Snezziboy the SNES Emulator for the Gameboy Advance (nintendo ds too) has been updated, heres whats new:


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There is a WSJ article that was printed today that reports on some of my (relatively insignificant) dabblings on the Xbox360. I have kept a very low profile with respect to working on the Xbox360, but I guess this article changes things. The article is reasonably accurate, but I feel the need to clarify a few things.

First, hacking the 360 is not a race between me and The Specialist; the “bunnie v. Specialist” tag line is a result of the WSJ’s editorial latitude and their perspective on the scene (and I, of all people, must respect their first amendment rights to report as they see fit, seeing as how I also stand behind the first amendment to protect my right to blog about controversial hacking topics). I give The Specialist huge props for his DVD firmware hack; it’s a great hack and I respect his work a lot. When we found out about his work we were very excited and appreciated the great contributions he’s made in furthering an understanding of the overall security system of the 360. We wouldn’t be anywhere near where we are today without the openness and information-sharing that pervades the hacking scene, and I hope that the portrayal of hacking as a competitive sport does not close off these avenues. I know that I would not be where I am today if it were not for the great collaborations I’ve had in the past with so many anonymous hackers, and my ability to contribute on the 360 would also be greatly diminished if I were to lose such valuable collaborations.

Second, while I have been dabbling in the Xbox360, I’ve been a bit delinquent lately–very busy with my day job, and I haven’t touched the Xbox360 to do any real work on it for a couple months. I owe Speedy22 an apology for not being more diligent about sending him micrographs of the XCPU, but really, right now the pictures aren’t very interesting because all the metal is still on the chip (working with a local vendor to get it removed but it takes a lot of time). Speedy22 was kind enough to provide me some samples of the Xbox360’s chips to digest, and I appreciate his generosity in sending them to me. I also owe tmbinc an apology, I was supposed to run a set of experiments on the “virgin” ROM images that I never got around to. If you still need those results, I’ll get to it.

In the meantime, I hope to refine a technique that will gain access to the polysilicon layer of the XCPU while being non-destructive to the function of the chip. Such access is currently thought to be a major stumbling block to extracting the necessary keys for decrypting firmware images on the Xbox360–and the first step toward homebrewing code on the Xbox360. I wouldn’t hold my breath, however–the technique is very risky and I don’t have a whole lot of time to perfect it. I have to build some custom equipment to help control the etch bath properties for peeling back the silicon. Still, it will be fun and even if it is not successful, I’ll learn something new while I develop the hack!

Via Bunnie ...

LiraNuna has released a teaser of his Wonderswan emulator for the DS called WonDerS.

Heres the info:


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Eugene Plotnikov has released a new version of the DivX and MP3 player for the PS2.

heres whats new etc:

Features

- Smooth DivX AVI Playback at decent resolution
- Pan/Scan and zooming
- Subtitles support (SRT and SUB)
- Visual seek (Fast Foward and Rewind)
- Multiple language and character set support for subtitles other than English
- MP3 Playback
- SMS will read video files from a variety of sources

Whats New

- Changed image management routines. Now SMS uses unified image format for skin and icons. IPU is fully utilized to perform image decompression (it's
quite fast (a 640x480 test image is decompressed from 30KB to 900KB and uploaded to GS memory in just ~8ms)). A Win32 application (pic2smi.exe) is
provided to create such an images. This application is replaced an old one (pic2sms.exe). It's possible to adjust image quality (better quality -bigger image size) and brightness, but default settings should work OK in most cases. These changes resulted smaller (by ~110KB uncompressed) SMS.elf size. Note new skin filename: SMS.smi ('i' means "image" ) (thanks to "Mr. Worm~~" for
trying it); - High resolution movies are performing using reduced color resolution (dithered 16 bit), so no artefacts due to insufficient GS RAM should occur.
- There's also a possibility to force desired color resolution via SMS menu as 16 bit color resolution can improve performance a bit (less data traffic).
(thanks to "Mr. Worm~~" again for trying);
- Non-interleaved .avi's are treated as "unsupported". File treated as non-interleaved if it contains more than 256 consecutive packets belonging to the same stream (audio, video or other);
- Added function to copy selected file to HDD's current partition. Pressing "square" pad button activates file context menu which currently has only
one item (Copy to HDD). Copy process can be terminated by "triangle" (there can be some delay due to buffering, so press and hold "triangle" till "Stopping" message will appear at the status line). This function is purely experimental (just to measure device speed), so, use it on your own risk (files will be overwritten without any prompt). Note also that only PS2 internal HDD is supported;

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Not content with taking apart the controller, Blu-Ray player and pricing, Microsoft has also targeted verbal attacks at Sony's online strategy as the US firm races to cement its market advantage ahead of PS3's launch.

