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by Published on August 15th, 2006 16:53
US games designer American McGee has lavished praise on Nintendo's innovative next-gen console strategy, labelling the PS3 and Xbox 360 as "just a video card and processor update."
Speaking to commercial website Computerandvideogames.com in an interview yet to be published in full, the industry veteran laid out his forthright views on the next-gen battle.
"I sense that Nintendo is going to capture the hearts of gamers while Microsoft and Sony stab each other in the neck for market domination," McGee stated.
"Nintendo is focused on innovation and games," he added. "The other guys are focused on making money."
It's McGee's assertion that the focus on high definition, cinematic graphics and the touting of immense technical processing power will be detrimental to both Sony and Microsoft's grip on the games market.
While the two firms fight for market share, McGee believes Nintendo's cheaper, gameplay-centric and highly innovative approach taken with the Wii console will capture consumer interest on a much wider scale.
"The only true next-gen console out there is the Wii. Everything else is just a video card and processor upgrade," McGee concluded.
His comments echo the industry's general reception to the Wii, with suggestions of a much stronger market position for Nintendo coming from many highly placed industry professionals.
In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Eidos' product acquisition director, Ian Livingstone stated his belief in a much closer race for the next-generation of hardware, stating:
"I think Nintendo, with the Wii console, is going to be right back up in the thick of it. they've gone for gameplay over graphics instead. I think that's quite an interesting move and it could be very successful for them." ...by Published on August 15th, 2006 16:48
News Via Gamesindustry
There's no movement in the top three this week, as THQ's multi-format cartoon racer continues its winning streak - while GTA: Liberty City Stories and New Super Mario Bros stall in second and third....
Marking its third week at the top, Cars continues to cling to the racing line and stay ahead of the pack, despite a 17 per cent drop in sales. Outside of the top three however, some old favourites are making a valiant and, in some cases, meteoric rise back up to the top of the charts.
The Sims (Original) is making the most of its retail promotions, climbing from sixth to fourth place, pushing poor old Dr Kawashima's Brain Training down one place into fifth position.
Sixth place goes to sibling The Sims 2, whilst other iterations of the popular people management game are creeping back into the charts further down. The Sims: Unleashed re-enters the chart at number 30, and The Sims: Superstar climbs six places to 31, leaving The Sims: On Holiday and The Sims: Makin' Magic to re-emerge at number 37 and 38 respectively.
Back in the higher end of the charts, Konami keeps up training for the new football season with Pro Evolution Soccer 5 in seventh place - followed by a top ten re-entry for EA's Need for Speed: Most Wanted, which climbs from 14 to this week's number 8.
Disney gets swallowed by the currents with Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest at number 9, and Activision continues to dodge traffic at number 10 with film franchise Over The Hedge.
THQ's Monster House marks the only noticeable new entry this week, coming in at number 18 ahead of the movie's weekend release, which should help push the title further up the charts next week - potentially overtaking Cars for the all-formats lead.by Published on August 15th, 2006 16:38
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has declared that the DS is the clear winner in the war of the handhelds - and that the Wii is set to follow suit in the home console market.
Speaking to USA Today, Fils-Aime said: "Nintendo DS in Japan outsells all of our competitors by a factor of five to one. We are so far in advance of our handheld competitors that they're not even on the map.
"That's all based on a market expansion strategy. And that's what we're looking to do with home consoles," he continued.
By expanding the market, Fils-Aime said, Nintendo will attract new consumers to gaming and dramatically increase its market share - leaving Sony and Microsoft to fight it out at the higher-end price range.
"Our competitors are both going down the same path. Both believe that more and more performance with a higher and higher price tage are their keys to success," he stated.
"What do I see? I think our two competitors will trade share between them, while we go off and grab share in a completely different way."
Fils-Aime went on to dismiss suggestions that the Wii will become the second home console of choice for consumers who have already purchased a PS3 or Xbox 360, stating: "I'd much rather have the consumer buy a Wii, some accessories, and a ton of games, versus buying any of my competitor's products."
