by a Czech programmer team
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February 1st, 2008, 16:40 Posted By: JKKDARK
New release of this frontend.
Changelog:
* Fixed 'Seconds to run' text box allowing blank entry to save (0 is the default).
* Fixed 'Seconds to run' text box allowing non numeric values.
* Fixed options dialog showing gamename.ini name when confirming a drivername.ini deletion.
* Fixed bug in show available/unavailable/fav menu items becoming wrongly checked.
* Added 'Game speed' slider to default options...advanced.
* Fixed main application caption not updating to new mame version, when changing a rom path (if your mame.exe has changed).
* Added a scrollbar (end of toolbar) to select up/down the setlist. (same as keyboard up/down and joy select).
Download and give feedback via comments
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January 31st, 2008, 23:03 Posted By: wraggster
We've had the Asus Eee PC $399 4GB model in my house since launch. And while you can't argue with the system's unbeatable size/performance/price ratio, users should know that once the honeymoon euphoria of the cheap ultraportable wears off, they're going to deal with some persistent issues that very well may be deal breakers.
Screen
You know the 7-inch screen size will be small—but really, it's too small for extended use. Seeing my wife working on the laptop, I watch as the screen gradually moves closer and closer to her face, until she's basically wearing the computer like video goggles. A 10-inch screen model sounds like the sweet spot, and more what you've envisioned as ideal.
Bugs
The system is, quite simply, not stable to work on. It freezes up frequently when just going through the system's dashboard—even without multitasking in progress. And launching OpenOffice apps can be a hit or miss process, too. Sure, the system is easy enough to reboot (and speedy in this regard as well), but the OS just never feels stable.
My guess is that bugs and performance issues stem from a hardware problem (maybe that stick 512MB isn't enough after all) and an unpolished OS (Asus' custom Linux system could use a few patches for sure). But, most certainly, the 512MB of RAM isn't enough given the inefficiency of the OS's memory management. Asus, where are our updates? We're still running software version 1.0. This must be the least-patched OS in history.
Wi-Fi
The biggest annoyance, by far, has to be the system's subpar Wi-Fi. If nothing else, the Eee is meant to be a web-surfing machine, the perfect companion to your overpriced espresso drink. But it has a ton of difficulty finding hotspots. Expect to retry detection several times before a list of local networks appears. That might not sound all that tedious, but losing five minutes plus when connecting to the internet—frequently—gets real old real fast in the year 2008.
And these problems even occur with your own saved networks. For some reason the Eee doesn't like to remember security keys. Users eventually become smart enough to paste the code somewhere in their documents, but really, should we have to?
Conclusions
I'm not sure that the Eee is a "don't buy." But more and more every day, I'm wishing that we'd invested the $400 elsewhere (a new smartphone, for instance). Initial reviews accepted the system's shortcomings partially because everyone loved that golden price/performance/size ratio and partially, even tacitly, because many expected bugs to be ironed out in due course.
Maybe more RAM would improve the experience, but at this point I'm fearing the investment. Maybe loading Ubuntu will solve the OS problems—I plan on doing just that this weekend—but most users won't deal with that hassle. At this point our love affair is over and we realize that the Asus Eee PC, as important as it may be for the market, is a glorious "miss" in its current state.
http://gizmodo.com/351086/asus-eee-p...fficially-over
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January 31st, 2008, 22:46 Posted By: wraggster
Valve is rocking the boat in a big way, especially for PC gaming piracy. They have just announced the release of a complete collection of publisher tools, called Steamworks. They're making it available to developers and publishers completely free. Valve notes that beyond simply making the product available to consumers some of the tools can integrate copy protection, social networking services, or even server browsing features into a developing game.
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl.../01/30/2248215
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January 31st, 2008, 20:47 Posted By: Shrygue
via Computer and Video Games
Turbine continues to pour blood, sweat and tears into Lord of the Rings Online, and the next major update in the pipe for the MMO is Book 12: The Ashen Wastes.
We've uploaded six screenshots from The Ashen Wastes for your bleeding eyes.
The update is introducing a new area to Monster Play - LotRO's PvP solution - zone the Ettenmors and continues the game's epic storyline. However, on top of that a number of major revisions are planned for Guardian, Burglar and Champion classes and the developer's bringing further customisation options to characters.
