Goldman Sachs said it confirmed with Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) that the company is unlikely to discontinue production of the Xbox videogame console with the launch of Xbox 2. Microsoft will provide a sneak peek of the Xbox 2 console on a television special on May 12 on MTV in North America and on May 13 internationally. "We had expected Xbox 2 to shown for the first time at the E3 videogaming conference in Los Angeles (May 17-20, 2005)," Goldman said. "This appears to be a tactical effort to show Xbox 2 before Sony (nyse: SNE - news - people ) demonstrates the PS3 [PlayStation 3 videogame console] at E3." The research firm, which rates Microsoft at "outperform," expects Xbox 2 to be available for retail sale in October or November at a retail price of about $249 to $299. Goldman said the Xbox console would cater to the lower-end of the consumer segment. The firm expects Microsoft to ship about 3 million units of the Xbox 2 worldwide in the December quarter. Sony is expected to debut the PS3 at E3, "although the product is not expected to be available in the U.S. until mid-2006 (perhaps a Japan launch in the fourth quarter of 2005 although more likely in the first quarter of 2006)," Goldman said. ...

WHurricane16 has posted this news:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MESE%3AIT&rd=1

It's up, I can't hold onto it anymore.

Btw, my Sega Nomad w/32 games are also up...

Those looking for a Broad Band Adapter will surely be tempted ...

Finally got my hands on this, tried last night but kept getting the old version.

Metaview has released a new version of his Amiga Emulator for the Tapwave Zodiac, heres whats new:

* Save state support (2 states per game possible, name is given from the current diskname in df0)
* Landscape support (left and right hand mode), mouse and joystick are handled correctly but menu and keyboard is still wrong (doesn't effect Zodiac)
* kind of sound support (it's too slow, needs rework)
* memory access beyond 24bit-range better handled
* reset and quit moved to a on-screen menu
* palette adjusted (much brighter screen)
* left + right mouse button can be pressed together

Download Here ...

News from Heinrich Tillack

OpenGL for Dreamcast.
GL_QUADS fixed!
V0.41 has a new example: Buggydemo ( feat. ODE V0.5 for Dreamcast). This demo shows the working GL_QUADS code !

More info at the official website here --> http://a128.ch9.de/ ...

Tiger Telematics has announced its intention to knock £100 off the price of its recently launched Gizmondo console, by offering a Smart Adds enabled version which will deliver targeted advertising to its users.

The innovative new bundle will effectively see the cost of the console being subsidised by delivering advertising directly to the handset, with users expected to view no more than three short advertisements a day.

The advertising will be directly targeted at the user according to their personal preferences, and Gizmondo is promising that it will come with a range of benefits as well as simply being marketing material - with users likely to receive a range of money-off offers, free music and movie downloads and other exclusive content and promotions.

Advertising will consist of full-quality videos sent across the mobile network to the handsets, and can feature a range of extra features - such as the ability to pinpoint your nearest cinema using the Gizmondo's built-in satellite positioning functionality after watching a movie trailer, for example.

The advertisements will also not be intrusive, as they won't pop up while the user is actually engaged in an activity on the device - only appearing when the main Home menu is accessed.

Gizmondo plans to work closely with MTV on the service, as it believes that its users share a demographic with MTV viewers, and among the advertisers confirmed for the service so far are Universal Music, Smart Cars, Warners Music, EMI, 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros.

As well as simply subsidising the price of the console - and, crucially, bringing it into the range where the powerful device could possibly compete with the Nintendo DS or as-yet unlaunched Sony PSP on price - Gizmondo believes that the advertising itself is appealing to some people.

"The demographic we're targeting with Gizmondo are the sort of people who actually enjoy good advertising," Smart Adds boss Peter Lilley told GamesIndustry.biz today. "We won't be sending them ads for loo cleaner - the sort of ads we're sending are either entertaining or useful. This isn't spurious, spammy stuff at all - the only ads we will be showing will be ones for relevant products, which are creatively good."

