More dark snippets from the rumour mill today, this time concerning Xbox 2's hard drive capabilities ...again.
This is a subject that has been much discussed before, with various dark hints, conjecture and additional rumours adding petrol to the bonfire. Will Xbox 2have a hard disk? Will it not? Will it be removable, will it be fixed? Will it come in a number of flavours and sizes depending on which Xbox 2 edition you buy?

The list of hard drive rumours is almost endless but there's further speculation from US magazines today saying that Xbox 2 will not only have a hard drive, but that it will be removable and portable, so that you can carry around all your favourite games, saves and preferences, as well as MP3 files and video, possibly slotting them into other Xbox 2s to share this stuff with your friends and relations.

Our response? Well it's certainly a possibility. For our money Xbox 2 boasting a hard drive is almost a no-brainer, as it is offers one of the original Xbox's most significant advantages in this current generation, allowing you to store additional content, being key to Live and now so cheap, it won't significantly add to production costs.
On the other hand: a portable hard drive? Well it's feasible but not necessarily so. Why? Well broadband's so quick now you can share a lot of this stuff over the ether anyway, so why make your HD portable unless you want people to actually physically lug their digital data around or want to integrate it into another portable device?

So there you have it, or not. Portable HD a key feature or far out and futile? Let us know in the forums ...

DCEmu UK along with Dreamcast Scene are the only 2 (english) sites at the moment in the Dreamcast Scene that post news on a regular basis and to keep on top we need specialists in certain fields to help the scene keep on moving.

We are looking for newsposters who have good knowledge in

Dreamcast Hardware Mods
Beats of Rage Modding
Quake & Doom Modding
Commercial Dreamcast News
Dreamcast Development News
DVD/CD Covers News

This site and the scene needs people who can fill those shoes and give those areas of the scene much more exposure. if your interested reply to this thread. ...

Those of you like me who follow the Dreamcast Scene and also the GP32 Scene will be sad to know that the Gianas Return Project ( its a great homebrew platformer for the GP32 and Dreamcast) seems to be dead, apparently theres a lack of interest in the project and well as the original coder CHN left too.

Hopefully a LOT of posts here might convince the authors that we do indeed want a new release.

Heres the homepage --> http://www.gianas-return.de/ ...

Loopy has released a special version of Snes Advance (the Snes emulator for the Nintendo DS, GBA and Gamecube Gameboy Player) that supports a modded Snes Pad (the pad wont work on the DS), download this special version of Snes Advance Here. ...

Finally, after months of waiting and attending lavish, celeb-packed launch parties for a machine we only half believed existed, we've finally got Gizmondo in our hands.

So, what can you expect to glean from the handheld should you find yourself in the rare position of being able to find one for sale? What do you get for your £229?

The machine itself is surprisingly small. We were expecting a much bigger, heftier unit, but this is unexpectedly diminutive and fits snugly between your palms. It's much nicer to hold than DS, for instance.

It's quite sturdy too. Before leaving us with the gadget, the Gizmondo PR gent showcased this by bashing it hard against our desk. This is not something we've had the confidence to try since, but you'd feel safe carrying this about, which is more than can be said for the delicate-feeling PSP.

The other noticeable exterior feature is its camera. So, when you tire of playing games you can entertain yourself by taking low-quality pictures of your surroundings with its a 0.3 megapixel camera.

We're told the camera will one day affect gameplay, where looking around in first-person shooters or steering a car is achieved by tilting the device, although none of the games we tested featured this ability.

Which brings us conveniently to Gizmondo's main reason for existing - the games.

We tested a mixture of early and full versions of the Gizmondo line-up and, based on this, it's clear Gizmondo has a long way to go before it can be considered a device capable of challenging PSP or DS.

The first game we booted up was Colors. According to the Gizmondo team, Colors is the handheld's killer app, its triple-A title, its Halo. This is apparently the game everyone will want. So, what better way to begin our evaluation?

Ultimately, it reminds us of GTA San Andreas but without anything to do or anywhere to go. It's quite rubbish.

On the demo version we played, you start the game in the middle of the street, with a couple of guns.

Walking forwards reveals a man who we can only presume is a pimp, as he immediately launched into tedious and obvious banter about prostitutes before setting us up for our 'mission'.

We then wondered the baron cityscape, noticing the flat, box-like cars that not only look the same but are devoid of wheels. We then shot someone. It took a clip and a half before they fell over, and not once did the character attempt to run away.

A high point was when we encountered the big, grey wall that signifies both the end of the world and the moment when the programmers gave up and went to the pub. And let's not forget the subway with the massive step at the bottom that you can't climb back out of...

Reeling from the experience of playing Colors, we bravely moved on to the Fathammer classics collection, containing Angelfish, Super Drop Mania and Stunt Car Extreme.

