Another Press release:

Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH has used the E3 gaming expo in Los Angeles to take the wraps off two new iterations of the ever-popular Bomberman® series. Bomberman® will be released for PSPTM (PlayStation®Portable), with Bomberman Act: Zero bringing the series' explosive fun to Xbox 360.

Bomberman marks the debut of the bomb-toting hero on the PSP system with classic gameplay and a wealth of new handheld gaming twists. An ominous black shadow is creeping towards Bomberman's planet, and sudden attacks by a mysterious robot army have brain-washed the inhabitants of surrounding planets, creating mass chaos. Now Bomberman must embark on an intergalactic adventure to stop this evil menace and save his planet.

Bomberman brings a classic selection of characters and environments to life in full 3D with a variety of different play modes. 'Normal' mode offers single-player Bomberman adventures, complete with a new story and 100 levels and a new item stock system that allows for the collection and strategic use of items.

'Classic' mode is based on the original Bomberman gameplay and features over 50 different levels of explosive fun. Multi-player battle mode allows up to four players to fight for survival in a variety of highly customisable game types across 20 different stages via wireless ad hoc play. Similarly, game sharing lets up to four players battle together in timeless multiplayer party modes with just one UMD.

BOMBERMAN Act: Zero for the Xbox 360 redefines the series for the next generation with breathtaking high resolution graphics and all-new gameplay elements. Deep within an experimental underground facility in a bleak alternate future, humans are imprisoned as test subjects and trained to become deadly soldiers. Equipped with armoured battle suits, players must fight for survival and eliminate each other to determine who will become the final human weapon. As Bomberman, your objective is simple: destroy your opponents before they destroy you.

Players are challenged to survive through 99 stages as they try to escape this failing experiment and reach the surface. As they progress through the corridors of the facility, it will be a scramble for hidden items such as the program extension chip needed to strengthen their armour or other powerful ability enhancements. Up to eight players can battle for survival online in classic multiplayer action through Xbox Live® and earn points to become the ultimate weapon on the World Rankings. Online players can also customise their character from a wide variety of visual options, including gender, colour and armour type. ...

Heres the press release:

Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH has today announced Silent Hill Origins (working title) for PSPTM (PlayStation®Portable).

The first handheld title in the legendary horror series, Silent Hill Origins uses the PSPTM to tell an original story with disturbing graphics and all-new gameplay elements. The game's narrative reveals the origins that transformed Silent Hill from a sleepy town to a hellish stronghold of terror and introduces several new characters to the franchise.

Silent Hill Origins follows a solitary truck driver stranded in Silent Hill while making an ordinary trip. Confronted by perversions of his imagination that mirror his troubled past, he must escape from the town as it falls into ruin and also uncover the truth behind the hallucinations that have haunted him for so long.

The game introduces several gameplay mechanics that are new to the franchise and provide the player with an enhanced sensation of isolation as they make their way through the desolate streets of Silent Hill. Key to this is a new barricade system that lets players manipulate the environment to impede the progress of pursuing enemies, using furniture and debris to create a sanctuary from the evil that lurks outside. Players can also utilise an enhanced camera designed with the PSPTM in mind, as well as an updated control scheme for improved combat and more detailed exploration of the environment. Fans of the series will also revel in Silent Hill Origins' original soundtrack by series composer Akira Yamaoka.

"Silent Hill Origins delivers all the terrifying moments, gruesome enemies and memorable characters and story-telling the series is known for on to a handheld gaming system", said Hans-Joachim Amann, Head of European Product Management for Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH. "Players can now experience greater freedom with the game's enhanced combat and barricade systems and also learn how the chilling events of later Silent Hill games were set in motion."

Scheduled to launch this Winter, Silent Hill Origins is developed by Climax and will be on display at Konami's booth (#800) at the Electronic Entertainment Expo May 10th-12th, 2006. ...

Raf and the PSP Radio Team have released a new version of the Links Homebrew web browser:

Heres whats new:

- Now screenshot directory is created by default. Also filenames now say links_..png instead of pspradio_...png
- Now it won't load network modules if f/w version is 2.0+ (hope this allows it to work via eLoader).
- Added download directory configuration for AVC MP4 files. Added support for 'other' download directory.
- OpenSSL ported to the PSP. Links now links against it to provide SSL support.
- Updated to version 2.1-pre21.
- L+ UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT now scrolls the screen in those directions.

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Via IGN:

Sony Computer Entertainment's first console is coming roaring back, this time in portable form. SCE announced earlier that it would be featuring downloadable PS1 games for its PlayStation portable system, and in a test station here on the show floor, the company showed off Namco's PS1 game Ridge Racer playable on the portable.