The Outfit system will allow you to style a new look for your avatar regardless of what you're wearing, so even if you're clunking around in heavy mail you can appear to be clothed in a nice dress (well, that's what screenshots of the system show anyway).
A second customisation option is the Barbershop, via which, for a small bit of cash, you can alter your avatar's hair and facial options. So essentially if you're bored of running around with hair down to your shoulders, go get a number one.
And if all that's sent you to sleep, you probably don't want to be playing Lord of the Rings Online.
Screenshots here
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January 31st, 2008, 20:42 Posted By: JKKDARK
New version of the Arcade Laserdisc emulator for Windows, Linux and Mac.
Changelog:
- Fixed OpenGL offset test, and added a check for the bottom row also.
- Fixed sound shutdown bug (possibly crash when shutting down daphne).
- Fixed laireuro driver so that overlay is displayed properly in OpenGL mode.
- Stats are now sent after a game has run, not before. This is because the delay in sending stats was throwing off one of the timers.
- Fixed a bunch of unit tests that weren't passing.
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January 31st, 2008, 19:28 Posted By: Shrygue
via Computer and Video Games
Microsoft has said it has no plans to "develop Halo Wars for Windows Vista at this time", in response to yesterday's gossip.
Rumour circulating yesterday suggested that the Xbox 360 RTS would be confirmed for PC at next month's GDC in San Francisco, and that Microsoft would be including cross-platform support in the game.
But not so, according to the company. Who doesn't comment on rumour and speculation.
"Halo Wars is being developed from the bottom up for the Xbox 360 and its control scheme to ensure that we deliver a groundbreaking console RTS experience," it has now told IGN.
"Given that, we have no plans to develop Halo Wars for Windows Vista at this time."
Yesterday Microsoft told us it didn't comment on rumour and speculation. Come on ladies and gents, make your mind up.
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January 31st, 2008, 18:59 Posted By: Shrygue
via Eurogamer
Deep Silver has picked up the publishing rights to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. prequel Clear Sky.
It ends citywide speculation over who would put the title in shops, as Valve had already pointed to Steam as the digital place to get it.
So buses can once more chug past the clock tower and bakers can bellow out orders for fresh bread and chimney sweeps can scuttle along the cobbled paths and plunge into dark and clogged shoots.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky takes place one year before the acclaimed original. Some stalkers have reached the heart of the Zone - you know, the one with Chernobyl in it - and you then have to shoot people in a free-form manner to, er, just because. I stole that from Tom.
It's due out "later this year" on Steam, although Deep Silver has kept its mouth closed about retail dates.
If the atmospheric and "really bloody actually terrifying underground bits" Dan goes on about from the first game are anything go by, then this should be a sumptuous follow up to a rather unsung hero. As Dan puts it, "Broken, but brilliant".
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was our 10th and was your 14th favourite game of 2007, beating the likes of World of Warcraft and Crysis along the way.
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January 31st, 2008, 18:57 Posted By: Shrygue
via Games Industry
Chinese online games operator NetEase is said to be breaking into the overseas market backed with a huge MMO licence – StarCraft Online.
According to a report on Tradingmarkets.com, NetEase will be operating StarCraft Online, a title developed by World of Warcraft team Blizzard.
Blizzard has not confirmed the existence of any such game, although it has advertised for staff for a new MMO title, currently under wraps at the US developer.
Last May Blizzard revealed a sequel to the popular PC real-time strategy title StarCraft, saying it had been working on the game since 2003.
NetEase operates Fantasy Westward Journey in China, an internally developed MMORPG, which recorded 25 million registered users in April 2005.
According to Tradingmarkets.com NetEase CEO Ding Li has said the company has not signed any contracts, but the company is seeking foreign partners for licensing and co-development deals.
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January 31st, 2008, 18:55 Posted By: Shrygue
via Games Industry
Electronic Arts will be operating Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, through an agreement with service provider GigaMedia.
GigaMedia will provide marketing, community management, tech support and customer services, while working with development team EA Mythic.
"The MMORPG fantasy genre is a tried and tested success formula - especially in Asia - and we look forward to introducing a new audience to the uniquely dark, gritty, and humorous world of Warhammer Online: Age Of Reckoning," commented Jon Niermann, president of EA Asia.
