Nokia has denied online reports that the mobile phone giant is about to can its N-Gage handheld console.[br][br]According to a company spokesman cited by Computer and Video Games.com, Nokia remains "completely committed" to the platform.[br][br]"Nokia has no intention of shutting down the N-Gage," he said. "We are completely committed to the platform. It's not going anywhere."[br][br]Ah, isn't that the truth.[br][br]The handheld console was recently dropped from the UK software chart produced by market watcher Chart-Track on behalf of the European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA). The decision was made, it's said, because of low sales and less interest in the data.[br][br]And when Nokia last week announced a plan to cut back on R&D costs, the axe fell most sharply on the company's multimedia division, which is responsible for the N-Gage.[br][br]Nokia is said to have given N-Gage 18 months to prove itself a viable platform. Launched in October 2003, N-Gage didn't rack up 1m shipments until September 2004, though Nokia had previously said it expected to ship rather more than that in the device's first year.[br][br]The launch, last May, of the N-Gage QD, which fixed many of the design limitations of the original console, certainly gave the platform a boost, but it's unclear whether it will have given it enough of a lift to justify the money Nokia has spent developing and promoting the console.[br][br]Indeed, said the spokesman: "There's been so much money and effort poured into the system we're not going to pull out now."[br][br]In October 2003, the N-Gage had few rivals. Now it's up against smaller players like Tapwave and Gizmondo, and, more importantly, the big boys, Nintendo and Sony, with the DS and PSP.[br] ...

The next series of graphics chips from NVIDIA, following on from the current 6-series, will include the custom chip that is being licensed to Sony Computer Entertainment for its next home console.[br][br]That's according to NVIDIA corporate marketing boss David Roman, who spoke with US website X-Bit Labs about the company's role in the development of the PlayStation 3 console, which was announced in December.[br][br]"This is the next generation GPU," Roman told the site. "After the GeForce 6 series this is going to be the next generation... It will support DirectX 9, Shader Models 3, it will be the most feature-rich, the most powerful GPU that we've ever created."[br][br]Roman said that Sony has been working with NVIDIA to create a custom version of the chip for PlayStation 3 - which, interestingly, he also revealed is not being called "PlayStation 3" by the company at present.[br][br]"We've been working with them to produce a version that is customised specifically to connect that to the Cell processor," he said, "so that they could work together. The timing and everything is up to them to disclose, although we will have some products a little bit later this year, so this is not that far in the future on the development side."[br][br]Commenting on Sony's reasoning for going to an external company for its graphics part - as opposed to its traditional approach of designing and manufacturing most of its consoles in-house - Roman pointed that developing graphics processors is becoming increasingly complex, but said that NVIDIA's software as much as its hardware was desirable for Sony.[br][br]"As graphics becomes more and more complex, it's not just the actual technology of the graphics processor, but it's also the whole development platform that's available to the software vendors to actually be able to take advantage of the feature set - in terms of the tools, in terms of the support, in terms of the code that's already written, the routines that are there," he said. "That's something we do very well because that's our business."[br][br]Roman also said that although NVIDIA's current licensing deal is purely with Sony Computer Entertainment, the company is also exploring possible partnerships with other divisions within Sony, which will also be using the Cell microprocessor in their products.[br][br]"As part of the agreement we are looking at other Sony devices that will have the Cell processors," he revealed. "We haven't announced yet but we are exploring some other opportunities within Sony, within the world of Sony. The license deal is specifically with Sony Computer Entertainment... But in fact the agreement actually does include talking to Sony about some of the other consumer electronics products." ...

Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia remains "completely committed" to the N-Gage, a spokesperson has said in response to speculation that the company may be about to discontinue the mobile console range.[br][br]The reports originated with a report on online technology site The Inquirer, which claimed that Nokia is planning to shut down an R&D and production facility for N-Gage in Germany.[br][br]However, a Nokia spokesperson was quick to deny that the firm has any intention of shutting down the mobile game console division, despite the weak market performance of its handsets.[br][br]"Nokia have no intention of shutting down the N-Gage," the company told UK website C&VG.com today. "We are completely committed to the platform... There's been so much money and effort poured into the system we're not going to pull out now."[br][br]Indeed, the company does have two of the strongest software prospects for the N-Gage on the horizon, with Sega's Pocket Kingdoms and internally developed title Pathway to Glory both looking promising, albeit still unlikely to make the system into a viable rival to the likes of PlayStation Portable.[br][br]The rumours of N-Gage's demise haven't been helped by the well-publicised decision of UK market research firm Chart-Track to stop publishing an N-Gage software chart at the start of this year, citing a lack of interest in the data.[br][br]However, that data covers only boxed N-Gage titles, not downloaded Java games - and many Java game publishers have lauded the N-Gage, and particularly its much improved successor the N-Gage QD, as a popular platform for playing downloaded games. ...

We wouldn’t blame them if they were pulling the plug, but Nokia is vehemently denying yesterday’s claim by the Inquirer that they were taking steps to kill off their oft-maligned N-Gage gamephone, saying that they have “no intention of shutting down the N-Gage”, and that they are “completely committed to the platform”. You know what they say, the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem… ...

Everybody is talking about Snes9xGC running on an actual Gamecube, but how the **** do they make it run on it? Mini-CD's/DVD's, modchips, adapters, what do they use to run in on the GC?

I really want to play SNES on my GC, but I'm trying to get some more information, and it's a little bit hard...

I'd like to learn a little bit more about:

- Snes9xGC;
- Max Drive Pro;
- Emulation on GC

Please help me! ...

This topic has been moved to [link=http://www.dcemu.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=Dev;action=display;num=1106220135;st art=0]Dreamcast Development Forum[/link] by Darksaviour69. ...

A LEAKED press release from industry Dahlings and would-be world-dominators Electronic Arts has let slip that Xbox 2 will be hitting late this year, just in time for the next versions of Burnout and Need For Speed.[br][br]According to a filing at SPOnG, the next version of Need For Speed - subtitled Most Wanted - will be making its way onto Xbox, PS2, GameCube, PC, PSP, Nintendo DS and willl have a "...simultaneous ship with the Xbox2 platform."[br]The time frame certainly makes sense - we're all expecting Gates' next wonderbox before the end of this year, and the massive Q4 success of Burnout 3 would put it on track for a sequel same time, same place. [br] ...

FluBBa has released a new version of the Snes emulator for the GBA (which also works on the Nintendo DS and Gamecube Gameboy player), heres whats new:[br][br] 2005-01-20 (FluBBa)[br] Fixed more with status for joypad polling (R-Type 3).[br] Fixed HCountLatch (lots of games). [br][br]Download Here ...

Franxis is working in a new adapted version of MAME for the GP32.

It's not a recent version but it's just beggining to work (slowly).

- No sound yet
- No keys implemented
- Some games are loading...



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