features
Experience the never-before-told story of a previously unseen flight 815 survivor.
Uncover the island’s secrets, exploring familiar and new locations and interacting with other key survivors.
Confront the island’s dark forces to solve the mystery of your own illicit past and discover a way home.
description
You awake to the blazing sun, the screaming of other passengers, the wreckage of Oceanic flight 815. And no memory of what has happened. Now you must fight for your survival by exploring the island, uncovering its dark secrets, and piecing together the fragments of your own furtive past. If you’re lucky, you may just find a way home…
features
Lifelike graphics and spectacular audio/visual effects offer an incredibly immersive gaming experience. Witness historical accuracy and amazing attention to detail, from breathtaking Pacific settings to more than 75 authentic-looking war machines such as the U.S. Gato sub, the Japanese Yamato flagship, and the Kawanishi aircraft
Witness epic naval engagements either firsthand or via radio messages and orders from high command.
Earn upgrades and experience to guide the evolution of crewmembers, making your men the most effective naval force in the Pacific theater.
Diverse mission objectives and events on over 15 maps combined with unique rewards make each campaign a unique experience. Commandeer various U.S. submarines and progress in your career as a naval officer via improved dynamic campaigns in Career mode, or dive into ‘instant actions’ and single patrols for a quick fight.
Join forces with up to 8 friends via LAN or 4 via the Internet in either cooperative or adversarial gameplay modes. Scripted and generated mission types allow for epic online battles and unlimited replayability.
Selectable difficulty levels allow players to choose how challenging of a simulation to play.
description
Hunt, hide, and kill as you take command of U.S. submarines and crews and navigate the treacherous waters of the Pacific during WWII.
Silent Hunter®, the industry-leading naval warfare simulation franchise for over a decade, returns to its roots with next-generation graphical realism, immersive gameplay, innovative crew evolution, and more action than ever before.
Developed by the same Ubisoft team that delivered Silent Hunter 3, the “king of sub games,” to worldwide critical acclaim, the 2007 installment offers the most memorable, accessible, and empowering submarine simulation experience ever.
features
Discover your Sims' passion from a wide range of new activity types, from sports to science to arts and crafts. All-new hobbies include basketball, soccer, restoring cars, ballet, even searching for stars and planets!
Hobbies offer lifetime rewards. As your Sims master new activities they'll unlock aspirations, earn rewards, and uncover secret lots.
Once your Sims build up their skills, they can sell their arts and crafts or see how they stack up against the competition by entering dance, food, and video game contests!
All-new group activities are a great way for Sims to spend time with family and friends. There are even special activities for kids and toddlers, including an activity table for drawing and playing with blocks!
Hobbies can be full of unexpected moments, especially for Sims with low skill levels. Your newbie Sim might sew a bear with one eye, make a lopsided jar on the pottery wheel, get poison ivy while hiking, or who knows what?!
description
Now your Sims can rediscover the joys of leisure time! Awaken your Sims' true passions in life as they discover and excel at all-new activities. Whether they're tossing a football with the family, practicing ballet, restoring cars with friends, or building train sets, your Sims now have more ways to build skills, enhance friendships, and make their lives more successful. Craft new, unique items for your Sims to use in their daily lives including clothing, pottery, and more. Your Sims will even unlock secret rewards by mastering their hobbies and advancing all-new careers. Explore a wide variety of new hobbies that will change your Sims' lives!
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Platform: Nintendo DS, Nintendo Game Boy Advance, Nintendo GameCube, Sony PlayStation 2, Sony PlayStation 3, WII, X-Box and X-Box 360
Pages: 656
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Activities: Detailed strategies for mastering all of the new activities to unlock every aspiration, secret lot, and lifetime award
Walkthroughs: Complete walkthroughs and checklists will help you nail the next promotion, unlock new objects, and satisfy all of your Sim's needs and aspirations.
Hobbies/Crafting: Learn the tricks to creating new unique items such as clothing and pottery.
Checklists: Beginner, intermediate, and advanced checklists will help you maximize your Sim's time and master every career.
Pages: 240
Platform: PC
features
Famitsu Wave Magazine
Japan's No.1 selling video game magazine
Check out all the latest game news every month
Includes a DVD disc featuring latest game footage
description
The Famitsu Wave is Japan's No.1 selling video game magazine. It features all the latest video game news and pictures from Japan's upcoming video games.
Each magazine includes a DVD disc with video game footage. The DVD disc is NTSC Region 2 encoded.
Petroglyph's Creative Director Adam Isgreen is an RTS veteran, having worked on loads of Command & Conquers and, more recently, Universe at War. But he isn't worried that RTS titles making their way to consoles will in some way dilute the experience. In fact, he believes just the opposite:
...you could look at the transition of RTS from PC to console as "dumbing down" of the genre, but really that's completely inaccurate. The evolution of RTS from PC to console is all about re-discovering the core fun of the genre while stripping away the redundancy, over-complication, and bloat that has been attaching itself to RTS games over the years.
He continues:
If anything, I'm glad that console is becoming dominant for gaming because it's going to force some evolution on a genre that has been fairly static for quite some time. We need to grow the RTS market and bring in new players, not isolate it further into eventual niche obscurity.
The only problem is that while all of that sounds great in theory, the practice of running an RTS without a mouse a keyboard hasn't worked out so great yet.
Which is exactly why we all need Halo Wars to be really, really good.
ScummVM continues to leap forward in a leap year, and we are pleased to announce the next shiny bugfix release of the project.
As usual, it holds a number of improvements, it's more stable, and it should bring you even more fun than 0.11.0.
We fixed the digital iMUSE system (better COMI experience), King's Quest 4 bugs were squashed, and support for fanmade AGI games has been improved; Lure of the Temptress, Inherit the Earth and I Have no Mouth all work better since we fixed several crashes, lock-ups and all such buzzwords.
As a special bonus we are glad to announce the return of the BeOS port and the deeply missed Playstation 2 port.
ScummVM is a program which allows you to run certain classic graphical point-and-click adventure games, provided you already have their data files. The clever part about this: ScummVM just replaces the executables shipped with the games, allowing you to play them on systems for which they were never designed!
Some of the adventures ScummVM supports include Adventure Soft's Simon the Sorcerer 1 and 2; Revolution's Beneath A Steel Sky, Broken Sword 1 and Broken Sword 2; Flight of the Amazon Queen; Wyrmkeep's Inherit the Earth; Coktel Vision's Gobliiins; Westwood Studios' The Legend of Kyrandia and games based on LucasArts' SCUMM (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion) system such as Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max and more.
Heres whats new:
Ports:
- Revived the PS2 port.
- Revived the BeOS port.
SCUMM:
- Improvements for Digital iMUSE subsystem. This fixes several glitches in The Curse of Monkey Island.
- Fixes for cursors in HE games.
AGI:
- Fix for zombies in King's Quest 4.
- Fix for changing palettes in fanmade games using AGIPAL.
Lure:
- Fixed some conversation crashes in the German version.
- Fixed operation of the optional copy protection dialog in the German version.
- Added saving of conversation flags as to whether a particular conversation option had been previously selected or not.
- Fixed glitch that could cause transformation sparkle to happen a second time.
- Fixed behavior of Goewin when you rejoin her after meeting the dragon.
SAGA:
- Fix for rat maze bug in Inherit the Earth which made game not completable.
- Fixes for Inherit the Earth and I Have no Mouth game startup on a number of platforms.
- Reduced the number of simultaneous open files in I Have no Mouth, to allow it to run on platforms that can keep a limited amount of files open (e.g. on the PSP).
- Fixed graphics glitch in Inherit the Earth with simultaneous speech.
- Fixed palette glitch in Inherit the Earth when looking at the map while at the docks.
Spotted this over at gp32x.com and thought it would interest many of our coders from many homebrew scenes, heres the post from Mr Lou
Hello fellow game-developers
I'm writing you because I'm creating a site at www.indiegamemusic.com which I plan to become a link between indie game developers and musicians. This letter is an invitation to you as an indie game-developer, to participate in the design phase with your suggestions and ideas so that the site will end up being something you would like to use.
The idea
In short, I want to make it easy for the indie game-developers (you) to find good music for your games, free for freeware games and cheap for resale. A few steps I have in mind so far, is that you
* go to indiegamemusic.com
* click "Search", and input your search criteria
* listen to results and find contact information to the artist
Your search criterias may be
* a specific format (mmf, midi, mod, xm, s3m, mp3, ogg etc)
* a specific license (free for freeware? available for non-exclusive resale? available for exclusive resale?)
* max file size
* style
* category (music, sound-scape, sound-effect, loop part)
* max channels or polyphony
* max price
* maybe preferred bpm
So... That's the idea. What do you think? If this sounds like an interesting project to you, feel free to participate with ideas and feedback at mr_lou@vip.cybercity.dk
Some of the things I'd like some feedback about is
* how should payment happen? Paypal? Bank-transfer? Game-developer contacting artist and agreeing their own method of payment?
* what stuff would you like to be able to search for? are there some of the above mentioned search criterias you don't need? why?
* what formats are you mostly interested in, and why?a
* and of course: do you think you'd use such a tool like IndieGameMusic.com?
- The noise of the sampling voice of the wave memory sound reduced. As a result, the tone quality has been improved.
- The ADPCM sound processing was brought close to a real machine.
- The processing speed and timing were elaborately brought close to a real machine. In the third stage of "Soldier Blade", the problem that one frame screen fell into disorder occasionally was solved. In "Racing Damashii", the problem that race screen shook occasionally etc. were solved.
- While playing CD-DA, when a game is reset with "SELECT+RUN" button, the bug that had been occasionally freezed was corrected.
- Additionally, a detailed part has been improved and corrected.
By:Nikole
I'm going to do my best to leave me opinions out of this and make it as unbiased as I can, because I mostly want your opinions on the matter.
I was reading an article on bingegamer.net. The author Allison Boyer was discussing her experiences while playing XBL. She complains that she doesn't like using her mic due to the fact that she has a woman's voice, as most women do. The problem with having a woman's voice you ask? You get comments like these:
"Ooo, your voice sounds sexy, Ooo, I'll protect you baby, Ooo, you up for some fun?
She says that while playing she will either get killed non-stop by guys thinking its funny to kill a girl or be protected by players who think its chivalrous to keep her from harms way. The bottom line being: "I'm a girl. I like to play video games. STOP RUINING IT FOR ME."
There, a simple painless little article stating how this girl felt she was being harassed and treated differently on live. Hardly breaking news or any kind of oddity. But the part that strikes me is the comments she received. The article went up today and there are already 50+ comments, the majority of which being negative and involving the world kitchen and/or sammiches. [Guys get some new jokes!!!]
* "-Get back to the kitchen" x9000!!!!
* -"grow some balls "
* "Get over it. You know the nature of how online play is on xbox live and PSN. You know what to expect. All that one can do in your position is endure it. You can't change anything by writing a piece crying about how annoying people are towards you when you play online. I get irritated at the idiots who only know how to swear all day and talk over the mic just to hear themselves say something in the game. But I don't care that much to write a cry me a river style article. If I want to play online then that is what I have to expect. It is the "nature" of playing a game online."
* -"The irony in this article is amazing. The jerks pick on you because you act like a little girl, in fact you ARE a little girl (no i don't care about your real age, someone who cries about the ean people on the internet is as naive as a 8 years old). Instead of whining you should understand that xboxlive is full of morons and the fact that you're a girl is just one more reason to add to a countless list for acting like a complete idiot. I hope you're just a troll playing the old "EHI AIMMA GRRRL GAMER!!!" card for some easy baiting. In that case it was a pleasure to feed you. tl;dr Cry me a river, build a bridge and get over it."
* -"Don't wear your mic or turn on mute. Seriously, why so many words for a non-issue? And I'm really sure the fellas are waiting in lines to tap your sh--, sister"
* -"Cute arguement, but one article on the next isn't anything more then a gossip. I appologize but no ones going to look at this and change their ways for it, ethier way it was clevar and I got a few laughs out of it."
* -"WAHHH. Like any woman, all you can f------ do is bitch. Grow some f------ ovaries, and either kill the m----------- trying to kill/protect you, or, hey, tell them to f--- off. Jesus christ, do you honestly expect the internet to feel sorry for you? Why? Because you have a f------ hole between your legs? GTFO, you stupid, worthless, hypocritical c----. Seriously. Just get the f--- off the internet right now. You belong in the kitchen anyways."
I'm gonna avoid bitching about the obvious idiots she has to deal with. I don't see how this will ever change for xbl or anywhere on the internet as long as people can hide behind the anonymity of the internet.
Am I the only one that thinks this is ridiculous?
And guys, is this how you really are and how you really view girls?
Does talking about these issues actually bring about change for the better?
Is there really anything that can be done to stop stupidity on the internet?
- gfx: fixed DDraw renderer border refresh bug
- input: corrected keyboard matrix quirk
- changed power-on timing, to prevent "A Life M36 Planet" from locking up
- added movie time code view option on play/record (hh:mm:ss;ff)
- vdp: you can now disable/enable sprite and tile layers
- vdp: added unlimited sprites option. This eliminates sprite flickering on most games, without affecting core accuracy: collision and overflow bits still work the same. Games that use overflow as a trick to hide sprite lines, like Athletic Land when falling into the water, will show glitches.
- sound: added "triple buffering" to prevent overflows on longer frames
- timing: speed up setting is now in percentage instead of integer multiply
- timing: added slowdown feature, working similar to speed up (default: F10)
- gfx: auto save palette didn't work
- input: added "invert" function for axes
- input: limited the speed of DInput reads, instead of always at every vblank. It sometimes returned wrong values in fast forward mode.
- timing: added direct control over frame speed/reverse with an analogue axis, by default mouse Y axis while holding F10 + F12. I call it DJ scratching, since it kind of resembles that.
- added AMD flash memory emulation, and Matra's INK mapper. One INK cartridge died in the process (no, not inkjet), curses were heard as far away as planet Gradius.
- fixed crash when opening an SCC game by drag-dropping, while that same SCC game was already running
- mappers: AMD flash erase sector/chip command didn't work properly
- changed default video format to PAL, per default C-BIOS region code
- gfx: fullscreen setting is now saved, so it's possible to start meisei in full screen
BSNES, Emulator Enhancer, Oswan, and SMS Plus have all been updated. Here are the changes:
- (BSNES) Fixed an unfortunate bug in the previous release that caused sound to go badly off kilter after about fifteen minutes of play.
- (Enhancer) Tweaked the behaviour of the Prioritise speed over smoothness option to improve sound quality when VBL sync is on.
- (Oswan) Massively improved compatibility and sound brought on by synchronising elements of a number of different forks of the original Oswan project.
- (Shell) Changed the default preferences to turn brushed metal off by default, since it looks pretty hideous under 10.5 or later.
- (Shell) Made some slight adjustments to the behaviour of the "Prioritise speed over smoothness" option.
- (SMS Plus) Fixed issue where region setting in preferences was always ignored.
- (SMS Plus) YM2413 sound core preference was reversed. Fixed.
- (SMS Plus) YM2413 sound now works again. Note that you must have Domestic (Japanese) hardware enabled for this to work.
These will probably be the last updates for a little while, as I'm off to Australia for a two week holiday next weekend, and after my return I'm going to do the next few Microsoft exams. Still, no worries, eh?
You can't blame these guys for trying to milk the Eee PC, and Asus is doing just that with its new smorgasboard of Eee PC accessories. Most interesting is the Ai Guru U1 VoIP phone. It plugs in with USB, and in addition to letting you make calls to all your broke-ass friends, you can also use it to browse and listen to music stored on the Eee PC. Next up is the Eee AP, which acts as a 802.11g wireless access point and little else -- think AirPort Express minus the sexy. The USB "3.5G HSDPA Card" is just as straightforward, with GSM900 / 1800 / 1900 and WCDMA2100 / 1900 / 850, and download speeds up to 3.6Mbps. The slim DVD-RW drive and the totally generic headsets aren't spicing things up either, which you can probably tell is par for the course here. There's no word on price or availability for any of these yet, but we're guessing none of them will break the bank -- they sure don't look it.
Gears of War creator and faux-chainsaw-gun wielder Cliff Blezinski made some pretty disparaging (if not slightly true) comments about the state of PC gaming to MTV Multiplayer's Stephen Totilo at last month's DICE summit in Las Vegas -- leading to to his illustrated immolation on a webcomic a few of you have probably heard of. At GDC, StevieT got another chance to sit down with CliffyB, this time with fellow Epic bigwig Mark Rein (MarkyR?) to flesh out the problems plaguing the PC gaming industry.
The two never backtrack on CliffyB's original statement, but they do express their fervent support for the PC Gaming Alliance -- a sentiment which will hopefully cause anti-console gamers to dismantle any ballistic weaponry they may have pointed at Cliffy's residence. We do so want a Gears of War 3.
38 percent of gamers are female, according to a report by the Entertainment Software Association, sourced by CNN technology.
According to the ESA, girl gamers spend 7.4 hours a week playing games, in-between hiding every television remote and moaning that we've left the toilet seat up.
Studies and sales data have shown that women are more likely to play casual handheld games such as the DS, along with "social games" like The Sims, where women apparently make up more than 55 percent of players (and not just because you can cook and clean!! Sorry, we had to).
"Women are out there in significant numbers playing MMOs, action games, first-person shooters," said Sony Online Entertainment marketing lady Torrie Dorrell. "What is lacking in the equation are women behind these games."
Despite the fancy new figures pointing to the amount of women playing games, they represent just under 12 percent of the industry, according to the International Game Developers Association.
Courtney Simmons, another PR women at SOE, said she wants to see "more women making games," and, "making more games that women want to play."
The MMO developer isn't sitting idly on its dream either; to help balance the sex equation it's setup G.I.R.L., Gamers In Real Life, a scholarship program to attract more young women to careers in game development.
"There is a lack of understanding about how women play," said Simmons, adding that she believes that women are being "gamed down to."
What about Jade Raymond? She makes games for girls, right? Stabbing Knights with throwing knives is wicked.
Videogames allow the simulation of rape, and are the cause of real-life murders, according to one MP in a parliamentary debate on Friday.
Members of Parliament attended the debate to discuss the merits of a Private Member's Bill on violence in films and videogames, and decide if it would receive a Second Reading.
The Bill seeks to reform the BBFC in order to make it "accountable to Parliament and the public in a way that should encourage a return to more responsible decisions," in the words of its sponsor, Julian Brazier, Conservative member for Canterbury.
He was supported by Keith Vaz, Labour member for Leicester East, who has a long-standing connection with the violence issue following his stance on the murder of Stefan Pakeerah in 2004 in which he cited Rockstar's Manhunt as an inspiration - and he brought that particular example to light once again.
"As the House knows, my concerns about these issues arise from the brutal killing of Stefan Pakeerah, a 14-year-old Leicester schoolboy who was murdered in a savage attack in which he received 50 blows with a claw hammer - an attack that mirrored exactly a scene in the videogame Manhunt," he told the debate.
"I was not the first to say that; Giselle Pakeerah, his parent, has from the very beginning maintained and strongly believed that the fact that Warren Leblanc had a copy of Manhunt and that other children were looking at those scenes of violence led to the attack on Stefan."
The Minister for Culture, Media and Sport, Margaret Hodge, later pointed out that there had been no evidence to support Mr Vaz's ongoing claims.
"They may have made that statement, but the rationale for the statement is less clear," she said. "The game was discovered not in Warren Leblanc's possession but in the victim's possession.
"It does not feature the use of a hammer, and it was not considered by the police to be a contributory factor. No such connection was ever suggested in court.
"Indeed, the prosecution and defence barristers insisted in court that the video game had played no part in the killing. It was reported that Leblanc was motivated by fear of a gang to which he owed money."
Mr Vaz, who complained in part of his speech that proponents of his argument have been "pilloried in the press that is sponsored by the videogames industry," went on to discuss the differences between films and videogames.
"That is quite simple: videogames are different because they are interactive," he said. "People who are watching a film at the cinema cannot participate in what is happening on the screen, or if they do they are removed from the cinema.
"However, someone sitting at a computer playing a videogame, or someone with one of those small devices that young people have these days, the name of which I forget…PlayStations or PSPs, something of that kind…Well, whatever they are called, when people play these things, they can interact.
"They can shoot people; they can kill people," he said, before adding: "As the honourable gentleman said, they can rape women," referring to Mr Brazier's earlier comments on films - not videogames - which appear to glorify the act.
Ed Vaizey, Conservative member for Wantage, questioned that last point later on - addressing Mr Brazier as Mr Vaz had left already -"I checked the point with the BBFC and found it to be completely unaware of any such videogame," he said.
"Is the honourable gentleman aware of any videogame that has as its intention the carrying out of rape or that allows the game player to carry out such an act? The BBFC and I are unaware of any such game."
Mr Brazier replied that he was unable to comment on "the rape in games issue".
Following the session, which lasted almost five hours and ended before proceedings had been completed, the vote on whether or not the Bill will proceed to a Second Reading will now take place when the debate resumes on Friday, when Ms Hodge will complete her response to the various remarks made during the first session, including those belonging to Mr Vaz.
As well as a CMS Select Committee investigation into the effects of violence on the internet and in videogames, the Byron Report set up by the Prime Minister is due to report before the end of this month.
NextGenBooks.com (yes, but stick with it) has launched Warrior Quest, a browser-based single-player RPG "in a similar vein to classic games Dragon Quest and Phantasy Star".
It's free, playable in a window on the website, and NGB's claim is that it's optimised to run on Wii and PS3 web-browsers, with a PSP edition due to launch this month.
One of the reasons why it's suitable for these platforms is that, for now at least, it's a bit on the basic side. That's why NGB plans to include new and revamped animations in its first content update on 2nd April, we'd wager.
Also in that will be new Battle Cards (the game uses a card-based battle system), and the first bit of a new story mode.
Further infusions of content will then go live monthly "until the end of this year".
At the moment, you play as a young "Battle Master" exploring a fantasy world, beating people and things up, upgrading your skills and unlocking new bits of the map.
NextGenBooks.com says it plans to do more content like this in future.
According to the French site BlogEEE.net, Asus has a reworked Eee PC on the way. While the casing will have the same dimensions as the original Eee, the 900 will feature a larger 8.9" screen (up from 7"), an unspecified faster processor, 1GB memory standard (up from 512MB) and SSD storage options as high as 12GB (up from 8GB). But the sticker price (in Europe) has seen an increase from €299 to €399. We've contacted Asus to confirm the information and will keep you updated.
features
Frontline Combat System – Combat in Frontlines: Fuel of War is focused and intense, in a system that inherently promotes teamwork by creating a unified front of war.
Open World Environment – Through intensely cinematic, non-linear objectives, players assume the role of an elite soldier in the Stray Dogs Division. Based upon actual locations in Central Asia, the player enters an epic campaign featuring 7 theaters of war with a climactic ending.
Next Generation Firepower – Join the future of war with over 60 vehicles and weapons based off of real military designs of the near future. From futuristic tanks and jets to remote controlled drones and sentry guns, feel the adrenaline rush of utilizing next generation firepower on the battlefield.
Customizable Soldier System – Character customization allows you to represent your play style through character choices, weapon load out and role specialization.
Advanced Team Play – Supports up to 32+ players on Console and 64+ players on PC via LAN or Internet for large scale wars online utilizing shared targeting systems, squad-based VOIP and more to promote teamwork.
description
Frontlines™: Fuel of War™ is an open-world First Person Shooter set in the next Great War. In a world ravaged by a global energy crisis, environmental decay, and economic depression, players assume the role of an elite soldier in the “Stray Dogs” strike force in the Western Coalition Army on an epic crusade against the Red Star Alliance to control the last of the world’s oil reserves in the Caspian. Frontlines: Fuel of War combines intensely cinematic, non-linear game play, with next generation firepower and a revolutionary frontline combat system to deliver the most thrilling and engaging FPS to date.
description
In 1931, Winston Churchill was hit by a taxi in New York. In the real world, he survived, and went on to rally the British people to fight the Nazi threat. But what if he hadn’t?
It’s from this premise that Fall Of Liberty takes it’s theme - without Churchill’s leadership, Europe and the United Kingdom have fallen to Hitler’s forces. By 1951, using crushing technical superiority, the United States is invaded and defeated by the Third Reich.
With this setting, Fall Of Liberty will be an FPS experience like no other; a game that’s both a World War 2 FPS and something different. Fighting not as a soldier, but a resistance fighter in a United States of America that’s under the rule of a foreign power.
Exclusive to next-generation platforms and PC, Fall Of Liberty breathes new life into the FPS genre.
We said it would happen, and now it has. EVE Online, the life-ending Icelandic space MMO, is now available for download on Valve's digital distribution service, Steam. It's the first game of its kind to be featured there.
There are two purchase options: you can dive straight in by paying USD 14.95 for your first month, or you can grab a 21-day free trial. That's a whole week more than is available by downloading the trial straight from developer CCP.
EVE recently received a major graphical update, so it's worth checking out. Be warned, though: CCP is planning to keep you playing for the next 50 years.
We know you need it. Now you've got it. ASUS' 7- and 9-inch Eee PCs lined up for a side by side comparison. The new 9-incher is clearly the bigger brother to the shorter original. Too bad too 'cause that chunky bezel on the 7-inch already offers plenty of room for screen-estate growth. You can also clearly see the bigger touchpad and beefier display hinge of the new 9-inch. Check the gallery to see all the hot 9- on 7-inch action.
If you hadn't guessed from the headline, and as rumored just an hour ago, there's 9-inches of LCD on this thing. Actually, 8.9, but who's counting? We found out that and a few other little tidbits about this Eee PC "New Generation" at the ASUS booth just now, but for the most part the 9-inch Eee PC is quite similar to its 7-inch forebearer. Anything past that ASUS is saving for tomorrow's press event when this laptop will become officially official, but whatever they end up calling it (Eee PC 900 is rumored), it's certainly for real. The battery impact of the new display is said to be "negligible," with 2.5 to 3 hours of battery quoted. ASUS wouldn't let us turn it on since it's all so very secret at the moment, but they did confirm some release details. The 9-inch Eee will hit in the "middle" of 2008, with that €399 pricetag for the 12GB version, but other capacities available (we saw an 8GB on display). No word yet on US pricing, but we're trying to pry it out of them.
SEGA Superstars Tennis is a game that brings together some of the most treasured and well known characters from the SEGA universe, in some of the most unusual courts and outrageous settings ever imagined.
SEGA Superstars Tennis has over 15 playable SEGA idols including Sonic the Hedgehog, AiAi from Super Monkeyball fame, Ulala of Space Channel 5 and Amigo from Samba De Amigo. In addition to their own unique attributes, each character will also come equipped with their own superstar tennis skills, putting a whole new spin on each match played!
Exhibition mode offers the chance to challenge Sonic, or the character or your choice, to a match on one of many courts, including Sonic’s home court of Green Hill Zone, or Amigo’s Carnival Park court. Wherever you play there will be a host of SEGA celebrities cheering you on from courtside and by partaking in crazy doubles matches with your choice of partner, you could end up playing against some pretty unusual couples! Prove your SEGA hero is the shining star of SEGA Superstars Tennis by collecting silverware in the Tournament Mode. There will also be the opportunity to unlock a host of exciting extras which will be announced in the near future!
Complementing the Exhibition and Tournament modes, there will also be new and innovative ways of enjoying some of SEGA’s classic titles, plus platform exclusive ways to play the game, including online modes for X360 and PS3 versions!
“SEGA Superstars Tennis has the potential to be one of the most fun and accessible sports games ever.” commented Gary Knight, European Marketing Director. “The fantastic Sumo Digital team has had access to a wealth of SEGA IP and you’ll be surprised at the gaming icons that will be making an appearance!”
Available on the PS3, PS2, X360, NDS, and Wii, SEGA Superstars Tennis will release in early 2008.
The time-honored tradition of stodgy men arguing over things they know nothing about continued in England during last Friday's game censorship debate in the House of Commons, with MP Keith Vaz showing us how it's done while speaking in defense of Julian Brazier's bill to add a censorship level above the British Board of Film Classification. In comparing the interactivity of video games to movies, Vaz unleashed this little gem:
However, someone sitting at a computer playing a video game, or someone with one of those small devices that young people have these days, the name of which I forget-- [Interruption.] PlayStations or PSPs, something of that kind.
"Well, whatever they are called, when people play these things, they can interact. They can shoot people; they can kill people. As the honourable Gentleman said, they can rape women."
The gentleman he is referring to is the bill's author Julian Brazier, though being completely off-base when quoting someone else doesn't excuse you from being off-base in the first place. The man can barely remember what these horribly offensive rape-machines are. When you have to struggle to remember what you were talking about in the first place it's probably a good indicator that you should sit down and shut up.
Luckily for British gamers, the House isn't completely full of uninformed idiots. Conservative MP Edward Vaizey actually took the time to check this claim out with the BBFC.
"Is the honourable Gentleman aware of any video game that has as its intention the carrying out of rape or that allows the game player to carry out such an act? The BBFC and I are unaware of any such game."
Look? Sense! What could the bill's author counter sense with, but more nonsense?
"I cannot comment on the rape in games issue, but I can tell the House what Stefan Pakeerah's father said after Warren Leblanc had murdered his son. He said that "Manhunt" is a game using weapons like hammers and knives...The object of Manhunt is not just to go out and kill people. It's a point-scoring game where you increase your score depending on how violent the killing is. That explains why Stefan's murder was as horrific as it was."
Aha! While I cannot comment on games that allow you to rape women as I know of none, look at this puppet on my other hand! It is a murderous puppet, with a hammer in hand! A video game puppet! Take that!
Taken, and rebutted by Minister of State Margaret Hodge, who explained that not only was the game found to have played no part in the murder, it was the victim who owned the game and not the attacker.
Perhaps the real story here isn't that Mr. Vaz decided to claim erroneously that video games let you rape women, but rather the fact the the House of Commons debates had people present with enough sense to challenge the claim. Good show!
Woe be the PC game developer these days, as various reports put piracy rates in the U.S. at approximately 70-85%.
Pirates?! I'm supposed to be fighting a hydra!
It's no wonder that Epic Games is dumping PC games for the greener pastures of console gaming: piracy rates for the U.S. market alone are hovering around 80%!
And beyond the U.S., the piracy picture becomes even larger and more menacing -- especially if you're an independent developer without "Madden-sized advertising budget," said THQ Director of Creative Management Michael Fitch, who laid out his case against piracy and hardware manufactures in an epic rant at the Quarter to Three forums.
In the post, Fitch attacked pirates, the PC software security model and everything in between. In Europe, he said, piracy rates approach 90%. In Asia, those figures are "off the charts."
"I didn't believe [the data] at first. It seemed way too high. Then I saw that Bioshock was selling 5 to 1 on console vs. PC. And Call of Duty 4 was selling 10 to 1. These are hardcore games, shooters, classic PC audience stuff. Given the difference in install base, I can't believe that there's that big of a difference in who played these games, but I guess there can be in who actually payed for them," Fitch said.
These are hard numbers for any PC developer to ignore, and from the tone of Fitch's message board rant the other day, things are likely to get much worse before they get better. Or should that be "if" they get better?
Assassin's Creed: Director's Cut Edition has slipped to "early April", Ubisoft has told Eurogamer, confirming comments in a Q&A with technical lead Charles Beauchemin released earlier today.
Beauchemin had said, "The game will ship in the early days of April," in an official Q&A distributed to the press this morning, with a 4th March datestamp to suggest it's current, despite Ubisoft's recent release schedules - including the current one - all saying 28th March.
Ubisoft has since told Eurogamer that Beauchemin was correct.
That Q&A also included details of the four new investigation types introduced in the PC version of Assassin's Creed, so be sure to bone up on that if you're interested. We like the sound of the Rooftop Race Challenge ones.
All of the sudden we're starting to see more and more attacks take advantage of what's stored on your computer's RAM -- the latest, from New Zealand's Adam Boileau, allows an attacker to unlock Windows passwords in a just a few seconds using a Linux machine connected over Firewire.
