Today is clearly "Gosh-look-how-well-the-DS-is-doing" day here at CVG. We've already covered that impressive global 13.5 million units shifted figure and now word has reached us of this week's Japanese sales charts. Put it this way: Nintendo's accountant are probably rubbing their hands with glee, as the handheld claims 8 of the 10 top spots, leaving all other consoles in its wake.
Claiming pole position is Nintendo's Brain Training 2, which made its debut in the charts, selling an amazing 414,556 copies in just one week. At number two and three respectively, Animal Crossing DS has cleared a million copies with Mario Kart DS also fast approaching the magic one million marker.

For those interested, we've supplied the Japanese chart in its entirety below (total sales to date are listed in brackets at the end of each entry):
1. NDS Brain Training 2 414,556 NEW
2. NDS Animal Crossing DS 205,119 (1,382,228)
3. NDS Mario Kart DS 168,680 (836,478)
4. PS2 Kingdom Hearts 2 156,837 (884,428)
5. NDS Brain Training 153,189 (1,157,870)
6. PS2 Front Mission 5 146,209 NEW
7. NDS Mario & Luigi 2 132,726 NEW
8. NDS Gentle Brain Training 82,789 (935,535)
9. NDS Tamagotchi 63,433 (784,537)
10. NDS Pokemon Mysterious Dungeon: Blue Rescue Force 61,154 (572,858)

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...news_index.php ...

Remember that bit at the end of Carrie where John Travolta tips a bucket of pig's blood over the Prom Queen mere seconds before she goes on her telekinetic rampage of split-screen descruction? Well, we're beginning to feel a bit like that this afternoon - only swap "John Travolta" for "Nintendo" and "pig's blood" for "lots of Nintendo-related news". Apart from that, the rest stays the same - our dress looks fabulous.
Anyway, in YET ANOTHER Nintendo news item today, Miyamoto (Shigeru, Mr) has been speaking further on his company's action plan for the coming year. To kick start the new year, Famitsu interviewed the games guru about all manner of topics, including Yoot Saito's upcoming Feudal pinball... thing, Odama.

As far as Miyamoto sees it though, 2006 is the year when Nintendo will "create new fun". Summarising the company's philosophy, the Mario creator explains (as translated by Next-Gen.biz) "A game that keeps a smile on the player's face is a wonderful thing." This year the company's mantra is to "'Spread the fun of games to everyone.' To do this, we must return to the beginning, to recapture the essence that made people who enjoy games even now enjoy them in the first place."
Sounds to us like Nintendo is happy cementing the strategy which has so far proven so successful with its DS handheld, across games as wide-ranging and appealing as Nintendogs, Brain Training and Animal Crossing: Wild World. So, "company announces plans to continue impressively successful strategy" then - good news for Nintendo fans and maybe non news for others. Still, Miyamoto's comments were so sweet we thought they deserved a story of their own. Which is probably the lunchtime pie talking. ...

Danzel has released a new version of his Telnet application Peldet, heres whats new:

Did some additions to get connecting to cygwins telnetd working. Some big changes to the renderer, now it is called directly instead of with message passing. This gives some big speed ups (libcaca mplayer is almost compeletely smooth at default speed). I was hoping to hold this for the next version, but as my CVS server machine has died I'm including it now. This may lead to a crash as I haven't thread safed it yet, but malloc/free is called much less, so there shouldnt be crashes related to that anymore.

Screenshot and download via comments. ...

Source - Gamespot

Gabe Logan has got the stealth action hero thing down. Close-cropped hair cut? Check. Gravely, grim voice? Check. Enough moves and gadgets to take down a small army of bad guys? Check and check. About the only thing missing from Logan's arsenal has been a handheld version of the game series in which he stars: Syphon Filter. Thanks to the good folks at SCEA, currently in the midst of developing Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror for PSP, that's one more item the action hero can check off his list. We got a chance to take Dark Mirror for a spin on the show floor at this year's Consumer Electronics Show and came away impressed with the handheld game's solid look and interesting controls.

