PPSSPP v1.9.3 is released. PPSSPP is a fast and portable PSP emulator for Android, Windows, Mac, and Linux, written in C++.

PPSSPP v1.9.3 Changelog:
* Flicker fixed in God of War that appeared with newer drivers for Mali GPUs (#12224)
* Improve performance of God of War on Vulkan (#12242), implement built-in GPU profiler (#12262, #12266)
* Vertex range culling fixed on ARM Mali (#12227)
* Started to improve VFPU precision, resulting so far in a fix for the long standing Tekken 6 leg shaking problem (#12217)
* Fixed a VFPU precision snafu on ARM64, fixing disappearing officers in Warriors Orochi (#11299) and some problems in Tomb Raider (#11179).
* Vulkan is the default again on Android versions newer than Pie
* Fix various homebrew store issues
* GPU pause signal handling fixed, fixing some hangs in Bleach and Armored Core games (#12160)
* Audio sample rate conversion handling fixes (#12147)
* Some Vulkan optimizations (pre-rotation (#12216), perf fix in Metal Gear Acid, etc)
* Multiple fixes for the UWP build (#12036, others)
* MP3 playback fixes (#12005)
* Audio in Motorstorm: Arctic Edge fixed by returning errors correctly (#12121)
* Audio glitches in Final Fantasy Tactics fixed (#9956)
* Camera display in Invizimals fixed (#12278, #8521)
* Added hotkeys for texture dump and replace (#11938)
* Added Visual Studio 2019 support. Windows XP is no longer supported (#11995, others)
* Fixes for video capture (#12069)
* Added a separate sound volume for alternative speed (#12124)
* Improved mouse control (Windows only) (#12173, #12176)
* Support for installing texture packs and ISOs from zips (#12175)
* Right analog support for touch controls (only used by patched games and some HD remasters) (#12182)
* Android: Fix OpenSL initialization, possibly helps audio crackle a little. (#12333).
* Fix graphics on Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K
* Fixed strange vehicle behavior in MGS:PW (somehow) (#12342)
* Ported to the Nintendo Switch by m4xw! Builds available on m4xw's Patreon.
http://www.emucr.com/2019/10/ppsspp-v193.html

http://www.ppsspp.org/index.html ...

• The Libretro team is back, bringing a new version of the beloved emulator frontend, RetroArch. After releasing version 1.7.8 back in August, the team has made some new changes and released an update in the form of version 1.7.9. This time around, there's been a focus on quality of life features, resulting in new ways to navigate RetroArch's XMB; users can now use touchscreen gestures on supported devices in order to go through the menus. Tapping or swiping specific places onscreen will allow you to search for games, scroll through lists, change settings, and more, all without requiring a connected keyboard or gamepad. Some general improvements have also been made, such as adding Wiimote lightgun support on the Wii, solving a memory leak due to a video driver on the PS2, and giving some overall bugfixes in regards to the menu. If you want to make sure you've got the latest version for your setup, or want to try the new features out for yourself, you can download it from the source below.
  
  Source
  
  https://gbatemp.net/threads/retroarc...he-xmb.549678/

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The free-to-play version of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds will be available in Europe on October 10.
PUBG Lite is a standalone product designed to work on low powered PCs and laptops, supported by a free-to-play business model.
The open beta version was first available in Thailand in January, and has rolled out to parts of Latin America, Southeast and South Asia, and the Middle East and North Africa since then.
From October 10, it will be available across Europe and Russia, marking the first time that PUBG has been free to PC players in some of the IP's most lucrative markets.
At the time of writing, PUBG cost $30 on Steam, and is priced at similar levels on the European and UK storefronts. As such, PUBG Lite represents an opportunity to open up the game to a larger community of PC players.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...rope-next-week ...