Unlike those disk encryption attacks we saw that required a reboot, Boileu's attack works while the target computer is running, tricking Windows into allowing full write access to RAM and then corrupting the password protection code. That's a little scary -- but other researchers say that it's not a traditional vulnerability, since direct memory access is a feature of Firewire. Still, we're sealing up all of our ports with Silly Putty starting today, that ought to stop 'em.
Update: Apparently this has been demonstrated on OS X as well -- it looks like Firewire's direct memory access is the common vector here.
At CeBit today AMD finally showed off the fruits of its 45nm labors—one server and one desktop chip, a far cry from the 16 Intel launched with Penryn's debut back in January. But, given AMD's woes lately, on the technical and biznass fronts, we're just glad to see 'em.
On the other hand, AMD's refusal to specify when in the second half of '08 they'll launch is a bit worrying—December would basically put them a year behind Intel, and it wouldn't be the first time they've been late. Come on AMD, be awesome again, please. Update: Press release below.
AMD Demos 45nm Native Quad-Core Processors for Server, Desktop
-- Customer Testing of Product Samples Underway --
HANNOVER, Germany. -- March 4, 2008 --AMD (NYSE: AMD) demonstrated at the CeBit electronics exhibition its first 45nm quad-core chips running multiple operating systems and a range of processing intensive applications. The processors were produced in Dresden, Germany, in AMD's Fab 36 300mm manufacturing facility, using an advanced 45nm process co-developed with IBM.
AMD 45nm transistors are engineered to enable greater performance-per-watt capabilities in AMD processors and platforms. AMD combines new processes and materials with leading edge technologies, such as immersion lithography and AMD's fourth-generation strained silicon, for a highly-manufacturable, highly-efficient production process.
This important milestone is the first of many as AMD moves toward delivery of 45nm products later this year. The first 45nm chips demonstrated by AMD include the "Shanghai" product for server and "Deneb" for desktop platforms.
Okay, so it's not like we were oblivious to the fact that NVIDIA's 8800-smashing GeForce 9800 GX2 was just around the bend, but we're getting that much closer to seeing it on store shelves judging by a finished product shown off at CeBIT. The Albatron card you see pictured above is most certainly proof that the mythical GPU is indeed a reality, and while no one in Germany will spill the beans on this thing's specifications, price or release date, feel free to check out a few more snapshots in the links below while clutching any spare change you can.
Strong debuts from four new releases have failed to shift Sega's Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games from the top of the Chart Track All Formats top ten.
Ubisoft's Lost: The Videogame enters the top ten at three, just ahead of THQ's first-person shooter Frontlines: Fuel of War at four.
Microsoft's long-awaited Xbox 360 RPG Lost Odyssey breaks into the charts at six, while Electronic Arts' mega-franchise The Sims hits the number ten spot with the latest expansion pack, The Sims 2: Freetime.
DS Lite hardware sales were also up this week by 24 per cent, thanks to a boost from the white DS bundled with Nintendo's Brain Training software, with the original Dr Kawashima's Brain Training sitting at the top of the DS charts for the 41st time since release.
The full top ten follows:
1. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
2. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training
3. Lost: The Videogame
4. Frontlines: Fuel of War
5. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
6. Lost Odyssey
7. More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima
8. FIFA Street 3
9. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008
10. The Sims 2: Freetime
Mavtak released a new version of his rom manager for PC.
Changelog:
* New Feature: Ability to edit ROM platform, language, maximum number of players, title, and notes
* Tweak: the code for editing a ROM’s rating was re-written to match the same method as editing the platform, language, etc.
* Tweak: .a26 is added as a unique file extension for Atari 2600 ROMs in the default Platform Vocabulary
* Tweak: "JAG" and "J64" extensions for the Atari Jaguar were re-written as "jag" and "j64" in the default .Platform Vocabulary in order to be lower case like all of the other extensions.
* Tweak: Now the "Help" button goes leads to "http://redirect.somewhatgeeky.com?token=friHelpButton", which is a redirection page that allows me to change the final destination outside of FRI.
* Tweak: Right-clicking on nothing in the ROM list no longer brings up the list of options.
Also note that FRI supports editing the information of ROMs in bulk. Just select more than one before you right-click.
Also, I was talking with a friend about FRI, and he brought up an interesting point. Previously I pronounced the FRI "fry", but he thought it was pronounced "free", which makes more sense to me. Now FRI, the Fantastic Rom Indexer, is pronounced "free".
UK retailers are looking forward to continued growth in 2008, with GTA IV leading the way.
"We expect the market to continue to grow based on increase availability of hardware, publishers spreading their release schedule across the year and product innovation," Patrick Kelly, Zavvi's head of games, told GamesIndustry.biz.
"The expectation is that publishers will continue to push the capabilities of next generation hardware and we’ll see some outstanding games during 2008," remarked Play.com's head games buyer, Gian Luzio.
Marc Dean, the home entertainment buyer for Morrisons, agreed.
"We expect developers and publishers to continue broadening the market with more family and mass market products," he said.
Although the retailers think that 2008 will see family/social gaming take a larger slice of the pie - with titles such as Wii Fit and Rock Band - they all agreed that the biggest release of the year will be Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto IV.
Despite some analysts predicting that the PlayStation is poised to have a bright year, the retailers didn't see an end to the "console wars" any time soon.
"The release schedule for 2008 is looking strong for all three formats and pre-orders for cross platform titles such as GTA IV and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed suggest a very level playing field," Luzio said.
"It's unlikely that the console battle will be won or lost in the space of a year."
"I really hope that PS3 comes through for us - it has not peaked as we expected," admitted tgrav.com's Matt Holland.
"However, with more titles launching on the format and some fabulous peripherals I am hopeful that with Sony's support we can deliver some great numbers for them."
"I'm sure Sony are delighted with recent announcements regarding Blu-ray versus HD DVD, but that is only one aspect of the console battle," said Tim Ellis, head of games for HMV.
"Consumers are lucky to have three strong home console propositions with their own USPs and I'm sure we'll still be debating what's best in a year's time."
The complete interview with representatives from various UK retailers can be read here.
With the next major update for World of Warcraft already live on public test servers, and with seasoned WOW-watchers expecting release towards the end of this month or some time in April, it's time to detail what players can expect to see in Fury of the Sunwell - known to decimal point fans as patch 2.4.
Blizzard isn't resting on its laurels after the sweeping changes of patch 2.3, The Gods of Zul'Aman, which was released in November last year. Fury of the Sunwell adds Sunwell Isle to the map - the first ever outdoor zone to be added to the game via a patch. The Isle, located off the northern coast of Blood Elf starting area Eversong Woods, is an adventure hub for max-level players, featuring two new dungeons, a new town and quests, and a new faction.
The first of the new instances is Magister's Terrace, a dungeon for a party of five players, offering both normal and heroic modes and a second pop at Blood Elf lord Kael'thas Sunstrider (also the boss of the raid zone in The Burning Crusade's Tempest Keep).
It's joined by Sunwell Plateau, a new challenge for a full-sized raid of 25 players. This is intended to be the hardest raid in the game until the next expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, appears. Its final boss, Kil'jaeden - who will have to be unlocked by the combined efforts of all players on the server - is acting leader of the Burning Legion and creator of the Lich King. So, Fury of the Sunwell appears to offer a climax to the Burning Crusade storyline, and a bridge to the new adventures in Northrend, expected later this year.
Sunwell Isle also adds a new town and quest hub, Sun's Reach, but this will have to be reclaimed building-by-building from the monsters over-running the island. This will mostly be done through the completion of daily quests. To reflect the new focus on dailies, the limit on them will be raised from ten to the quest log maximum of 25.
Outside of the new content, there will be the usual swathe of adjustments and fixes to class balance, much of it aimed at creating more evenly-balanced player-versus-player combat in anticipation of the forthcoming pro-gaming Arena tournaments. In terms of the interface, Blizzard is overhauling the combat log, with new filtering tools and the ability to define custom colours for friends and enemies.
Not quite the revolution that Gods of Zul'Aman was, then, but Fury of the Sunwell still sounds like a treat for all level-70 players, and a fitting end to WOW's Burning Crusade era. If, indeed, that's what it turns out to be. Ever hedging its bets, Blizzard says it hasn't ruled out further new content before Lich King comes out, in case it gets delayed "for any reason".
Look out for our verdict on the state of WOW today when Eurogamer's MMO channel launches in the coming weeks.
GSC whispered to us the other day that confirmation on an official release date for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky "should happen within the next few weeks" - but in the meantime, check out 12 new screenshots from the prequel.
Once you've eyeballed that lot, read PC Gamer's recent Clear Sky preview which dives into the history of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and the developer's plans for the new game.
As soon as we get word on a confirmed release date, we will of course let you know.
Nintendo will once again look upon the Spanish and German software sales charts with satisfaction as its platforms accounted for the top four places in both charts, and 15 of the combined top ten lists as well.
Few of the titles will come as any surprise, with Spain dominated by Wii Play, Mario & Sonic at the Olympics and the Brain Training titles, with Call of Duty 4 and Unreal Tournament 3 marking the only non-Nintendo platform entries in the top ten.
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi, Big Brain Academy and Triiviial - all for the Wii - completed the top ten for the week ending February 24 according to data compiled by Media-Control GfK International.
Meanwhile in Germany, Mario & Sonic took top spot for the DS, with the Brain Training titles in second and third, and Prof Kageyama's Maths Training in fourth.
Call of Duty 4 was fifth, with Wii Play and Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings in sixth and seventh. World of Warcraft, along with the Burning Crusade expansion, and Super Mario Galaxy finished the list.
The full charts are as follows:
Spain
1. Wii Play (Wii)
2. Mario & Sonic at the Olympics (DS)
3. More Brain Training (DS)
4. Mario & Sonic at the Olympics (Wii)
5. Call of Duty 4 (PS3)
6. Brain Training (DS)
7. Unreal Tournament 3 (PS3)
8. Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi (Wii)
9. Big Brain Academy (Wii)
10. Triiviial (Wii)
Germany
1. Mario & Sonic at the Olympics (DS)
2. More Brain Training (DS)
3. Brain Training (DS)
4. Prof Kageyama's Maths Training (DS)
5. Call of Duty 4 (PC)
6. Wii Play (Wii)
7. Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings (DS)
8. World of Warcraft (PC)
9. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (PC)
10. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
A massive haul of around 30,000 counterfeit DVDs, CDs and Wii Playstation discs worth around Ł500,000 have been seized.
They were destined for car boot sales around Staffordshire and the Black Country.
The raid was carried out at the regular Cocksparrow Lane sale at Huntington near Cannock last Sunday.
The operation involved Trading Standards officers and police.
Three people were arrested and have been questioned and three vehicles impounded by police on suspicion they were involved in the distribution of counterfeit goods.
The Ł500,000 haul included fake Wii Playstation discs and many DVD films which have yet to be released at the cinema.
Several thousand cigarettes and a quantity of rolling tobacco was also seized.
Councillor Carol Dean, cabinet member for safer and stronger communities said: “We need to get the message out there that it is not acceptable to sell these counterfeit goods and that there is a real risk of being caught.
“It is important for consumers to think about the consequences of buying counterfeit products as this can really affect local businesses who struggle to compete with counterfeiters who sell products that legitimate businesses are unable to - such as unreleased films.”
Similar operations are set to take place in the county in future months.
Source Changes
-------------------------
MC6845 updates: [Zsolt Vasvari]
* now signalling both 0->1 and 1->0 transitions of synching pins
* added mc6845_assert_light_pen_input; uses a timer for latching the light pen address
* added reset device function
* implemented VSYNC height computation difference between the Motorola and the Rockwell devices
* since the Commodore 40xx computers program an HSYNC width that extends past the end of the scanline, I am clamping it in lack of anything better to do
* added support for the Commodore 6545-1 device type
* added support for the status register
* better variable names
* more asserts
Updated the "Input (This Game)" menu to support conditional inputs. [stephh]
Converted Amiga based games to partial updating and proper scanline based timers. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Beginning of the clean-up of Space Guerilla - fixed rotation, some other stuff. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Removed use of tmpbitmap from some drivers. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Replaced mame_bitmap with direct use of bitmap_t. Removed mame_bitmap typedef. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Fixed taitoic regression that caused crashes in several games. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Changed the way VBLANK_INTs are handled:
- Defined a new MDRV_CPU_VBLANK_INT_HACK() (in deprecat.h) which is a copy of the current MDRV_CPU_VBLANK_INT()
- Found all the places where VBLANK_INT is used with something other than 1 interrupt per frame and changed it to the new macro
- Removed the "# per frame" parameter from MDRV_SCREEN_VBLANK_INT() and added a screen tag in its place; updated all callers appropriately.
- Added some validation of the interrupt setup to validate.c
Fixed SH4 refresh ticks value of 0, makes awbios not blow up the timer system. [R. Belmont]
Updated dkong driver to use two discrete structs which were previously not being used: [couriersud]
* dkong walk using a jump struct
* radarscp using a dkong 555 struct
MACHINE_DRIVER_EXTERN now requires a semicolon. Removed a number of extra semicolons. [couriersud]
In memory.c: removed some code never to be executed: [couriersud]
* removed "return 0" from READ* macros since it is unreachable
* removed comparisons of type FPTR < 0 and FPTR >= 0
Identified code not used and marked with "#ifdef UNUSED_FUNCTION". [couriersud]
Naomi: Use defines instead of magic numbers for IRQ sources, add VBL-out. [R. Belmont]
Changed parent/clone relationship to separate SSI Poker sets from Jackpot Joker Poker. [Roberto Fresca]
Removed a couple of unused items from the cpuexec_data structure. Added validity check that screenless drivers cannot have a VBLANK interrupt. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Added macros to define device functions. Updated existing devices to use the macros. [Aaron Giles]
Added the concept of device classes. Devices specify their class in their get_info function. Classes can be used to walk through devices at a more general level than their type. Functions have been added to iterate through devices by class just as you can by type. [Aaron Giles]
Removed some unused fields from device_config. [Aaron Giles]
Moved all video timing logic from cpuexec.c to video.c. Added a video_screen_register_vbl_cb() function for registering VBLANK callbanks. Changed inptport.c and debugcpu.c to make use the VBLANK callbacks. Added video_screen_get_time_until_vblank_start(). I did some fairly extensive testing, but this is a very signficant internal change, so some things may have broke. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Removed use of cpu_scalebyfcount() from CVS driver. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Changed a number of global functions to being static. [couriersud]
Rewrote some potentially compiler specific code: [couriersud]
* added ATTR_FORCE_INLINE to osdcomm.h
* added ATTR_NONNULL
* moved U64 S64 fram mamecore.h to osdcomm.h
* define SETJMP_GNUC_PROTECT() in osdcomm.h for use in ppc602, ppc603
Removed cpu_getcurrentframe() and replaced it with video_screen_get_frame_number(int scrnum). Updated all callers. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Moved watchdog processing logic into its own module. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Replaced sprite multiplexing hack in tp84.c with video_screen_update_now() on sprite RAM write. General driver clean-up. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Changed z80dma to new device interface, updated mario.c and dkong.c to use new interface. Illustrates how to keep existing memory read/write handlers. This is slower than caching the device interface, but does not have an impact on devices accessed at a low frequency like in this case. [couriersud]
Added video_screen_get_time_until_vblank_end() and video_screen_get_time_until_update(). [Aaron Giles]
Fixed CCPU and QB3 to no longer rely on cpu_scalebyfcount(). Fixed busted timing in the CCPU core. Changed watchdog to count internally rather than using external watchdog support. Altered CCPU to accept interrupt signals from the driver. Updated clocks in the cinemat driver to be derived from the clock crystal. [Aaron Giles]
Normalized function pointer typedefs: they are now all suffixed with _func. Did this throughout the core and drivers I was familiar with. [Aaron Giles]
Added PORT_CHANGED macro which calls a callback if the given port changes. Usage is very similar to PORT_CUSTOM. See the Astro Invader driver for an example. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Removed input_port_set_changed_callback and converted all users to PORT_CHANGED. The only difference between the old callback and the ones supplied by PORT_CHANGED is that values passed by PORT_CHANGED are normalized to start at bit 0, just like PORT_CUSTOM. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Added running_machine* to the CUSTOM_INPUT callback - updated drivers to use it. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Updated brkthru.c, btime.c, exerion.c, fcombat.c, astrof.c, cheekyms.c, cinemat.c to use PORT_CHANGED. Combined memory maps where applicable. Converted cheekyms.c to use tilemaps. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Merged memory maps for drivers X->Z. [Andrew Gardner]
Exidy440: modernized input port handling with CUSTOM_INPUT and INPUT_CHANGED. Cleaned-up special case handling. Created better separation between driver and video code. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Verified clocks and oki pin7 for Peek-a-boo. [Mike Ellery]
Untangled the Fire Truck driver. Many uses of PORT_CUSTOM and PORT_CHANGED, including another good use case for the gear shift logic. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Updated ladybug.c, lasso.c, m10.c, madalien.c, maxaflex.c to use PORT_CHANGED for coinage. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Added running_machine * parameter to the front of all read/write handlers. Updated all call-through handlers appropriately. Renamed read8_handler to read8_machine_func, replicating this pattern throughout. [Aaron Giles]
Defined new set of memory handler functions which are similar but which pass a const device_config * in place of the running_machine *. These are called read8_device_func, etc. Added macros READ8_DEVICE_HANDLER() for specifying functions of this type. [Aaron Giles]
Added running_machine * to the device_config, live while the device is live, and NULL otherwise, just like the token. [Aaron Giles]
Meadows driver updates: [Zsolt Vasvari]
- Merged memory maps
- Uses PORT_CHANGED for coins
- Renamed 'Inferno (S2650) to 'Inferno (Meadows)'
- Renamed 'Bowling 3D' to '3-D Bowling'
- Added NO_DUMP entries for Gypsy Juggler's ball graphics and added GAME_IMPERFECT_GRAPHICS flag
Fixed sprite colors in Exerion. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Added new macros AM_DEVREAD, AM_DEVWRITE, and AM_DEVREADWRITE, which specify device read/write handlers in address maps, along with the type/tag of the device they reference. [Aaron Giles]
Converted MC6845 read/write handlers to READ/WRITE8_DEVICE_HANDLERs. Updated all MC6845-using drivers to use the new macros and call the updated functions. Removed the many little helper functions that used to do this work. [Aaron Giles]
Added validity checks to ensure that the devices referenced actually exist. [Aaron Giles]
Fixed display of screen information so that it shows live information, not just the original configurations. [SailorSat]
Improved DIP switch definitions, added DIP locations, and simplified input ports in atarisy2.c, atetris.c, avalnche.c, bagman.c, balsente.c, lasso.c, seta.c. [RasnAckeR]
Added DIPs and locations to onetwo.c. [Sonikos]
Corrected some glitches and fixed bank reading in Deal'Em. [James Wallace]
Changed/verified clocks on the following pcbs: 1943, Arkanoid, Action Holliwood GalsPanic, Ben Bero Beh, 1000 Miglia, Pit and Run, Prehistoric Isle, Rastan, Hotmind, Hardtimes, Stagger1 and Tiger Road. [Corrado Tomaselli]
Changed/verified Oki pin 7 on the following pcbs: 1000 miglia, Galspanic, Action Holliwood, Hotmind, HardTimes, World Rally, Stagger1. [Corrado Tomaselli]
Added the new display types to the listxml DTD. [Oliver Stoneberg]
Internal address map constructor changes: [couriersud]
* pass running_machine parameter to construct_map_##_name
* change "Machine->" to "machine->" in AM_BASE_MEMBER, AM_SIZE_MEMBER
* pass Machine in construct_address_map
Mysterious Stones gets the "full treatment". [Zsolt Vasvari]
Fix 8085 RST75 not working with PULSE_LINE. According to datasheet, RST7.5 is latched on rising edge, while the other maskable interrupts are sampled. [Nicola Salmoria]
Removed AM_SPACE and matchmask support. Updated relevant drivers to use AM_MIRROR() and AM_MASK() to achieve the same thing. [Aaron Giles]
Perhaps the ECS G10IL could use some help in the naming department, but it certainly isn't having any trouble bringing a bit of class to the subnotebook market. In addition to those stylish good looks, the G10IL sports a webcam, HSDPA 7.2, three USB ports, Ethernet and a 56Kb modem (joy of joys!). No mention is made of WiFi or Bluetooth, but at least the former seems a given. Other details are slim, but the price is supposedly "sub-$500." Perhaps this "race to the bottom" won't be so horrible after all.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown is set to meet the mother of Stefan Pakeerah, a 14 year-old whose murder in 2004 sparked a row about Rockstar's videogame Manhunt.
Despite repeated evidence showing that the perpetrator of the crime, 17 year-old Warren Leblanc, was not in possession of the game, and despite prosecution and defence lawyers - as well as the police - pouring scorn on the link, the Prime Minister is going to discuss violent videogames with Giselle Pakeerah today, according to the Leicester Mercury.
The move follows ill-advised comments made last Friday in a Parliamentary debate by Leicester East MP Keith Vaz - a long-time critic of one of the most popular entertainment pastimes for a wide cross-section of the population - as rape-simulators.
This allegation was shot down by Conservative MP Ed Vaizey, who pointed out that neither he, nor the BBFC, had ever encountered such a game.
And Minister for Culture, Media and Sport, Margaret Hodge, dismissed links between the Pakeerah murder and Manhunt: "They may have made that statement, but the rationale for the statement is less clear," she said.
"The game was discovered not in Warren Leblanc's possession but in the victim's possession. It does not feature the use of a hammer, and it was not considered by the police to be a contributory factor.
"No such connection was ever suggested in court. Indeed, the prosecution and defence barristers insisted in court that the videogame had played no part in the killing. It was reported that Leblanc was motivated by fear of a gang to which he owed money."
The Byron Report, due later this month, and the CMS Select Committee are both investigating the effects of internet and videogame violence.
Both Keith Vaz and colleague Julian Brazier are set to meet the Prime Minister later today to discuss tougher regulations for videogames.
But Gundam Musou Special for the PS2 is crowned the new number 1
Gundam Musou Special for the PlayStation 2 went straight in at number one in the Japanese software chart for the sales week ending March 2, according to data from Media Create, although Nintendo platforms accounted for seven of the top ten titles.
It sold around 150,000 copies, twice the number that the number one game sold last week - although that title was Super Smash Bros Brawl, which has now been out for some time, and is expected to break the 1.5 million sales mark by the end of March.
Wii Fit took third place, breezing past 1.6 million sales in the process, while the second new entry of the week, Soma Bringer for the Nintendo DS, was in fourth.
Some moderately good news for Microsoft took the form of Xbox 360 music title The Idolmaster: Live for You, which sold 44,000 copies on its first week on the chart, while the previous week's number two, Etrian Odyssey II: The Royal Grail, fell to number six.
Musou Orochi for the PlayStation Portable, Harvest Moon: Shining Sun and Friends for the DS, and Wii Sports and Winning Eleven Play Maker 2008 for the Wii finished up the top ten.
The highest PlayStation 3 title was Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, falling from number seven to number 17.
The full top ten is as follows:
1. Gundam Musou Special (PS2)
2. Super Smash Bros Brawl (Wii)
3. Wii Fit (Wii)
4. Soma Bringer (DS)
5. The Idolmaster: Live for You (360)
6. Etrian Odyssey II: The Royal Grail (DS)
7. Musou Orochi (PSP)
8. Harvest Moon: Shining Sun and Friends (DS)
9. Wii Sports (Wii)
10. Winning Eleven Play Maker 2008 (Wii)
Welcome to this week's Games & Toys update, our weekly summary featuring all new product arrivals from the last seven days.
Several exciting games have been published this week. Get ready to set off to war in the chaotic worlds of Frontlines: Fuel of War and Army of Two [Xbox360™ and PlayStation3™] where a person needs to have both wits and battle skills to survive.
The Japanese and Asian versions of the third installment in the Yakuza series Ryuu ga Gotoku Kenzan! (a.k.a Yakuza 3) for PlayStation3™ have also been published. Taking the players back to the Edo period where the samurai spirit flourishes, this game provides an engaging plot, superb graphics and exciting action.
Aside from war and action games, MLB 08: The Show, the most authentic baseball game also came out this week on PlayStation3™. For people of all ages who enjoy stylistic graphics and excellent game play along with adorable characters, Patapon on Sony PSP™ is for you.
Last but not least, Nintendo Wii Collection Super Mario Galaxy Keychain Gashapon and Nintendo Super Mario Bros. Mascot 2 Keychain Gashapon came out under the toys section this week, and as if that is not enough to sate every Mario fan's thirst Super Mario Galaxy Original Soundtrack has been released along with them.
As usually, here's a summary of all new releases from this week, followed by a quick preview of what is expected to be hot next week.
Xbox360™:
Army of Two ASIA US$ 44.90
Frontlines: Fuel of War ASIA US$ 49.90
LOST: Via Domus US US$ 64.90
Riot Act / Crackdown (Platinum Collection) JPN US$ 34.90
Saints Row (Platinum Collection) JPN US$ 34.90
Senko no Ronde Rev.X (Platinum Collection) JPN US$ 34.90
Super Star Karaoke KOR US$ 69.90
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas (Platinum Collection) JPN US$ 34.90
Turning Point: Fall of Liberty US US$ 64.90
Xbox 360 Arcade Console JPN US$ 299.90
PlayStation3™:
Army of Two ASIA US$ 49.90
Dual Shock 3 (Satin Silver) JPN US$ 59.90
Frontlines: Fuel of War US US$ 64.90
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (w/Guitar) JPN US$ 129.90
LOST: Via Domus US US$ 64.90
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition US US$ 44.90
MLB 08: The Show US US$ 64.90
PlayStation3 Console (HDD 40GB Model) Satin Silver - 110V JPN US$ 429.00
Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan! ASIA US$ 64.90
Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan! JPN US$ 74.90
Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan! (w/ PlayStation3 Console 40GB Satin Silver) JPN US$ 499.90
Turning Point: Fall of Liberty US US$ 64.90
Nintendo Wii™:
Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None US US$ 34.90
Destroy All Humans! Big Willy Unleashed US US$ 49.90
Family Jockey JPN US$ 54.90
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption JPN US$ 64.90
Minna no Joushiki Ryoku TV JPN US$ 49.90
Nobunaga no Yabou: Kakushin with Power-Up Kit JPN US$ 95.00
Nobunaga no Yabou: Kakushin with Power-Up Kit (w/ Sangokushi XI) JPN US$ 139.90
Playground: Kouen de Asobou! JPN US$ 39.90
Sega Bass Fishing US US$ 34.90
PlayStation2™:
Amekoushi no Kan (The Best Price) JPN US$ 34.90
Aria: The Natural (Alchemist Best Collection) JPN US$ 34.90
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (w/Guitar) JPN US$ 129.90
Hisshou Pachinko*Pachi-Slot Kouryoku Series Vol. 10 (Special Price Edition) JPN US$ 34.90
Hisshou Pachinko*Pachi-Slot Kouryoku Series Vol. 5: CR Neon Genesis Evangelion Sekandoinpakuto & Pachislot Neon Genesis Evangelion (Special Price Edition) JPN US$ 34.90
MLB 08: The Show US US$ 44.90
Naraku no Shiro JPN US$ 64.90
Nobunaga no Yabou: Kakushin with Power-Up Kit JPN US$ 95.00
Nobunaga no Yabou: Kakushin with Power-Up Kit (w/ Sangokushi XI) JPN US$ 139.90
Nintendo DS™:
Bomberman Portable (Hudson the Best) JPN US$ 29.90
Brain Assist US US$ 24.90
Bratz: Super Babyz US US$ 34.90
Bubble Bobble: Double Shot US US$ 24.90
Doraemon Waku Waku DS Lite Accessory Set JPN US$ 16.90
Doraemon: Nobita to Midori no Kyojinden DS JPN US$ 48.90
Eiken-Ou: 2-Kyuuhen JPN US$ 39.90
Hana to Taiyou to Ame to JPN US$ 48.90
Hello Kitty Pouch (Enamel Pink) JPN US$ 17.90
Hello Kitty Pouch (Enamel Red) JPN US$ 17.90
Jigsaw Puzzle DS: DS de Meguru Sekai Isan no Tabi JPN US$ 29.90
Naruto: Ninja Destiny US US$ 34.90
Petz Wild Animals: Tigerz US US$ 34.90
Sony PSP™:
Blokus Portable: Steambot Championship US US$ 24.90
Bomberman Portable (Hudson the Best) JPN US$ 29.90
Coded Soul: Uke Keigareshi Idea ASIA US$ 42.90
Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Portable (Ultimate Hits) ASIA US$ 24.90
Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Portable (Ultimate Hits) JPN US$ 29.90
Dungeon Explorer: Warrior of Ancient Arts US US$ 34.90
MLB 08: The Show US US$ 44.90
Patapon US US$ 24.90
The Brave One JPN US$ 14.90
The Invasion JPN US$ 14.90
Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth (Ultimate Hits) ASIA US$ 24.90
Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth (Ultimate Hits) JPN US$ 29.90
PC and MAC™:
Frontlines: Fuel of War (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 39.90
Frontlines: Fuel of War Collector's Edition (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 59.90
Lost: Via Domus (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 34.90
Pro Soccer Club o Tsukurou! Online Beginner's Package JPN US$ 24.90
Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific ASIA US$ 34.90
The Sims 2 FreeTime ASIA US$ 29.90
The Typing of the Dead II JPN US$ 59.90
The Typing of the Dead II [W Pack] JPN US$ 69.90
Turning Point: Fall of Liberty (DVD-ROM) US US$ 44.90
Toys and More:
20th Anniversary Rockman - Official Black Jersey (Size L) JPN US$ 42.90
20th Anniversary Rockman - Official Black Jersey (Size M) JPN N/A
20th Anniversary Rockman - Official Black Jersey (Size XL) JPN US$ 42.90
20th Anniversary Rockman - Official Black T-Shirt (Size L) JPN US$ 29.90
20th Anniversary Rockman - Official Black T-Shirt (Size M) JPN US$ 29.90
20th Anniversary Rockman - Official Black T-Shirt (Size S) JPN US$ 29.90
20th Anniversary Rockman - Official Black T-Shirt (Size XL) JPN N/A
20th Anniversary Rockman - Official Black Windbreaker JPN US$ 49.90
20th Anniversary Rockman - Official Red Jersey (Size L) JPN US$ 42.90
20th Anniversary Rockman - Official Red Jersey (Size M) JPN US$ 42.90
20th Anniversary Rockman - Official Red T-Shirt (Size L) JPN US$ 29.90
20th Anniversary Rockman - Official Red T-Shirt (Size M) JPN US$ 29.90
20th Anniversary Rockman - Official Red T-Shirt (Size XL) JPN US$ 29.90
20th Anniversary Rockman - Official White T-Shirt (Size L) JPN US$ 29.90
20th Anniversary Rockman - Official White T-Shirt (Size M) JPN US$ 29.90
20th Anniversary Rockman - Official White T-Shirt (Size S) JPN US$ 29.90
20th Anniversary Rockman - Official White T-Shirt (Size XL) JPN US$ 29.90
20th Anniversary Rockman Art File JPN US$ 16.90
20th Anniversary Rockman Clear Folder Set JPN US$ 14.90
20th Anniversary Rockman Keychain Gashapon JPN US$ 6.99
20th Anniversary Rockman Towel Scarf JPN N/A
Armored Core 1/72 Scale Pre-Painted Model Kit: Crest CR-C75U2 (Delta Version) JPN US$ 42.49
Dragon Ball Collection Vol. 1 Soft Vinyl Figure: Chi Chi JPN US$ 9.90
Dragon Ball Collection Vol. 1 Soft Vinyl Figure: Kame Sennin JPN US$ 9.90
Dragon Ball Collection Vol. 1 Soft Vinyl Figure: Son Gokou JPN US$ 9.90
Dragon Ball DX 3 Non Scale Pre-Painted Soft Vinyl Figure: Chaoz JPN US$ 16.90
Dragon Ball DX 3 Non Scale Pre-Painted Soft Vinyl Figure: Mr. Popo JPN US$ 16.90
Dragon Ball DX 3 Non Scale Pre-Painted Soft Vinyl Figure: Son Gokou JPN US$ 16.90
Fraulein Revoltech Series No. 003 - Neon Genesis Evangelion Pre-Painted Figure: Asuka Langley JPN N/A
Gundam Mini Figure Selection Plus 10 Non Scale Candy Toy JPN US$ 4.49
Kanon 1/8 Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Sawatari Makoto JPN N/A
Kinnikuman 29th Anniversary Vol. 1 Figure JPN US$ 9.90
Kinnikuman 29th Anniversary Vol. 2 Figure JPN US$ 9.90
Koro Koro Collection Bakuretsu Tenshi Non Scale Pre-Painted Gashapon JPN US$ 2.90
Melty Blood Series III 1/8 Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Akiha Toono JPN N/A
Monster Hunter Big Sword Trading Card (Repackaged Version) JPN US$ 19.90
Monster Hunter Hammer Trading Card (Repackaged Version) JPN US$ 19.90
Monster Hunter Lance Trading Card (Repackaged Version) JPN US$ 19.90
Monster Hunter Sword In One Hand Trading Card (Repackaged Version) JPN US$ 19.90
Nintendo Super Mario Bros. Mascot 2 Keychain Gashapon JPN US$ 1.90
Nintendo Wii Collection Super Mario Galaxy Keychain Gashapon JPN US$ 2.90
Quiz Magic Academy 1/8 Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Aloe & CPU Shalon JPN US$ 54.90
Revoltech Series No. 025 - Transformers Non Scale Pre-Painted PVC Action Figure: Megatron (Re-run) JPN US$ 19.90
Screen Battles SB-03 Transformers Movie Desert Attack Figure set JPN US$ 29.90
Screen Battles SB-04 Transformers Movie Capture of Bumblebee Figure set JPN US$ 29.90
Super Black Jack High Grade Non Scale Pre-painted PVC Figure: Rio (Black Dealer Version) JPN N/A
Super Black Jack High Grade Non Scale Pre-painted PVC Figure: Rio (Red Dealer Version) JPN US$ 16.90
The Movie All Spark Power - Transformers Pre-Painted Figure: MA-20 Arcee (Black Version) JPN N/A
The Movie All Spark Power - Transformers Pre-Painted Figure: MD-23 Stockcade JPN US$ 24.90
Variabl Action Genesis Climber Mospeada Non Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Mospeada Ray Type JPN N/A
Variabl Action Genesis Climber Mospeada Non Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Mospeada Stick Type JPN N/A
Magazine and Game Guide:
Arcadia Magazine [April 2008] JPN N/A
Army of Two: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
Biohazard the Umbrella Chronicles: Art of Arts JPN US$ 19.90
Codes & Cheats Spring 2008: Prima Games Code Book US US$ 9.90
Digimon Championship DS Official Capture Book JPN US$ 16.90
Famitsu Wave DVD [April 2008] JPN US$ 16.50
Frontlines: Fuel of War Official Strategy Guide US US$ 16.90
Harvest Moon Rune Factory 2 Final Perfect Guide JPN US$ 23.90
L: The Prologue to Death Note - Rasen no Wana Official Capture Book JPN US$ 16.90
La Corda d'Oro 2 Perfect Setting Sourcebook JPN US$ 37.90
Sengoku Basara 2 Heroes Anecdote Script JPN US$ 19.90
Suzumiya Haruhi no Tomadoi Official Fan Book JPN US$ 24.90
Tales of Destiny Perfect Guide JPN US$ 21.90
The Sims 2 FreeTime: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
Yggdra Union Complete Tour Guide JPN US$ 29.90
Video Game Soundtracks:
Alice / Again (~A.G.E) JPN US$ 11.90
Alice / Again [CD+DVD Limited Edition] (~A.G.E) JPN US$ 17.90
Bleach Beat Collection 3rd Session: 06 Szayelaporro Granz JPN US$ 9.90
Hamatte Sabotte Oh My Ga! / Nantettatte Densetsu (Lucky Star Intro/Outro Theme Song) JPN US$ 11.90
Last Escort 2 Shinya No Amai Toge Original Suondtrack JPN US$ 29.90
Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan! Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 17.90
Super Mario Galaxy Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 29.90
The Idolm@ster Master Live 01 JPN US$ 19.90
It's fair to call the GeCube an Asus Eee PC clone. With a 7" screen, 2GB of flash storage, Linux backbone and that form factor, I mean, c'mon. The 2.1lb computer does have two things going for it though. It has a splash proof keyboard and...what could the special talent be? (We have a neat picture...)
