He was the guest that no-one expected to see – and yet Keith Vaz MP, Parliament's most hostile critic of the industry, turned out last night at an event in support of gaming, claiming: "I've never been against games".

Parliament Games Day, held at Portcullis House in Westminster, was organised by pressure group Gamers' Voice to bring together politicians and the industry to promote the cultural and economic strengths of Britsoft.

Vaz, whose arrival turned heads, told Eurogamer: "I've never been against games. I've been against violent games that are able to fall into the hands of young people who are perhaps not able to understand the implications of what they're doing."

Vaz is well known to gamers for his fierce campaigning against titles including Manhunt, Bully and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. But in a sign that his views may have softened, he added: "Clearly there are some very violent games around – but if you're 18-plus then you can make those decisions yourselves".

"I don't oppose games," he inisted. "I just think it's very important that people respect and acknowledge the age limits. And the campaign has always been about ensuring there is proper labelling so that people know exactly what kind of games they should have."

Other guests saw his presence as symbolically significant. Minister for Culture Ed Vaizey said: "I'm constantly teasing Keith and I think he is aware of the sea-change in videogames and that, particularly with the new generation coming into parliament, there are now many more MPs who grew up with games as a normal part of their life."

He added: "It's important that there's a voice in parliament that talks about issues of concern, be it about videogames or media in general – I think he now realises the gaming debate is now far wider than that."

"Keith is very concerned about classification and violence in games," said fellow Labour MP Luciana Berger. "War games are one element of a very wide range of games you can play and engage with be that recreational or educational."

It was a big moment for Gamers' Voice chairman Paul Gibson. "When Keith Vaz walked in there was a murmur of recognition across the room," he said. "Keith is a sensible MP but at the same time he hasn't made many friends in the videogames industry.

"For him to show up this evening is a show of good will on his part, because he knew when he walked into that room that everyone was going to turn and look. It's fantastic that he came along – he didn't stay for long – but the fact he came speaks volumes."

Asked if he was happy with the new games classification system – still waiting to be passed into law – Vaz said he felt it was "moving in the right direction".

"When we started this campaign the age limit was the size of half a, I think, a 5p coin, which was very small," he explained. "Obviously we want to see what PEGI does, but the more that they can draw to the attention of young people the need to respect the age limit better – and if you're over 18 you can do what you want. No-one wants to stop you playing your games."

The Leicester East MP then drew attention to the recent, controversial Panorama documentary on games addiction, adding: "What is important is that people enjoy games but not spend their entire lives playing games".

Which is the same as any other hobby? "Indeed," he admitted

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...-against-games ...

Sony will likely force the PlayStation 3 hackers to stop distributing the tools they created and released online it alleges are directly responsible for enabling piracy - at least temporarily.

It's bad news for George Hotz, aka Geohot, who led a group of high-profile hackers that successfully circumvented Sony's security measures designed to prevent gamers from running unofficial programs on the PS3.

According to legal documents published by Hotz on his blog, Sony believes the hackers have infringed areas of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) in obtaining the encryption and decryption keys of the console without authorisation, and that the defendants are directly responsible for enabling piracy via the tools they created and released online. A comprehensive round-up of the allegations can be found on Digital Foundry.

"A DMCA action was pretty much inevitable once word of this got out," said Jas Purewal, a games lawyer at Olswang and writer of Gamer/Law. "Difficult for me to see how Hotz will be able to avoid a successful DMCA claim, personally.

"So, all in all, no great surprises here - Sony really had no choice but to take these actions."

So, what's next for Hotz and the Fail0verflow hacking team now Sony has filed suit?

"In practical terms, it seems they [Sony] are applying for a restraining order and injunction against Hotz, which if successful would at least stop him distributing the hack," Purewal said.

According to Alex Chapman of Sheridans Solicitors, it's too early to comment on the merits of the claims in the case, but he described Sony's move as "a very early step in the action" and "ex parte", which means that a decision may be made without hearing from the defendants.

"Usually there will be a return date which will be an opportunity for the defendants to make their representations and for the Judge to consider the case more fully," Chapman explained to Eurogamer.

"Ex Parte applications are generally made where there is some urgency and the courts in those cases don't necessarily decide on the merits of the case but on the 'balance of convenience'.

"In this case Sony is asking that the information on the websites is taken down. It will be saying that the publication of these hacks/cracks causes it damage that cannot adequately be compensated in damages and the defendants are not inconvenienced by taking it down - since they can be compensated in damages."

Chapman suspects that the court will likely agree with Sony's request – for now, but that doesn't mean Sony will be victorious in the lawsuit.

"When courts look at cases where the disclosure of information like this is likely to cause a company irreparable damage they invariably do make the order requested, at least until the applicable return date," he said.

"This is important because if the defendants 'lose' this part of the action it does not mean that they have lost the whole case or that they are liable, just that they have to take down the content as the balance of convenience favours Sony."

Both Hotz and the Fail0verflow group have responded to Sony's lawusit.

"I am a firm believer in digital rights," Hotz yesterday told the BBC. "I would expect a company that prides itself on intellectual property to be well versed in the provisions of the law, so I am disappointed in Sony's current action.