Angelfish is a 2D top-down shooting game, which, while being simple and much like games from the mid '80s that have since been bettered, pleased us by working correctly as a game should, unlike 'killer app' Colors.

Super Drop Mania is probably the game we've played most in our time with Gizmondo, thanks to it being genuinely addictive. You're tasked with grouping coloured blocks before making them vanish by way of special flashing blocks of the same colour. Simple, fun and quite polished too.

Unfortunately the quality soon dropped again with Stunt Car Extreme. This is a simple racing game requiring the player to do laps while, every so often, steering into and over ramps of varying heights and styles. It's a bit shoddy and looks like one of the first 3D games to ever be invented.

Next up was a 45% complete version of Richard Burns Rally. While it's far too early to judge the game at this stage, it's hard to see it being good. This is going up against Ridge Racer for PSP, yet looks like a budget PC racing game running in software mode.

Becoming visibly drained from this Gizmondo ordeal, we played puzzle-racer Trailblazer. This game is not so much about the skill of negotiating the track, as it is patiently failing at the game's levels over and over again until you've formed a mental map of its obstacles, which becomes really tiresome.

Finally, we had a Sega Classics pack, featuring versions of Altered Beast, Super Shinobi, Sonic, Outrun and Golden Axe, which were all made by real game developers and all worked just the same as they ever have, making them by far the best games on Gizmondo.

In all honesty the disappointing truth is that, currently, Gizmondo is definitely not worth the cash. It can play movies (which is does OK, although PSP's screen does this much better) and music, and has GPS functionality that no one in this office managed to get working - but all the extras don't save it.

It needs games. Decent games that rival those found on other systems. Not games that you can't quit out of without taking the battery out of the machine, or that don't allow you to adjust ...

Several of the biggest Xbox franchises are already planned for Xbox 2, according to Microsoft Game Studios boss Shane Kim, who has confirmed that Fable, Halo and Project Gotham Racing are all en route to the next-gen console.

Speaking in an interview on the official Xbox.com website, Kim said that he was "very proud" of MGS' track record in terms of the creation of new intellectual properties, and that these will provide Xbox with an "exclusive competitive advantage" in the next generation.

"Without giving away all the surprises we have in store," he commented, "gamers that love franchises like Halo, Fable, and Project Gotham Racing can safely assume we will continue to invest in them as we move into the next generation."

Kim didn't give any further details of the company's actual plans for any of the franchises in question, but the new Halo and Fable games, at least, are unlikely to appear until quite a while after launch - since developers Bungie and Big Blue Box both only finished work on their last games late in 2004.

Speaking about Microsoft Game Studios' role in terms of Xbox, Kim said that "we definitely have the talent and the willingness to create new breakthrough intellectual property."

"I'm actually very proud of our track record here," he continued, "as we have invested significant resources into creating new IP in this generation, with titles like Fable, Jade Empire, and Forza Motorsport. There's a collective vision at MGS about what we need to do to be creating truly original material, and yes, it will be central to how we move into the next generation."

Asked elsewhere in the interview whether Xbox had the potential to "unseat Sony", Kim was bullish on the prospects for the platform. "Absolutely," he responded. "Xbox has incredible momentum right now, and we are well-positioned heading into the next generation of consoles." ...

Although it's not exactly the newest of news (it first broke last year as we remember), word reaches us today via Nintendo carrier pigeon that classic GBA-GameCube connector The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures will be smiting the DS this year at an as-yet-unspecified date.
A classic piece of GameCube and GBA connectivity, Four Swords was a splendid addition to the Zelda legend, but really required you to assemble four of your mates, as well as host of connector cables to enjoy it as its best.

However while details are scant to non-existent on the DS version (the tip came from Japanese retail), it's no great leap of the imagination to suppose that wi-fi connectivity will feature heavily and that you'll be able to randomly accost strangers on a train and recruit them for your Zelda quartet.

An excellent addition to the DS's roster though and we'll bring you more news on Four Swords DS as it's unsheathed. ...

Vlimos has updated his port of Mame for the Tapwave Zodiac, heres whats new:

Changes: If the FPS can get to 100% then "Best" sound is close to perfect in most games. If you can't get the speed up to 100% then it will sound choppy and you will need a lower (and worse sounding) setting.

68K works, cinematronics works, NeoGeo works on at least some of the roms, although many are WAY too large. Rom File loading was fixed so a TON of games work now that didn't before, and I haven't even started the compatibility list yet.

PMame is now UDMH compatible and you will need it for some of the larger roms.

Download PMame Here ...

Nintendo 64 emulator for Xbox by GogoAckman,FreakDave and Artik got updated, heres whats new:

sources updated to latest cvs, which means rice video 5.60, new audio plugins.
* brand new launcher, I let you discover it
* brand new ingamemenu
* lot of options
* input corrected a bit, it is not perfect though
* many other things, too much to tell actually

...