EA currently works with GigaMedia on the NBA Street Online title in the same territories, after announcing a deal in November last year.
"We are pleased and honoured to become EA's operating partner on another groundbreaking online game," added Arthur Wang, CEO of GigaMedia.
"We are sure that local players will warmly embrace and welcome this great game."
No release date has yet been announced for the title in the regions.
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January 31st, 2008, 15:30 Posted By: JKKDARK
New version of the Sinclair Spectrum emulator for Windows and Linux.
Changelog:
* Created Speccy-Unix port, currently available in binary form for Ubuntu Linux.
* Extended Speccy-Symbian port to support UIQ3 phones from Sony Ericsson and Motorola. As I only have a key-operated Motorola Z8, testers with pen-based SE phones are badly needed.
* Added support for Russian Pentagon 256 computer, including RAM mapper, TURBO mode, HiColor, HiRes, and 16Color graphics modes.
* Added support for Czech Didaktik Gama computer.
* Added support for Scorpion TURBO mode.
* Added RealSpectrum and monochrome color palettes.
* Added palette selection to built-in menu.
* Fixed exit from Scorpion MONITOR menu.
* Fixed Spectrum +2 support (was loading the wrong ROM file).
* Changed Scorpion port mappings to <NNx1xxxxxxxx1101>.
* Fixed a bug that made all hardware other than ULA ignore accesses to <xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx0> ports.
* Added emulation for the 128kB/+2 Spectrum bug where reading from port 0x7FFD made hardware write the floating bus value into this port.
* Made 0x8000..0xFFFF address space return 0xFFs in 16kB Spectrum mode.
* Moved NMI and REWIND button handling inside the core Speccy code.
* Improved Symbian sound code, although sound problems still persist on some UIQ3 phones.
* Split Speccy-Symbian/S60 configuration menu into four tabs, making "Video" and "Audio" settings separate.
* Added "Audio Latency", "Skip Frames", and "Sync Updates" settings to Speccy-Symbian.
* Added to Speccy-Symbian ability to use Nokia E61/E62 [FUNC] key in the built-in menu.
* Fixed a Speccy-Symbian bug where pieces of virtual keyboard remained on screen after closing it.
* Pressing [8] key on Speccy-Symbian now invokes virtual keyboard, if enabled, for the phones which do not have the [EDIT] key.
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January 30th, 2008, 22:38 Posted By: wraggster
Just as we feared, Asus is getting ready to dilute their Eee branding until it's RAZRed down to a hint of its former panache. The new family of low-cost, Eee products will include the E-DT (desktop), E-TV, and E-Monitor. The $200 - $300 E-DT will initially sport a Celeron processor when it ships without a monitor sometime in April or May. The E-Monitor then, is more than that name would have you believe. It's a 19- to 21-inch all-in-one PC with built-in TV tuner and a remarkable $499 price tag. It'll be based on Intel's Shelton platform when the AIO launches in September. The 42-inch E-TV will also launch in September and feature a Linux PC integrated into the LCD. It's expected to list for a $200 premium over the low-cost 42-inch sets it will compete with. Just don't get too hung up on those prices, kid. The Eee PC was only supposed to cost $200 when it was announced.
Now for the bad news. ASUS will not be offering a touch-panel in their next generation Eee PC after all -- their market research shows limited demand.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/30/a...ll-in-one-pcs/
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January 30th, 2008, 17:11 Posted By: Shrygue
via Joystiq
Before Electronic Arts lays down its third quarter earnings in a couple days, Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey believes it "likely" that Spore will move from the guidance EA gave of a March/April release to the second half of '08. This also is corroborated by reports earlier this month when Spore was announced for simultaneous release on Mac and PC.
But what's another Spore delay at this point? We were a bit surprised (and skeptical) when Will Wright said Spore was six months from release last October. Maybe Hickey is totally wrong and Wright will pull a six-legged exoskeletoned gelatinopod from his hat?
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January 30th, 2008, 16:46 Posted By: Shrygue
via Computer and Video Games
We've always been partial to a bit of the old gratuitous RTS violence offered in Relic's WH40K: Dawn of War RTS series, and new expansion Soulstorm will continue the trend.
