Carrying on from what we posted yesterday about Homebrew not working on the new v2.70 firmware, today it has been released and confirmed that Sony have plugged the hole. Lets see if this causes any problems with games working, but for homebrew fans if you upgrade you lose the ability to play homebrew, the balls in your court.\

Pages for Japanese and US Firmware are here -->

Japanese Firmware:http://www.jp.playstation.com/psp/update/ud_01.html

USA Firmware:
http://www.us.playstation.com/psp.as...SoftwareUpdate

No News on a Euro 2.70 ? yet ...

KingCDR has released an application that will take .SMD and/or .BIN files and convert them into an executable that a Gizmondo can run.

<blockquote>How to Generate Games:
-----------------------

- If you're converting just one ROM:

-- Make sure the "File" Radio button is selected.
-- Select your ROM by using the "Load ROM..." Feature. Note that it must a 512Kb ROM file. This version now supports .smd files, as well as .bin files.
-- Type in a name for your ROM to be saved as (Output File Name).
-- Select your output directory
-- Hit the generate button

- If you're converting more than one ROM:

-- Make sure the "Directory" Radio button is selected.
-- Select the directory containing the ROMs using the "Load Dir..." Feature.
-- Select your output directory
-- Hit the generate button

- (If your Generating alot of ROMs --> EXE , it might take a while...please be patient)</blockquote>

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Yet another Gizmondo related post. Critical is back once again, with a VisualBoyAdvance port. Here's Critical's instructions for it:
----------------------------------
GizVBA0.1.0

Category: Emulators
File Version: 0.1.0
File License: GNU Public Licence

Description:
Early release of VisualBoyAdvance port to Gizmondo. This emulates Gameboy, Gameboy Color, and Gameboy Advance.
GizVBA 0.1.0
---------------

Gizmondo port by critical of PocketVBA, a port of VisualBoyAdvance to PPC, which in turn is based on Snes9x.

It emulates Gameboy, Gameboy Color, and Gameboy Advance consoles.

PocketVBA is licensed under GNU Generic Public License(GPL), as is GizVBA.
Source is available on request to the contact address below.

The original licence files and documentation may be found in the doc directory of
the zip file that this readme file came in.



Contact: [email protected]

Installation
------------

Put GizVBA.exe in the root of your SD card, along with the included gx.dll
if you don't already have it.


Usage
-----

ROMs must be in a directory called:

GizVBA

in the root of your SD Card.


Buttons
-------

The joypad does what you'd expect. The other buttons are:

<< SELECT
[] START
|> B
>> A
L L
R R

During emulation, the home key followed by the stop key should quit it.
Up and Down on the joypad in the main menu select the ROM, |> starts

Unfortunately the currently-selected ROM name display is not updating at
present, so you'll have to pretend that it has, and count the number of
times you hit down on the pad to scroll through. Play will start the game.

TODO
----

Lots.
GB/GBC support sound, GBA doesn't.
Scaling needs doing quite soon too.
GBA performance isn't wonderful.
GBA sound has been disabled due to performing woefully.
------------------------------------------
Be looking forward to more Gizmondo related posts. There may eventually be enough to start its own section :P

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Just another Gizmondo post, sorry . Anyways, a user by the name of "Xchip" ported the popular Id software FPS, Quake to the Gizmondo. The framerate is poor but playable. It's not likely that anymore releases are coming, but if they do, I'll keep you posted. The only instructions are to plop the *.zip file's contents onto an sd, and put your trial or commercial wads into the corresponding directory (see readme).

<blockquote>hello!

I just took Pocket Quake from http://quake.pocketmatrix.com/ and I ported it to the gizmondo.
It uses software to rasterize and it is a bit slow, but it's still playable, I played the first 3 levels and all went ok

****VERY IMPORTANT****
The executable and the gxx.dll NEED TO BE SIGNED, they wont work as they are.
Unfortunately I'm not allowed to release signed stuff, so somebody else will have to do it :-) any voluntaries?

==How to make it work:
1) look for somebody to sign the gxx.dll and the autorun.exe.
2) copy the contents to you sd card's root directory respecting the directory structure of the zip file.
3) get a pak0.pak.gz, you can find one in here: http://quake.pocketmatrix.com/pak0.pak.zip and copy it into /quake/ID1/
4) then put the sd card in your gizmondo and when its ask you whether to run the contents of the sd card say yes
5) enjoy!!!