Nintendo has yet to announce a price and release date for the Wii, although it has been confirmed that the console will launch this year. The company is still riding high on the success of the Nintendo DS, which has proved a hit with consumers around the globe - and particularly in Japan. According to recently released CESA figures, Nintendo sold 4.25 million DS units during 2005, while Sony shifted 2.61 million PSPs. ...by Published on August 15th, 2006 16:37
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has declared that the DS is the clear winner in the war of the handhelds - and that the Wii is set to follow suit in the home console market.
Speaking to USA Today, Fils-Aime said: "Nintendo DS in Japan outsells all of our competitors by a factor of five to one. We are so far in advance of our handheld competitors that they're not even on the map.
"That's all based on a market expansion strategy. And that's what we're looking to do with home consoles," he continued.
By expanding the market, Fils-Aime said, Nintendo will attract new consumers to gaming and dramatically increase its market share - leaving Sony and Microsoft to fight it out at the higher-end price range.
"Our competitors are both going down the same path. Both believe that more and more performance with a higher and higher price tage are their keys to success," he stated.
"What do I see? I think our two competitors will trade share between them, while we go off and grab share in a completely different way."
Fils-Aime went on to dismiss suggestions that the Wii will become the second home console of choice for consumers who have already purchased a PS3 or Xbox 360, stating: "I'd much rather have the consumer buy a Wii, some accessories, and a ton of games, versus buying any of my competitor's products."
Nintendo has yet to announce a price and release date for the Wii, although it has been confirmed that the console will launch this year. The company is still riding high on the success of the Nintendo DS, which has proved a hit with consumers around the globe - and particularly in Japan. According to recently released CESA figures, Nintendo sold 4.25 million DS units during 2005, while Sony shifted 2.61 million PSPs. ...by Published on August 15th, 2006 16:36
Guitar Hero II will make its first public appearance in Europe on August 22nd at the Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival.
It's going all the way to 11, in fact - 11am anyway, when it'll start screening at the Odeon, Lothian Road, for an hour.
There'll be an opportunity to see, hear and even try the new multiplayer modes which split the game between rhythm, lead and bass guitar parts - with two tracks per song - and having had a chance to dabble in this ourselves at E3 we can say that it certainly doesn't dilute the impact of each strain.
If you fancy heading along to the event in Edinburgh, you should bear in mind that tickets will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis by Gamestation stores in Scotland, with a limited allocation available on the day. ...by Published on August 15th, 2006 16:30
News from Divineo UK
After a long delay, we now have limited stock of the M3 Adapters!
Heres what M3 is for those who dont know:
M3 Adapter is made for those who want to download freeware games, movies and music from a PC to a GBA(SP) and/or Nintendo DS. You can use your PC and normal SD Card Reader to transfer and convert you movie & music files to the SD Cards. Then, insert M3 Adapter with SD Card into GBA(SP) or Nintendo DS, and the files will be available after boot up of the console.
Its features are just the same as any other MP3 Player on the market but also playing games and movies instead of playing music only.
One of the coolest features of an M3 Adapter is that you can directly run third party software on it – that includes emulators of the video game system. ...by Published on August 15th, 2006 14:54
The programmers behind the PSOne emulator PSXP have released a screenshot of Tekken 2 running on the PSP, the game runs at 10fps but thats without dynarec and optimisations so theres a lot of room for improvement. thanks to www.maxconsole.net for the news
Screenshot Via Comments
Will Sony be watching these developments? ...by Published on August 15th, 2006 13:53
In a recent research conducted by Loughborough University, it has been found that Nokia mobile phones are the most frequently stolen handsets. Nokia 6230 was the most stolen one, accounting to 15.4% of all the phones. Second was the Samsung D500 with 8.2% and followed by Motorola RAZR with 5.4%.
Nokia: 55,783 (49%)The reason about Nokia taking almost half of the stolen mobile phones market could be its higher resale value than its counterparts.