If you happened to pass by a certain park in Seattle last month, you might have seen myself, a few Minecraft representatives, and a few other journalists awkwardly pacing, crouching, and waving our phones close to the ground or in circles around us. It's a dance that probably looked to outside observers not unlike (but perhaps more ridiculous than) the odd movements of crowds chasing virtual monsters during the overwhelmingly popular launch of Pokémon Go.
But Minecraft Earth, despite at first glance looking a bit like Pokémon Go in that it's a location-based, AR-using adventure, is something entirely different. It contains some similar elements, such as exploring the real world and collecting in-game items that correspond to real spaces ("Tappables," which contain recognizable Minecraft blocks and items). But it's also part-AR adventure game and part-creative space, where players can take the found Tappables and build them into Minecraft creations anywhere: on the table in front of them, in their living room, or even in the middle of a public park.
At a hands-on preview last month, I spoke with game director Torfi Olafsson and briefly with principal program manager Jessica Zahn on the game's inspirations, technological challenges, monetization concerns, and the global spirit the team at Mojang wants to infuse into Minecraft's foray onto mobile devices.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...-two-years-ago ...

The time has finally come to start the release cycle for ScummVM 2.1.0.
The release is going to be big, and these new games require testing:

• Blade Runner.
• Hoyle Bridge.
• Hoyle Children's Collection.
• Hoyle Classic Games.
• Hoyle Solitaire.
• Hyperspace Delivery Boy!
• Might and Magic IV - Clouds of Xeen.
• Might and Magic V - Darkside of Xeen.
• Might and Magic - World of Xeen.
• Might and Magic - World of Xeen 2 CD Talkie.
• Might and Magic - Swords of Xeen.
• Mission Supernova Part 1.
• Mission Supernova Part 2.
• Quest for Glory: Shadows of Darkness.
• The Prince and the Coward.
• Versailles 1685.

Also, with this release, we are finally enabling cloud support for save games and game data. So far, it works only on desktops, you may find a description of this feature in our User Manual.
The complete list of the games that require testing for this release can be found on our Wiki.
Please use a stable daily build of ScummVM for testing. In case you encounter any bugs, there is a place for them to be reported at our issue tracker. Additionally, please track your progress on the forum thread so we can cross the tested game titles out on the wiki. Make sure to follow our guidelines for release testing which can be found here.
It would be great if you could help with updating the ScummVM GUI translations. The description of the steps you need to follow is on the Wiki.

https://www.scummvm.org/news/20190917/ ...

We need you! Join the Supernova crew for an unforgettable journey to witness the death of a star.
Have you ever dreamed of becoming an astronaut? Being abandoned on your own on a broken spaceship? Dying asphyxiated? Being electrocuted? Being shot at? Getting lost in a pyramid? Being caught stealing a dinosaur's head and being sent to prison? And if that is not enough you can even disable the improved mode in ScummVM and experience the frustration of clicking and pointing your way through a twenty-five years old computer game.
We are proud to announce that Mission Supernova Teil 1: Das Schicksal des Horst Hummel and Mission Supernova Teil 2: Der Doppelgänger are now both supported in ScummVM. In addition we have also translated both games to English and you can decide to play either in German or English. The games can be downloaded for free on the developer's website, so you have no reason not to play it!
Please help us test the games and report any bugs or translation issue you find on our issue tracker. You will need a recent version of ScummVM and the supernova.dat file (if it is not included in the ScummVM package for your platform). You can also see some basic information on the game controls on our wiki or access the game manual in game using the F2 key.

https://www.scummvm.org/news/20190913/ ...

For years Resident Evil on PC has been a decent port plagued by outragingly bad code that prevented it from even getting outside of the Windows 95/98 compatibility mode as a requirement to simply boot. Last year Gemini got interested in DLL code injection, he tried to figure out why the game would run so badly and how code injection via DLL could help with these issues; this is how Classic REbirth was born.
Classic REbirth is a drag&drop patch in the form of a DLL that does all the hard fixing for the user. No need to use complex wrappers, to hard-patch executables, or to replace specific files. The usage is very simple: add the DLL where the executable is and it hooks onto the game as soon as it boots, just like that.
The early revisions of the DLL were a bit rough, as they still relied entirely on the game’s software renderer. This new revision, however, rewrites a large part of the code to bring a renewed experience that improves many aspects of the game, making it run in hardware mode in the way the game was designed, on recent Windows versions and newer hardware.
Resident Evil currently runs at a stable 30/60 fps, with support for higher resolutions, new controller libraries, and FFMPEG to do the grunt work with video and audio decompression. The result is a beautifully rendered game, just like the original on PlayStation, but with crisper visuals and virtually unlimited moddable features.