The company has also assured users that the transmission cost of the videos will be picked up by the advertisers, not by the consumer, and that as a result ads will not be sent to handsets when they're abroad, to avoid overseas tariffs. Switched off devices will also not accumulate a backlog of ads, with the three per day limit being strictly observed.

The Smart Adds Gizmondo will retail in two packs - the standard version, which retails at £129 and features the console, battery, charger, headphones, USB lead and SIM card with £5 of credit, and a £199 Value Pack, which contains the above plus better headphones, a 128Mb SD card containing game, film and music demos, a free copy of launch title Trailblazer and a voucher for forthcoming GPS-enabled game Colors.

Both new versions of the console will launch on April 22nd, with the full roll out of Smart Adds on the device planned for the 2nd of May. Gizmondo has also confirmed that Smart Adds packages will be made available when the device launches in overseas markets.

Featuring a powerful ARM processor and NVIDIA graphics chip, along with movie and music playback capabilities, a camera, and SMS and MMS capabilities, the Gizmondo is the most powerful and fully-featured handheld console on the market in the UK at the moment - but it faces an uphill struggle against the established dominance of Nintendo, whose new DS has performed strongly at retail, and the forthcoming PlayStation Portable.

The new price point, however, should give the system a major boost. "At £129 it's ground breaking," Lilley claims. "Frankly, at £229 it's fantastic value, but at £129 it's simply stunning." ...

The price of the Gizmondo has been brutally slashed less than a month after it went on sale in the UK amidst a flurry of celebrity parties and shop openings.
Tiger Telematics has introduced a 'new' Gizmondo model that will retail for £129, cutting the original price by £100. This new model will still include all of the handheld's gaming, music, movie, messaging, digital camera and GPS features but subsidise the price cut by sending advertisements called 'Smart Adds' to units.

The price cut has prompted speculation that the handheld is not performing well at retail, but this was denied by a Gizmondo spokesperson: "This pricepoint is definitely not motivated by sales figures. That's something we want to make very clear."

The spokesperson was reluctant to divulge Gizmondo sales figures, citing the unit's relatively limited retail launch across the UK. At present it is only available in selected stores including John Lewis, Gamestation, Carphone Warehouse and Gizmondo's own flagship store in London's Regent Street.
Up to three Smart Adds a day will be sent to the new £129 Gizmondo, offering products, services, downloads and special offers tailored to your location and personality.

It all sounds a bit Minority Report, doesn't it? By using the Gizmondo's GPS features the Smart Adds can track your location and offer you specific ads and offers, and even direct you to the nearest, say, fast food joint to use them.

The Smart Adds will apparently not intrude on your use of the handheld, but rather appear in the start menu for you to browse when you want. They'll also auto-delete when appropriate so your unit doesn't get clogged up.

As well as the standard Smart Add-enabled unit (which includes battery, charger, earbud earphones, USB lead and a SIM card with 5 credit) you'll be able to pick up an Extra Value Pack for £199. This pack includes hifi stereo earphones, a 128MB recordable SD card pre-loaded with demos, a copy of the Trailblazer game and a voucher for Colors, the first Gizmondo game to use the GPS system - it's all worth £90, apparently.

If you don't fancy receiving Smart Adds you can still buy the standard Gizmondo unit at the original price of £229. And if you've already bought one you'll get the opportunity to upgrade to the Smart Adds service and receive a voucher for all the additional goodies you get with the Extra Value Pack.

"We've enjoyed an accelerated success with the Gizmondo, and in doing so have met the conditions we set ourselves for the introduction of this Smart Add-enabled version of the device," said Carl Freer, co-founder and chairman of Tiger Telematics.

"We are very excited about the prospect of offering cool advertising to our demographic," he added. "It's attractive to the consumer not only because of the lower price point, but also as it could effectively pay for itself in product discounts and free merchandise."