In Dark Matter, Logan and his crew of special ops badasses will be once again responsible for saving the free world, this time against a mysterious group known as the Red Section--or at least that's who we were up against in the demo level we played. The Red Section folks had infiltrated a petroleum refinery in the snowy reaches of Alaska. It was up to us (as Logan) to take them down without destroying half of the Alaskan wilderness in the process.

After a cool intro movie introducing the major players during the initial insertion into the oil refinery, we took over Logan, who was charged with opening up a vent on a huge oil depository before the pressure built up and exploded. The only catch? The area was crawling with bad guys and a sniper perched at the top of the depository was looking to cap anyone who came too close. Just another day for a guy like Gabe.

The controls for Syphon Filter for PSP take some getting used to, especially if you've never played the SF series before. You move with the analog stick, of course, and fire your weapon with the right trigger. Aiming, however is done with the face buttons--to aim left or right you press the square and circle button; to move your aim up you press the triangle button and use the X button to aim downwards. With just a little practice, we were popping heads like Jiffy Pop and moving through the lower levels of the refinery with relative ease. Enemies are as intent on staying alive as they are in stopping you dead in their tracks, however, so don't be surprised if you have to chase a few around the obstacle their hiding behind.

As we progressed through the mission, we picked up an extra submachine gun to go along with the silenced pistol and sniper rifle we already had in our possession. By pressing the right directional button, we brought up the weapon menu where each gun in our possession was tied to a face button on the controller. To equip the rifle, for example, all we had to do was press the X button. In addition, certain weapons (such as the aforementioned rifle) can be armed with multiple types of ammo. The rifle, for example, used regular 6mm rounds, explosive rounds, and even X34 gas ammo (presumably when you want to stop an enemy but not necessarily kill him). Logan doesn't always have to be lethal after all, if you manage to sneak up on a bad guy, you can give him a whack on the head with a blunt object and knock him out long enough to make your escape.

No great spy is truly complete without a great set of gadgets, and some of the cornerstones of Logan's technological arsenal are his goggles. At one point in a mission we were stuck at a fence but were informed by our technical advisor over the comm-link to try our EDSU goggles to look for a way to unlock the gate. We're not sure what EDSU stands for, but as soon as we switched them on (by accessing a menu similar to the weapon menu system described above) lo and behold we found a blinking section of the fence that was ideal for compromise. One well-placed pistol shot later and we were through to the next objective. EDSU goggles aren't your only choice however; you'll also have night vision and infrared goggles at your disposal, as well as a traditional flashlight for those especially dark corners.

The Syphon Filter series has always been about mixing up its gameplay and Dark Mirror appears to be no different. After dispatching the sniper and releasing the vent, for example, it wasn't long before we were joined by a member of our Precision Strike team who required cover fire while she infiltrated the oil refinery. Perched on top of the depository, it was up to us to dispatch any bad guy intent on filling her full of lead, using the sniper rifle and its handy zoom feature.

Graphically, Dark Mirror is looking handsome on the PSP--with sharp player models and fairly expansive environments (at least on the one level we played). In addition, we found the animations for Logan and other NPC models to be varied and good-looking. Sony seems to be delving a bit deeper into the PSP and extracting more out of the handheld than you might be used to. Only time will tell if this kind of quality will be consistent throughout the rest of the game. On the sound front, we had the luxury of playing ...

The PSPLua site have reported this news:

cubiCPixel A Member of our site has just released TrickedOut v0.1 this is the first sports game to be made in lua.

Things that will be done:
- rotation and flip strenght based on joystick movement (same as carving)
- rails and grindable objects
- scrollable on y axis
- cameramans
- style meters (seriously )
- much more

Quote:

Freestyle snowboard game with no time or races. Inspired by snowboarding itself. Should be able to carve around. This is a basic starting teaser where you can see its potential.

