Welcome to this week's Games Update, our weekly summary featuring all new product arrivals from the last seven days.
Grand Theft Auto IV is released this week and steals the spotlight. Test out your own limits as well as that of your next generation consoles. Become Niko Bellic and roam the streets of Liberty city to search for the lost American dream through constant action and gun fights. Please check out this special news entry for a full reportage on the game and its shipping schedule.
Persona 3 FES proves that school is not very much safer than Liberty City. With monsters roaming about ready to prey on the unaware, it is up to the hero, his persona and the "special extracurricular activities club" members to prevent these monsters, called Shadows from overtaking the city.
The World Ends With You does not feature a sanctuary free of conflicts either. The weight of the world rests on the teenager Neku's shoulders. He has to solve riddles and beat the fatal game in seven days, or else the world will perish with him.
Explore the grand but dangerous fields of Final Fantasy XI: The Vana'diel Collection and assume a persona of your choice. This multi-platform online RPG constructs a mythical world with magical elements of its own. Learn the history of this parallel universe and join all the others who are absorbed in this massively scaled RPG.
After all the fun of challenging death, monsters and getting lost in the wild, try something less lethal but just as exciting. NBA Ballers: Chosen One is released for both Xbox360™ and PlayStation3™. Step into your pair of cyber basketball shoes and demonstrate your best skills in the most exotic of courts.
As usually, here's a summary of all new releases from this week,
Xbox360™:
Grand Theft Auto IV ASIA US$ 59.90
Grand Theft Auto IV US US$ 64.90
Grand Theft Auto IV (Special Edition) US US$ 129.90
NBA Ballers: Chosen One US US$ 64.90
Rock Band Wireless Guitar US US$ 79.90
Sega Superstars Tennis ASIA US$ 49.90
Viking: Battle for Asgard ASIA US$ 49.90
PlayStation3™:
Grand Theft Auto IV US US$ 64.90
Grand Theft Auto IV (Special Edition) US N/A
NBA Ballers: Chosen One US US$ 64.90
Sega Superstars Tennis ASIA US$ 49.90
Viking: Battle for Asgard ASIA US$ 49.90
Nintendo Wii™:
Battle of the Bands US US$ 59.90
Heavenly Guardian US US$ 24.90
Mario Kart Wii (w/ Wii Wheel) US US$ 59.90
Pro Yakyuu Family Stadium JPN US$ 54.90
Target: Terror US US$ 44.90
Wild Earth: African Safari US US$ 34.90
Nintendo Wii™ Accessories:
Vertical Illumination Stand US US$ 19.99
Wii Classic Controller with Glove (Special Edition / Black) US US$ 29.90
Wii Classic Controller with Glove (Special Edition / Blue) US US$ 29.90
Wii Classic Controller with Glove (Special Edition / Pink) US US$ 29.90
Wii Gamenizer with Remote (Special Edition) US US$ 59.90
Wii Nunchuk with Glove (Special Edition / Blue) US US$ 29.90
Wii Zapper with Link's Crossbow Training JPN US$ 39.90
PlayStation2™:
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES US US$ 34.90
Nintendo DS™:
Anpanman to Asobo: ABC Kyoushitsu JPN US$ 44.90
Emblem of Gundam JPN US$ 48.90
Katekyoo Hitman Reborn! Fate of Heat JPN US$ 48.90
Keikishi Gunzou Presents: Monoshiri Bakumatsu-Ou JPN US$ 39.90
The World Ends With You US US$ 44.90
Nintendo DS™ Accessories:
Peanuts DS Card Block JPN US$ 10.90
Peanuts Lite Slipon Socks Pouch - Blue JPN US$ 9.90
Peanuts Lite Slipon Socks Pouch - Pink JPN US$ 9.90
Peanuts Lite Slipon Socks Pouch - White JPN US$ 9.90
Peanuts Lite Slipon Socks Pouch - Yellow JPN US$ 9.90
Protector DS Lite (Nintendogs Version A) US US$ 9.99
Protector DS Lite (Nintendogs Version B) US US$ 9.99
Protector DS Lite (Super Mario Bros. Version) US US$ 9.99
Shiny Pouch DS Lite (Cassis) JPN US$ 22.90
Shiny Pouch DS Lite (Emerald) JPN US$ 22.90
Shiny Pouch DS Lite (Gold) JPN US$ 22.90
Shiny Pouch DS Lite (Pearl White) JPN US$ 22.90
Shiny Pouch DS Lite (Silver) JPN US$ 22.90
Touch Pen Max (Cassis) JPN US$ 3.90
Touch Pen Max (Emerald) JPN US$ 3.90
Touch Pen Max (Gold) JPN US$ 3.90
Touch Pen Max (Pearl White) JPN US$ 3.90
Touch Pen Max (Silver) JPN US$ 3.90
Sony PSP™:
AVP2 Aliens Vs. Predator JPN US$ 27.90
Chameleon US US$ 24.90
Nippon no Asoko de JPN US$ 39.90
Rockman Rockman (Chinese Version) ASIA US$ 14.90
Sony PSP™ Accessories:
PSP 2GB Memory Stick US US$ 39.99
PC Games:
Europa Universalis Rome ASIA US$ 37.90
Final Fantasy XI: The Vana'diel Collection 2008 (DVD-ROM) US US$ 34.90
Off Road ASIA US$ 34.90
Guide Books:
Arcadia Magazine [June 2008] JPN US$ 12.90
Armored Core: For Answer Official Perfect Guide JPN US$ 26.90
Famitsu Wave DVD [June 2008] JPN US$ 16.50
Grand Theft Auto IV Signature Series Guide US US$ 19.90
Iron Man Official Strategy Guide US US$ 16.90
Lux-Pain Official Guide Book JPN US$ 27.90
Mario Kart Wii Prima Office Game Guide US US$ 19.90
Petit Four Official Visual Fan Book JPN US$ 38.90
Pokemon Pocket Pokedex Vol.2: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 13.90
Riba Hara Art Collection JPN US$ 29.90
Silver Rain Guide Book JPN US$ 14.90
The World Ends With You Official Strategy Guide US US$ 16.90
Vantage Master Portable Capture And Visual Book JPN US$ 27.90
Video Game Soundtracks:
Star Ocean: Second Evolution Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 28.90
Funcom has laid out the full subscription pricing structure for its imminent fantasy MMO, Age of Conan.
In the UK the game will cost GBP 8.99 per month to play, the same as most competitors - except hold on, that doesn't include VAT. In fact, an Age of Conan subscription will set you back GBP 10.34 a month.
It comes in a little cheaper if you commit to three months or six - GBP 28.95 and GBP 53.06 respectively, including tax.
The situation is reflected in Europe, where thanks to the strong Euro, the game is really quite expensive to play. A EUR 12.99 monthly base rate becomes EUR 14.94 with tax. The three and six month subs cost EUR 41.37 and EUR 75.83.
Americans get off lightest: they pay USD 14.99 for one month, USD 41.97 for three, and USD 77.94 for six.
Alternatively, you can buy 60-day timecards from shops. These have a recommended retail price of 29.99, in both US dollars and euros.
The cost of playing Age of Conan is not just monetary, however. We've just received our beta copy of the game - open beta starts today - and can confirm that the install comes in at a whopping 32GB.
Best start clearing hard drive space and updating your graphics card drivers now. This one's a monster.
Age of Conan launches on 20th May - 23rd May in Europe - which is excitingly soon. Check out the gamepage for words and media, and look for more from Eurogamer MMO as launch approaches.
Capcom has released some of the nice screenshots of Street Fighter IV, which we think look great. Don't take our word for it though: have a look yourself.
We recognise they're not perfect - in particular Ryu's feet appear to belong to the Incredible Hulk and Chun Li still looks like a bloke - but the sheer style of them has us sold.
The backgrounds also look good and the lighting is quite impressive. In one shot, a setting sun in one shot casts rays over Ryu and Sagat.
If you haven't already seen them, we'd recommend checking out the videos on our Street Fighter IV game page. We want a release date now please, Capcom.
Turbine's Book 13 content update for Lord of the Rings Online has finally touched down in Europe, while Gandalf wannabes over in North America have been nerding their way through it for nearly a week already.
Book 13: Doom of the Last-King introduces a brand new region, a new faction, a new class for LotRO's PvP solution Monster Play, a new hobby system, loads of new quests and the continuation of the epic storyline that threads through the title.
Turbine's working its arse off to get these updates out and the next one, Book 14, is due this summer. The first full expansion for LotRO, Mines of Moria, should be with us in the autumn.
Keep eyes peeled for an interview with Turbine on Mines of Moria gracing these pages in the not-too-distant future.
Square Enix plans to release the 2008 Edition of Final Fantasy XI on 23rd May.
Inside are all four PC and 360 expansions released for the MMO so far. That means Rise of the Zilart (2004), Chains of Promathia (2004), Treasures of Aht Urghan (2006) and Wings of the Goddess (2007).
Much has changed since the game arrived in Europe on PC in 2004 and on Xbox 360 in 2006. Zilart added the Dragoon, Samurai and Ninja jobs; Promathia expanded the land with 40 fresh areas; Aht Urghan added Puppetmaster, Corsair and Blue Mage jobs, and Wings added large-scale Campaign battles, Dancer and Scholar jobs, plus various spells and job abilities.
Various areas, quests, monsters and all sorts were included in the expansions, too.
Final Fantasy XI is the only game where Xbox 360, PC and PS2 owners can play together online. It boasts a current community of 500,000 people and has ridable chickens.
Mario Kart Wii sold another 150,000 units in Japan across the sales week ending April 27, according to the latest data from Media Create, and is on track to break the 1 million mark this week.
That was also enough to keep it top of the software chart, with Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G in second place as Capcom's PlayStation Portable game nears the 2 million boundary.
New entries accounted for the rest of the top five places, with Valkyria Chronicles for the PlayStation 3 in third, Taiko Drum Master DS: Seven Island Adventure in fourth and Summon Night in fifth.
Wii Fit sold another 37,000 copies to take sixth place, and is on track to pass the 2 million mark in the next few weeks, while We're Fossil Diggers took seventh place.
Pokemon Ranger: Batonnage, DS Beautiful Letter Training and Musou Orochi: The Evil King Returns completed the top ten list.
Two Xbox 360 title made their debut in the top 30, with Rainbow Six Vegas 2 taking 11th place and Frontlines: Fuel of War in 26th. Phoenix Wright 4 for the Nintendo DS debuted at a lowly 27th.
The full top ten is as follows:
1. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
2. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (PS)
3. Valkyria Chronicles (PS3)
4. Taiko Drum Master DS: Seven Island Adventure (DS)
5. Summon Night (DS)
6. Wii Fit (Wii)
7. We're Fossil Diggers (DS)
8. Pokemon Ranger: Batonnage (DS)
9. DS Beautiful Letter Training (DS)
10. Musou Orochi: The Evil King Returns (PS2)
Some hilights:
- 13 new platforms
- new rom rating, review and personal note editing
- new meta data fields like programmer, region, CD/DVD 1/2
- complete restructured view modes (bookmarks, played, personal)
- reparse all folders
- imagepack helper for emuControlCenter image packs
- backup userdata (xml)
- simple theme support
- last selected game / page on startup
- all metadata can now imported from online romdb http://www.camya.com/eccdb/
Also this release adds 13 new platforms so that emuControlCenter now support 123 systems!
New platforms in this release:
- Apple 1
- Apple 2
- Apple Lisa
- Applied Technologies Microbee
- NEC Supergrafx / PC Engine 2
- Nintendo Famicom
- Nintendo Wii
- Nokia N-Gage
- Scumm Virtual Machine
- Sony Playstation 3
- Tiger Electronics Game.com
- Tiger Electronics Gizmondo
- Tomy Pyuta
It used to be if you signed up for a new checking account, a bank might throw off a toaster, alarm clock, or in extreme modern cases, a 1GB iPod shuffle. Well times, they are a'changing, and boy do we wish we lived in Canada right now. Up north, RBC Royal Bank is offering a free ASUS Eee PC when you switch to their checking account service. That's right, you get an actual computer after completing the move (and dealing with a lot of red tape). Sure, it's only the 7-inch, 2GB version, but it still runs Xandros way better than this solar calculator we got from our bank.
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, coming this summer, brings us a bevy of Aerosmith tracks. As an added bonus, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry picked some "influential" songs from other artists to round out the collection. Today, Activision revealed that the Orpheum Theatre in Boston is being recreated for the game. You'll play three Aerosmith songs at the Orpheum, along with songs from The Clash and the New York Dolls.
Orpheum Tracks
* "Living on the Edge" - Aerosmith
* "Ragdoll" - Aerosmith
* "Love in an Elevator" - Aerosmith
* "Complete Control" - The Clash
* "Personality Crisis" - New York Dolls
The latest firgure for console sales in Japan are in and all machines except one gets a raise from last weeks reading, shown below:
Playstation Portable: 92,411
Nintendo Wii: 48,796
Nintendo DS Lite: 42,435
Playstation 3: 9,107
Playstation 2: 7,108
Xbox 360: 1,283
PSP still tops the list, up by 6,990 while the Nintendo Wii trails behind it, up 4,245. The Nintendo DS Lite is in third place and takes a 1,806 drop. The ones in line are the PS3, up 1,669, PS2 up 563 and Xbox 360 increases by 207.
2008/05/02 1.47 released
- CPU(HuC6280) processing part was sped up. I think that processing lightened in some measure of a personal computer environment so not fast.
- The repetition processing of the CD-DA sound was brought close to a real machine. In the visual scene of "Arunamu no Kiba", the problem that had stopped at a pitch-dark screen occasionally (generated from a recent version) was solved.
- In "Popful Mail", the weight of processing was reduced in some measure with PC not fast.
- In the visual scene(one place) of "Nekketsu Legend Baseballer", the interrupted voice was corrected.
- At Full-Screen mode, when setting it to the resolution of 1600x1200 or more, the bug to which the screen had not been correctly occasionally displayed was corrected.
- Additionally, a detailed part has been improved and corrected.
2008/05/02 1.48 released
- v1.47 had a miserable bug. The bug of the CPU(HuC6280) emulation (In "Motoroader", the screen display falls into disorder, etc.) was corrected.
MAMETesters Bugs Fixed
-----------------------------------
01752: [Core] Warnings making standard .124u4 in GCC 4.3.0 (mingw) (Aaron Giles)
00149: [Misc.] No error report for invalid BIOS setting. (Aaron Giles)
01628: [Sound] bgaregga, bgareghk, bgaregnv, bgaregcn, bgaregt2: Sound broken (robiza)
01757: [Graphics] fieldday, undoukai: Graphics Corruption. (robiza)
00249: [Graphics] vangrd2: [possible] In cocktail mode, or when the flip screen dip is set, the score display is not flipped. (robiza)
00506: [Graphics] marvins: Screen flipping isn't correctly supported (robiza)
01744: [Graphics] gradius3, grdius3a, grdius3e: missing title text in intro (robiza)
01747: [Graphics] dietgo, dietgoe, dietgou, dietgoj: A ToDo note no more needed into the driver. (robiza)
01430: [Graphics] riskchal: Sprite-tile priority problem (robiza)
01750: [Graphics] troangel, newtangl: Corrupt sprite graphics in game (robiza)
Source Changes
--------------
snookr10 updates: [Roberto Fresca]
- Decrypted the apple10 tile matrix.
- Partially decrypted the apple10 color codes.
- Added encryption notes.
- Updated technical notes.
Added DISCRETE_KEY_SALLEN_FILTER to discrete sound system. [couriersud]
Added discrete mixing and filtering to irem games using m52-sound-c boards: mpatrol, travrusa. [couriersud]
Proper implementation of the tile/sprite priorities in m90 driver. This fix priorities in quizf1, riskchal amd maybe more m90 games. [robiza, Corrado Tomaselli]
Fix AY-3-8910/YM2149 and derivatives envelope handling. [couriersud]
Funworld games: [Roberto Fresca]
- Fixed AY8910 volume to all games to avoid clips.
- Merge bigdeal and funworld machine drivers thanks to the AY8910 rewrite.
- Removed old unaccurate commentary about magiccrd tiles.
De-hacked metro tilemaps. [David Haywood]
Sandii' Games: [Roberto Fresca]
- Created a new machine driver for tenballs due to different memory map.
- Worked all the input ports from the scratch.
- Fixed the sound ROM_REGION.
- Added the oki6295 emulation to all games.
- Hooked output ports.
- Documented and calculated all bits related to lamps.
- Adjusted palette lenght to 256 colors.
- Totally decrypted the apple10 color matrix. Now colors are perfect.
- Created a new machine driver for apple10 due to encryption.
- Reverse engineering the code to complete the DIP switches.
- Added diplocations to DIP switches.
- Promoted snookr10, apple10 and tenballs to 'WORKING' state.
- Added game instructions & notes.
- Updated encryption & technical notes.
NES/PlayChoice 10 changes: [Mariusz Wojcieszek]
- added support for mapping rom and ram in PPU video memory space
- added PinBot mapper (H board)
All CMC italian games: [Roberto Fresca]
- Added TICKET and HOPPER buttons to allow payout through the SUPER GAME.
- Documented the featured SUPER GAME with complete instructions.
- Improved DIP switches to properly set the payout system.
Changed the implementation of the cocktail mode in marvins.c. [robiza]
Merged memory maps for tunhunt, tumblep, tugboat, trucocl, and truco. [Andrew Gardner]
meritm driver updates: [Brian Troha, Tafoid]
- Consolidated, corrected and updated info
- Verified Megatouch IV program rom
- Corrected many rom names
- Add game revision to game name (IE: 9255-40-01 ROE)
- Added pals from Megatouch 6 to other sets as they all run on the same PCB
- Add the sound clock update from Tafoid
Massive update to ROM naming in the CPS1 driver, also loading smaller eproms for Japanese sets instead of the larger mask ROMs where possible. Added information about B-Board revisions where possible. There is still work to do on this regard but this is a first step in untangling the mess. [Nicola Salmoria]
Verified more CPS1 gfx ROM mappings against PALs. [Nicola Salmoria, Corrado Tomaselli]
Fixed another opcode in match it 2. [robiza]
Converted the MSM6242 RTC into a proper device. [Dirk Best]
Removed deprecat.h from debugger.h to prevent hiding modules that really needed to include deprecat.h. [Atari Ace]
Added support for 8080/85 mode interrupts to the 8259 PIC. [Miodrag Milanovic]
Verified a "not sure" opcode in bombrman. [robiza]
Changed BIOS errors so that specifying an invalid BIOS is a warning, not a fatal error. Also re-allowed "default" as a BIOS setting with special meaning. [Aaron Giles]
New games added or promoted from NOT_WORKING status
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quiz F-1 1,2finish [robiza]
PinBot (PlayChoice-10) [Mariusz Wojcieszek]
Snooker 10 [Roberto Fresca]
Apple 10 [Roberto Fresca]
Ten Balls [Roberto Fresca]
New clones added
---------------------------------
Touch Master 3000 V5.02 [Brian Troha]
Megatouch IV (9255-40-01-ROE) [Brian Troha]
Dynasty Wars (US set 2) [Corrado Tomaselli]
Final Fight (Japan 900112) [Chack'n]
Street Fighter Alpha 2 (Euro 960229) [Razoola]
Raimais (Japan / First Revision) [Corrado Tomaselli]
New games marked as GAME_NOT_WORKING
---------------------------------------------------------------
Forgotten Worlds (World?) [The Guru]
Press Release
PC Games and Console Hardware Sales Surge in China's Booming Economy
Online game revenue to hit $2.5 billion in 2008; console sales rose by 75% in 2007.
US, May 2, 2008 - Niko Partners, the leading market intelligence firm on China's video game industry, today announced results from its latest report citing China's 46 million gamers spent $1.7 billion on online games in 2007, up 71% from 2006. Advanced casual and casual online games made up 21% of the total, and new flash-based casual versions of popular MMO and RTS games demonstrated the hardcore gamers' appetite to play casual games along with subscription MMOs. Online revenue is expected to reach $2.5 billion in 2008 and $6 billion in 2012, for a 29% compound annual growth rate in the five-year period.
"China's spending on games is up thanks to their booming economy," said Lisa Cosmas Hanson, managing partner of Niko Partners. "14 million hardcore Chinese gamers play online games more than 22 hours per week. They play online, LAN, and single-player offline PC games in China's 185,000 Internet cafés and increasingly on their PCs at home, thanks to falling prices and higher disposable income."
According to Niko's 6th Annual Review & Forecast Report, part of an annual subscription of reports for publishers, hardware makers, service providers, and investors who need to understand China's fast-moving video game industry, gamers are buying consoles with their disposable income as well. "In spite of the regulation that has banned the sale of game consoles in China since the year 2000, gamers are flocking to stores that sell illegally imported Wii, Xbox 360, PS3 and PS2 machines to take part in the excitement of console gaming," said Hanson. "While these consoles are expensive for the average Chinese consumer, gamers are willing to spend money on them to supplement their online gaming experience, and unit sales hit 2.48 million units in 2007, up 75% over 2006."
Piracy remains an issue for packaged software via digital downloads and counterfeit copies of games, but legitimate sales of packaged offline PC games surged 56% in 2007, over 2006. Chinese gamers are showing that they like to buy the legitimate copies to ensure quality and to get customer support.
The 2008 Annual Review & Forecast Report on China's Video Game Industry by Niko Partners is a thorough review and forecast of the 2007-2012 PC online, PC offline, console, handheld games and hardware market. Based on 75,000 points of data collected by Niko Partners in 10 Chinese cities in March 2008, the study provides one of the largest and most comprehensive sources of information on gamers, Internet cafés, regulations, online game operators, games, hardware, distribution, retail, outsourced development, and important trends in supply and demand.
Games Criminals Arrested At Bradford Computer Fair
Net closes around two traders selling illegally copied games at Bradford computer fair
A joint operation between West Yorkshire Trading Standards Service (WYTSS) and West Yorkshire Police on Sunday 27th April resulted in approximately 12,000 illegally copied discs and over 150 devices used for ‘chipping’ being seized. Chipping is the process that enables copied games to be played on consoles such as the Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360 and the Sony PlayStation 3. The operation, carried out at a Computer Fair held at Richard Dunn Sports Centre in Bradford, resulted in two individuals being arrested for selling copied computer software and copied computer games. Further seizures were also made of software and other chipping devices at a number of stalls at the fair.
Following the arrests officers from Trading Standards and the Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT) carried out a house search in Leeds which uncovered approximately 5,000 counterfeit software, films and music discs.
Further investigations following this operation are being carried out by West Yorkshire Trading Standards Service and West Yorkshire Police.
WYTSS estimate the retail value of the items seized to be in excess of £100,000. The equivalent value of original products is in excess of £1 million.
Michael Rawlinson, managing director of ELSPA said: “The raid at Dunn Sports Centre in Bradford highlights the ongoing commitment demonstrated by local Trading Standards authorities in stamping this kind of operation out. ELSPA would like to thank everyone involved for their work instigating this investigation and helping to protect local traders and the general community from the effects of pirated goods.”
Graham Hebblethwaite, Chief Officer of West Yorkshire Trading Standards Service, said: “The illegal software trade is worth hundreds of millions of pounds in the domestic market alone. Trading Standards have had the power to enforce the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act since April 2007 and the Service is committed to enforcing this Act to eradicate the sale of counterfeit software, music and computer games in the county. The Service would like to send out a warning to individuals involved in software piracy that they will be dealt with severely. The maximum penalty for crimes under copyright and trademark legislation carries a sentence of ten years imprisonment.”
NPT Sergeant Julie Deacon, West Yorkshire Police, said: “We’re always pleased to work in partnership with Trading Standards. Anything that helps to reduce crime in the area is welcomed. If anyone has suspicions about counterfeit goods being sold please contact either your local NPT or Consumer Direct on 08454 04 05 06.”
- Automatic updating of the WINEPREFIX directory.
- Winhelp now uses Richedit as display engine.
- Many RichEdit fixes.
- More improvements to IME support.
- More quartz fixes.
- Implementation for many more Gdiplus functions.
- Lots of bug fixes.
We've already seen one engineering bloke stuff a touch panel into a Cloudbook, so we figured it was only a matter of time before that luscious 8.9-inch unit from the Eee PC 900 found its way into the pioneering 701. According to jkkmobile, all that was necessary in order to make the mod happen was a good bit of reworking around the bezel and a BIOS hack to enable full-screen support on a larger display.
Yep, yep. Talking time. It's Friday night and that means the TUD Girafe is ready to listen. So let's talk. We've got a feature here on Kotaku called "Tell Us Dammit" or "TUD." How it works: We ask a question, you answer it. Simple and no strings attached! This isn't some marketing survey or whatever. It's an emotional investment in you. Yes, we're interesting in knowing you, Kotaku reader person. You probably know ****tons about us — more than you even want to, we're sure. But, hey, we'd like to know about you. That way you won't be some faceless blob — and we might feel a tinge of guilt when we ban your ass. Or not, because really we're incapable of human emotion. Today's question:
How many hours do you game a day?
Shit man, with my schedule these days, I'm super lucky if I can get in between an half an hour or an hour a day. Been playing shmups like Mushihime-sama loads at my neighborhood arcade. Really helps me relax.
- Hugely better performance when GameEx is windowed
1st May, 2008 - GameEx 9.22
- Fixes startup videos
- Fixes left side of GameExtender viewer display not showing
- GameExtender viewer no longer exits with escape key
- New options to start and exit GameExtender viewer with GameEx
- Fixes last played list showing snap of last mame game played in screensaver
SEGA America's blog gives gamers a look inside work at Secret Level, which just finished Iron Man for them and is cranking on Golden Axe: Beast Rider. A cool Flickr slideshow shows the team and some concepts, both in hard copy and rendered on computer. And two new screen caps, which is the video game porn you're here for.
Blogger SegaDawg didn't get any looks at the gameplay, but does write:
I did see a demo of Tyris riding one particular beast that will deal some severe swipe damage with its claws. There are several types of beast mounts in the game, each with its own strengths and weaknesses, and my bet is that there will be points in the game where you have to ride a specific beast in order to accomplish certain goals — but that's just a hunch.
New version of the NES emulator for Windows, Linux and Mac.
Changelog:
Shell:
Addition:
- "Don't show again" checkbox in DIP switches popup window.
- Soft-patching status in image info dialog.
Changes:
- More descriptive error messages.
- Refactoring.
Fixes:
- Netplay file opening error leading to crash.
- Recent files locking bug on exit.
- Last visited image file directory bug on exit.
- Esc not working sometimes when disabling dialog controls (Windows quirk).
- Crash on cancel when exporting to AVI.
- Correct screen height with NTSC filter when exporting to AVI.
- Typos in GUI.
Core:
Addition:
- Core API documentation in HTML through cppdoc.
- UPS patching format support.
- Database lookup on soft-patching.
- Database entries. Info from Bootgod.
- More recognized boards. Info from Bootgod.
Changes:
- FDS saves through UPS instead of IPS.
- Database entries. Info from Bootgod.
- Refactoring.
Fixes:
- FDS file saving bug.
- NTSC burst phase incrementing bug.
- Potential memory leak in database loader.
- UTF16 to wchar_t portability fix in XML parser.
- Const-correctness bug caught by GCC 4.0.
Someone's knocking on Nintendo's door, and he just drove through seven red lights in a hijacked car with a shotgun in tow to get there. Forbes has published a piece on how Grand Theft Auto IV's success threatens the Nintendo Wii since the console, you know, doesn't have the game. In fact, that's all the article seems to be saying: the Wii is doing great, but because it doesn't have GTA IV, that money-printing success might be at a halt.
While that's how the article is framed, the direction seems to split off from there, with the author talking about GTA IV's success juxtaposed with complaints about the Wii's hardware, online and abundance of shovelware -- he even bring up Chris Heck's duct tape rant. Said the article, "The problem is, it could get tougher and tougher to go the other way. It's hard to imagine how the sprawling world of Grand Theft Auto IV--which already taxes the multicore processors powering the XBox and Playstation--could be recreated on the Wii."
We're not saying Nintendo doesn't have problems with shovelware or appealing to the more hardcore gamer crowd, but we also think the way the article presents its case makes the GTA IV issue feel a little taped on. If the UK Wii Fit launch is any indication, Nintendo's money train is still right on track.
features
Officially licensed by Nintendo
Requires 4 X AA batteries (not included)
Length: approx. 40 - 50 inch
Limited availability
description
Mario Kart is brought to the 3D world in the form of a massive race set complete with two karts that carries Mario and a competitor (either Yoshi or Donkey Kong). The race track contains eighteen pieces and totals up to nine feet long after the assembling procedure.
Actively participate in the races with your friends and family. With the trigger speed controller in hand, you are ready to go and dash across the finishing line. This race set is perfect for hours of family fun either in a leisurely evening or at parties.
For those of you who decides that racing with Mario on the TV screen alone no longer sates your appetites, this super race set is your remedy.
PC World Magazine in Germany (PC Welt) is giving away a free, legal, license to WinRAR 3.62
(which normally costs $29)
The last free giveaway of WinRar was 3.5 (2 years ago)
so this will upgrade you a little (with multi-core support, etc)
German key works fine in english version.