Sony used its pre-E3 media briefing to provide the most detailed demonstration yet of its next-gen system's planned online functionality. But Microsoft, which is now in the second generation of its successful Live service, has dismissed PS3 simply as playing catch up in this area by including features already established on Xbox.

"I'm flattered that they've followed our clear direction," Chris Lewis told Eurogamer TV, in the second part of an exclusive interview broadcast today. "Plagiarism is a good thing - that in itself isn't such a problem, it's what the market wants. But we've known that's what the market wanted all along."

"It's good to see them catching up in that regard," he noted. "I think the service is still hazy in my view in terms of how it's really going to work for the consumer - how the pricing is going to work still to me seems very unclear."

Microsoft used its press conference to talk up the ongoing achievements of Xbox Live, with Bill Gates announcing the next evolutionary step for the service, the cross-platform Live Anywhere initiative. Online is certainly what the US firm believes is its biggest asset in the next-gen battle, and Lewis picked upon the language used by his rival to press home what he believes is a significant advantage.

"[Sony] talk about the online component - the analogy used was the air conditioning unit in a car. From our point of view, right from version one, online gaming was built right into the heart of the first Xbox. For us it was the engine; it wasn't some peripheral component people may or may not want to use. It was right at the heart of the proposition then and now."

"I think we can be very confident that our service continues to develop. It's a fully connected, seamless environment - we're in a fantastic position there already."

Elsewhere in the interview, UK boss Neil Thompson discusses the importance of Viva Pinata to 360 as a "catalyst" to broaden the portfolio of the platform, and argues that content will prove the decisive factor at retail this Christmas.

Via Gamesindustry ...

Via Gamesindustry

AIM-listed British developer Kuju Entertainment has announced that its Kuju Brighton studio is working on a unique new music-focused title for publisher Lucasarts, which will be exclusive to the PlayStation Portable.

Called Traxion, the new game consists of a wide variety of music-based mini-games, and will come pre-loaded with music from several leading artists - but one of the key features of the title is that it will also work with music loaded onto Memory Sticks by individual gamers.

According to Lucasarts, the game will use the user's music not only to provide a soundtrack for play, but will also change the way that the title is being played to correspond directly to the music.

Traxion is due for release this autumn. ...

The Guardian Gamesblog discusses the newly announced Touch Generation of games for Nintendo's consoles. From the article: "This is, of course, a pointless piece of product re-positioning, symptomatic of modern business's obsession with branding above and beyond the call of sense. More importantly though, it's about Nintendo reveling in its E3 success. It is about a company that has effectively spent the last decade in its own self-made ghetto, turning to the industry and saying, 'I told you so' ... The wider world is coming back to videogames - and Nintendo is speaking its language. Anyway, the first three new releases in the Touch Generations line-up will be Big Brain Academy, the second title in the brain-training series, Magnetica, a marble-based puzzler, and Sudoku Gridmaster, a Sodoku game with over 400 puzzles. They're out this summer.

Via Slashdot ...

1up is reporting on speculation from analysts 'The Diffusion Group', who have forecast a handheld gaming device from Microsoft sometime in the next two years. From the article: "It's an analyst group's speculation and should be taken as such, but simultaneously one has to wonder what is the likelihood of Microsoft bringing a PGC to its platform library. A portable entry seemed like the next logical step for Microsoft before E3 -- and that logic was confirmed by the announcement of Live Anywhere at E3 -- a handheld platform would certainly make a solid launching pad for the mobile arm of Live Anywhere, wouldn't it?

Via Slashdot ...

Ars Technica has a piece looking at reasons why Sony may have wanted to make the Blu-Ray player optional in their next-gen console. From the article: "By tying what is essentially a gaming device to a new optical disc format, Sony is hoping to kill two birds with one stone, but they're expecting consumers to pay for the stone as if it were a diamond. That is, in hoping that consumers will see the Blu-ray player as a good investment in the future, they're risking the fallout that comes when consumers realize that diamonds aren't investments at all. They're for show. And the way the PS3 is priced right now, bling appears to be the operative word. But bling sells, and when manufacturing costs come down, we can all look forward to this edition of Sony Style... at least so long as we're not satiated by a competing product

Via Slashdot ...