OMG ITS HEAD POPPED OFF! We kid, the screen can be detached from the keyboard but retains full computer functionality. Now if the GeCube had combined that idea with a touchscreen, many of us would be pretty excited right now. Instead, the GeCube uses a trackpad on the back side (identical to the one on the keyboard). While still not a bad idea by any means, for $450, we wish they'd have splurged for stylus controls.
Those stingy enough to refuse buying Valve's Orange Box for all five of its games can reclaim some of their street cred next month, when the bargain package is split three ways.
Team Fortress 2, Portal and the Half-Life 2: Episode Pack will go on sale on April 9. According to Valve this is a worldwide release, although UK retailers are to list either of the games for pre-order.
Pricing for the US (according to retailers) will be $19.99 for Portal and $29.99 for the other two. Presuming this translates to Ł10 and Ł20 (which it won't) it's still a bit steep considering you can pick up Orange Box PC for Ł25.
Still, the few who found the idea of re-buying Half-Life 2 with Portal disgusting, will now be pleased. The moany g*ts.
Starr Long, producer of science fiction MMO Tabula Rasa, has responded to recent speculation about the game's performance on the NCsoft website. Long admitted that "the game has not taken off as quickly as we had hoped", although he reassured players the company is committed to supporting it with new content.
Tabula Rasa was the subject of a controversial article in the Korea Times two weeks ago. The report claimed it had been a "financial disaster" for NCsoft, leading to layoffs at the company's Austin development studio.
Although NCsoft discredited the article at the time, Long's comments represent the first official indication that the company is disappointed with the game's performance. "We also launched in an insanely competitive time frame, with several well-known intellectual properties launching follow up products at the same time," he observed.
However, Long went on to explain that the downsizing of the development team is a "standard" ramp down from crunch development in the run-up to release. "The fact of the matter is that we are transitioning from a pre-launch crunch-mode development team to a live service team," he said.
"This is standard in our industry - you ramp up to launch a game and then ramp down once it's live. This is what we are doing over the next several weeks, and it only affects the Tabula Rasa team. Once all is said and done, we will still have a substantial live team for industry standards."
According to Long, "NCsoft has committed a lot of money and resources into continuing post-launch development of Tabula Rasa." He offered details on a number of new features and content updates in the works, including dynamic mission flashpoints, the ability to command squads of upgradeable AI soldiers and Personal Armour Units (mechs and mini-vehicles that players can use).
He also said that creator Richard Garriott remains involved in development on a daily basis, in between training to become the world's first second-generation astronaut [and redoing his plait - Dep Ed]. Garriott, the son of scientist and astronaut Owen K. Garriott, will fly to the International Space Station with the Space Adventures space tourism firm in October this year.
Expect extensive Tabula Rasa coverage when Eurogamer's MMO channel launches in the coming weeks.
Famitsu has released the all-time software and hardware numbers for the ‘next-gen’ consoles, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii and the Xbox 360 in Japan.
Wii - 5,366,963
1. Wii Sports - Nintendo - 2,750,365
2. Wii Play - Nintendo - 2,198,039
3. Wii Fit - Nintendo - 1,450,509
4. Super Smash Brothers X - Nintendo - 1,247,632
5. Mario Party 8 - Nintendo - 1,181,118
6. Super Mario Galaxy - Nintendo - 872,463
7. Made in Wario Wii - Nintendo - 568,623
8. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Nintendo - 552,476
9. Mario & Sonic at Olympics - Nintendo - 510,465
10. Super Paper Mario - Nintendo - 505,491
Webzen has confirmed that much-delayed massively multiplayer FPS Huxley will be released in the US in late 2008 on PC. The Xbox 360 will follow around six months later.
Huxley is a fast-paced massively multiplayer shooter set during a mutant war in a post-apocalyptic future, offering both player versus player and player versus environment missions. The Xbox 360 version will also include a single-player campaign.
It was first unveiled at E3 back in 2005 before largely disappearing off the radar. A summer 2006 release date was bandied around at one point, but so much for that.
Now the game, developed by Webzen itself, is scheduled to appear in its native South Korea in the first half of this year before undergoing a six-month localisation process. Webzen told Eurogamer there's no word on a European release so far as plans are still being finalised. In the meantime, you'll find videos of Huxley in action over on the gamepage.
Webzen is also collaborating with Dundee-based Crackdown developer Realtime Worlds on the hotly-tipped crime MMO, All Points Bulletin, and with ex-Blizzard splinter-group Red 5 Studios.
* There was an endianess detection problem in mingw32 since the new savegame format was added in 0.43.4b. The consequence : savegames were incompatible between linux and windows. I have fixed this, and added some code to detect this bug to allow to load the broken savegames in linux...
* history.dat : now handles correctly the long url at start of each entry (avoid a crash)
* The screenshots directory isn't hardcoded anymore in the sources for the game selection dialog (uses the the screen_dir setting of the config file)
* You can finally change the keys for the video layers, just load a game which uses video layers and then go to the inputs section / Video layers... (notice that some games must be started before you can configure the layers, like the cave games).
* Inputs are now reseted when returning to the game, which avoids the problems when calling the gui while keeping a game key pressed.
* Switched from SDL_Mixer to SDL_Sound to decode audio tracks : no more weird crashes with electric fence, adds flac audio support for the audio tracks, and allows to save the position of the audio track in the savegames.
* Fixed a problem with semi transparent sprites which showed only in puzzle bubble !
* Setting the speed to 85% in aof2 didn't work, fixed
* Fixed kof96 neocd collector demo, which was messing with interrupt vectors.
* Added error messages in game when an audio track can't be loaded (either file unreadable, or track not found)
* Added pseudo video layers keys to the neocd driver : you can now disable the 8 first sprites blocks + the fix layer using the F5..F12 keys. Notice that the sprites layers are logical layers, the hardware doesn't handle them directly.
* Fixed the opening b demo in last blade 2 (option->demo viewer->opening
* Inputs are now reseted when returning to the game, which avoids the problems when calling the gui while keeping a game key pressed.
* fullheight scanlines + double width were kaput (old broken asm code)
* Fix the blinking effect of scanlines in windows fullscreen with double buffer enabled
* Add loading animations support - by default they play as they would with an 8x cdrom drive, it seems the best choice between too slow and too fast. You can change their speed in the neocd options in the gui (or set it to off to disable completely the animations).
* Fix some possible corruption in the savegames, but old ones can still create corruption, try to use only savegames created with this version.
* savegames are compatible again between linux & windows
* handles the urls in history.dat without crashing.
* You can finally change the keys for the video layers, go to the inputs section / Video layers...
* Fixed loading directly an iso passed on the command line, it was broken since 1.0.5.
A press release for Play.com's Live event revealed that Lego Indiana Jones, slated to be playable at the event, is coming to retail channels on June 6. Eurogamer has confirmed the date with the ever-reliable "Top Secret Games Industry Source" and, frankly, we're happy for our European readers who don't have to wait for the usual long delay between North American release (coming June 3).
The June 6 date reportedly applies to all platforms: PC, PlayStation 3, PS2, PSP, Xbox 360, Wii and DS. Eurogamer's source also noted that Lego Batman is coming later this year.
The latest console sales in Japan are in and a change in the first 3 rankings are to been seen today:
Playstation Portable: 73,706
Nintendo Wii: 64,535
Nintendo DS Lite: 51,922
Playstation 3: 13,520
Playstation 2: 10,986
Xbox 360: 2,282
PSP sales shoot past both the Wii (increase roughly 1,000) and the DS Lite (up 1,800) by a staggering 20,300 units. The PS3 (up about 500), PS2 (up about 1,300) and Xbox 360 (down 281) stay in the previous positions as last week and the week before and so on....
Microsoft wants to bring something along the lines of Xbox Live Marketplace to Games for Windows Live.
"You can be confident we want to enable things like digital distribution, the ability to do downloadable content for games - that's a direction we're definitely headed in," GfW senior global director Kevin Unangst told Eurogamer in an interview published today.
"We don't have anything specific to announce in terms of timeframes right now."
Unangst also reflected on some of the lessons learned during GfW's first year. "Going out of the gate, we weren't as clear as we should have been that Games for Windows Live on the PC is free," he admitted.
"You don't have to pay for Gold. If you want to play cross-platform games, that's when you need a Gold subscription...
"We were not as clear as we could have been. People assumed we were trying to bring the Xbox model over to the PC, which we were not."
Unangst said Microsoft would "continue to invest" in Games for Windows, which apart from giving its games an Xbox Live-style service layer with friends lists, Achievements and the like, also insists that games be easy to install, support widescreen displays and include parental controls.
Check out the full interview for more, including Unangst's views on the PC Gaming Alliance.
Major League Baseball 2K8 returns to the diamond with the most complete MLB experience available on every major video game console. Revolutionizing your control of the 5 tools in baseball are brand new pitching, fielding and baserunning controls and completely overhauled batting interface. Featuring a totally unique trading card mode, robust Minor League system, all-new Signature Style animations for 2008, and more, Major League Baseball 2K8 brings a new level of fun to the virtual baseball world.
The US versions of 2k Sport's Major League Baseball 2K8 for Xbox360™, PlayStation3™, Nintendo Wii™, PlayStation2™ and Sony PSP™ systems are in stock today.
Changelog for emuControlCenter WIP 10 (php-gtk 2.0)
- implemented direct unpack of zip files for emus without zip support
- fixed problem for games containing invalid characters like % and &
- fixed problem with F12 - hide info area
- fixed Incorrect parsing string
- fixed bug if rom add for arcade platforms is canceled
- removed some php warnings
- add some fixes for new php-gtk2 2.0
emuControlCenter is an rom manager/startcenter supporting more than 100 arcade (including also MAME), console, handheld, computer and misc (java handy games, flash) systems. (Complete list here)
You your own images or use downloadable imagepacks (mame imagepack available), add metadata, ratings and reviews and use the online romdb (latest additions here) and use the real simple extended search functions.
1UP recently added some fuel cells to the fire of the relatively aged rumor that the result of Bioware and LucasArts' recent collaboration is an MMORPG which takes place in the long-winded universe of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. While one could make a case for and against this claim, a script for the game, which apparently landed in the laps of 1UP's digital ink slingers, could prove conclusive evidence for the online epic -- if it's completely legit, that is.
The script details the online game as a "role-playing game set in the historical past of the Star Wars universe," where "Jedi and Sith battle across the galaxy." While those two phrases could apply to many chapters of the Star Wars mythos, the tipster who submitted the script was convinced it carried Bioware's trademark verbosity. We're confused -- how will we be expected to spend hours mindlessly grinding and spawn camping with all of that dialog getting in our way? Hopefully they'll fix that in beta.
The night before the retro computer event MadriSX 2008, improvements in the IRQ and VSync signals provide precise synchronization ("Dragon's Lair", "Kat-Trap"), bugfixes in the FDC support Titus' disc protection scheme ("Wild Streets", "Knight Force") and the Z80 search function and ZIP support have been improved as well.
- Select parent game was bugged
- Access violation with columns profiles if a column index is invalid
- Several visual bugs
- Button "Resize screenshots area" was not working correctly in some layout
- Prev/next images browse buttons were bugged (blue ones)
- Image types auto cycle feature not working in some cases
- Add/remove to/from favorites/hidden list was not working right
- MAME features: "record .wav; .mng"; "record/play .inp; .sta" was not working. Funny no one reported this... does anyone use these features ? Sad
- Button "Clear Selected" not working in "Delete Multiple Games Files"
- Several cosmetic fixes (too many to list)
- Open picture dialog, replaced by open file dialog
Changed
- Image type is now known as "Image Category". Entries in "EmuLoader.ini are changed as well
- Renamed "Show Command Line Before Running Game" to "Run Game Confirmation Dialog" (main menu "View")
- Renamed "Auto Cycle Previous/Next Image Types" to "Image Category Prev/Next Auto Switch" (images popup menu)
- Column "Description" renamed to "Title"
- Renamed "Resize screenshots area" to "Center Splitters (Resize Images)" (images popup menu)
- Feature "Automatic Game Documents" is now called "View Game Documents"
- You cannot rename image files while in layouts view
- Replaced game documents tool bar panel by a popup menu (mouse right-click)
- Moved "\resources\msgbox_icons\" folder to "\resoureces\images\msgbox_icons\"
- Support for multiple OpenGL pixel formats.
- Improved support for color profiles.
- Many window management fixes.
- Better fullscreen support.
- Lots of bug fixes.
Major bugfixes:
* Fixed the bug where the SRAM went back in time after entering the UI
* Fixed sprite collision when games don't update the sprite tables every frame (Bomberman 2 works again)
* Fixed a bug which may have caused sram corruption
No longer broken from alphas:
* Added the punchout hack back in
* Re-added PPU hack
* Re-added cheat finder
Minor bugfixes:
* Fixed a cheat finder bug (kept old cheats active after changing games)
* Fixed bug where savestates did not load correctly from previous alphas
Enhancements:
* Changed IRQs for Mapper 69 [FME-7], (Mr. Gimmick, Return of the Joker...)
* Savestates now save sound information
StarCraft II is without shadow of a doubt one of the biggest RTS releases this year on PC and you can see it in all its shiny glory in these new screenshots.
The shots have accompanied a community-led Q&A session with Blizzard in which the developer answers questions on units, the possible inclusion of potential bugs (?) and promoting the sequel as an eSport.
We're not expecting anything other than a classy experience from StarCraft II.
PC title The Sims 2: FreeTime went straight into the number one slot in the German chart, and Pro Evolution Soccer for the PlayStation Portable has hit the top of the Spanish chart, according to data from Media-Control GfK International for the sales week ending March 2.
The new entries broke Nintendo's usual dominance of the European charts which has seen various DS or Wii titles take the top slots and bulk out the majority of the two top ten lists for most of this calendar year.
In Germany Mario & Sonic for the DS was pushed into second, followed by Brain Training and another new entry, Frontlines: Fuel of War.
More Brain Training was fifth, followed by Maths Training and Call of Duty 4.
New Super Mario Bros, Wii Play and World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade rounded out the top ten.
Meanwhile in Spain Wii Play followed Pro Evolution Soccer 2008, while Lost Odyssey was another new entry in third.
More Brain Training, Mario & Sonic for the DS and The Sims 2: FreeTime took fourth to sixth places respectively, while Mario & Sonic for the Wii was seventh.
Brain Training, Call of Duty 4 and FIFA 08 for the PlayStation 2 completed the top ten list.
The full charts are as follows:
Germany
1. The Sims 2: FreeTime (PC)
2. Mario & Sonic at the Olympics (DS)
3. Brain Training (DS)
4. Frontlines: Fuel of War (PC)
5. More Brain Training (DS)
6. Maths Training (DS)
7. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC)
8. New Super Mario Bros (DS)
9. Wii Play (Wii)
10. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (PC)
Spain
1. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PSP)
2. Wii Play (Wii)
3. Lost Odyssey (360)
4. More Brain Training (DS)
5. Mario & Sonic at the Olympics (DS)
6. The Sims 2: FreeTime (PC)
7. Mario & Sonic at the Olympics (Wii)
8. Brain Training (DS)
9. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PS3)
10. FIFA 08 (PS2)
We've been wondering since the dawn of time - well, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration - about the PC hardware specs that'll be required to pump Age of Conan polygons around our monitor, and they've now been confirmed.
Ready to weep or cheer? Here we go...
Required:
OS: Windows Vista/XP
Processor: 3GHz Pentium IV
RAM: 1GB RAM
Video Card: Shader Model 2.0 and 128MB RAM: NVIDIA GeForce 5800 or ATI 9800
Recommended:
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz (E6600) or better
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 7950GX2 or better
RAM: 2GB or more
Enhanced for: DirectX 10, 64-bit processors, multi-core
Supports Parental Controls on Windows Vista
Age of Conan releases on PC on May 20. There's an Xbox 360 version in development too but Funcom's keeping that under wraps currently.
In a recent interview, Asus CEO Jerry Shen talked up the company's newest edition to the Eee family, and also dropped a few more details on the forthcoming laptop. Apparently, the new set of miniature PCs will up the SSD capacity, with sizes ranging from 8GB in the XP-equipped model, up to 12GB or 20GB in the Linux versions -- though it's hard to say why the smaller-footprint Linux would need more drive space. Shen also revealed that there are tentative plans to release WiMAX and HSDPA-enabled models sometime in Q3 of 2008, and he confirmed that come May the company will trade up to Intel's Diamondville (er, Atom) chips. In addition, more colors are on the way, and the base price in the US will be $499 at launch -- though that figure is expected to drop in the following months.
Acknowledging the "data corruption bug" that's been ravaging Windows Home Servers since Christmas, Microsoft today warned users NOT to:
• "Use applications to directly edit or change files stored on Windows Home Server"
• "Use media management programs, such as Windows Media Player, to import files to the Windows Home Server"
• "Redirect applications to access files stored in the shared folders"
Instead, users are instructed to move files to and from the server only by hand, using Windows Explorer or a command line tool. Promise of a fix was cautiously optimistic, but not exactly speedy:
The issue can now be reliably reproduced and a fix is in development. Once the patch has passed internal quality bars, external participants will be asked to help test the fix. Our current plan is to release beta test versions of a fix over the next few months, with a final version currently estimated for June 2008.
Some of you will probably want to get on board with that beta test. In the meantime, let's all heed those warnings.
TG Daily is running an interesting interview with EPIC founder and Unreal creator Tim Sweeney. Sweeney is anyway very clear about his views on the gaming industry, but it is surprising how sharply he criticizes the PC industry for transforming the PC into a useless gaming machine. He's especially unhappy with Intel, which he says has integrated graphics chipsets that 'just don't work'
ELPSA's own CTU, the Anti-Piracy Unit has struck again, by capturing and sentencing a Welshman for producing and selling copied games. When will they learn that you just don't mess with the APU?
Codename "Operation Buzzard" (we told you they were badass) saw the capture of a 46-year-old man, nicknamed the Welsh Games Barron (by us), who has now been sentenced for four years imprisonment for his dirty game copying deeds.
Upon hearing of the Cullen's shady dealings, ELPSA's black helicopters descended on West Hollywood... erm, we mean Coed Mawr market in Flintshire, where the Cullen's ran a stall with a massive banner that said 'The DVD man - for all your top quality DVDs at rock bottom prices'.
Cullen and his 25-year-old daughter were charging Ł5 each for the illegal games as well as offering three for Ł10 or seven for Ł20 (you just don't get deals like that at GameStation).
A series of coordinated raids seized equipment used in the manufacture of illegally copied games and large quantities of counterfeit goods.
When it was discovered that the Barron, the cheeky git, had claimed nearly Ł69,000 in Income Support despite often flying first class to Thailand, the feds got really pissed and imposed a further Ł190,000 confiscation order.
And if he doesn't pay it within six months? Another three years in the nick. Have that.
His daughter was sentenced to eight months imprisonment, 150 hours unpaid work and 50 lashes (we made one of those up).
Michael Rawlinson, managing director of ELSPA, commented: "ELSPA would like to thank everyone involved with Operation Buzzard for their work and helping to protect local traders and the general community from the effects of pirated goods.
"The simple fact about piracy of video games, music and films is that it is illegal and punishable by fines, Community Service and jail sentences. No matter which way you look at counterfeiting it is nothing more than theft. Counterfeiters are only out for one thing: money. And because of this consumers who buy counterfeit games have no recourse under law for faulty goods."
Electronic Arts' new IP Army of Two has knocked Sega's Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games off the top of the UK All Formats charts.
Army of Two is the first new property to take the number one spot in 2008, as sales of Sega's sports game drop by 32 per cent.
Sixty six per cent of sales for the EA game are on the Xbox 360, with the remaining 34 per cent on Sony's PlayStation 3.
There are two other new entries in the top ten this week – Rockstar's Bully: Scholarship Edition from Mad Doc at number four and Relic's Warhammer: 40,000 Dawn of War Soulstorm at number eight.
The only top ten title to have increased it sales this week is Midway's Game Party on Wii, up from number 13 to number seven.
The other two new entries in the top forty are THQ's MX Vs ATV Unleashed at 18 and Koei's Dynasty Warriors 6 at 19.
The full All Formats top ten follows:
1. Army of Two
2. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
3. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training
4. Bully: Scholarship Edition
5. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
6. Frontlines: Fuel of War
7. Game Party
8. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War Soulstorm
9. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008
10. Lost: The Videogame
Remember that tiny little Windows Home Server glitch that was causing files to become corrupt for no apparent reason? Well, Microsoft has stepped up to bat with a fix... for June! That's right, all you have to do is hang on to your data-shredders for a few more months and the boys in Redmond will have this one sealed up tighter than a drum.
The company has changed this issue's Knowledge Base article to reflect the new target, and suggests that users can avoid problems for the time being by using a command-line tool to move files, setting shared folders on WHS to read-only, and not using things like WMP to import to a home server -- certainly not the solutions most people are after. The company has also posted a note about the KB article on its WHS Team Blog, which we wouldn't call a straight-up apology, though it definitely has apologetic overtones.
On the bright side, Microsoft says only a small number of users are having this issue, so in all likelihood, you don't even know what we're talking about! Lucky you.
SEGA Superstars Tennis is a game that brings together some of the most treasured and well known characters from the SEGA universe, in some of the most unusual courts and outrageous settings ever imagined.
SEGA Superstars Tennis has over 15 playable SEGA idols including Sonic the Hedgehog, AiAi from Super Monkeyball fame, Ulala of Space Channel 5 and Amigo from Samba De Amigo. In addition to their own unique attributes, each character will also come equipped with their own superstar tennis skills, putting a whole new spin on each match played!
Exhibition mode offers the chance to challenge Sonic, or the character or your choice, to a match on one of many courts, including Sonic’s home court of Green Hill Zone, or Amigo’s Carnival Park court. Wherever you play there will be a host of SEGA celebrities cheering you on from courtside and by partaking in crazy doubles matches with your choice of partner, you could end up playing against some pretty unusual couples! Prove your SEGA hero is the shining star of SEGA Superstars Tennis by collecting silverware in the Tournament Mode. There will also be the opportunity to unlock a host of exciting extras which will be announced in the near future!
Complementing the Exhibition and Tournament modes, there will also be new and innovative ways of enjoying some of SEGA’s classic titles, plus platform exclusive ways to play the game, including online modes for X360 and PS3 versions!
“SEGA Superstars Tennis has the potential to be one of the most fun and accessible sports games ever.” commented Gary Knight, European Marketing Director. “The fantastic Sumo Digital team has had access to a wealth of SEGA IP and you’ll be surprised at the gaming icons that will be making an appearance!”
Available on the PS3, PS2, X360, NDS, and Wii, SEGA Superstars Tennis will release in early 2008.
Sniping, eh? We've all done it. Well, virtually none us have done it, but if we had then we would have wanted night vision goggles, because then we could have done it after work in the dark rather than having to try and fit it in at lunchtime. Night vision is back in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2, and you can see why it's so influential in our exclusive Night Vision Eurogamer TV trailer - one of the key reasons being that you can combine it with a rifle scope.
Lead multiplayer game designer JP Cambiotti tells us that night vision goggles, returning from Vegas 1, "remain a really important gadget in many areas". "You will have plenty of opportunities to use night vision," Cambiotti explains, "specifically in the Nevada desert where night time means everything is pitch black and there are many long lines of sight to cover.
"You can keep your night vision on throughout most of the map, or use it when you get to certain spots that require you to see more details or enemies that you could not see without them. The ability to see well at night also allows you to play through the map in a more stealth manner." And save money on lightbulbs.
But Cambiotti explains that it's important to make use of other tools too; night vision allows you to see further into the dark than thermal imaging alone, but the latter can be used to accurately identify enemies in close proximity, so it's worth keeping both handy to hunt down all the tangos. "Your night vision goggles are specially adapted to work with your snake cam, giving you a great tactical tool," says Cambiotti. "If you're using the snake cam and having trouble seeing, turning on your night vision goggles will allow you to observe properly, then plan and act according to the best strategy."
Check out the trailer to see whether you agree. The full game's due out on PS3 and 360 from 20th March, with the PC version arriving on 17th April. Watch out for more trailers and other Vegas 2 excitement later in the week, and our review in the middle of next.
I can't believe I could fix so many bugs in so little time...
I can't promise I found them all, but at least that's quite a few of them which are gone.
Thanks again to the testers on the forum, and to electric fence, still usefull after all that time Grin
This version is focused on bug fixes, but a few improvements made their way in this version too, like saving automatically the autofire configuration...
Next version should be more interesting, but these fixes were really necessary anyway !
Raine is upgraded to 0.50.9, since a few of these fixes affect it too.
* The autofire options are fixed and they are now saved with your game options (as custom controls).
* Fixed a stupid graphical glitch which can happen after a loading sequence (like on the title screen of last blade 2).
* Fixed again scanlines (asm problem) + double pixel scaler (same problem)
* Fixed a possible crash when using normal blits and loading a new game
* Remapped custom keys : the multimedia keys were recognised before, bad very badly mapped since they could cause a serious buffer overflow. So they have been remapped and if you used some non standard keys in your mappings you'll have to remap them using the gui.
* The loading is now progressive when animations are enabled, this produces a smoother animation and allows to better see some effects (notice that at speed > 2, it can still be not totally smooth because at these speeds the number of sectors loaded by frame can vary from frame to frame).
* the turbo key (default: del) becomes like the game keys : keep it pressed to enable turbo, release it to go back to normal.
* When changing a control, you now have the option to delete it.
* Fix again some corruption in the savegames. This correction might fix some savegames saved before this version, but you might be obliged to create new savegames to be sure to get rid of the problem (tested with samsho4).
* When loading a game with animations enabled and the game uses a resolution of 304x224, there could be some glitches left on the borders of the screen after the initial animation, it's fixed now.
* Fix problems with starting some loading animations (breakers).
* Add handling of direct writes to fix area for over top, the only game I know which needs this ! And fix the animations of overtop which were bad begining at level 2
* Fix a remarquable bug with the memory pool : if you played in windowed mode with normal blits and resized the window while playing a game by draging a border of the window, the memory pool had an overflow after about 1s of resizing, which was ending in a violent crash ! The memory allocation is now more resistant to this kind of fun !
Notice the bug could happen only if your window manager resizes the window in real time, that is if it sends redraw messages every time the size changes. MS Windows doesn't do that normaly, it happened in kde for me.
* Until now if you pressed the windows key by mistake, windows throws you to the desktop, but if you were in the middle of a game, you had a ugly message when you came back, and raine/neoraine exited after you validate the message. Well it's windows specific behaviour... anyway now when you press this damned key, you are still thrown to the desktop (I don't think I can do anything to prevent this !), but you can continue your game when you come back with alt-tab. Notice that the game is not paused in this case !
* Recompile the windows version of sdl_sound with smpeg support to be able to play some weird kind of mp3s called "free format" which couldn't be played in 1.1.0. Now if you find another unplayable format, the error message will appear on the game screen instead of the console since usually there is no console in windows !
* If starting a game which had a title bitmap (which appears after you have done "load game") in normal blits at a resolution such that width > 640 and height < 480, then you had a crash. It's fixed too !
