An eight-petaflop Japanese supercomputer has grabbed the title of fastest computer on earth in the new Top 500 Supercomputing List to be officially unveiled at the International Supercomputing Conference in Hamburg today. The K Computer is based at the RIKEN Advanced Institute for Computational Science in Kobe, Japan, and smashes the previous supercomputing records with a processing power of more than 8 petaflop/s (quadrillion calculations per second) — three times that of its nearest rival."

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/06...stest-On-Earth ...

As well as being lighter and greener, the newly revealed PS3 model will feature updated security, according to reports.

Speaking under conditions of anonymity, "a well-placed industry source" told GamerTell that the system will feature a new layer of copy protection not on the motherboard as with exiting models but inside the Blu-ray drive itself, similar to the Xbox 360.

The site suggests there'll likely be some kind of watermark on genuine PS3 discs that the drive looks for to prevent new consoles from running copied games.

The new hardware may be accompanied by a PS3 price drop in time for September's Tokyo Game Show, GamerTell adds.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...VG-General-RSS ...

Typical. You wait 14 years for a next-gen Duke Nukem game and two come along at once.

Little-known Danish studio Interceptor Entertainment is creating an Unreal Engine-powered remake of the classic Duke Nukem 3D, due for release later this year.

The company has enjoyed the full blessing and support of Gearbox Software for Duke Nukem 3D: Reloaded on a non-commercial basis, and has employed over 30 people to recreate the 1996 classic. The original voice of Duke, Jon St. John, will record original material for the game.

Reloaded will have a full multiplayer element, with support for 16 simultaneous players and classic maps including Hollywood Holocaust. Modes will include 'Dukematch', 'Capture The Babe' and a play on Horde, and will allow gamers to play as Duke, General Graves, Assault Trooper and Pig Cop .

An upcoming multiplayer demo will offer two multiplayer maps, seven weapons - including the Ripper, Shotgun and the legendary Mighty Boot - and four playable characters.

Interceptor claims that it is "utilising the latest and greatest in technology and talent" to make the title, and is currently advertising to expand its team.

It promises: "A faithful-but-fresh re-envisioning of one of 3D Realms' greatest endeavours, Duke Nukem 3D: Reloaded will invite players both new and old to experience the seminal action-shooter in high-definition. Memorable locations such as Hollywood Holocaust and Shrapnel City will be respectfully recreated with new and exciting vehicular sequences, non-playable characters, scripted events and all-new interactive experiences."

Barry Cogan, lead level designer said: "Between the new capabilities of your target technology and the desire to remain faithful to the original piece there is a very fine line one can walk as a designer - and this is something we have nailed.

"When looking to remake [Hollywood Holocaust] we discussed what made it so. Some obvious parts stood out. The secret rocket launcher, Million Dollar Theater façade, bikini girl on the big screen, apartment block, rooftop, and arcade room... An initial pass was made which was a near pixel perfect copy of the original, but it became immediately apparent that this design would not work.

"The scale was visually identical. It felt cramped, small and even more dated. As lead level designer, the re-imagination fell to me. I set one stipulation: most, if not, all of the major components needed to be present. It is essential for players to feel like they are walking around in part of a larger environment rather than an enclosed box."

You can check out a few screenshots and pieces of concept art from the project on this very page - and visit Interceptor's own homepage, with a blog account of both the development process and its visit to Duke Nukem Forever devs Gearbox and Petroglyph.

Gearbox's own Duke Nukem Forever was released earlier this month to mixed reviews - but shot to the top of the UK Chart in its first week on sale.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...VG-General-RSS ...

Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg has reiterated his desire to repair gamers' perception of the publishing giant, saying in a new interview that the company's keen to shed its 'bad guy' image.

Asked if he cares about the firm being perceived in a negative light, the exec told Gamasutra: "Of course. Who would wish for that? Who would be wished to be cast as the bad guy in your own industry or as the villain or the evil empire?

"I think that the case is drastically overstated in terms of the reality that I see," he added. "I see a very creative company that gives its developers the tools and the resources they need to do great things, that isn't afraid to [delay] games if that's what it takes to get them right."

Hirshberg said the key to bettering Activision's public image is "putting a human face on the company" and "being transparent and honest and human in our dealings with our community".

He pointed towards the company's positive reaction to May's Modern Warfare 3 mega-leak as an example.

"We got a lot of props and a lot of pleasantly surprised people in our reaction to that," he said. "People assumed that we would go silverback gorilla crazy, and we didn't."

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has also felt the need to defend himself from being painted as the big, bad executive type. In fact, he has joked, he's more Luke Skywalker than Darth Vader.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...VG-General-RSS ...

News via http://www.emucr.com/2011/06/vectrexwii-v02.html


VectrexWii v0.2 is released. VectrexWii is a Vectrex emulator for the Nintendo Wii ported from Vecx by Aruskano.



It is not much better than the first one... the changelist is something like this:
-Improved main menu (more on this at the bottom).
-ROMs are not appended anymore. The ROM that is still there is Minestorm which was built in the original Vectrex and is still here at the "Vectrex". ;D
-ROMs are sought in both SD and USB. The emulator will seek a folder named "vec" (I have plans to make this configurable but it is currently hardcoded) at the root of both devices and will display any file with the ".vec" (case insensitive) extension as an option to load.
-You are able to return to the main menu once the emulation has started so you can load another ROM without returning to the homebrew channel.
-Gamecube controller support because it has a stick... I don´t have any wiimote peripheral at the moment and that´s why I did not bother to write that (kinda selfish I know hahaha), I will wait to have them to do the proper tests (also I´d like to write the button mapping code first, which involves more user interface work ).

