News via PSPita

PataPork, has released a new version, 1.3, PSPBriscola, the homebrew game developed in-LUA bearing the same name on our PSP Italian card game. This new release fixes some bugs in previous versions, add the English translation of the program and introduces the Audio, but it is still in beta.
A complete changelog and follow the link to download.

Changelog v1.3:

Quote:

- Added "Table Base Purple" at the selection tables (Thanks to Brian User)
- Added "Table Base Blue" to the Selection Tables (Thanks to Brian User)
- Added "Table Base Green" for the Selection Tables (Thanks to Brian User)
- Fixate Cards Sarde, now appear well on the secondary tables (Thanks to Brian User)
- Fixed the Multiplayer menu, now no longer an invisible voice
- Fix Fixata description of Poker, is now described correctly
- Added language selection (Menu Options)
- Add English to languages
- Added Language selection start homebrew (only for the first time)
- Added sound when screenshots of win, draw and defeat in a game
- Added the 'Audio' (Menu Options)
- Added "Select Music" (Menu Options)
- Added "Super Mario Theme" Selecting the Music
- Added a "Relaxation Theme" Selecting the Music
- Added "No Theme" Selecting the Music
- Added a prototype for the AdHoc mode (On a totally non functional)
- Added the "Dream Table" to the Selection Tables ...

News via pspita

New release for PSP3D. anmabagima developer plugin developed by introducing the effect on our PSP stereoscopic 3D anaglyph red / cyan. This new version, which bears the prx to version 0.2, adds support for four new games and adds Compatible with the other two types of glasses: green / magenta and blue / yellow.
A complete changelog and follow the link to download.

Changelog v0.2:

Quote:

- New supported games:
• Metal Gear Solid Portable OPS
• Star Wars Battlefront 2
• Death Jr.
• Tomb Raider Legends

- Support for the following glasses: green / magenta and blue / yellow ...

News via pspita

New release for PSP3D. anmabagima developer plugin developed by introducing the effect on our PSP stereoscopic 3D anaglyph red / cyan. This new version, which bears the prx to version 0.2, adds support for four new games and adds Compatible with the other two types of glasses: green / magenta and blue / yellow.
A complete changelog and follow the link to download.

Changelog v0.2:

Quote:

- New supported games:
• Metal Gear Solid Portable OPS
• Star Wars Battlefront 2
• Death Jr.
• Tomb Raider Legends

- Support for the following glasses: green / magenta and blue / yellow ...

News via PSPita

It's been a few days after the release of the official firmware 6:37 that, surprise, check out a new version of system software: the 6:39. As it has done to the firmware 6.36, this new 6:39, discovered by a user forum PSPKing, is included nell'UMD a Japanese game, but for which the title was not disclosed. For this reason, we present the news as a rumor, waiting to find out more details on this new firmware.

* UPDATE *
The same user PSPKing has recently updated his post, announcing that the FW is contained nell'UMD 6:39 Japanese edition of 3 Valkyria Chronicles released last January 27. ...

News via PSPita

It's been a few days after the release of the official firmware 6:37 that, surprise, check out a new version of system software: the 6:39. As it has done to the firmware 6.36, this new 6:39, discovered by a user forum PSPKing, is included nell'UMD a Japanese game, but for which the title was not disclosed. For this reason, we present the news as a rumor, waiting to find out more details on this new firmware.

* UPDATE *
The same user PSPKing has recently updated his post, announcing that the FW is contained nell'UMD 6:39 Japanese edition of 3 Valkyria Chronicles released last January 27. ...

News via Wololo

Two days ago Sony revealed the NGP, PSP’s successor. The NGP is an impressively powerful portable gaming device, that will be available at the end of the year. The device looks awesome, but after giving it some thought, I think I won’t be buying it. Here are a few reasons why:

The browser will suck
The browser on the PSP sucked. It had poor flash support, memory issues, close to no javascript support… All these problems were probably because of the hardware limitations of the PSP itself but…have you seen the internet browser on the ps3? Do you like it? Youtube half works on it, and when it does work, the interface is slow as hell. Sony showed lack of ability to adapt a browser to their devices twice, I don’t see why it would be different this time. Unless they migrate to a “better” browser, maybe using Webkit (Safari), or something based on Chrome.

God knows I hate Apple, but going from the browsing experience on an iPhone/iPad to that of the PSP/PS3 is always extremely painful.

Hopefully the gyroscope + the touch screen will allow for a good “vertical” browsing kind of stuff. Otherwise the wide screen will mean more wasted space on the screen, because most sites won’t provide a “NGP enhanced” version of their site.

It will suck as a Media Player
The PSP and PS3 were advertised as not only gaming devices, but Media Centers. A machine on which you could play your videos and music easily. They both dramatically fail at that.