Technically they are all the same key but I won't post the key directly, only their registration form to be safe. It needs your email to send the URL to download the key (I realized afterwards I could have used a temp email, oh well)
Wii Fit has shot into the Spanish and German charts - claiming the top spot and knocking Mario Kart Wii down to second place in both instances according to figures from Media-Control GfK International.
The Nintendo Wii and DS continued to dominate both charts, taking eight positions in Germany and six in Spain. Meanwhile, neither chart saw an entry for the Xbox 360.
The Spanish charts saw Gran Turismo 5 Prologue for the PS3 in fourth place, followed by Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 for the PSP, Time Crisis 4 for the PS3 and God of War: Chains of Olympus for the PSP in fifth, sixth and seventh places respectively.
The German charts saw Assassin's Creed for the PC take third place and the Sims 2: Kitchen and Bath Interior Design Stuff in fourth place.
The German Charts for the week ending April 27 are as follows:
1. Wii Fit (Wii)
2. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
3. Assassin's Creed: Directors Cut Edition (PC)
4. The Sims 2: Kitchen and Bath Interior Design Stuff (PC)
5. Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training (DS)
6. Wii Play (Wii)
7. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (DS)
8. Mario Kart DS (DS)
9. More Brain Training with Dr. Kawashima (DS)
10. Mario Party DS (DS)
The Spanish Charts for the week ending April 27 are as follows:
1. Wii Fit (Wii)
2. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
3. Wii Play (Wii)
4. Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (PS3)
5. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PSP)
6. Time Crisis 4 (PS3)
7. God of War: Chains of Olympus (PSP)
8. Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training (DS)
9. More Brain Training with Dr. Kawashima (DS)
10. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (Wii)
- fixed: set selection crashes (also on profile load)
- fixed: scanner checksum check was broken for unpacked sets
- misc: missing required (not obsolete/ignored) nodumps will lead to a red profile
+ This will be an important talk for the future of "PC Engine(TG16)" emulator. Please read though it is my not good English Language.
+ "Ootake" is not satisfied with "the game was able to be started". "The game can enjoy even ending" is a target. Therefore, Ootake sticks to detailed reproduction. Especially, it sticks to the reproduction of "Reactive speed of the Joypad".
+ Please do seriously and compare the Shooting & Action game by "MagicEngine(Charge)" and "Ootake(Free)". Perhaps, almost playing by "Ootake(the delay after the pad is operated is minimum)" will be able to take a high score. I think the difference of the operation feeling to be felt.
+ This greatly influences "Played happiness", too. Though it becomes a severe opinion, it will not be able to enjoy the game enough by "MagicEngine(the delay from the pad operation to the reaction is large)". The delay also has danger of making it to the one to which even "Evaluation of the game" was mistaken. Therefore, "Ootake" is checked always severely "Whether it is possible to enjoy it by the sense similar to a real machine or not?". Because it is a respect of minimum to a past masterpiece "PC Engine(TG16)" game. About the delay measures of "Ootake" - http://www.ouma.jp/ootake/delay.html
+ There are no feelings that criticize "MagicEngine". I think that it did wonderful work. But, it greatly delayed the development of "PC Engine" emulator compared with other machine(NES,SNES,GENESIS,etc.) emulators. Because the monopolized (even the BAD ROM-image could be played) "MagicEngine" was "Source closed-door". Other machine(NES,SNES,GENESIS,etc.) emulators has developed greatly by an excellent source code and information on hot people.
+ Fortunately now, "Mednafen(Free)" and "Ootake(Free)" exist. Those reproduction level is higher than "MagicEngine". And, they keep disclosing the source and information. I feel that it is time when "MagicEngine" also discloses the source and information if "PC Engine(TG16) is loved. This is my selfish hope. Because the continuance of development can be handed over to young people who love retro game. "Even future generations keep telling an old masterpiece with perfect reproduction." I think that this is essence of the emulator.
+ Thank you for reading. Hereafter, they are update details of v1.49.
- "Set Other SystemCard image" and "Play with Other SystemCard" were added to "CD-ROM" menu. "System card of an old version" can be set (It is possible up to two), and it can be started at once.
- "Play with Backup-RAM Full" was added to "CD-ROM" menu. The state that the capacity of backup RAM becomes full is reproduced, and the warning screen of each game can be seen.
- The processing part of ADPCM sound was brought close to a real machine. In "Urusei Yatsura", the warning voice full of the capacity of backup-RAM is sounded to the last minute.
- When "Arunamu no Kiba" is started, the message of "Recommend Install" is displayed. ("CD-ROM->Install(CDspeed-up)" menu) Then, it is possible to play with stability.
- Additionally, a detailed part has been improved and corrected.
MAMETesters Bugs Fixed
----------------------------------------
01743: [Sound] anteater: Music is really loud and clips (Aaron Giles)
01770: [Misc.] hanayara, mjangels, mjcomv1, mjreach, quiztvqq, tenkai, tenkaibb, tenkaicb, yarunara: msm6242 device assert (Duke)
01778: [Sound] all sets in m62.c driver: low ay8910 volume (Aaron Giles)
01771: [Misc.] arescue, f1en: space_map_range errors (Aaron Giles)
01772: [Misc.] daireika: space_map_range assertion (Aaron Giles)
01773: [Misc.] steelta1, steeltag, steeltal, steeltap: space_map_range error (Aaron Giles)
01774: [Misc.] racedcb4, racedcg4, racedrc1, racedrc2, racedrc4, racedrcb, racedrcg, racedrvc: space_map_range error (Aaron Giles)
01775: [Misc.] newtangl, troangel: Crash with Access Violation (robiza)
01767: [Sound] Various neodrvr.c games: Various sound effects broken (couriersud)
01769: [Sound] All games using YM2610: SSG volume more than 1.0 causes no audio output. (couriersud)
Source Changes
------------------------------
Added video enable/disable feature in m90 driver. [robiza]
Fixed ROZ centering in namcona1 driver [Phil Stroffolino]
Added extra tile banking and layer enable for denjinmk. [David Haywood]
Fixed an envelope corner case in the SCSP and AICA. [kingshriek]
Removed bogus assertion in device code - DEVICE_TYPE_WILDCARD is NULL. [Nathan Woods]
Added xchg and a few other missing opcodes to x86emit.h. [Aaron Giles]
Added -watchdog to runtest.cmd. [Aaron Giles]
Verified clocks on Bomberman pcb which runs on M90 hardware. [Corrado Tomaselli]
New games added or promoted from NOT_WORKING status
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paparazzi [Tomasz Slanina]
New clones added
---------------------------------
Touchmaster 7000 V8.04 [Brian Troha]
Megatouch III Tournament Edition [Hugh McLenaghan]
Megatouch III [Mariusz Wojcieszek]
Heated Barrel (World version 3) [Tomasz Slanina]
Raiden 2 (set 7) [Tomasz Slanina]
- added a cheat engine
- added IPS patch support for ROMs
- fixed a bug in the SPTI CD-ROM driver
- fixed a memory bug that could crash the emulator
- rewrote the CD-ROM driver, now both SPTI and ASPI
are supported at the same time allowing more drives
to be recognized
- added a new option '[cdrom] driver' in the pce.ini file
to select the CD-ROM driver (SPTI/ASPI)
- added a command line option to directly start a CD game :
'pce.exe -cd' or 'pce.exe -cd:E'
- improved the 'boot CD' menu, games titles are now
displayed directly in the menu when a game is recognized
- added an eject button in the 'boot CD' menu
- added a quick setup window that appears the first time
you run the emulator
- improved program startup, the emulator will now starts
directly in the selected screen mode, it won't display
a blank startup window anymore
- implemented the 'options' panel in the 'load ROM' window
- added a drop-down list in the 'load ROM' window to quickly
select a drive
- added predefined configurations to the keyboard config panel
- added more options in the gamepad/keyboard misc config menu
- fixed a bug in the gamepad config panel, the list of buttons
was sometimes uncomplete
- added a new 'PC-Engine' config menu to configure
the PC-Engine hardware
- added an 'extended_resolutions' option to enable back
the extra PCE video modes (320/352)
- added an 'overscan' option to select the vertical overscan
- added a screen ratio option (4/3, 3/2, fullscreen)
- added options in the pce.ini file to customize
the scanlines patterns
- added back custom resolution options in the pce.ini file :
'res_256', 'res320', 'res_336', 'res_352', and 'res_512'
- added more resolution choices for the fullscreen mode,
including low resolutions
- added new options in the pce.ini file to filter
screen resolutions based on size and depth
- added 16-bit video mode support
- added a triple buffering option '[video] triple_buffer'
in the pce.ini file (DirectX only feature)
- added two sets of video settings in the 'video' config panel,
one for windowed mode and one for fullscreen modes
- added a 'GUI' menu to configure a few GUI options
- added a language option (English, French, Japanese)
- added back the 'compress_state_file' option to
enable/disable state files compression
- fixed a bug in the PCX loader
- fixed Ys I&II freezing bug in MagicSystem
- fixed Ys IV ending bug in MagicSystem
GTA IV, which sold a record-breaking 926,000 copies over its first five days of release, has - unsurprisingly - captured the top of the UK sales charts.
GTA IV outsold Wii Fit, last week's number one title, by a margin of over 9 to 1. Sales of Nintendo's title were down 58 per cent, which can be partially attributable to low stock.
After GTA IV, however, the remaining top five best-selling titles were Nintendo exclusives.
Just over 61 per cent of the value of all software sold this past week was for GTA IV - which Chart-Track said itself is bigger than the total software market figure of every other week so far in 2008 apart from week one.
The only other new release to reach the All Formats Top 40 chart this past week was Sega's Iron Man: The Official Videogame, which entered at number eleven.
The Top Ten best-selling games in the UK for the week ended May 3 were as follows:
1. Grand Theft Auto IV
2. Wii Fit
3. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
4. Wii Play
5. Mario Kart Wii
6. Gran Turismo 5 Prologue
7. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008
8. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
9. Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training
10. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2
Turns out those blood-thirsty demons just won't stay dead. Id Software has announced that Doom 4 has begun production as of today. According to the press release, the studio is now hiring for the project. Said CEO Todd Hollenshead, "Doom is part of the id Software DNA and demands the greatest talent and brightest minds in the industry to bring the next installment of our flagship franchise to Earth."
No other details were given. Given the ending of the Doom 3 expansion Resurrection was pretty conclusive, we don't know where the team will take the Doom story next. Our guess? Probably send a space marine to Hell to fight demons. Perhaps this time he (or she) will pack a better flashlight.
BioWare has said you will not be able to play the PC version of Mass Effect without an Internet connection.
This is due to SecuROM copy protection features that try to revalidate your CD key online every 10 days after installation. Miss it and you will not be able to play the game until a successful check is made.
SecuROM, you may remember, was at the heart of authentication problems in the PC version of BioShock.
However, BioWare assures us that EA is "ready and confident there will be no server problems". And if there is, then all the necessary customer support is in place to answer your calls.
Priestly was also keen to point out that previous PC titles Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire all used SecuROM in one form or another, and that this wasn't a product of the recent acquisition by EA.
Pop over to the official Mass Effect PC forum for a full FAQ and the recently released system requirements.
For those wondering, Mass Effect PC will be a conversion rather than a rushed port, featuring improvements such as plenty of hot-key slots, individual squad commands, faster loading times, less texture pop-ups, speedier elevators, and free Bring Down the Sky content.
Ex-subscribers to Lord of the Rings Online have been granted a free chance to revisit the MMO and explore updates made to the game since launch.
The "Welcome back to LotRO" campaign, as the free experience is called, runs from May 8 through to May 12 enabling you to blow the dust off your old character(s) and adventure for nowt.
Naturally if you're so blown away by how the game's changed since you hung up your spurs, you can start paying a monthly subscription fee to play again.
- Added driver for Taito F-2 hardware supporting Final Blow, Football Champ, Gun & Frontier, Liquid Kids and Super Space Invaders '91
- Added tilemap flip support to the TC0100SCN emulation
- Added priority map support to the TC0100SCN emulation to allow sprite blending in the Taito F2 driver
- Added support to the CPS-1 driver for loading stars from alternate format graphics roms
- Corrected all dips in the CPS-1 driver
- Updated mappers and configs in the CPS-1 driver to match MAME
- Big tidy up of the CPS-1 and CPS-2 drivers
- Added dynwaru and ffightj2 to the CPS-1 driver
- Added clone of Street Fighter Alpha 2 to the CPS-2 driver
- Added iq_132s driver for Pirate Ship Higemaru
- Updated megadrive driver to nganiere's which fixes some game names
- Matched all sets to MAME 0.125
I just want to let you know that we just launched a small game resources section in our website. We don't have much there right now but we are adding 50 more sprites soon and we will continue adding more. These are all original and free to use. The only thing we ask is that you give us credit for them.
We're calling this right now: ASUS' Eee PC is the new MP3 player. But only in the context of giveaways. Anywho, just days after RBC announced that it would dish out free subnotes if prospective customers joined in, PowerUp Mobile is now offering a similar deal for UKers who sign up for T-Mobile's Web n Walk mobile broadband package. In short, folks comfortable with inking their name on a two-year contract at £35 per month will net a free USB modem and a Eee PC 2GB Surf. Better hurry -- the deal expires on June 15th
Welcome to this week's Games Update, our weekly summary featuring all new product arrivals from the last seven days.
Since there are no Japanese game releases this week due to the golden week holidays, things have been pretty calm.
However interesting US games like the Iron Man for [Xbox360™, PlayStation3™, Nintendo Wii™, PlayStation2™, Nintendo DS™, Sony PSP™] have arrived.
With any of the above consoles in your possession and this game in hand, you are no longer a mere spectator, don your armor today and protect the world from evil forces.
Activision released a Game of the Year edition of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for Xbox360™ as a region free Asian version. Make use of the third generation console's networking facilities and join the rest of the world in this massive war.
SNK released Arcade Classics Vol. 1, a package of sixteen old NEOGEO games for PlayStation2™ and Sony PSP™. The pack contains famous games like the earlier versions of Fatal Fury and King of Fighters which most of the old time gamers will find familiar. The pack also comes with some lesser known games that even the most hard core of gamers haven't tried out.
Several sports games came out this week, this includes River King: Mystic Valley and NBA Ballers: Chosen One.
River King: Mystic Valley is a fishing game on the Nintendo DS™ where you seek to find the River King to rescue your little sister with the help of the magical features in the forest, and NBA Ballers: Chosen One is one of the most realistic basket ball games ever made.
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™:
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Game of the Year Edition) ASIA US$ 59.90
Iron Man US US$ 64.90
NBA Ballers: Chosen One ASIA US$ 49.90
PlayStation3™:
Iron Man US US$ 64.90
Nintendo Wii™:
Iron Man US US$ 49.90
Wii Wheel US US$ 19.90
PlayStation2™:
Iron Man US US$ 34.90
SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1 US US$ 24.90
Nintendo DS™:
Brain Voyage US US$ 24.90
Dream Pinball 3D US US$ 24.90
Iron Man US US$ 39.90
Let's Pilates US US$ 34.90
Let's Yoga US US$ 34.90
River King: Mystic Valley US US$ 34.90
Nintendo DS™ Accessories:
Chara Pure Seal (Nightmare BL) JPN US$ 9.90
Chara Pure Seal (Nightmare W) JPN US$ 9.90
Chara Pure Seal (Pooh-san G) JPN US$ 9.90
Chara Pure Seal (Pooh-san Y) JPN US$ 9.90
Chara Pure Seal (Princess BL) JPN US$ 9.90
Chara Pure Seal (Princess P) JPN US$ 9.90
Chara Pure Seal (Stitch B) JPN US$ 9.90
Chara Pure Seal (Stitch Y) JPN US$ 9.90
Sony PSP™:
Iron Man US US$ 39.90
PSP Media Manager 2.5 US US$ 24.99
Rockman X Irregular Hunter (Reprint) ASIA US$ 14.90
SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1 US US$ 24.90
Video Game Music:
Find The Blue (Chaos Head Intro Theme) (~Kanako Ito) JPN US$ 11.90
Kegarenaki Yume (11 Eyes - Tsumi To Batsu To Aganai No Shojo Outro Theme) (~Asriel) JPN US$ 11.90
Lunatic Tears (11 Eyes - Tsumi To Batsu To Aganai No Shojo Intro Theme) (~Ayane) JPN US$ 11.90
PC Game Clear Original Drama CD JPN US$ 28.90
Sekaiju no Meikyuu 2: Shoou no Seihai Super Arrange Version JPN US$ 29.90
Nintendo's mascot racin' funfest Mario Kart Wii cannot be toppled, even by the crossbow powers of Link. Zelda's constant savior aimed for third on the Japanese sales charts with Link's Crossbow Training, Mario Kart Wii and Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G still holding tight at numbers one and two for the fourth week in a row.
Wii Fit and Monster Hunter for PSP are on the cusp of hitting the 2 million mark, just as Wii Sports prepares to ship its 3 millionth copy in Japan. Impressive. For the rest of the best sellers for the week of April 28 to May 4, keep on kartin'.
01. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - 173,000 / 1,120,000
02. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (PSP) - 102,000 / 1,909,000
03. Link's Crossbow Training (Wii) - 93,000 / NEW
04. Wii Fit (Wii) - 52,000 / 1,986,000
05. Meccha! Taiko Drum Master DS: 7-tsu no Shima no Daibouken (DS) - 42,000 / 98,000
06. Pokémon Ranger: Batonnage (DS) - 31,000 / 508,000
07. Boura wa Kaseki Holder (DS) - 27,000 / 84,000
08. Valkyria Chronicles (PS3) - 24,000 / 102,000
09. Deca Sports (Wii) - 24,000 / 186,000
10. Wii Sports (Wii) - 22,000 / 2,959,000
Another week passes and another update to sales for consoles in Japan are in:
Playstation Portable: 100,870
Nintendo Wii: 71,518
Nintendo DS Lite: 52,542
Playstation 3: 10,177
Playstation 3: 8,802
Xbox 360: 1,725
PSP tops the list again, up roughly 8,000 or so. The Wii sees a sharp increase by around 32,000 while DS Lite goes up 10,000. PS3 up 1,070, PS2 rises 1,696 and Xbox 360 up 442.
Criterion is bringing its hit arcade racer, Burnout Paradise, to PC.
The developer says that the new version is being "rebuilt specifically for the PC". Although it didn't specify exactly what changes would be made, it promises "expanded multiplayer, enhanced online features, and community driven content".
Burnout Paradise "will combine all the open world racing, intense speed and action of the original game with new gameplay for the PC version," says Criterion.
We loved the game when it hit PS3 and 360 in February. Check out a review right here.
More info, it says, will be given out via a pod cast on the official site at 8am PST (4pm GMT) today. Let us know what it is below.
What's new in this release:
- Bug fixes only, we are in code freeze.
Bugs fixed in 1.0-rc1:
3164 Missing XP Theme toolbars in app toolbar for Metatrader4
3362 Picasa Movie feature does nothing
3426 WinGizmo does not download magic number code
3792 PrinterPorts does not exist in win.ini
4644 Intuit Quicken 2006 will not run after installation
4969 IDA Pro Trial 5.0 doesn't run; VkKeyScan failure?
6538 Adobe After Effects 7 installer crashes upon startup
6911 MetaTrader 4.0 icons missing
6947 CSpy/Tab: Tabs are in the wrong order
7024 VB program using Tabstrip control produces invalid property under wine
7179 Enhanced metafile: record EMR_EXTSELECTCLIPRGN not handled
7800 Grand Theft Auto Series with a gamepad plugged in the protagonist will start running ahead immediately
8069 FAR manager 1.70(build 2087): keeps printing "fixme:curses:WCCURSES_GetEvents Ooch. somebody beat us", and doesn't work.
8115 MyScribe loads but doesn't go past the login screen (Centos 4.4)
8125 Marratech 6.1 crashes on start
8615 Medieval 2: Total War crashes when loading game scenario.
8783 USB serial ports do not work
8919 CSS Tab Designer 2 lets wine crash
9178 "hello world" dos program hangs
9356 Serial communication not working since wine-0.9.33
9419 Autocad 2002 crashes after 2 mins of running
9588 Dragon Naturally Speaking 7 dragonpad corrupted left few chars
9729 gdi/x11 related changes cause lockups in various win32 gui apps
9770 Graphical glitches in Children of the Nile demo
10046 GPSMapedit crashes when editing label on a map
10056 False error on serial port read
10431 GPSMapEdit: Unimplemented function gdiplus.dll.GdipGetImageDimension
10573 dlls/kernel32/tests/comm.c test fails on systems with serial ports
10627 child window position is not updated
10756 Dragon Naturally Speaking 9 training feedback lags behind until you pause
10757 Dragon Naturally Speaking 9 can't control mic volume
10794 LEGO Racers (and the demo) crashes when launced outside virtual desktop
10847 Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9.0 Preferred sound level unstable
11072 Gun Metal thinks POV2 Up is permanently set
11306 software built with Visual C++ software library crashes
11339 serial.c:wait_on() sanity checks seem to be too strict
11420 service control manager API problem: name of named objects might differ (client vs. service process)
11559 Blood 2: The Chosen (version 1.0) - D3D crash
11644 Crashes in the dinput device.c and joystick.c tests...
12052 Flatout 2, dinput_test: crashes if joystick axis mapping is enabled, different joystick sensitivity
12064 SkySorter halts while starting
12165 Wrong height on 1st list item, on eMule Plus preferences.
12166 Richedit "word wrap" refresh
12373 Nothing is rendered in Crimsonland - blank black screen
12395 NeverWinterNights 2 DM Toolkit crashes on 0.9.59
12429 Gamepad buttons not working in PES 6 (ProEvolutionSoccer)
12431 programs window moves down when clicking in a menu
12597 3d studio MAX 9 trial installer crash
12613 Adobe Acrobat Pro 7 trial version does not install
12680 jack driver produces buffer underruns (regression)
12831 wineserver use ~34% cpu permanently.
12833 no hide button in FlashFxp
12857 Guitar Pro 5 window jumps by the size of the window decoration
12866 wineserver assertion failure when TMG7 installer completes
12885 application sees IPv6 enabled, even if whole system has it disabled / blacklisted
12892 Winedbg crashes on a simple mingw binary
12895 Winedbg can't return the value of a double
12907 Text not totally visible in the Display tab (winecfg)
12913 Regression with D3DTBLEND_MODULATE
12922 Black screen in all direct'x 3d Apps
12924 Children of the nile demo crashes
12928 Microsoft Office 2003 won't install in Wine 0.9.61
12972 Neverwinter Nights upgrade crashes
13016 Steel Panthers crashes between missions in campaign
13074 Large filesize in winefile shown as negative size
Last night we had a bit of a gaming bender at Kotaku Towers West, a night filled with Wii Fit, We Ski, and Rock Band. The highlight, of course, was a two hour Cruis'n session—the Wii shitware title that was finally freed from its shrinkwrap confines last night to much amusement. It's absolutely the most unintentionally hilarious game I've ever played, with some of the sloppiest game design ever... even for a Cruis'n title. Rarely has a game brought me to tears with laughter, so Cruis'n should at least be lauded for that. Highly recommended for your next game night, especially if booze is available.
This weekend I'll be ditching the Cruis'n as I get back to R-Type Command and continue my Rock Band duties, now with added Boston. How about you? Weekend plans?
Sources tell us that the upcoming Call of Duty 5 game in development is already playable, and currently going through quality assurance.
Treyarch is also said to be the developer, and the title, we're told, is set in a WWII Pacific environment and will be using Call of Duty 4's engine, the same engine on which the upcoming James Bond: Quantum of Solace movie game is being built.
Yesterday, on the company's call to investors, Activision publishing CEO Mike Griffith said CoD5 would be coming to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC and DS, in addition to a return for the franchise to PS2 and Wii for the first time in two years.
Ready to bend our ear? 'Cause the Tell Us Dammit Giraffe is ready to listen. That's right, it's time for TUD. We've got a feature here on Kotaku called "Tell Us Dammit" or "TUD." How it works: We ask a question, you answer it. Simple and no strings attached! This isn't some marketing survey or whatever. It's an emotional investment in you. Yes, we're interesting in knowing you, Kotaku reader person. You probably know ****tons about us — more than you even want to, we're sure. But, hey, we'd like to know about you. That way you won't be some faceless blob — and we might feel a tinge of guilt when we ban your ass. Or not, because really we're incapable of human emotion. Today's question:
Sony makes a games machine. Heck, they make three of them that people are still buying. So they're in competition with Nintendo and Microsoft, who also makes games machines, right? Nope! Kaz Hirai told MCV at this week's SCEE event in Europe that Sony have bigger fish to fry than the world's #1-selling gaming company and the world's #1-selling software company:
I think that PS3, PS2 and PSP are all entertainment platforms so I feel that our competition is not Microsoft or Nintendo, but basically any form of entertainment that is competing for the consumers' attention.
So we need to make sure we offer the most compelling entertainment - not videogame entertainment but in entertainment in general. I can't speak for their strategy but I like to think that we've got a very well balanced portfolio with PS3, PSP and you can't discount the PS2.
Hear that, Nintendo? You're so one-dimensional. Maybe put an album together, release a movie or two, then you'll be running with the big dogs.
- [TUTOR] Changed joystick to use keypad instead of arrow keys by default. [Fabio Priuli]
- [VECTREX] Fixed bug #1569 [Mathis Rosenhauer]
User Interface Changes:
-------------------------------------
- Fixed bug in file selector that could cause paths to contain extraneous separators. (bug #1595) [Nate Woods]
- Shift+ScrollLock now triggers a paste command. [Nate Woods]
Source Changes:
--------------------------------
- The core is based on MAME 0.125. This incorporates all features of the update to this core. [MAME team]
- Major changes to transition MESS's device system onto MAME's device system. [Nate Woods]
- Converted printers, snapshots and quickloads to the new device system. [Nate Woods]
- Fixed memory bug in the hash file parsing code that could cause problems in debug builds. [Nate Woods]
- Converted CDP1861 and CDP1864 display controllers to devices. [Curt Coder]
- Updated WD17xx floppy implementation; busy signal is now set correctly. [Miodrag Milanovic]
- Clarified error message when MESS fails to load because of a device that is expected to be present. (bug #1493) [Nate Woods]
- Created a 'dumpkbd' debugger command to dump all natural keyboard info. [Nate Woods]
- Fixed a regression in natural keyboard support that could cause certain keys to not be recognized. (bug #1564) [Nate Woods]
- Converted HD63450 DMA controller to the new device system. [Barry Rodewald]
- New MESS specific OSD call: osd_get_clipboard_text(). [Nate Woods]
- Changed Apple FDC/IWM implementation to be a MAME device. This affects the Apple II, Apple III, Apple IIgs, Lisa and Mac drivers. [Nate Woods]
While Microsoft has seen it fit to keep XP around as its "relatively non-bloated OS" alternative to the Linux that has dominated this new category of "ultra low-cost PCs" (ULPCs), they're certainly not giving away the farm. Microsoft doesn't want this version of XP Home creeping into mainstream laptops and desktops, where it might compete with Vista sales and high-margin machines from PC manufacturers. To that end, Microsoft is setting the limits for ULPCs at 10.2-inch screens, 80GB of storage, 1GB of RAM, 1GHz processors (with some exceptions) and no touchscreens. The upshot is that licenses for XP will go for $26 in developing nations and $32 elsewhere. Too bad the XP faithful among us will need to try a bit harder to wrangle XP onto new machines of theirs that don't fit these narrow specifications
The latest version is 0.125. 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 0.125 and MESS 0.125, plus paste support for Win32 and Mac OS X.
- Implemented use of FBA's new command-line option to add SOURCE information to your gamelist view. As more command-line functionality is added - ML will add what it can for support.
- Corrected an issue where the console window would be completely cleared out if using FBA in certain instances.
- Fixed a problem related to loading .BDF fonts. If the saved BDF font is not found then the display should revert to default font built-in.
- Ability to use F4 to save a viewed "Parent/Clone" list was not working due to a filename issue. This has been corrected.
- Fixed some commands related to the using screen0,1,2,3 triggers. My range I had was DISPLAY0-3 instead of DISPLAY1-4.
- Latest round of additions to RESOURCE.ML for MAME 0.125/MESS 0.125.
- added a new option in the pce.ini file
'[misc] screen_resolution' to display the current
screen resolution of the PC-Engine under the FPS counter
- moved the 'fullscreen' option from the ratio menu to
the zoom menu, like that it's now possible to select
fullscreen stretch while preserving the aspect ratio,
this can be useful for exemple for those who have
a 16:9 wide monitor
- fixed the slow down problem when the Supergrafx emulation
was enabled
VICEplus is an enhanced version of VICE, emulating several well-known 8-bit home computers. Most notably, C64DTV support has been added.
Changelog:
* Merged with VICE 1.22.8 (and a bit beyond)
* Many monitor features (coders, have a look at it!)