Judging by a Next Month page in the latest issue of PC Gamer (UK), which is now in the hands of subscribers, THQ is soon to unveil Warhammer: 40,000: Dawn of War 2.
The advert, which you can see on the left and is bigging up the magazine's April 10 issue, features a silhouette of what's surely a character from the WH40K universe accompanied by the teasing words "Are you ready for a new dawn?"
THQ was unavailable for comment at the time of writing, but a Dawn of War 2 reveal looks a dead cert.
PC Gamer UK is of course one of CVG's brothers in arms. But would they tell us more? It's a sad day when mag journos give us a "no comment" just like every publisher does. We'll just have to wait and see then...
Ubisoft has told Eurogamer that Rainbow Six Vegas 2 for PC will still be arriving on 17th April, not one week earlier as a freshly made schedule suggested this morning.
However, Assassin's Creed on PC and DS will be out on 11th April, as will Victorious Boxers on Wii and GRAW 2 Legacy Edition on Xbox 360 - featuring all the downloadable content released on Live so far.
Elsewhere Haze is still non-committal and lurking in financial Q1 2008 for the publisher, which means it will be out sometime between April and June.
Activision is gearing up to release Kung Fu Panda, a comedy cartoon martial arts adventure based on the film of the game name, in May.
You play as Po the Panda on a mission to become a Dragon Warrior. You journey with the Furious Five; Monkey, Tigress, Viper, Mantis and Crane, to battle against the inevitable super-evil dude, Tai Lung.
It may not feature a moody ninja that slices off the limbs of his foes, but it does have "kung fu awesomeness" and "bodacious humour" according to Activision. Though it sounds like the release was penned by Bill and Ted.
The game will pack 13 levels, as well as co-op and versus multiplayer modes and will be available for all formats and then some (PS3, 360, PC, DS, Wii and PS2, but not the NES or Atari 2600, unfortunately).
This 5 Key Wirless Optical Mouse use original optical engine,has a modern appearance with ergonomic principies.It can work at different desktops without a mouse pad and feel comfortable.The switch life is 5 million times.
Wireless technology
Brower navigation key
3M operation range
Support system WIN95/98/ME/2000/XP/Vista/MacOS
Switch life is 5 million times
The NPD Group has released new data from its "Entertainment Trends in America" report, which the firm plans to make available to clients later this spring. According to the data based on a sample of more than 10,000 U.S. consumers, while the video game industry saw retail revenue triple in growth in 2007, hardcore gamers (defined as those who played video games daily or several times each week) actually spent most of their entertainment budgets on non-gaming entertainment.
"These consumers remain more likely to buy a DVD or CD, than they are to purchase a new video game. In fact, 58 percent had purchased a new DVD in the past six months, 46 percent bought a CD, and 43 percent purchased a game for a console," NPD stated.
* Small updates
- Improved ECC OS detect
-- Slightly improved the way to detect the OS system.
-- Removed the php_mbstring DLL, it's not used anymore, now using a internal PHP function to lowercase the OS string.
- Fixed CRC32 calculation error on large files.
- Fixed script creation with notepad++.
* Small Platform updates
- Robotron KC: Renamed 'Robotron KC' to 'Robotron KC series'.
- Atari 8-bit: Renamed 'Atari 8-bit' to 'Atari 8-bit series'.
- Amstrad/Schneider PCW/Joyce: Renamed 'Amstrad/Schneider PCW/Joyce' to 'Amstrad PCW/Schneider Joyce'.
- Capcom Playsystem 3: Replaced the logo by a darker one (like CPS1 & CPS2).
- Bandai Wonderswan Color: Removed the 'color' logo from the screen.
- Amstrad CPC: Replaced the logo and re-made the teaser.
- Amstrad PCW/Schneider Joyce: Replaced the Amstrad logo and re-made the teaser.
* ECC Startup
v2.1.3.3: Fixed an issue where ECC did not return to the original 'maximized' size when ECC was minimized.
* ECC Live!
v3.0.0.4: Fixed crash when updating ECC Live! to a more recent version.
v3.0.0.5: Fixed an infinite loop when a update is not for the operating OS or installtype.
v3.0.0.6: Adjusted to work with ZIP files instead of RAR files, this because there is no suitable RAR extension for PHP-GTK2 in feature update.
* ECC Live! updater
v1.1.0.6: Adjusted to work with ZIP files instead of RAR files, this because there is no suitable RAR extension for PHP-GTK2 in feature update.
* ECC Bugreport
v2.2.0.3: Adjusted the way the bugreports are stored on the server.
v2.2.0.4: Fixed a bug that would not remove the temporary log file.
Kotaku has unearthed a new trademark filed by SEGA, indicating that the company is working on a new game in the Sonic franchise.
Sonic Unleashed is described in the trademark filing as "video game software" so there's high confidence that it's the title for a new game, but that's all the info we've got right now.
SEGA is currently unable to offer any form of comment.
What do you think the new game could be? The next game for Xbox 360 and PS3, another Wii game in the style of Secret Rings, maybe a new handheld game. Let us know in the comments section below.
Asus has never been one to shy away from making from making bold predications about it's fast-selling Eee PC, and it's now come out with yet another feat of prognostication, saying that it expects it's forthcoming Windows-based Eee PC to outsell its Linux-based counterpart by a ratio of 6 to 4.
As PC World points out, that's despite the fact that the Windows version will cost nearly twice as much as the cheapest Linux-based Eee PC. Asus chairman Jonney Shih seems undaunted by that fact, however, and assures us that "a lot of people have been waiting for the Windows version."
It's all a silly misunderstanding, we tell you. Microsoft has been holding fast to its "three years" development time frame for Windows 7 since forever, the problem is that it's never been clear when that three year period started. Well wonder no longer, Microsoft has finally officially confirmed that the three years started at Windows Vista's general availability release, which was January 30th, 2007.
Obviously that doesn't mean will have Windows 7 on midnight of January 30th, 2010, but it does mean we can look forward to sometime within that year for a release. Microsoft plans to give an exact release date only once Windows 7 "meets its quality bar for release." Sounds like a good metric to go by, if you ask us.
Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) is proud to celebrate the ninth anniversary of the launch of the ground-breaking MMORPG, EverQuest this weekend. After its launch in 1999, EverQuest would prove to be a monumental entertainment property, spawning more than a dozen expansion packs, numerous cross-platform game properties and introducing millions of players to the virtual world of Norrath.
"It's a great feeling to know that after nearly a decade, and fourteen expansions, EverQuest still resonates so positively with people all over the world," said Clint Worley, Producer, Sony Online Entertainment. "Alongside its flourishing community, the in game world is still going strong and changing daily, further proving EverQuest is a living and breathing virtual world that will stay active into the foreseeable future."
In honor of the ninth anniversary, EverQuest is hosting a variety of in game and fabled events throughout the year, the first of which are connected to the Planes of Power. On March 16th, a scavenger hunt will start with the NPC Garin Tvalish in Plane of Tranquility in which Garin will give players a clue book and a bag. Players will then get to figure out which items from the Planes of Power expansion those clues refer to, and combine them together in the bag to receive an in game reward. Also kicking off March 16th is a month-long in game event linked to the divinities and servants of the Planes of Power. Players will also notice that the might has increased for their favorites, such as the Thunder Giant Hreidar Lynhiilig and Rallos Zek the Warlord, allowing them to challenge the current player base. The gods have also been updated with commensurate loot to properly reward adventurers who are willing to take them on.
Welcome to this week's games news update. Since the toys section have been removed from the games update and takes up a separate one all for itself, from this week onwards, this news update is to be dedicated to games and games alone.
Many exciting games have been published this week. This includes the largest scale fight which every gamer is eagerly waiting for, the US version of Super Smash Bros. Brawl is in stock. Meet your favorite characters, fight with them and defeat the evil together. Along with the game, Super Smash Bros. Brawl Prima Official Game Guide is also available at Play-Asia.com.
Another popular title released this week is the God of War: Chains of Olympus that delves into Greek mythology and the question of self sacrifice and redemption. God of War: Chains of Olympus Official Strategy Guide is also available at the event of the player losing themselves in this mythological world.
Silent Hill: Origins conjures a world of horrors such that only the fittest may survive. Face the terror in this game and find out about the deepest, darkest secrets that have been plaguing the hero Travis Gradys since childhood.
To those who wishes to step away from the combat and horror, Play-Asia.com brings you the sports game Major League Baseball 2K8 to your PlayStation3™, and a funny retelling of everyone's worst high school nightmare, Bully: Scholarship Edition [Xbox360™ and Nintendo Wii™].
As usually, here's a summary of all new releases from this week, followed by a quick preview of what is expected to be hot next week.
Xbox360™:
Army of Two US US$ 64.90
Bully: Scholarship Edition US US$ 54.90
Cabela's Big Game Hunter ASIA US$ 44.90
History Channel: Battle for the Pacific ASIA US$ 44.90
Major League Baseball 2K8 US US$ 64.90
SKATE JPN US$ 64.90
Soldier of Fortune: Payback ASIA US$ 44.90
Super Star Karaoke KOR US$ 69.90
PlayStation3™:
Army of Two US US$ 64.90
Major League Baseball 2K8 US US$ 64.90
SKATE JPN US$ 64.90
Winning Post 7 Maximum 2008 JPN US$ 68.90
Nintendo Wii™:
Baroque for Wii JPN US$ 64.90
Bully: Scholarship Edition US US$ 54.90
Major League Baseball 2K8 US US$ 59.90
Ninja Reflex US US$ 44.90
Super Smash Bros. Brawl US US$ 59.90
Transformers: The Game JPN US$ 59.90
Winning Post 7 Maximum 2008 JPN US$ 64.90
PlayStation2™:
12Riven: The Psi-Climinal of Integral JPN US$ 64.90
12Riven: The Psi-Climinal of Integral [Limited Edition] JPN US$ 89.90
DDRMAX2 Dance Dance Revolution (Greatest Hits) US US$ 24.90
Daito Giken Koushiki Pachi-Slot Simulator: Shin Yoshimune JPN US$ 49.90
Dance Dance Revolution Extreme (Greatest Hits) US US$ 24.90
Kenka Banchou 2: Full Throttle (PlayStation2 the Best) JPN US$ 34.90
Major League Baseball 2K8 US US$ 34.90
Neon Genesis Evangelion Battle Orchestra (Broccoli Best Quality) JPN US$ 34.90
Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection US US$ 24.90
Silent Hill: Origins US US$ 34.90
WWE Smackdown vs. Raw Superstar Series US US$ 34.90
Winning Post 7 Maximum 2008 JPN US$ 64.90
Nintendo DS™:
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare JPN US$ 48.90
Card File 12 (Chocolate) JPN US$ 6.99
Card File 12 (Lime) JPN US$ 6.99
Card File 12 (Mint) JPN US$ 6.99
Card File 12 (Sesame) JPN US$ 6.99
Card File 12 (Strawberry) JPN US$ 6.99
Chicken Hunter US US$ 24.90
Cleaner Cloth DS Lite (Lime) JPN US$ 5.99
Cleaner Cloth DS Lite (Melon) JPN US$ 5.99
Cleaner Cloth DS Lite (Mint) JPN US$ 5.99
Cleaner Cloth DS Lite (Mocca) JPN US$ 5.99
Cleaner Cloth DS Lite (Strawberry) JPN US$ 5.99
Contra: Dual Spirits JPN US$ 48.90
DS Bimoji Training JPN US$ 39.90
Duel Love: Koisuru Otome wa Shouri no Joshin JPN US$ 52.90
Eco Creatures: Save the Forest US US$ 34.90
Edo Bunka Rekishi Kentei DS JPN US$ 39.90
Hayate no Gotoku! Ojousama Produce Daisakusen Boku Iro ni Somare! Gakkou-Hen JPN US$ 58.90
Hayate no Gotoku! Ojousama Produce Daisakusen Boku Iro ni Somare! Oyashiki-Hen JPN US$ 58.90
Imagine: Figure Skater US US$ 34.90
Kage Densetsu: The Legend of Kage 2 JPN US$ 39.90
Kantan! Tanoshii! Okashi Navi DS JPN US$ 39.90
Koinu no Heya JPN US$ 48.90
Let's Ride: Friends Forever US US$ 34.90
Mahou ni Kakeraete JPN US$ 48.90
Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer US US$ 34.90
Ninja Reflex US US$ 34.90
Petz Bunnyz US US$ 34.90
Shibou Nenshou Keikaku: YaseTore!! DS JPN US$ 39.90
Shugo Chara! 3-tsu no Tamagoto Koisuru Joker JPN US$ 48.90
Simple DS Series Vol. 33: The Crossword & Kanji Puzzle JPN US$ 28.90
Simple DS Series Vol. 34: The Haisha JPN US$ 28.90
Touch Pen Leash DS Lite (Black) JPN US$ 4.99
Touch Pen Leash DS Lite (White) JPN US$ 4.99
Yu-Gi-Oh GX: Spirit Summoner (Konami the Best) JPN US$ 29.90
Sony PSP™:
Chessmaster: The Art of Learning ASIA US$ 29.90
Dead Head Fred ASIA US$ 32.90
Easy Pouch Portable (Black) JPN US$ 6.99
Easy Pouch Portable (Silver) JPN US$ 6.99
FlatOut: Head On ASIA US$ 34.90
God of War: Chains of Olympus US US$ 44.90
Inner Pouch Portable (Camouflage Gray) JPN US$ 7.99
Inner Pouch Portable (Camouflage) JPN US$ 7.99
Major League Baseball 2K8 US US$ 34.90
Parodius Portable (Konami the Best) JPN US$ 29.90
Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection US US$ 24.90
Salamander Portable (Konami the Best) JPN US$ 29.90
The Brave One JPN US$ 14.90
The Invasion JPN US$ 14.90
Twinbee Portable (Konami the Best) JPN US$ 29.90 Game Guides:
Bully: Scholarship Edition Signature Series Guide US US$ 19.90
F-Zero GX US US$ 15.90
God of War: Chains of Olympus Official Strategy Guide US US$ 19.90
Pro Evolution Soccer 2008: Official Guide and DVD US US$ 19.90
Super Smash Bros. Brawl Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
Tales of Innocence Perfect Guide JPN US$ 27.90
Calendars & Books:
DevaShard: At First Light Hong Kong US$ 6.99
Luna Sea Comeback Live Documentary Foto Booklet JPN US$ 49.90
School Calendar 2008/2009: Arashi JPN N/A
School Calendar 2008/2009: Hey!Say!Jump JPN US$ 29.90
School Calendar 2008/2009: Johnny's Jr. JPN US$ 29.90
School Calendar 2008/2009: Kanjyani8 JPN US$ 29.90
School Calendar 2008/2009: Kat-Tun JPN N/A
School Calendar 2008/2009: NEWS JPN N/A
School Calendar 2008/2009: Tackey & Tsubasa JPN US$ 29.90
Video Game Soundtracks:
Sana-molle Collection JPN US$ 36.90
Toshihiro Nagoshi's Yakuza juggernaut steamrolled Super Smash Bros. Brawl this week, keeping it from reclaiming the number one spot and putting a PlayStation 3 title at the top of the Media Create charts. With such an impressive debut, we wouldn't be surprised to see Yakuza 3 Kenzan! retain first place next week and give a big, big boost to PS3 hardware sales. With the PSP topping last week's hardware charts, could we see the PSP and the PS3 outselling Nintendo hardware in Japan? Doubtful, but we'll know in a few hours if the console world is about to spin off its axis.
Oh, look! Wii Sports has sold nearly 3 million copies in Japan! Should be there by next month anyway. For the rest of the software showdown make the jump.
01. Yakuza 3 Kenzan! (PS3) - 181,000 / NEW
02. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) - 50,000 / 1,408,000
03. Wii Fit (Wii) - 49,000 / 1,659,000
04. Gundam Musou Special (PS2) - 39,000 / 189,000
05. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii) - 32,000 / NEW
06. Wii Sports (Wii) - 19,000 / 2,838,000
07. Soma Bringer (DS) - 17,000 / 68,000
08. Doraemon: Nobita to Midori no Kyojinden DS (DS) - 17,000 / NEW
09. Musou Orochi (PSP) - 16,000 / 87,000
10. Minna no Joushiki Ryoku TV (Wii) - 14,000 / NEW
11. Harvest Moon: Kira Kira Taiyou to Nakama Tachi (DS)
12. Wii Play (Wii)
13. Etrian Odyssey II: Shoou no Seihai (DS)
14. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd (PSP)
15. Family Ski (Wii)
16. Nobunaga's Ambition: Kakushin with Power-Up Kit (PS2)
17. Mario Party DS (DS)
18. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (DS)
19. Winning Eleven Play Maker 2008 (Wii)
20. Akagawa Jirou Mystery: Yasoukyoku (DS)
21. Gekihou-Han Keroro Gunsou 3: Action! Tenkuu Daibouken de Arimasu! (DS)
22. Mario Kart DS (DS)
23. Taiko Drum Master DS (DS)
24. New Super Mario Bros. (DS)
25. Animal Crossing Wild World (DS)
26. World Soccer Winning Eleven: Ubiquitous Evolution 2008 (PSP)
27. Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (PS3)
28. Yakuza 2 (PS2)
29. Zaidan Houjin Nippon Kanji Nouryoku Kentei Kyoukai Koushiki Soft: 250-Mannin no KanKen (DS)
30. Tokimeki Memorial: Girl's Side 2nd Season (DS)
Source Changes
--------------
Fixed flickering in Electric Yo-Yo. Changed qix driver to use the
MC6845's VSYNC notification for interrupts. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Removed machine from the parameters of some of the device_get_info
and device_set_info calls because that information is stored
with the device now. [Aaron Giles]
Changed device interfaces to pass the device_config * rather
than tokens and individual bits to the device callbacks. Updated
all existing devices accordingly. [Aaron Giles]
A number of changes to remove references to screens by index and
make the video system based strictly upon the screen devices:
[Zsolt Vasvari]
* changed vblank_state_changed_func to now have a device_config
argument
* removed runnning_machine as the first parameter of a VBLANK
callback
* removed video_data from running_machine
* private state screen information now hangs off the public one,
instead of the other way around
* combined video_global and video_private into a single structure
* moved populating screen_state from mame.c to video.c
* removed defstate; the default screen parameters live in
screen_config directly
* moved 'refresh' from public to internal video state and renamed
it to 'frame_period'
* changed all drivers that previously accessed 'refresh' to use
video_screen_get_frame_period()
* changed VIDEO_UPDATE signature to pass the screen device
* added const device_config *primary_screen to running_machine
* changed first argument of video_screen_* functions to take a
device_config; all callers that used 0 for the screen number now
use machine->primary_screen
* changed game info screen and overlay UI to display the screen tag
instead of screen number
* added video_screen_get_visible_area()
* changed render.c to use screen devices
* removed direct driver access to machine->screen[] array
* added video_screen_auto_bitmap_alloc(screen)
* the Dynax/Don Den Lover games now do their updating in VIDEO_UPDATE
instead of VIDEO_EOF. Seems to have fixed the palette problems
* hooked up swapped videoram in Karnov properly -- same idea as
Burger Time
* removed the public screen_state object -- all access is via
functions
* removed screen[] object from running_machine
* removed MAX_SCREENS constant -- there is no longer a hardcoded
upper bound
Changed the MC6845 to take and pass device_config's only. The
following shook out from this that are applicable to other devices
as well: [Zsolt Vasvari]
- running_machine is no longer taken, passed or stored
- mc6845_t is now private
- since passing device_config's is not device type safe, I added a
get_safe_token() to mc6845.c to check the device passed in for
the valid type.
Removed video_data from running_machine. Private state screen
information now hangs off the public one, instead of the other way
around. Combined video_global and video_private into a single
structure. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Fixed the crash in Galaga caused by the slightly altered video timing.
[Zsolt Vasvari]
Converted address maps to tokens. Changed the address_map structure
to house global map-wide information and hung a list of entries off
of it corresponding to each address range. Introduced new functions
address_map_alloc() and address_map_free() to build/destroy these
structures. Updated all code as necessary. [Aaron Giles]
Fixed several instances of porttagtohandler*() in the address maps.
Drivers should use AM_READ_PORT() macros instead. [Aaron Giles]
ADDRESS_MAP_EXTERN() now is required to specify the number of
databits, just like ADDRESS_MAP_START. [Aaron Giles]
Removed ADDRESS_MAP_FLAGS() grossness. There are now three new macros
which replace its former usage. ADDRESS_MAP_GLOBAL_MASK(mask)
specifies a global address-space-wide mask on all addresses. Useful
for cases where one or more address lines simply are not used at
all. And ADDRESS_MAP_UNMAP_LOW/HIGH specifies the behavior of
unmapped reads (do they come back as 0 or ~0). [Aaron Giles]
Changed internal memory mapping behavior to keep only a single
address map and store the byte-adjusted values next in the address
map entries rather than maintaining two separate maps. Many other
small internal changes/cleanups. [Aaron Giles]
Changed MC6845 to take a screen tag instead of a screen number.
[Zsolt Vasvari]
Voodoo now takes a device_config for the screen. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Changed TMS34010 to take a screen tag instead of screen number.
[Zsolt Vasvari]
Replaced the following macros (SMH == static memory handler)
This removes the silly need for a bunch of redundant constants
with faux type definitions that didn't buy anything. [Aaron Giles]
Moved some memory system constants into memory.c. [Aaron Giles]
Converted atarigen and tms34061 to be handle based. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Changed how the PowerPC MMU is enabled at compile time, to cut down
on the amount of unused functions in MAME. [Nathan Woods]
Some additional memory system cleanups: [Aaron Giles]
* Made address versus byte offsets explicit throughout.
* Removed some unused parameters.
* Consolidated initialization process.
* Removed maximum memory block count.
* Centralized bank management.
* Added masked handlers and change_pc to the accessors.
* Added memory_get_accessors() to return a pointer to the accessors
for a given address space/databus width/endian configuration.
Adds some new 6845 varieties: MC6845-1, H46505, HD6845 and SY6545-1.
[Zsolt Vasvari]
Moved crosshair code from video.c into its own module. Simplified
crosshair logic and made it screen device based. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Saturate MultiPCM on clip and fix envelope discontinuity. [ElSemi]
Fixed loading mixer settings when the driver default value is
calculated. [Nicola Salmoria]
Removed cpu_scalebyfcount(). Changed input ports to register a frame
callback, which is called immediately after throttling and updating.
This is the proper "sync point" between emulated time and real time.
Moved all analog and digital port processing into a central place
here. Added tracking of time since the previous frame update and use
that as an estimate for the time of the current frame. This is used
to scale analog ports without the use of cpu_scalebyfcount(). This
is not perfect in the case where frame rates are dynamic (vector
games), but works well for other cases. [Aaron Giles]
Fixed VBLANK end time computation and video_screen_get_vblank() --
they weren't taking into account games that use
MDRV_SCREEN_VBLANK_TIME. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Fixed 68000 prefetching operation. Previous behavior was incorrect.
[Aaron Giles]
Changed slapstic management to always install an opbase handler to
more aggressively catch code executing in the slapstic region.
Updated all drivers to separate the slapstic region of ROM into a
different ROM section from the fixed ROM. [Aaron Giles]
superqix.c changes: [Mike Haaland]
- Changed vblank interrupts to 3 to fix screen drawing issues.
- Used memory_configure_bank() to configure memory.
- Added save states.
Added some clock frequency changes which were documented in u4 but
which did not apply due to operator error. [Corrado Tomaselli]
Added layout to crop corners in Electric Yo-Yo. [Mr. Do!]
Added support for Sega Virtua Processor, to run Genesis/MegaDrive
version of Virtua Racing, intended to be used by MESS. It consists
of a CPU core SSP1601, and updates in megadriv.c: [notaz]
* SSP1601 replaces SSP1610, as it has been confirmed that SVP
actually contains SSP1601. The current SSP1610 is only a
placeholder (nearly completely unimplemented) anyway.
* Changed megadriv.c add a new driver for Genesis/MegaDrive+SVP
combination, also add SVP memory controller logic and memory map.
Phase 2 of the Deal 'Em input changes (these work well with the
default cabinet type, I need to do some conditional input work
to fix them fully), and also a conversion to the resnet code.
Unfortunately, this still doesn't fix the apparently needed
transparency. [James Wallace]
Simplified inputs, improved DIP switches, and added DIP locations
to punchout.c, bankp.c, and baraduke.c. [RansAckeR]
In asuka.c, created MACHINE_START( asuka ) to configure cpu2 banks
with memory_configure_bank(). All drivers support save states, with
the exception of cadash and clones, the background does not load
properly. [Mike Haaland]
Fixed M68000 build logic to only include it if enabled. [Fabio Priuli]
New games added or promoted from NOT_WORKING status
---------------------------------------------------
Amuse (Version 50.08 IBA) [Pierpaolo Prazzoli]
Joker Poker (Version 16.03B) [Pierpaolo Prazzoli]
Super Bowl (Version 16.03B) [Pierpaolo Prazzoli]
Pit Boss II [Mariusz Wojcieszek]
Super Pit Boss [Mariusz Wojcieszek]
Pit Boss Megastar [Mariusz Wojcieszek]
Megatouch IV [Mariusz Wojcieszek]
Megatouch IV Tournament Edition [Mariusz Wojcieszek]
Megatouch 6 [Mariusz Wojcieszek]
New clones added
----------------
Raiden Fighters (Austria) [Corrado Tomaselli]
* Fix the mess between default and custom controls created by the autofire saving ability
* Prevent a crash when messing with the autofire before a game is actually loaded
* Fix bad palette in kof96ng (it's a general fix, the palette actually uses a mirror).
* The turbo control works as expected with a joystick too (release the control to stop the turbo effect).
* Help the user from turning animations off in the middle of a loading animation and prevent last blade 2 from geting lost if we use a low speed of loading. Also make the loading progression bar slightly more precise, and survive if the user changes the cdrom speed in the middle of a loading animation.
* small improvements to the gui, and added the ability to change most of the colors (gui options / Colors).
* fixed speed too fast in some places for janshin (Quest of Jong Master)
- Added driver for Double Dragon 3 / Combatribes
- Added driver for WWF Wrestlemania
- Added driver for Kyugo Z80-based hardware
- Updated the pacman driver to the latest version released by iq_132
- Added iq_132s Bank Panic driver
- Added iq_132s Mr. Do driver
- Added iq_132s Mysterious Stones driver
- Added iq_132s The New Zealand Story driver
- Added clone of Real Bout Fatal Fury to Neo-Geo driver
- Added clone of Metal Slug 5 to Neo-Geo driver
- Added clone of Dungeons & Dragons: tower of doom to the CPS-2 driver
- Matched all sets to MAME 0.123u4
- added: support for upcoming new xml datfile headers
- added: support for 4 new datfile header fields (date, email, url, homepage)
- added: support for new game/gamelist tags and cmpro's rebuildto/date tags
- misc: all datexports now use the xml format
- misc: engine.cfg's cachefile tag is obsolete. Every profile is cached now.
- misc: setinfo also shows romof and rebuildto information
- misc: rebuilder memory for no recompress is limited to 1/2 physical ram or 1GB max
- misc: some WINE related updates for non modal progress window
- fixed: /xml commandline parameter crashed when reading xml dats
- fixed: removing parent/clone relationship didn't set romof tag correctly
- fixed: red/green profile indicator is not reset when updating an exe based dat
- fixed: rebuilder remove source can accidently remove an empty backup folder
- fixed: scanner's automatic move to correct set failed in some cases
You know a few days back, when we've said that Sega and Obsidian Entertainment are working on a Bond-style RPG? Well, it turns out they are and both Sega and Obsidian have officially confirmed it. It's an espionage themed action RPG and you'll be playing as a young rogue - agent Michael Thornton.
“Alpha Protocol blends Obsidian’s knack for intricate stories, engrossing characters, and significant character advancement with fast-paced modern combat. Alpha Protocol embraces everything we enjoy about making RPGs from a fresh perspective. We are confident our talented staff at Obsidian will enable us to deliver this exciting RPG experience,” said Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart.
They're calling the game Alpha Protocol and are preparing it for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms. Apparently, it's slated for a 2009 launch.
Another week passes and another update for console sales in Japan are in with the change in the first 3 ranks:
Nintendo Wii: 57,068
Playstation Portable: 53,924
NintendoDS Lite: 48,658
Playstation 3: 21,008
Playstation 2: 10,429
Xbox 360: 2,891
PSP slides by roughly 19,800 into second place while the Wii tops it despite taking a 7,500 drop. The DS lite sinks further by around 3,300. PS3 see a rise by 6,500, PS2 dips 500 and the Xbox 360 up by 9, virtually no different to last week's reading.
Following the earlier news that Video Appeals Committee had reaffirmed its decision regarding the release of Manhunt 2, and the BBFC's admission that further action on its part was likely to yield realistic results, Rockstar is now working towards a new release date for the title in the UK.
"We are pleased that the VAC has reaffirmed its decision recognizing that Manhunt 2 is well within the bounds established by other 18-plus rated entertainment," a company statement read.
"Rockstar Games is committed to making great interactive entertainment, while also marketing our products responsibly and supporting an effective rating system."
The version of the game to be released in the UK has been confirmed as the same one currently available in the US under a Mature rating - the version which was rejected by the BBFC the second time around.
A Rockstar spokesperson told GamesIndustry.biz that due to the news of the VAC's decision only breaking earlier today, no official decision had yet been made on a release date, but discussions were expected to take place shortly.
UK stores have not taken delivery of stock in anticipation of any decision, so the title will not hit the shelves immediately.
NPD's US hardware sales figures for the month of February have revealed Nintendo is winning, you will be shocked and stunned to hear.
More than 587,000 DS units were shifted during the month - that's more than twice the number of PSPs sold (243,000).
The Wii was in second place with 432,000 units shifted. The PlayStation 2 outsold its big brother with more than 351,000 units snapped up compared to the PS3's 280,000. Xbox 360 was in fifth place, racking up sales of 254,000 consoles.
But Microsoft will have been cheered up by news that the two best-selling games of the month, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Devil May Cry 4, were both on Xbox 360. Wii Play came in at No. 3 followed by the PS3 version of DMC4.
In fifth place was Guitar Hero III for Wii, while the PS2 version made it to No. 9. Mario & Sonic at the Olympics DS was at six, followed by more Xbox 360 games - Lost Odyssey and Turok - at seven and eight. The Xbox 360 version of Rock Band rounded off the chart at No. 10.
See, said Microsoft, everyone likes us really, pointing out that USD 332 million was spent on Xbox 360 games and consoles during February - compared to USD 283 million on Wii and USD 235 million on PS3. And besides, the company claimed, again, stock shortages meant it didn't have enough machines to sell.
The number of Americans who own an Xbox 360 has now reached 9.6 million. The figure for Wii stands at 8.1 million while for PS3 it's 3.8 million - though it's worth remembering that Microsoft's console had a head start.
People are buying more games for 360, all the same; the attach rate is now 7.2 games per console, nearly double the rate for Nintendo and Sony's machines.
Who cares, said Sony, we sold 10 per cent more consoles than you, and year-on-year sales growth is up 120 per cent. According to bossman Jack Tretton, "Consumers are recognising the tremendous value of PS3 and we believe that Blu-ray becoming the high-def format of choice was the tipping point for many consumers."
He reckons the release of titles like Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, Metal Gear Solid 4 and Grand Theft Auto IV will make this "the year for PS3".
Hahaha whatever said Nintendo, having kicked both Sony and Microsoft's faces off in no uncertain terms. "Our momentum has not let up since the holidays and we expect it to continue throughout the year," observed Nintendo of America exec Cammie Dunaway.
"We have the industry's strongest line-up of games for everyone from core to casual gamers." And the strongest lineup of gold bars, diamond rings and luxury yachts, of course.
Valve has said it will be releasing the separate components of The Orange Box in shops from 11th April.