Two new gameplay movies from the expansion can be seen in our video player, one focussing on the Confessor unit, the second on the Penitent Engine. Enjoy the carnage.
Soulstorm launches this spring and features the Empire's fearsome Sisters of Battle, brand new multiplayer tweaks, flying vehicles for all existing races in the game and a whole bundle of Dawn of War 40K goodies.
Trailer here
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January 30th, 2008, 14:23 Posted By: JKKDARK
New update of the Atari ST/TT/Falcon emulator for Windows, Linux, Mac, etc.
Changelog:
much faster graphics output, Mac OS X supported better than ever (JIT on IntelMac, networking and more!), coming with ARAnyM logo+icons and usual bunch of bug fixes and improvements.
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January 30th, 2008, 14:21 Posted By: JKKDARK
New version of the rom manager.
Changelog:
* fixed: crash when fixing size of a not compressed rom
* misc: some minor internal changes on the window-fits-on-screen test
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January 30th, 2008, 01:46 Posted By: JKKDARK
via Wired Blog
According to the recent NPD numbers, during 2007 the sales of PC games only made up 14% of the total revenue earned through the sale of videogames.
The data shows that of the $18.85 billion dollars earned by the gaming industry, only $910.7 million was earned through the sales of PC titles.
Unfortunately, the NPD numbers don't reflect sales of PC titles through download services such as Valve's Steam service.
When asked how many games were sold via Steam, Valve's Doug Lombardi told Game|Life that they "don't release the Steam sales numbers."
In less shocking news, the two best-selling titles of the year were World of Warcraft and its expansion The Burning Crusade. The two titles made up almost a third of total PC game sales.
Without the data from digital distribution it would be premature to say these numbers are a harbinger of doom for PC gaming, but they certainly don't inspire much confidence.
Even huge PC releases like Crysis and Unreal Tournament 3, which combined for roughly 120,000 copies sold, have seen unexpected failure on the platform during the last year.
I personally believe PC gaming will never die due simply to how many PCs are out there (do you know anyone without one?), though with consoles taking on the role of computers more and more, it's not surprising to see the market shift toward the cheaper alternative.
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January 29th, 2008, 17:38 Posted By: Shrygue
via Engadget
While it looked like Mac users couldn't wait to get their hands on the latest version of Apple's operating system, their Windows counterparts seem to have been a little more reticent about picking up Microsoft's oft-delayed Vista upgrade -- so much so that Redmond decided to both extend XP's shelf life by six months as well as offer an unprecedented "downgrade" service on select SKUs.
Well with the June 30th cutoff fast approaching, PC World decided to take a look at your options for procuring an XP license after that date, but unfortunately, the picture isn't too pretty. Basically, personal users looking to purchase less than 25 licenses but not a new machine have almost no recourse; your only surefire move is to buy a new box pre-installed with Vista Business or Ultimate from an OEM opting to continue with that downgrade service. Still, caveat emptor: support for consumer versions of XP ends on April 14, 2009, and with it, the end of your Patch Tuesday celebrations.
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January 29th, 2008, 17:23 Posted By: Shrygue
via Eurogamer
Codemasters Online Gaming has revealed its next big project as a space MMOG from Auto Assault developer NetDevil.
Dubbed Jumpgate: Evolution, it boasts epic battles between fleets of spaceships, a vast and persistent universe to explore, thousands of others to interact with and ships to customise into enormous warmongering craft or profitable mining ventures.
NetDevil is describing it as having twitch-based combat and it is due for release late this year on PC in Europe and the US.
It does sound an awful lot like EVE Online, but the original Jumpgate from 2001 (also by NetDevil and still alive) was keen to mark itself out as a "space flight combat game" not an RPG.
"Jumpgate brings something new and fresh to the online persistent space," said David Solari, big shot at Codemasters Online Gaming with a science fiction-sounding surname.
"The all-action approach and thrilling, twitch-based space combat really sets it apart from other MMOGs in the market."
NetDevil is most well known for post-apocalyptic vehicular MMOG Auto Assault, which closed its servers at the end of August 2007 after barely over a year on sale.
The developer is also currently working on a persistent online LEGO world that should be arriving later this year. Sounds like rather a lot on one plate to us.
Still, you can pop over to our Jumpgate: Evolution gallery for the first screenshots, right here.
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