Sam Steele updated his journal with a little news about DC Squares:

Things have been pretty busy with DCSquares lately. We're working hard on a major update, as well as an additional project that we'll mention as it comes closer to being released.

http://www.c99.org/index.php ...

World Championship Poker Deluxe Series puts the best of Las Vegas, Atlantic City and the "Big Easy" right in the palm of your hand!

More info at Success HK. ...

Yes, it's a virtual pet -- three virtual pets, actually, since the player names, raises, and trains three realtime 3D pooches. They'll respond to voice input through the DS microphone (with which you can assign them their own names), and go about their doggish business around the clock while the DS is in its sleep mode. If two sets of Nintendogs are in close proximity, furthermore, they'll passively communicate through the handheld's wireless hardware unbeknownst to either owner.





More info at Lik Sang ...

Microsoft will finally announce the true name of the Xbox 2 and briefly show the system itself and a selection of games on a special half-hour MTV programme, according to the console's marketing executive.
The Seattle-based computing giant announced last week that the world's first glimpse of Xbox 2 would not be at E3, but the week before on a worldwide MTV broadcast called MTV Presents: The Next Generation Xbox Revealed.

Speaking to GameSpot.com, Microsoft's corporate vice president of worldwide marketing and publishing Peter Moore said that the decision was taken to reward the Xbox's consumer fanbase.

"We wanted to say things first to the consumer and give them a sneak peek under the tent of what's going on," he said.
The half-hour timescale of the show, complete with guest appearances from celebrities and musical sets from rock band The Killers, has encouraged critics to ask just how much Xbox 2 Microsoft is planning for the programme.

Not too much, according to Moore: "We'll talk name. We'll show the hardware as much as you can do in a television show. You'll get a little glimpse of games, but we're saving most of that for E3."

The worry is that the Xbox 2's more technical details - the stuff that has hardcore gamers salivating like dogs in the midday sun - could turn off viewers. "We won't do anything that is boring or feels like an infomercial," said Moore.

Moore denied that the move was a snub to E3 and the specialist videogames press and assured huffy journalists there would still be bones for them to pick. "On May 16 [at Microsoft's pre-E3 press conference], we'll do a real deep dive and will show the games in their full glory. And then on the E3 show floor itself we can really show you the power of the platform."

Both Sony and Nintendo are also expected to unveil next-gen consoles at E3. Moore refuted speculation that he was playing a game of one-upmanship with his competitors. "Regardless of what our competition wants to do, we had a very clear plan in mind that goes back a year now."

More revelations on brain-melting Xbox 2 viral marketing website ourcolony.net are also promised, although Moore was dramatically cagey about the details. "You'll have to keep watching that thing. I'm not quite sure about that thing."

MTV Presents: The Next Generation Xbox Revealed will air on Thursday May 12 at 9.30pm in North America and Friday May 13 at 8pm in the UK. You can get the schedule for the whole world here.

We'll bring you all the Xbox 2 news from the MTV show, Microsoft's pre-E3 conference and the showfloor at E3. Until then, we suspect there'll be a few more Xbox 2 nuggets to chew over... ...

An 'Autoupdate' for Halo 2 is being released by Bungie today as the developer continues its efforts to present fans with a ship-shape multiplayer battlefield to enjoy. A number of cheat exploits, bugs and glitches are being addressed in the update, and Bungie has also taken the opportunity to balance the game's weapons in both Live and system link play.
Melee damage, grenades, the Magnum pistol and the SMG-Plasma Rifle dual wield combination have all been tweaked by the developer, which has handily posted a complete run-down of all the changes on its home on the internet. Fans would do well to check this out, as Bungie also explains the reasons behind the changes here and talks about the effect they'll have on the all-important Halo 2 leaderboards.

In related news, Halo 2's imminent expansion is teasing us with its wares once again thanks to a 3D screenshot of new level Containment.
Explaining what's shown in the screenshot, Bungie says: "...Tinman and Sketch thought they were making the perfect flag run. They threw the switch, took out everyone in the base with gauss fire, grabbed the flag, and was back out before the gate had time to close. However, Shishka had a plan. Well, no I didn't. What I did have, though was a Scorpion. And with that, I taught Sketch and Tinman about Containment's own special brand of pink death- the large land mines scattered about the level." ...

This has been an exceptional week for the Nintendo DS with Fireflys excellent Wireless Multiboot so now you can put DS Homebrew onto the console without the PassMe Device. Theres also work going on to Work on a replacement firmware and finally the release of the first Emulator to work on the DS. Watch yer back PSP ...

Jate has posted news of a new Beats of Rage Mod called Asterix and Caesar´s Challenge, Belavi has created another awesome mod for the Dreamcast, more information and screenshots/downloads here --> http://www.dreamadictos.com/index2.php ...

Erwan the webmaster of the excellent DC France website has posted news of a new release of ScummVM for the Dreamcast, check out this topic on DC France`s forums -->: http://forum.dc-france.com/viewtopic.php?t=146

Thanks to JMD on IRC efnet #dcemu for the news ...

Vilmos has again updated his port of MAME to the Tapwave Zodiac and Pocket PC, heres whats new:

MANY more games working and the NeoGeo module is included.

The launcher has a new option, the little P and L icons on the bottom of the launcher screen let you load the game in Portrait or Landscape mode. Note that some game drivers do not support this, so it won't work on all games and on none of the NeoGeo. The joystick also switches control from landscape to portait as you switch.

Download from Here. ...