This only applies to the PC version, and will feature Portal as the cheapest offering at around GBP 19.99. Half-Life 2: Episode 2 and Team Fortress 2 will both be around GBP 29.99. Obviously shopping around could knock considerable margins off those prices.
Worth noting that Team Fortress 2 will include the Badlands map and you will obviously be able to grab the other recent updates for it through Steam.
The individual games have been available on Steam from launch, and their stand-alone success has prompted Valve into action.
"Given the unique nature and length of the games inside The Orange Box, the compilation approach was the right vehicle for the debut of these titles at retail," said Doug Lombardi, mouth of Valve.
"With the flexibility of having different pricing and packaging options via Steam, we were able to test the market viability of the individual products. The results show an overwhelming demand for these stand-alone offerings as well as The Orange Box. This gives us tremendous confidence as we bring gamers more ways to get these titles at retail."
Portal was our 2007 Game of the Year, with Team Fortress 2 at nine, and Half-Life 2: Episode 2 at 33.
Take command of two new factions, the Sisters of Battle and the Dark Eldar, and fight with a new resource derived from the souls of the faithful and the fallen.
Strategic warfare in the 41st Millennium takes to the skies as each army gains new air units to rain death from above. Every map, battle and strategy in Dawn of War has just been reinvented!
Wage war across an entire solar system. Liberate, enslave, or destroy entire worlds as you unleash your army's fury on an interplanetary scale. Experience unique storylines, control your supply lines and lead any one of nine separate armies to victory in the largest Dawn of War campaign ever envisioned.
Customize your hero’s weapons, items and abilities as he grows in power and personalize your army’s insignias, colors, banners and names. Earn and unlock achievements and medals as you prove your superiority online in 29 NEW multi-player maps. Includes all previous Dawn of War maps for a stunning 114 maps in total!
Groundbreaking Hybrid Expansion design allows Soulstorm™ to be played alone, or combine it with Dawn of War, Winter Assault, and Dark Crusade to create the largest RTS ever!
* Fixed the loading animations "flashes", during, after or before the animations (thanks to Juveno41 for the animation he found on youtube, it helped a lot !). It also finally explains why the animations of overtop were bad from level 2 : they were not supposed to be shown at all !
* Fix a stupid mistake which could cause a bad restoration of savegames in some situations
* Some part of the gui could remain visible after the game was started...
* The depencies for raine and neoraine are now in different files to avoid to reproduce the mistake of version 1.1.2 with the bad windows binary !
* Fixed an irq problem in the cave driver which was freezing esprade at the 1st boss. The cause is the new version of starscream which is more precise with interrupts, I even wonder how the cave driver could work the way it was before that... anyway it's fixed, but it could happen in some other raine games (luckily very few drivers have a complicated interrupt system like the cave driver).
* The recent gui changes could make some part of the gui to remain visible after a game had been started... lack of tests here, sorry !
Coinciding with the new film, Sega has scheduled the release of the movie tie-in game, The Incredible Hulk, for June 2008 on Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, DS, PS2 and PC.
The game will feature moments from the film, as well as additional plotlines and characters drawn from the Marvel universe.
Taking control of the Hulk himself, players can smash through anything in their paths and even use the debris as weaponry. According to Sega, damage is persistent and gamers can use it to gain access to otherwise unreachable areas.
Like the Spiderman games, the Manhattan skyline plays a major part in the gameplay as the Hulk can traverse skyscrapers like a greener, angrier (and more agile) version of King Kong.
Sega also promises that the game will reference other Marvel comics and include a wealth of sub-quests and mini games.
With each release of the Iron Man Video Game trailer (today being the third version of it), things are looking better for the metal head. SEGA released the new trailer for the upcoming game to accompany the upcoming movie in May 2008. Iron Man The Video Game will be available on the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, DS, PSP and PCs.
See the latest Iron Man video game trailer (as of 3/14/08) below. Added 21 screens below, taken from the higher-res video!
While talking with Sony Online Entertainment President John Smedley about his company's integration with Sony Computer Entertainment, GameDaily BIZ also questioned him about the state of PC gaming. Little did we know that we'd get such a passionate response to our question.
Clearly, the assertions by certain people in this industry that PC gaming has to take a backseat to consoles and that the PC games market is in trouble has rubbed Smedley the wrong way. He told us, "It's ridiculous and foolish to say that PC gaming [is in decline]. I've seen some of the dumbest quotes out there about the business [falling apart]. It's just not true. The simple truth is the online business is picking up in a huge way. If you're able to add in – and NPD is beginning to track this stuff – the digital sales and regular sales and subscription money and all that stuff, the PC gaming industry is at its strongest point in its history period."
He continued, "I keep reading all this doom and gloom. It's the same guys that have been telling us for years that mainframes are doomed. If you just look at the actual facts on the ground, World of Warcraft – and I have to give props to our competition here – it sat on top of the PC charts for three years now. At some point, and everybody keeps talking about this, but they're just not realizing that a lot of people's dollars are going into these online games now and a lot of them you can buy truly digitally, which isn't getting tracked. It's as simple as that."
Recently Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney commented that the PC is "good for anything, not just games," and he talked about the decline of the PC as gaming platform. Naturally, Smedley doesn't agree with this viewpoint.
"I would argue greatly and disagree with his statements. In my opinion, PC gaming is at its brightest point ever. If you look at the number of people out there playing games like Runescape - 11 million active players – or Webkinz or Club Penguin or WoW or EverQuest II... If you just start doing the math on all these games, there's just a hell of a lot of people out there playing. What's happening though is their playing habits are changing, and they're going more towards a different business model. So the Webkinz or the Runescapes, where it's free to play with sort of a velvet rope model, these are the new PC gamers that are playing this kind of stuff, or they're playing on Pogo or Microsoft's Gaming Zone... all these different things that are taking people's attention. It's not that dollar sales are down; it's just that retail PC sales are the narrow focus that ignorant people are looking at."
For long-suffering fans of the Red Alert series, the revelation last month that work on Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 is now underway at EALA was welcome news indeed. Red Alert is one of the seminal real-time strategy games, of course, and the original is still one of the most beloved games of all time. Of course, EA didn't reveal much in its press release announcement, so we went straight to executive producer Chris Corry himself to talk about the game, which is due for the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 this holiday season.
IGN: Red Alert 3 was recently revealed. It's been a while since the last one, hasn't it?
Chris Corry: There actually hasn't been a Red Alert game for a little while now; it's been seven years. It's kind of interesting reintroducing the world to Red Alert. For those who are already familiar with Red Alert games and their place in the C&C universe, certainly Red Alert 3 is going to be everything that the hardcore fans have been looking for. It's going to have that trademark, light, humorous, fun, Saturday matinee popcorn feel to it, with live-action cinematics and all these great actors chewing up the stage.
IGN: Is that what you consider to be the distinction that makes Red Alert different?
Chris Corry: We think of there being two universes that reside under the Command & Conquer brand. When we think about Command & Conquer, we think about sort of a style of play. So it's fast, fun, fluid RTS gameplay. But then underneath that we have the Tiberium universe, which C&C 3 lived in and that's the dark, gritty, brooding sci-fi world of Kane and Nod and GDI. It touches on some pretty serious themes; environmentalism, religion versus science, and other themes. And it really chronicles the journey of Kane.
Blimps are cool.
And then very distinct and separate from that we have the Red Alert universe. We really think of Red Alert being not so much about World War II or the Cold War, but it really is about time travel and the unintended consequences that can occur from meddling in areas that no man has a right to. The way that manifests itself in the game is this series of alternate histories. In Red Alert 2--and we're carrying it through to Red Alert 3--it's also kind of a fundamental shift in tone where we're trying to not take ourselves nearly as seriously as the Tiberium universe does. There's a little bit of tongue-in-cheek there, and it really is about that humorous, bright saturated experience, as opposed to that dark, gritty, sci-fi experience.
IGN: Tell us about the setting and the story, and is it directly related or connected to the events of the last game, or is it a completely different timeline?
Chris Corry: I touched on that time travel theme. The events that kick off Red Alert 3 really come back to that. Our story opens with the Allies and the Soviets going at it again, but this time the Allies have beaten the Soviets back and have the upper hand. The Soviet leadership is cowering behind the walls of the Kremlin; their defeat is imminent and all but certain. At that point, sort of crazed with desperation, the leadership descends into the bowels of the Kremlin into their secret labs where they have this skunk works project going on. They fire up this prototype of this device which is a time machine that's never been used before. And their intention is to go back in time and erase Albert Einstein from the timeline. Of course, Albert Einstein in the previous games has been instrumental in the technological advances that made the Allies so successful...
IGN: And he shot Hitler!
Chris Corry: And you see that kind of parallel there from Red Alert 1, which has kind of a similar dynamic with Einstein going back to erase Hitler.
So the Soviet leadership goes back [in time] and they do it. They take our good man Albert out. They come back to the present day and it looks like the operation has been a resounding success. Moscow and the Kremlin have been resorted to their former glory. It looks like the operation has gone off magnificently. Of course, that lasts for a healthy two minutes, and then all of a sudden alarms and klaxons start going off, and all the monitors come to life, and the aids come rushing in and they realize that they're under attack. But they're not under attack this time from the Allies. They're under attack from this huge, intimidating superpower that they have inadvertently spawned on the world stage: the technology cult of the Empire of the Rising Sun. And they realize with this sinking feeling in their gut that by meddling with time, they haven't erased the Allies. The Allies are still there; the Allies are still a threat. But they've actually spawned a second mortal enemy, and that kicks off the third Red Alert war, where we now have this triumvirate of the Soviet, the Allies, and the Empire of the Rising Sun.
IGN: You say that and everyone is going to think Japan.
Chris Corry: It is Japan. I really like to call them the Empire of the Rising Sun because it makes them more ominous and it makes them different. And they are different. The great thing about using Japan is that it works for us in a lot of great ways. We wanted to make sure that we were brining something new and fresh and exciting to the Red Alert experience, and Japan was a really great choice for us because it has this really great wealth of historical and cultural touchstones that we can riff on. Everyone knows about ninjas and samurais and anime mecha. At the same time we've got full license to make them a little bit mysterious and maybe confound expectations a bit as well.
IGN: Ninja mecha. Ninja mecha.
Chris Corry: I'm not saying that there are ninjas. I'm not saying there are mecha. But I'm saying that if I were making a game with the Empire of the Rising Sun in it, you'd kind of want to put ninja and mecha in it, wouldn't you?
Land and sea combat.
IGN: That's the new faction. Are all the factions completely rebuilt from scratch?
Chris Corry: They're pretty different. In the previous two Red Alert games, the Allies and the Soviet factions have been pretty different. Certainly, the Empire of the Rising Sun is going to be very different as well. In practical terms, all three factions have a very different build mechanic. For the Empire of the Rising Sun, we're keeping information about that faction a little close to the vest, but there are some themes that you see there. They're certainly the most technologically advanced. They're a dominant naval power. Unit transformation plays a significant role in that faction. There's certainly a lot in that faction that you don't see in the Soviets and Allies.
IGN: It wouldn't be Red Alert without the live-action cutscenes. What do you have in mind?
Chris Corry: We really do think the live-action cinematics are a staple of the Red Alert series. We're going pretty full bore with the cinematics this time. We're going to have more than an hour of cinematics; it's almost a minimovie that we're shooting for this. We're not quite ready to talk about the cast. We've got almost the entire cast locked down, but until we actually do the cinematics shoot, which we're currently scheduled to do in mid April, we won't be talking about that. Until I've got the movie stars in their seats and doing their stuff, it doesn't feel real.
IGN: Where does the filming take place at? Los Angeles? Vancouver?
Chris Corry: It's LA. We do SAG shoots here in LA and it's actually amazing to me. Before C&C 3, I'd never been on a movie set, and that really is what these are. These are full-on movie productions. We use movie production houses, we use a real movie DP [director of photography], and of course we're using real movie talent. We put a great deal of energy and time and attention into building elaborate sets and shooting a lot of green and doing a pretty aggressive post-production schedule where we do a lot of the sort of things that you would see in a Hollywood feature.
changelog for emuControlCenter 0.9.7 WIP 11
- Added option to backup your userdata (reviews, ratings, personal) to an xml file
-- see topmenu -> options -> backup userdata
-- xml file will be copied to your ecc-user/#_GLOBAL folder
-- import has to be done, export needs optimization :-)!
- implemented autohide for options not needed in emulator configuration
- fixed problem with cached romdb datfile, if #_GLOBAL folder dont exists
- now also emulators containing $ like no$gba are started without problems.
- fixed problem in fsum large file parsing
- fixed window focus bug
- fixed Blank holes when delete images and then refresh
- now OS_TYPE is lowercase
XCMlive Multi-Console Component Cable V3 let you connect all your consoles with only 1 cable via component output: Xbox, Xbox 360, Wii, Playstation 2, Playstation 3 and now the PSP Slim and Lite.
Beside, it is a true HIGH QUALITY cable, shielded to ensure a perfect signal to your screen.
A new version of bsnes has been released. It contains a few minor emulation fixes, as well as user interface improvements. Behind the scenes, the source has been cleaned up more in preparation for running the CPU and PPU (video processor) separately from each other (eg with no enslavement.) This is required for implementing a clock cycle based PPU renderer.
• Greatly improved invalid DMA transfer behavior, should be nearly perfect now
• Major code cleanup -- most importantly, almost all PPU timing-related settings moved back to PPU, from CPU
• Added option to auto-detect file type by inspecting file headers rather than file extensions
• Rewrote video filter system to move it out of the emulation core -- HQ2x and Scale2x will work even in hires and interlace modes now, 50% scanline filter added
• Re-added bsnes window icon
• Added new controller graphic when assigning joypad keys [FitzRoy]
• Redundant "Advanced" panel settings which can be configured via the GUI are no longer displayed
• Improved speed regulation settings
• XP and Vista themes will now apply to bsnes controls
• Added "Path Settings" window to allow easy selection of default file directories
• Tab key now mostly works throughout most of the GUI (needs improvement)
• Main window will no longer disappear when setting a video multipler which results in a window size larger than the current desktop resolution
• Added two new advanced options: one to control GUI window opacity, and one to adjust the statusbar text
* Added feature: Net Play makes it easy to initiate a net play session with people on the same LAN.
* Added feature: Right-click on a ROM and select "Look up in Wikipedia" to get for information about the ROM.
* Added feature: Right-click on a ROM and select "Open containing folder" to go to the folder that the ROM is in.
* Added feature: If multiple emulators are compatible with a ROM that is about to be played, the user will be allowed to choose which one to use. If no emulator is registered as compatible with that ROM, then all emulators will be listed for the user to choose.
* Added feature: The title bar informs the user if the database has been changed since the last save.
* Back-end reconstruction: listing of ROMs has been made more robust to allow for future development of more ROM information.
* Tweak: Messages from the Database Management items have been made more clear.
* Tweak: The icon has been changed from a green arrow pointing into a blue database to a black and blue, 3D power symbol
"This patch has some major skill changes, a few vital balance tweaks, some pesky bug fixes, and a highly-requested new feature.
First and foremost is the introduction of our in-game mail system. This is something that we know is of vital interest to our community, and is the foundation for our consignment / auction house system. Players can not only send and receive messages with anyone in the game, but they can also attach Palladium and items to their mail. This makes getting items from one character to another – even your own – much simpler and more convenient. And while you need to be in a Station to attach or receive items and Palladium, you can read your messages anywhere, anytime.
We're also rolling out the second of our major character class balance passes. In this patch, we've done a comprehensive balance pass on the Marksman. We focused on addressing a number of issues that have made the class vastly over-powered in comparison to the rest of the classes and the desired difficulty of the game. There are also numerous areas where we have increased the effectiveness of, or altered skills to give Marksman players a wider variety of builds and tactics.
Chief amongst these changes is addressing the notorious skill/weapon combinations involving Ricochet, Reflecting Shot, Multishot, Rapid Fire, Heightened Senses, Beacon, Dead Eye, and Hollow Points, while using a high rate of fire weapon, such as an Arclight Rifle. While we realize that making choices on skill, item, and mod combinations which complement each other is a fundamental design element most emphasized with the Marksman in particular, there should never be one combination of skills which completely outshines the rest.
We didn't want to entirely remove the most overpowered Marksman skill combinations altogether, however, and we also didn't want to leave other Marksman skill issues unaddressed. This would have been largely unfair to the Marksman players. As a result, you'll see a large number of changes to the skills - such as synergies to the Ballistics, Grenade, and Precision Strike skill groups - that should promote an increased variety of specialized builds and create a more diversified play experience overall. We've been doing a lot of balance and tweaking over the past few weeks in Test Center with these changes, and we're excited to roll them out to all of our players.
We're also introducing our first "pets with abilities" in this patch. These pets can be found out in the Wild and offer more for brave adventurers than mere companionship. Keep an eye out for those Mysterious Eggs!
Finally, there are a MASSIVE amount of other fixes and additions in this patch, including adjusting the difficulty of the Nightmare end-game, making the big Moloch battle more interesting and challenging, adding a slew of new Unique items and challenges in the Wild, and much, MUCH more."
As we see the upcoming release of the Pandora, an open handheld console, we may also see the release in the future of an Acer home console that is also open. Not much is said about it but here's the article. If this is reasonably priced, and it can emulate, then they've got my money.
Right now, the Acer brand name is still equated with PC notebooks only, despite Acer's acquisition of Gateway. But in an interview with BetaNews at its press event on Wednesday, Acer's senior vice president, James T. Wong, said that his company has a game machine in mind, and that it will be based on "open standards."
"If you look at most of the other game machines that are out there right now -- Nintendo's, the Xbox -- they are 'closed' and proprietary systems," he told BetaNews.
Wong said that, beyond "openness," all of the Acer-branded systems being eyed right now, including the game machine, are envisioned as offering new and innovative form factors and applications.
In addition to its future Acer-branded desktop PCs, however, Acer will also provide desktop systems under the Gateway name, as well as under the eMachines and Packard Bell brands inherited through the Gateway buyout, according to the senior VP. The Acer, Gateway, eMachines, and Packard Bell desktop systems will each incorporate two separate line-ups, one for consumers and the other for SMBs (small to medium-sized businesses), he said.
During a press conference attended by BetaNews earlier on Wednesday, which focused mainly on Acer's notebook PC products and strategy, officials cited Gateway's expertise in desktop systems as a big reason for buying that company.
But Wong told BetaNews that Acer had already been making desktop PCs for other vendors, anyway, with desktop systems constituting some 30 percent of Acer's huge OEM business.
Acer, though, will not be offering either desktop or notebook PCs geared to enterprise use, at least for now, according to the executive.
"You need different kinds of resources for [enterprise systems], and we don't have those kinds of resources right now," he told BetaNews.
• misc: added another seeking step to find fixable missing roms
• fixed: game tags manufacturer/year didn't follow the dtd rules when exporting
• fixed: xml datfile detection randomly doesn't work in profiler
New version of the Atari ST and STE emulator for Linux, BSD, BeOS, Mac OS X and other systems that are supported by the SDL library.
Changelog:
- The user's configuration files are now located in the directory ~/.hatari/ instead of the $HOME directory itself.
- Improved VDI resolution mode (resolution can now be change in small steps).
- The 'Frame Skip 8' option can now be correctly selected, too.
- Fixed some bugs/problems in the GEMDOS HD emulation (with Fopen & Fcreate).
- Keyboard shortcuts for saving and restoring memory snapshots.
- Hatari can now be compiled with CeGCC, too.
- Fixed some problems with the FPU emulation. NeoN Grafix renders now right.
- Writing to floppy disk images works now also with TOS 4.0x.
- A lot of source code clean-up and beautification.
- Monochrome mode now runs in 71 Hz, and 60 Hz color mode now also really runs with 60 Hz refresh rate.
- Fixed memory snapshot files (some important data has not been saved before).
- It is now possible to automatically load/save memory snapshots at start/exit.
- Fixed some bugs in the file selection dialog.
- Some minor improvements in the GUI: Improved text edit fields, "Cancel" buttons can now be activated by pressing the ESC key, and Hatari asks the user before resetting and quitting the emulator.
- The Hatari executable is now relocatable (so the RPM can be relocated, too).
- It's now possible to enable special trace output with the "--trace" option.
- The size of the borders can now be specified in the hatari.cfg file.
- Fixed Spec512 screen plotting on big endian machines.
- Native screen conversion functions for 32 bpp host display mode.
- Reworked the command line options.
- Added missing read for "clr" in 68000 CPU mode.
- Cycle correct MULU/MULS/DIVU/DIVS in 68000 CPU mode.
- Support for 68000 instructions pairing
- Better emulation of exception stack frame (bus/address error), used in some protections.
- Don't change illegal 68000 opcodes $8, $a and $c if no cartridge is inserted.
- Ensure ACIA has consistent values when reset.
- More precise interrupt handling, allowing to mix CPU cycles and MFP cycles with greater precision.
- Various improvements in MFP emulation (stop/start timer without writing to data register, reading data register, handle pending cycles when timer "wraps" (i.e. data register reaches 0), ...). Supports programs using some very "fast" timers (Overscan Demos, ULM Demos) and requiring nearly cycle exact synchronisation with the 68000.
- Mostly correct wait states when accessing sound registers (add wait state for $ff8801/ff8803 when needed).
- Correct values of cycle counters read & write accesses for the most common cases used for fullscreen/hardscroll.
- Correct values for Video_CalculateAddress, taking into account frequency and left/right borders' state, needed for correct synchronisation between video and cpu.
- Improve top/bottom border removal, including 60 Hz bottom border, as well as "short" 50 Hz screen (171 lines)
- Support for all left/right border removal, including 0 byte lines.
- Support for hardscroll on STF, including the most recent ones using 4/5 lines.
- Support for 4 pixels horizontal hardscroll on STF (ST Connexion in Punish Your Machine)
- Small adjustements in cycle precise color handling (spec512.c)
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games has returned to the top of the UK all formats chart, according to the latest data from Chart-Track for the week ending March 15.
The title, which was number one for three consecutive weeks, and has been in the top four since the Nintendo DS release in January, pushed last week's number one - Army of Two from Electronic Arts - down to number two.
Bully: Scholarship Edition moved up one place to number three, swapping places with Brain Training which fell to fourth.
Call of Duty 4 remained in fifth place while Carnival: Funfair Games from Take-Two jumped up ten places on the previous week into sixth place.
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock was also a big climber, moving up from 20 the previous week to seventh place, while Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 gained one place in eighth.
Cooking Mama 2 and the evergreen FIFA 08 rounded off the top ten.
The full all formats charts is as follows:
1. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
2. Army of Two
3. Bully: Scholarship Edition
4. Brain Training
5. Call of Duty 4
6. Carnival: Funfair Games
7. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
8. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008
9. Cooking Mama 2
10. FIFA 08
We now have the XCM 1080P VGA Box for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, and PSP Slim in stock! The XCM VGA Box is a true universal VGA box compatible with the new generation consoles on todays market (Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii and PSP Slim & Lite) and also with Xbox. Compatible with both PAL and NTSC system, it only requires a USB slot for power. Its easy to install also, just plug and play installation will give you Ypbpr input with all consoles, now with a 1080p resolution!
Looks like all those rumors yesterday were true -- Microsoft has just posted up the official standalone version of Vista SP1. Sure, you've been able to get it in one way or another for a while now, but if you're into silly things like "legit OS upgrades," the wow (SP1) is now.
Nvidia's headlining GeForce 9 series card, the monstrous 9800 GX2, officially launched today. It pulls an old trick out of Nvidia's hat—melding two GPUs onto a single board—so you can actually go quad-SLI for a mere $1200. It completely crushes ATI's top-of-the-line dual-GPU Radeon HD 3870 X2. But is two times the GPU necessarily two times the awesome?
It's running the same GPU series as the 9600 GT, 8800 GT and 8800 GTS 512MB (not be confused w/ the regular 8800 GTS). Actually when you look closely at the number of shader and stream processors and their clock speeds, it turns out the 9800 GX2 is basically two slightly underclocked 8800 GTS 512MB GPUs strapped together, and this plays out in the virtually indistinguishable benchmarks too.
Here's the rub: The 9800 GX2 is over 600 smackers. You can run two 8800 GT cards in SLI at $200 a pop and get almost the exact same performance for $200 less. So the real conclusion is that the 8800 GT is still the best card out there for the money.
- Increased the screenshot limit of uploaded images from 15MB to 150MB.
- *beta* Added the ability to upload game videos to your profile page. Read more in the FAQ.
- Fixed bug with xfcodec.dll causing other AVI files to load improperly.
- Fixed CPU load issue with chat rooms with lots of people in them.
- Reworked voice chat internals to work much better on certain poorly-performing sound devices.
- Fixed Shadow skin display bug with non-default text size.
- Added buttons to the chat, screenshot, and video tabs on Shadow skin.
Added Xfire In-Game 2.0 support including the mouse to the following games: Action Unreal Tournament 2004 Conflict: Denied Ops Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna Emperor: Battle for Dune
FIFA Manager 06 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone James Bond 007 Nightfire Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2
Quake 4 Demo Sword of the Stars: Born of Blood Urban Terror
New games supported: Impossible Creatures Resident Evil 3: Nemesis Theme Hospital Flysis
RuneScape Penumbra: Black Plague Hello Kitty Cutie World Beyond Good & Evil
The Club Europa 1400: The Guild (Gold) Red Stone Frontlines: Fuel of War
Grand Chase (Asia) Grand Chase The Sims 2 FreeTime Turning Point: Fall of Liberty
Lost: Via Domus Phun SpaceForce Captains NASCAR Racing 2002 Season
Darkeden The Experiment FairyLand Fritz 8
Bots Crusaders: Thy Kingdom Come Cal Ripken's Real Baseball
The code name is 'Se'.It's just consider as a rebuild versin of v1.78 std.
1)Rename Gens32 Antialiasing I ~ IV to Gens32 Filter I~IV.
2)Update Gens32 Filter III;
3)Fixed Some bugs in display and audio stuff.
4)Added a new filter called Gens32 Filter IV,720P output supported now.But,it quite slow at the moment...
MAMETesters Bugs Fixed
-----------------------------------
- 01520: [DIP/Input] wilytowr, atomboy: dipswitch info
- 01236: [DIP/Input] psurge: Power Surge isn't coining up.
- 01521: [Gameplay] ar_sdwr: Game hangs on title screen
- 01477: [Gameplay] metamrph, metamrpj, metamrpu: Game doesn't start
- 01452: [Misc.] boobhack: Crashes
- 01474: [Sound] ninjakd2, ninjak2a, ninjak2b, rdaction: Ninja-Kid II sound problem
- 01461: [Misc.] mazinger: reset caused by the watchedog message
- 01440: [Speed] mazingar, agallet: Terrible slow down in some scenes.
- 01087: [Misc.] spbactn, spbactnj: Crash in debug build. Corrupted graphics in normal build.
- 00223: [Graphics] splndrbt: On the first level when you pass the asteroid belt the star road should be light blue instead of black like mame
- 00220: [Graphics] splndrbt: Concerning the gfx, on the pcb the background is not linear as shown in mame.
- 00217: [Graphics] splndrbt: On boot the pcb displays a clean light blue screen while in mame there is a black road.
- 01531: [Misc.] polygon-based drivers: winwork.c memory leak
- 00150: [Misc.] alpinr2b, alpinesa : Assertion with -debug
- 01462: [Save/Restore] atarimo_render-based drivers: Crash when loading an autosave save state
- 01538: [Core] -verifysamples: Inconsistent handling of missing sample sets
- 01491: [Interface] switchres causes Exception at EIP=009413BF: ACCESS VIOLATION
- 01529: [Misc.] AICA memory leak
- 01511: [Save/Restore] batman: Fails to load autosave state
- 01536: [Misc.] uballoon: Access Violation with -debug
- 01535: [Misc.] usclssic: Access Violation with -debug
- 01465: [Misc.] topgunnr: Crashes
- 01534: [Misc.] ajax, ajaxj, typhoon: Access Violation with -debug
- 01019: [Sound] Various Drivers: List of drivers with sound clipping
- 01499: [Multisession] Various Drivers: Launching games from in-game [TAB] menu 2-3 times in a row throws access violation.
- 01453: [Misc.] troangel, newtangl: Crashes
- 01463: [Misc.] connect4, mpu4met0, mpu4tst2, mpu4utst, bctvidbs: Assertion
- 01475: [Misc.] Screenless systems are broken because of a vblank callback
- 01486: [Gameplay] meritm.c: access violation for all games
- 01530: [Misc.] Various Drivers: bitmap memory leaks
- 01508: [Misc.] most vector-based drivers: Assertions
- 01527: [Misc.] all meritm.c drivers: Assertion
- 01528: [Misc.] pzlestar, sexyboom: Assertion
- 01522: [Misc.] all ddragon.c drivers: Assertion
- 01523: [Misc.] nkdodge, nkdodgeb, spdodgeb: Assertion
- 01524: [Misc.] btoads: Assertion
- 01526: [Misc.] futflash, laserbas, laserbsa: Assertion
- 01507: [Misc.] all naomi.c drivers: Assertion
- 01503: [Misc.] sidearjp, sidearmr, sidearms: Assertion
- 01509: [Misc.] backfire, backfira: Assertion
- 01501: [Misc.] all m107.c drivers: assertion
- 01504: [Misc.] all leland.c drivers: Assertion
- 01506: [Misc.] all ataxx.c drivers: Assertion
- 01500: [Misc.] all astrocde.c drivers: assertion
- 01514: [Misc.] all cyberbal.c drivers: Assertion
- 01515: [Misc.] all atarig42.c drivers: Assertion
- 01516: [Misc.] all atarigx2.c drivers: Assertion
- 01517: [Misc.] all atarigt.c drivers: Assertion
- 01505: [Misc.] all vicdual.c drivers: Assertion
- 01512: [Misc.] beathead: Assertion
- 01496: [Misc.] all segae.c drivers: Crashing with Access Violation
- 01498: [Gameplay] otwalls: Hangs before the game starts.
Source Changes
------------------------
Added a new device type for timers. Where applicable, added a parallel set of timer functions that take a device_config instead of an emu_timer. Added MDRV_TIMER_* macros to define the timers in the machine driver. Implemented both periodic and scanline-based timer variants. Modified Space Encounters and Centipede to make use of this feature. Going forward, this is the preferred way of creating periodic timers. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Renamed *_vbl_cb to *_vblank_callback. [Aaron Giles]
Magicfly updates: [Roberto Fresca]
- Completed the component list & PCB layout.
- Added technical references to register $63 (magicfly).
- Switched crystal to new predefined format.
Funworld updates: [Roberto Fresca]
- Added proper inputs to jolyc980.
- Added temporary patch to allow bypass the "code" screen in jolyc980.
- Updated technical notes.
Changed exidy440_sound_command back to "UINT8." Since it's used by both 8-bit and 16-bit systems, the automatic allocation is not worth it if you need an ugly UINT16 ** cast. Removed deprecat.h from some of the exidy files. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Fixed Air Buster bootleg from reseting because of the watchdog. [Zsolt Vasvari]
The on-screen "Reset by watchdog" message only appears in debug builds now. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Fixed the top screen in the megatech games. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Added internal artwork for Gorf. [Mr. Do!]
Fixed memory leak in clifront.c. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Added a crosshair_set_screen() to allow drivers to control which screen(s) on which crosshairs are displayed. [Nathan Woods]
Made it a fatalerror to registr save state callbacks at the wrong time if the current driver claims to support save states. [Aaron Giles]
Fixed chicken and egg problem with device_start callbacks: [Aaron Giles]
- Added DEVINFO_INT_TOKEN_BYTES, which is queried before device startup. It should return the size of the structure that will be hung off of device->token. It must not return 0.
- Changed the core device interface to allocate and zero a block of memory the size of DEVINFO_INT_TOKEN_BYTES before calling device_start. The pointer to this memory is already attached to device->token at the time device_start is called.