Ridge Racer was a good choice to show on PSP, because it's one of the most visually-impressive and yet simple to control games on the PlayStation 1. And "simple to control" is key here, because several questions are still left unanswered with this demo. Chiefly, how will PSP cope with the lack of a second set of trigger buttons? It's possible that SCE and developers may be able to map one set of the triggers to the D-Pad when using the analog nub, but since the Ridge Racer demo didn't use both buttons, it's unknown how that'll work. In fact, it's unknown in general how emulation interfacing will work -- as demonstrated by the Pre-E3 demo by SCE, the PS1 demos on PSP boot straight to the game after download (although it's possible that there will be an option outside of the boot menu before the game starts.) Once in the PS1 game, it's a PS1 game -- the select and start buttons do what they did on PS1, and the only buttons that you can interface PSP-style are the volume, screen, and home buttons. Games made for the emulator from PS1 will be carefully remapped to the PSP controller to make the most of the system. On the start menu, when you go to controller options, you see the ancient PS1 white controller, pre-DualShock. Interestingly enough, the analog nub didn't work at all in the demo -- we're not sure if this is because the real PS1 game didn't have analog (although that should be an easy thing to cheat onto the stick), or because we were not able to find the analog switch-on feature, or if the feature is just not implemented yet.

Whatever the control system, the emulation was clear and nice. Framerate was not at all a problem for the advanced little portable, running Ridge Racer at full speed. Textures were sharp, possibly with some texture smoothing (road signs were perfectly readable.) The boxy textures of the old system were not nearly as much an issue as we expected, with flag girl Reiko looking like a dream all these years later. Color depth was incredibly rich thanks to the PSP's mondo screen, and aside from some graininess (which may be inherent in the PS1 original ... it's been a while since we've played this oldie), the game looked colorful and speedy. Using the PSP's screen button, you can change the aspect ratio while still at full play, between PS1 res, full res (scaled up to the PSP's boarders but not stretched beyond that), and widescreen (a full stretch to widescreen.) The full res option was probably the best way to play, with little issue in blowing up these low-res textures since the screen is so small; widescreen, meanwhile, should probably be avoided, since it stretches things obscenely, makes text look soft, and overall loses the good look of the emulated game.

Ridge Racer was the only game playable in PS1 emulation on PSP, so we still have a lot of questions and concerns for the feature, but as far as performance, the PSP looks to have no problem running its forerunner. Look for more PS1-to-PSP emulation soon.

True Emulation fans will also remember that Ridge Racer ran on the PSone Emulator for PC Called PSEmu pro and the size of the rom was only 2.5mb.

Interesting times ahead for this new commercial emulator - Unless someone ports a killer PSOne emulator to the PSP ...

To follow on from what Nintendo are calling their Next Gen console we have today changed the name of our former "The Revolution" site to Nintendo Wii News.

As you would expect it has masses of the latest news and screenshots from E3. Some great news items if you havent followed it lately.

Check out Nintendo Wii News, those looking for the best in Next gen news should also check out Xbox360 News and PS3 Evolution ...

Just a quick newspost to say that The Revolution is now to be called Nintendo Wii News and the new url is ---> http://wii-news.dcemu.co.uk ...

Heres a new Lua Game for the PSP, heres the info:

Ok, im releasing my first ever game its in lua thanks to evil mana(psp millionaire) for the tutorials.
Its a simple and yet fairly hard game, you basically shoot the ducks as the run down the screen away for you. Sounds easy till the speed goes up.

Info from the readme

Controls;
up is up (d pad only)
down is down (d pad only)
right is right (d pad only)
left is left (d pad only)
cross(X) is shoot
start is only used at the begining (to begin the game)
select is only used after the game has finished (to restart the game)
The rest of the buttons have no other uses yet

This is my first programme ever (well first one worth releasing) so there may be a few bugs the known ones are;

No way of quiting the game without exiting the luaplayer
No pause button (i will add this when i find out how too)
The pics become blury when the speed goes high
Only 30 ducks to kill (more will be added if this game is popular)

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via joadastud ...

Alatnat posted this news:

BEHOLD!!! gmax2psp!!! A maxscript that you can use to create 3D models for the psp with out the hassle of manualy codeing in the model.

To use this maxscript:
1. Start gmax.
2. Click on the Utilities Tab thats at the left of the screen. The Utilities tab has a picture of a hammer.
3. Click the MAXscript button. Its at the end of the list.
4. Important, you must click the Open Listener button. If you dont, then the script will not be able to convert the models for the psp.
5. Click Run Script and open gmax2psp.ms file, where ever you have extracted it.
6. Click and select gmax2psp under the Utilities dropdown box.
7. Click Export Lua Structure to convert the models to lua.
8. open the program GrabListener.exe that is included in the compressed file. The GrabListener program copies everything that is in the listener to a file.

Guidelines to gmax2psp 3D modeling:
1. Every Model you want to show in lua code, MUST be linked to a model named frame. The frame model can be anything but MUST have the name of frame.
**More Guidelines to come in future versions**

You can get gmax at turbosquid.com. Click here.
Gmax does require an account on turbosquid.com, but you dont have to worry about it because they are free. Gmax is FREE!!!

This is only the first version of gmax2psp, so dont get all disapointed that it's stupid. I am going to be enhancing this script over time and will have the script to be able to support multimaterial objects or objects that have faces that are a different color and C\C++ code.

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via alatnat ...

nekokabu has released a new Version of PSP Cheat Hacker app for the PSP.

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