http://appleofeden.de-doc.com/index....assic-rebirth/

http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=29167 ...

• After teasing some of their upcoming features, the Libretro team has just released their latest stable build of RetroArch: 1.7.8. This is a sizable update for the emulator frontend, offering many new changes and functions such as an "AI Service" which has a Speech Mode that can automatically parse text onscreen into speech, or an Image Mode that quickly pauses your game to overlay machine translated text from one language to another. Also new to this update is the RetroArch Disc Project, allowing for CD-ROM support so that players can experience their original game discs right through RetroArch's supported cores, or dump them into a bin/cue format.
  
  Other, smaller additions, like touchscreen lightgun controls for mobile, on-demand thumbnail downloading, enhanced core options, and more, have been added as well.
  
  A full changelog is available below:
  

  1.7.8 (future)
  

  • 3DS: Fix C-Stick y-axis inversion
  • 3DS: Update all icon/banner images
  • AI: Add AI Service functionality (enabled for Windows/Mac/Linux/Android/iOS).
  • APPLE (MAC/IOS/TVOS): Fix autodetect for mFI controllers: properly call autodetect add on the connect notification, and add call to disconnect on GameController disconnect notification.
  • ANDROID: Implemented multi-touch touchscreen support
  • ANDROID: Now can be built with Gradle/Android Studio
  • AUDIO/WINDOWS: You can now select between audio devices for XAudio2/DirectSound/XAudio2 by pressing left/right on the Audio Device option.
  • AUDIO/WINDOWS: Setting the device by either index number or name string should work.
  • BLISS-BOX: Add 4 new pad types from firmware 3.0
  • BPS/UPS: Re-allocation target_data variable for target patch size (can now apply bigger patches without extra-bytes on memory)
  • CDROM: Added real CD-ROM functionality for Windows and Linux.
  • CDROM: Added disc dumping.
  • COMMON: Add separate frontend logging
  • COMMON: Ability to set FPS update interval (used in the window titlebar/FPS widget)
  • COMMON: Add 'Reset Frame Time Counter' functionality, enable it by default for resizing the window, loading/saving shader presets, fastforwarding, etc.
  • COMMON: Add optional 'on demand' thumbnail downloads
  • COMMON: Add new playlist-based thumbnail downloader. Hide the legacy thumbnail pack version by default
  • COMMON: Show license per core (if available) inside 'Load Core'
  • COMMON: Add option to load content from (and dump) CD-ROM discs
  • COMMON: Re-enable '--log-file' command line option
  • COMMON: Default playlist core association is now stored as metadata inside each playlist
  • COMMON: Fix playlist format detection
  • COMMON: Favorites playlist size can now be set independently of content history size. Values can be set from 0-999, or '-1' for unlimited (99999)
  • COMMON: Prevent adding new items to favorites when playlist is full (old entries are no longer overwritten)
  • COMMON: Prevent loading content with cores that require an incompatible graphics API version from the current one
  • COMMON: Saved shader presets are now portable across platforms and use relative paths
  • COMMON: Add '--set-shader' command line option which works like an override for automatic shader presets
  • COMMON: Add global shader presets
  • COMMON: Remove 'video_shader' setting, shaders are not saved automatically anymore
  • CORE OPTIONS: When saving core option overrides, only include settings for the current core
  • CORE OPTIONS: Add option to save core options per-core
  • CPU FILTERS: Add Scanline2x filter
  • DINPUT: Cleanup magic numbers mess surrounding hat code
  • GAMECUBE: Add default video/audio filter directories
  • GL/MALI400: Fix menu issues on Mali 400 series GPUs, should also fix 'RetroArch flickers black on ARM Mali GPUs (Android/ARM Linux)
  • GL/GLCORE: Use highest supported OpenGL Core version on Windows and X11
  • GL1: Ignore alpha in core video, fixes XRGB8888 rendering in some cores
  • GLCORE: Don't hardcode shader cross compilation target version but poll it. glcore would always only use the minimum target shader version, i.e. GLSL ES 3.00 for OpenGL ES 3.0+ or GLSL 1.50 for OpenGL 3.2+
  • D3D10/11/12/SLANG: Added "FrameDirection" slang semantic. Works fine with braid-rewind shader, not entirely perfect with D3D12 though
  • D3D10/11/12: Add option to select which GPU to render with
  • D3D10/11: Fix maintaining aspect ratio when resizing window
  • GLCORE/SLANG: Added "FrameDirection" slang semantic
  • HID: Add Retrode support. Should work on Wii/WiiU.
  • INPUT: Menu toggle hotkey can now be bound to another keyboard key and it will toggle properly
  • IOS: Correctly centers screen on iPhone X landscape
  • IOS: Implemented multi-touch touchscreen support
  • IOS: Add in more Apple Model numbers for RetroRating Added in all current Apple Model numbers and set a base rating of 19
  • IOS: Remove pause indicator; show the native UI menu using 4-finger swipe down gesture
  • IOS: Support L3/R3 in iOS 12.1, Options buttons in MFi/PS4/XBox One controllers in iOS 13
  • LIBRETRO: Add new core options interface, allows for localization, sublabels and more
  • LIBRETRO: Add