- The primary motivation for this is to allow the device_start function to make internal calls and pass the device_config * around as if the object were fully constructed. Since the token is used to indicate whether or not a device is live, this makes the device "live" at the time device_start is called rather than after it completes.
Moved per-screen initialization into DEVICE_START and per-screen cleanup into DEVICE_STOP in the core video implementation. [Aaron Giles]
Fixed render_target_get_minimum_size() to return nominal values if no screens are found. [Aaron Giles]
Alpha Denshi major update: [Nicola Salmoria]
- Fixed Alpha 8201/830x MCU simulation.
- all hacks from the equites driver removed
- fixed equites restart position after going underground
- fixed hvolume, splndrbt 2 players
- removed hacks from exctsccr2
- fixed CPU gameplay in shougi
- added dump of Alpha 8201 MCU to games that use it (the ROM isn't used yet, HMCS44 CPU core needs to be written first)
- major cleanup of the mess in equites.c:
- many thanks to Corrado Tomaselli for precious hardware info.
- implemented bg perspective scrolling using PROMs
- fixed sprite flip & disable
- fixed bg color
- converted bg to tilemaps
- fixed fg banking
- fixed screen flip
- removed meaningless banking of player inputs
- added UI adjuster for MSM5232 frequency
- MSM5232 volume control
- fixed MSM5232 noise LFSR formula (done by Jarek Burczynski; thanks to Corrado Tomaselli for samples)
- changed MSM5232 emulator to output channels separately
- added output of SOLO channels to MSM5232 emulator.
- fixed champbas inputs
- merged talbot with champbas, some driver clenaup
- fixed shougi inputs
- switched exctsccb to use the correct gfx ROMs (matches screenshot found in 01058 exctsccb: Exciting soccer bootleg should be placed in champbas.c.)
- fixed sprite bpp in exctscrr, removed the horrible hacks that were used to fix colors and transparency.
- fixed sound clipping in exctsccr
- added percussions to the equites.c games using samples; sound board emulation is still not complete. Cymbal hit and hi-hat are missing; bassline is incorrect, and DAC output should be filtered
Fixed crash in spbactn. [Zsolt Vasvari]
In drawgfx, removed unneeded pen lookups. Did some code formatting clean-up. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Fixed ninjakd2 PCM sample rate to match pcb measurement. [Nicola Salmoria]
Fixed chdman -extract to a physical drive on Windows. [Aaron Giles]
Added return value to video_screen_update_partial() indicating whether or not the VIDEO_UPDATE was called as a result. [Aaron Giles]
Fixed typo in pitnrun frequency. [Corrado Tomaselli]
DIP switch improvements: [RansAckeR]
1945kiii.c, 88games.c and 40love.c: Made use of PORT_DIPUNKNOWN_DIPLOC
40love.c: Made use of PORT_INCLUDE
8080bw.c: Added more dip locations; Made use of PORT_INCLUDE
wilytowr.c: Added dip locations for atomboy/wilytowr; Fixed coin modes
battlane.c, battlera.c, battlnts.c, bbusters.c: added dip locations
battlnts.c: made use of PORT_INCLUDE; fixed unknown dip switch
bbusters.c: added note regarding correct gun calibration
bionicc.c: Added dip locations
bladestl.c: Added dip locations, made use of PORT_INCLUDE
blockade.c: made use of PORT_INCLUDE
beezer.c: Added dip locations
bfm_sc2.c: dip switch improvements, made use of PORT_INCLUDE
Converted the MPU4 driver to use an HD6845, as the Hitachi part was on the PCB, while also using it to generate the VBLANK, rather than hardcoding a value. Added the pulldown resistor to the network, and added all the conditional inputs. Please note that on the later Cabinet Types (Ready Steady Go-1 onwards), the 10p slot is locked out (location of the true register for this is unknown), but the input setting is correct - you have to use Coin 2 or higher to get money in. [James Wallace]
Fixed "garbage" (newlines) in the debugger window when debugging the SH-4 CPU. [Oliver Stoenberg]
New games added or promoted from NOT_WORKING status
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gekisou [Nicola Salmoria]
Pot Game (italian) [Roberto Fresca]
New clones added
------------------------------
Pitfall II (315-5093, Flicky Conversion) [Corrado Tomaselli]
Thunder Dragon (4th Jun. 1991) [Corrado Tomaselli]
SEGA of America, Inc. today shipped SEGA Superstars Tennis to stores in North America. Featuring several of the most recognized SEGA video game characters smashing it up on the most outrageously designed tennis environments, SEGA Superstars Tennis is now available on the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system, PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system, the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system, the Wii home video game system and Nintendo DS.
Developed by Sumo Digital, makers of Virtua Tennis 3, SEGA Superstars Tennis combines responsive, pick-up-and-play controls with fantastic tennis action to deliver an exhilarating and entertaining experience. Each of the 16 SEGA characters has their specialty in speed, power, control, spin, and all-around ability, as well their own unique Superstar power. Each Superstar power pays tribute to the unique characteristics of each character; from Sonic The Hedgehog's Super Sonic transformation, the trail of banana peels left by AiAi from Super Monkey Ball and even the dancing power of Amigo's floating maracas from Samba De Amigo, players will be captivated by the over-the-top atmosphere experienced in SEGA Superstars Tennis.
All this exciting tennis action is played out on over-the-top tennis courts inspired by a host of different SEGA worlds. These include Green Hill Zone from Sonic The Hedgehog, Advanced Arena from Super Monkey Ball and many more. Each of these theme park-like tennis venues exudes energetic charm and marvelous style that will delight gamers of all ages.
In addition to the fun-filled experience, SEGA Superstars Tennis features a host of unlockable content ranging from archives of classic SEGA soundtrack music and addicting mini-games that take tennis to new hilarious levels. Whether it's smashing tennis balls into a horde of hungry zombies in the House of the Dead-inspired Curien Mansion or hitting groundstrokes to help guide "ChuChu" mice in Chu Chu Rocket, up to four players can compete in these comical mini-games. Hidden features will be revealed as players complete different tournament and mission games in the "Planet Superstars" mode.
SEGA Superstars Tennis is rated E10+ (Everyone 10 and older) by the ESRB and is priced at $49.99 for the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3 system and Wii, $39.99 for the PlayStation 2, and $29.99 for Nintendo DS.
Developer Bizarre Creations has joined the growing chorus of calls for the UK government to introduce industry tax credits to ease the pressure on domestic talent.
"The UK has always been, and still is, a real hotbed of talent, producing some of the world's best selling games across many genres and formats. But it's getting harder and harder to be a developer or publisher in the UK, as increasing costs and global competition mean that everyone's under great financial pressure," the developer said in a statement on its website.
Explaining that the "stressful" economic conditions in the UK played a major role in its decision to become part of Activision, Bizarre said it supported the efforts of UK bodies TIGA and ELPSA in attempting to secure tax credits through discourse with the government, and threw its support behind UK citizens petitioning the government for the introduction of industry incentives.
"As the years have gone by, many studios have struggled and had to close, and different gaming studios have had to find their own ways to deal with this pressure. It was a big part of the reason that Bizarre chose to become part of the Activision family - in order to guarantee security to our employees, and security to our future games in this difficult climate. But even as part of a large publisher, without active government support of our industry, developing or publishing games in the UK is still stressful with current economic conditions.
"The problem has been compounded recently by some foreign government tax breaks and financial incentives given to studios and/or publishers who set up or operate in their countries. Many publishers have already taken advantage of financial incentives and moved, bought or set up development studios overseas, and UK talent (both experienced, and new graduates) is being tempted away. Of course, the games industry is a truly global marketplace, but undercutting incentives like this are extremely damaging to the UK games industry as a whole.
"That's why we fully support the recent actions from TIGA, ELPSA, and others in asking the UK government to offer the same tax credits to British developers, and continue to keep our local industry competitive with those overseas. We also fully support a recent petition to Gordon Brown asking directly for these tax credits to be introduced here."
The petition referred to currently has 1,744 signatures, and can be found here.
EA has officially lifted the lid on The Sims 3, announcing it'll be released sometime next year.
The star attractions will include a seamless neighbourhood to wander around plus full character and object customisation.
You will also be able to assign your Sims five traits from the Realistic Personality System. I might be handsome, witty, charming, committed and caring, for example.
EA reckons there are around 700 million possible combinations.
"In The Sims 3, Sims can go beyond the boundaries of their home lot, and immerse themselves in an open, living neighbourhood, interacting with other Sims using our new deeper personality system," said Rod Humble, boss of the Sims Studio.
"It is this type of open-ended gameplay that inspires endless creative possibilities. In addition the new goals and rewards systems will give players of all kinds from core gamers to storytellers the ability to enjoy long-term gameplay."
A total of 80 people got together yesterday to set the Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of games characters.
Sonic, Crash, Yoshi, Lara etc. etc. etc. met up on the Millennium bridge in London. The gathering included 30 children from Argyle Primary School, Kings Cross who all dressed up as Super Mario.
"I have had a great day, I have met all my favourite characters," one said. "The best one is Tails from Sonic." Truly inner London education is in a sorry state.
Vivendi representative Catherine Channon turned up to show her support for the event and true dedication to public relations by dressing up as Spyro. "It was a great idea by the folks over at Guinness, but when you get that many game characters together things are always going to get a bit heated," she observed.
Channon declined to comment directly on rumours Spyro was forced to break up a fight between Yoshi and the wolf out of Digimon on top of a bus.
The record will appear in the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition 2009. The 2008 edition is on sale now and is the best book I have ever read in my life. Any appearance of my name in the credits is purely coincidental. It's available on Amazon for just GBP 6.75, which works out at less than 3p per page for goodness' sake.
Alright folks, it's been a whole day with Vista SP1, and like any OS release, reaction is mixed -- although we're certain the people with problems are being more vocal than the rest. As you'd expect, major complaints seem to center around driver issues, that perpetual thorn in Vista's side -- sound cards seem to be the major problem, although there are also reports that NVIDIA drivers are also being finicky.
For what it's worth, Windows Update won't offer SP1 to anyone running what Microsoft calls "problematic drivers," until they're updated, but that includes several machines sold with Vista pre-installed, which is causing some confusion. In addition, older versions of security software like BitDefender AV and Zone Alarm are flat-out blocked from running on SP1, but updates are apparently available.
Obviously that's a lot of chatter, so we figured we'd ask the experts -- how'd it go? Any speed-ups or slow-downs to report? All your drivers and apps still working? Let us know in comments!
Sure, you've been able to score a four-platter 1TB hard drive for over a year now, but the cooler, quieter, economical and speedy two-platter hard drive has always been a bit of a sweet spot for storage, and Western Digital has finally hit that mark with its new WD Caviar SE16 640GB SATA drive. The 3.5-inch disks hold two 320GB platters, boast 3GB-per-second transfer rates, and are available now for $140 [about Ł70].
Environmental campaign body Greenpeace has once again slammed Nintendo for its policies on toxic chemicals and recycling.
In Greenpeace's latest Guide to Greener Electronics, which ranks the 18 top manufacturers of PCs, mobile phones, TVs and games consoles according to their policies on tackling environmental waste, Nintendo remains bottom of the pile, having been the first brand to score a zero out of ten when it was first included in the guide back in November 2007.
In the latest guide Nintendo scored eight zeros across nine categories related to the use of toxic chemicals and recycling. "Nintendo only gets 0.3 due to an indication that it does have a chemicals management policy," said Greenpeace, which urged the company to clean up its act by by eliminating hazardous substances in its products and recycling them responsibly once they become obsolete.
"Nintendo remains the odd one out of the 18 companies in the Guide, without any public timelines to eliminate the worst toxic chemicals or a global recycling policy for the millions of products it sells every year. If Nintendo has better policies why not make them public like the other 17 companies in the Guide?
"We have requested information from Nintendo head offices several times and sent it the ranking in advance but have received no response.
"Among Nintendo's competitors Microsoft [ranked sixteenth] improved its score to 4.7, mainly by bringing forwards its deadline to 2010 for eliminating toxic PVC and BFR's. Sony [ranked fourth] remains the leading console maker on 7.3, but it has yet to introduce any green innovation in the PlayStation."
You can read more about Greenpeace's efforts to get the hardware makers to tackle environmental waste on its Clash of the Consoles website.
Alright Avian Securities, looks like you might have some explaining to do. Dell claims that the 20 to 30% failure and return rates for SSD laptops cited by Avian's report "don't even vaguely resemble what's happening in our business." Dell says it wasn't contacted in the study, and that "global reliability data shows that SSD drives are equal to or better than traditional hard disk drives we've shipped."
The company says that return rates are "are in line with our expectations for new technology," and an "order of magnitude" better than what is being reported. To be fair to Avian, the original report cited an unnamed "large computer manufacturer," which some in the press assumed meant Dell, thought it was never said explicitly. It looks like we're going to need some more hard facts from both sides to get the true picture of SSD reliability and customer satisfaction, but for now let's nobody panic.
An inevitable videogame tying in with the forthcoming second Narnia movie Prince Caspian is on the way, and here we have new screenshots from the project.
Due out June 20, Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Capsian is in development at Traveller's Tales (for PS3, Xbox 360, PC, PS2 and Wii), which did the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe videogame.
It combines action-adventure with puzzle solving, features over 20 playable characters - including Prince Caspian, obviously - and drop-in/drop-out co-op play for two.
1.8.8
* Fixed: context menu doesn't include the snap and rename items if viewed from right clicking either the status bar, or the listview's non item area.
1.8.7
* Fixed: picture files that match set names e.g. flyers, can no longer be renamed.
* Fixed: if ".png" is removed in the input box when renaming snaps, the file will still save with the file extension.
* Fixed: renaming snaps now requires the filename to be 4 digits.
* Fixed crash when reading snaps from a folder with a space in the name.
* Fixed wrong naming of driver ini files when using notepad and not the interface.
* Added a toolbar icon for Paths/Directories.
* Added: Delete menu to the context menu.
* Fixed: Delete *.dif Files now works.
* Fixed crash when clicking "Delete" and then "Change" on "." for INI Files (Paths/Directories).
* Changed: "." is now hidden for INI Files, as it's an essential path (Paths/Directories).
* Fixed: "." can now be changed for Fonts (Paths/Directories).
* Added: "Record Sound/Video..." menu item, which records both sound and video. It's quite laggy for some games on my althon64 3000+.
* Changed Common dialog from XP to NT style.
* Added Vector Options to the Options menu and to the non contextual right click menu.
* Added a small help label to the options dialog for all the different ini types. This can be turned off in preferences.
It emulates the Emerson Arcadia 2001 (Bandai, Emerson, Grandstand, Intervision, Leisure-Vision, Leonardo, MPT-03, Ormatu, Palladium, Poppy, Robdajet, Tele-Fever, Tempest, Tryom, Tunix, etc.) and Interton VC 4000 (Acetronic, Fountain, Interton, Prinztronic, Rowtron, Voltmace, Waddington, etc.) console families, and the Elektor TV Games Computer.
Changelog:
. Elektor (expanded version): support for Rapid Loading Games enhancement.
. "Log|Subroutine calls/returns?" option.
. Miscellaneous improvements and bug fixes.
Keep eyes peeled over the Easter weekend for extensive coverage of Funcom's MMO Age of Conan on CVG, but in the meantime as a taster we're serving up two exclusive screenshots.
The screenshots come from Sanctum of the Burning Souls, one of the game's non-instanced dungeons aimed at mid level-30s characters. It's not a particularly pleasant place to spend an afternoon as you can see, but offers a classic dungeon crawl that culminates in a showdown with the Acheronian Warlord, a massive humanoid boss.
We'll be running an exclusive gameplay trailer showing Sanctum of the Burning Souls in the next couple of days, so stay alert and keep your sword sharp.
The first trailer for Codemasters Race Driver: GRID has appeared online, and you can view it by clicking once on our much-loved video player just to the right of these words. It's like a family member to us.
Due for release in June 2008, Race Driver: GRID continues the popular racing game series and will be the first title in the franchise to appear on the current generation of consoles, coming to PS3, Xbox 360, PC and, er, Nintendo DS.
A disclaimer confirms at the beginning of the trailer that the footage is actual gameplay footage, and for good reason - it looks absolutely incredible.
Our personal favourite track has to be the neon-lit streets of Japan. Go. Watch. Now.
Welcome to this week's Games update, our weekly summary featuring all new product arrivals from the last seven days
As mentioned in last week's preview, many interesting games have been released this week. We bring you the exciting first person shooter The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return [US, Japanese and with Zapper] versions for Nintendo Wii™. With the Wii Zapper in hand, feel the adrenaline pumping through your veins as you defeat the zombies that are charging toward you.
This is an exciting week for fans of sci-fi, robots and mecha. Armored Core: For Answer [Xbox360™ and PlayStation3™] versions are released. Find out the reason for going to war as you challenge and defeat some of the largest and most carefully designed mecha in gaming history.
Dramatic Dungeon: Sakura Taisen [standard and limited edition] is another game that combines an engaging plot, charming characters and mecha, but instead of taking place in the futuristic world, it sets stage in Taisho Japan. Experience some exhilirating mecha fights and witness the elegance of Japanese theatrical arts in this renowned game.
Stepping away from the horror and mecha combats, we bring you Pokemon Ranger: Batonnage to your Nintendo DS™. Capture pokemon by your stylus, adventure with these beloved creatures and save the world from the clutches of darkness in this fun game. We also have the comical sports game Chou Nekketsu Koukou Kunio-Kun Dodge Ball Bu where you defeat the evil through a game of dodge ball.
As usually, here's a summary of all new releases from this week, followed by a quick preview of what is expected to be hot next week.
Xbox360™:
Armored Core: For Answer JPN US$ 64.90
Army of Two JPN US$ 64.90
Blazing Angels 2: Secret Missions of WWII JPN US$ 64.90
Cabela's Big Game Hunter ASIA US$ 44.90
Condemned 2: Bloodshot US US$ 64.90
Need for Speed: Pro Street JPN US$ 64.90
Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 US US$ 59.90
Ratatouille (Platinum Hits) US US$ 24.90
Sengoku Musou 2 with Moushouden JPN US$ 72.90
Sengoku Musou 2 with Moushouden ASIA US$ 64.90
Spider-Man 3 JPN US$ 59.90
The Club ASIA US$ 49.90
PlayStation3™:
Armored Core: For Answer ASIA US$ 59.90
Armored Core: For Answer JPN US$ 64.90
Army of Two JPN US$ 64.90
Blazing Angels 2: Secret Missions of WWII JPN US$ 64.90
FolksSoul: Ushinawareta Denshou / Folklore (PlayStation3 the Best) JPN US$ 38.90
FolksSoul: Ushinawareta Denshou / Folklore (PlayStation3 the Best) ASIA US$ 34.90
Mobile Suit Gundam: Target in Sight (PlayStation3 the Best) JPN US$ 38.90
PS2 Controller to PS3/PC System Convert Cable V2 US$ 8.90
Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 US US$ 59.90
Resistance: Fall of Man (PlayStation3 the Best) ASIA US$ 34.90
Resistance: Fall of Man (PlayStation3 the Best) JPN US$ 38.90
Ridge Racer 7 (PlayStation3 the Best) JPN US$ 38.90
Ridge Racer 7 (PlayStation3 the Best) ASIA US$ 34.90
The Club ASIA US$ 49.90
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 ASIA US$ 59.90 Nintendo Wii™:
Bomberman Land Wii (Hudson the Best) JPN US$ 34.90
Deca Sporta JPN US$ 59.90
The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return US US$ 34.90
The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return JPN US$ 49.90
The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return (w/ Wii Zapper) JPN US$ 69.90
PlayStation2™:
Buzz Jr. Robo Jam US US$ 34.90
Buzz Jr. Robo Jam (w/ Buzzers) US US$ 49.90
Buzz! The Hollywood Quiz US US$ 34.90
Buzz! The Hollywood Quiz (w/ Buzzers) US US$ 49.90
Kamiwaza (Acquire the Best) JPN US$ 34.90
Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 US US$ 34.90
Ratatouille (Greatest Hits) US US$ 24.90
Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters US US$ 34.90
The Godfather (EA:SY! 1980) JPN US$ 24.90
Nintendo DS™:
Bakousou Dekotora Densetsu Black JPN US$ 48.90
Bangai-O Spirits JPN US$ 48.90
Chou Nekketsu Koukou Kunio-Kun Dodge Ball Bu JPN US$ 39.90
Crayon Shin-Chan: Arashi o Yobu Cinema Land JPN US$ 48.90
Disney Friends US US$ 34.90
Dramatic Dungeon: Sakura Taisen JPN US$ 48.90
Dramatic Dungeon: Sakura Taisen [Allstar Pack] JPN US$ 79.90
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles - Ring of Fates US US$ 44.90
Kachou Shima Kousaku DS: Dekiru Otoko no Love & Success JPN US$ 39.90
Kekkaishi: Koru Nogirou Shuurai JPN US$ 48.90
Nanostray 2 US US$ 34.90
Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword JPN US$ 48.90
Pokemon Ranger: Batonnage JPN US$ 48.90
Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 US US$ 34.90
Puchi Eva: Evangelion @ Game JPN US$ 48.90
Rosario to Vampire JPN US$ 48.90
SimCity DS 2: Kodaikara Mirai e Tsudzukumachi JPN US$ 48.90
Spider-Man 3 JPN US$ 48.90
Time Hollow: Uwareta Kako o Motome JPN US$ 48.90
Ys DS JPN US$ 48.90
Ys II DS JPN US$ 48.90
Zoo Tycoon 2 JPN US$ 48.90
Sony PSP™:
Biohazard III JPN US$ 37.90
Biohazard Trilogy Box JPN US$ 56.90
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (English language Version) ASIA US$ 44.90
FlatOut: Head On US US$ 34.90
Hannspree Ten Kate Honda: SBK-07 Superbike World Championship US US$ 24.90
Need for Speed: Pro Street JPN US$ 48.90
PSP Microphone JPN US$ 29.90
PSP Microphone (Twin Pack) JPN US$ 49.90
PSP PlayStation Portable Battery Pack (2200mAh) (Ceramic White) JPN US$ 54.90
PSP PlayStation Portable Battery Pack (2200mAh) (Ice Silver) JPN US$ 54.90
PSP PlayStation Portable Battery Pack (2200mAh) (Piano Black) JPN US$ 54.90
Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 US US$ 34.90
Shock Protector Advance 2in1 (Charcoal Black) US$ 4.90
Shock Protector Advance 2in1 (Milky White) US$ 4.90
Tales of Rebirth JPN US$ 48.90
Tales of Rebirth ASIA US$ 42.90
Tales of Rebirth KOR US$ 49.90
Wild Arms XF US US$ 44.90
echochrome: Mugen Kairou JPN US$ 39.90
echochrome: Mugen Kairou ASIA US$ 42.90
PC and MAC™:
Pro Yakyuu Team o Tsukurou! Online Beginner's Package JPN US$ 24.90
Puyo Puyo Fever (Revised Price Edition) JPN US$ 29.90
Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War Soulstorm ASIA US$ 39.90
Game Guides:
Basara Style Vol.6 JPN US$ 19.90
Condemned 2: Bloodshot: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
Dragon Quest IV: Michibikareshi Monotachi Lead Book DS JPN US$ 14.90
Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Fuuketsu no Grimoire Official Complete Guide JPN US$ 23.90
Oideyo Dobutsu no Mori The Complete Guide JPN US$ 18.90
School Days L x H Visual Guide Book JPN US$ 36.90
Shin Sangoku Musou 5 Complete Guide A JPN US$ 26.90
Shining Force EXA Final Complete Guide JPN US$ 26.90
Star Ocean: The First Departure Final Guide JPN US$ 26.90
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
Tsuyo Kiss: Mighty Heart Visual Guide Book JPN US$ 36.90
Winning Post 7 Maximum 2008 Guide JPN US$ 23.90
Video Game Soundtracks
Armored Core: For Answer Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 21.90
Neo Angelique - Sincerely JPN US$ 29.90
Space Invaders Extreme Audio Cluster JPN US$ 24.90
The Black Mages II -The Skies Above- (~The Black Mages) JPN US$ 21.90
The Black Mages III Darkness and Starlight (~The Black Mages) JPN US$ 26.90
A separate Video/Music update containing Japanese releases from this week, including new Anime, J-Pop and Movie releases will follow prior end of the week. So J-Pop, Anime and Movie fans, be sure to look out for that one!
Here is a preview of what are expected to be hot next week:
Xbox360™:
Raiden Fighters Aces JPN US$ 64.90
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 US US$ 64.90
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 [Limited Edition] US US$ 74.90
PlayStation3™:
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 US US$ 64.90
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 [Limited Edition] US US$ 74.90
PlayStation2™:
Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch - Lost Colors JPN US$ 64.90
Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus JPN US$ 59.90
Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus (Append Edition) JPN US$ 19.90
Metal Gear Solid: The Essential Collection US US$ 34.90
Neo Angelique Full Voice JPN US$ 39.90
Neo Angelique Full Voice [Premium Box] JPN US$ 59.90
Neo Angelique Full Voice [Super Premium Box] JPN US$ 79.90
Sega Ages 2500 Vol. 32: Phantasy Star Complete Collection JPN US$ 28.90
Silent Hill: Origins KOR US$ 39.90
Nintendo DS™:
Mobile Suit Gundam 00 JPN US$ 48.90
Sony PSP™:
Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch - Lost Colors JPN US$ 48.90
Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch - Lost Colors (Special Edition) JPN US$ 69.90
Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G JPN N/A
Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G Hunter Pack (w/ PSP-2000 Slim & Lite Console) JPN N/A
PC and MAC™:
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 (DVD-ROM) US US$ 59.90
Last week's Japanese software chart champ Yakuza 3 Kenzan! was knocked down by Nintendo's latest training game, showing that the stylus is mightier than the sword. DS Bimoji Training brings calligraphy skill assessment to the Nintendo DS, giving Nintendo the number one spot for the week of March 10 to 16. Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Wii Fit continue to float near the top, as few newcomers with capable star power debut on the list.
Oh, and for the record, 12Riven: The Psi-Climinal of Integral, after the jump, is not a typo on my part.
01. DS Bimoji Training (DS) - 66,000 / NEW
02. Yakuza 3 Kenzan! (PS3) - 46,000 / 227,000
03. Wii Fit (Wii) - 45,000 / 1,704,000
04. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) - 41,000 / 1,449,000
05. Gundam Musou Special (PS2) - 24,000 / 213,000
06. Shugo Chara! 3-tsu no Tamagoto Koisuru Joker (DS) - 20,000 / NEW
07. Daito Giken Koushiki Pachi-Slot Simulator: Shin Yoshimune (PS2) - 18,000 / NEW
08. Wii Sports (Wii) - 17,000 / 2,855,000
09. Harvest Moon: Kira Kira Taiyou to Nakama Tachi (DS) - 11,000 / 93,000
10. Wii Play (Wii) - 11,000 / 2,271,000
11. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii)
12. Musou Orochi (PSP)
13. 12Riven: The Psi-Climinal of Integral (PS2)
14. Minna no Joushiki Ryoku TV (Wii)
15. Soma Bringer (DS)
16. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd (PSP)
17. Doraemon: Nobita to Midori no Kyojinden DS (DS)
18. Hayate no Gotoku! Ojousama Produce Daisakusen Boku Iro ni Somare! Oyashiki-Hen (DS)
19. Hayate no Gotoku! Ojousama Produce Daisakusen Boku Iro ni Somare! Gakkou-Hen (DS)
20. Mario Party DS (DS)
21. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (DS)
22. Mario Kart DS (DS)
23. Etrian Odyssey II: Shoou no Seihai (DS)
24. Taiko Drum Master DS (DS)
25. Winning Post 7 Maximum 2008 (PS2)
26. New Super Mario Bros. (DS)
27. Duel Love: Koisuru Otome wa Shouri no Megami (DS)
28. Winning Eleven Play Maker 2008 (Wii)
29. We Ski (Wii)
30. Akagawa Jirou Mystery: Yasoukyoku (DS)
Three cast members of the upcoming Iron Man feature film will also lend their acting talents to the game tie-in, Marvel and SEGA announced today.
Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark), Terence Howard (Jim Rhodes) and Shaun Toub (Yinsen) will all reprise their on-screen roles for the Iron Man game, due out on May 2, 2008, to coincide with the film's release.
Although Downey, Howard and Toub have signed on to act in the Iron Man game, some of the film's highest-profile stars have opted out. Samuel L. Jackson, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeff Bridges were not mentioned in a news release as being part of the game.
Developed by Secret Level, published by SEGA and based on the Marvel comics and film, Iron Man is a third-person action shooter for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Nintendo DS and PC.
Using the advanced technology in Iron Man's suits of armor, gamers can take advantage of the wide array of high-impact weapons to strategically annihilate any enemy force standing in their way. Before tackling open battlefields, players can customize their armor suit as they encounter more enemies and fight in epic battles.
Hey hey all, the new version of Mame Plus Multi JET is out, updated with the last sources 123u6 of mame plus, more more changes for this version, a lot of neogeo games added, more games are promoted from not working status on snes driver, because i had a problem with headers of roms, now works fine. Somes icons are modified, and i work on genesis hacks for re-integration and now its ok!, now the changes:
Games added:
NEOGEO
All Earlier dumps
All MGD2 dumps
Snk vs Capcom (Hack by Ethen.H 21/01/08 (EGHT))
The King of Fighters '96 (Chinese v1.0)
The King of Fighters '96 (Chinese version)
The King of Fighters '96 (Evolution old)
The King of Fighters '96 (Remix Kof98 moves 25/07/03)
The King of Fighters '96 (Remix Kof98 moves 10/07/03)
The King of Fighters '97 (26a-c and 623a-c red flame special effect)
The King of Fighters '97 (Kill red flame special effect)
The King of Fighters '97 (Ice edition)
The King of Fighters '97 (Perfect edition)
The King of Fighters '97 (Xbt edition)
The King of Fighters '98 (Ice edition)
The King of Fighters '98 (Asamiya athena '99 style hack by Ivex (EGHT))
The King of Fighters '99 (Happy birthday to Iori special)
The King of Fighters 2002 (Kai version)
The King of Fighters 2002 (Plus hack by Jason/K3 and Wesker)
The King of Fighters 2002 (Remix ultra fully decrypted)
The King of Fighters 2002 (Remix ultra v3.5 (Jason/FCHT))
The King of Fighters 2002 (Remix v1.3 (FCHT))
The King of Fighters 2002 (Chinese translation hack by FoxUU, Zuojie 15/03/08)
The King of Fighters 2003 (Bootleg boss hack)
The King of Fighters 2003 (Boss hack remixed by ZKW japan jamma pcb)
The King of Fighters 2003 (Evolution v1.4 (EGCG/FGCH))
The King of Fighters 2003 (Ryu IoriYagami hack)
You'd think the BBFC's official unbanning of an edited version of Manhunt 2 would officially end the battle over the game's release. You'd be wrong though, as Kent Online reports that Kent MP Julian Brazier is working to introduce a "public appeals process" to overturn BBFC decisions, like the one that paved the way for Manhunt 2's release.
Brazier's Private Members Bill to reform the BBFC was discussed and eventually stopped in Parliament late last month, but that hasn't stopped Brazier from trying to revive its political chances. Brazier insists that the eventual decision to release Manhunt 2 "shows once again that the BBFC and its appeals system do not meet the concerns of the public" and that "the public wants a significant tightening up in this vital area." Earlier this month, Brazier accompanied Gordon Brown in a meeting with Giselle Pakeerah, a mother who believes the original Manhunt contributed to her son's murder.
The battle for weekly first place hardware showings in Japan went back to Sony this week, with the PSP outselling the Wii one more time. With just a few thousand sales setting them apart, however, the contest is almost a dead heat. DS Fever seems to have cooled a bit over the past few weeks, with the handheld resting quietly in third, presumably waiting to strike back before the end of the year. Quiet times on the hardware front make us look forward to new marquee releases. Until then...