* New PAL emulation
* Support for more host architectures
* x64dtv:
o added trueflashfs
o vicii IRQ differences
o PS/2 mouse on userport support
o Pixel cell and FRED2 fixes
o cycle exact DMA/Blitter
o lots of bugfixes
* DTV programs now working: 2008 - A DTV ODYSSEY, Boulder Dash DTV
x64dtv uses a new snapshot format that is not compatible with the VICEplus 1.0 x64dtv format.
The x11/xaw UI has been changed to require Num, Caps or Scroll Lock to be on to use the menus.
BioWare has decided it will now only ask for online authentication when you install your PC copy of Mass Effect or download additional content for the game.
It was responding to the apparent outcry that erupted after it revealed SecuROM copy protection would be included and demand online key validation every 10 days.
"BioWare has always listened very closely to its fans and we made this decision to ensure we are delivering the best possible experience to them," said Jay Waramaniuk, BioWare community manager, on the official forums.
"To all the fans including our many friends in the armed services and internationally who expressed concerns that they would not be able re-authenticate as often as required, EA and BioWare want you to know that your feedback is important to us." Hoo-ah!
Mass Effect PC will continue to be playable without the disc in the drive, and can be installed on up to three separate computers.
We knew it was due today, and what do you know: ASUS is busting out its new 8.9-inch Eee PC 900 right on schedule. So far ZipZoomfly is selling the XP version for $600, while Buy.com is offering up the Linux edition for $566. We're not sure what happened to those other resellers, or where that $550 pricepoint went, but we're sure we'll be seeing both before long -- which means it might be wise to hold off for just a tad bit longer, unless you really can't wait for sweet, sweet subnotebook embrace.
- sprites were visible when they were outside of DDFSTRT/DDFSTOP range (which really is DDFSTRT - end of line, another undocumented feature) “Fixes” demo Blittersweet (looks more broken now but it does look exact same on real A500) This update may not be 100% correct yet, it can break other programs. Test and complain'\.
- some archives mounted as a hard drive crashed
The console wars are progressing very well for the Nintendo Wii. They are doing OK for the PS3 now as things are picking up. But how are things doing for the Xbox 360? Wouldn't you think that because it had a release that was a year before the PS3 and Wii it would be leading? Well, guess what Xbox 360 fanboys, the 360 is not leading.
It is currently in second place with PS3 approaching rapidly from behind. The PS3 sold more in the first year of it's release than the 360 did. I find this surprising when i think about the great games the 360 has had, like Halo 3 and Gears of War.
According to the article, this may be linked to the exclusive games for each platform going he way of the dinosaur. There have been many game developers lately who have seen how CoD4 and GTA4 did with a multi-platform release. Perhaps they saw the millions of dollars more attractive than a contract with a console developer, who knows? (for those who don't get the sense in that, it's called sarcasm. )
One thing is for sure, Nintendo played it smart with the Nintendo Wii.
The Wii has sold 25 million consoles
The 360 has sold 18 million
and the PS3 is making a comeback with 12 million sold.
Stretch your fingers, blow the dust off on your writing skill! DCEmu Reviews and affiliate M3 Adapter, are pleased to announce the DCEmu Games Reviews REVIEW Contest! To help with the launch of DCEmu Games Reviews, we will be giving away FOUR (4) iTouchDS to 4 lucky winners of the contest. You can read our review of the iTouchDS here.
How to Enter :
To enter, you must be a member of DCEmu. To join, please register. You must submit an original review of your own whether it be hardware, accessories and/or games for the following consoles (Sony PS3, PSP, Nintendo Wii, DS, Microsoft Xbox 360). You may submit as many reviews as many times as you wish. So the more you submit, the more votes you'll get! *WHEN SUBMITTING REVIEW, FOLLOW THESE GUIDELINES!
Game Reviews must be posted on DCEmu Games Reviews Game Reviews forum and any hardware or accessories are to be posted in DCEmu Reviews Submit Reviews forum.
Rules :
Please read through all the following rules carefully as failure to do so may result in your entry being disqualified.
Everyone is eligible!
Contest begins on May 12, 2008 and ends on June 14, 2008 at 11:59PM EST.
Entries will be judged by YOU, the forum users, the gamers, to see who is your favorite reviewer via poll.
Poll voting will begin on June 15, 2008 and will end on June 21, 2008 at 11:59PM EST.
You must be a member of DCEmu. To join, please register.
All entries must be of your original work and contains detailed information related to reviewed item. Pictures are optional but preferred.
Game Reviews must be posted on DCEmu Games Reviews Game Reviews forum and any hardware or accessories are to be posted in DCEmu Reviews Submit Reviews forum.
There is no restriction on what you can review. You can review the following console games/accessories/hardwares: Sony PlayStation 3, PSP, Nintendo Wii, DS/Lite, Microsoft Xbox 360.
Multiple entries are allowed, so post as much as you want.
DCEmu has the right to delete/move any submitted reviews. Reviewer will be notified via PM with reason and may resubmit a revised review, if necessary.
Any reviews prior to the start date of contest is eligible for contest.
What Happens After Contest Ends? :
Once contest has been ended, we will gather all the names of reviewers who have submitted a review. We will than make a poll with the name of those who qualified and entered the contest by submitting a review. Registered forum users will vote for the best submitted review. The winning entries will be announced within a week after the closing of poll.
Winners will be announced on both DCEmu and notified via PM. Winners have FIVE (5) days to respond to PM with mailing address. We are not responsible for any lost or damaged packages. DCEmu reserves the right to cancel contest or entries at any time without notice.
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If you're looking for games to review, check out Goozex. Goozex is the new innovative system developed and tested by video-gamers for video-gamers. Goozex provides a unique trading platform that allows peer-to-multi- peer trading of physical goods.
The PlayStation 3 version of Grand Theft Auto IV has overtaken that of the Xbox 360 and assumed the top spot on both the Spanish and German charts, according to the latest data released by Media-Control GfK International.
The German charts saw GTA IV on the Xbox 360 take second place and Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii in third and fourth place respectively.
This was followed by Assassin's Creed: Director's in fifth, the GTA IV special edition on Xbox 360 in sixth place, with the PS3 special edition coming in behind the The Sims 2: Kitchen and Bath Interior Design Stuff at seven, to take eighth place.
Meanwhile in Spain, Wii Fit came in second place followed by the Xbox 360 version of GTA IV in third place and Mario Kart Wii in fourth.
Dr Kawashima's Brain Training and More Brain Training, both for the DS, were fifth and six place respectively, followed by Wii Play at number seven.
GTA IV special edition for the PS3 came in eighth and outsold the Xbox 360 version which was tenth, just below Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 for the PlayStation Portable.
The German charts for the week ending May 7 follow:
1. Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3)
2. Grand Theft Auto IV (360)
3. Wii Fit (Wii)
4. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
5. Assassins Creed: Director's Cut (PC)
6. Grand Theft Auto IV Special Edition (360)
7. The Sims 2: Kitchen and Bath Interior Design Stuff (PC)
8. Grand Theft Auto IV Special Edition (PS3)
9. Wii Play (Wii)
10. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training (DS)
The Spanish charts for the week ending May 7 follow:
1. Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3)
2. Wii Fit (Wii)
3. Grand Theft Auto IV (360)
4. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
5. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training (DS)
6. More Brain Training (DS)
7. Wii Play (Wii)
8. Grand Theft Auto IV Special Edition (PS3)
9. Pro Evolution Soccer (PSP)
10. Grand Theft Auto IV Special Edition (360)
Funcom and Eidos have revealed that over one million of you have signed up for the Age of Conan beta.
The beta only caters for 50,000 of you, apparently, but the rest of you will get a chance to play the full version in just over a week.
"Funcom has not been able to find any higher beta numbers for MMOs in the Western world," said Funcom money-mouth Morten Larssen.
The developer also revealed that more than 800,000 of you have signed up for the Age of Conan newsletter, and 725,000 unique visitors have popped over to the official site to contribute towards 115,000 forum posts.
Age of Conan is out on 23rd May in Europe, although those of you pre-ordering can get in on the action three days early.
Developer/Publisher Aspyr have released patch 1.3 for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. Patch 1.3 will update the highly popular music game without the need of previous patches. Version 1.3 introduces a new "Front Row Cam" feature that makes the game run smoother on lower end machines. Laptop specific optimizations have also been made for better performance. Other additions include:
- A battery meter icon will display remaining battery charge on
supported laptops.
- A Wifi meter will display signal strength during multiplayer games on
supported laptops.
- Intel X3100 graphics chips are now supported.
* Fixes .lnk files not working in 9.25
* When viewing by system in favorites the system image will now be displayed
* For registered users 7-Zip support has been extended to support zip files. Allowing zip support in emulators that don't support zips
* Flag ICONS are now shown when listing 7-zip goodmerge files on the game information screen
* Fixes memory leak when launching MAME with the Bypass setting turned on. This could stop GameEx working after a couple of days of continuously launching games (eg screensaver). Therefore its recommended to update to this version
* The default game pad exit combination has been changed to also include button 1
Fixed
When exiting MAWS view, games list focus was not restored
MAME ini files not being generated when setting emulator options from "Emulator Setup" screen, making settings all messed up
Error when loading image background in treeviews and listviews if file does not exist
Bug that did not always minimized the front-end when running games (when feature is enabled)
Weird bug when running Model 2 emu. Front-end window is now restored correctly
Vista taskbar / Vista Flip3D previews now show correctly when the front-end is minimized... yay!
Game name in status bar not properly set when switching between games filters
Minor visual bugs
Changed
All MAME WAV/MNG files are now created in the same folder: "mamesnaps\multimedia_files\"
No more folder restrictions for MAME playback/record input and save state files
Improved
No need for the arrow in drop-down buttons anymore (tool bar buttons)
Feature "select parent game" does nothing if parent is not found or is hidden
Save file dialogs merged and simplified
Added
Support for LCD screen type when creating MAME games lists (no support in screen type filter though)
Incremental search by game name now works for view modes that use EasyListView
Support for MAME 0.125
+ Please let me do a little an important talk for the game field. It is
continuation of the story (Input Delay(Lag) problem) written last time.
+ The delay influences people who do not feel the delay, too. Even if you
cannot feel the delay, the difficulty of the game goes up certainly, and
the pleasure of the game certainly falls. As a result, there might be a
case that goes away from the game (Or, the played frequency decreases.
Without recognizing the cause for myself).
+ "Golf game" is the most remarkable to feel the delay. Please play
"Naxat Open"(the masterpiece golf game of "PC Engine") by full-screen(for
easy to watch). And, watch the power meter(small circle) of the screen
seriously when you swing. In the state, push the button of the pad when
the power meter(small circle) came right above person's head. When playing
with the display monitor where delay hardly exists, in "Ootake", the meter
(small circle) stops at once if the button is pushed.
But, in "MagicEngine(input-lag is large)", the meter(small circle) stops
in the place that shifted to the right a little.
If you do not push the button (do not shot) after this, this test can be
repeated. Please try repeatedly. And, you must feel the difference of
"Play Sense".
+ When you recognize the input-lag, if you push the button ahead of time, it
becomes a temporary solution. However, you will not feel good feelings
in the method. True interest of the action game is ruined.
Though it is not desirable, the timing of the golf game can become
accustomed. However, the timing of the baseball and tennis game becomes
unnatural late. Because up, down, left, and right movement is necessary.
Even the timing of other actions and shooting games is similar.
+ As a result, I strongly worry about the misunderstanding (difficult and
not interesting for the delay) of the game.
* Example of measures on emulator author side
-> http://www.ouma.jp/ootake/delay.html
* Measures on user side PC environment
-> http://www.ouma.jp/ootake/delay-solution.html
+ Therefore, please read above-mentioned "Measures on user side PC
environment", and make a good PC environment if possible. And, in
"Ootake", enjoy playing "PC Engine(TG16)" games sincerely.
+ Thank you for reading. Hereafter, they are update details of v1.50.
- "Show FPS" was added to "Info" menu. "Frame Rate (frames displayed per one
second)" is displayed on the screen(left-bottom). When the personal
computer is an enough speed, this keeps almost 60(occasional 59). When
this frequently falls below 60, the processing speed of the personal
computer is insufficient. In that case, please lighten the setting(
FullScreen[F12] or "Volume->Light PSG" menu).
- In the start demo of "Efera & Jiliora - The Emblem From Darkness", the bug
that the voice had become interrupted (generated by v1.49) was corrected.
- When source is compiled with gcc, the part that was not able to be
compiled correctly according to the version of gcc was corrected.
- Additionally, a detailed part has been improved and corrected.
* The happiness of the game is the world human race commonness. It longs for
peace.
* I think that it cannot do improvement & correction of the above-mentioned
if there are many neither operation report nor defect report. Thank you
really for you who reported.
- Vista taskbar / Vista Flip3D previews now show correctly when the front-end is minimized... yay!
- Bug that did not always minimized the front-end when running games (when feature is enabled)
- A few minor bugs
- Code clean-ups
- New language support, "Portuguese (Brazil)" (This is hard-coded into the front-end and NO OTHER languages will be added! This is for my personal use.)
New version of the front end for Dosbox (DOSBox emulates an Intel x86 PC, complete with sound, graphics, mouse, joystick, modem, etc., necessary for running many old MS-DOS games that simply cannot be run on modern PCs).
Changelog:
* Simplified Chinese language file (thanks to muzuiget)
* The new profile wizard has been completely redesigned. With the new auto setup templates new profiles (for games known by the D-Fend Reloaded database) can be setup by only entering the game name and the filename.
* ScummVM based advantures can be configurated and listed together with the DOSBox based profiles now.
* If you define a QBasic interpreter in the setup dialog, you can define bas files as normal program files for games. When executing a bas file profile D-Fend Reloaded will automatically execute it in QBasic in DOSBox.
* A new first run wizard makes setting up language and updates for new users much easier.
* The content of image files can be extracted to a folder now.
* You can build a floppy image from the content of a folder now.
* If you copy prof files to the "Confs" folder while D-Fend Reloaded is running they will be added to the games list immediately.
* Icons form outside the "IconLibrary" folder can now also be used as profile icons (and can be transfered with the profile and included to installers just like the icons in the default icons folder).
* If you delete a profile file while D-Fend Reloaded is running it will ask you if you want to restore the deleted file.
* Now you can setup a codepage to be used in DOSBox for each profile. Additionally there is a default codepage stored in each language file which will be used if the codepage is set to "default" in the profile.
* Now you can (optionally) define a key mapper file for each profile. (If no key mapper file is defined, the DOSBox default key mapper file will be used.)
* A list of batch commands which DOSBox will run after the end of the game can be defined now (some kind of complement of the Autoexec.bat commands).
* Now you can also make installer packages from your profile templates.
* The templates dialog now has an option to change multiple templates at once (like the multi profile editor for normal profile).
* More option to configurate low-level access to mounted CDROMs.
* When creating floppy images you can choose to make the image bootable now.
* The tray icon has a context menu for direct starting and adding of profiles.
* The transfer profiles function can create a portable version of D-Fend Reloaded (by copying files from the current installation and modifing the configuration) in the destination folder before copying the profile data.
* Now you can define if the path to the game and the setup exe file should be interpreted absolute (in the physical file system) or relative (to the file system in DOSBox).
* Now you can configurate in the setup dialog if D-Fend Reloaded should show configuration options in the profile editor which can only be used with DOSBox CVS builds (like multiple floppy images per drive, PhysFS support, setting the number of text mode lines, VGA chipset and video RAM, Glide emulation and printer support).
* When changeing multiple profiles, creating installers etc. now you can select and unselect profiles also by any user defined information. (Until now selecting was only possible by the predefined fields like language, developer, year, etc.)
* Profiles (conf and prof files), screenshots and captured sound can be imported by drag&drop now. Dragging program files to the D-Fend Reloaded program window will open the new profile wizard with the chosen file.
* Within the multi profile editor you can add, change and delete user-defined information fields now.
* For each profile you can define some extra files which will be transfered, uninstalled and packed into installer packages together with the other game files (like it is already possible with the extra directories).
* The profile editor will show a warning if the user trys to create a new profile with no game program filename (and is not using a boot image option).
* When opening the select game exe or select setup exe dialog from the profile editor or the wizard the path of the setup exe or the game exe (if already defined) will be used as initial directory instead of the games base directory.
* When a checksum error (changed or exchanged game program file) is detected, D-Fend Reloaded now also offers the option to turn off checksums for the profile (until now only keep old checksum or create new checksum).
* The checksum driven game file change detection can be turned off in the setup dialog now.
* The mount dialog will show a warning if the users trys to use the same drive letter for two mounted drives.
* The mount dialog will show a warning message if the users trys to mount the the root directory of a drive.
* The dialog for playing captured game sounds has been improved: You can jump to any position in the file via a slider and the captured wave sound can be encoded to mp3 or ogg directly from the dialog now.
* The screenshot view dialog has been improved: You can cycle though the screenshots of a profile via two new toolbar buttons (or by using the cursor keys or the mouse wheel) without closing the dialog. Additionally the zoom level is set to 100% when a new image is loaded.
* The import conf file function now trys to make mount records from the mount commands of the autoexec section.
* Now you can setup which icons should be visible on the toolbar.
* The tooltips in the games list now also show the last modification time of each profile.
* Some new icons in the modern and classic profile editor (thanks to Banjo).
* [Fix] Even if you choose "Restore profile on disk with version from memory" when a file conflict occures the profile on disk will not be changed and the version in memory will be lost as long as you do not make any changes to the profile in memory before closing D-Fend Reloaded.
* [Fix] The boot from floppy image function did not work if you used a single image file.
* [Fix] When using D-Fend Reloaded in portable mode the path to the DOSBox language file was not updated properly what could DOSBox prevent from starting.
* [Fix] The main activation of DOSBox IPX support is not written to the DOSBox conf file when starting a profile with IPX support enabled.
* [Fix] When installing D-Fend Reloaded in user directory mode (the default installation mode) the templates were only created for the user account the installer was run from.
* [Fix] The column visible status was not saved when closing the setup dialog if the columns were not in default order.
* [Fix] When changing the filename of a profile all character after the first "." in the new filename were removed.
* [Fix] The capture folder settings were ignored when importing conf files.
* [Fix] User defined fields were ignored when exporting a games list.
* [Fix] Wrong language in dialogs after changing the program language but closing the setup dialog with "Cancel".
* [Fix] When using the "Minimize to tray" option together with "Start minimized" the application is minimized to the taskbar instead of the tray area on programm start-up.
* [Fix] When adding a new profile via the wizard the information fields (genre, developer, etc.) of the new profile always showed "Not set" until restart of the program.
* [Fix] Wrong default icon in the profile select dialog which opens when clicking on "Template from profile" in the templates dialog.
new feature: ROM-settings
You can choose now your own ROM images with a selector.
Press "Home" to open thie ROM-files dialog.
Type in the full ROM-name in it's field...
P.E.:
Type in Lower ROM - OS6128.zip
If you enter "none" or erase a field, the ROM will be removed from this place.
new web-parameters:
SKINNED = true/false - Tells the emulator, if you want to use a skin or not
SKINB = true/false - Use second skin or not, if SKINNED is set to true
MEMORY = 64,128,256,512 or SILICON - Sets the desired memorysize of emulated model. (If not set, 512k is used)
New for this release:
* Joystick emulation added. Emulates the standard Microbee Joystick. The
joystick is also able to be mapped to Microbee keys permitting games and
other applications to use joystick controls.
* Added joystick select and enable option --js.
* Added Microbee joystick options: --js-clear, --js-mbee, --js-up,
--js-right, --js-down, --js-left, --js-fire, --js-play1, --js-play2,
and --js-spare.
* Added joystick to keys mapping options: --js-klist, --js-kbd, --js-kk,
--js-kb, --js-kset and --js-ksel.
* Added EMUKEY+J+K (or EMUKEY+J <K>) hot keys to select a joystick key map
set. K is 'A'-'Z'. First 26 sets are selectable from keyboard, 256 sets
are available in total.
* Added EMUKEY+J+0 (EMUKEY+J <0>) disables Microbee and keyboard mapping for
joystick. EMUKEY+J+1 (EMUKEY+J <1>) enables Microbee joystick.
* Z80 CPU speed improvements to better regulate the execution rate rather
than just per each Z80 code frame executed. This improves sound quality
but may vary between installations.
* Full screen toggle using the mouse now requires a double clicking action.
* Added --dclick option to set double click speed for mouse events.
* Added --status option to customize the status line in the title bar.
* Additional status information displayable now includes joystick, tape in,
title, sys, serial, print, short/long drive and others.
* Added --title option to set a custom title name.
* Added --spad option to set padding between status information.
* Added --basram option to use SRAM instead of ROM at 0xA000-0xBFFF.
* Added --pakram option to allow a PAK location to use SRAM instead of ROM
at 0xC000-0xDFFF.
* Added --netram option to use SRAM instead of ROM at 0xE000-0xEFFF.
* Added PAK1-PAK7 ROM PAKs for 2mhz model emulation. Use OUT 10,n followed
by an EDASM command to select.
* All PAKs are now preloaded when emulator starts up.
* Added function_joystick() functions.
Fixed:
* File name matching in win32 fixed in a function that returns the next
directory entry. Was only able to match file names that used all lower
case. CP/M support program HOST2CPM should now work.
* Options --rom2 and --rom3 overrides did not load any ROM images.
* Teleterm model keys are now associated with the Teleterm keyboard.
* Added two missing compile conditionals '#ifdef USE_LIBDSK' around where
disk.dg.dg_secsize is used in fdc.c. Needed when compiling with LibDsk
disabled.
* Fixed an endianess issue in function_stdio() function for the 'putchar
function'.
* PIO potential mode set problem discovered when adding joystick code.
EA money results show that its games sold better on Sony platforms for the first three months this year.
You see, those months were the final three in its financial year, which saw the PS2 crowned as the winner by making USD 166 million.
Close behind was its PS3 sibling commanding USD 152 million, while its Xbox 360 rival managed just USD 128 million despite its installed-base advantage.
On the other hand, a meagre USD 75 million was made from EA games sold on Wii, this generation's hardware sales leader.
Sony also dominated the handheld facts and figures; USD 69 million was made from EA games sold on PSP, which gave it 47 percent of the portable market, which is almost double the DS with 25 percent. Mobile accounted for the rest of the pie with 28 percent.
If you're still awake, this all amounts to a massive 192 percent increase in PS3 EA game sales, probably because it didn't launch in Europe until 23rd March.
All other platforms sold more EA games than last year as well, with only the PC going the wrong way by 11 percent. Still, with Battlefield Heroes around the corner, this should change.
PMOG, the Passively Multiplayer Online Game, has launched what could be the strangest concept in browser RPGs yet (and there are some pretty strange ones out there).
PMOG has been in beta for the last 10 weeks, and in that time has already succeeded in ensnaring several friends of Eurogamer MMO.
PMOG is an extension for the Firefox browser that allows you to play the internet as if it were an MMORPG. You can level up and build a player profile through surfing, leave loot and traps on certain sites for other players to discover, and take missions sending you to the furthest reaches of the internet - for example, find the best sites for rumours about Apple hardware.
Bizarrely, PMOG also features a back-story and lingo drawn from surreal science-fiction Victoriana. On top of this, you can earn badges for completing certain tasks.
Yes, that's right: the internet's very own Achievements. Example: "Indie - for players who go a 24 hour period without using Google."
We'll have more on PMOG on Eurogamer MMO in future. It's just too curious to ignore.
MAMETesters Bugs Fixed
----------------------------------
01795: [Misc.] tm, tm3k, tm4k, tm5k, tm7k: Day on clock doesn't work (Luigi30)
01717: [DIP/Input] arcadecl, sparkz: Service Key mapped twice. (stephh)
01713: [DIP/Input] spaceg: All joystick/buttons mapped twice. Button 1 is mapped 3 times! (stephh)
01791: [DIP/Input] asterock: Unable to credit up or play the game. Also, there are discrete sound issues. (Fabio Priuli)
01790: [DIP/Input] zerowng2: Last "Unused" dipswitch is for territory. (Roberto Fresca)
01738: [Misc.] neruton: Typo in title (Roberto Fresca)
01787: [DIP/Input] columnsu: 1st unknown dip switch indentified (Roberto Fresca)
Renamed ports and used AM_READ_PORT macros in arcadecl. [stephh]
Add feature to the cia6526: in READ operation the value can be forced by a external circuit; this feature is necessary for MESS. [robiza]
undrfire.c improvements: [Philip Bennett]
* Hooked up cbombers steering wheel input.
* Changed ES5505 clock rate to 30476100/2.
* Unified cbombers memory maps and tidied up some code.
* Removed the undrfire speedup hack.
Marked the sound roms on Q*Bert's Qubes as bad and changed the flag to imperfect sound. The current sound cpu roms are the same as on a normal Q*Bert board, which is incorrect. At least three sound effects are present in the real qq-snd roms but not the Q*Bert qb-snd ones. [Lord Nightmare]
Fixed the ROZ effect in Namco NA1 driver. ROZ tilemap is actually an additional tilemap. Fixes a bug where a "roz enable" test was causing a normal layer to be rendered with ROZ effects in-game. There is no roz enable register - it's always available for mixing with other tilemaps and sprites. This also adds a missing NAMCO logo zoom/spin effect in Emeralda's attract mode. [Phil Stroffolino]
Added memory address parameter to CDP1802 DMA callbacks, and added a macro for the CPU interface. [Curt Coder]
Rewrote the Gaelco video ram encryption, which finally makes sense. The key observation was that when decrypting the second word, both encrypted and decrypted bits of the first word are used. Many thanks to Javier Valero for the detailed information that made this possible. [Nicola Salmoria]
Fixed coin inputs, added validator input, and added notes on inputs to the tmaster driver. [Luigi30]
Merged memory maps for drivers: tagteam, tail2nos, tankbatt, tankbust, taotaido, targeth, and taxidrvr. [Andrew Gardner]
New driver for old Game-A-Tron gambling games hardware.
[Roberto Fresca]
- Properly decoded graphics.
- Proper memory map.
- Added NVRAM support.
- Proper Inputs through 8255 PPI I/O chip.
- Both games are working.
- Added technical & game notes.
New universal dynamic recompiler system: [Aaron Giles]
The central module is drcuml.c, which defines a universal machine language syntax that can be generated by a frontend recompiler and then retargeted via a generic backend interface to any of a number of different architectures. A disassembler for the UML is also included to allow examination of the generated UML code.
Currently supported backend architectures include 32-bit x86, 64-bit x86, and a platform-neutral interpreted C backend that can be used as a fallback for platforms without native support. The C backend also performs additional validation to ensure assumptions are met.
Along with the new architecture is a new MIPS III/IV recompiler frontend. This frontend has been rewritten from the old x64-specific recompiler to generate UML opcodes instead. This means that the single recompiler can be used to target multiple backend architectures and should in theory produce identical results across all of them.
The old 32-bit and 64-bit MIPS recompilers are now officially retired. The new system provides similar performance (within 5% generally) to the old system and has similar compatibility. The only currently known issues are some problems with the two Gauntlet 3D games.
Added DS5002FP CPU core. [Manuel Abadia]
Added CDP1852 I/O buffer chip, and used it in Altair/Draco. [Curt Coder]
Found the proper algorithm to decrypt the blue TAB PCB in the funworld driver. Replaced the old decryption tables with the proper decryption scheme. Updated technical notes. [Roberto Fresca]
Added uncompressed AVI recording: [Aaron Giles]
Extended aviio to be able to write RGB bitmaps. Unfortunately, the only option is fully uncompressed, which means the resulting AVIs are *HUGE* and may not play correctly in realtime due to high data rate. The intention is that these uncompressed AVIs are post-processed by other utilities to compress the video and produce a realtime playable result.
Added new command-line option -aviwrite which works just like -mngwrite, except it produces AVIs and streams sound to them. Updated documentation accordingly.
Shift+F12 still produces MNGs for now, though this might change in the future.
Modified fileio.c to retain the full pathname to the file so that it can be queried while the file is open.
Updated TMS5200/5220 documentation and comments. Fixed the chirp table implementation in both the 51xx and 52xx chips. [Lord Nightmare]
Fixed default dipswitches on thoop to give more than 1 life. [David Haywood]
Bug fixes for NamcoNA Hardware: [Phil Stroffolino]
- support for scanline effect (fixes invisible dolphin in Emeralda attract mode)
- ROZ implementation no longer breaks Numan Athletics pixmap layer
- blitter fixes; xday graphics are now correct
- identified extra communications RAM used by xday (probably to control printer)
Fixed crash in dynax games due to missing MSM6242 device. [Dirk Best]
Changed Black tiger main Z80 clock to 6MHz and sound Z80 clock to 3.579545MHz as verified on PCB. [Corrado Tomaselli]
Consolidated opbase variables into a structure and rescoped them so they are hidden for general access. [Atari Ace]
New games added or promoted from NOT_WORKING status
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pit Boss Superstar [Hugh McLenaghan]
Chase Bombers [Phil Bennett]
Card Games? [Roberto Fresca]
Slots Game? [Roberto Fresca]
World Rally [Manuel Abadia, GAELCO SA]
beatmania 7th MIX (ver JA-B) [Chizzy]
New clones added
--------------------------------
The Legend of Kage [Stefan Lindberg]
Megatouch III (9255-20-06 RON) [Brian Troha]
Ghox (set 2) [Tormod Tjaberg]
Demon's World / Horror Story (early edition) [Brian Troha]
Legendary Wings (bootleg) [Sonikos]
New games marked as GAME_NOT_WORKING
----------------------------------------------------------------------
beatmania THE FINAL (ver JA-A) [Chizzy]
Despite frequent news of Wii's global sales domination, the Xbox 360 has managed to hit the 10 million sales mark in the US ahead of its competition, according to Microsoft.