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This week has been quite a busy one for PC gaming. From Microsoft’s new Flight Simulator to aliens touching down in Arma 3, we’re going to cover a few of the biggest PC gaming stories this week.

Microsoft Flight Simulator

It’s been a little while since Microsoft announced their new flight simulator game and players across the globe are excited about this one. Flight Simulators have captivated the minds of many a player over the years, but we haven’t really seen a new one kick up a storm until this announcement. The last game to make this huge of a wave was Flight Simulator X: Steam Edition back 5 years ago.

Flight Simulator’s insider program kicks off next month, allowing players to preview the game early, and some people are very excited to get their hands on this.
In the meantime, check out our virgin games sign up codes to fill up your procrastination time!

Arma 3: First Contact

Arma 3’s new DLC, First Contact, is here for players to delve into. And this one comes with a twist. Aliens!
Arma hasn’t seen something like this anywhere in the series before, so that makes this an interesting feature released by Bohemia. In the new DLC you’ll be put to the test against the impending alien invasion featuring UFO’s, Alien Tech and more.

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 has been in the news a lot recently, especially since the E3 presentation featuring the one and only Keanu Reeves. This week, CD Projekt Red, the developers of the game have talked about player features and freedom.
Regardless of which version of the game you pick up, or if you pre-order it, all players will have the same experience and in game content across the board.

Projekt Red are no stranger to fleshed out and content-filled games, so we’ll be looking out for this one when it releases in April 2020.

DayZ SurviverGamez

DayZ is a game that has surrounded much controversy. Being in development for over 6 years it’s hard to still have belief that the game will ever be finished.
Players this week have had the chance to build a new experience in the game as developers Bohemia announced they would be creating a Battle Royale gamemode, previously a player-ran competition known as The SurviverGamez.

The gamemode, although not released to the entire playerbase and uncertain if it will be a standalone game in itself, is accessible to players that signed up to have closed alpha access. Players who have played the gamemode express the nostalgia that they feel when playing the game, reminding them of the pre 2013 days playing the Arma 2 iteration of the mod.

So there we have it, a few of the biggest news stories of PC gaming this week. From Aliens to Flying your very own 747, what are you most looking forward to in the months ahead?

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