DCEmu Homebrew Emulation & Theme Park News
wraggster
by Published on February 9th, 2007 00:49
via IGN
Despite being around for almost two years now, the PSP has seen a serious shortage of original RPGs (most games in the genre have been cross-platform ports or resurrections of older titles). Luckily for fans, that void will soon be filled when Atlus ships its original RPG, Monster Kingdom: Jewel Summoner to North America sometime next week. We managed to get hands-on time with the finished version earlier today, and so far we've seem some interesting things.
Designed by Atlus co-founder and Shin Megami Tensei master Cozy Okada, Jewel Summoner is a stark contrast from the RPG that you'd expect it to be. Given Megaten's history, you'd expect that Okada would move his formula of frequent battles and demonic storylines into this new franchise as well, but that's actually not the case. Monster Kingdom is, in fact, quite the opposite of Shin Megami Tensei in its scope -- that is, it's chalked full of dialogue and a more traditional fantasy plot with a much lower encounter rate than your typical role-player.
The narrative itself seems like it could become fascinating. It follows the adventures of a young "Abomination" hunter named Vice. Driven by anger over the murder of his mother (who was killed by a winged creature several years ago), Vice takes various slaying jobs all over the kingdom in an effort to make money and search for the beast responsible for his pain. Amazingly, Vice also proves that he has the ability to summon monsters that will do his bidding by harnessing the creature located in his mother's only remaining keepsake, a sacred gem. Usually this power is only available to "Jewel Summoners," so Vice's useful ability quickly grabs the attention of "The Order" -- a special organization that studies these magic sparklers while also training said summoners. Eventually paths cross, bad things happen all over the world, and an epic journey gets underway.
Despite its thematic differences from Shin Megami Tensei, Monster Kingdom does have similar combat elements. Your entire offensive strategy, for example, is based around the summoning of monsters with their own strengths and weaknesses. As they battle other creatures, they must use their collection of special skills to locate weak points to earn more turns and create more damage. If you've played Digital Devil Saga before, then this system should sound familiar. Other recognizable battle elements include the ability combine monsters and jewels to learn new talents and the need to seek out and add new gems (critters) as you progress.
All the elements mentioned above play out in a turn-based fashion and are fairly simple to get into. If there's one area that concerns us so far, though, it's that there hasn't been a need to truly strategize with all of our different powers. When equipped with three different characters at a time, standard attacks are usually enough to defeat most enemies without a problem. Despite the fact that we're early in the voyage, it would have been nice to see more situations where we had to use monster-specific abilities. Though again, we're near the beginning so there's definitely room for change.
But what stands out about Jewel Summoner so far? A couple of things spring to mind. Take the combat screen -- it's shown from an interesting "split window" perspective that shows enemies on one side and your heroes on the other. It's very unusual for sure. Given the PSP's widescreen presentation this perspective actually works pretty well and helps to set the game apart in the genre. Monster Kingdom's soundtrack is also very good and it has a nice mixture of up and low-tempo melodies that are among the best we've heard in quite some time. Finally, the sheer amount of conversation/ town exploration that goes on is almost daunting. Expect plenty of word balloons in the first few hours of the game.
Of course, what we really want to know is where will all of this eventually lead? Hopefully it'll take us to somewhere pleasant and rewarding. While basic and familiar, the combat is fun to execute and the monsters are definitely worth collecting. We would like to see an increase in battles, however, and see a more common need for super powers and not just swipes of the paw. Either way, we'll let you know how it turns out when we review Jewel Summoner next week.
Screens Via Comments ...by Published on February 9th, 2007 00:46
via ign
Today, during an investor conference in Orlando, Disney executives announced a name change for the company's videogame business division to Disney Interactive Studios. Disney Interactive Studios' Senior Vice President, Graham Hopper remarked, "This change reflects our focus on creativity, the weight of Disney content in our portfolio, and the enormous value consumers see in the Disney brand."
