via cvg

Super Probotector, Castlevania IV and R-Type bound for December UK release. Oh yes!

If you're as big a retro Nintendo fan as we are, December 29 can't come soon enough because a December release schedule for the Virtual Console on the Wii has revealed that Super NES classics Super Probotector: Aliens Rebels (AKA Super Contra) and Super Castlevania IV will be made available for download on that day in UK.

That's not the only surprise - the Turbografx version of R-Type will also be out on that day too, which is awesome. On December 15 Alien Crush, an amazing pinball game on the Turbografx will also hit the virtual console.

These games come as a pleasant surprise after Nintendo's initial December release list made no mention of these titles - which is particularly sweet in a era where we're more used to great games being delayed, not released unexpectedly.

Meanwhile, the US Virtual Console servers will be graced with Ice Hockey (NES), Gunstar Heroes (Mega Drive), Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine (Mega Drive) and Alien Crush later today.

The full European Virtual Console release schedule for December 2006 is as follows:

Virtual Console games available from 8th December 2006:
Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64)
F-Zero (Super Nintendo)
Donkey Kong Country (Super Nintendo)
Mario Bros.
The Legend of Zelda (NES)
Donkey Kong (NES)
Wario's Woods (NES)
Sonic the Hedgehog (MEGA DRIVE)
Altered Beast (MEGA DRIVE)
Golden Axe (MEGA DRIVE)
Ecco the Dolphin (MEGA DRIVE)
Bonk's Adventure (Turbografx)
Super Star Soldier (Turbografx)
Victory Run (Turbografx)
Bomberman'93 (Turbografx)
Dungeon Explorer (Turbografx)

Virtual Console games available from 15th December 2006:
Urban Champion (NES)
Solomon's Key (NES)
Pinball (NES)
Columns (MEGA DRIVE)
Gunstar Heroes (MEGA DRIVE)
Ristar (MEGA DRIVE)
Dr. Robotonik's Mean Bean Machine (MEGA DRIVE)
Alien Crush (Turbografx)

Virtual Console games available from 22nd December 2006:
Donkey Kong Jr. (NES)
Soccer and Tennis (NES)
Space Harrier II (MEGA DRIVE)
Toe Jam & Earl (SEGA MEGA DRIVE)
Military Madness (Turbografx)

Virtual Console games available from 29th December 2006:
SimCity (Super Nintendo)
Super Probotector (Super Nintendo)
Super Castlevania IV (Super Nintendo)
Baseball NES)
Ice Hockey (NES)
R-TYPE (Turbografx) ...

More on the Stars into points news, this time from CVG

Finally, those pointless Star points awarded to members of Nintendo-Europe.com can be put to good use; Wii Points cards will soon be made available to purchase through the Stars Catalogue.

It's about time something cool appeared on it - apart from the occasional game, which tends to disappear in seconds, the Stars Catalogue is mostly filled with rubbish desktop pictures and midi sounds which no-one wants to exchange points for. So we're sure the Wii Points cards will be popular when they turn up on the system. Nintendo, however, were unable to disclose a date this would happen.

Even better, when you register your Wii with the Wii Shop Channel, you will be given the option to link your Wii Shop account with your account on the official site by entering your email address. Do it, because Nintendo has revealed that you will earn Stars for every Virtual Console game you download.

Wii Points, in case you don't already know, are used to purchase games from the Wii's Virtual Console, with 2000 Wii points costing around £15. NES games cost 500 points, Turbografx games are 600 points, Mega Drive and SNES games are 800 and N64 games cost 1000. ...

Via CVG

Industry legend Warren Spector has revealed to CVG his admiration of Nintendo's Zelda series.

In an interview to be published later in the month, we asked the brains behind the likes of Deus Ex what his dream videogame would be.

"The answer depends on my mood. Honestly, there are times when Zelda (pick one of 'em - ANY of 'em) is as close to perfection as I need to get. I swear my blood pressure drops when I hear the Zelda soundtrack. And I never feel as heroic, as much a part of something epic and important, as I do when I'm pretending to be Link," Spector replied as part of his answer.

And he's not alone. Nintendo has delivered what many regard as some of the greatest videogames of all time with its Zelda titles, and most recent release Twilight Princess has received heaps of plaudits - including a hefty round of applause from us.

Along with querying Warren Spector about his dream videogame in the interview, we asked him about his current top secret project underway at his new company Junction Point Studios and plenty of other stuff. ...

920,000 units sold in November in North America puts DS at the top of the sales chart for November, even beating sales of the newly launched Wii console, when people were camping outside shops to get their hands on the new console.

We wonder if everyone sat in Wii launch queues bought DSs just for something to do while they wait. 600,000 Wii's were snapped up by eager gamers last month, making for a hugely successful launch for Nintendo, but with the DS still owning the world as if no other games consoles exist, Nintendo already has plenty to celebrate.

Even the Game Boy Advance looks to be having a great Christmas, selling 642,000 units in November. There are surely more GBAs in the world than there are people by now, but somebody's still buying them, clearly.

According to Nintendo, it sold more than 2.1 million systems, including GameCube and Wii, of the 3.9 million consoles purchased in total in the month. Good times for Nintendo.

via cvg ...