Reaching the milestone before both the Wii and PS3 in the States should secure the long-term current-gen victory for the 360, MS senior vice president, Don Mattrick, told Reuters.
"History has shown us that the first company to reach ten million in console sales wins the generation battle," stated Mattrick in a statement yesterday. Interesting fact there trivia fans.
NPD figures currently puts Wii on 8.8 million sales (and closing) in the US, while PS3 is sits on 4.1 million.
Wii of course leads in the overall global race, something MS didn't take into account when doing its sums. "Xbox 360 has the largest global install base of any current gen. high definition gaming console, Wii excluded," the company clarified to ShackNews when asked how Xbox 360 could lead worldwide with 19 million when the Wii has sold 24.45 million.
We doubt the battle's over yet, although the 360 has a strong Christmas line-up ahead of it, and the Wii has.
Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. announced last night new titles and additional details for its 2008 lineup. Highlighting this year's releases are all-new versions of blockbuster franchises such as Metal Gear Solid, Castlevania, DanceDanceRevolution, Lost In Blue and Silent Hill. Additionally, the recognized industry leader in the music gaming category announced its latest IP - Rock Revolution for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system, Wii and Nintendo DS. Below is additional information on the products that were showcased at Konami's 2008 Gamers Night:
Critter Round-Up
Release date: May 2008
Genre: Puzzle/Action
Platform: WiiWare
As Konami's first WiiWare title, Critter Round-Up introduces a fun puzzle game where players are challenged with separating each different critter species into their own area by building fences. Avoid the predators and other mischievous animals as they will try and stop you from rounding them up. Test your skills and get more points by corralling all the same critters into just one area and by using less fence. Four player co-op and a great set of competitive mini-games will have you rounding up critters until the cows come home.
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
Release date: Fall 2008
Genre: Action
Platform: Nintendo DS
Following on the success of Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin the legendary Castlevania series is back in its 3rd installment on Nintendo DS. This time you play as a member of the Ecclesia, an organization that has sworn to defeat the evil forces of Dracula. Use the brand new Glyph attack system which has more than 100 different combinations to battle Dracula and his minions throughout 20 explorable areas inside and outside of the castle. Take part in side quests and collect items to power up your character in the next great Castlevania game produced by Koji Igarashi.
DanceDanceRevolution X
Release date: Fall 2008
Genre: Music/Dance
Platform: PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system
Celebrate the 10th anniversary of the most popular dance video game! Continuing its evolution on the PlayStation 2 system, DanceDanceRevolution X explodes onto the dance floor with enhanced graphics, fun interactive gameplay, an incredible song selection with 70 awesome music tracks and innovative new game modes. Brand new LAN Battle Mode will let up to 8 players battle simultaneously through the LAN connection on their PlayStation 2 system. Create your own workout and fitness program through an enhanced Workout Mode. Utilize the EyeToy USB Camera (for PlayStation 2) to implement yourself into the game.
DanceDanceRevolution Hottest Party 2
Release date: Fall 2008
Genre: Music/Dance
Platform: Wii
DanceDanceRevolution celebrates its 10th anniversary with an all-new game for Wii! The best selling dance game returns, with an entirely new soundtrack, game modes and interactivity. DanceDanceRevolution Hottest Party 2 enhances the series' trademark interactive gameplay by combining the physically engaging, innovative and easy-to-pick-up-and-play mechanics of the Wii console. DanceDanceRevolution Hottest Party 2 is sure to be the life of the party with 4 player multiplayer, Wii Remote and Nunchuk support, smash hits taken from the last four decades of music, entirely new modes and more!
DanceDanceRevolution UNIVERSE3
Release date: Fall 2008
Genre: Music/Dance
Platform: Xbox 360
DanceDanceRevolution celebrates its 10th anniversary! DanceDanceRevolution UNIVERSE3 dances its way to you with an all new sleek enhanced interface, fun new modes and settings for players of all skill levels, cool smash-hit songs, robust online and offline support and exciting new exclusives! DJ Mode makes its debut on the Xbox 360, allowing gamers to create their own tracks and song lists to dance to! Innovative City Mode lets you compete against bosses throughout the DanceDanceRevolution city to become the ultimate champion.
It's the ultimate sports package! So fun to play and easy to master for casual and hardcore gamers alike! Experience fun filled sports competition across 10 different sporting events. With easy-to-pick up and play controls, Deca Sports™ will make a multi-sport athlete out of everyone in your entire family. Smash, spike and smoke the competition in events like Badminton, Beach Volleyball, and Kart Racing. The spirit of competition never felt this good. Deca Sports takes Wii play to the next level!
Hellboy: The Science of Evil
Release date: June 24, 2008
Genre: Action
Platform: PSP (PlayStation Portable) system, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 system
Hellboy: The Science of Evil will give players the opportunity to experience the epic adventures of the acclaimed comic book hero, fusing action, atmosphere and humor. In his latest quest, Hellboy must rush to defeat the crazed Hermann Von Klempt before he can exert his evil will upon earth. The game lets players unleash Hellboy's superhuman abilities and the Right Hand of Doom as they smash their way through hordes of enemies using their environment for added destructive power and strategy. Just another day for Hellboy.
Lost in Blue: Shipwrecked! (working title)
Release date: Fall 2008
Genre: Survival Adventure
Platform: Wii
The Lost in Blue series makes its console debut with Lost in Blue: Shipwrecked! (working title). Experience a survival adventure like never before through colorful 3D graphics and the uniquely interactive capabilities of Wii. Players will find themselves stranded on a mysterious island filled with lush forests, ancient ruins, and an active volcano. With the help of a trusty pet and a new friend, you'll explore the mysteries of the island to find a way home or make a new life for yourselves there forever.
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Release date: June 12, 2008
Genre: Stealth Action
Platform: PlayStation 3 system
Created by the legendary Hideo Kojima, Metal Gear Solid®4: Guns of the Patriots is the final chapter in the saga of Solid Snake, which sends him around the world in pursuit of his arch nemesis, Liquid Ocelot. Armed with new gadgets and abilities, Solid Snake must shift the tides of war into his favor, using the chaos of the battlefield to infiltrate deep into enemy territory. In his globetrotting final mission, Snake must sneak deep into enemy locations in the Middle East, South America, and other corners of the earth to foil Liquid Ocelot's plans for total world domination.
Also included with Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is Metal Gear® Online, the ultimate squad based, tactical shooter based on the Metal Gear Solid® Universe. Players can immerse themselves in this next-gen multiplayer experience with various maps, game play type and weapons to choose from.
Rock Revolution
Release date: Fall 2008
Genre: Music/Dance
Platform: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 system, Wii, Nintendo DS
Konami's latest addition to the music category, Rock Revolution will let players release their inner rockstar! Featuring the most realistic drum peripheral available, players can enjoy an immersive and realistic drum experience while allowing friends to accompany them on guitar or bass to mind bending rock and roll tracks. Rock Revolution will also feature an extensive selection of music tracks (including downloadable songs for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 system), single-player and multiplayer co-op modes. This is the musical revolution the world has been waiting for!
Silent Hill: Homecoming
Release date: September 2008
Genre: Survival Horror
Platform: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 system
Silent Hill: Homecoming is the latest entry into the Silent Hill franchise. The story follows Alex Shepherd who returns to his hometown of Shepherd's Glen to investigate the sudden disappearance of his brother. From Shepherd's Glen to the foggy streets of Silent Hill, Alex must face the darkest of horrors in order to find his brother. Struggling with his own grip on reality, Alex must unravel the mystery behind his nightmares, discover the truth behind his brother's and father's disappearances, and confront the evil that has taken hold of his own flesh and blood.
New International Track and Field
Release date: July 2008
Genre: Sports
Platform: Nintendo DS
The classic sporting game series of Track & Field celebrates its' 25th Anniversary by coming to Nintendo DS. All the excitement and fun of the original titles is brought up to date with a bright and stylish new look, more events and online play.
The hyper-addictive gameplay was developed to take full advantage of the touch screen and stylus, thus providing gamers with a unique experience on DS. Players can either dip into single events or take on the challenge of the sporting career mode. Test your skills against the world via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection and see if you have what it takes to become the best in the world. Going beyond mere online play New International Track and Field features online tournaments and worldwide rankings.
For more information about Konami games visit: www.konami.com
* Only playing favorites in screensaver now also works for emulators
* Fixes not playing videos and Karaoke in some configurations
* Fixes not playing selected playlist when Jukebox set to play at startup
* Fixes aspect ratio of system logos in favorites
GameSpot is reporting that details for Guitar Hero 4 have been released. The biggest news seems to be that the new release will be adding drums and vocals a la Rock Band. The new drums are to offer three pressure-sensitive pads (which can tell if you are just tapping or really wailing), two elevated cymbals, and a pedal.
"The details in Game Informer also clear up the mystery surrounding the 'innovation' which Activision promised was coming to the Guitar Hero series in a recent earnings report conference call. The article outlines the game's studio mode, which will give users a variety of ways to create their own songs. Players will be able to jam along with one of the game's existing tracks, record songs as they're played, or meticulously detail note charts."
Welcome to this week's Games Update, our weekly summary featuring all new product arrivals from the last seven days.
One of the hottest games that came out this week is Bleach: Heat the Soul 5 [JPN, Asian]. Fight in pairs in this brand new Sony PSP™ game, choose any two from the twenty four characters and take on all the bosses' tag teams. The more teams you beat, the more hidden characters you can unlock.
Special skills from the manga are animated in fully voiced video clips, when you filled up your tag gage, launch attacks that combine both character's powers and deal some massive damages.
Another interesting game for Sony PSP™ players is Irem's Ikuze! Gen-San: Yuuyake Daiku Monogatari [JPN, Asian]. Become this hot blooded carpenter Gen-san and defeat the evil construction company that is harrassing the people in town. Gen-san's powers defy gravity and logic, and the wooden hammer is certainly mightier than missiles and tanks.
Two fantasy RPG that sets stage in medieval European land are released on Nintendo DS™, one of them is Luminous Arc 2: Will and the other is Dungeon of Windaria.
Use the engagement ring system in Luminous Arc 2: Will to form pacts with the witches and explore their powers by letting them transform your armor and weapons in dire situations.
Dungeon of Windaria is an epic tale of fantasy, war and romance. Adventure with Izu, a traditional fantasy hero as he joins in the war effort to save his land, preserve peace for his people and the love between the prince and the princess.
Aside from new games for portable systems, popular titles released new editions for your third generation consoles. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare released a Game of the Year edition for PlayStation3™ when the bloody horror Condemned 2: Bloodshot released an Asian edition for both Xbox360™ and PlayStation3™.
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™:
Condemned 2: Bloodshot ASIA US$ 49.90
The Darkness JPN US$ 64.90
PlayStation3™:
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Game of the Year Edition) US US$ 64.90
Condemned 2: Bloodshot ASIA US$ 49.90
Nintendo Wii™:
Boom Blox US US$ 59.90
Speed Racer: The Video Game US US$ 59.90
Totsugeki Famicom Wars VS / Battalion Wars 2 JPN US$ 64.90
Sony PSP™:
Bleach: Heat the Soul 5 JPN US$ 48.90
Bleach: Heat the Soul 5 ASIA US$ 42.90
Ikuze! Gen-San: Yuuyake Daiku Monogatari ASIA US$ 42.90
Ikuze! Gen-San: Yuuyake Daiku Monogatari JPN US$ 48.90
Keibatsuu Portable JPN US$ 48.90
R-Type Command US US$ 44.90
Sony PSP™ Accessories:
PSP Headset Kit for Skype US US$ 29.99
Traveler Case US US$ 19.99
Video Game Soundtracks:
The Idolm@ster Master Live 03 JPN US$ 19.90
The King Of Fighters'98 Ultimate Match Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 31.90
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 quick outlook what's expected to be hot next week.
Xbox360™:
UEFA Euro 2008 ASIA US$ 44.90
PlayStation3™:
MotorStorm Complete ASIA US$ 44.90
MotorStorm Complete JPN US$ 49.90
UEFA Euro 2008 ASIA US$ 49.90
Nintendo Wii™:
Castle of Shikigami III US US$ 34.90
Nintendo DS™:
Bleach DS 2nd: Kokui Hirameku Chinkon Uta (Best Version) JPN US$ 29.90
Bleach DS: Souten ni Kakeru Unmei (Best Version) JPN US$ 29.90
Drone Tactics US US$ 34.90
Hercules no Eikou: Tamashii no Shoumei JPN US$ 48.90
Surprise! For the fifth week in a row, Mario Kart Wii finishes first on Media Create's weekly software sales chart. Japanese gamers snapped up another 107K copies of the kart racer as new releases were put on hold for the week. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G continues to settle for second place, with Wii Fit officially passing the 2 million mark overseas. While we've seen a healthy mix of platforms on the charts over the past few months, for the week of May 5 to 11, it's simply saturated with Wii and Nintendo DS titles.
Bear down for even more sales fun throughout the day as the NPD Group releases U.S. sales data for the number starved masses. The list continues after the break.
1. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - 107,000 / 1,227,000
2. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (PSP) - 82,000 / 1,992,000
3. Wii Fit (Wii) - 53,000 / 2,039,000
4. Link's Crossbow Training (Wii) - 49,000 / 141,000
5. Meccha! Taiko Drum Master DS: 7-tsu no Shima no Daibouken (DS) - 34,000 / 133,000
6. Pokémon Ranger Batonage! (DS) - 27,000 / 535,000
7. Deca Sports (Wii) - 22,000 / 207,000
8. Wii Sports (Wii) - 21,000 / 2,979,000
9. Boura wa Kaseki Holder (DS) - 17,000 / 102,000
10. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) - 16,000 / 1,620,000
The latest figure for console sales in Japan are in at the same positions of last week's reading:
Playstation Portable: 89,884
Nintendo Wii: 67,308
Nintendo DS Lite: 51,228
Playstation 3: 8,054
Playstation 2: 7,464
Xbox 360: 1,298
PSP still tops them all with roughly a 11,000 decrease. 2nd is the Wii, 4,000 drop. Next is the DS Lite, down 1,300. Last three in order are the PS3, PS2 and Xbox 360 all down 2,000, 1,400 and 427 respectively.
BioWare announced today that the award-winning action role-playing game (RPG) Mass Effect for PC, published by Electronic Arts, has gone into manufacturing. Mass Effect will be available in North America on May 28, 2008 and June 6, 2008 to European retailers.
Gamers can still take advantage of pre-order specials1 and should check with their preferred retailer for information. Alternatively, gamers who pre-order Mass Effect through the Electronic Arts online store at www.eastore.ea.com will receive bonus items2 from the game Dead Space, the highly anticipated sci-fi survival horror game by EA, including the first issue of the Dead Space comic book and a Dead Space poster while supplies last.
Fully optimized for the PC through a collaboration between BioWare and Demiurge Studios, Mass Effect includes a new Tactical Heads-Up Display, higher resolution visuals, an enhanced inventory system, fully optimized controls designed specifically for the PC, individual squad control and a new decryption mini-game. The "Bring Down the Sky" downloadable content for Mass Effect on PC, featuring 90 minutes of new gameplay, will also be available free3 for registered BioWare Community members at the launch of Mass Effect PC.
Microsoft and the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) foundation have ended their spat and all new XO laptops will start offering Windows XP.
The alliance is seen as a way to help boost sales of the worthy, but slow-selling, XO laptop to under-developed countries. It’s speculated that certain countries wanted Windows XP over the Linux-based OS the XO currently uses before they’d flash the cash. It's good that Microsoft has finally stepped up since there's no love lost between OLPC and Intel.
Microsoft has modified XP to run on the XO, with customised drivers that allow it support the laptop’s e-book reading mode, standard Wi-Fi networking, camera, writing pad and custom keys, as well as the power-saving and other features of the XO hardware. Essentially, it now means that ‘hundreds of thousands of third-party applications and devices available for Windows will now be compatible with the XO laptop’.
Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of OLPC, said:
“From the beginning, the goal of OLPC has been to use technology to transform education by bringing connectivity and constructionist learning to the poorest children throughout the world. Today’s announcement, coupled with future plans for a dual boot version of the XO laptop, enhances our ability to deliver on this vision. In addition, OLPC will work with third parties to port its user interface, called ‘Sugar,’ to Windows.”
Windows-based XO laptops will be available from next month.
June's shaping up to be a pretty special month 'round here. In addition to whatever Apple's got up its sleeve and all the new gear set to announce at Computex, Asus will be launching its Atom-based Eee PC 901 just like we heard. June 3rd is the date for "a price below" $650. We assume that means $649.99. DigiTimes' reliable market channel sources claim the 8.9-inch 901 will also feature Bluetooth for the first time (you know, without a hack) while the rest of the tech specs remain the same. That's $250 more than the 10-inch, Atom-based, MSI Wind running Linux and launching on the same day. Oh ASUS, what have you done?
Update: To be fair, it could be that the $650 Eee PC 901 model runs XP and the Linux-based Eee PC 901 will sell for (a lot) less -- the XP-flavor of the MSI Wind costs between $500 and $549
Sega has finally revealed some solid information on the two new characters being added to Virtua Fighter 5 upgrade, Virtua Fighter 5 R.
The first addition, Jean Kujo, is a French Karate practitioner whose angst-filled style has driven many fans to speculate on possible connections to Virtua Fighter 4's gothic Judo fighter Goh.
Additionally, Taka-Arashi (who had been missing from the series since his last appearance in Virtua Fighter 3) will return to the fight, presumably with his sumo wrestling-inspired fighting style intact.
No release date or platform information has yet been released, though you can be sure Virtua Fighter 5 R will hit Japanese arcades well before any consoles.
* Added AtariVox support using a real AtariVox device, where Stella sends data directly to the AtariVox. For now, this is supported in Linux/UNIX, OSX, and Win32 only. You'll obviously need a real AtariVox, and a serial<->USB adaptor to connect it to your system. Added '-avoxport' commandline argument used to set the serial port to which the AtariVox is connected. Special thanks to Al Yarusso and Richard H. for providing sample hardware.
* Added AtariVox and SaveKey EEPROM emulation. This reads/writes data to a 32KB file, not to the actual hardware. Very useful for testing EEPROM support without actually wearing out the real device. Special thanks to J. Payson for providing the EEPROM emulation code, and A. Herbert for answering many driver-related questions.
* Added support for CX-22, CX-80, and AmigaMouse trackball controllers.
* Improved debugger symfile handling so that addresses accessed as read-only won't use write-only labels (and vice-versa). More work is still needed in this area.
* Added M6532/RIOT tab to the debugger. This will be expanded on in a future release.
* Added TIA emulation fixes for graphical glitches in Escape from the Mindmaster, Mission Survive, Solaris, and SWOOPS!
* Fixed bug where fullscreen OpenGL scaling wasn't working on 4:3 monitors.
* Further improvements to the M6532/RIOT emulation, which unfortunately have broken old state files (again).
* Added deadzone setting, for adjusting the deadzone amount for analog joysticks. This can be set using the commandline argument '-joydeadzone' or dynamically within the UI.
* Make ROM disassembly in debugger take advantage of a wide window.
* Fixed bug in 6507 BCD handling introduced in the last release.
* For the Win32 port; Win9x should be fully supported again.
New release of the NES emulator for Windows, Linux and other operative systems.
Changelog:
* Ported iNES to Unix using the new EMULib framework. I will try to compile the new iNES-Unix for as many Unix flavors as possible. At the moment, only Ubuntu Linux binaries are available.
* Ported iNES to Maemo OS2008 used in N800 and N810 internet tablets from Nokia. iNES-Maemo is specifically optimized for internet tablets using assembler modules from iNES-Symbian.
* Optimized 6502 emulation by collapsing infinite empty loops.
* Introduced more accurate per-scanline cycle counting.
* Once again, extended time before VBlank flag going up by 2 scanlines. This fixes F1 Race, Elite, etc.
* Moved mapper initialization after default initialization. This should fix MMC5 screen corruption that occurred in iNES 3.1.
* Fixed MMC3 scanline counter to remove garbage scanlines in Crystalis, GIJoe 2, Cartoon Workshop, etc.
* Finally fixed light gun ("zapper") emulation!
* Fixed FamiBASIC keyboard support on all platforms.
* Fixed FIRE-A autofire option in built-in menu.
* Fixed command line options for enabling/disabling sound.
* Added support, editing, and display for VS System DIP switches. Also see -dip command line option.
* Added -soft/-nosoft command line option and made softening, scanline simulation, and synchronization options work on all relevant platforms (Unix, Maemo, MSDOS).
* Removed -vperiod and -hperiod command line options, as these values are now computed automatically and do not need adjustment.
* Removed last occurances of #define SOUND. Sound support is always compiled in anyway.
* Made [F8] toggle scanline simulation, while [SHIFT]+[F8] toggles softening.
* Added standard VS System palette files to the package.
* Now drawing light gun aim and DIP switches using NES palette to avoid problems at different screen depths.
* Removed -novsync and -200 options from iNES-MSDOS, and added a new -480 option for 640x480 VESA screen mode.
* Fixed iNES-MSDOS light gun aim in 640x480 screen mode.
* The UIQ version of iNES-Symbian now uses 6502 emulation optimized in ARM assembler (this option has been left out in the last release).
* iNES-Symbian display routines rewritten in ARM assembler for speed. This should mainly affect UIQ3 users but S60 users will also benefit.
* Split iNES-Symbian configuration menu into four tabs, making "Video" and "Audio" settings separate.
* Added "Audio Latency", "Skip Frames", and "Sync Updates" settings to iNES-Symbian.
With its minute keyboard, the Eee PC can be tough to use in the dark. Imagine, then, if yours had a backlit keyboard. The folks at Popsci have come up with -- and explained -- a way to add one of your own. And get this: you can do it in 3 hours for just $13.50. But before you go ripping apart your new Eee PC, mind this: this isn't the easiest mod in the world. You have to be cool with removing the keyboard, slipping some wires, and doing some light soldering. In addition, the hack plops a Techno Flash luminescent wire inverter on the outside of the case, so if you're big on minimalism, this might be a skip.
When I was talking with the SteelSeries guys about their gear, one thing they were serious about was that gaming is a sport. I scoffed. But, we've shown you how to work out with nothing gaming gear and now PC Mag catalogs eight ways to hurt yourself gaming—like any other athletic activity. Besides sore limbs via Wiitis, there's Rock Band Hand from too much drumming/strumming, WASD wrist for hardcore PC gamers (and bloggers), Burning Bladder for WoWites, and um, something that vaguely resembles epilepsy for puzzle gamers. Not featured, however, is the most notorious of Wiinjuries:
Check your watches, check your calendars. It's TELL US DAMMIT time! Hooray!! How it works: We ask a question, you answer it. Simple and no strings attached! This isn't some marketing survey or whatever. It's an emotional investment in you. Yes, we're interesting in knowing you, Kotaku reader person. You probably know ****tons about us — more than you even want to, we're sure. But, hey, we'd like to know about you. That way you won't be some faceless blob — and we might feel a tinge of guilt when we ban your ass. Or not, because really we're incapable of human emotion. Whichever!
Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1 is available in more than 45 languages as a public preview release intended for developer testing and community feedback. It includes new features as well as dramatic improvements to performance, memory usage and speed.
We recommend that you read the release notes and known issues before choosing to install this release candidate.
- lha/lzh archives with directory entries ("-lhd-") crash fix
- GUI chip ram 8M option was unavailable (b17)
- joyportx and input panel parameters (except input mappings) supported via uae-configuration
- less useless logging in fullscreen alt-tab
- GUI autoscroll fixed when using fullscreen mode smaller than 640x480 on non-primary monitor
- non-AR cartridge emulation problems fixed
- dont emulate chip ram mirroring if JIT direct is enabled at startup (OS can detect wrong chip ram size, JIT does not support mirroring)
- emulate "bus noise" (very far from real thing currently) when ECS Agnus but only 512M RAM configuration (512k chip ram, 512k bus noise, 512k chip ram, 512k bus noise) In theory 1M/2M Agnus configuration should be implemented because 1M Agnus + 1M chip = 1M chip ram + 1M chip ram mirror but 2M Agnus + 1M chip = 1M chip ram + 1M of "bus noise" (for example A500Plus) Later..
- Picasso96 state file support fixed (not compatible with old states)
- development PC CPU updated to Q9450 quad core CPU, 3.2GHz currently, more/less overclock later (old CPU was E6600)
Before starting, you have to ...
(1)rip the Kernel ROM image from your own real PocketStation and rename it to "KROM".
(2)rip the Flash ROM image from your own real PocketStation and rename it to "FROM".
(3)put "PK201.EXE", "KROM" and "FROM" in the same folder.
Those enlightened individuals who have experienced the rapidly metastasizing MMO hotel sim/social networking site known as Habbo (formerly Habbo Hotel) are already aware that the community for this "hangout for teens" is sizable, to say the least. Thus, when the Pixelated Nation of Habbonia endorses one of the current-gen consoles as being the "Console of Choice" for the teenaged, it resounds like the voice of a small nation -- albeit a nation of furniture-hording hotel dwellers.
Nearly 57,000 Habbonians took part in the survey late last year, where 69 percent of the pixelated participants gave the PlayStation 3 "great or good" rankings, followed by 64 percent for the Wii, and 58 percent for the Xbox 360. The Global Habbo Youth Survey went on to show that females preferred the Wii and Habbonians located in the Americas were more favorable to the Xbox 360 than their Eastern Hemisphere suitemates. Not exactly new information, but it is an excellent excuse for us to repeatedly type the word Habbonian.
Wild Tangent's CEO, Alex St. John, made some 'brazen' claims at the ION keynote — one of the boldest being that console gaming is dead and the PC is looking towards a renaissance. It should be noted that St. John has blabbered about this before, so he's just retreading previous ground:
Beginning one of several brazen claims in his keynote, St. John spoke of the death of video game consoles: “Nobody needs a console when a game's value and DRM is defined by community or an input device. Consoles just serve to keep you from playing a game you didn't pay for.”
He asked, “What's Sony and Microsoft's motivation to make another console? It's been so rocky, and it's not about the pretty graphics anymore.” According to St. John, spectacular graphics have become a commodity, and not the platform for games to differentiate themselves. “The Wii is the exception that proves the rule — it's not about the graphics, it's about the input device.
He went on to talk about advertising models and targeting the right audience — but his statements on the console vs. PC pack the most punch.
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Austria (originally from the most beautiful island of the caribbean "Dominican Republic")
Posts: 1,220
@ES Codename "Evolution" public beta 5 is out!!
@ES Beta 5 is now released
Please start your package fresh (Easy Set-up will make this easy)
(Just drag and drop your covers into the covers folder of Beta 5)
@ES Beta 5 Change-log
* CRC Bugs fixed entirely(Thanks goes to ECC for the tips and links )
* GBA, NES, SMS, GameGear, Genesis, 32X, SNES and N64 roms will need to be added to @ES one last time to be able to use the cover-packs that are now available for download(roms need to be scanned).
* Model2, ePSXe and SSF support is now included
* Can now have both ePSXe and pSX set-up to use at the same time (Press F9 in the rom list to switch emu's)
Same goes for VirtuaNES and NESTOPIA
* The executable size was reduced again from 630kb to 616kb!
* Better Skin support(still not complete tho.)
* Daemon Tools support(please edit the settings file manually and look for "DT=" as i forgot to remove my path.. so aes will not prompt you to look for the executable)
Daemon Tools is needed for ePSXe and SSF support.
Please set these emu's to use the FIRST Daemon Tools drive
-----
Required settings for the new emu's are
SSF
---
Must set SSF to 1,5x screen size. Also go to option, options again, screen and change force aspect ratio to on.
Set the CD drive as your First Daemon Tools drive.
ePSXe
-----
Must set the GPU screen res to 512 x 384, set the CDrom plugin to one of the CDR ones. Settings of the CDrom plugin MUST be set to your FIRST Daemon Tools drive.
Note: only Pete´s D3D GPU plugin has been tested and is the only gpu plugin that may work for now.
Grand Theft Auto IV remains at the top of the UK sales charts in its third week according to data released by Chart-Track.
Sales of both GTA IV and second place title Wii Fit dropped significantly - 41 per cent and 52 per cent respectively - but such drops weren't enough to remove the games from their places on the charts.
Mario Kart Wii climbed up six places from number nine to number three, thanks to renewed stock. According to Chart-Track, Nintendo games accounted for three of the top five best sellers and twenty exclusives in the top forty.
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue fell off the Top Ten chart, dropping from eighth to twelfth place. This gave Guitar Hero III enough room to re-enter the Top Ten, moving up from eleventh to tenth place.