Formerly known as Buena Vista Games, Disney Interactive Studios is responsible for publishing both Disney and non-Disney branded videogame products for all of the current gaming platforms. Presumably, this change is designed to leverage the massive name recognition of the Disney brand to publisher games under the company's other strong consumer brands ABC and Touchstone. ...by Published on February 9th, 2007 00:37
Guyduke posted this news/release:
I just finish my first nds game called "Atomix". it is still a BETA version, but the game play is finished..
I've still have some stuff to do like: some graphics, or display some explanations to know on which button to press.
I have reproduct an old game built in 1990 by softtouch and distributed by Thalion.
This is a puzzle game, the aim is to build the molecules. The difficulty is that when a atom is moving, it stop only on wall or on an other atom.
I test it on a DS-Xtreme, and I don't know it my game works on other product
Download and Give Feedback Via Comments ...by Published on February 9th, 2007 00:33
Robert Durbin posted this news/release:
This game has 1-3 players. Ill try to explain how the game works for people that may not know...
You are given 5 spins in this version. Your goal is to get as much money as possible while avoiding the whammies. You use the stylus to stop the board when its in "motion." In a multiplayer game you can pass spins. when you pass spins you MUST pass to the person in 2nd place or first place. any passed spins MUST be taken and passed back before a players "earned" spins can be used. When everyone has run out of spins the game is over and person with the most money wins. This game does not feature a questions round like in the gameshow. Also this game does not have the 4 Whammy rule as i got lazy.
Download and Give Feedback Via Comments ...by Published on February 9th, 2007 00:28
News from DrNeo:
MK5save - savetype.sdb assitant (win/dos) by cory
Not sure how handy this will be, but I modified a different exe I had worked on previously to allow one to add ROMs easily to the save list. Various save types can be found on scorpei's wiki and in offlinelist, and in some cases with the dumper app. Otherwise it is mostly trial and error.
It's a drag and drop app, you drop your ROM's on the exe and go through each one to either add it to the list or modify the entry if it already exists. Don't worry about the src.zip in the package, it isn't necissary unless you want to modify it (compiled with msys/mingw on a windows box).
It should be pretty solid, aside from the fact the number of files you can drop at once is limited by the combined lengths of the file names. I can do 20 or so at a time with really long names.
more info: http://www.neoflash.com/forum/index....ic,3741.0.html ...by Published on February 9th, 2007 00:22
New release from douddu59
Here my first project NDS, My Life.
This project takes again a TP of Pascal whom I made with the IUT, called the play of the life. This application is not exactly a play, but a cellular automat imagined by Conway in 1970. It is at present, most known of all the cellular automats. More on the principle of operation, go on the subject wikipédia, Règles section.
I have thus repirs my algos, re-coded out of C the whole, to add some “options”…
Download and Give Feedback Via Comments ...by Published on February 9th, 2007 00:17
yagero has released a new game for PC controllerable by a Wiimote (using glovepie.)
Video Here --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQLIQqH2D4Y
Download Via Comments ...by Published on February 9th, 2007 00:10
via ds-x
Due to much demand, we are releasing a DLDI driver, with source, for the DS-Xtreme. We originally planned to also release a "pre-DLDI" libfat driver, but unfortunately that code has now become dated, and it would be trivial to derive a new libfat driver from this DLDI code.
The source should be commented well enough to follow, but if anyone has any questions, feel free to post them in our home-brew discussion forum here!
--Aphex
Download dsxdldi.zip here ...by Published on February 9th, 2007 00:07
via siliconera
With the card saber you can slide the top off and unsheathe your DS games like a Power Ranger or futuristic ninja. It holds three DS games and a GBA cart. For the amount of games it holds, the Card Saber DS is bulky, but anyone who buys this isn’t getting it because it’s practical. It’s being sold for 850 yen ($7).
Screen Via Comments ...by Published on February 9th, 2007 00:02
via flamewaradvance
Game announcements for the DS are made nearly every other day. If it isn't about a new Square Enix game heading to the DS it's about a wild indie title. If it isn't about a wild indie title it's about a crazy, ambitious PC port. And if it isn't about that, it's probably about homebrew hentai games.