Samsung: 15,524 (13.6%)
Sony Ericsson: 15,090 (13.3%)
Motorola: 12,947 (11.4%)
Others: 14,451 (12.7%)
via TechTicker ...by Published on August 15th, 2006 13:02
I'm a few days late with this release
Fragger has releases a new version of Makaqu (a quake port)
...
Here's the list of changes:
Quote:
============================
1.2 version changes:
============================
Dreamcast-related bugfixes:
- Updated the default deadzone values for the controller.
- Fixed the cd_enabled cvar being not registered if there is no audio tracks on the disc.
Common changes:
- Updated BlackAura's e-mail address in the credits screen.
============================
1.1 version changes:
============================
Dreamcast-related bugfixes:
- Corrected the name of mouse button 1.
- Fixed the "Pause" option in the Audio Options menu.
- nxMakaqu would crash when trying to save FrikFiles, because it tried to save them in the CD. Now the FrikFiles are saved in the RAM. There's no way to same them on the VMU yet though.
- The "screenshot" command is ignored now. This was done to prevent crashes, because it tried to save them in the CD.
Windows-related bugfixes:
- Fixed the crosshair being not displayed correctly in some video cards.
- Fixed the network menus (they were disabled by mistake).
Common bugfixes:
- Fixed a small problem with the interpolation (sorry, can't remember what it was).
- Now the translucent viewmodels are drawn over the translucent water instead of under it.
- Fixed the network protocol (demos recorded with some mods were not working).
- Fixed the "cmdline" cvar.
- Fixed some menu options that were not saved in the config file.
Dreamcast-related changes:
- Added an IP.BIN file.
- Modlist support for the /ID1 directory.
- Added support for the file /quake/gamedir/nxmakaqu.ini. This file can be used to set the title and description of the game in the modlist, as well as the sound samplerate, the video resolution, the size of the heap memory, and extra command line parameters.
- Added 320x480 and 640x240 resolutions (640x240 is faster).
- Resolutions up to 768x576 are selectable in the modlist.
- Changed the default audio samplerate to 11025 Hz, thus fixing some games that needs more RAM.
- The default setting for the stereo sound is set accordingly to the DC BIOS setting.
- Added support for volume control of the CD audio.
- The CD audio can be changed between stereo/mono, and the stereo can be reversed.
- The engine can detect the amount of CD tracks and display it on the Audio Options menu.
- Added support for mouse button 3 and mouse wheel. The mouse is fully supported now.
- Significant changes to the analog input support. Now the analog stick's axes can be bound to any command, and the "Axis/Trigger Function" options are gone.
- Added auto-repeat for the keys and face buttons while in the console or menu.
- Added vibration (Puru Puru/Jump Pack) support.
- Added a SVC_VIBRATE (61) message to the network protocol. Usage: SVC_VIBRATE, + 5 writebytes (special, effect1, effect2, duration, controller).
- VMU saves are compressed now, and saves from version 1.0 can still be loaded.
- Replaced the VMU file icon. The new one features colored borders for each game.
- Added a simple VMU LCD icon.
- FrikFiles are opened from the RAM if found in there, otherwise they are opened from the CD. Saving is always done in the RAM.
Windows-related changes:
- Removed the CD audio volume control from the audio menu.
- Now the engine knows the difference between CDs with no audio tracks and empty drives.
- The underwater screen buffer is always used, thus making the transparencies run faster on some computers.
Common changes:
- Improved the models of the super shotgun, nailgun, super nailgun, rocket launcher and thunderbolt. These new versions works better with interpolation and transparencies.
- Added a new progs.dat file with many bugfixes and some new features.
- The new progs.dat features a workaround for the solid skies in the original Quake levels. It can be disabled by typing "savedgamecfg 1" in the console.
- The status bar isn't displayed when changing levels anymore.
- The underwater warping effect runs at the same resolution of the video now.
- The camera tilting during weapon recoil is smoother. Now it uses 16-bit angles instead of 8.
- The Thunderbolt's lightning follows the player's rotation and movement smoothly now.
