Today Sierra announced it is prepping a videogame tie-in for this summer's Mummy sequel, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. The game is being developed by Eurocom (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End) for the Wii and PlayStation 2, and for the Nintendo DS by A2M (Spiderman: Friend or Foe DS). The latest Mummy film, produced by Universal Pictures, stars Brendan Fraser returning to his hero role and Jet Li as the evil Dragon Emperor.

"The Mummy is one of the most distinctive and expansive franchises in Universal's portfolio, and there is inherent gameplay in the property," said Bill Kispert, Vice President and General Manager, Interactive, Universal Pictures Digital Platforms Group. "The new film amps up the action, introduces a ruthless new villain and takes our heroes to incredible new locations. We are thrilled to bring all these attributes to life in this game."



Players will step into the shoes of Rick O'Connell (Fraser) and his son, Alex, as they travel to Chinese tombs and Himalayan mountain tops. Gameplay will be a mix of combat, puzzles, and hieroglyphic decryption.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is set to hit game consoles July 22.

2K Sports, the sports publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), and Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc., today announced the next iteration of the wildly popular baseball franchise, MLB Power Pros 2008, scheduled to be available for Wii home video game system from Nintendo and PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system this July, as well as Nintendo DS later this fall. As the highest-rated and top-selling baseball title in Japan, MLB Power Pros was available in North America for the first time last year. Its comedic visual appeal of miniature Major League Baseball player models has attracted a dedicated following through its easy-to-use controls and addictively fun gameplay experience.

"We're thrilled to partner with Konami again, and with the Baseball season now in full swing, we're proud to offer our fans a refreshingly smart and exciting baseball game that is easily accessible for all ages," said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. "Baseball enthusiasts will appreciate the variety of newly added features, intuitive game modes and improved overall feel, and we look forward to hitting one out of the park this season with MLB Power Pros 2008."

With over ten different exciting game modes including the traditional Practice, Exhibition, League and Home Run Challenge modes, MLB Power Pros 2008 will bring fans closer to the action than ever before. Gamers also get the opportunity to act as general manager and control the destiny of their own franchise in Season mode, or engage in entertaining role-playing story modes such as Success and MLB Life modes. As general manager, gamers can trade, sign free agents, coordinate practice schedules, purchase new equipment, call up and send down players from the Minor Leagues, along with other management options to bring in fans, win playoff games and eventually, earn the title of World Series champion.

In Success mode, fans can participate in a story-based career of rising players in the Double-A Minor League system trying to improve their baseball skills and make an impression on baseball scouts while also having to balance various situations in their personal lives. Through a variety of amusing training and game challenges, players who complete Success mode will also be able to take their created player files into MLB Life as well, or also play as either an existing Major League Baseball player in Dream Mode, or start as a rookie in Major League Career mode. As a new feature in MLB Power Pros 2008, MLB Life is another story-based mode that will allow fans the possibility to simulate the exciting life and experience of being a Major League Baseball player over the course of a 20-year career. While continuing to play in games through the regular baseball season, players will also participate in a number of realistic situations such as signing contracts, purchasing houses and cars, making charitable donations, building up relationships with friends and teammates, picking up hobbies and much more.

With easy, pick-up-and-play hitting and pitching controls, along with intuitive Wii functionality, other new features in MLB Power Pros 2008 include support of 40-man rosters, change of ball speed, adjustment of defensive shifts, along with a real-time bullpen check functionality for substituting pitchers. MLB Power Pros 2008 will also support the option for players to import their Wii-based characters, Miis, from their Wii or Wii Remote to become part of the exciting action!

MLB Power Pros 2008, developed by Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc., is not yet rated by the ESRB, and will be available for Wii and the PlayStation 2 system this July, as well as Nintendo DS later this fall.

* corrected texture memory size calculation (KoolSmoky)
* minor fixes (KoolSmoky)

…but not for the public. Considering we still have almost daily betas, the public release is getting closer and closer. Lot’s of tweaking and eye-candy stuff is going on, but yet we are still missing artwork from our new graphics guy thUg and minor SFX and jingles from our musician operator. Once the graphics part is done, we can go on converting and adjusting levels. From current view, we hope to be done in two to three months.

EA has announced the final two cover athletes for NCAA Football 09, scheduled to hit stores across North America on July 15 from EA Sports. Former Cal wide receiver, DeSean Jackson, will be the cover athlete on PlayStation 2 while former West Virginia Mountaineer Owen Schmitt can be found on the cover of the PlayStation Portable version of the game.

In three seasons at Cal, Jackson ranks third all time in receiving yards (2,423) and third in receiving touchdowns (22). He was rated as the #1 receiver in the nation by The Sporting News and Rivals.com going into his junior campaign. Jackson was a first team All-Pac-10 selection and led the nation in average punt return yards (18.2) in his sophomore season. In the recently held NFL Draft, Jackson was selected in the second round (49th overall pick) by the Philadelphia Eagles.

Schmitt, a tough-minded fullback, finished his West Virginia Mountaineer career as one of the greatest players in school lore. In his career, Schmitt earned 21 career starts and carried the ball for 1,003 yards, a 6.3-yard average, during his Mountaineer career.

NCAA Football 09 on PlayStation 2 will feature authentic collegiate animations, an all-new Mascot Challenge and bring to life the atmosphere, pageantry and tradition of college football.

Some new green and meaty screenshots for the upcoming Incredible Hulk videogame were released by SEGA today. See the screenshots here from the Xbox 360 release. The screenshots look better lit than the previously released shots (here). Or maybe the night provides better ambiance for the Hulk?

Go red with rage with the GameStop exclusive Red Hulk. Looks like that will be exclusive to the Xbox 360 system.