"I have spoken with legal counsel and I feel comfortable that Sony's action against me doesn't have any basis."

The case continues.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...was-inevitable ...

News via http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox1data/...ylizXYOzpt.php

Whats new?
- Added video previews. The format must be wmv and be placed under GAME:\Videos. The filename is .wmv. For example mslug4.wmv. Note : clone roms will display the video of parent roms. Also, due to the large size of the preview videos, you will need to either find or create your own. We have created a sample of 50 video files. Download Here


- Added ‘Arcade Stick Setting’ option.
- Added number of found roms in the Rom Browser.
- Fixed minor skin issues.
- working d_raider driver
- NEC CPU Big endian fixes
- Core – fixed space harrier inverted control issue
- Fixed Ghost n Golbins audio
- Core – default nFMInterpolation to 1 rather than 3.
- Core – d_gradius3 working
- Fixed Pang! audio issue.
- Core – fixed d_gunsmoke driver
- Core – fixed endian issue in d_blockout
- Core – working sound on d_tnzs
- no longer reset d3d each time a rom loads
- added proper rom auditing
- displays detailed error message if rom doesnt load
- Core – fixed endian issue in d_blockout
- Core – fixed sound issue in d_mitchell
- Core – fixed sound in d_powerins
- merged in IQ_132s PGM WIP code
- Core – fixed graphics issue in drgw2
- Can now specify multiple rom paths inside fba360.xml file
- Core – added Varia Metal driver (thanks to IQ_132)
- USB0: USB1: USB2: Hdd1: Memunit0: Memunit1: Dvd: can now be used as rom paths

Official Site: http://lantus360.com | http://code.google.com/p/fba360/ ...

SDL MAME Wii 0.6 released by Toad King

SDL MAME Wii is an Arcade Emulator based on SDLMAME. Many games for early arcade boards can be played with varying amounts of success.

Changelog
0.6 - January 12, 2011
Compiled with libogc 1.8.6, USB loading should be faster now if you have IOS58
Changed video code around. Most games get a speedup or remain the same from this, but at least one (frogger) is slower for some reason.
Widescreen support
Fixed some games giving duplication errors and causing the emulator to exit

http://wiibrew.org/wiki/SDL_MAME_Wii ...

News via http://www.romhacking.net/forum/inde...pic,12011.html

I started to remodel the original Zelda A Link to the Past game a long time ago. Unlike Goddess of Wisdom this is a modification, but despite that the dungeons are quite different to solve with a lot of new tricks and hidden objects.

I was concentrating to change the gameplay as much as possible, so even a veteran of the game can easily get stuck. The game is also more difficult than the original, but still quite easy at some points. Despite the fact that this is a remodel, it still took a lot of work, specially because of the number of the dungeons. The overworld, however, is less modified, but there are a lot of barriers, that will force you to search for the correct path. A smart player will quickly see, that this is much more than just another vapid master quest. ...

News via http://www.romhacking.net/forum/inde...pic,12010.html

Filler’s translation projects are heating up! Today marks the 50% completion of the 1st draft of and English script for Welcome to Pia Carrot 2 for Windows. This project is being worked on by Esperknight who is making great strides with script reinsertion. More info

Also the announcement of a couple of new projects. First is Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon R for the Game Boy. Esperknight and myself have been working on this for a little while. A rough first draft of the script is complete and Esperknight just got 3 lines of text displaying in the translation (as opposed to 2 originally). More info

Lastly, we are announcing a new project today. Ah! My Goddess (Ah! Megami-sama/Oh! My Goddess) on the PC-FX! Esperknight has dumped a script for this and now that WtPC2 has reached the 50% mark I’ll be turning my translation efforts to this digital comic style game ported to the PC-FX from the PC-98 game with added voice acting and animation. More info

Lots of activity in this neck of the woods so please stay tuned for more exciting developments! ...

News via http://retroactionmagazine.com/retro...ue-episode-65/

We’ve just checked out the latest episode of The Retro League number 65 ‘Retro Resolutions and Email Lightning’ and as usual the weekly podcast has some fine retrogaming content. Highlights include discussions on Ghosts ‘n Goblins for Virtual Console, MSXDev ’10 Contest, 1,000 Kung-Fu Maniacs for C64, New Dreamcast Shooter – Sturmwind, Japanese Fallout Demake and more. Episode 65, as well as previous episodes, can be downloaded for free from the Retro League website.

http://theretroleague.com/2011/01/11...lightning.aspx ...

News via http://retroactionmagazine.com/retro...leased-on-c64/

I don’t think I need to explain the history or importance of Atari’s original Pong. Pong Machine is a variant of that classic digital tennis game and was produced by Technische Maschinenfabrik. As you would expect for a classic game, it is easy to get into, but is fiendishly addictive with a healthy dose of nostalgia. Play against a human opponent or take on the particularly clever AI of the computer. The game can be downloaded in D64 (C64 disk) format for free from the Commodore Scene Database.

http://noname.c64.org/csdb/release/?id=97120 ...

News via http://psx-scene.com/forums/f6/carne...ts-site-75577/

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