PSP - 57,651
Wii - 55,845
Nintendo DS - 53,266
PlayStation 3 - 14,934
PlayStation 2 - 9,930
Xbox 360 - 1,744
New release of the rom manager for Windows, Linux and Mac.
Info and changelog:
What brings this version? Your last selected game detail and page on list is stored. The status of the areas navigation, search and details (hidden, visible, size) is now also restored automaticly on startup. The storage of the selected view modes (eg. bookmarks, last played) can be be activated in the configuration!
Changelog for emuControlCenter WIP 12
- implemented show last selected game on startup
- implemented select last selected page on startup
- gui settings
-- current state of the navigation/search/detail area is now saved by default.
-- "Save View-Mode settings" store the current selected mode like "roms with metadata"
- The default version is now Windows XP.
- Many Richedit improvements.
- Beginning of jscript dll support.
- Shell folders now respect XDG directory configuration.
- Many translation updates.
- Lots of bug fixes.
In an adapted version of the Harry Potter video game, players lift boulders and throw lightning bolts using only their minds. Just as physical movement changed the interface of gaming with Nintendo's Wii, the power of the mind may be the next big thing in video games. And it may come soon. Emotiv, a company based in San Francisco, says its mind-control headsets will be on shelves later this year, along with a host of novel "biofeedback" games developed by its partners. Several other companies — including EmSense in Monterey, California; NeuroSky in San Jose, California; and Hitachi in Tokyo — are also developing technology to detect players brainwaves and use them in next-gen video games.
The second new release this year brings you a couple of improvements over the previous version. Gamers will appreciate the long outstanding joystick setup dialog features, while SID-card addicts may like the increased accuracy of the engine.
- new joystick setup dialog
- SID emulation improvements
- gamma correction fixes
- minor bugfixes
- For registered users GameEx now features a fully functional search feature. Allowing searching of all games and media. The search feature works with remotes, game pads and arcade controls.
- The media library now allows access to ebooks and Karaoke
- The paging arrows are now more inuiitive and display based on the state of the list. They also animate slightly when first shown
- The displaying of the amount of items in the list is now slightly animated when switching between lists
- The number of items is now shown for an emulator or emulator group before accessing the list item
- GameEx will retain the window state after an update instead of being forced into full screen
- Fixes snap videos not being displayed when navigating from most played or favorites
- New setting to lock down GameEx to only work with a single emulator or emulator group. All other menus are disabled
- Fixes emulator music playlist folder when only one file in folder
- Happy Easter
- The image quality (color tone) has been elaborately adjusted. If a fast personal computer environment is used, it is possible to set it to a sharp image quality by "Screen->Screen" menu, too.
- "Briteness" menu was added to "Screen" menu. Use it to adjust brightness slightly.
- The operation timing of the raster interrupt processing was brought close to running on of a real machine.
- In "Zan - kagerou no toki", the problem that the window shakes up and down was solved.
- The transfer part between V-RAM has been improved. In "Nazo no Masquerade", the problem that the character takes the shape (generated from ver1.02) was solved.
- "Joypad Background Ok" and "Keyboard Background Ok" were added to "Input" menu. The permission of "the operation when no focus of Ootake's window" can be set.
- When using Ootake with "Windows 98/Me", the problem that CD-ROM drive might not be able to be recognized was corrected.
* Operation with "Windows 98/Me" is not tested.
- Additionally, a detailed part has been improved and corrected.
New release of the rom manager for Windows, Linux and Mac.
Changelog:
- gui optimizations
-- shortcut "Strg F" now toggles fullscreen mode Close in Fullscreen ALT+F4
-- gui position is now restored at starup
-- gui size is now restored at startup
-- window state (maximized/fullscreen) is now restored on startup
-- show/hide navigation will restore the selected size on toggle
-- main window is now show if all gui settings are done! No flickering at startup!
- fixed problem with the import from online meta-database romDB
- New shortcut keys (see shortcuts.txt)
-- DEL - remove rom from database
-- STRG+DEL - remove rom metadata
-- ALT+DEL - remove rom images
-- SHIFT+DEL - remove rom from harddisk
- fixed little bug if removing images
- full settings are now stored, if you hit the save position button im imageCenter
- romdb datfile now also possible for "# all found"
There are many pictures in the link. This is what one of the authors said:
Work on the first beta release of @ES is almost complete
The first release is to be called @ES - Evolution
We have had a couple of additions to the main team!
@ruantec = main programmer
shadow1204 = co-developer
fadingz = gui artist
and last but not at all least
zion = web designer
There is only a few very small things needed to be finished to release @ES
The small things that need to be added include
Video controls are being added as we speak
Scroll bar is a little buggy still
memory card switching options and also an option to switch controller types
For the first release the following emu's are supported:- Visualboy Advance, VirtuaNES, Fusion, SNES9x, pSX, PJ64, NullDC, pcsx2, Dolphin, MameUI32 and 64, Final Burn Alpha(Not final burn) and CPS3.
More will be added to the second release but we thought this was enough for the beta release.
As mentioned this will be a beta release so we are expecting people to find bugs, but these will be fixed as they are found and reported.
I will be opening a thread for bug-reporting when we release as well as a couple of other threads as well to do with @ES support etc...
@ES is also getting some really nice skin inclusions thanks to fadingz.
Here is a link to the videos I have made explaining the features of @ES and demonstrating its ease of use (They are a bit grainy as they were taken using my cam-phone) Testers needed!
The 1st pic shows the emu selection screen.
pics 2 - 10 show the cover flow rom menu's for most of the consoles supported
the 11th pic is the audio player layer displaying the cover in the background
number 12 s the album cover flow menu
and the final pic shows an episode of prison break running in the video layer(Controls to be added still)
Enjoy the pics and the vids and I hope everyone is ready for the evolution in emu frontends!
So far, no tricks. The games now run through real network connection (UDP based). You can run them in the same cpu by making each emulator listen in different ports.
Right now the network setup is a bit difficult, as it runs close to the real machine. You must setup all emulators network parameters to make a ring: machine1 points to machine2, machine2 points to machine3,....machinex points to machine1
then you properly setup a machine as master and the rest and slaves and the emu will simulate the fiber optic transport through the network, and the game will run like the real machine.
I haven't tested it in real network though. I expect the UDP packets will become fragmented as they are around 3KB each (the machine transfers 3KB per frame) so I'll have to write some small transport protocol over it. Also different games have different support for high latency. Daytona doesn't seem to care too much, although the cars will probably "jump" a bit if there is high latency, but Indy500 and STCC need frame-synced machines, so the frame time for all machines would be the slowest machine speed+ping time between machines.
Here I don't have the latest emu src, so I can't try daytona with 3D (this source is pre-TGP emulation) but all 2B & 2C games that use network run properly (stg24h, indy500, von, stcc).
Here you can see a Twin Indy500 machine emulated in a single computer. A twin machine contains 2 networked boards, each one feeding a monitor:
Earlier this month it was revealed that SEGA put down a new trademark for Sonic Unleashed, what looked like a new installment in the Sonic franchise. While there has yet to be any official announcement some sneaky forum fellas seemed to have stumbled upon a "SEGA ftp" and leaked a boatload of screens, and also a trailer on YouTube.
- Menu theme, font color of selected item was not being applied
- Snapshots not always displayed after image panel was set empty
- Scan for missing icons was not running games in some view modes
- Games list not being correctly sorted (left panel editor)
- Access violations in scan missing/not used icons/images
Changed
- Scan for not used images. Only files that are not used by any games are removed
Added
- New setting: "Auto Rename Snapshots to Old Format" / "Delete Files After Rename" (preferences, "Images" / "Categories" tab). This will automatically rename snaps from new MAME format "\gamename\0000.png" to the old format used by the front-end "full_gamename0000.png". Click on the "help" button next to its checkbox for a more detailed info... disabled by default
I didn't want to release a new version so soon, however there is a rather serious bug in bsnes v029 where the path information for the save RAM files is discarded when one has not selected a default save RAM / cheat path from the path settings tab in the configuration settings window. Because of this, it gets stored to the base directory. For Windows users, this is c:\, and for Linux users, this is /
This bug forced my hand, so I'm releasing v030 to correct this issue. I also cleaned up the S-DSP emulation code to be more consistent with my programming style -- it gets bit-perfect matches to v029's wave output, so I don't foresee there being any problems.
MAMETesters Bugs Fixed
---------------------------------------
01586: [Multisession] bluehawk: Graphics corruption (Reip)
01433: [Graphics] marvins: If you play player 2, the maze remains unchanged. (Reip)
01601: [Misc.] orbit: Game doesn't start. Watchdog/reset problem? (Aaron Giles)
01584: [Misc.] exerion, exerionb, exeriont: Assertion (Aaron Giles)
01560: [DIP/Input] turpin: Cannot coin up in either slot. (RansAckeR)
01525: [Misc.] wilytowr, atomboy: watchdog resets (RansAckeR)
01524: [Misc.] btoads: Assertion (Zsolt Vasvari)
01557: [Misc.] dealem: Assertion (Zsolt Vasvari)
00059: [Graphics] commsega, locomotn, tactcian: They exhibit a problem with screen area. (Nicola Salmoria)
00406: [Graphics] qadj: When playing as the ninja, there is one broken frame in his animation loop when walking. (Nicola Salmoria)
Source Changes
------------------------
bbusters: Fixed sprite wrapping -- this is used on the gun calibration screen, at least. The game still hangs on a black screen after service mode is turned off. Even exiting MAME and restarting doesn't fix it, so it's probably a EEPROM issue. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Added Noise Output to the MSM5232 emulation. [Nicola Salmoria]
Added placeholder effects for cymbal and hihat to equites.c. These will need further work to properly emulate the discrete circuitry. [Nicola Salmoria]
Cleaned cidelsa driver up to the latest spec. [Curt Coder]
Added NVRAM to Gekisou. Fixed inputs and promoted to working. [Nicola Salmoria]
Explicitly fixed unmapped handler masks so that we don't report all unmapped addresses as 0. [Aaron Giles]
Centralized definitions of _WIN32_WINNT. Removed malloc/calloc/realloc/free link-time overrides; we now rely exclusively on compile-time overrides. Made a few tweaks toward getting mingw-w64 working, but there are still linker issues. [Aaron Giles]
Fixed assertions in skullxbo and exerion. [Aaron Giles]
De-deprecat-ed ui.c. [Aaron Giles]
Changed xmlfile.c to pass in memory handlers to expat so that our memory overrides are properly managed. [Aaron Giles]
Fixed wbbc97 regression. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Fixed crospang.c regression. Not sure why this needed to be RGB15, works fine with INDEXED16. [Zsolt Vasvari]
[GTICLUB] Fixed crash. [R. Belmont]
[SCSI] Fixed case when no device exists (e.g. running the sys573 BIOS directly). [R. Belmont]
Got most of the Konami PPC games running again. [R. Belmont]
Fixed crash running "kviper" BIOS. [R. Belmont]
Changed crystal.c from RGB15 to RGB32. RGB15 is not enough bits to hold the 5-6-5 colorspace. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Updated astrof.c to use the timer device. [Zsolt Vasvari]
dgpix and eolith: Converted to INDEXED16. Removed temp bitmaps. Changed ugly recursive video RAM code. [Zsolt Vasvari]
ddz: Removed RGB15 -- it's a "skeleton" driver, so why have it? [Zsolt Vasvari]
video\generic.c: Added PALETTE_INIT functions for common 16-bit RGB patterns. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Converted f-32, kinst, lethalj, ultrsprt, gamecstl, taitowlf to use INDEXED16. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Added option in MC6845 to programatically set the clock pin. This is needed by at least one MESS driver. Added mc6845_set_hpixels_per_column() for the Hercules gfx adapter. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Fixed video timing in xtheball. Still don't know why it changed recently, but the new parameters reproduce the old values. [Aaron Giles]
Removed unnecessary assert in video.c that broke screenless games. [Dirk Best]
Changed the zombraid gun input ports to work with the calibrated settings. [Derrick Renaud]
Fixed malzak2 from crashing. [Zsolt Vasvari]
Fixed graphics ROMs in gnga. [Cesare Falco]
Added validity check to ensure input port tags don't have duplicates. Fixed several drivers where there were duplicates. [Aaron Giles]
Corrected clocks on Cabal bootleg. [Corrado Tomaselli]
Removed improper use of PERIODIC_INT in mpu4, to use new timer devices. Also corrected 50Hz timer in MPU4 Video games. [James Wallace]
Fixed bug in tx1.c spotted by new compiler warnings in gcc 4.3.0. [Atari Ace]
Another batch of pedantic static/const/include fixes. [Atari Ace]
Redid video timing in orbit with raw parameters. Added full memory map and a few other cleanups. [Aaron Giles]
New games added or promoted from NOT_WORKING status
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gekisou [Nicola Salmoria]
Mermaid [robiza]
Today, Fujitsu introduced its MHZ2 BJ drives (heh, heh...BJ), the first 2.5" 7200rpm hard drives to reach the 320GB capacity. They'll be available at the end of June, for an as-yet unannounced price, and will support the SATA 3Gbps interface. So now when go trick out your laptop, you're gonna have a full-on headache trying to decide between maximum HDD spin speed, maximum capacity—at this point 500GB at 5400rpm— and of course the higher-priced SSD alternatives.
A hard disk like this one sounds like a perfect upgrade to the Playstation 3s' standard 20/40/60/80GB drive.
We have some major doubts about this one, since Asus officially shut down those Eee PC touchscreen rumors a while back, and DigiTimes has been pretty far off in the past, but apparently the new word on the street is that Asus actually is building resistive touch into at least a some of its upcoming next-generation Eee PCs. Citing "sources at touch screen panel makers," the technology is supposedly more mature than capacitive touch screens at this size, and will cost Asus about $10 extra per laptop. We still don't see the point, but it looks like you dreamers can keep on dreaming for the time being.
News.com is reporting that Mytopia, another casual-gaming network, has launched into public-beta. More than just a regular game with virtual rewards, Mytopia encourages exchanging points for real-world prizes like iTunes or Amazon certificates.
"Since Mytopia is centered on "classic games," the offering--Sudoku, chess, backgammon, hearts, spades, dominoes, bingo, and poker--is a bit of a yawn, though the company has said new games will be added on a monthly basis. On the flip side, the familiarity of those games may be a draw to players who don't want to learn a whole new set of rules. Indeed, Mytopia is targeting a thoroughly non-"gamer" demographic."
In December 2007, the action game Rockman celebrated its 20th anniversary. This art book consists of illustrations from both the first Rockman series and its subsequent Rockman X series. It is an extravagant collection of 40+ colored cover illustrations from various publications. Aside from cover illustrations, pictures that were never published for the public are gathered and printed in this artbook as well. The book is edited by Rockman's producer Keiji Inafune and the established manga artist Ariga Hitoshi. It is a must have for every Rockman fan.
R20 Rockman & Rockman X Official Complete Works is in stock today and available at Play-Asia.com at US$ 39.90 only.
Good news for you stubborn, Vista-wary Windows users still rocking XP: Microsoft is prepping Service Pack 3 for your reticent asses for next month. This is almost certainly the last major update for the OS before Microsoft really, officially gives up and hopes and prays that you just upgrade to Vista already, as they won't be selling new copies of it anymore as of the end of June.
The months that lead up to the Halloween launch of Hellgate London left PC gamers in high anticipation. The game was billed as a futuristic MMORPG set in London, that didn't force players to pay a monthly fee(although they could if they wanted additional goodies). In addition, Flagship Studios, the developers of Hellgate London, were branded as an off shoot of Blizzard's development team as it had some key Diablo developers. With this great foundation, what could possibly go wrong? Apparently…a lot.
At the outset of the launch, the game was plagued with bugs that crashed the game, subscribers' accounts were billed multiple times on accident, and early patches only caused frustration by erasing gamers' avatars.
Since then Flagship Studios has made great strides into improving its game, releasing a major patch, titled The Stonehenge Chronicles, which set out to fix all of the game's major problems. However, has Flagship's ship sailed?
According to CVG, Flagship Studio CEO Bill Roper, acknowledged the problems that plagued the games release and hopes gamers reconsider, "I think that people had incredibly high expectations that we simply didn't meet… The game came out with some major bugs and that threw fuel on the fire. We've been killing ourselves addressing all of those issues, and the game is so much better now than it was when it came out. We just hope people will come back and give it a try again."
So how did Hellgate London set itself up for disappointment? Roper cited numerous reasons, "We simply tried to do too much with the game. Vista, DirectX 10, being both a single-player boxed product and a multiplayer online game, a simultaneous launch in seven languages across Europe, the US, and South East Asia, and creating our own fully-featured online destination on top of all that."
"We'll take the blame for not getting enough testing done while working to meet our committed ship date. There were so many issues that came up just before launch that just compounded the things we were working on, right up until the game launched, that we didn't get fixed… The game would certainly have benefited from a couple of more months in the oven, so to speak, but we didn't have the ability to do so. The challenges of an independent game studio are drastically different than those owned by a publisher. We're fortunate that the online nature of the game has allowed us to continue to fix bugs, add content, and respond directly to our player's wants and needs," said Roper.
How difficult would it have been to delay the game? Roper said, "We made a commitment to ship the game on a certain date, and that decision was made jointly between us and our publishing partners. We wanted to stay true to that date because of all the marketing and sales work that had been put into a timed launch... In a different situation, we could have said, 'Let's delay this until we get these last things hammered out.' But that's not as easy as people think when you don't have the hundreds of millions behind you that a publisher's development team does."
Flagship Studio seems sincere about living up to the hype, even after release, "There is this huge misconception that we aren't doing things for our free players…a massive amount of work went into the patches after the game came out, as well as what's in The Stonehenge Chronicles, and that's available to everyone. All of the class rebalances, the PvP duelling arena, the numerous UI changes, group-play balance, quest work, item and mod issues being addressed (as well as a new upgrade system), crafting and more are there for everyone. We're very dedicated to providing updates and a better experience to everyone who plays the game."
You know something is really catching on when companies starts branding otherwise generic products as specially designed for said something, and it now looks like that's now true for the Eee PC, thanks to these two new clever bits of marketing from A-DATA. While you could of course use any USB flash drive of SDHC card with the laptop, A-DATA's apparently hoping that its new "special edition" flash cards and drives will sway over at least a couple of Eee PC users, and we don't doubt that they will. Apparently available only in 8GB versions, they each come in Eee PC-coordinating white, with the USB flash drive also boasting the extra bonus of a leather carrying strap. No word on pricing or availability just yet, unfortunately, but we wouldn't be surprised if they demand a bit of a premium over their non-Eee counterparts.
- Another day, another GameEx enhancment
- This version introduces a "last played" module/list. Similar to most played but listing games you played in order of when you last played them.
- There are also updates to the code that handles videos previews. Hopefully for the better, but if you encounter any problems with video previews or snaps please advise
- GameEx will no longer start the screensaver if its minimized. For when you just want to listen to music in a non cab or non HTPC setup.
- Fixed a problem with MESS versions after 0.123 not being detected properly. This was due to changes in the text output of the "-help" command which is what ML uses to identify which what emulator/version is being used.
- Modified the method of determining "ROMSETS which use this driver" listing when viewing DAT information (F3) - correcting a problem.
- Fixed a long standing bug with External Data Viewing (F3) which caused ML to freeze when looking up sets from certain drivers.
- Normal updates to RESOURCE.ML to keep up with changes in major emulators (MAME 0.124, MESS 0.124, PinMAME 1.59).
- An updated compiler environment fixed an issue related to the display not being correct using SCROLL LOCK (toggling Full Screen/Windowed mode) that snuck in the u29 release.
- Added driver for games on Tumble Pop bootleg hardware
- Tidied the System 1 driver and enabled working sets in normal builds
- Added support for the SN76496 family of sound chips
- Added sound to the Mr. Do driver
- Added sound to the Bank Panic driver
- Fixed missing music in Combatribes
- Fixed a compile issue with VC in the Bank Panic and New Zealand Story drivers
- Fixed an issue in VC builds with inputs not working in various drivers
- Fixed a bug in the Mysterious Stones driver with AY8910 memory allocation
- Corrected the ZetBc call in the 1943 driver making it playable (but still preliminary)
- Updated the Jack the Giantkiller driver to iq_132s latest release
- Updated the dec0 and tmnt drivers to the latest versions released by kev
- Matched all sets to MAME 0.124a
- fixed: xml export shows a crc=0 for nodumps
- fixed: www profile xml creator doesn't include xml dats
- fixed: about window frame was wrong
- misc: added dtd reference to xml header
New System Drivers Supported (in no particular order):
------------------------------------------------------
- Dick Smith Super-80 [Robbbert]
- Epoch Game Pocket Computer [Wilbert Pol]
- Galeb [Miodrag Milanovic]
- Genesis (USA, NTSC, w/SVP) [notaz, R. Belmont]
- Hartung/Watara/Virella/Videojet/... Game Master [PeT]
- Microbee 16k Standard [Robbbert]
- Mikro-80 [Miodrag Milanovic]
- Orao [Miodrag Milanovic]
- Philips Videopac G7000/C52 [Wilbert Pol]
- Specialist / Lik / SpecialistMX [Miodrag Milanovic]
- UT-88 and UT-88 mini [Miodrag Milanovic]
System Driver Changes:
------------------------------------
- [ABC80x] Updated to use the new MAME MC6845 code. [Curt Coder]
- [APFM1000] Added special APF video mode [PeT]
- [APPLE2] Removed usage of tilemaps. [Nate Woods]
- [APPLE3] Fixed buffer overrun in 80 column text mode. [Nate Woods]
- [ASTROCDE] Added controls for player 3 and 4 and improved analog controls. [ranger_lennier]
- [ASTROCDE] Removed the MESS specific implementation of the video hardware in favor of the more accurate MAME version. Also fixed the I/O ports defintion which improves the sound a lot. [Dirk Best]
- [COCO] Fixed bug that could cause joystick button presses to not be registered. (bug #1532) [Nate Woods]
- [COCO] Added a quickload for .BIN files. [Nate Woods]
- [COUPE] Added many new BIOS revisions. [Oliver Stoneberg]
- [GAMEBOY] Added support for Korean MBC1 mapper variant. [Wilbert Pol]
- [LYNX] Always recompute timer settings when a timer register is being written. Fixes 0.118 regression in Gates of Zendocon (bug #1435). [Wilbert Pol]
- [ODYSSEY2] Rewrote video code to use scanline-based rendering (fixes Killer Bees intro). Made sound pitch depend on system clock instead of -samplerate (bug #1519). Added support for The Voice! add-on. Added support for larger ROM format used by Kill The Attacking Aliens. Added PAL support for Videopac and C52. [Wilbert Pol]
- [PC] Converted MDA, Hercules, CGA, and Tandy 1000 video code to use the MAME MC6845 code. EURO PC and PC200 drivers are temporarily broken as a result. Split off PC (Hercules) from the PC (MDA) driver. Replaced MDA and CGA character ROMs with a proper dump from an original IBM card. [Wilbert Pol]
- [PDP1] Fixed text display regression. (bug #883) [Robbbert]
- [QL] System boots up again. (bug #1495) [Curt Coder]
- [SVI318] Cleaned up driver. [Tomas Karlsson]
- [SVISION] Watara TV-Link PAL activated [PeT]
- [TRS80] Fixed an issue with I/O ports. Fixed 32 character display. Decoded LNW-80 characters. [Robbbert]
Ubisoft's latest Tom Clancy shooter has hit the top of the UK All Formats charts on its first week of release.
Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is the fifth in the publisher's Tom Clancy portfolio to take the number one position following success with Splinter Cell and its sequel Pandora Tomorrow, Rainbow Six Lockdown and Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2.
The game is also the fourth fastest-selling Xbox 360 game in the UK, with 77 per cent of sales on Microsoft's home console.
Despite a further jump in sales of 60 per cent, Sega's Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games drops down one place to number two this week, while Activision claims the number three and four spots with Call of Duty 4 and Guitar Hero III.
With more stock back in the retail chain, Nintendo's Wii Play climbs to number seven, while EA's Army of Two is the only game in the top ten to lose sales as it slips from number two to number eight.
The only other new entry in the top ten is Sega Superstar Tennis at ten.
The full top ten follows:
1. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2
2. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
3. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
4. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
5. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training
6. Carnival: Funfair Games
7. Wii Play
8. Army of Two
9. FIFA 08
10. Sega Superstars Tennis
Electronic Arts has announced that PC MMORPG Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning won't be released until the autumn.
News of the delay was revealed this morning by producer Jeff Hickman. He was speaking at a press conference in Paris attended by the editor of Eurogamer's brand new MMO channel.
It's not the first time the game's release date has been pushed back. Warhammer Online was originally due out in Q1 of this year, but that was shifted to Q2. At the time, EA Mythic boss Mark Jacobs said the delay would allow the studio to "invest additional time and effort in implementation and polish to make WAR great".
It seems even more investment is required, as Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is now due for a "fall" release.
Probably everyone has done one so I figured I might try as well.
After reading a few documents and a thread at EmuTalk I was able to do a really buggy Chip-8 emulator which properly runs about 1% of the games
Since this was just to get a basic idea how emulators work I didn't bother to polish the emu or fix the bugs.
Now it might be a while until I start anything similar or fix the issues on this emulator but I was wondering about one thing:
How to actually emulate (make) a sound?
Can anyone post links to some docs about that?
For Chip-8 I simply used system beep which was enough but for any more advanced system (eg. Game Boy) that simply won't cut it.
Thanks in advance for any help on that subject.
Btw: If you decide to download this alpha (should be pre-alpha really) emulator i hope that you will have fun laughing at glitches like I did.
Far Cry 2 is set to release this autumn, Ubisoft has told CVG.
Originally the publisher had pegged the PC version for spring, but changed the date to a very general April '08-March '09 when PS3 and Xbox 360 versions were confirmed.
But we've narrowed that down a bit.
Far Cry 2's not only technically ambitious on a graphical level but also in the way the storyline is being presented. Creative director Clint Hocking explains:
"The game's story is non-linear, dynamic, and procedurally assembled using a simple drama-management engine to populate the story with key characters, and facilitate the convergence of the story toward major climactic events.
"Simply stated, neither the world, nor the story, could be called 'linear' in any imaginable sense. The experience of the game is entirely driven by the player, with the game evaluating the player's actions and choices and serving content that puts the player's actions into a context that resonates with the themes of the game."
The sequel features a 50sq/km open world and drops the player in the middle of a failed African state, still in chaos after a recent conflict. You've been sent there to take out a weapons dealer who is arming both sides involved in the conflict.
Blizzard has released the Fury of the Sunwell patch for World of Warcraft.
Official update day was yesterday, so most of the traffic should have subsided, but you can still shop around for external places to download the content if you want tip-top speeds.
Fury of the Sunwell, or patch 2.4, introduces Sunwell Isle and all of its secrets. The main attractions for the devoted adventurer will be fresh 5-man and 25-man dungeons.
The latter will be super-tough and culminate in a showdown with big bad nasty Kil'Jaeden, who has appropriate sacks of loot to shower you with.
Blizzard has also added Global Arena Tournaments that let you create a level 70 character on the spot and deck him or her out in epic equipment. Fights should rely on skill rather than time-invested, or something.
A full list of changes can be found on the official World of Warcraft website.
Unchanged is the irrefutable fact that Horde are better than Alliance.
New screenshots from Techland's zombie shooter-adventure Dead Island have shambled their way onto the 'net and are shedding rotting pixels everywhere.
Dead Island, which is in development for PC and Xbox 360, has previously been described as Far Cry meets Lost meets Resident Evil meets Dead Rising, with plenty of bloodthirsty gore. Sounds like a recipe for success if you ask us.
Dead Island will feature a whole army of undead nasties, from the lurching, moaning classic species from George Romero's movies, to the fast-moving monstrosities like those in the 2004 remake of Romero's Dawn of the Dead.
All controlled by a planned AI system (or rather an 'Advanced Artificial Life System' as developer Techland would have it) that will create spontaneous individual and group behaviour.
Electronic Arts has released a new demo for the PC version of UEFA Euro 2008.
It's now available for download via EA's website The demo weighs in at 620MB and sees England and Germany battling it out in a single match.
UEFA Euro 2008 is coming to PC, PS2, PS3, PSP and Xbox 360 on April 18th. As per usual it'll feature all the teams and official stadiums from the real life tournament. New features will include Captain Your Country and Battle of the Nations modes. Football's just a branch of science.
Analyst Billy Pidgeon with IDC tells Next-Gen that in the wake of the Wii's success and the explosion of casual, community gaming, the PlayStation 3 could be the last of the state-of-the-art consoles.
At launch, researchers estimated that Sony lost around $240 per 60GB PS3 sold. A pricey Blu-ray drive, state-of-the-art GPU and multicore Cell processor drove costs to new heights. Xbox 360's per-unit loss wasn't much better at launch at around $125 per console, according to estimates.
And then the Wii, with its cheap "GameCube 1.5" technology came along, albeit with motion sensing, showing that Nintendo could sell a console at no loss, attract a massive following and be profitable from the start.
"I think the results of this cycle will have a strong influence on the next cycle, in that cheaper consoles will be expected," Pidgeon says, alluding to the success of the $250 Wii. "Microsoft and Sony will attain successful business on this generation, but catering to the early adopter hardcore gamers with a technology leader strategy will be difficult in 2011.
"...Third party publishers are already looking for ubiquitous platforms to reach the market increase achieved by Nintendo and Guitar Hero," Pidgeon says. "The platforms of the next cycle may not be a console at all, but software distributed by network to convergent devices like PCs, set top boxes and smart phones."
He adds, "I would have dismissed this idea as unachievable last cycle when only Xbox could provide a promising connected console experience, but it is entirely possible that the PS3 is the last bleeding edge console hardware we will see."
Further analysis of the Wii's effect on the next console cycle can be found in the Next-Gen feature, "Wii the Death Knell of the Bleeding Edge Console?"
Over the last few weeks I've been asking top people at Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony about game demos for the downloadable games offered via Xbox Live Arcade, WiiWare and PlayStation Network.
I can't get the same answer twice.
Microsoft - yes, demos are a must
Nintendo -- no, demos are not required
Sony - sometimes demos are good, sometimes bad.
Microsoft's Jeremy Wacksman, Global Marketing Manager, Xbox Live
"[Trial demos for XBLA games] came from the casual games industry. The thing is that Arcade has an identity. It is about pick-up-and-play games. The trial experience helps drive that pick-up-and-play nature. You have to think about how to get consumers to taste it. And the other thing is that it provides a great marketing tool. We've talked to consumers, and trial is one of the big drivers of purchase intent. So it gets smaller-budget games that doesn't have a big marketing campaign- this is their marketing. We're going to do a great job of getting the trial into people's hands, and then the game can help sell itself."
Eee fans, your second-wildest dream has just come to pass. ASUS' next version of the mini-laptop has hit the FCC, and we've got the pictures to prove it. Yes, as we speak (possibly, but maybe not) inspectors from the agency are poring over details of the 9-inch, second generation system -- referred to here as the Eee 900 -- desperately hoping that none of its radio waves do anything funky to anyone else's radio waves. There's no secret-sauce WiMAX or drastic changes we can see, though the manual does make mention of "multi-finger gesture input," which will apparently provide the ability to zoom in, zoom out, and do familiar two-finger scrolling on the newly resized trackpad. Check the pictures in the gallery for loads of looks at the new entry, including a view of its insides that'll make your eyes water.
Word on the street is that ASUS has joined the fray and released an SDK for its Eee line. According to the folks over at Eee Site, the Xandros-based software package is available for download as a 1.2GB disk image. Of course, since the mini-laptop's Linux-based OS is... well, Linux, it doesn't really seem like an SDK would be necessary. Could it be that the company is just jumping on the development bandwagon, which has gone from obscure hacker-geek territory to front page Apple news? Perhaps, but it's still nice to see developers getting some attention for once. Hit the read link to get your downloads -- and apps -- started.