The Incredible Hulk will be available from SEGA in June 2008 for the Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3, Wii, PS2, Nintendo DS and PCs. The game release will likely be in time for the movie's release on June 13, 2008. Visit the official website here.

Sega's racquetball meets Tron meets Breakout oddity Cosmic Smash may be one more Dreamcast-era property headed for revival territory as the publisher has recently trademarked the title with the USPTO. The arcade title only saw release in Japan and didn't get much attention from gamers as a too late Dreamcast port, but it looks like Sega may be bringing us an update.

Cosmic Smash was developed by the team formerly known as Sega Rosso, probably better known for their Sega Rally and Star Wars arcade game releases. It's almost begging for a WiiWare re-release, as its rather simple in the mechanics and graphics department—perfect for a Wii-remote waggling short session game.

Harmonix and MTV announced today that PS2 and Wii owners will be getting their first blast of added tracks for Rock Band in just a couple months, as Rock Band Track Pack Volume 1 is set to debut on July 15th, 2008 on both systems. This song pack features 20 tracks for $29.99, and features select songs already available for download on the core Rock Band versions.


Gamers wondered how both PS2 and Wii would receive new track updates, and we've got the answer now. As a note on pricing, the $30 tag for 20 tracks is a bargain over the single track downloads, which begin at $1.99 a song on both 360 and PS3 until they drop in price to a buck even. Track Pack Volume 1 prices each track at $1.50 total, so as long as you dig the music, you're getting a deal.


The track listing is as follows:


* 30 Seconds to Mars - The Kill
* All American Rejects - Move Along
* Blink – 182 - All the Small Things
* Boston - More Than a Feeling
* David Bowie - Moonage Daydream
* Faith No More - We Care A Lot
* Grateful Dead - Truckin'
* The Hives - Die, All Right!
* KISS - Calling Dr. Love
* Lynyrd Skynyrd - Gimme' Three Steps
* Nine Inch Nails - March of the Pigs
* Oasis - Live Forever
* Paramore - Crushcrushcrush
* The Police - Synchronicity II
* Queens of the Stone Age - Little Sister
* Ramones - Teenage Lobotomy
* Smashing Pumpkins - Siva
* Stone Temple Pilots - Interstate Love Song
* Weezer - Buddy Holly
* Wolfmother - Joker & the Thief



All 20 tracks utilize original master recordings.

I've got good news and bad news.
Bad is I've not touched Makaron sources for weeks now. Guess it needs to ripen some more I got to the point where I have two or three ways to solve a problem, and each has it's pros and cons - and I just can't decide which one to pick. But I will get to it, eventually.

The good news is Yuki bought some VMUs with games on them and it got me pretty interested. I'm going to try and emulate standalone VMU now. Just think, since it's rather simple and low-spec I could easily use SDL to make it work. Hell, ScummVM uses SDL. I'm somewhat familiar with the API too (my old MOD player used SDL for both sound output and visualisation).
That would make a VMU-on-PC emulator. But guess what, there are SDL ports to Dreamcast available too! So the project could be made to compile and run on DC as well. And at this point it would run under Makaron of course. I mean, how do you say no to VMU-on-DC-on-PC emulator? :]

The main problem right now is VMU BIOS. Apparently it's not possible to access ROM memory directly while running from FLASH, so no easy way to dump it. KATANA dev kit comes with VMU BIOS but I'd rather not rely on it. You know, copyright stuff and all. Also, I'd like to have an English one from one of my own VMUs.
Just yesterday I've came up with a plan to hijack one of the system calls to read the BIOS area for me. This is a fragment of BIOS disassembly:

1966- 61 00 | L1966: PUSH ACC
1968- c1 | LDC
1969- 13 66 | ST VTRBF ;write to work RAM
196b- 71 00 | POP ACC
196d- 73 00 | DEC ACC
196f- 61 00 | PUSH ACC
1971- c1 | LDC
1972- 13 66 | ST VTRBF ;write to work RAM
1974- 71 00 | POP ACC
1976- 73 00 | DEC ACC
1978- 61 00 | PUSH ACC
197a- c1 | LDC
197b- 13 66 | ST VTRBF ;write to work RAM
197d- 71 00 | POP ACC
197f- 73 00 | DEC ACC
1981- 61 00 | PUSH ACC
1983- c1 | LDC
1984- 13 66 | ST VTRBF ;write to work RAM
1986- 71 00 | POP ACC
1988- 81 07 | ADD #$07
198a- 53 02 d9 | DBNZ B,L1966
198d- a1 03 | SUB #$03
198f- a0 | RET



See, by calling 0x1966 with my own TRL, TRH, B and ACC I could use it to LDC any BIOS area into work RAM. The only problem here is I'm assuming the BIOS that is going to be dumped has this procedure at this very address. Seeing how listing comes from 1.004 version and my VMUs are 1.005, it might not be that simple...
By the way - calling into any arbitrary place in ROM is easy, the hard part is getting out But that can arranged as well. Included below (may not be so obvious at first glance) is a public syscall entry for FLASH write routine. It's unused, as it does exactly the same as 0x0100 syscall:

0108- 20 2e c5 | writeFlash2: CALLF L2EC5
010b- b8 0d | NOT1 EXT, 0 ;execute code in other bank
010d- 21 01 0b | L010D: JMPF L010B



What I need is to push 0x010b address on stack and JMPF to 0x1966 while switching banks to ROM. The BIOS procedure will then read ROM memory, store it in RAM and RET to this NOT1 above, effectively switching back to 0x010b in FLASH, where I'll be waiting for it It's brilliant! IT'S SCIENCE

The other way to do things is to go HLE. There are only several public entry points in BIOS code, so it's rather easy. Calling anywhere else is pretty risky so I'm betting no game will ever try that.

So far I've determined that Yuki FLASH dumps are good and working, so I can start with that right away.