The Top Ten best-selling titles in the UK for the week ending May 17 were:
1. Grand Theft Auto IV
2. Wii Fit
3. Mario Kart Wii
4. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
5. Wii Play
6. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008
7. Iron Man: The Official Videogame
8. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
9. Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training
10. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
As covered in our launch event report, Funcom has revealed that it will take around 250 hours of play to reach the level cap of 80 in Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures.
Speaking at last week's launch event game director Gaute Godager said, "We have budgeted - because that's what you do, you budget people's time when you make these types of games - a levelling curve which is on average 250 hours of gameplay."
Godager pointed out that for the first three quarters of that curve, levelling will be a lot faster than is common in MMOs - partly so he himself can get some progress in.
"I'm not really a hardcore player, I pretend to be," said Godager. "I said that I want to make a game that I can enjoy. When I sit down for a gaming session, I use two to three hours, and in that time I would like to gain a level."
Age of Conan is out on Friday, and Eurogamer MMO is marking the event with a dedicated Age of Conan week. Stay tuned to find out more about how you'll be spending those 250 hours in Hyboria.
The MMO genre has never really taken off on consoles in the same way as on PC. It's a puzzle for developers, but if anyone can figure it out, Nintendo can, says EA Mythic creative director, Paul Barnett.
The huge influence of World of Warcraft is the first creative problem for console MMOs, says Barnett, who currently busy working on Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.
"The number-one problem of a developer of an MMO these days is it's very hard to be creative and keep your eye on the target when almost everyone has only ever played one of these games and it dominates their thinking," he told CVG.
A successful console MMO would have to different, he says. "You would have to build something very console centric from the get-go. I think probably the best chance of someone doing something like that is Nintendo - doing
something crazy that no one expects."
He went on to say that the secret to a good console MMO lies somewhere within Rock Band. "The best example I can find for a perpetual online console game is Rock Band, with it Xbox Live community store. It's somewhere in there. I don't know what it is, but that's perhaps the closest I've seen to convincing console people to do things together, to do things online, to do things that cost money, to earn income.
Why doesn't he give it a go? Simple: "I wouldn't know how to do it," admits Barnett.
Added support for Polish language--discuss translation errors in this forum thread.
Launched new, wider web site with your personal activity report about your friends.
Added Xfire In-Game support to 64-bit games: Crysis, Hellgate: London, and Half-Life 2.
Added the ability to see who is talking in a group voice chat in Xfire In-Game.
Fixed audio sync issue with some video conversion issues.
Added ability to bind push-to-talk for voice chat to a mouse button.
Increased Xfire startup speed when you have many games installed.
Added Xfire In-Game 2.0 with mouse support to:
Boiling Point, Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, Counter Organic Revolution (COR), Europa Universalis III. EverQuest II, Fortress Forever, Frag Ops. Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, Kingpin Life of Crime, Last Chaos USA, Madden NFL 2005, Medal of Honor Pacific Assault, NHL 2005, Ninja Reflex, Rising Eagle, SimCity 4 Source SDK Base, Sourceforts, The Office, Tremulous Troopers: Dawn of Destiny, Warsow, World of Padman.
New games supported:
Melty Blood: Act Cadenza, Seal Online USA, Magic Online III, Ultimate Doom, Master Levels of Doom, Final Doom, Doom 2, Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2, Turok, Clive Barker's Undying, Lumines, Europa Universalis: Rome, Planescape: Torment, Dirty Dancing: The Video Game, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, The House of the Dead 3, The House of the Dead 2, Iron Man, Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis, Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor, Imperialism II, Star Wars: Battle for Naboo, Grand Prix 4,Tomb Raider II.
According to a recent Slate piece, it's... Solitaire? The article says that the various versions of Windows Solitaire are the most-used programs among Windows, and charts in particular the American workplace's ongoing love affair with the time-waster.
The article raises a number of interesting points — how the temptation of playing Solitaire at the workplace, for example, might have trained an older generation of computer-illiterates to use the mouse well, to minimize windows and swap between applications quickly (like you do when the boss is coming).
Grand Theft Auto IV remains on top of the sales charts in Germany and Spain according to data released by Media-Control GfK International.
The PlayStation 3 version topped the charts in both countries. The Xbox 360 version came in second place in Germany and fourth place in Spain.
Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii were near the top of the charts as well, with Nintendo Wii and DS titles accounting for six out of the top ten in both countries.
The Top Ten best-selling games for the week ended May 11 were:
Germany:
1. Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3)
2. Grand Theft Auto IV (360)
3. Wii Fit (Wii)
4. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
5. Assassin's Creed Director's Cut (PC)
6. Brain Training (DS)
7. More Brain Training (DS)
8. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (DS)
9. Mario Kart DS (DS)
10. The Lord of the Rings: Battle for MiddleEarth 2 (PC)
Spain:
1. Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3)
2. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
3. Wii Fit (Wii)
4. Grand Theft Auto IV (360)
5. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PSP)
6. Wii Play (Wii)
7. 42 All-Time Classics (DS)
8. More Brain Training (DS)
9. Brain Training (DS)
10. Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (PS3)
The three console giants have failed a Greenpeace test after they were found to contain a number of toxic and potentially harmful materials.
The Greenpeace "Playing Dirty" report found substances such as polyvinyl chloride, phthalates, beryllium and bromine on the various bits and bobs within the consoles. If they checked the office pads they'd also find the remains of yesterday's KFC feast (on a Monday too, the shame - Ed)
You probably won't be chowing down on the microchips inside your PS3 any time soon (we'd hope), but Greenpeace called for console manufacturers to "design out" toxic substances.
Dr. Kevin Brigden, Greenpeace Science Unit, said: "Whether game consoles are classified as toys or not, they can still contain hazardous chemicals and materials that could harm humans. The technology is available for the manufacturers to design out toxics and produce greener game consoles now."
Casey Harrell, Greenpeace International Toxics Campaigner, added: "Our test clearly shows that a greener game console is possible; manufacturers just need to look 'inside the box' of the competition to see which of their own dirty components can be replaced with toxic free materials."
It's not so much that you'll be licking the components of your console, but more about the environmental effects when they're dumped, ending up in recycling yards in developing countries, apparently.
Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures might be breaking all manner of beta sign-up and pre-order records that we didn't know existed (until Eidos told us, that is) but Vista users might be about to get in a flutter over the omission of DirectX 10 at launch.
According to developer Funcom, the DirectX 10 version of Age of Conan has been delayed for an indefinite period.
A preview showing it off will feature at the Leipzig Games Convention this August, to give you an idea of how long we're talking about here.
Funcom hopes the postponement will allow even more features in the DirectX 10 version of Age of Conan than originally planned.
We hope that the Age of Conan team isn't so bogged down in DirectX 10 stuff that they don't forget to keep adding new stuff to the game. We don't have a clue about Funcom's development schedule, but overhauling a graphics engine while simultaneously keeping a persistent world going is no easy feat.
ASUS has been running around demoing Eee PCs with built-in WiMAX for a while now, but a new report in the always-salacious DigiTimes says that we won't be able to get our hands on similarly-equipped units until after 2008 because the company feels the WiMAX market won't reach "maturity." Fair enough -- and ASUS is still planning on shipping the wireless tech in its larger laptops -- but something tells us that WiMAX isn't going to mature if popular devices aren't available with the tech built-in. Something about a chicken and an egg, you know?
- In the start demo of "Pop'n Magic", the problem that the screen has fallen into disorder was corrected. (Timing of CD-ROM access processing)
- At the display of frame-rate with "Info->Show FPS" menu, the bug that had not been occasionally displayed by the environment was corrected.
- In the continue-screen of "Paranoia(Psychosis)", the problem that some characters had shaken was corrected. (Correction of timing)
- Additionally, a detailed part has been improved and corrected.
New version of Xpadder. It simulates keypresses and mouse movements using a gamepad.
Changelog:
- Improved boot and startup code
- Improved graphical bit-depth (now uses 32bit imaging - 10% faster)
- Improved some slow graphical operations (mostly icon-related)
- Improved creation of popupmenu imagelists
- Improved creation of bitmap arrays
- Improved SetSelector list by sorting by set instead of method
- Improved controller settings stick tab (added tabs and new standard size icons, added "Enabled" text clicking to toggle)
- Improved Controller Settings window size to fit minimum 600x480
- Improved speed of controller settings activity scanning
- Improved speed of displaying controller if theme image is used
- Improved assignment keyboard display memory usage
- Improved speed of sample theme image gradient displays
- Improved speed of colour negating and vista gradient creation
- Improved bitmap image opening for future improvements
- Improved invalid image messages (added "theme" or "controller" to text)
- Improved boot resolution checker speed
- Improved boot error dialog button text (replaced "OK" with "Exit")
- Improved controller settings image tab layout (split into sub-tabs)
- Improved theme tab layout
- Improved some error dialog text for translation
- Improved checkbox text (replaced "Enable" with "Enabled")
- Improved Clear Controller Image dialog text
- Added One-Way SetSelector option
- Added SetSelector options to Assignment PopUp Menu
- Added custom pause slots
- Added Keyboard options tab and test
- Added Help button window toggling (re-click a Help button to close the Help window)
- Added executable name check (must be "Xpadder*.exe" - for example "Xpadder.exe" or "Xpadder5-1.exe")
- Added "Assignment" text to assignment window title (thanks to SGTCableDog)
- Added Clear confirmation windows when Clearing controller or theme images
- Added clicking of "Enabled" text for DPad and Triggers tabs
- Fixed a bug where connecting controllers out of sequence while Xpadder was running caused it to crash
- Fixed a bug where altering known controller list entry positions with only one controller connected caused crash
- Fixed a bug where ending session with Xpadder minimized did not save INI (thanks to SGTCableDog)
- Fixed a bug where ending session with Xpadder running did not cleanly exit coreloop
- Fixed a bug where CoreKeyScan checked for mouse buttons
- Fixed a bug where Stick2 Enabled text was not disabled when Stick1 was unavailable
- Fixed a bug where basic assignment checkboxes were not perfectly aligned
- Fixed a bug where right trigger failed to respond to manual axis selection if left trigger was set to none
- Fixed a bug where a permanently activated button (eg; mode switch) prevented button detection (thanks to Jezz)
- Fixed a bug where changing background colour did not work if scan animation was showing
- Fixed a bug where interface buttons (settings,help,controller,profile,abc,sets) did not use theme button style
- Fixed a bug where Minimize/Close window via Xpadder mouse emulation did not work (thanks to GrimResistance)
- Fixed a bug where 1 second delay occurred if moving Xpadder window via Xpadder mouse emulation
- Fixed a bug where DirectX libraries did not release memory if "User32.dll" was missing
- Fixed a bug where failed retrieval of DirectX exported function addresses caused error
- Fixed a bug where "User32.dll" did not release memory if function did not exist
- Fixed a bug where complete language files displayed "This language file 100% translated" (That's not 100% good English!)
- Fixed a bug where bitmaps saved in PhotoShop could not be used (thanks to TBD2007)
- Fixed a bug where pressing a button in controller settings window caused button to select and update name box repeatedly
- Fixed a bug where assignment window could not colour letters of assignments with more than 255 slots
- Fixed a bug where scanning for mouse assignments could not check assignments fully with more than 255 slots
- Fixed a bug where emulated keys could alter controller settings axis selection
- Fixed a bug where three-colour gradients did not set alpha value for first half
- Fixed a bug where core loop start delay was using all CPU for less than a millisecond
- Fixed a bug where "Fatal Error" text should have been "Error" (thanks to Zwaf)
- Fixed a bug where associated explorer icons resized badly
- Fixed potential freezing bugs in Assignment and Controller Settings windows
- Fixed bugs where Russian text did not fit in some Controller Settings labels, comboboxes and buttons (thanks to I Takaev)
- Acorn Z80 tube emulation
- Various fixes to video and sound
- New bandpass sound filter - recommended! (sounds very BBC-ish)
- Fixed crash bug on exit.
GamePolitics is reporting that a Florida Judge has recommended that Jack Thompson be found guilty on 27 of 31 counts of misconduct and is awaiting a Florida Supreme Court verdict to back him up. Thompson is striking back with allegations against the Judge and others, complaining that loyalty oaths were never signed.
"Tunis made 21 recommendations of guilt in relation to Thompson's participation in Strickland vs. Sony, an Alabama case in which the anti-game attorney represented the families of two police officers and a police dispatcher slain by 18-year-old Grand Theft Auto player Devin Moore. Tunis also recommended that Thompson be found guilty on four out of five counts relating to his 2006 attempt to have Rockstar's Bully declared a public nuisance in a case before Miami Judge Ronald Friedman. An additional two guilty counts stemmed from a non-video game matter."
Microsoft's Shane Kim now sees the end to the console war as a new magic number: first system to 100 million units sold wins, he tells Wired. That's an increase of 90 million over the 10 million mark Microsoft used to promote as the bellwether of victory. Kim believes consumers are still deciding what system to choose and that this console generation is different from the others. (Yeah, it's the first time Microsoft actually has a chance.)
Kim explains that Sony won the last couple generations, but Nintendo is clearly in first place this time around; however, he wonders if Nintendo can keep that momentum going up to 100 million (at Nintendo's rate of supply, it could take decades). He even questions it there'll be a clear-cut winner this generation. Finally, Kim assures that the Microsoft hardware guys are still working on reducing the cost of Xbox 360, in order to hit that "mass market" price point.
With the recent release of GTA IV, a game that allows you to steal cars, kill civilians, and conduct drive-bys, the topic of video game violence is back at the forefront of the media. While most gamers equate the potency of videogames to the violent movies that we've watched for years, the dissenting hand opposes violent video games due to their interactive nature.
The advent of violent video games raises many questions. Has video game violence gone too far? Aren't M-rated games intended for mature audiences? Among the sea of good questions, the quintessential one arises, "Is there any scientific evidence to support the claims that violent games contribute to aggressive and violent behavior?" In the International Journal of Liability and Scientific Enquiry, University of Essex researcher Patrick Kierkegaard answers that query by stating there is no data to support the theory that videogame violence promotes violent crimes. His study interestingly provides the opposite correlation.
Kierkegaard asserts that past studies were predominately biased. His data shows that there is no correlation between the rise of violent videogames and the amount of crimes committed. Despite violent games becoming more mainstream within recent years, statistics show that violent crimes committed from juvenile delinquents have declined since the early 1990s. "With millions of sales of violent games, the world should be seeing an epidemic of violence... Instead, violence has declined," wrote Kierkegaard.
Even though Kierkegaard found no ties between real life crimes and videogame violence, he admits that more research needs to be done. He also doesn't rule out the possibility that videogames can influence behavior and emotion, noting that even books can spure violence in already sadistic individuals.
MAMETesters Bugs Fixed
------------------------------------
01815: [Save/Restore] All Sets: Saved machine states do not properly adjust to changes in -samplerate (Aaron Giles)
01671: [Interface] every set with PORT_MODIFY used for DIPs (e.g. arknoidj): the modified dipswitches are always listed at the bottom of the list (Aaron Giles)
01814: [Sound] YM2608 games (tail2nos, sformula, wc90, mechatt): Only basic music, no more samples (couriersud)
01497: [Graphics] numanath, numanatj: Graphics corruption on title screen. (Phil Stroffolino)
01804: [Core] carnevil, sfrush: Seattle games crash on startup (Aaron Giles)
Source Changes
------------------------
Fixed long-standing bug with Emeralda text colors. A sprite attribute exists which signals an alternate interpretation of palette ram. Fixed priority for the bitmap layer used in Numan Athletics. [Phil Stroffolino]
Restructured input port internals and cleaned up inptport.c: [Aaron Giles]
* Input ports are now maintained hierarchically. At the top level are input ports, which contain a list of fields. Each field represents one or more bits of the port. Certain fields such as DIP switches and configuration switches contain a list of settings, which can be selected. DIP switch fields can also contain a list of DIP switch locations.
* Normalized behavior of port overrides (via PORT_INCLUDE or by defining multiple overlapping bits). All fields within a port are kept in strict increasing bit order, so altered DIP switches are now kept in the appropriate order. This addresses MAMETesters bug 01671.
* Live port state is now fully separate from configured state. This is manifested in a similar way to devices, where a const list of ports can be managed either offline or live. Each port has a pointer to an opaque set of live state which is NULL when offline or valid when live. Each port also has a running_machine * which is also NULL when offline.
* Because of this new arrangement, the conversion from tokens to a list of ports now requires reasonably complex memory allocation, so these port lists must be explicitly allocated and freed (they are not mantained by automatic resource allocation).
* Custom and changed callbacks now take a pointer to a field config instead of a running machine. This provides more information about what field triggered the change notification. The machine can be found by referenced field->port->machine.
* The inptport.c module has been cleaned up and many ambiguities resolved. Most of this is internal, though it did result in osd_customize_inputport_list() being changed to osd_customize_input_type_list(). The parameter to this function is now a linked list instead of an array, and the structures referenced have been reorganized somewhat.
* Updated config.c to pass machine parameters to its callbacks.
* Updated validity checks, XML output, and UI system to handle the new structures.
* Moved large table of default input settings to a separate include file inpttype.h.
* Removed gross hacks in trackfld and hyperspt NVRAM. These may be broken as a result.
Further Namco NA-1 changes: [Phil Stroffolino]
* Adjusted alternate palette handling weights to more accurately match real hardware - text anti-aliasing is much more noticable.
* Adjustment to roz layer priority - prevents roz layer from incorrectly being displayed over backgrounds in some games (i.e. numanathj)
* Added a mask when processing the roz tilemap to avoid defects in emeraldj
Fixed black pixel patches present in the TC0100SCN fg layer of undrfire and groundfx. [Philip Bennett]
Universal DRC system updates and improvements: [Aaron Giles]
UML:
* Added back-end validation mechanism, and a handful of tests as examples. This will be expanded in the future.
* Added several new opcodes:
- SAVE dumps the entire virtual machine state to a struct
- RESTORE applies the data in a struct to the live state
- LZCNT counts leading zeros in an operand
- XTRACT extracts a bitfield to another register (rlwinm)
- INSERT inserts a bitfield into a register (rlwimi)
* Added new back-end function get_info() which returns information from the back-end about how many actual registers will be mapped.
x86 back-end:
* Implemented all new opcodes.
* Implemented get_info() function.
* Fixed several bugs relating to shifts/rotates and optimizing out cases incorrectly.
x64 back-end:
* Implemented all new opcodes.
* Implemented get_info() function.
* Added defines for new Penryn opcodes to x86emit.h.
* Added support for ROUNDSS and ROUNDSD on Penryn architectures. This hasn't been tested. If you have a Penryn-based system, give it a try.
* Fixed several bugs relating to shifts/rotates and optimizing out cases incorrectly.
C back-end:
* Implemented all new opcodes.
* Implemented get_info() function.
* Cleaned up operand sizing.
* Fixed several errors that made it not work on bigendian systems
MIPS DRC:
* Added some instrumentation for the MMU. To enable it, turn on PRINTF_MMU at the top of the file.
* Fixed front-end so that virtual no-op instructions are still targeted as branch targets.
* Fixed front-end to mark the beginning of each sequence as needing TLB validation, since any sequence can be jumped to from anywhere.
* Redid the MIPS3 TLB implementation. Fixed the exception vector and type handling. Changed the bitfields to directly map from the MIPS TLB format. Added distinction between TLB fill and TLB valid/modified exceptions.
* Added separate modes for user, supervisor, and kernel modes. Each mode does proper verification of addresses now and generates address errors for invalid accesses.
* Fixed several bugs in the TLB implementation; not everything works yet but it's a lot closer.
* Made COP0 access checking mandatory in non-kernel modes.
* Fixed several crashes when recompiling virtual no-ops.
* Fixed TLB bug where entries for virtual address 0 were present by default.
* Fixed bug in the map variable implementation that would sometimes result in incorrectly recovered values.
* Implemented IDT instructions. All invalid instruction asserts are now runtime-only.
* Added support to map a few common registers to machine registers if the machine supports it. Currently only x64 on Windows has enough free registers to do so, though PowerPC will almost certainly be able to take advantage of this. Gives a minor speedup.
* Updated to use INSERT and XTRACT where appropriate.
* Cleaned up register usage to free up one machine register for x64 on Linux.
Added World Rally wheel support. [Mirko Mattioli]
Fixed spikes91 sprite colours without resorting to hacks. [David Haywood]
Fixed N64 rendering on big-endian targets. [R. Belmont]
Fixed CDP1869 character memory access, and Cidelsa sprite flashing. [Curt Coder]
Fixed 80286 databus widths. [Wilbert Pol]
Added proper interpolation sub-cycles to the TMS5110 and TMS5220 ('PC' cycles and A/B subcycles of each) and updated comments. [Lord Nightmare]
Fixed World Rally MCU comms on big-endian. [R. Belmont]
Changed defaults so that joysticks are enabled standard. [Aaron Giles]
Some improvements to Sandii' games: [Roberto Fresca, f205v]
- Confirmed the CPU clock after some PCB measurements.
- Changed the SND clock to 1MHz to match the PCB measurement.
- Corrected the internal OKI6295 frequency turning the pin 7 state to HIGH.
- Inputs: Eliminated all pulse limitations. Affected buttons have a rattled sound in the real thing too.
- Updated technical notes.
Corrected several bugs in the emulation of the saturn CPU. These corrections are needed to make new HP48 drivers (to be submitted to MESS imminently) work. [Antoine Mine]
Eliminated a large number of global Machine references. Added machine parameters to IRQ callbacks throughout the system to help remove more. Reduced the number of files needing deprecat.h by ~200. [Atari Ace]
Some work on lwings.c: Input clean up, added dip locations, fixed lwingsb life DIP switches, and merged machine drivers. [Sonikos]
Updated Gorf sample volume to match new samples from Chris Law. [Chris Law]
Added built-in overlay for Moon Shuttle. [Deacon Blue]
New games added or promoted from NOT_WORKING status
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1991 Spikes (Italian bootleg) [robiza]
New clones added
---------------------------------
Last Fortress - Toride (Korea) [The Guru]
Miss Puzzle (Clone of Gumbo) [The Guru]
Gals Panic SU (Korea) [The Guru]
New games marked as GAME_NOT_WORKING
-----------------------------------------------------------
Beauty Block [David Haywood]
Specifications for Starcraft 2 have leaked out of Blizzard HQ and are unusually high... for Blizzard, at least.
Blizzard has been previously renowned for releasing games that will run on even the most antiquated computers, with the success of World of Warcraft partially credited to its meagre demands on player systems.
The requirements are ripped straight out of a preview from Spanish games rag Micromania, according to a poster on a Starcraft 2 fan site.
Blizzard has yet to confirm the specs, so far only confirming that the game will require Pixel Shader 2.0. Here's the list:
Minimum Requirements:
GFX: GeForce 7/8 Series or Radeon 1000/2000 with 25Mb RAM
CPU: Pentium 4
RAM: 1Gb
Internet: ADSL 1 MBit
Recommend Requirements:
GFX: GeForce 8000 or Radeon 2000 series with 512Mb RAM
CPU: Core 2 Duo or Athlon X2
RAM: 2Gb
Internet: ADSL 3 Mbit
Optimal Requirements:
GFX: Geforce 9000er or Radeon 3000er Series
CPU: Core 2 Duo 3 Ghz or Athlon X2
RAM: 2Gb with DualChannel mode.
When you got your special edition copy of Grand Theft Auto IV, did you ever think 'Hey, that would make an awesome case for a PC?' No? Well, Mark Harris did. So there.
During a quiet spot at work, Harris took a miniITX system and saw the potential in its size. "Normally I don't see the point in buying limited / special editions of computer games," he told us, "as they come with items that you will find yourself throwing away after a while.
"Not pre-ordering my GTA IV early enough meant I had to order the special edition. I'm glad that I did."
As you can see from the screenshots, Mark took the GTA safety deposit box and converted it into a fully functioning computer.
This isn't the miniITX system has packed into a novelty box. In April, Alex Wiley packed it into a case modelled on the Digg logo. To see it, and more of the GTA safety deposit box, check out the Mini-ITX website. Some things have to be seen to be believed.
A new demo for the PC version of the Penny Arcade game is now available for download.
Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, as it's formally known, is an episodic RPG adventure game. It's been developed by Hothead Games together with Mike Krahulik and Jerry Tycho Holkins - better known to Penny Arcade fans as Gabe and Tycho. Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert also stepped in to lend a hand.
Alternatively, you might like to try downloading Episode One in its entirety from Xbox Live Arcade. It'll cost you though - 1600 Microsoft Points (GBP 13.60 / EUR 19.20) to be precise.
New version of the front end for Dosbox (DOSBox emulates an Intel x86 PC, complete with sound, graphics, mouse, joystick, modem, etc., necessary for running many old MS-DOS games that simply cannot be run on modern PCs).
Changelog:
* When using the option to minimize D-Fend Reloaded while DOSBox is running and DOSBox is changing the resolution, D-Fend Reloaded will no longer rely on the Windows window placement and restore its correct position itself.
* Some smaller speed improvements when working with large profile lists.
* [Fix] Access violation when opening a screenshot from a profile containing more than one screenshot.
* [Fix] Error message when trying to run a D-Fend Reloaded desktop game link while "Minimize when DOSBox starts" is activated.
* [Fix] When selecting the default template in the template editor the "Delete" menu item was not disabled (like the toolbar icon and the item in the context menu).
* [Fix] DOSBox did not start if the given DOSBox language file did not exist.
* [Fix] Closed some memory leaks in screenshot viewer, setup dialog and program info dialog.
* Added a module to control the Taito IC chips in a more efficient way
* Added a module to do all the common Taito functions and tidied the drivers
* Rewrote the PC080SN and PC090OJ emulation adding support for row scroll, double width and other features
* Added tile banking support to the TC0100SCN emulation
* Added support for configurable bit-depths to the TC0100SCN emulation
* Added palette offset support to the TC0480SCP emulation
* Added driver for Darius
* Added Dead Connection, Dino Rex, Growl, Koshien, Liquid Kids, Mahjong Quest, Mega Blast, Metal Black, Ninja Kids, Solitary Fighter and various quiz games to the Taito F2 driver
* Rewrote the Operation Wolf, Rainbow Islands and Rastan drivers to support the new Taito IC module
* Added Jumping and the original versions of Operation Wolf to the Taito PC080SN & PC090OJ based driver
* Rewrote the Taito X driver to support the new Taito IC module
* Added Balloon Brothers, Gigandes and Last Striker to the Taito X driver
* Added iq_132s Dr. Tomy driver
* Added iq_132s Exed Exes driver
* Added proper screen clearing to the Hyper Pacman driver
* Fixed a small bug in the ClrMAME dat generation with missing quotes
* Matched all sets to MAME 0.125u2
- When using Ootake with "Non-Scanlined" screen-setting, at the display of frame-rate with "Info->Show FPS" menu, the bug that had not been occasionally displayed by the environment was corrected.
- When switching to the FullScreen mode, the refresh rate of display switches to "60Hz" by the automatic operation. (*In Windows98/Me, it is not possible to switch by the automatic operation.)
- Fixed the handling of the initial keystroke.
- Added a curses (text-based) front-end.
- GTIA artifacts now support various GTIA models.
- GTIA supports now user-defined color maps.
- The GUI can now be used entirely by the keyboard or the
joystick, use the cursor keys to move the pointer from
gadget to gadget and press RETURN to click on an object.
- Added a RelMouseStick input device that reacts on the
relative mouse movements rather than its abstract position.
- Fixed the POKEY audio muting, it is now able to detect
situations in which a lower mixing frequency is audible
even though the channel itself is not.
- Fixed initial timing/speed setting, could have caused
audio-drop outs or slow play-back.
And kidnapped his father to boot. So please help Woodruff with getting revenge, rescuing his father, freeing the oppressed Boozooks and finding out about the Schnibble of Azimuth.
Still the same old procedure: Get your copy of The Bizarre Adventures of Woodruff and the Schnibble and a daily build of ScummVM. Report all bugs to our bug tracker and submit screenshots you've made along the way to our patch tracker, following the bug submission guidelines and screenshot guidelines.
Welcome to this week's Games Update, our weekly summary featuring all new product arrivals from the last seven days.
Quite a lot of hot releases came out this week, these include both US and Japanese games as well as OSTs. We have the NTSC J encoded Japanese version of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle where you can taste the excitement of becoming a rock legend on your Nintendo Wii™.
A number of sports game are released this week for various consoles. Enjoy some family fun with We Ski and Deca Sports on your Nintendo Wii™, now you can engage in summer and winter sports regardless of the weather or seasons.
Lead your national football team to victory in UEFA 2008 on your Xbox360™, PlayStation3™ and Sony PSP™. If you crave for sports that are less regulated, we bring you MotorStorm Complete [JPN and Asian versions] to your PlayStation3™. This action racer is re-released by Sony with all the expansion packs installed and sold at a very reasonable price.
UBI Soft's FPS HAZE [JPN and Asian versions] for PlayStation3™ are released this week. Get your hands on some state of the art weapons and view a complex storyline. Another shooter, the Castle of Shikigami III for Nintendo Wii™ is just as challenging because the point system requires you to fly as close to the enemies as you can before you pull the trigger.
