The PSP NEWS & Lik Sang 30 Day Coding Comp winner is now to be announced, heres a quick rundown of the entrants:

The Entrants

William Edmeades - Loki (#1)

Stéphane Lévesque - Ikuzo (#2)

Deniska / NOIZ2SAv07 (#3)

Mike Haggar - PSPicross 0.2(#4)

Xul8t0r / Submission (#5)

PSmonkey / Quake 3 Bsp Map Viewer (#6)

l33th4x0r / Connect 4 (#7)

The downloads and screenshots can be found here --> http://psp-news.dcemu.co.uk/psp30codingcomp.shtml

Heres the scores:

NOIZ2SA By Deniska 37.5
IKUZO By Stéphane Lévesque 36
Quake 3 BSP Map Viewer By PSmonkey 33.5
PsPicross 0.2 By Mike Haggar 32.5
Submission By Xul8t0r 21
LOKI By matthew edmeades 21
Connect 4 By l33th4x0r 14

The winner for the contest was NOIZ2SA By Deniska with a score of 37.5 out of 50 Points followed closely by Ikuzo on 36 and then PSMonkeys Quake 3 BSP Viewer.

I would like to thank Lik Sang for sponsoring the first 30 Day Coding Contest for the PSP. I would also like to thank the 7 coders whos entrys i received and finally the 5 judges from our forums who helped choose the eventual winner.

Heres a screenshot of the winning entry:



Congrats to Deniska , please message me with your address etc ...

News from PSPHacks.Net

We are pleased to announce the commencement of a PSP Homebrew Application Coding Contest co-sponsored by PSPHacks.net and RK Digital.

The demand for a standalone PSP Flash Player is well known among the PSP Community, and we are positive that an award might motivate an individual or group to prioritize this project.

What we require this application to do, In order of priorities (meaning the lower on the list the more expendable they are):

1. SWF Format playback - Faithfully play back .swf media full screen, the newer the Shockwave File format, the better
2. Keyboard Emulation - Map PSP buttons to navigation (same way keyboard navigation would work on a PC app)
3. Actionscript Support
4. Kiosk Mode - Boot PSP directly into .SWF file and on subsequent restarts (optional)

Schematics and test media files will be provided to aid in development.

A very basic Flash player based on Mplayer is built into FileAssistant, which is open source and should be used if helpful.

Additionally, there exists ongoing Open Source Flash Initiatives which should also facilitate a PSP port. More info can be found at:
http://www.osflash.org/
http://gplflash.sourceforge.net/

The Award is $500 and will go to the individual or group who delivers the most advanced application by the deadline.
The 2nd Award is that which is given back to the PSP Community, a fully functioning, polished, Open Source PSP Flash Player Application. Please respect the spirit of Open-Source and collaborate - in the case of a group submission, we will help in determining which players made the most significant contributions and should therefore receive more.

...

Announcing Drunkencoders’ first development competition. Read the full story below.

Our first outside donation has been recieved. Our prize total is at 60$ + 2 passmes, I expect this to grow in the next few days.

Keep coding competitions alive by donating to the prize pool!

http://www.drunkencoders.com/documents/DS/compo.htm ...

Announcing Drunkencoders’ first development competition. Read the full story below.

Our first outside donation has been recieved. Our prize total is at 60$ + 2 passmes, I expect this to grow in the next few days.

Keep coding competitions alive by donating to the prize pool!

http://www.drunkencoders.com/documents/DS/compo.htm ...

Woogal posted this news about his port of Duke Nukem 3D for the GP2X:

I was trying to get it released at the same time as Quake but ran out of time. Then I was working on it last night and for some reason half the buttons weren't responding (probably did something stupid somewhere). Working on it again now, so if I find this bug quickly it will be released tonight (not got much time again).

Audio is there (no music, just sfx) but speech isn't working. Not looked into the reason yet but I'll probably just release anyway so you've got something to play ...

Joystiq posted this GP2X article:

Before we dive in and give you the latest on the GP2X games console, here’s a little background on this open source games console. The GP2X runs an operating system based on Linux and included with every console is software for people to create games for the console. The focus for the GP2X is very much on community game creation, rather than on commercial games. Operating under the same logic: its predecessor, the GP32, came from out of nowhere to sell over 30,000 units worldwide.

The specs of the machine — dual 200MHz processor, 320x240 3.5-inch QVGA LCD, SD slot, USB 2.0, 64MB flash, 64MB RAM and MPEG, MPEG-4, Dvix, XviD, WMV, MP3, OGG, WMA playback — are very impressive for the price (£124.99/$189.99). Of course the negative aspect of all this is the lack of commercial software. The console launched the other month alongside no commercial games. Despite the lack of “big money” support, the GP2X console is still showing promise.