The main menu works as follows: There are 4 options: The first one starts the emulation. The second one lets you choose your "cartridge" which can be your SD or USB (or NA if you want to play the built in ROM). The third option lets you set your joystick, which can be a Wii or GC (the program only cares about channel/port 1 respectively) and will be the controller that will be listened to during the emulation (both are able to return to the main menu by pressing HOME/START respectively). Lastly, you can return to the homebrew channel.

Any button will trigger the selected option except for the PADs, HOME and START. If you have ROMs in both USB and SD "Cartridge" will scroll to the first option when the last one is reached and you press a button again. HOME and START will automatically put the cursor at the "Exit" option, if it is already there the program will quit. You move the cursor by pressing UP/DOWN. You browse through the ROMs (whose names are shown at the bottom of the screen) in the current "Cartridge" with LEFT/RIGHT (Wiimote held horizontally).

I guess that´s all I can say about this not so wonderful update. There´s more to come. Overlays make the games look much better (I did not think that little thing would cause such a visual improvement). That glow effect looks really nice but I need to write a suitable blur function so it doesn´t make the emulation run slow as it is doing right now. Lines could be drawn thicker if wanted [I just remembered I updloaded a version with weird vectors/points width (I made them look thicker in a ugly way)]. Button mapping and other controllers support will be added.

Overlays did not make it to this release because they did not fit exactly (they almost did... it should be a scaling problem) to the image and I have to find why, the other features need to be optimized and a user interface needs to be written (there will be an "in-game" menu that will pop up when you "pause" the game instead of directly sending you to the main menu).


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News via http://www.emucr.com/2011/06/fbanext-ps3-svn-r455.html

FBANext-PS3 SVN r455 is released. FBANext-PS3 is a FBANext for PS3. FBANext (Final Burn Alpha) is a multi arcade emulator based on the source code for Final Burn. FBANext is a native port on the Xbox 360 Platform. A port to the PS3 console is currently underway. The goal is to have one source repository for both systems.

These are the currently emulated systems:
- Capcom CPS-1
- Capcom CPS-2
- Capcom CPS-3
- Cave
- Neo Geo
- Sega System 16 (and similar), System 18, X-Board, Y-Board
- Toaplan
- Taito
- Psikyo 68EC020 based hardware
- misc stuff the authors like

FBANext-PS3 SVN Changelog:
r455
- CPS3 bios fix
r454
[Core] - added Oriental Legends Plus driver to PGM (oldsplus). Thanks iq_132
[Core] - fixed endian issue in Cps3PatchRegion()
r452
- Frame_count shaders work now
- Updated/added all new shaders
- Use left/right to cycle then X to set shader
- No resampling for new Cellframework 2 audio
- Input improvements
- multiMAN support

http://www.mediafire.com/?oq9l9x72r54vxg7 ...

News via http://www.emucr.com/2011/06/snes9x-...50fe9859e.html

SNES9x-PS3 v4.4.9 SVN r1ce50fe9859e is released. SNES9x PS3 is an SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System) emulator based on SNES9x. With it you can play SNES games on your PS3.

SNES9x-PS3 SVN Changelog:
- 'Return to Multiman' now returns to multiMAN even if
you start SNES9x from the XMB instead of multiMAN
- Added shader CRT-caligari.cg
- The Game-aware shader now works correctly
- Improved interface menus
- Added support for Multiman

http://www.mediafire.com/?d45651l9nrho24h ...

News via http://www.emucr.com/2011/06/savegam...-svn-r106.html

SaveGame Manager GX SVN r106 is released. SaveGame Manager GX is a SaveGame & Mii Manager for the Wii with GUI based on LibWiiGui by Tantric,

Features:
SDHC and USB2 support
Protected save support
Mii Support
Multilanguage support with Custom Font
WiiTDB support
Display information about savegames/miis in a special windows
Extract, Install, Delete, Copy, Move fonctions are available
Online AutoUpdate
Widesreen support
ScreenSaver

SaveGame Manager GX SVN Changelog:
r106
* Added an automatic resource list generation script which is executed when
files are added/removed (Thanks Dimok)
* Added an own class for the HomebrewPrompt
* Added booting with arguments from meta.xml for homebrews
* Added an argument receiver from meta.xml to the app: "-ios=xxx". The ios is
the boot IOS on startup.
* Fixed Homebrew Browser duplicate buttons for apps with more than one dol in
the app folder
* Fixed lot of problems with USB HDD (need feedback)
* Fixed the "GoogleCode" AutoUpdate problem (one more time...)

Download = http://www.mediafire.com/?0jivkmn5ixb2aai ...

News via http://www.psp-ita.com/4428-140-Pass...r_CF_6.39.html

The tireless developers neur0n, now one of the landmarks in the underground scene, PSP, continued development of its many projects.Today is the turn of PasswordLockPlugin, prx, which incorporates a feature on the door and HeNe TN Custom Firmware 6:39.


PasswordLockPlugin is a plugin designed by the developer and is devoted to neur0n PSP owners with the custom firmware and 6.39ME 6.39PRO.With this small application, you can set a security password in the XMB of the console.Recall that this function is already present nell'HEN 6.39TN-A and was introduced with the release of the Total_Noob 6.20TN-E.
More to follow.

Installation:
- Copy the file passctrl.prx in ms0: / seplugins or EF0: / seplugins
- Add the string ms0: / seplugins / passctrl.prx 1 (or EF0: / seplugins / passctrl.prx 1) in the text file vsh.txt

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