More fighting games under the Bleach franchise are released this week. The best priced versions of two exciting Nintendo DS™ games are Souten ni Kakeru Unmei and Kokui Hirameku Chinkon Uta. So for those who had missed out these two games when they were released, this is a good chance to grab them.
Aside from all the sports and action, adventure in the land of the Greek gods in Hercules no Eikou: Tamashii no Shoumei. If that is still too much fighting for your tastes, let others do the fighting for you in Hiiro no Kakera [limited and standard edition], where you play the role of a princess protected by six charming bodyguards.
A collection of lovely OSTs from hit games like Senjou no Valkyria, Taiko no Tatsujin and Star Ocean: Second Evolution are published. Make them your background music to your everyday life.
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™:
Half-Life 2: The Orange Box JPN US$ 64.90
Stranglehold JPN US$ 64.90
UEFA Euro 2008 ASIA US$ 44.90
PlayStation3™:
HAZE JPN US$ 64.90
HAZE ASIA US$ 59.90
Hori Pad 3 Turbo (Silver) JPN US$ 24.90
Illumination Charge Stand 3 (Silver) JPN US$ 14.90
MotorStorm Complete JPN US$ 49.90
MotorStorm Complete ASIA US$ 44.90
UEFA Euro 2008 ASIA US$ 49.90
Nintendo Wii™:
Castle of Shikigami III US US$ 34.90
Deca Sports US US$ 34.90
Doubutsu Kisoutengai! JPN US$ 59.90
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle JPN US$ 129.90
We Ski US US$ 34.90
Wi-Fi Taiou: Gensen Table Game Wii JPN US$ 39.90 PlayStation2™:
Princess Nightmare JPN US$ 64.90
Slotter Up Mania 10: Pioneer Special 3 JPN US$ 44.90
Nintendo DS™:
Bleach DS 2nd: Kokui Hirameku Chinkon Uta (Best Version) JPN US$ 29.90
Bleach DS: Souten ni Kakeru Unmei (Best Version) JPN US$ 29.90
Drone Tactics US US$ 34.90
Genmu no Kiri to Ken no Okite JPN US$ 48.90
Hercules no Eikou: Tamashii no Shoumei JPN US$ 48.90
Hiiro no Kakera DS JPN US$ 48.90
Hiiro no Kakera DS [Limited Edition] JPN US$ 69.90
Ochaken no Heya DS 3 JPN US$ 48.90
Pro Yakyuu Team o Tsukurou! JPN US$ 48.90
Shoho Kara wa Hajimeru Otona no Eitango Renshuu JPN US$ 39.90
Simple DS Series Vol. 36: Arc de Minitsuku! TOEIC Test Grammar JPN US$ 28.90
Simple DS Series Vol. 37: Arc de Minitsuku! TOEIC Test Listening JPN US$ 28.90
Simple DS Series Vol. 38: Arc de Minitsuku! TOEIC Test Start JPN US$ 28.90
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian JPN US$ 48.90
Sony PSP™:
Daisenryaku VII Exceed JPN US$ 48.90
UEFA Euro 2008 ASIA US$ 42.90
Game Books:
Devil May Cry 4 - Devil Material Collection JPN US$ 29.90
Duel Love: Koisuru Otome wa Shouri no megami The Second Pocket Diary JPN US$ 23.90
HAZE: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
Video Game Careers US US$ 19.90
Video Game OSTs:
Bleach Beat Collection 4th Session - 01 Byakuya Kuchiki & Rukia Kuchiki JPN US$ 13.90
Hajime No Ippo Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 17.90
Mana-Khemia 2 Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 31.90
Mugen Kairo Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 27.90
Ruri Iro Rinne - Drama x Song x Radio JPN US$ 38.90
Samurai Spirits Sen Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 27.90
Senjou no Valkyria Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 28.90
Star Ocean: Second Evolution Arrange Album JPN US$ 23.90
Taiko No Tatsujin Original Soundtrack - Soundtrack 2008 JPN US$ 29.90
Unlimited World JPN US$ 11.90
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 quick outlook what's expected to be hot next week. Cool games in a variety of genres are coming out, be sure to check them out!
AmiArcadia OS4.0 native version and French translation released
Amigan Software are proud to announce the porting of AmiArcadia to AmigaOS 4.0, and the availability of a French translation of AmiArcadia. Many thanks to Alexandre Balaban for this. Versions of AmiArcadia/WinArcadia are now available for AmigaOS 3.x, AmigaOS 4.0, MorphOS and Windows.
- Introduced more accurate timing for NTSC vs. PAL modes, where the framerate is based on the number of scanlines per frame. This should eliminate 'clicking' sounds when emulating ROMs that don't follow the exact NTSC or PAL scanline specs.
- Added ability to see the current number of scanlines and corresponding framerate to the TIA emulation. This can be set with the '-stats' commandline argument, or dynamically turned on and off with the 'Alt-l' key combo.
- Modified '-framerate' commandline argument, where a non-zero value overrides the automatic framerate calculation (based on number of scanlines). Setting 'framerate' to zero re-enables auto-frame calculation. Also, re-enabled changing the framerate from within the UI.
- Added '-timing' commandline argument, which sets the type of waiting between processing frames. Setting it to 'sleep' emulates the previous behaviour in Stella; setting it to 'busy' emulates z26, and can in some cases eliminate screen tearing (at the expense of using all available CPU time).
- Fixed issue with debugger disassembly and mirrored $40 TIA write addresses. They were actually defined at $30, and generating incorrect labels.
- Fixed issue in AtariVox and SaveKey controllers where accessing the EEPROM sometimes failed after the first write.
- Changed AtariVox and SaveKey EEPROM emulation to default to $FF for a blank EEPROM.
- Fixed regression in cart auto-detection logic; some F6 ROMs were being misdetected as E7.
- Fixed issue with M6532/RIOT timer initialization; it was causing some ROMs to hang (most notably Summer Games). Related to this, reworked the built-in random number generator to generate 'more random' numbers.
- Fixed bug in CommandMenu where console buttons (Select, Reset, etc) weren't doing anything.
More sales data for consoles in Japan have arrived with the situation shown below as follows:
Playstation Portable: 70,536
Nintendo Wii 41,572
Nintendo DS Lite: 34,905
Playstation 3: 7,701
Playstation 2: 7,022
Xbox 360: 1,474
For another week running, the PSP is still king despite roughly a 19,000 drop while the Wii takes a bigger sales crunch by 26,000 in second place . The DS Lite sinks to a new low down 16,300 to 34,905. Last ones up as usual are in orderthe PS3, PS2 and Xbox 360 with drops of 300 and 400, along with an increase by 176 respectively.
Sure, Mac gaming is becoming less of an oxymoron these days, but if you want to game with a keyboard, Windows is still the way to go. Fortunately, Codeweavers' has concocted a solution for those who want the PC gaming experience on Mac (and Linux!) without using Boot Camp or partitioning drives. Introducing CrossOver Games.
We're not going to get into the technical side of it because, quite frankly, we don't understand it all. The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) has an extensive hands-on and gallery walkthrough (see below) of the $40 program, and found the software satisfying overall, especially for use with Steam. (You can view a compatibility list here.) There's also a 30-day free trial available.
If you look properly you'll find that PC game sales are even, if not bigger, than all of the next-gen consoles, says Valve's Doug Lombardi, who "laughs" at 'PC is dying' stories.
"We sort of laugh at it," the marketing man told Shack News.
"Because we've been wildly successful--we're very fortunate, you know. Our games have all done really, really well, Steam has taken off and become this whole other business for us, Valve has never been in better shape--and yet everybody is talking about how in the PC world, the sky is falling."
Valve released its first in-house console game last year with The Orange Box, which received rave reviews and no-doubt made the Seattle developers lots and lots of moolah.
"We've been doing this for 10 years now--actually 12 years since the company started, 10 years since the first game came out--and we've never been in better shape, financially or otherwise. The company is over 160 people now--it was 20 people when we shipped Half-Life. We've got multiple projects going--we were always a one-project-at-a-time group."
Alright, so Valve's making some money from PC games then, but what about everybody else? "NPD, god love 'em," continues Lombardi, "they release a US retail sales report, and people take that and say that's the world picture. And it's just not true."
Blizzard has responded to yesterday's report that the StarCraft 2 system specifications had been leaked, stating that the current requirements are not yet confirmed.
"We have not made an official announcement on the system requirements for StarCraft II at this stage," Blizzard said to CVG.
"As they are still being finalised. The magazine in question was printing its own speculation." naughty, naughty...
The magazine its referring to is the Swedish gaming magazine Micromania, who originally printed the requirements.
Speaking at yesterday's Wedbush Morgan Securities annual Management Access Conference, the Atari founder suggested that game piracy will soon be a thing of the past thanks to a new chip.
"There is a stealth encryption chip called a TPM that is going on the motherboards of most of the computers that are coming out now," he pointed out
"What that says is that in the games business we will be able to encrypt with an absolutely verifiable private key in the encryption world - which is uncrackable by people on the internet and by giving away passwords - which will allow for a huge market to develop in some of the areas where piracy has been a real problem."
Bushnell thinks that piracy of movies and music, however, is probably unstoppable because "if you can watch it and you can hear it, you can copy it."
"Games are a different thing, because games are so integrated with the code. The TPM will, in fact, absolutely stop piracy of gameplay.
"As soon as the installed base of the TPM hardware chip gets large enough, we will start to see revenues coming from Asia and India at a time when before it didn't make sense."
Recent rumours that Diablo 3 will be announced in the next issue of the US edition of PC Gamer have been debunked by the magazine.
"We're officially squelching the Diablo rumour," said the editor to Voodoo Extreme. "We've got two big announcements coming in our August issue, but neither is from Blizzard."
The rumour originated when Gamer wrote that the August issue contained a "secret that [they're] just dying to blurt out, but [they] can't for another month, and the stress of holding it in makes you want to do the pee-pee dance?"
Based on this, the internet decided the magazine was referring to Diablo 3. The source of the rumour, Blizz Planet, based its conclusion on the following:
PC Gamer was probably among the Gaming press Magazines who visited Blizzard Entertainment early on May, a few weeks ago.
PC Gamer knew about the Starcraft II announcement last May 2007.
PC Gamer can't talk about it for the next 30 days. The 2008 Blizzard Worldwide Invitationals at Paris, France takes place on June 28-29.
June 29 is the date Diablo II shipped on USA (2000) and the same date the expansion Lord of Destruction shipped on Europe a year later (2001).
Notice how PC Gamer replaces a swearing with [CENSORED]? Could this be a clue as to what the game they refer to is? Because CENSORED really sounds like HELL... as in... Diablo?
Solid evidence you've got there, chaps. You should start a detective agency or something.
Gen Con, the biggest tabletop gaming convention in the world, is coming to Australia in July, and we have the details. Over four days from July 3 to July 6 in Brisbane, Gen Con will feature computer game tournaments, miniature war games tournaments, board game tournaments, card game tournaments, role playing tournaments, cosplay competitions, movie premieres, and lectures and seminars on game development.
A few of the highlights include:
4th Edition D&D showcased for the first time in Australia
Star Wars: Force Unleashed unveiled to the public
Demonstrations by EA of Mercenaries 2: World in Flames and Lord of the Rings Conquest
In-house movie theatres screening anime films
The Australian movie premiere of Dragonlance
Collectable card game tournaments for Pokemon, Yu-gi-oh!, World of Warcraft, Magic: the Gathering and others
Miniature war games tournaments for Warhammer, Lord of the Rings, Mechwarrior, War Machine, Heroclix and others
200 player computer game tournament featuring Counter-Strike Source, Call of Duty 4, Starcraft and Warcraft 3
The latest games from THQ, The Creative Assembly, Pandemic, Fuzzy Eyes and Halfbrick
Gen Con will also play host to a number of special guests, including Tracy Hickman, the author of the Dragonlance trilogy, Sean Williams, who will present on the novelisation of Star Wars: Force Unleashed, Steve Stamatiadas, co-founder of Krome Studios, and Graham O'Neill, the author of several Warhammer 40K novels. Other guests include Chris Sabat (Dragon Ball voice actor), Jason Marsden (Dragonlance voice actor), David Nykl (of Stargate fame), author Marianne dePierres, author Kylie Chan and Mungo McKay (of Undead fame).
Tickets are $16.50 online – during the pre-registration period which closes in mid-June, or $22 at the door. Once registered you can lock in your place for the various competitions and competitive tournaments.
As part of Capcom's recent financial results, the company let loose its to-date sales numbers for all of its million-selling franchises and individual titles, dating back over the past 22 years. The Resident Evil series has done the company best with more than 34 million units sold, trumping both Mega Man and Street Fighter (second and third on the list, respectively).
The numbers essentially speak for themselves, so take a look.
Franchise Sales
Series Units Sold
Resident Evil 34.5 million
Mega Man 28 million
Street Fighter 25 million
Disney Titles 13.2 million
Devil May Cry 9.5 million
Onimusha 7.8 million
Monster Hunter 6.3 million
Dino Crisis 4.4 million
Ghosts 'n Goblins 4.3 million
Final Fight 3.2 million
Breath of Fire 3 million
Ace Attorney 2.8 million
Commando 1.2 million
1942 1.2 million
Individual Title Sales
Title Released System Units Sold
Street Fighter II June 1992 SNES 6,300,000
Resident Evil 2 January 1998 PS 4,960,000
Street Fighter II Turbo July 1993 SNES 4,100,000
Resident Evil 3 Nemesis September 1999 PS 3,500,000
Resident Evil March 1996 PS 2,750,000
Dino Crisis July 1999 PS 2,400,000
Devil May Cry 4 January 2008 PS3, Xbox 360 2,300,000
Devil May Cry August 2001 PS2 2,160,000
Monster Hunter Freedom 2 February 2007 PSP 2,150,000
Onimusha: Warlords January 2001 PS2 2,020,000
Resident Evil 4 December 2005 PS2 2,000,000
Super Street Fighter II June 2006, 1994 SNES 2,000,000
Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny March 2003 PS2 1,990,000
Aladdin November 1993 SNES 1,750,000
Devil May Cry 2 January 2003 PS2 1,700,000
Duck Tales January 1990 NES 1,670,000
Street Fighter II Plus September 1993 GN 1,650,000
Ghosts'n Goblins June 1986 NES 1,640,000
Resident Evil 4 January 2005 GC 1,600,000
Onimusha 3: Demon siege February 2004 PS2 1,520,000
Mega Man 2 December 1988 NES 1,510,000
Lost Planet Extreme Condition December 2006 Xbox 360 1,500,000
Final Fight December 1990 SNES 1,480,000
Resident Evil Outbreak December 2003 PS2 1,450,000
Duck Tales September 1990 GB 1,430,000
Resident Evil Code Veronica X March 2001 PS2 1,400,000
Dead Rising August 2006 Xbox 360 1,400,000
Resident Evil March 2002 GC 1,350,000
Mega man Battle Network 4 December 2003 GBA 1,350,000
Devil May Cry 3 February 2005 PS2 1,300,000
Resident Evil 0 November 2002 GC 1,250,000
Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition May 2007 Wii 1,250,000
Magical Quest Starring Mickey November 1992 SNES 1,210,000
Resident Evil DC Dual Shock August 1998 PS 1,200,000
Chip'n Dale Rescue Rangers June 1990 NES 1,200,000
Dino Crisis 2 September 2000 PS 1,190,000
Mega Man X December 1993 SNES 1,160,000
Monster Hunter Freedom December 2005 PSP 1,150,000
Resident Evil Code Veronica February 2000 DC 1,140,000
Commando September 1986 NES 1,140,000
Resident Evil Director's Cut September 1997 PS 1,130,000
Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts October 1991 SNES 1,090,000
Mega Man 3 September 1990 NES 1,080,000
Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles November 2007 Wii 1,050,000
Final Fight 2 May 1993 SNES 1,030,000
Street Fighter Alpha 3 December 1998 PS 1,000,000
ASUS isn't being shy about its plan for global Eee domination, and it sounds like the company is exploring expanding beyond the laptop and desktop form factors we've already seen. Speaking to Current.com.au, ASUS Australia retail manager Emmanuele Silanesu said that ASUS's Eee group is "obviously looking at other form factors rather than just a clamshell," but wouldn't confirm anything -- and just to make things even hazier, Silanesu said that a forthcoming touchscreen machine from ASUS might not carry the Eee branding. That's just about as vague as it gets, but we're in agreement with UMPC Portal that ASUS has plenty of low-power, low-cost UMPCs on the shelf (like the R2E pictured above) that could easily be made over to fit with the Eee line. We'll see when we see -- Silanesu hinted that something was due to appear at Computex in June.
* implemented IEC level floppy drive emulation; this allows access to a directory on the PC filesystem, and supports reading and writing .prg, .p00, .s00, .u00, and .r00 files, and some commonly used CBM DOS commands
* the debugger window now displays the current state of TED registers
* on Windows and MacOS X the native file selection dialog is used instead of the FLTK one; also, the last PRG and screenshot file selected is remembered by the dialogs
* various improvements have been made to the utilities
* changed the TED luminance table to (hopefully) match the colors of the real machine more accurately
* when recording video to AVI files in RLE8 format, some TV emulation color effects are now also captured using additional palette colors
* D64 files with any number of tracks from 35 to 42 are supported
* new/improved GUI keyboard shortcuts
* the old file I/O hack has been removed, since its functionality is now replaced by the IEC level drive emulation
* added Gtk+ GUI theme (enabled with '-colorscheme 3' command line option)
* some minor bugs have been fixed
- When separate setting with directory setting, way remaining item is hidden, modification
- Addition of the option which indicates the window in the foremost aspect in normally
- Designation method of window style by mistake correcting the fact that it is
- Gamma control addition (*1)
- Correcting the fact that it has the variable of not yet initialization
- Modifying the VRAM entry operation at the time of non blank
- The bug where DMA to VRAM was not executed from the invalid territory correction (the *2)
- With arrangement of the name table, behavior when address is outside the VRAM range correction (the *3)
- At the time of state recovery key on not being just reflected correction (the *4)
- Behavior of echo effective/invalid register modification (*5)
- Execution timing of IPL emulation correction (*6)
- The number of execution of BRA of SPC cycles correction (*6)
- Processing of window mask synthesis was recreated. (*7)
- The number of execution of rep/sep cycles by mistake being correction (the *cool.gif
- Way the fact that it has the line of 1360 cycles is reproduced, modification
- Cycle several calculations of IRQ/NMI by mistake correcting the fact that it is
- The execution time of DMA by mistake correcting the fact that it is
- Modifying the execution timing of NMI/IRQ
- After several orders opening, after the DMA ending way it does NMI, correction
- NMI being cancelled in DMA, way NMI is executed, modification
- The behavior of HDMA correction (*9)
- HBlank timing and HDMA execution timing correction (*10)
- Drawing timing correction (*11)
- In translucency synthesis at time of high resolution mode provisional correspondence (*12)
- Mosaic of offset tile mode mounting (*13)
- Bug of offset tile mode correction (*13)
- With non high resolution behavior at time of interlace mode correction (*14)
It is setting possible by the fact that the *1 ini file is rewritten but, it is not additional to setting dialogue still.
Correction of the trouble where the game over picture of [nakoruru] transforms with *2 [samusupi]
Correction of the trouble where the picture deteriorates with *3 [remingusu] 2 and [ougabatoru]
Correcting the trouble where sound of the cascade of town of [amoru] of *4 [dorakue] 6 is not recovered just
Being *5 live alive, when the changing of tune, correction of the trouble which is the times when sound of tune before remains.
*6 battle commander, the strongest quiz king decision game SUPER operation in history
When with *7 live alive battle, the group of small fish are, when the enemy is pushed down, correcting the fact that graphics of the edge of the enemy applies
Correction of the trouble where behavior becomes strange in the *8 live alive menu screen
Correction of the trouble where the picture transforms with the ending of *9 FF5.
Correction of the trouble where boundary of the picture shakes with *10 [mariokato]. Correction of the trouble where letter shakes with opening of the front mission
Correcting the fact that indication becomes strange with the paddock of *11 [dabisuta]
Cancellation of the trouble where the picture becomes strange with *12 [mavuerasu]. So still the apparatus and behavior are different.
Correction of the trouble where indication of the boss of the *13 soul 斗 羅 spirits 1 aspect has become strange
At the time of option use of enlargement, correcting the fact that with the 摩 訶 摩 訶 indication has become depth in *14 integer time
Furthermore, with the bug which has report with beta3, this time being able to correct it is not,/being able to verify any which are not it is as follows
- The picture deteriorates with glory 3 of [herakuresu]
- [mavuerasu] freezes with the ending
- Sound of [sourubureida] is strange
features
First Mature rated MMORPG – Savage, bloody, lethal, debaucherous, chilling, fantastic and mirthful: ingredients found in Robert E. Howard's vision.
True Conan Experience – Explore Conan's Universe, join his army, battle demons and foes and build cities known from 70 years of Conan history. Fight alongside King Conan himself.
Real Combat System - Fight mounted or on the ground. The new multi-point melee system delivers real-time combat. Team up in battle formations and command both NPC's and other players in epic multiplayer battles as well as joining massive sieges.
Conan's World - Enter a gigantic and savage world spread across the three nations of Aquilonia, Cimmeria and Stygia. Explore jungles, deserts, mountains, valleys, dungeons and cities.
Advanced Technologies - Optimized for DirectX 10, Multi-core CPU and featuring Advanced Artificial Intelligence; Age of Conan takes advantage of the Dream World™ MMO Technology, delivering extremely detailed environments and real life physics.
Player vs. Player and Player vs. Environment - Meet the ultimate resistance in human opponents, and crush the skulls of other players in arena fights, drunken brawls and sieges. Charge into the world of Conan, and fight monsters and demons alone or in groups.
Guild and Solo Gameplay - Form guilds and lay siege to hostile castles. Team up with other players in clans or experience an amazing journey deep into the lands of Hyboria alone.
Diverse Gameplay – Player-made Cities, Crafts, Classes and numerous social opportunities are all but a few ingredients in this powerful Mature MMORPG.
Character Customization – Let your imagination run wild with thousands of options. Create your character and shape it up to fit the role and style you want to play.
Amazing Graphics - Featuring Real Time Dynamic Soft Shadows, Dynamic Weather System, advanced Shaders and an amazing art direction; the graphics will immerse you into a world as never seen before.
7.1 Surround Sound – Feel the powerful sound effects and epic soundtrack in 7.1 surround sound. Listen to gripping voices and dynamic sounds pulling you into savage world of Conan.
description
As a galley slave you stand on the burning beaches of Tortage. With no memory of your past, a broken oar and tattered clothes you enter a fantastic journey where you will define your destiny. In a world filled with cruel gods, mythical creatures, lost civilizations and a struggling human race, Conan the mighty barbarian has finally seized the throne as king of Aquilonia; but his rule is on the brink of chaos as his nemesis Thoth-Amon attempts to resurrect the ancient civilization of Acheron.
Carve your destiny and fight along King Conan, in the first mature MMORPG. Advanced technologies, amazing graphics and stunning 7.1 surround sounds will immerse you in Robert E. Howard's dark universe where magic and brutal combat lurk around every corner. Be the first to enter the savage world of Conan.
Pop'n Music Be-Mouse is shaped like a ladybug, connect it to the computer and use it both as a normal mouse and a handheld for the rhythm game. Install the game onto your computer with the CD-rom that comes with the pack, plug the mouse into the computer and launch the software whenever you feel like taking up the challenge. Lift the transparent wings at the body of the mouse to reveal the nine buttons.
The mouse is designed by fans for the fans. By calling for votes, the company let the fans decide on its appearance and colors. The twelve songs that comes initially with the software are selected through this voting system as well. To reward the gamers patience, between May 26th and June 10th players can log into the system and download ten songs for free. Together with the twelve songs, the early buyers will have a total of 22 songs to start with in their first month. From the end of June onwards, Konami will prepare 5 new songs every month for players to update their music database with so the game never gets boring.
Ahoy! Pull up a chair, grab a coffee, let's talk. That's right, it's Friday night, time for around round of TELL US DAMMIT. How it works: We ask a question, you answer it. Simple and no strings attached! This isn't some marketing survey or whatever. It's an emotional investment in you. Yes, we're interesting in knowing you, Kotaku reader person. You probably know ****tons about us — more than you even want to, we're sure. But, hey, we'd like to know about you. That way you won't be some faceless blob — and we might feel a tinge of guilt when we ban your ass. Or not, because really we're incapable of human emotion. Whichever!
Question: Do you having any game purchase regrets?
So according to El Reg, it turns out ASUS is selling its Eee 900 laptops in the UK with 4400mAh batteries -- quite a bit smaller than the 5800mAh batteries that come in the US version. It's insult to injury when you consider that the larger screen necessarily sucks down more juice than on the 700 series, but ASUS explains that overseas users get a tradeoff in exchange: UK warranties last two years, supposedly longer than their US counterparts (although to be fair, we've heard of retailers listing the US Eee's warranty at two years as well). Caveat emptor, and all that.
Multiple changes has been done in the Pad support.
The internal SPU plugin has been updated to the 1.7.0 version.
The iso support code has been rewritten.
The MDEC decoder has been rewritten.
A new version of the Pete's Software Plugin is included.
The XA/CDDA support has been worked in this new version.
Many things have been fixed in the cd-rom decoder and the core.
Following a few weeks in second place behind Nintendo's latest Wii million seller, Mario Kart, Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G rubber banded this week back into first place. Media Create reports sales of 53,248 units for the monster PSP hit, which has now crossed the two million mark.
Mario Kart came in at second for the week spanning May 12 to May 18, with 41,739 units sold.
The chart wasn't all old titles, though. Marvelous Entertainment's Luminous Arc 2 Will for the DS placed third in its debut week with 40,753 units. This is a big leap over the original, which sold 26,000 in its first week in February 2007. Below it was Bleach Heat the Soul 5, the latest PSP fighter based off the popular Bleach anime. It sold 39,403 units in its first week.
Following these games, Wii Fit came in at fifth with 34,847 units. It was followed by Famicom Wars VS (Nintendo, Wii, 24,213 units), DS Bimoji Training (Nintendo, DS, 15,477), Link's Bowgun Training (Nintendo, Wii, 14,442), Taiko Drum Master DS Adventure on the 7 Islands (Namco Bandai, DS, 14,182), and Wii Sports (Nintendo, Wii, 10,206 units). Of these, only Famicom Wars was a new release.
Although there was a change in the top spot in software, hardware stayed in the same order for the week. PSP was once again in top with 70,536 units sold. Wii came in second at 41,572 units, followed by the DS Lite at 34,905 units. The Wii has officially topped the six million sold mark, Media Create noted in its sales totals for the week, mirroring a report from rival tracking firm Enterbrain last week.
Closing out the hardware chart this week were, as always, the PS3, PS2 and Xbox 360, with respective sales of 7,701, 7,022 and 1,474 units
- New feature to use Ben Bakers CPWizard instead of the in built control panel viewer. You'll find the settings for this under Advanced MAME settings. Please support Ben and his great software.
- When using ZIP support for an emulator, if only one file is matched in the archive the game information page will act as it normally does and will show Play This Game instead of listing the contents of the archive
- When browsing folders, you can now show an image for the folder by placing a folder.png or folder.jpg in it
- Fixes Karoake and video player in some configurations
- Contains Ben Bakers LCD/LED Plugin latest version
- Fixes performance issue with videos/snap videos playing as the background image on Vista or with ATI cards when Videos are set to alpha blend
- Slightly quicker startup speed
- UNC paths are now supported throughout the application
1) VIC regression fixes and improvements to mid screen mode changes as seen on a C64C. The C64C infamous grey dot bug is not emulated. The anomalous phase 2 VIC fetch that does not fetch $FF is
not emulated. Many more demos will correctly display stray pixels or not as per a C64C.
New versions of the graphic plugins for PlayStation emulators for PC.
Pete's OpenGL2 is for Windows and Pete's XGL2 Linux is for Linux.
Changelog:
- This release is basically an "ePSXe birthday" version: after a long
time the ePSXe team wanted to make an update to their main emu, and
to improve the compatibility with some games. One of the compatibility
fixes had to be done in the gpu plugins, so, well, I had to fire up
my compilers as well... I don´t wanted to let ´em down, eh? Smile
Since my free time is somewhat limited, I have not made many other
changes, though (at least in the last weeks... I cannot remember what
I´ve done the last years in the gpu plugins, so I basically hope that
I didn´t mess something up.
- First, the mentioned game fix. This will prevent lock ups in certain
games (for example "Dukes of Hazzard" or "Hot wheels turbo racing").
The main emu can enable this fix by a new gpu interface function
automatically, for other emus you can enable the "special game fix"
manually in the gpu config window (the fix is called "Fake ´gpu busy´
states").
- The main emu can use a new gpu interface function, to enable the
gpu´s "FPS limitation" automatically. Why? Because most new psx emu
users seem to have problems with the "FPS" concept, and are unable to
activate the correct settings (just as a reminder: "higher FPS" is not
equal to "smoother display" in psx emulation).
- Nagisa from SSSPSX added new frame limit timings to the Peops soft gpu
plugin. I have put this timings into my hw/accel plugins as well,
let´s see what will happen.