Both new Gizmondo packs will be available to buy in the UK from April 22, with North American and European launches to follow.

Gizmondo is up against serious contenders in the handheld market. Nintendo's DS launched last month across Europe and has sold exceptionally well, while Sony's PSP is waiting in the wings. Only time will tell if this new pricepoint can keep Gizmondo afloat in the turbulent handheld market.

Let us know what you think in the forums. ...

November is to witness the release of EA's next Harry Potter game, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which will materialise alongside, and tie in with, the new Potter movie based on J.K. Rowling's fourth book in the series.
In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry find himself competing in the Triwizard Tournament against other students of the magic arts, gawping at the Quidditch World Cup and tangling once again with Lord Voldemort. Allowing you to relive many of the scenes from the movie, the game features Harry, Ron, and Hermione as playable characters and includes co-operative play for two.

EA promises "fresh innovations" in the Goblet of Fire game, one of which is a new spell-casting system where every flick of your magic wand apparently sets force-feedback a-rumbling; and the benefit of playing co-operatively is that you get to combine magic to unleash "more powerful spells than ever before!". Wizard!
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is weaving its magic on PS2, PSP, Xbox, GameCube, Nintendo DS, GBA and PC. ...

Ive just adapted Ahuh`s Paraball game for the Dreamcast. The game is a Slime Volleyball game that was originally released on PC and GP32, download the Dreamcast Version Here.

...

It was at this time a year ago that i launched DCEmu UK, a Dreamcast Emulation, Homebrew and Commercial News and Scene Site with forum integration.

The site was launched to compete directly with the likes of Consolevision and DCEmulation and to one day supercede them as a major force in the emulation scene.

My first quest was to find hosting and decent hosting which was free and with hosts that i can talk to if i have problems, with that in mind i asked friends on IRC like Keith of Emufanatics and also Passive of Emuhelp and they said Martin the admin of Emulation 64 and a network of 150 sites may host me. Luckily for me he did and so the hosting was sorted. Next was the domain name, i wanted Dreamcast.co.uk but alas i couldnt get it i did however get dcemu.co.uk and Dreamcast.org.uk but in the end decided to go with the shorter name.

The design of DCEmu UK was a design by James of XboxRules.com a site which has died now for reasons i cant work out. I changed a few things and installed Yabb and Coranto and with LyonHrts help the site was started, i gathered every emulator for Dreamcast and any files i could find to make the site with every single emulator for and of the Dreamcast.

Onto Easter 2004 the opening of DCEmu UK a site that aimed to make the scene shudder and to make the other sites pull their socks up. Some scoffed at the idea of me running a site other thanked me but gave the site a few months before it died, how very wrong they are and were.

Me and LyonHrt were joined by Soully and later by Darksaviour69 (Boob!) and the DCEvolution and DC Stuff teams who are Christloeseruser, Curt Grymala, DCDayDreamer, Captain Skyhawk and also friends from DCEmulation, Dr Zoidberg and Hawq and with help from the likes of Wacko who helped me with the new logo.

We had a Dream team of Dreamcast scene members all of them hard working in different ways and all massively behind the Dreamcast scene and full of energy.

The last year has seen this site making friends with the international Dreamcast scene bringing members and sites of French and Spanish speaking langages closer to the English speaking sites. We have also seen many coders come over to the Dreamcast scene from the GP32 scene, some of those coders include Chui, Scherzo and Tyrell.

The last year has seen Amiga, Atari ST, NeoGeo CD emulation and thats just some of the many great releases for the Dreamcast Scene.

Over the last year we have gone from the new kid on the block to the only Dreamcast Site that is updated all the time and a great forum as well with a staff that are the very best.

The next year and into the beyond will continue to be great for the Dreamcast and its scene as many more releases happen and sites like this continue to post news and promote.

Thanks to all who visit and to all those coders and helpers and also all the names above and anyone else who make the scene what it is and may we have many more great years . ...