Amidst all this news and the speculation that follows it, one often tends to miss or forget some of the announcements that actually go on to have a major effect on the handheld in due time. BioWare's in-the-works game for the DS is one such announcement. Having first heard of this over at Kotaku a few months back, I'd been keeping an eye out for any new info on the game that turned up.
Alas, the gentlemen over at BioWare find it fun playing hard-to-get and no further mention of the title was made again. Feeling the need to extinguish the flames of curiousity that burned deep within my gamer's soul, I got in touch with BioWare's Handheld Game Group Project Director, Dan Tudge to see if he couldn't throw us impatient BioWare fans a bone. While Dan didn't reveal much about the game directly, he did answer some questions a few of you might have on your minds regarding this ambitious project.
So, without further ado:
Q: What drew BioWare’s attention to develop for the DS? Have you put any thought into developing games for the PlayStation Portable?
A: We’ve been looking at getting into the handheld space for quite a while now, but we were waiting for the right time, the right technology, and of course the right ideas to develop into a quality game. Both the DS and the PSP have very compelling capabilities, but ultimately the DS was better suited to our ideas for creativity and innovation. We may decide to develop something for the PSP down the road, but for now we’re quite excited about what we’ve got planned for the DS.
Q: With the success of the DS, major franchises (such as the Dragon Quest series) shifting over to the portable market, and the significantly lower development costs associated with the platform, do you see your company putting a larger focus on handheld titles?
A: We’ve got a long and successful history of making great games on both PC and console, so I don’t see us putting any less of a focus on those platforms. As long as we stay focused on making the best story-driven games we can, we’ll develop for whatever platform allows us to do just that, and of course it may vary from game to game.
Q: Coming to the topic at hand, what setting will the game use? Medieval? Futuristic?
A: I could tell you, but BioWare would kill me. We’re not revealing anything about the game just yet, but stay tuned…!
Q: Would you call this project an action/RPG or a "traditional" RPG?
A: Again, I really can’t talk about that right now. I can tell you that BioWare is committed to delivering the best story-driven games in the world and as such you can expect a rich and enjoyable experience.
Q: Is BioWare planning a format comparable to Neverwinter Nights, KOTOR or neither?
A: Again, I can’t really comment on what the game format will be, however the DS does provide us with the opportunity approach design in ways we previously have not considered.
Q: What can you tell us about the title? How do you plan to utilize the DS's capabilities?
A: We haven’t announced the IP yet so like I say, we can’t reveal very much about the game at this point, but I will say it’ll be a terrific debut for BioWare in the handheld space. As for how we plan to use the DS’s capabilities? In order to provide the experience BioWare fans have come to expect, we are pushing the DS hardware to levels people have never seen. We have an extremely experienced team of BioWare and industry veterans working hard on squeezing everything we can out of the DS.
Q: Do you plan to use both screens?
A: Of course, it wouldn’t be a DS game otherwise, right? Just don’t ask how we plan to use them, because we’re not revealing that just yet.
Q: How do you plan to tell the game's story on the DS? For example; Mass Effect really seems to be pushing interactivity in story-telling and going with a cinematic approach. What can we expect to see on the DS?
A: Obviously the Xbox 360 is a much different system both in design and hardware, and Mass Effect is taking advantage of that in a really big way. BioWare has always looked for ways to innovate and deepen the story-driven experience and we have some fantastic ideas planned for story-telling on the DS.
Q: Will there be a multiplayer component to the game? If so, will it use Wi-fi?
A: We haven’t announced any plans for multiplayer or WiFi, but we’ve talked about it and agree there are some very compelling opportunities there. We’ll see…!
Q: What unique challenges have you encountered working on a portable platform and what specific challenges has the DS presented you with?
A: The DS is a very sweet piece of hardware that continues ...- Search DCEmu
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