The differences are small, though: in non-interlaced modes the automatic
FPS timings are now set to 49.76 FPS (PAL) or 59.82 FPS (NTSC).
- calb of the ePSXe team suggested to add a "visual rumble" feature to
the gpu plugins: whenever the pad vibration kicks in, the display should
also start to shake. Ok, done... just remember, you have to enable this
feature in the main emu (pad configuration window), not in the gpu config.
And, of course, in some games the visual rumble can get very annoying...
- Last but not least a "most wanted" feature for widescreen users:
PSX games have usually a 4:3 width/height ratio. Therefore a 16:10
fullscreen mode (example: 1680x1050) will stretch the display in
an ugly way. If your monitor or your gfx card driver has no option to
display 4:3 modes correctly, you can now set a proper 4:3 "window
size" (in our example: 1400x1050) and activate the new "Use window size
in fullscreen mode" option in the plugin.
That will produce a proper display, of course with black borders on the
left and right sides of your monitor, but hey.
- Ah, and another note for ATI users: please update to Catalyst 8.5 to
avoid glitches!
Aussie pub Current is reporting that the Eee PC will soon morph into a "non-clamshell touchscreen-only device," with an unveiling as soon as June 3 at Computex. Asus's Australia retail manager confirmed they're "obviously looking at form factors rather than just a clamshell" and that it would use a touchscreen. The caveat is that it ultimately might not wear the Eee badge since it's wholly different from—and presumably pricier than—the rest of the line. It might seem like an off-kilter move, but a genuinely cheap tablet (say, $500) could be as game-changing as the original Eee.
Client: solider
Quest:
A message capsule thought
to be from the Pioneer 1
Military was discovered in
Ragol's underground Ruins.
We would like you to
search for more.
Reward: ??? Meseta
* Script changes made to allow the quest to function properly. JPBB quests are strangely coded... It seems likely that on JPBB the server interacts with the quest to allow the actual quest to be coded less fully. Thus, when you try to play the quest on a server without the extra crap on JPBB, it doesn't work. It could also be a problem with our editor, but either way the problems are fixed.
* A little debug junk left in the quest by Sega has been removed so the quest is a bit smaller.
* Spawn points of players and positions of the warpers in Ruins fixed to be in the correct positions.
* The solider next to the main teleporter was moved to the side so the green gem player isn't hugging him when returning to Pioneer 2. >_>;
* If you've played the quest on either BB or GC, you might be aware of the "missing warps" problem in Ruins 1 that occured on one version of the quest. After analysing the quest, it turns out that Sega intended to have a warp roulette in Ruins 1. The three warps which you see send you to different locations in Ruins 1 every time you play the quest. After a great deal of work, this has been fixed. Ironically, it took me trying to create my own, simpler roulette to figure out how to make Sega's work. Though a lot of work went down the drain, Sega's is far better anyway so it was worth it. It was easiest to get the roulette functioning on DC/PC, but making it work on GC/BB was a major pain. I was about ready to give up and release a somewhat crippled version of Ruins 1 for GC/BB so the stupid quest could finally come out, but thanks to Lee the roulette has been fixed on GC/BB as well. It only took a lot of head bashing, hex editing, and FTPing, lulz.
* Enemies. While testing the quest at one point, Shadowfox mentioned that the quest had only Dimenians. I hadn't noticed, but it was true. Why exactly this is, I don't know. If the quest has only Dimenians on JPBB, I also don't know. Considering how apparently quickly the quest was made due to the little tweaks necessary and the fact that every enemy type is used extensively (except for Bringers, boo), it seemed like perhaps either 1) Sega didn't code the Dimenians properly or 2) JPBB would make them La or So types through server interaction with the quest (assuming Sega didn't actually want no La or So Dimenians to appear in the quest...). Since we had no idea what the quest would be like properly, it seemed like greater variety was a better option and likely to be correct. However in case Sega did want you to be fighting the same type of enemy all the time, the enemies are divided by area. You'll fight Dimenians in Ruins 1, La Dimenians in Ruins 2, and So Dimenians in Ruins 3. (This was also the easiest to do from a development standpoint...).
- only reset sound when changing configuration if sound mode, sound card, frequency, channels, or buffer size is changed
- 5.1 sound settings now also send mixed sound to center and LFE channel (mixing volume may need adjusting, please test)
- superhires sprites in doublescan mode had halved horizontal resolution
- power led fade support (very crappy)
- possible fix to random joystick/mouse switch crash
- programmed resolutions (doublescan) are now horizontally centered
- right side max sprite clipping position was incorrect
- D3D/OGL filters do not crash anymore but still do not work as expected..
- added Amiga-side uae.resource, safe method to find "uae rom" base and other information. Version of resource is UAEVERSION.UAEREVISION NOTE: in compatible modes resource may not be available. Check sources for more information.
• Core: simplified CPU / SMP flag calculations
• Added ALSA audio output driver to Linux port [Nach]
• Improved font handling for Windows and Linux ports
• Greatly cleaned up the user interface
• Windows port now uses Unicode instead of ANSI
• Added localization support
• Config and locale files can now be placed inside bsnes executable directory for single-user mode, if desired
• Fixed crashing bug with HQ2x on Linux/amd64 port [RedDwarf, Nach]
• Hid "Power Cycle" option by default, as it is too similar to "Reset"
• Slighty tweaked program icon [FitzRoy]
• Minor code cleanups -- replaced union bitfields with templates, improved memory allocation, etc
Bugs fixed:
- Missing some sql functions
- Crash when double click on empty right view
- 'loading database...' displayed at startup when no database to load
- Default path on files/new not in romcenter/datas folder
- Different font in some items in preferences window
- database name not changed after a 'database ubdate'
- Empty folder flagged 'ok'
- Missing fix actions in 'advanced' sub menus
- 'refresh all menu' diabled
- 'illegal access' sometimes when removing a rom
- 'Advanced/Remove files' does not work
- in preferences, sample folder selector enabled even if merge is checked
- Some paths actions still enabled when no romspaths are loaded
- 'maximize' not full screen on restore (tried a fix, but not tested)
- Display not refreshed after deleting empty folders
- Hourglass missing when cleaning db
- 'Del' shortcut operate as shell delete when editing the searchbox
- Can't close 'about', 'statistics' and 'dat wizard' forms with 'Esc'
- 2 columns headers captions are wrong (bad name & uppercase)
- Db clones samples status not updated after removing a sample file
- Web page info does not work
- French translation fix
Features added:
- Clean udf and intl install folder
- Scroll bar and mouse wheel in log windows
- 'Save log' button
- Log roms count before and after fix
- Add 'total items' info in status bar
- Shell 'move' files
- Pop menus disabled depending of items in db (dummies, bios...)
- 'Open data folder' menu
- Cleaned temp files after 'clean db' and 'update db'
- Replace 'S' with an icon in the 1st column of roms list header.
- 'Open backup folder' menu
- menu link to discussion forum
- menu link to donation page
- remember dat and emul path when creating/updating a db
- 'Statistics' added in menu
Very sorry for the inconvenience. Some last minute bugs snuck into the last release.
Also, I've added three new localizations: French (by tukuyomi), Portugese - Brazillain (by Hunter) and Russian (by Hatsuyuki). Dutch, Finnish and German should follow shortly, so be sure to check back in a week or two if you'd like one of those.
I forgot to mention this on the last update, but for any sites hosting the bsnes executable, you are free to distribute the archive with any locale you'd like. In fact, I'd prefer if you did, as it makes it easier for those who cannot read English.
Changelog:
• Windows: file open filters are now working once again
• All ports: emulation speed setting is now properly restored at startup
What we have been calling the Asus Eee Box looks to finally have an official name. Based on unnamed sources, the Inquirer is reporting that the desktop PC will be called the Asus EBOX. As already speculated, they are saying it will be revealed on June 3 at Computex. Specs also look to be what we've been told already: 160GB HDD, 2GB RAM, and a Linux OS. Nothing much more to see here, but we're hoping Asus will give this thing a competitive price for those looking to tinker with a slick open-source box.
As much as we enjoy not paying for things, we here at Joystiq HQ are vehemently opposed to piracy. Partly because we think cheating music, film, and gaming companies out of their hard-earned recompense is a despicable act, but mostly because we don't like equating paltry key-cracking to the visceral thrill of high seas swashbuckling. Apparently, Nolan Bushnell shares our disdain for modern-day "pirates" as well -- in a recent speech to a Wedbush Morgan Securities conference, the Atari founder discussed a new encryption chip which will "absolutely stop piracy of gameplay."
The stealth encryption chip known as TPM will appear on the motherboards of many computers currently being produced, according to Bushnell, and will allow game developers to imbue their future titles with completely uncrackable, unsharable activation passwords. We've found that e-pirates are a resourceful lot, so the prolonged effectiveness of this measure is questionable
Square Enix bossman Yoichi Wada presided over the company's shareholder conference late last week. Dragon Quest IX still doesn't have a release date, but saying that he really wants to release it and thought the game would be ready for sale this year. Wada added, "But I said the same thing last year." Square Enix thinks it's possible that Dragon Quest IX could sell up to ten million copies. (No wonder Wada wants to release the game.)
Also, due to internal loses on development, the company went back and reconsidered in development titles. A mobile game has been shitcanned, apparently. "Concerning the title that connects to the home console," Wada said, "development has been ceased as it is unsuitable at the current time." Wada's remark has lead to some to wonder whether that cancelled mobile game is Final Fantasy Agito XIII as it was supposed to connect to upcoming home console game Final Fantasy XIII.
An arcade space shoot-out game.Save Earth from the evil Aliens! watch out for a few bugs I have: 1. the ship jumps to the start piont when hit, which serves a problem when hit at the start piont: lazers don't destroy themselves at contact with you! Same with the rocks.2: the ship starts out moving right somtimes( I don't know why! sorry!) Please comment!
Adds more time to your account: The card contains a special unique key which adds 60 days of game time to your existing account, regardless of its current balance. One of Six Collectible Cards: Each package contains one of six lushly illustrated characters or scenes from Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. Collect all six for a complete set.
Warhammer Mark of Chaos: Battle March brings the brutality, strategy, and drama of warfare to life with six unique playable armies, fully customizable units and intense online clashes
An expansion to the critically acclaimed Warhammer Mark of Chaos, Battle March builds upon the games tactical foundation to offer new units for each army as well as an original campaign and new online modes
Taking place shortly after the events in Mark of Chaos, players will be able to experience the mysterious sorcery of the Dark Elves and the savage brutality of the Orcs and Goblins in an all-new chapter of the game’s single player campaign as the Orcs and Dark Elves enter the fray looking to tip the scale of power from the Empire and Chaos armies
New York has been shaken by a series of ritual murders. Wealthy people are Dying in mysterious circumstances. There seems to be no logical link between the victims. Murders are ommitted with a strange tool. A young rookie female FBI agent, Nicole Bonnet, is assigned to the case.What are the culprit's motives? What links the victims? What is this mysterious Murder tool? Why was such a young and inexperienced agent given the case? In her search for clues, Nicole Bonnet will visit the darkest corners of New York as well as the Archaeological capital of America - The Peruvian Cusco - and the Amazon Jungle.
To solve the puzzle, the player will have to think logically, combine facts and act as an FBI agent would do in a real investigation.
implemented missing effects in MagicSystem music player;
fixed a few bugs in MagicSystem music player;
added a new overscan mode 'centered (224 lines)';
added a new option in the pce.ini file '[pce] overscan_centered' to center the PC-Engine screen;
fixed the 'NO CD' problem;
fixed a bug in the scroll bar of the 'load ROM' panel;
improved the '-cd' command line option, the system card path can be omitted now;
added an option to overclock the PC-Engine CPU;
fixed a bug in the PSG DAC emulation that was affecting some PC-Engine demos;
fixed Camp California bug.
Yes, the proper Sega Rally 3, for arcades. Shown off to the press in the UK over the weekend, after being tested under the dummy name "Super Challenge" for the past few months, it'll run on Sega's new Europa-R board, run at 60FPS/720p, share much of the same assets as the recent Sega Rally Revo (nothing wrong with that) and comes with a car seat that's just downright classy. As a bonus, it's even got the desert track from the original Sega Rally. Exciting. It should be turning up in European arcades as you read this (having been developed by Sega's now-gone Racing Studio), with "the team hoping for international releases to follow".
When EA announced that Spore and Mass Effect (PC) would have a DRM program that did performed online verification every 10 days, it generated a massive backlash amongst the gaming community. Many people, who were originally excited about Spore and Mass Effect, now claimed that they would not purchase the games, solely because of the DRM. To be honest, I'm no fan of DRM either. It basically treats all legal customers as potential criminals, and seems futile anyway, as anyone with an internet connection can typically find ways around the DRM. The only people it probably deters are those with little technical savvy and who just want to share a game they bought with their friends and family. The amount of actual sales that would be lost to this is probably pretty limited. With all that said, I'm glad that EA has backed off this new DRM and scaled it back to just an initial online verification. Given the current state of PC gaming as well as the traditionally more "accepted" versions of DRM (like the initial online verification), however, I didn't find this new DRM to be all THAT much worse, particularly with some slight improvements to it, such as allowing a manual verification and extending the timeframe for re-verification slightly (say, to 30-60 days instead of every 10).
The reason for this has a lot to do with what's been going on with PC gaming in the last few years. While the "death" of PC gaming has been talked about for years, it isn't quite here. The landscape is just shifting. While the total NPD sales for each year has been decreasing, other avenues of making money have been developed. For instance, subscription-based games (mostly MMOs, but also games available on GameTap), cheaper more casual downloadable games (eg, PopCap Games), and even free, ad- or feature-driven games (eg, Dungeon Runners, Battlefield Heroes, Quake Zero) make up an ever increasing portion of PC-based revenue. Thus, the actual retail sales are taken up mostly by a few casual games, MMO starter kits or expansions, and maybe the occasional shooter or RTS game. Take, for example, the most recent NPD PC numbers for the week of May 4-10:
features
Command heavily armed bipedal vehicles or switch to more stealthy exploration on-foot
Snowstorms, arctic winds, towering mountains of ice create cinematic stunning visuals!
Immerse yourself in the brutal world of Lost Planet as you labor through waist-deep snow and hear the crunch of ice with each step!
description
Rescued from a veil of ice with only fragments of memory, Wayne Holden struggles to recover his past on a blizzard-ridden world swarming with deadly aliens. With only treacherous Snow Pirates and the mysterious NEVEC Corporation remaining, can anyone be trusted or is everything lost?
Stanford professor Allan Reiss published an article in the Journal of Psychiatric Research which states that women are not a driven as men in gaming. His research analyzed MRI data that showed activity in brain's mesocorticolimbic center, the area typically associated with reward and addiction, for both sexes. However! There was more acitviy in the male brain. According to Reiss:
These gender differences might help explain why males are more attracted to, and more likely to become "hooked" on, video games than females. I think it's fair to say that males tend to be more intrinsically territorial. It doesn't take a genius to figure out who historically are the conquerors and tyrants of our species.
Certainly, Reiss might have evidence in hard science, but it sure sounds like he's totally underestimating women. Lots of them are "hooked" on games! Some are tyrants, too!!
1.0. (based on SVN rev. 63)
- significantly reduced the memory requirements of the emulator
- add 16 CPU cycles after waking up from a HALT command
implemented LCD bug (bug ID 1968049)
- fixed bug that reading TIMA register prior to initialization of the timer leads to exception (bug ID 1964304)
- some fixes to the Joypad IRQ handling
* added: NoIntro´s 1G1R mode (related to the regions/languages modes from 3.114) This can be enabled in settings (for region/language dats only)
* added: set information shows set description or optionally set name now
* added: Rebuilder Beep
* added: more support for sample-only sets
* misc: set information tree is now sorted alphabetically after setdescription (not setname)
* misc: renamed "Show All Missing" sets to "Hide Fully-Missing Sets" and inverted the behaviour
* misc: sample parents which aren´t listed (e.g. MAME´s alphamc07) are added as sample-only sets
* misc: settings import button is only available for rom/sample paths
* misc: reading archives is done in an own thread
* misc: hash calculators run calculation md5/crc/sha1 in parallel in 3 threads
* misc: chd verifyer runs md5/sha1 calculation in parallel in 2 threads
* misc: rebuilding with addpaths doesn´t reopen progresswindows per addpath anymore (´minimize & forget´)
* misc: unneeded check detects sample-only sets in rompath and viceversa
* fixed: very poor performance when background tasks exist running in IDLE mode
* fixed: xml datfiles which may be parsable with a different engine.cfg aren´t listed in the profiler
* fixed: datfile´s forcemerge mode didn´t affect merger
* fixed: addpath removes created empty rebuilder destination folder, so following addpaths fail
* fixed: xml dats with size="-" are wrongly parsed
GTA IV has retained the top spot in the German chart but has been knocked into second place in Spain, according to data released by Media-Control GfK International.
The German chart saw GTA IV hold onto first and second place on the PS3 and Xbox 360 respectively. The PC MMO Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures takes fifth place, with the only other PC title in the chart, Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth 2, coming in at tenth place.
In the Spanish chart, Wii Fit has regained the top spot followed by GTA IV on the PS3 in second place while the Xbox 360 version comes in at number five.
The German chart follows:
1. Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3)
2. Grand Theft Auto IV (XBox 360)
3. Wii Fit (Wii)
4. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
5. Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures (PC)
6. Assassin's Creed Director's Cut Edition (PC)
7. Mario Kart DS (DS)
8. Dr Kawashimas' Brain Training (DS)
9. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games ( DS)
10. Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth 2(PC)
The Spanish chart follows:
1. Wii Fit (Wii)
2. Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3)
3. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
4. Wii Play (Wii)
5. Grand Theft Auto IV (Xbox 360)
6. 42 All-Time Classics (DS)
7. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PSP)
8. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PS2)
9. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
10. Dr Kawashimas' Brain Training (DS)
Whatever you do, don't push the red button. MSI has pimped out its new GeForce 9600 GT Diamond graphics card with dual DVI, dual HDMI, optical audio and a shiny red button. The button bumps the clock speed of the graphics core and the memory, as well as increasing voltage to world-destroying levels. Unfortunately you'll have to reach around the back of your dusty machine to click it, but we're sure 30 minutes and a soldering iron can re-route the button to this little doomsday-inspired puppy.
Funcom has announced that 400,000 players have signed up to play its new MMO launch, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, in the last few days.
Age of Conan has been on general release in the US for a week, and in Europe since last Friday. Assuming the figure excludes beta testers, it indicates very healthy early sales for the game - and means it's one of the fastest-selling PC games ever.
Age of Conan broke pre-order records for a PC game last week. Funcom announced then that it had shipped an initial print run of 700,000 copies, and it seems a good proportion of these have been sold, around half of them in North America, according to the developer.
Funcom also claimed an "astounding amount" of concurrent players logged into the game, but didn't offer a specific figure.
New MMOs have struggled to succeed in World of Warcraft's shadow in recent years, with titles counting themselves lucky to gather a quarter of a million subscribers. Although it's not guaranteed that all current Age of Conan players will convert their 30 days' free play into a subscription, the signs are that this trend has at last been broken.
Four weeks after its release, Grand Theft Auto IV is still at the top of the UK sales charts according to data released by Chart-Track.
The remainder of the Top Ten titles saw a significant amount of movement. Notably, Wii Fit - which had been in second place for the past few weeks - dropped out of the Top Forty list altogether thanks to stock problems.
New to the charts this week is Age of Conan - the biggest launch for a PC title so far this year and the biggest online-only title launch outside of World of Warcraft - which debuted in the second position.
Also new to the charts are the Ubisoft's PS3 exclusive Haze and Rock Band for the Xbox 360 at number three and six, respectively.
The Top Ten best-selling titles in the UK for the week ending May 24 were:
1. Grand Theft Auto IV
2. Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures
3. Haze
4. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
5. Wii Play
6. Rock Band
7. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008
8. Mario Kart Wii
9. FIFA 08
10. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
Analyst Opinion - Floating Point Operations Per Second - FLOPS - one of the more obscure processor performance indicators, and one of the oldest ones. Over time, it has been modified with prefixes such as M (mega), G (giga), T (tera) and will soon get a P (peta). “Tera” describes a million millions - one trillion (1012) - which is a whole lot of anything whether it is cycles (Hertz), bytes, dollars, or FLOPS.
Recently I was asked how many TFLOPS are in all the game consoles shipped to date. There are two answers to that question. You can look at it from the perspective of all the game consoles built and you can look at this question with specific consoles in mind.
Let’s look at the combined TFLOPS rating of all game consoles, which actually provides two answers as well.
If you count central processor FLOPS then you have one answer and if you count the FLOPS potential of the GPU and add it to the CPU’s FLOPS, then you have the second answer. This second version is controversial since the FLOPS of the GPU aren’t used in computations and some therefore claim that the GPU should not be counted as it simply represents a theoretical number. Others argue that GPUs are used in computation - the computation of shader operations. Both sides, however, agree that there isn’t yet a benchmark that can measure this discipline. And therefore I conclude that we shouldn’t use them in evaluating the CPU FLOPS of game consoles.
- The operation of "Memory Base 128" and "Mr.Save." (Preservation device put
on the market in Japan)" was brought close to a real machine. In "Nobunaga
no Yabou series", "Sangokushi III", "Genchouhishi", "THE ATLAS", and "Shin
Megami Tensei", it is possible to Load&Save normally. (This information
was received from Mr.tori. Very thanks.)
*If it doesn't operate well, please use "File->Open mb128 Folder" menu.
And, delete the old MB128 saving file.
- The I/O processing of PCE(TG16) controller(pad) was brought close to a
real machine. In "Shin Megami Tensei", when you remove "Memory Base 128"(
"Input->MB128" menu), the usual backup RAM saving can be done.
- With "Windows Vista" or selected "Use System Memory"("Setting->Screen"
menu), the problem that the font of the message(left-top) is not read
easily was corrected.
- "Use System Memory Only Window" was added to "Setting->Screen" menu. With
"Use System Memory" at full-screen mode, V-Sync might not work. Use it at
such time.
- Additionally, a detailed part has been improved and corrected.
* The happiness of the game is the world human race commonness. It longs for
peace.
* I think that it cannot do improvement & correction of the above-mentioned
if there are many neither operation report nor defect report. Thank you
really for you who reported.
Human scientists have discovered a new technology, the Node Drive, which will finally allow travel from star to star at speeds faster than light. As mankind sits poised on the brink of a new era, tragedy strikes: the first interstellar colony ship is destroyed and Earth itself ravaged by an unknown alien race. What was to be the Dawn of a new Age instead was the beginning of a new reality…We are not alone…and we are not safe.
Take control and build the ultimate empire in Sword of the Stars. In classic 4X style, prepare to eXplore mysterious star systems, claim planets to eXpand your empire, eXploit your resources, then design and build your own bigger, faster, stronger ships to eXterminate your enemies in epic, tactical, 3D battles, in single or multiplayer.
In Born of Blood, over 30 years have passed since the first stellar empires began to expand. Four races once set out to explore and conquer the galaxy, meeting in fiery clashes that spanned the universe, but now a promising age of diplomacy dawns. A new alien race emerges shattering the uneasy peace. With new drive systems, ships, technology, and tactics, the Zuul burst onto the scene with a devastating agenda. Form alliances and learn to work with your foes as you lead your fleets to victory in a universe at war.
Capcom has confirmed that Street Fighter IV will be coming to Xbox 360, PS3 & PC.
Granted, this comes as no surprise, but it's good to get official confirmation. It'll also come as no surprise that the Wii isn't on Capcom's format list. Soz, Nintendo fans.
As we've seen from previous screenshots, the game will feature classic characters Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li and Guile. A number of other characters will also debut in the game, including female spy Crimson Viper, martial artist Abel and wrestler El Fuerte.
Fans will be pleased to know that the game is played in the classic Street Fighter 2D perspective, but includes extra 3D flourishes. It will also use the traditional six-button gameplay, so all your old-school skills will be transferable.
All in all, it sounds like more of the same with nicer-looking, face-wrecking fireballs. Considering it's Street Fighter though, that's absolutely fine by us.
What isn't fine is the lack of even an estimated release date. But there's a countdown pointing to something happening in a little over three days on the official website. Go take a look.
Based on the comic book series and major motion picture from Marvel Studios, Iron Man immerses gamers in hardcore shooting action and explosive combat from the film. Exclusive content created just for the game makes it even more interesting for those who want to know more about the Iron Man story. With freedom to move anywhere in the open world environment, customize your Iron Man suit, and seamlessly transition between ground combat, and open air flight as you battle against armies of fighter jets, tanks, armored Super Villains, and more. You are a One Man Army. You are Iron Man.
For nearly 3000 years the astronaut Perry Rhodan, who has become immortal through a cell activator, has controlled the fate of his people, when suddenly an explosion shakes the centre of the Terranian Power. During this explosion Perry Rhodan's immediate confidante Mondra is kidnapped by extraterrestrial combat robots. Alone he tries to find the true reasons for the irruption as well as the manipulators behind the conspiracy. During his search he discovers recordings about the myth of a thought to be dead, extraterrestrial race that had enslaved humanity a long, long time ago - the Illochim. With bravery, cleverness and brilliant investigation, he manages to light up the darkness
His untiring search leads him to many foreign races across the galaxy, away from his mother planet Terra to the subterranean colonies of the planet Gom Callaedus in undiscovered enemy territory. While fighting with organ traders and exiled criminals the secret behind the dangerous incidents is finally solved: the truth about the awakened, life-threatening danger for the residents of the Milky Way is lying buried on the far away moon Betha
Microsoft has claimed its next operating system will be released with multi-touch features as an alternative to the good old mouse.
The new input method will allow users to enlarge and shrink photos, trace routes on maps, paint pictures or play the piano.
A similar multi-touch product called Microsoft Surface was unveiled last year and debuted in AT&T stores in April. It was essentially a Windows PC in a coffee table sized container, and the surface was a screen that could be manipulated by touching it.
It now seems that Microsoft is taking the technology and applying it to the home market. Speaking at the All Things Digital conference in San Diego, Chief executive Steve Ballmer described a demo of the product as "a small snippet" of the next version of Windows, after admitting he wants "to do better" than Vista.
The War On terror is raging. Violence is escalating. Time and time againCivilians are being kidnapped for ransom. Despite earlier assertions the government takes up negotiations to free the hostages. At the same time they also send a special unit of the US Navy seals just in case the negotiations take a little too long.
Face extremely dangerous and desperate opponents. They work in teams and can creep up on you from behind, surround you, call in reinforcements, sneak up, give each other cover or, when they are wounded, retreat from the battlefield or seek cover behind the nearest obstructions.
It is April 1945, the last days of the second world war. Berlin is under siege and the empire of the Third Reich is crumbling down. Hitler is hiding in his Fuhrer bunker. Knowing full well that he has found himself in a hopeless situation. The highest ranking SS officers decide to execute a very risky plan.
The most important personnel of the Third Reich are to be evacuated before the Soviet flag is mounted on the Reichstag. The resistance learns of this plan.
The first official trailer for Far Cry 2 has hit the internet, ahead of Ubisoft's press conference tonight, which we hope will shed new light on the shooter.
The trailer is good. And by 'good,' we mean it would be prompting us to re-evaluate our finances and buy a new PC (if it wasn't coming to PS3 and 360).
Astute viewers might notice that a web address for something called Reuben Blog is superimposed near the end of the trailer. Contrary to what you might think, it's not a watermark for the blog we ripped the trailer off, but part of Ubisoft's marketing campaign.
Hit the link above to check out what appears to be the blog of Far Cry 2 protagonist Reuben Oluwagembi. There's bound to be a few juicy nuggets about the back story buried in there.
As if we hadn't put up enough screenshots in the last 24 hours, Blizzard's gone and released some new pics of its colourful and lovely RTS sequel, StarCraft II. They look brilliant; go on, we dare you to moan in the comments.
Recently the required system specs for the future Korean GOTY leaked, revealing that - shock horror - it won't run on a Casio calculator. But Blizzard told us the "leaked" specs are nothing more than "speculation". We'll see...
Have a read of this recent hands-on preview when you're done with the screens.
- A3000 1.3 SuperKickstart fakeMMU bonus remapping fixed
- A3000 mode (=A3000 SCSI enabled) forces UAE boot rom to backup location (no more conflicts with 1.3 SuperKickstart bonus area)
- notification area icon is now created only once at startup
- added function to uae.resource that can be used to query function pointers using string labels (more portable and safe)
- 32->16bit Picasso96 color space conversion fixed
- all missing Picasso96 color space conversion routines added
- HAM6 with less than 6 planes emulated properly
- 0.5M chip + 0.5M slow + ECS Agnus chip ram aliasing implemented (DMA addresses 0x80000-0xfffff are aliased to 0xc00000-0xc7ffff) Previous chip mapping fixes were not 100% correct, there is no "bus noise" when slow ram is enabled. Fixes demo "Move Any Mountain" by "Lazy Bones"
- floppy drive sounds fixed in 4+ sound channel modes
- fixed rare bug in configuration list, missing directory entries possible if it only contained other directories (no files)
- implemented configuration cache that caches all data needed to populate Configuration-panel quickly without directory/file scanning. Currently always enabled (this way I surely get enough testing..) Cache is stored in file called "configuration.cache" in configuration root directory. Cache file is only re-created when configuration is saved, deleted or cache file is missing or corrupted. Enable/disable in future, first some testing
Have you been dying to play your old NES or Super Nintendo games once again? Perhaps you can't find your system, maybe you have the system, but need all the cables to hook it up, or maybe you are just sick and tired of the old thing never working properly?! With this brand new, top-loading system, you can play all of your favorite Nintendo AND Super Nintendo games once again on the same console, and the best part is, they will work every time!