==Greetings:
The gizmondo port wouldn't have been possible without the previous work from the Pocket Quake guys

Dan East: Port of the original ID Software source code to Pocket PC,
Fixed point optimizations, Pocket PC gui / gfx modes
999: Skins, Alpha Testing
Jacco Bikker: A 3D engine optimization
Carpediem: MIPS processor-specific debugging
Lucas Alonso (Yoda): SH3 processor-specific debugging
Jay Mattis: Additional SH3 work

==More details on the original Pocket Quake port:
http://quake.pocketmatrix.com/

Source code:
I'll release it as soon as I make it look a bit nicer :-)

XChip</blockquote>
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Hands on from Gamespot:

If you're familiar with The Getaway series for the PlayStation 2, then you know that these games have delivered an impressively authentic re-creation of modern-day London featuring mission-based driving and shooting action. The action itself has met with mixed response from critics and other game players, which may be why the next game from the makers of the series is sporting a completely different brand name--along with plenty of changes to The Getaway's old formula. We got our first chance to get our hands on Gangs of London at an SCEA pre-E3 event earlier this month, and though our experience with the game was relatively brief, we were impressed with both the wide range of content as well as the presentation on display.

As the name suggests, Gangs of London lets you play as enforcers representing a number of different criminal organizations based out of England. The game's glamorized presentation of criminal life and gang-on-gang violence seems clearly inspired by other pop-culture portrayals of stuff like this, such as Guy Ritchie's movies like Snatch and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. However, the game's sense of style is distinctly different from The Getaway at least in one respect: There are graphic-novel-style cutscenes, like the ones in Max Payne, used to move the story along. SCEA reps promised that these would have added voiceover to give them more character, but from what we saw, they already looked great.

Full article here --> http://uk.gamespot.com/psp/adventure..._&subj=6148150 ...

Article from IGN:

Developer K2 is known for its work on the Tenchu series, but now it's trying something totally different. The developer is hard at work on Valhalla Knights, a new RPG for the PSP set to be published by in Japan by Marvelous Interactive. Veteran RPG maker Yoshifumi Hashimoto is serving as producer.

In Valhalla Knights, you play as one of those RPG heroes who wakes up in a strange land and has no idea of his identity. You set off on a journey to recover your memories, knowing only one thing: the blood of a legendary hero flows through you.

Read the full article here -> http://uk.psp.ign.com/articles/702/702921p1.html ...

In a blow to Nintendo's hopes that their Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day title for the Nintendo DS would sell bajillions of copies to aging boomers who want to halt the rate at which their brains slip into senility, the Wall Street Journal's Science Journal debunks the idea that brain training of any sort can help slow the rate of mental decline.

The Journal quotes a recent study by University of Virginia’s Timothy Salthouse that found "little scientific evidence that engagement in mentally stimulating activities alters the rate of mental aging" calling the belief "more of an optimistic hope than an empirical reality."

Furthermore, "Even in the most mentally engaged elderly -- chess experts, professors, doctors -- mental function declines as steeply as in people to whom mental exercise means choosing which TV show to watch," Sharon Begley -- the author of the piece -- writes.

The news isn't all bad, though. Even though rigorous training fails to halt the rate of decline of our wetware, trained brains do perform trained tasks better, according to the Journal. If, for instance, you were to regularly practice math, you'd be faster with numbers than those who haven't been practicing.

Later this week, Begley will examine which types of training provides boosts brains best. We'll be sure to follow up then.

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/04/24/oo...-aging-brains/ ...

In a blow to Nintendo's hopes that their Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day title for the Nintendo DS would sell bajillions of copies to aging boomers who want to halt the rate at which their brains slip into senility, the Wall Street Journal's Science Journal debunks the idea that brain training of any sort can help slow the rate of mental decline.

The Journal quotes a recent study by University of Virginia’s Timothy Salthouse that found "little scientific evidence that engagement in mentally stimulating activities alters the rate of mental aging" calling the belief "more of an optimistic hope than an empirical reality."

Furthermore, "Even in the most mentally engaged elderly -- chess experts, professors, doctors -- mental function declines as steeply as in people to whom mental exercise means choosing which TV show to watch," Sharon Begley -- the author of the piece -- writes.

The news isn't all bad, though. Even though rigorous training fails to halt the rate of decline of our wetware, trained brains do perform trained tasks better, according to the Journal. If, for instance, you were to regularly practice math, you'd be faster with numbers than those who haven't been practicing.

Later this week, Begley will examine which types of training provides boosts brains best. We'll be sure to follow up then.

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/04/24/oo...-aging-brains/ ...

American gamers who looked on in envy as Sony Europe announced Gangs of London for the PSP last year thought they were in Barney (Barney...Barney Rubble...trouble!)--the company never announced that the game would make it stateside. Those Cockney rhyming slang lessons can continue, as SCEA today finally revealed that Gangs of London will be released in the US.

The game is a spin-off of The Getaway series, which was best-known for accurately re-creating Central London. Players with short-attention spans will appreciate the game's many modes, which includes a driving/action campaign, turn-based strategy and card-game hybrid gang battle, and the much more peaceful tourist mode.

http://us.gamespot.com/news/6148190.html ...