Here we have it, confirmation that the second generation Eee PC will in fact feature an 8.9-inch (resistive) touchscreen display. Kevin Lin, ASUS VP of Sales, says that the $500 (starting price) Eee PC will begin shipping in May or June in 8GB to 12GB options with "possible GPS support." That's the same time ASUS plans to begin shipping its $200 Eee Dekstop, aka the E-DT. Look, we're happy with your success with the Eee brand ASUS, but when are we getting our $200 Eee PC?
Critically acclaimed, multi-million selling and still the most respected football title on the planet, Winning Eleven continues to be one of Konami's flagship titles. The indications are that this latest incarnation will surpass everything that went before it and prove that Winning Eleven 2008 will be the greatest version of the beautiful game to date.
Winning Eleven 2008 features a brand new intelligence system, called Teamvision, that adapts and reacts to players own gameplay styles to ensure that the computer controlled opponents are always challenging and forcing the player to think and chance their style of play to avoid being out-thought by the game. It will learn counter attacks that target your weaknesses and look to exploit any repetitive tactics players use.
Defenders react better to danger, closing down the ball and charging at shots and the goalkeepers will hold shots that are closer to them as well. Teammates will make more intelligent runs into space and the close control has been sharpened to ensure quick and fluid passing and speedy attacks can be built. The next gen versions also feature extensive edit modes so players can completely customise their Winning Eleven 2008 experience.
- Updated file: "\images\msgbox.png"
- Buttons toolbar have only one size from now on (32x32 icons)
Improved
- User interface has been updated a little bit
- Code cleanup and some optimizations
Removed
- Input box screen since it's not used anymore. Also, file "\images\bk_inputbox.png"
- Column "Located in" removed. If you do not want to re-create your games lists, please use the new utility to update your games files ("\games\*.ec") for EmuCon v1.9
- Background color of sorted columns
- Feature "Total Games Per System"
- System view mode
- File "\images\nosnap.png". There is no "No snapshot" anymore, only a blank panel
- All icons for menu items / tabsheets are gone
- Lots of .ico files from "\ec_icons\" folder
- Custom main menu / popup menus
Added
- Setting "Disable Minimize": prevent front-end from minimizing when running games
- New snapshots resampler: "Scale 2x". This one doubles the image resolution!
The latest version is 0.124. This fully-packaged version is deprecated due to the fast-moving nature of MESS development, but I’ll update it on integer MESS releases.
New in this version: all the stuff from SDLMAME 0.124 and MESS 0.124a.
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 was the top-selling game in Australia for the week of March 17 - 23 according to data released by GfK Australia.
The Xbox 360 version of Ubisoft's game debuted at number one - the PS3 version did not make it into the top ten.
The prior week's best-selling game, EA's Army of Two, dropped to the fourth spot. Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii captured the second position.
The complete list is as follows:
1. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 (Xbox 360)
2. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
3. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (DS)
4. Army of Two (360)
5. MX vs. ATV Untamed (PS2)
6. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii)
7. Army of Two (PS3)
8. Mario Party 8 (Wii)
9. The Simpsons Game (DS)
10. Brain Training from Dr. Kawashima: How Old Is Your Brain? (DS)
Epic snaffles another wad of cash as Korean developer Bluehole licenses Unreal Engine 3 for its top-secret PC MMO project.
It's the third MMO in two days to be revealed as employing Epic's technology. NCSoft recently voiced its intention to use Unreal Engine 3 in two as-yet-to-be-announced massively multiplayer online games.
Bluehole's being massively cagey about its game, only giving us a codename - Project S1.
But Epic VP Jay Wilbur has said the Korean company is planning to "reinvent MMO design and battle system mechanics". Watch this space.
Deep Silver and GSC World Publishing will be releasing S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Clear Sky around the world on 29th August.
The game been expected towards the beginning of the year, but a slight delay is unsurprising given the legacy of the first title.
Clear Sky is a prequel that offers an alternative view of the events in the 2007 PC original, granting you the opportunity live your life as a mercenary and fight for numerous factions.
Alongside all this will be smarter enemies and technological improvements to the open-ended world of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is based around the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl in a fictional world where everything went even more pear-shaped than we remember it. And we loved it; it was gigantic and scary, if a little rough around the edges.
New screenshots and new gameplay footage from Flagship Studios' MMO Mythos are here for viewing right on this very page.
Gameplay footage includes briefing on the game's races and character classes, while the screenshots come from a new content update that's just been released for the ongoing closed beta.
The update "introduces the Umbral Peaks and the towns of Mistglade and Arcled and includes quest content that will allow players to progress to level 30. New features include the introduction of a new Cyclopean character race, a crafting system, in-game mail, socketable armor, trinkets, and stat bonuses for skill tier investment.
"For the first time, players can participate in PvP dueling thanks to a dedicated PvP world, the Shadowlands."
Mythos will be free to download and play when it's released - which will happen at some point this year; the developer's yet to confirm a date - and is an MMO that won't fail to remind you of Diablo.
It's time to take a new look at Deep Shadows' Precursors courtesy of fresh screenshots that have been released.
Previously the developer's focussed on the space-based part of the game with media, but here we're back on good old terra-firma.
Planned for PC and Xbox 360, Precursors is an ambitious project that combines first-person shooter, space sim and role-playing game genres and shoves players into the boots of a rookie space pilot roaming the galaxy.
Video game ratings need to be overhauled to make them easier for parents and children to understand, a UK government-backed review has said.
Carried out by psychologist Dr Tanya Byron, it says more games need to be rated by official bodies.
It calls for the creation of a UK body to draw up and oversee a national strategy to keep children safe online.
It also recommends that new PCs be sold with software that will help prevent children seeing harmful online content.
Greater scrutiny
"I challenge government and industry to step up to make the digital world safer for children and young people," said Dr Byron at a press event launching the review.
One key recommendation is lowering the statutory age at which games have to go before the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) to 12.
At the moment video games only get a mandatory review by classifiers if they have "human sexual activity" or "gross violence"
Each year the industry submits about 250 games for review by the BBFC.
The introduction of a statutory requirement to classify games for children aged 12 plus will see the workload of the BBFC increase dramatically.
Dr Byron said her review had led her to conclude that parents' general lack of confidence and awareness was "leaving children vulnerable to risks within their digital worlds". The review also recommends that the ratings system be extended so that familiar BBFC logos seen on DVDs appear on all games sold in stores.
"I want parents to be empowered," said Dr Byron, "I want clear logos on all games so parents can make an informed choice."
"Kids are the digital natives, she said, "parents are the digital immigrants." While BBFC logos will adorn the front of game boxes, the "equivalent" ratings from Pegi will appear on the back of boxes. Pegi is a voluntary ratings system set up by the games industry.
"The European Pegi system works for the industry," said Dr Byron, "but the BBFC works for parents and children."
A consultation period will be held about the proposed changes to the recommendation system to which the games industry will be invited to contribute.
Before now the games industry has favoured a single system and has expressed a preference for Pegi.
The wide-ranging review also calls for more support for retailers so staff feel confident refusing to sell a game to anyone who is too young to play it.
Dr Byron also wants the government to set up a UK Council for Child Internet Safety that will report to the Prime Minister and be charged with drawing up a national strategy for online safety.
The council will co-ordinate the work of existing bodies who oversee net safety and implement a comprehensive programme that will educate parents about the benefits and dangers of using the net.
Work should also be done to see if there are technical means that can oversee where people go online and warn them about illegal or harmful sites they may visit.
It also called for the creation of kitemarked filtering software that is installed on all new PCs sold for use in the home and which is given away with all new net contracts.
The review said the online industry had to take greater responsibility when policing content posted to websites, such as video sites and social networks.
Sites where users can post their own images and videos should commit to specific time-lines for removing harmful content, recommended the report.
Search engines should also take steps to help parents limit what their children can look at and display links on their home pages to sites that can provide advice.
has recommended codes of practice for the industry, including social networking sites and video sharing sites, which should be independently monitored.
"We accept all the recommendations in the report," said schools secretary Ed Balls at the launch event.
He said the government would legislate where necessary to bring some of the recommendations into force.
Download the enitre report in PDF format from Computer and Video Games here
What's New, Beelzebub? Acts as the climax to Telltale's second season in its Sam & Max episodic adventure series, and it's only chucking the duo into hell to battle with the devil. Yikes.
"Now, judgment day is at hand, and it's time for a showdown with the guy downstairs to bargain for Bosco's soul. But, in the corporate wasteland known as Hell, not even Sam & Max are safe from eternal damnation. Can they wiggle free from Satan's grasp, or have they finally reached the end of the line?", says the developer on the storyline, promising the final episode will end the season with a bang.
It's out on April 10 on GameTap and April 11 on Telltale's website. First screenshots and a trailer are dancing on this page for your enjoyment.
t's pretty easy to blame Microsoft for the buggy experiences many users of Vista have had, but they aren't the only culprits in this mess of an OS. No, it turns out that NVIDIA's craptastic drivers have been responsible for a whopping 28.8% of all Vista crashes. Yes, nearly 1/3rd of every single Vista crash was caused by NVIDIA drivers, and that includes all the computers out there that, you know, don't have an NVIDIA graphics card.
Microsoft's software is only responsible for 17.9%, but you've also gotta give the big M credit for the 17% that's "unknown." Behind that, ATI is responsible for 9.3% of crashes, with Intel causing 8.8% of them.
That 29% of crashes worked out to a real-world figure of about 479,000 crashes. The sample in question comes from an unspecified period last year, so one has got to assume, or at least hope, that Microsoft and NVIDIA have gotten their shit under control by now to not be breaking computers so frequently.
In any case, it's interesting to see just how big a hand NVIDIA had in creating the perception that Microsoft's shiny new OS was a big, buggy crash machine right out of the gate. Nice work, NVIDIA.
Welcome to this week's Games Update, our weekly summary featuring all new product arrivals from the last seven days.
Many exciting games have been released this week, these include Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G for Sony PSP™. A Monster Hunter is the most interesting occupation there is, the fights with the massive creatures are thrilling and the rewards for your services are handsome, but bear in mind that this career path is only open to the fittest and most adventurous of you. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G Hunter Pack (w/ PSP-2000 Slim & Lite Console) and the its accessory pack are currently sold out, but we are sourcing some more at the moment, so be sure to check back for them.
Enter the era of WWII as a resistant fighter in Turning Point: Fall of Liberty. In this chaotic period, liberate the world as you survive skirmishes, battles and the big war.
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 for Xbox360™ [standard and limited edition] and PlayStation3™ [standard and limited edition] are in stock this week. Feel the adrenaline pumping through your veins in this first person shooter as you rescue Las Vegas from the onslaught of terrorists from the comfort of your home.
Through blending stylishly rendered martial arts and graphics together with an engaging plot Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus explores whether humans and the android-like Gears can live together in peace.
Amidst all these great but serious games that came out this week, Sega Superstars Tennis for [Xbox360™, PlayStation3™, Nintendo Wii™ and Nintendo DS™] is a refreshing change. It features all the beloved Sega mascots, from Sonic the Hedgehog to NiGHTS, playing tennis and hilarious mini-games. This sports game is suitable for everyone.
As usually, here's a summary of all new releases from this week
Xbox360™:
Dark Sector JPN US$ 64.90
Raiden Fighters Aces JPN US$ 64.90
Sega Superstars Tennis US US$ 54.90
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 ASIA US$ 54.90
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 US US$ 64.90
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 [Limited Edition] US US$ 74.90
Tomb Raider: Anniversary JPN US$ 64.90
Turning Point: Fall of Liberty ASIA US$ 49.90
Universe at War: Earth Assault ASIA US$ 44.90
PlayStation3™:
Condemned 2: Bloodshot US US$ 64.90
Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds US US$ 64.90
Karaoke Revolution: American Idol Encore Bundle US US$ 79.90
LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga JPN US$ 64.90
Sega Superstars Tennis US US$ 54.90
The Eye of Judgment: Biolith Rebellion Set 2: Biolith Scourge Theme Deck JPN US$ 14.90
The Eye of Judgment: Biolith Rebellion Set 2: Booster Pack (Japanese) JPN US$ 4.90
The Eye of Judgment: Biolith Rebellion Set 2: Earth Emperor Theme Deck JPN US$ 14.90
The Eye of Judgment: Biolith Rebellion Set 2: Fire Crusader Theme Deck JPN US$ 14.90
The Eye of Judgment: Biolith Rebellion Set 2: Water Barrage Theme Deck JPN US$ 14.90
The Eye of Judgment: Biolith Rebellion Set 2: Wood Swarm Theme Deck JPN US$ 14.90
The Golden Compass / Lyra no Bouken: Ougon no Rashinban JPN US$ 64.90
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 US US$ 64.90
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 ASIA US$ 59.90
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 [Limited Edition] US US$ 74.90
Nintendo Wii™:
LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga JPN US$ 59.90
Ninja Reflex JPN US$ 39.90
Nitrobike JPN US$ 59.90
Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 US US$ 44.90
Sega Superstars Tennis US US$ 54.90
Tomb Raider: Anniversary JPN US$ 59.90
Worms: A Space Oddity US US$ 59.90
PlayStation2™:
Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch - Lost Colors JPN US$ 64.90
Elminage: Yami no Fujo to Kamigami no Yubiwa JPN US$ 64.90
Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus JPN US$ 59.90
Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus (Append Edition) JPN US$ 19.90
Kimi ga Aruji de Shitsuji ga Oro de: Oshie Nikki JPN US$ 64.90
Kimi ga Aruji de Shitsuji ga Oro de: Oshie Nikki [Limited Edition] JPN US$ 89.90
Metal Gear Solid: The Essential Collection US US$ 34.90
Neo Angelique Full Voice JPN US$ 39.90
Neo Angelique Full Voice [Premium Box] JPN US$ 59.90
Neo Angelique Full Voice [Super Premium Box] JPN US$ 79.90
Nobunaga no Yabou Online: Souha no Shou JPN US$ 64.90
Samurai Warriors 2: Xtreme Legends US US$ 34.90
Sega Ages 2500 Vol. 32: Phantasy Star Complete Collection JPN US$ 28.90
Sega Ages 2500 Vol. 32: Phantasy Star Complete Collection [Segadirect DX Pack] JPN N/A
Sega Superstars Tennis US US$ 44.90
Silent Hill: Origins KOR US$ 39.90
Singstar 90's US US$ 34.90
Singstar 90's with 2 Microphones US US$ 59.90
Tomb Raider: Anniversary JPN US$ 64.90
Nintendo DS™:
Aquarium US US$ 24.90
Business Ryoku Kentei DS JPN US$ 29.90
Cyber Codefreak & Accessory Pack JPN US$ 49.90
Diary Girl US US$ 34.90
Fantasy Aquarium US US$ 24.90
GoPets Vaction Island! US US$ 39.90
Insecticide US US$ 34.90
Kateikyoushi Hitman Reborn! Bongole Shiki Taisen Battle Sugoroku JPN US$ 48.90
Lost in Blue 3 US US$ 39.90
Lux-Pain JPN US$ 48.90
Lyra no Bouken: Ougon no Rashinban / The Golden Compass JPN US$ 48.90
Minna de Flash Anzan DS JPN US$ 39.90
Minna no Atsumare! Quiz Party JPN US$ 39.90
Mobile Suit Gundam 00 JPN US$ 48.90
Sakana to Asobou! Aquazone DS - Kaisuigyo JPN US$ 39.90
Sega Superstars Tennis US US$ 34.90
Simple DS Series Vol. 35: The Genshin JPN US$ 28.90
Survival Kids: Lost in Blue 2 (Konami the Best) JPN US$ 29.90
Tetsudou Seminar: JR-Hen JPN US$ 48.90
The Eigyoudou JPN US$ 39.90
Vitamin X Evolution JPN US$ 48.90
Vitamin X Evolution [Limited Edition] JPN US$ 69.90 Sony PSP™:
Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch - Lost Colors JPN US$ 48.90
Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch - Lost Colors (Special Edition) JPN US$ 69.90
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (English language Version) ASIA US$ 44.90
Dead Head Fred JPN US$ 48.90
Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G JPN US$ 49.90
Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G Accessories Set JPN N/A
Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G Hunter Pack (w/ PSP-2000 Slim & Lite Console) JPN N/A
Tomb Raider: Anniversary JPN US$ 48.90
Umihara Kawase Portable JPN US$ 48.90
PC and MAC™:
Nobunaga no Yabou Online Souha no Shou JPN US$ 69.90
Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 34.90
Game Books and Magazines:
Disgaea: Hour of Darkness 3 Complete Guide JPN US$ 31.90
Hobby Japan [May 2008] JPN US$ 14.90
Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis Official Strategy Guide US US$ 19.90
Monster Hunter Illustrations JPN N/A
Neo Angelique Memorial Book ~Official Setting Sourcebook~ JPN US$ 31.90
R20 Rockman & Rockman X Official Complete Works JPN US$ 39.90
Ryuusei no RockMan 2 Wave Command Card Perfect File JPN US$ 9.90
Sengoku Basara 2 Heroes Official Anthology Comics JPN US$ 19.90
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
Won! Tertainment - Music Channel: Wantame Fan Book Vol.5 JPN US$ 14.90
Video Game Soundtracks:
Cosmos No Yoni (To Heart 2 Another Days Outro Theme) (~Rena Uehara) JPN US$ 9.90
Drammatica -The Very Best of Yoko Shimomura- (w/ Final Fantasy Versus XIII Bonus Track) JPN US$ 28.90
Famison 8 Bit Idol Master 01 JPN US$ 22.90
Makai Senki Disugaia / Disgaea: Hour of Darkness - 3 Drama CD Vol.1 Kiki Kaikai! Akuma Darake No Kyoka Gasshuku (~Hiromi Hirata, Hiro Shimono, Chiwa Saito) JPN US$ 29.90
Poison Pink Complete SoundTrack JPN US$ 37.90
Rune Factory 2 Soundtrack JPN US$ 27.90
Waratte, Waratte (Sakura Wars - Kimi Arugatame - Outro Theme) JPN US$ 11.90
Zenkoku Dekotora Matsuri - Yosakoi Bakuso On Ban JPN US$ 31.90
Miscellaneous Accessories:
DVD Lens Cleaner JPN US$ 18.90
Did everyone managed to grab something off the Year of the Rat Lucky Sale? No matter whether your answer is a 'yes' or a 'no', here is another chance for you. To celebrate this holiday season (yeah well we might be a few days late, but does that really matter? ;-) ), we will be giving out Easter Eggs to all of our customers! And they are not just ordinary chocolate eggs, what we are giving out are massive savings and discounts in goods of a wide spectrum of flavors and colors. Be they small toys or popular games, there is something here for everyone!
Play-Asia.com is very happy to announce that the Easter Eggs sale will commence at this very moment. So get ready to browse through the pages or your bookmarks, hunt for the Easter Eggs strewn across the fields of our web pages and save yourself plenty of cash in the process! In fact, the more you buy, the more you save!
There is a 20% off of every "in stock" item. While some products are restocked regularly, please bear in mind that we have only a very limited amount of stock for some items, so be sure to place your order as quickly as you can to avoid disappointment. Your chance to pick up these Easter Eggs only lasts until Monday, 31st of March, so don't wait any longer, be on your way to the treasure hunt.
Pokémon fever ripped through Japan last week, pushing an impressive quarter-million copies of Pokémon Ranger: Batonnage in its debut week. It wasn't the only new release to make a splash as the combined efforts of Deca Sports, Armored Core and others pushed previous chart toppers like Wii Fit and Super Smash Bros. Brawl further down the charts. This week, fifteen newcomers crack the top thirty. See if you can catch 'em all in this week's Simple 2000 software chart, featuring sales from March 17 to 23.
See where Yakuza 3 Kenzan! landed this week and where Echochrome for the PSP debuted after the break.
01. Pokémon Ranger: Batonnage (DS) - 242,000 / NEW
02. Deca Sports (Wii) - 65,000 / NEW
03. Armored Core: For Answer (PS3) - 54,000 / NEW
04. SimCity DS 2: Kodaikara Mirai e Tsudzukumachi (DS) - 49,000 / NEW
05. Wii Fit (Wii) - 48,000 / 1,752,000
06. Tales of Rebirth (PSP) - 47,000 / NEW
07. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) - 41,000 / 1,490,000
08. Crayon Shin-Chan: Arashi o Yobu Cinema Land (DS) - 35,000 / NEW
09. DS Bimoji Training (DS) - 35,000 / 101,000
10. Time Hollow: Uwareta Kako o Motome (DS) - 34,000 / NEW
11. Dramatic Dungeon: Sakura Taisen (DS)
12. Echochrome (Sony)
13. Armored Core: For Answer (Xbox 360)
14. Yakuza 3: Kenzan! (PS3)
15. Wii Sports (Wii)
16. Gundam Musou Special (PS2)
17. Super Dodge Ball (DS)
18. Wii Play (Wii)
19. The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return (Wii)
20. Army of Two (Xbox 360)
21. Mario Kart DS (DS)
22. Army of Two (PS3)
23. Harvest Moon: Shining Sun and Friends (DS)
24. Mario Party DS (DS)
25. Kekkaishi: Koru Nogirou Shuurai (DS)
26. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (DS)
24. Minna no Joushiki Ryoku TV (Wii)
28. Musou Orochi (PSP)
29. Shugo Chara! 3-tsu no Tamagoto Koisuru Joker (DS)
30. Taiko Drum Master DS (DS)
- Added RomInfo widget to the ROM launcher, which shows properties information and a snapshot of the currently selected ROM. Updated the UI and added '-romviewer' commandline argument to activate this setting. Note that the ROM launcher will have to be sized at least 640x480 for this to be used. Also note that the snapshots must be in 1x mode with a maximum size of 320x260. This will be expanded on in a future release.
- Added ROM audit functionality, whereby ROMs can be physically renamed according to their properties' name.
- Added bankswitching support for 0840, SB, X07 and 4A50. A special thanks to Eckhard Stolberg for much help in this area.
- Removed "non-browse" functionality from the ROM launcher; it now always uses browse/filesystem mode. The previous 'pretty' names can now be seen by renaming all your ROMs with the new ROM audit feature.
- Huge overhaul of controller handling and Stelladaptor support, making it much easier to add new controller types in a future release.
- Fixed paddle issues in Night Driver; paddle emulation speed should be much better.
- Fixed several 6507 emulation bugs related to BCD handling.
- Updated ROM properties based on info from RomHunter.
- ROM properties can now be edited from the ROM launcher; you no longer have to start a ROM to do so.
- Added support for configurable font to ROM launcher (currently only 'small' and 'large'). Updated the UI and added -launcherfont' commandline argument to change this setting.
- Added SECAM, NTSC50, PAL60 and SECAM60 to the list of formats that can be used. Also, switching between these modes with 'Ctrl-f' now switches the palette only; the number of scanlines won't change.
- Fixed crash when switching between software and OpenGL mode with a Stelladaptor plugged in.
- Added '-tiafloat' commandline argument, which determines whether or not the TIA pins are in a 'floating' state. This is useful for testing on certain CMOS EPROM chips where the unused TIA pins on a read are not floating but pulled high.
- Fixed issue in debugger where once a .sym file was loaded, it was used in all ROMs loaded after that.
- Fixed issue in debugger where equate names weren't showing up in the RAM and CPU widgets. Note that this still isn't perfect, and needs support from DASM for proper functionality.
- Updated state file format, creating smaller files (and in preparation for state rewinding in a future release). Old state saves will no longer work.
- Added '-bs' commandline argument, which is an alias for '-type' (which is still present).
- Removed -pXspeed' commandline arguments, and replaced them with a single '-pspeed'.
- Removed '-paddle' commandline argument. The paddle currently emulated by the mouse can still be changed with Ctrl-0..3 or within the UI, but the setting is no longer saved.
- Reworked UI for specifying that the console ports have been swapped, hopefully making it easier to understand.
- Added 'Ctrl-c' & 'Ctrl-v' to EditTextWidgets, allowing to copy and paste the text widget contents. More work in this area is coming in a future release.
- Added 'Ctrl-leftarrow' and 'Ctrl-rightarrow' to EditTextWidgets, to move to the first character of previous and next words (respectively).
- For the Win32 port: fixed OpenGL crashes in Vista. Graphical updates are still slower in Vista compared to XP, though.
- For the Win32 port: default folder for Stella config files is now 'My Documents\Stella'; this can be disabled if necessary. This should fix issues with losing settings when launching Stella from an IDE, and the creation of stella.ini and 'state' directories in many different places.
- For the Win32 port: several fixes to the Visual Studio project files, allowing building in debug or release mode, for both i386 and x86_64. The project files have been upgraded to Visual Studio 2008, and Stella can now be built and distributed without the VS runtime libraries.
- Updated configure script for cross-compiling Win32 version in Linux.
Okay, more figures are in for the sales of consoles in Japan and they revert to usual positions as follows:
Nintendo DS Lite: 65,055
Nintendo Wii: 62,404
Playstation Portable: 59,833
Playstation 3: 12,874
Playstation 2: 9,990
Xbox 360: 1,407
DS is back on top (up about 11,800) and swaps its previous 3rd place with the PSP but even so the latter increases by about 2,000. Wii stays in 2nd, up 6,600. Last three consoles on the list ar the PS3, down 2,000, PS2 up by 60 and Xbox 360 crunches by some 300.
Pokemon Ranger: Batonnage has beaten off the opposition to take the Japanese chart top spot, selling almost a quarter of a million units in the process.
The data, compiled by Media Create for the sales week ending March 23, saw a completely new top four, with Deca Sporta for the Wii in second place, Armored Core for Answer on the PlayStation 3 in third and SimCity DS 2: From the Past to the Future in fourth place.
Wii Fit in fifth was one of only three titles to remain in the top ten from last week as a plethora of new titles saw releases in Japan.
Tales of Rebirth for the PlayStation Portable was another new entry in sixth, followed by Super Smash Bros Brawl, which will have surpassed the 1.5 million mark in Japan this week.
Crayon Shin-chan: Arashi wo Yobu Cinema Land took eighth spot, DS Beautiful Letter Training was ninth, and Time Hollow: Seeking the Lost Past rounded out the top ten.
Although eight of the top ten titles were on Nintendo platforms, there was some good news for Microsoft, as two new entries for the Xbox 360 made it into the top twenty - Armored Core for Answer on that console made number 13, while Army of Two was number 20.
The full top ten is as follows:
1. Pokemon Ranger: Batonnage (DS)
2. Deca Sporta (Wii)
3. Armored Core for Answer (PS3)
4. SimCity DS 2: From the Past to the Future (DS)
5. Wii Fit (Wii)
6. Tales of Rebirth (PSP)
7. Super Smash Bros Brawl (Wii)
8. Crayon Shin-chan: Arashi wo Yobu Cinema Land (DS)
9. DS Beautiful Letter Training (DS)
10. Time Hollow: Seeking the Lost Past (DS)
Former Vice President of Xbox Europe Sandy Duncan has cast his doubts on the long term future of the console market, claiming consoles as we know them will die out with a decade.
Speaking in an interview, he said: "There is a definite convergence of other devices, such as set top boxes. There's hardly any technology difference between some hard disc video recorders and an Xbox 360, for example.
"In fact in 5 to 10 years I don't think you'll have any box at all under your TV, most of this stuff will be virtualized as web services by your content provider."
We think he means you'll stream data from a server or PC straight to your telly, so technically they'll still be a box involved somewhere - it just won't be a console as we know it.
Whilst Duncan has a vested interest seeing digital distribution channels open up (he now runs a casual games company), his comments match those of Analyst Billy Pidgeon, who earlier on in the week debated whether the PlayStation 3 would be the last console we'd ever see.
Which, if nothing else, would validate Sony's claim that the PlayStation 3 would have a lifecycle of at least ten years.
It's been about four months since we had any substantial grappling news from THQ, but the Los Angeles County-based publisher put an end to that today: WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 is coming.
Although it won't be formally announced until tomorrow, THQ has confirmed with IGN that the latest installment in the storied wrestling franchise will be making its way to the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS, PSP, PlayStation 2 and mobile devices this fall while boasting a bevy of bells and whistles.
Rest in peace (PS3).On the Xbox 360, PS3, PSP and PS2, the biggest change in the action will come with a strong focus on tag teams. For the first time ever, players will be able to team up for co-op storylines in the Road to Wrestlemania mode and take advantage of an overhauled tag structure to earn attributes on their way to the top. Tag teams -- both in and out of Road to Wrestlemania -- will utilize the same momentum meter, break opponents with double team finishers and make "hot tags" for the win. Also making its debut will be Create-A-Finisher, which allows fans to choose from more than 500 animations in their quest to build the ultimate move. Specifically on the 360 and PS3, fans can look for the debut of SVR downloadable content, although THQ is mum about what it might be.
WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 marks the franchise's second title on the Wii, and THQ looks to be building on the motion controls and interactivity of the first outing. The game promises more match types, more weapons and the debut of online gameplay, which will feature matches and rankings. Although the title will pack Road to Wrestlemania like the aforementioned versions, the Wii copy of SVR '09 will be the only place to find interactive entrances and victory celebrations that range from posing on the ramp to slapping the taste out of a beaten opponent. Successfully get the crowd hyped on your way to the ring and you'll get an in-match bonus.
Seasoned players who pick up SVR '09 on the Nintendo DS will probably be in for more than a few surprises. Gone are the stylus-heavy controls of last year and in their place is a more traditional d-pad/grapple system gamers that have grown up with, although the stylus will still play some part in the action. Being developed by Tose, the folks behind Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime, the DS version of SVR '09 will pack a season mode with an RPG approach. Players will interact with Superstars, upgrade their abilities and complete missions to become the champion. Create-A-Superstar will make its Nintendo handheld debut, there will be a larger roster of Superstars, and the title will pack a wealth of new match types.
Is he sneezing or attacking (PS3)?"The ambitious cross-platform launch of WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008 last year yielded tremendous growth for the franchise, as we delivered multiple gameplay experiences across seven platforms and greatly expanded our audience of WWE videogame fans," said Bob Aniello, senior vice president, worldwide marketing, THQ. "With dynamic new features and the extension of our gameplay experience through downloadable content, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 will bring more console, handheld and wireless gamers together to enjoy the virtual world of WWE."
Think that's all the news you'll get on this momentous day? It's not even close. First, let's confirm that Chris Jericho, Jeff Hardy, Matt Hardy, Randy Orton, Mr. Kennedy, Undertaker and John Cena are all in the game. Second, why not click on over to our interview with THQ Creative Manager Cory Ledesma for nine pages of information about what Road to Wrestlemania is all about, hints on the DLC and tons more. Then, go download the brand new trailer. Next, grab some screens from the gallery below.
After all that, you have our permission to fall into a SVR '09 coma until the fall.
The BBFC has responded to industry concerns over whether or not it can handle the increased workload that the Byron Review recommendations would lead to, dismissing them as "nonsense".
In the report, published yesterday, Tanya Byron recommended that the statutory rating age be reduced to 12, with the BBFC taking responsibility for all titles rated '12', '15' and '18'.
But speaking to GamesIndustry.biz the BBFC has strongly defended its ability to take on the extra classification work.
"We're very touched at the BBFC about how concerned people are about us and our resources," said a spokesperson. "It's nice to know people are worried, but the fact of the matter is that we'll have no problem dealing with it."
There was also some clarification over the number of titles that the BBFC would need to work on, with the body rating 258 videogame titles in 2007.
"At the most, if we take the 12-plus and 16-plus games from PEGI it's about 500 games [per year]," the spokesperson went on.
"We classified, last year, about 17,000 works [including films], and that's gone from 7500 in 2000. The film industry wasn't concerned about our ability to cope with the huge influx of work - they just assumed that we would, and we did.
"Not only can we cope, but we've improved our turnaround times. Most of the games, particularly at the '12' end can be looked at in a couple of hours, because we get all the cheat codes, and all the things we need to get through the games quite quickly - and that's not much different from watching a DVD.