December 11th, 2006 marks the release of the XNA Creators Club. Coupled with XNA Game Studio Express, the XNA Creators Club opens up video game development to anyone, to affordably build and play games on Xbox 360. The XNA Creators Club is available on Xbox Live® Marketplace for $49 (U.S.) for a four-month subscription, or $99 (U.S.) for an annual subscription. Both subscriptions provide aspiring game developers with access to thousands of game assets from Microsoft and key partners such as Turbo Squid Inc., as well as white papers, specialized starter kits, samples and technical product support.


For more Info about XNA look here

In addition, to celebrate the worldwide launch of XNA Game Studio Express, the "Dream-Build-Play" contest will be open to XNA Game Studio Express customers on Windows as well as those on Xbox 360 through the XNA Creators Club membership. The contest offers the opportunity for the community to showcase its innovation and talent to the world, culminating in the incredible chance for the winner's game to be published on Xbox Live Arcade! The "Dream-Build-Play" contest will be launched in January.

More for info abou the contest look here ...

People who had a look into homebrew games available for SEGA Saturn may have wondered why only very few of them use 3d graphics. And almost all of these feature only very simple 3d models.

One main reason for that is the difficult toolflow needed to convert 3d data to Saturn format. The conversion is error prone, covers multiple tools (some of them windows-only), with every tool having it's own bugs and limitations.
Once you started assigning Saturn specific polygon attributes, you can't just go back the toolchain and change the geometry without having to redo all the work on polygon attributes.

But that was then.
For Blender, a free cross-platform and open-source 3D modeling program, capable to import a lot of common 3D file formats through plugins using it's python API,
there is now a new plugin available, which allows a 3D scene, including textures and gouraud shading tables, to be exported to SEGA Saturn format!

This is already the 3rd release of the plugin and though further updates will follow, this one can already be considered to be way better than the "traditional" methods. This script was created for my entry to the SEGA Saturn Coding Contest (C4 - 2006) and it is released in the hope, that it will enable other participants to easily use 3d graphics, too.

Have a look at the original topic for detailed info!

Download and view Screenshots via Comments ...

India is fast becoming a key source of labor for American tech companies, but with average annual income in the country less than the price of a personal computer, the hi-tech products manufactured by multinationals that have set up shop there remain out of reach for most of the nation.

That reality became more apparent when a major Indian bank last week launched the kind of financing program that in America is ordinarily used for automobile or major appliance purchases. In this case, however, it's for Indians wanting to buy Microsoft's Xbox 360.

India's ICICI bank says it will secure an Xbox 360 Core system for customers for an upfront payment of the rupee equivalent of about $20.00 and six monthly installments of about $73.00. The Xbox 360 Core system ordinarily sells in India for about $518.00.

With average annual income at less than $500 in India, the purchase of an Xbox 360 would for the typical resident represent a financial outlay that in the West would be the equivalent of buying a house. It's not likely that too many Indians are going to shell out a year's salary just to play Yuvraj Singh International Cricket 2007, a title produced for the local market by Codemasters, even on the installment plan.

Still, the wages paid by Microsoft and other U.S. tech firms operating in India far exceed the national average, even if they're modest by American standards. A programmer working at a Microsoft office in Bangalore is likely making close to $10,000 annually or more. So the company should have little trouble identifying its target customers in the country -- they're likely on its payroll, or that of a competitor.

Yahoo news ...

Ubisoft, announced that Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter™ 2, the next installment in the popular squad-based action franchise, is currently in development for the Xbox 360. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter™ 2 is scheduled for worldwide release in Spring 2007.



Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 builds off of the events in the first game and places gamers in control of the U.S. military’s elite fighting unit, the Ghosts. In the year 2014, the rising conflict between Mexican loyalists and insurgent rebel forces has thrown Mexico into full-scale civil war. Under the command of Captain Scott Mitchell, the Ghosts are called upon to face an imminent threat to the United States. The fate of two countries now lies in the hands of the Ghosts as they fend off an attack on U.S. soil. Equipped with the most cutting-edge weaponry and technology, the Ghosts must battle on both sides of the border to neutralize the escalating rebel threat.



Check a nice little teaser for GRAW 2

A bigger video will be available on the 15th of Dec

Buy Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter: Premium Edition for $39.90/£20.61

Buy Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas for $49.90/£25.78 ...

Sony has turned to SanDisk to help it develop the next incarnation of its Memory Stick memory card format: the Memory Stick Pro HG. The Memory Stick Duo-sized card ups the maximum storage capacity to 32GB, though it may be some time before 32GB cards come to market.

Sony and SanDisk claimed the new card has a maximum data transfer rate of 480Mbps - matching USB 2.0. That's a theoretical maximum, of course - operating system and other overheads will scale it back.
The Memory Stick Pro HG supports the current 4-bit parallel and serial Memory Stick data transfer buses but also introduces an 8-bit parallel data channel. That, Sony said, ups the minimum write speed from 40Mbps to 120Mbps, but you'll need a Pro HG-compatible device to get it. The 8-bit interface operates at 60MHz, but the card will also run at 40MHz to support the older interface.

At this stage Pro HG is a specification and, presumably, a set of prototypes. Sony said it would begin offering licenses in January 2007 to companies keen to support the new format in Memory Stick readers. It didn't say when it will bring the format to market. Nor did SanDisk, for that matter. ®

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/12..._stick_pro-hg/ ...