Since the launch 4 weeks ago, a community of part time developers, modders and hackers has emerged around the console. At the moment, the home of GP2X game development seems to be GP2X news. The site has reported on GP2X versions of Quake, Quake 2, LinesX and a working SNES emulator. Sure it’s hardly the most comprehensive of game libraries, but it’s only the beginning. A bit like the open source movement in general, the potential of this console is only limited by the time and effort its users put into it. ...

It's a two-pronged, hedgehog-helmed assault on stores today as Sega has announced the release of Sonic Rush on the Nintendo DS and Shadow the Hedgehog on the GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox.

Sonic Rush, starring the original sneaker-sporting speedster, is sharply reminiscent of the side-scrolling action of Sonic games past, but it also makes use of the DS's unique hardware.

"Sonic Rush combines the gameplay finesse and level design of the classic 2D Sonic titles with fully 3D character models, bosses, and effects," said Sega of America vice president of marketing Scott A. Steinberg. "The dual screen playfield on the Nintendo DS makes it easier than ever to follow the action, and the stylus works perfectly with the traditional chaos emerald minigames."

When word spreads of a powerful collection of stones called sol emeralds, Sonic teams up with newcomer Blaze the Cat in order to secure the emeralds and prevent them from being used for evil. Sonic and Blaze take divergent paths through the game, which gives players different storylines to follow. Sega also included a two-player battle mode and unlockable secrets.

Over on the home consoles, Sonic's enigmatic counterpart Shadow the Hedgehog gets not only a game of his own, but gats as well. For the first time in a game set in the Sonic universe, players will be able to wield an array of weapons and choose whether to fight for good or evil.

An alien force is attacking the planet, and Shadow is on the hunt for the chaos emeralds that will bring the conflict to an end one way or another. It's up to players to decide which side Shadow will help as he bounces and blasts his way through a branching story mode with competitive two-player action and cameos from several Sonic mainstays. ...

Source: Reports on Spanish and German gaming sites claim to have received confirmation that Ubisoft is working on a first-person shooter for the Revolution.

The official story: "It's Ubisoft's policy to not comment on rumors." - Ubisoft spokesperson

What we heard: Upon hastily throwing these sites into the Google translation tool, we were beyond thrilled to read about Ubisoft's new project and "the juiceable scope it concerns." Ok, so the translation's not perfect, but the basics come through loud and clear: Ubi's working on a first-person shooter using the Nintendo Revolution controller, and the company has its talented Montreal studio (Prince of Persia, Splinter Cell series) working on the project.

Those with fingers crossed hoping that this one turns out to be not bogus have some reason to be hopeful. With its pointerlike functionality, the Revolution controller seems tailor-made for an FPS, and Ubisoft has shown Nintendo's current-gen GameCube console more FPS support than almost any other publisher with its Rainbow Six games.

On the other hand, the Spanish-language site (with the more-detailed of the two reports) says production on the game has been entrusted to "Ubisoft Canada." That would be problematic, as Ubisoft Canada doesn't actually make games. Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Quebec are the company's two development studios north of the border. Ubisoft Canada doesn't even oversee the two studios; it merely handles the local publishing, distribution, marketing, and other such concerns for the French publisher. Then again, such details could easily have been lost in translation.

As you might expect, Ubi's keeping mum on the subject. But given that the Rev's controller practically begs to be incorporated into an FPS, it seems entirely likely that Ubisoft (and numerous other companies) has Revolutionary designs for the genre in the works.

Bogus or not bogus?: The specifics of this particular rumor may be bogus (especially the bit about the juiceable scope), but there's no reason to be bummed, because a bevy of Revolution FPS games is almost certainly not bogus. ...

Gamefreaks posted this GP2X article:

The GP2X, gaming and media handheld from Korean manufacturer Game Park Holdings, has finally started shipping. The first 500 units have been sent to Korean orderers and the different worldwide retailers should get their shipments over the comming days.

The GP2X plays movies and music from the start but Quake 1 and 2 as well as a SNES emulator are already availiable with more expected very soon. Check the GP2X File Archive for a continously updated collection of all the free software availiable.

As with every piece of hardware, the GP2X is shipped with a number of problems but almost all of them are software related and will be fixed later with a simple firmware upgrade.

French developer Int13 will support the GP2X with their commercial games but details on which games will be ported and when they will be availiable are still unknown.

We will keep you updated on the latest developments ...