Everything will be changed, mostly graphics: Every images have allready been exported and ready to use (cinema 4D).

PS: I've been snowboarding for many years now, don't worry, this will be a simulation type game and not a cartoonish type peace of garbage!

Download and screenshot via comments: ...

iPods are the worldwide leader in the area of MP3 Players and also theres a promising Emulation and Homebrew scene for the iPod which include a Gameboy emulator and also a port of Doom, check those and the latest iPod news out at IPod Emulation News here --> http://ipodnews.dcemu.co.uk/ ...

Motorola has posted information on a new product called the Music Duo.

The Music Duo provides Bluetooth capabilities to the iPod for use with Bluetooth headphones. The Music Duo also provides simultaneous connectivity to your Bluetooth capable phone... passing through a telephone call and pausing the music while you take the call.

This product or similar ones may be what was hinted at by Motorola Car Product Manager in Feb 2005 when he said that "consumers will soon be able to listen to music wirelessly from their iPod through their car speakers." At the time, people assumed that Apple would be incorporating Bluetooth technology into the iPod itself.

Features of the Music Duo listed include:

- Provides seamless connections to both your iPod and compatible Bluetooth-enabled phone
- Music pauses for incoming calls and resumes when calls are complete
- Compatible with Generation 3 or newer iPod players that have a Dock Connector (i.e. iPod, iPod mini, iPod nano)
- Compatible with any brand of Bluetooth 1.1 or 1.2 –enabled phone that supports “headset” and “hands-free” profiles
- Compatible with Bluetooth Stereo Accessories

http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2006/...04142115.shtml ...

Motorola has posted information on a new product called the Music Duo.

The Music Duo provides Bluetooth capabilities to the iPod for use with Bluetooth headphones. The Music Duo also provides simultaneous connectivity to your Bluetooth capable phone... passing through a telephone call and pausing the music while you take the call.

This product or similar ones may be what was hinted at by Motorola Car Product Manager in Feb 2005 when he said that "consumers will soon be able to listen to music wirelessly from their iPod through their car speakers." At the time, people assumed that Apple would be incorporating Bluetooth technology into the iPod itself.

Features of the Music Duo listed include:

- Provides seamless connections to both your iPod and compatible Bluetooth-enabled phone
- Music pauses for incoming calls and resumes when calls are complete
- Compatible with Generation 3 or newer iPod players that have a Dock Connector (i.e. iPod, iPod mini, iPod nano)
- Compatible with any brand of Bluetooth 1.1 or 1.2 –enabled phone that supports “headset” and “hands-free” profiles
- Compatible with Bluetooth Stereo Accessories

http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2006/...04142115.shtml ...

So I buy a video iPod, figuring it would be a cool toy. (Gotta get those toys.) It arrives and I'm ready to give it a whirl. I pony up my two bucks, download the pilot episode of Desperate Housewives, insert a standard A/V-to-RCA cable into the earphone jack and try to play it back on my TV.


No Luck. Damned Apple.

I'm here to tell you not to worry. You don't have to fork out for an outrageously priced "proprietary" Apple video cable. You don't even have to buy an expensive dock. You can connect your Video iPod directly to a TV, and you can do it with the ordinary camcorder A/V-to-RCA cable you probably already have lying around your house.

You just have to be tricky.

Here's how.

What You'll Need
In order to get your iPod connected properly to your TV, you'll need the following items on hand:

A video-capable iPod. Any color will do.
An iPod-compatible video. Load it onto your iPod through iTunes.
An A/V cable. If you don't already have an eighth-inch-to-RCA cable, you can pick one up on eBay for five or six bucks shipped. Search for "camcorder A/V cable." Remember, you want a three-plug yellow/red/white RCA connection at one end and a three-banded eighth-inch (3.5mm) A/V plug at the other.

rest of the article here --> http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/ma...od.html?page=1 ...