- Compatible with SNES and NES Video Game
- Saves Space
- Reinforced Cartridge Doors
- Slide-proof Bottom Support
- Compatible with Most Japanese Titles
- Compatible with Original 16-bit controllers
- Sleeker Design
- Lighter in Weight
- Power Switch Button V2.0 (8-bit, Off, 16-bit)
- S-Video Connection Capability
- Air Through Vent to Prevent Overheating
- Dual Controller Ports
- Dual Game Slots
- 5V AC Adapter for Energy-Efficiency
Reuters report revealed that 80s rock gods Motley Crue's new single "Saints of Los Angeles," which was released only in digital formats for Rock Band and on online services, was downloaded 47,000 times in its first week on the Rock Band music store.
Online sales from music stores such as Amazon and iTunes tallied up to little more than 10,000 sales.
"We do research on every artist we have, and the research said that the people who bought Motley Crue music and tickets play Rock Band and video games ... [so] it was our inclination to go there," explained Tenth Street Chief Executive Officer Allen Kovac. "As marketers, it's our job to find the audience. If our audience tells us they're sitting at Xbox and PlayStation, that's our job to do that."
Kovac continued, "The resurgence of rock has happened because of Rock Band and Guitar Hero. And the reason is because of the interaction with the audience. The more music marketing people look at interaction with the audience as opposed to only radio or a video, the more lasting the experience will be and the longer the artists' career will be."
Nexon America, publisher of MapleStory, has announced the closed beta for a new free-to-play, FPS-centric, MMO. The new "Combat Arms" is planned for a full release later this summer and promises not only the ability to customize your soldier, but also your guns and equipment.
"The closed beta test will run exclusively at FilePlanet.com for one week beginning May 30th. Once the game is released to the public, Combat Arms will receive regular content updates, including new weapons, gear, maps, and more free game modes."
- Small updates
- Fixed the Atary Lynx importing, by removing the 64 bytes
header when nessesary, so that the CRC32 will be good.
- Fixed the white border around the ECC GUI buttons.
- Replaced necessary CELL images with the eccident name for
that platform.
- Removed all CUE extensions, these are not ROM files.
- Renamed ´Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80´ to ´Tandy/Radio
Shack TRS-80 Color Computer´
- Renamed ´Applied Technologies Microbee´ to
´Microbee Systems - Microbee´
- Replaced the ´Applied Technologies´ to the
´Microbee Systems´ logo in the
Microbee system platform.
- Fixed necessary emulator pathnames and added where needed.
- Added the ´Casio PV-2000´ informations/factsheet.
- Added the watara logo in the ´Watara Supervision´ platform.
- Cleaned the ´Watara Supervision´ teaser by removing lost pixels.
- Cleaned the ´ScummVM´ teaser image by removing lost pixels.
- Adds & fixes for best parameter/emulators:
- Added the Xroar emulator for the TRS-80 Color Computer.
- Added the ubee512 emulator for the Microbee System.
- Added the ´X millennium T-tune´ emulator for the Sharp X1 Computer.
- Added the ´WinX1´ emulator for the Sharp X1 Computer.
- Selected Fusion to be the best emulator for the Sega.
- Fixed the emulator homepage for the Pokemon Mini ´Minimon´ emulator.
- Added best emulator settings for
- Amstrad CPC
- Sharp X68000
- Sony Playstation 1
- Added Extensions:
- Acorn BBC: ADL
- Applied Technologies Microbee: DSK, D40, DS40, S80, SS80,
D80, DS80, D82, DS82, D84, DS84 (removed ROM, BIN)
- Atari 8-bit: EXE, COM, A8S
- Atari 5200: CAR
- Bandai Wonderswan: BIN
- Bandai Wonderswan Color: BIN
- Casio PV-1000: BAS, PBF
- Commodore 16/plus4: LNX
- Commodore VIC-20: A0, B0, 20, 40, 60, BIN, CRT, 70, 80, P00
- Dragon 32/64: PAK, DXT, DGN, S19
- Matra/Hachete Alice: WAV
- NEC PC-9801: FDD
- Nintendo - Super Nintendo: BIN
- RCA Studio II: BIN, ASM
- Robotron KC series: BAS
- ScummVM : GME, SM0, 000, LA0, 1C (removed DSK)
- Sony PocketStation: GME
- Sega SG-1000: BIN
- Sharp MZ-700: MZF
- Sharp MZ-1500: MZF
- Sharp X1: D88, 2D (removed GBA)
- Sinclair ZX Spectrum: SCL, BLK, CSW, WAV
- Vtech Creativision: BIN
- Vtech Laser 200: VZ, DSK
- Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer: CCC
- Thomson MO5: BIN
- Tomy Pyuta: BIN
- ECC Theme
v1.1.0.5
- Improved ECC Core detecion, so that ECC software can be found.
- ECC Bugreport
v2.2.0.5
- Improved ECC Core detecion, so that ECC software can be found.
- Updated the MD5 hash file to 0.9.7 WIP20
- ECC Installer
v1.3.0.6 (ECC v0.9.7.R1):
- Compiled with NSIS v2.37.
- Added 2 more options available to install.
- Fixed 2 bugs in the installer that did not work in the 0.9.7 installer:
- Creation of the desktop icon.
- Restructure ECC Images.
- Default installfolder now point to the users profile.
* Added menu option to display cursor line at bottom of screen.
* Added \d option to -KbdCmd command line parameters
* Made -KbdCmd processing more resilient
1) Another adjustment to the 1541 drive head stepping logic and initialisation of disk drive that is broken in the previous release as seen by excessive flashing of the 1541 LED.
2) The 1541 disk motor will run continue to spin for a short a fraction of a second after being turned off. The disk loader for Star Trekking the Game is now more accurately accommodated.
Ubisoft has unveiled Michel Ancel's next project - a sequel to cult classic Beyond Good & Evil.
A teaser trailer for the game was shown for the first time at tonight's UbiDays conference in Paris. It showed a desert scene with Jade sitting atop a broken down car, using a parasol for shade. The camera panned round to show her piggy friend resting against the back of the car, a magazine on his head, snoring.
A fly began buzzing around the pig's head and he snorted it through his nose before muttering, "50." As the camera panned back out and rose high above the scene more buzzing and snorting was heard, followed by silence and then, "51."
And that's it - no official title for the game, no word on which platforms it's in development for and certainly no suggestion of a release date. Here's hoping more info is released soon.
Sales of Xbox 360 consoles are 18 per cent ahead of the PlayStation 3 in the UK since the launch of Grand Theft Auto IV, Chart-Track told Eurogamer today.
In even better news for Microsoft, official GTA IV sales figures for the first four weeks also reveal that the Xbox 360 is the format of choice for UK gamers, with 57 per cent of the total sales of the game on 360, compared to 43 per cent on PS3.
Current Chart-Track panel figures place sales of the game in the UK at over 1.3 million, meaning around 750,000 copies have shifted on Xbox 360, and around 570,000 on PS3. To put that into context, in under four weeks Rockstar’s opus has shifted almost as many copies as last year’s best-seller, FIFA 08 - a game which launched on every format under the sun.
The effect on driving hardware sales has also been more dramatic on 360 than PS3, according to Chart-Track’s figures. Comparing sales of both consoles for the four weeks prior to GTA IV’s launch to the four weeks since its launch, hardware units have risen on 360 by 47 per cent, compared to just eight per cent on PS3 - though it’s fair to point out that the release of GT 5 Prologue had already given PS3 a significant boost in the weeks leading up to GTA IV’s debut.
Looking at the year to date, the picture looks much rosier for Sony. Taking all 21 weeks of 2008 into account, sales of PlayStation 3 in the UK are 10 per cent ahead of Xbox 360. Prior to the launch of GTA IV, the PS3 boasted a 20 per cent lead on 360, so the gap is narrowing.
With exclusive downloadable content due on Xbox 360 later this year, it looks like this might be the deciding factor for many. But will it be worth the huge sums Microsoft paid Take 2? Let us know what you think.
MAMETesters Bugs Fixed
-----------------------------------------------
- 01827: [Interface] galaga: DIP switch information is not being readded properly when .CFG is read. (Aaron Giles)
- 01837: [DIP/Input] Missing input definitions (Aaron Giles)
- 01039: [Interface] trog: Memory area limit of the cheat engine. (ShimaPong)
- 01690: [Graphics] goldstar, goldstbl: Damaged and partially missing graphic. (Fabio Priuli)
- 01153: [Speed] clshroad: The game is slow, the frame rate suffers, and even the calorie bar flickers. (Nicola Salmoria)
- 00267: [Graphics] clshroad: Occasionally a cycler who's graphics are garbled will come along, (Nicola Salmoria)
- 01692: [Graphics] athena: Corrupt sprites in game. (robiza)
- 01834: [Graphics] fitegolf, countryc: Graphics corruption (robiza)
- 01780: [Graphics] pingpong: Level select arrow's not displayed (Nicola Salmoria)
- 01822: [Interface] OSD causes crash when try to show the Screen Refresh Rate menu. (Aaron Giles)
- 01830: [DIP/Input] All sets in m58.c: Conditional coinage dip not visible/working for coin mode 1 (Aaron Giles)
- 01836: [DIP/Input] qcrayon2: Conditional input not visible/working for dip game control joystick (Aaron Giles)
- 01833: [Graphics] spikes91: missing text layer (David Haywood)
- 01832: [DIP/Input] finalgdr: Cannot insert coins (all coin slots are disabled) (David Haywood)
- 00240: [Gameplay] galaga88: Most of the time the shooting accuracy shown on the screen when the game is over is not computed correctly. (Nicola Salmoria)
- 01741: [Graphics] ldrun4: Sprites are misplaced two pixels to the right. (Nicola Salmoria)
- 01816: [DIP/Input] onetwo, onetwoe: credit problem and maybe sound problem (David Haywood)
- 00245: [DIP/Input] tomahawk: There are no separate keys for player 2 in cocktail mode. (Nicola Salmoria)
- 01735: [Graphics] sf2m4, sf2m5, sf2m6, sf2m7, sf2yyc, sf2koryu: games with bootleg kludge doesn't work (Nicola Salmoria)
- 00070: [Misc.] nettoqc: In-game message. (couriersud)
- 01756: [Sound] 800fath, knockout, marine, triplep: No sound in game. (couriersud)
- 01825: [Interface] Toggling Tab menu works as F2 key in games with their service mode DIPs on the top of the menu. (Aaron Giles)
- 00407: [Misc.] qtono2: At the game over scene, MAME reports "layer c000 contact MAMEDEV". (Nicola Salmoria)
- 00237: [Sound] jumping: I have a Jumping bootleg and the music has the same tempo of the original rainbow islands. (Nicola Salmoria)
- 00208: [Original Reference] monymony: I am measuring clocks on my Money Money pcb but I have a problem with the tms5200 clock. (Nicola Salmoria)
- 01776: [Misc.] pzloop2, pzloop2j: In-game message "write to CPS-A register 24 contact MAMEDEV" at startup. (Nicola Salmoria)
- 01755: [Misc.] mmatrix, mmatrixj: CPS-B read port 10 (Nicola Salmoria)
- 01823: [Graphics] digdug, xevious, galaga + all clones: cocktail mode, player 2 has all sprites offset by an inch or two (couriersud)
- 01826: [Graphics] All sets in mappy.c: All cocktail modes are displayed incorrectly for 2nd player (couriersud)
- 01819: [Misc.] "Coinlock disabled coin x" message displayed upon startup (couriersud)
- 01828: [DIP/Input] Most sets in taito_f3.c driver: Coin slots locks information does not disappear (couriersud)
- 01719: [DIP/Input] bking, bking2, bking3: Player 1 and 2 Start mapped twice. (couriersud)
Source Changes
------------------------------------------
Changed default DIP switches in onetwo.c. Common coinslot mode seems broken, or our code is wrong. [David Haywood]
Updated documentation in several drivers based on old readmes and other data that might get lost. [Andrew Gardner]
Fixed COP420 instructions JSRP, LBI, LQID, and SKT. Draco now has sound. Also fixed COP420 instructions XAS and INIL. Fixed cycle count for extended opcodes. Added CKO general purpose input. [Curt Coder]
Improvements to American Poker II driver. [Roberto Fresca]
- Reworked the color routines switching to resnet system.
- Added a resistor network diagram.
- Switch to pre-defined crystal value.
- Changed the WATCHDOG_TIME_INIT to be based on miliseconds instead of hertz.
- Other minor cleanup/fixes.
- Updated technical notes.
peplus driver changes: [Jim Stolis]
* Updated coin-in timing
* Extended memory address range of DUART
* Fixed overlapping input port bits
Fixed PORT_IMPULSE handling. The old code would force inputs to be asserted for at least the number of frames indicated, but keeping the button pressed would keep the input asserted. Now the input is asserted far exactly the number of frames indicated. [Nicola Salmoria]
Fixed memory access in the 80286 cpu core which made i286.h obsolete. Changed CPUINFO_INT_MAX_INSTRUCTION_BYTES to prevent crashes during disassembly. [Wilbert Pol]
Fixed behavior of toggle switches so that they don't lose their value when the UI is up. They also can now be used for multibit DIP switch settings in which case they toggle through all the options. Added new functions input_field_select_next_setting() and input_field_select_previous_setting() which can be used to iterate properly through DIP switches. Fixed the behavior for cases where conditional ports are in play (you could get stuck). Changed uimenu.c to call these instead of implementing its own. [Aaron Giles]
Changed uimenu.c so that hitting ENTER on a DIP switch resets it to its default value. This is analagous to how the OSD sliders behave. [Aaron Giles]
Renamed EEPROM_* to eeprom_*. Updated all drivers accordingly. Typedef'ed a real eeprom_interface structure. [Aaron Giles]
Added a PORT_CUSTOM for the eeprom bit reading. Updated several drivers to use that by specifying it in their input ports instead of having a custom read handler that inserted the bit forcefully. Also added a PORT_CUSTOM for the ticket dispenser callback as well. Updated the dcheese driver to use it. Many more drivers can be updated to use these new PORT_CUSTOMs in the future, eliminating hacky input port read handlers. [Aaron Giles]
Changed text used to specify a menu separator in uimenu.c, and added a #define for the new string. [Nathan Woods]
Added TOKEN_SKIP_* macros to tokenize.h. [Aaron Giles]
Changed error reporting during input port detokenization to fill a buffer rather than fatalerror-ing immediately. Should now properly skip over any invalid tokens. Enhanced error detection during input port detokenization to catch duplicate bits. There are a lot of these! Updated initialization code to print errors and fatal only if the input ports were unable to be constructed at all. [Aaron Giles]
Fixed duplicate input port bits in pacman.c, gottlieb.c, cps1.c, megadriv.c, segae.c. [David Haywood]
Added support for a NULL set of input ports, used by the empty driver. [Aaron Giles]
Fixed cpu_getiloops() which was not returning the correct value. [Nicola Salmoria]
Made gijoe not crash, but still don't understand what the original code was trying to do. [David Haywood]
Moved suprpool to a better match hardware. Fixed the ROM load and added a list of PCB components. [Roberto Fresca]
Implemented autoload mode in 8257 DMA: [Miodrag Milanovic]
* added support for autoload mode
* fixed bug in calculating count
Fixed duplicate input port bits in dkong.c. [couriersud]
MIPS core changes: [Aaron Giles]
- renamed struct mips3_config -> mips3_config
- updated all drivers to the new names
- removed MIPS3DRC_STRICT_COP0 flag, which is no longer used
- a few minor cleanups
- moved implementation-specific state into a pointer hanging off of the core MIPS3 state
- removed large context in favor of a pointer to the large context to help improve context switch times
Changed the behavior of the translate callback in the CPU interface: [Aaron Giles]
- added new 'intention' parameter to the translate callback to indicate read/write/fetch access, user/supervisor mode, and a flag for debugging
- updated all call sites to pass an appropriate value
- updated all CPU cores to the new prototype
UML updates: [Aaron Giles]
- added new opcode SETC to set the carry flag from a source bit
- added new opcode BSWAP to swap bytes within a value
- updated C, x86, x64 back-ends to support the new opcodes
- updated disassembler to support the new opcodes
DRC frontend changes: [Aaron Giles]
- fixed bug in handling edge case with the PC near the 0 or ~0
- added new flag to tag privileged instructions
Added new option -snapname which lets you provide a template for how snapshot names are generated. See config.txt for details. [Aaron Giles]
Added new astring functions astring_del, astring_replace, and astring_replacec. [Aaron Giles]
Removed meaningless service_coin_lockout_w function. Updated the zaxxon driver to correctly handle the coin enable lines. [Nicola Salmoria]
Fixed bug that caused DIP switches to be improperly read from game cfg file in certain circumstances. [Aaron Giles]
Added internal default tags for input ports when saving/loading. [Aaron Giles]
Updated cheat sytem drastically: [ShimaPong]
* Supported (preliminary) new cheat format
- Added new operations, PDWWrite, RWrite, VRWrite, CWrite, Move, Branch, Loop, Popup
- Added new options, ValueSelectNegative, Return, AddressReadFrom, DataReadFrom
- Added cheat variables, You can store data with Write or Move operations and read as an address or data from each fields
- Added condition check for CWrite, Branch and Popup operations
- Added new custom codes, Separator, Layer
- Supported Shared Code [MESS ONLY], different machine shares common code for a game
* Allowed mixed label-select or user-select with standard code
* Added label selector menu for label-selection code
* Added extend comment displayer for multi-line comments
* Added command menu for cheat list and watchpoint, Easy selectable cheat commands in this menu
* Added debug view menu [DEBUG BUILD ONLY], It displays internal info to debug cheat system
* Supported unique separator by ui_draw_menu() in several menus
* Added user defined search region, You can set free memory range from cheat database
* Enhanced error check for cheat code to prevent from unexpected working. Error code is locked. If you select this code, the analyser works instead of the code activater
* Enhanced value input with keyboard-less, Cheat edit key gives new input system in several menus, Left/right keys moves the edit cursor and up/down keys changes a value
* Added cheat command save, reload, reset in option menu
* Supported address shift in searching, Now searchable default region in TMS340*0 cpu games (Trog, Smash T.V. etc)
* Refined cheat menu handling with function pointer called cheat_menu_handler
* Added format strings table to manage in an integrated fashion
* Deleted unused hacks of default search region for Neo Geo and TMS34010
* Refined code based on MAME coding guidelines
- Renamed many functions/structures/constants, But not complete due to too many items
- Converted small but often used functions to INLINE
- Fixed a comparison in case of 0 or NULL
- Added missing function prototype for several functions
New games added or promoted from NOT_WORKING status
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
beatmania THE FINAL (ver JA-A) [Chizzy]
Player's Edge Plus (XP000112) White Hot Aces Poker [hammer300]
ChuckECheese's Match Game [Exodus]
Coronation Street Quiz Game [Phil Bennett]
New clones added
------------------------------
Fred Flintstones' Memory Match (5 new sets) [Exodus]
Mighty! Pang (Euro 001010) [Bonky]
Dynamite Cop (USA, Model 2C) [The Guru]
Atomic Boy (revision B) [Stefan Lindberg]
Nintendo's Wii Fit is the best-selling game in Australia for the third week in a row following its release according to data supplied by GfK Australia.
New releases Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures and Haze reached the fifth and tenth spots, respectively. Grand Theft Auto IV continues to be a strong seller, with the 360 version outselling out the PS3 version.
The Top Ten best-selling titles in Australia for the week ending May 25 were:
1. Wii Fit (Wii)
2. Grand Theft Auto IV (360)
3. Wii Play (Wii)
4. Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3)
5. Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures (PC)
6. Hanna Montana (DS)
7. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii)
8. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock bundle (PS2)
9. Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 (Wii)
10. Haze (PS3)
Nintendo platforms have dominated the Japanese software chart for the week ended May 25, with titles for the Wii and DS taking up nine of the top ten places.
Let's make a Pro Baseball Team! for the DS has entered the software charts at number one, selling 59,000 units.
It was closely followed by Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G for the PSP at 51,000 units, dropping from first to second place and pushing Mario Kart Wii down a place to third.
DS titles Glory of Hercules: Proof of Spirit and Scarlet Fragment DS are the only other new entries into the top ten debuting at fifth and seventh places respectively.
The Japanese chart follows:
01. Let's Make a Pro Baseball Team! (DS)
02. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (PSP)
03. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
04. Wii Fit (Wii)
05. Glory of Hercules: Proof of Spirit (DS)
06. DS Beautiful Letter Training (DS)
07. Scarlet Fragment DS (DS)
08. Battalion Wars 2 (Wii)
09. Taiko Drum Master DS: Seven Island Adventure (DS)
10. Link's Crossbow Training (Wii)
Sega’s upcoming online version of its gaming series Football Manager is set to offer a wide range of advertising opportunities when it launches this summer after securing an exclusive deal with IGA Worldwide today.
Sega Europe, in conjunction with Sports Interactive, is launching its Massively Multiplayer Online version of Football Manager Live with a range of advertising opportunities said to be in-keeping with those experienced at a real football match; league and tournament sponsorship, pitch-side billboards, web-based MPU’s and a number of static integrations.
IGA will also be using its proprietary Radial technology to dynamically link ad spaces between the Football Manager Live game client and the corresponding locations on the football manager live web portal. This service will allow advertisers extended coverage with the opportunity for video and rich media content within the web-based MPU spaces.
Justin Townsend, chief executive of IGA Worldwide, said: “The Football Manager series boasts three of the top five fastest selling PC games in history and we are extremely enthusiastic about partnering with Sports Interactive and Sega on these world-leading titles leading into the Euro 2008 series this summer.
“The unique opportunities available to our clients in these titles offer unrivalled exposure, engagement and accountability whilst adding realism and context to a game environment that prides itself on these same qualities.”
A new off-road racing game based on the official Score International Baja license is on the way from Activision, the game publisher announced today.
Score International Baja 1000 is under development by Left Field Productions, a California-based studio whose previous credits include Dave Mirra's BMX Challenge, World Series of Poker: Battle For the Bracelets, and the upcoming Nintendo Wii game Nitrobike.
"No race demands more endurance of both man and machine than the Baja 1000," said Sal Fish, President and CEO of Score International, the world's leading desert racing organization. "In consulting Activision for a video game version, we meticulously explained what's needed to capture the intensity of the Baja. They've nailed not only the look but also the elements of true desert racing."
Activision said the game will feature more than 90 vehicles across multiple classes, including trophy trucks, class I, motorcycles and ATVs. Realistic dirt and damage modeling are promised, as are "unforgiving conditions and blistering speeds."
Score International Baja 1000 is not to be confused with this year's other off-road desert endurance racing game, Baja, scheduled for a September release from publisher THQ and developer 2XL Games. Members of the 2XL team were behind ATV Offroad Fury, MX vs. ATV Unleashed and Motocross Madness.
Score International Baja 1000 is being developed for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and PC.
Sega has passed along a new trailer for Gas Powered Games' Space Siege. And there's plenty of in-game footage to ogle over.
We recently ran a PC Gamer preview on the game, which began: "There's nothing too deep or life-encompassing about Space Siege. It is, like its goblin-bound forebear, Dungeon Siege, basically about the hack and slash. This time, however, the slash is done with an arm-mounted laser-swordfork thing, and the hack is, well, more like a blast.
"Grenades, electrical discharges, blazing autocannons: you're reaping revenge as a hi tech part-cyborg killer on a technology curve that would make the Terminator blush."
It's only just barely made it out into the wild, but DigiTimes is now reporting that ASUS has already stopped taking orders from resellers for its 8.9-inch Eee PC 900 in anticipation of the now imminent launch of the Atom-based Eee PC 901.
That word apparently comes from some unspecified "industry sources," who also claim that the Eee PC 900 was only ever a "transitional product" to begin with, which ASUS pushed out the door with a plain old Celeron M processor in order to get an 8.9-inch model out ahead of its competitors. Certainly a reasonable conclusion to draw, but a quick glance of online retailers shows that there's still plenty of Eee PC 900s out there for the taking if you're not sold on this whole Atom thing.
Details on the multi-touch functionality in Windows 7 are only a couple of days old, but it appears that Microsoft is already looking ahead with a multi-touch SDK slated for release at this year's Professional Developers Conference in October. At that time, Microsoft is expected to "highlight the new multi-touch gesture APIs and explain how you can leverage them in your applications." [PDC via tabletpctalk]
Iomega's getting quite fed up with listing those GBs, and thus, it's exceptionally thrilled to be offering up a brand new 1TB model for your consideration. Fittingly christened the Super eGo, the external hard drive you see above packs a single one-terabyte HDD, USB 2.0 port and a one-year warranty. Folks who don't care to wait for a 2TB edition can grab one now in ruby red, midnight blue or jet black for $269.95 [£137.73].
According to research compiled by Nielsen Games, the European Union is the second-largest videogaming territory in the world.
Gaming generated EUR 7.3 billion (USD 11.4 billion) in the European Union during 2007, compared with EUR 7.4 billion (USD 11.5 billion) in Asia and EUR 6.9 billion (USD 10.7 billion) in the United States.
The average age of a gamer in the UK is 33 - the highest out of the territories surveyed - and 42 per cent of UK game players have children.
Welcome to this week's Games Update, our weekly summary featuring all new product arrivals from the last seven days.
Quite a large number of popular games came out this week. These include Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies edition [JPN and US] for Xbox360™.
This game is an upgraded re-release of the critically acclaimed action game. With more content and cross platform gameplay, the war for survival is made even more intense and challenging.
Another war between good and evil is waging in Battle Fantasia on both Xbox360™ and PlayStation3™ [JPN and Asian versions]. This stunning game combines RPG elements, high quality graphics and intriguing characters together with exhilarating fights. Be sure to master the techniques and practice your reflexes as you tackle the tough enemies.
Aside from this refreshingly new fighter, some classic NEOGEO fighting games like The King of Fighters Nests, Fatal Fury Battle Archives 1 & 2 and Fuuun Super Combo are released as best priced editions for your PlayStation2™.
Reflexes and techniques are very important in rhythm games as well. The much awaited music game beatmania IIDX 14 Gold is released on PlayStation2™ this week as well with two special editions (Konamistyle Special Edition and Konamistyle Special Edition Complete) already presold.
Konami released another rhythm game aside from beatmania IIDX 14 Gold. Pop'n Music Be-Mouse is for PC and comes with a specially designed mouse which can double as a handheld device for the game.
A good way to train your reflexes and keep fit is through Family Trainer: Athletic World on your Nintendo Wii™. Use the specially designed Wii mat to have some fun with your family and friends. Work out from beginners mode toward master mode and see your progresses.
Train your mind with strategy and tactic games. Front Mission 2089: Border of Madness for Nintendo DS™ is about teamwork. Gather information, analyze them and customize your mech (Wanzers) for the mission.
Mugen no Frontier: Super Robot Taisen OG Saga is an exciting unorthodox RPG released on Nintendo DS™, travel across worlds as a bounty hunter, meet all sorts of inhabitants and save them from the war.
After seeing all the different sights and admiring the colorful worlds in Mugen no Frontier: Super Robot Taisen immerse yourself in the dark savage world of Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures on your PC. Battle alongside King Conan and find your own destiny in this large scale MMORPG.
The US version of HAZE for PlayStation3™ and the Asian version of Iron Man for Xbox360™ are shipping this week along with Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots OST.
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™:
Battle Fantasia JPN US$ 59.90
Iron Man ASIA US$ 49.90
Lost Planet: Colonies JPN US$ 59.90
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition US US$ 34.90
Overlord JPN US$ 64.90
UEFA Euro 2008 US US$ 59.90
PlayStation3™:
Battle Fantasia ASIA US$ 54.90
Battle Fantasia JPN US$ 59.90
HAZE US US$ 64.90
Iron Man ASIA US$ 49.90
SingStar US US$ 44.90
SingStar Bundle (w/ 2 Microphones) US US$ 69.90
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 JPN US$ 68.90
Turok JPN US$ 64.90
UEFA Euro 2008 US US$ 59.90
Nintendo Wii™:
Biohazard 4 Wii Edition (Best Price!) JPN US$ 29.90
Family Trainer: Athletic World (w/ Mat) JPN US$ 69.90
The DOG Island US US$ 34.90
PlayStation2™:
Burnout Revenge (EA:SY! 1980) JPN US$ 20.90
D.C. II P.S.: Da Capo II Plus Situation JPN US$ 69.00
D.C. II P.S.: Da Capo II Plus Situation [DX Pack] JPN N/A
Def Jam Vendetta (EA:SY! 1980) JPN US$ 20.90
Fatal Fury Battle
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