- Created QC support for self.frame_interval, to customize the time of the interpolation for each entity. Setting it to -1 disables interpolation, and setting it to zero uses the default value (0.1 seconds).
- Non-audio tracks are skipped when selecting an audio track in the Audio Options menu.
- Added a 3D stereo mode, using the r_stereo_separation cvar. It has a few bugs.
- Added options for fog and 3D stereo separation in the Developer menu. To disable the fog you must turn the developer mode off.
- Added the Timescale extension.
- Added a sv_compatibility cvar, to allow both network gaming and demo recording compatible with normal Quake.
- Added a sv_makaqu cvar to enable Makaqu-exclusiveby Published on August 15th, 2006 09:02
NJ has once again updated his CPS2 emulator, this time to test version 5. Quite a bit has changed in this version, so see the translated release notes from his site for the details:
CAPCOM CPS2 Emulator for PSP (test ver.5)
CAPCOM CPS2 Emulator test ver.5 binary Download
Since I've pretty much finalized the cache file specification, I plan to make the next release an alpha version.
What's Changed (test ver.5)
There's quite a few things that have changed.
Since I've made a few large changes, some new problems will probably crop up.
If you're having problems, please use test 3 or test 4.
-Changed the cache file specification. Since there isn't any compatibility with the cache files up until now, it'll be necessary to remake all of your cache files.---------------------------------------------------------
Thanks to this change, Memory Stick reading for the games below only occurs when loading the game.
ecofghtr / avsp / sfa / 19xx / megaman2 / qndream / spf2t / csclub / mpangj / pzloop2j
-Due to development circumstances, I've implemented save state. Since I'm thinking that there will be frequent changes to the specification before this becomes the official version, basically you should assume that save state compatibility will be lost each time this is updated.
-Fixed it so that it won't freeze on sleep.
-Fixed it so that ssf2t is read as the parent cache file for ssf2t and it's clone sets.
-Changed the palette processing. I'm now going to determine whether or not this works correctly.
-Change the initial sound sample rate value to 22050Hz.
-Rewrote the sprite management processing.
Although only slightly, I think the speed of shooting and side-scrolling action games has either improved or stabilized.
Conversely, for later, larger fighting games that frequently access the file , the speed has probably dropped. (The priority level for these types of games is very low, so I don't envision there will be any improvements from here on. Simply put, it's physically impossible to make them faster.)
-Made huge changes to the sprite drawing process.
Problems with the sprite mask drawing processing and priority in the following games has been fixed. (Even though I'm performing the drawing so as to not make the speed drop as much as possible, since the drawing is more complicated than usual, there are instances where the speed drops somewhat on such screens.)
csclub: Spot process of CAPCOM's logo directly after loading
ssf2t: Some of the character's continue screens
dimahoo: The ninja Tatumaki's shadow as well as all of the ending
gigawing: The Betting font, as well as all of the tanks and the BG's priority
progear: The second form of the third stage boss
ddsom: Stage 3-A on the heavy war cart where just the elf's sword and shield's priority is funny
If drawing problems occur other than those mentioned above, I'd appreciate it if you could report them using the bug report uploader (As far as it's usage, please refer to the information at the link. This is being tested)
Checking sprite data one by one'll make your shoulders stiff and your eyes hurt, it's just too tough.
I'm not young anymore so this kind of work is hard on me.
From here on, I'll just work on those that are reported, or so I say, but if I find any I'm just going to want to fix them.
And, the portions of the readme that have changed:
State of progress
CPU: Finished
Video: The sprite drawing process are still unfinished(?)
Sound: Finished
Input: The analog input in puzzloop2 is not supported yet
Firstly, please regard the speed as something that's not going to get any better.
The PSP simply doesn't have the ability (VRAM, memory, CPU processing power: all of them).
Vampire Hunter and the likes is one thing, but in games like MVC where the screen changes that frequently, no matter how you think about it, speeding it up would be impossible.
There is still a chance, however, that the sense of speed will slightly go up with VRAM partitioning and memory cache optimization.
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Catherine: Full Body’s English translation for the Vita