The psp: proprietary video format (UMD) with region locking, blocking “high def” videos in mp4 format to artificially increase the sales of UMD videos, no DivX/Xvid/ogg/… support, crappy mp3 player (abysmal playlist support, no “random play all my files” support, some perfectly fine mp3 files just won’t play, no freedom to organize your folders as you want, lack of “good” visualization plugins, no ogg support, etc…). In all fairness, one HUGE good point of the PSP mp3 player was that it played mp3s without the need for additional crapware such as iTunes for the iPod. No ebook reader (all smartphones have at least 10 of those now)

The Ps3: region locking, no support for PAL DVDs if you live in a country where NTSC is the norm, no support for divx/xvid/mkv (seriously? At least for the PSP there was the excuse of CPU power and Ram limitations…), region locking, no possibility to skip ads on DVDs/Blu rays, insanely crappy music player (same issues as the psp, bad playlist support, no possibility to play my library randomly, give me winamp dammit), region locking (did I mention this one already?).

Overall, Sony cripples their perfectly good hardware with attempts at pimping their proprietary formats, and their own stores. They don’t provide you with a way to enjoy your media files, but with a way to buy media from them. I expect the NGP to provide “rental, will work for 48h” types of videos. Fine, but clearly not what I want from a “media player”. The offer will be limited to whatever contracts Sony is able to sign, and usually for me as a foreigner in Japan, this will mean I’ll have to deal with a massive amount of pain to get my French or American movies to work.

The NGP probably won’t have a convenient TV output, unless you pay for some super expensive hardware accessory that won’t even give you HD.

It will be expensive.
Sure, we’re all excited now, as this is clearly the most powerful portable device we’ve ever heard of. Except, it will be released in 10 months. In 10 months, will we accept to pay the same price as a smartphone for something that does less?Will you pay a 3G subscription for something that’s not a phone? Technically, the NGP will compete against the 3DS (which will be way cheaper and will have a larger library of games by the end of 2011), tablets (that will handle medias – ebooks, movies, music – way better), and smartphones (on which the GPS allows you to find where you are and where you want to go, rather than what games are being played in Shibuya…).

By the end of 2011, it will be easy to find a 3DS for 200$. Smartphones can go up to 600$ but the price go down when you take a carrier subscriptions. I believe that by the end of 2011, some tablets will have most of the technical specs of the PSP, for a similar price, and less crapware. Sony officials said the NGP would be sold at an “affordable price that’s appropriate for the handheld gaming space”, and my current guess is that it will be more than 400$.

The games will not be as good as you expect, because your expectations will change in 10 months.
Is that me, or does playing a high quality graphics hardcore game make no sense on a 5 inch screen? I’d rather play an awesome game on the PS3(PS4?), in my couch, on my 40 inches TV, than the same game in direct sunlight, in a crowded train, on a 5 inches screen. In general, People who play action games in public areas are disturbing other people, and not even playing in good conditions. Portable gaming for hardcore games is an ersatz ...

News via Wololo

Two days ago Sony revealed the NGP, PSP’s successor. The NGP is an impressively powerful portable gaming device, that will be available at the end of the year. The device looks awesome, but after giving it some thought, I think I won’t be buying it. Here are a few reasons why:

The browser will suck
The browser on the PSP sucked. It had poor flash support, memory issues, close to no javascript support… All these problems were probably because of the hardware limitations of the PSP itself but…have you seen the internet browser on the ps3? Do you like it? Youtube half works on it, and when it does work, the interface is slow as hell. Sony showed lack of ability to adapt a browser to their devices twice, I don’t see why it would be different this time. Unless they migrate to a “better” browser, maybe using Webkit (Safari), or something based on Chrome.

God knows I hate Apple, but going from the browsing experience on an iPhone/iPad to that of the PSP/PS3 is always extremely painful.

Hopefully the gyroscope + the touch screen will allow for a good “vertical” browsing kind of stuff. Otherwise the wide screen will mean more wasted space on the screen, because most sites won’t provide a “NGP enhanced” version of their site.

It will suck as a Media Player
The PSP and PS3 were advertised as not only gaming devices, but Media Centers. A machine on which you could play your videos and music easily. They both dramatically fail at that.

The psp: proprietary video format (UMD) with region locking, blocking “high def” videos in mp4 format to artificially increase the sales of UMD videos, no DivX/Xvid/ogg/… support, crappy mp3 player (abysmal playlist support, no “random play all my files” support, some perfectly fine mp3 files just won’t play, no freedom to organize your folders as you want, lack of “good” visualization plugins, no ogg support, etc…). In all fairness, one HUGE good point of the PSP mp3 player was that it played mp3s without the need for additional crapware such as iTunes for the iPod. No ebook reader (all smartphones have at least 10 of those now)

The Ps3: region locking, no support for PAL DVDs if you live in a country where NTSC is the norm, no support for divx/xvid/mkv (seriously? At least for the PSP there was the excuse of CPU power and Ram limitations…), region locking, no possibility to skip ads on DVDs/Blu rays, insanely crappy music player (same issues as the psp, bad playlist support, no possibility to play my library randomly, give me winamp dammit), region locking (did I mention this one already?).

Overall, Sony cripples their perfectly good hardware with attempts at pimping their proprietary formats, and their own stores. They don’t provide you with a way to enjoy your media files, but with a way to buy media from them. I expect the NGP to provide “rental, will work for 48h” types of videos. Fine, but clearly not what I want from a “media player”. The offer will be limited to whatever contracts Sony is able to sign, and usually for me as a foreigner in Japan, this will mean I’ll have to deal with a massive amount of pain to get my French or American movies to work.

The NGP probably won’t have a convenient TV output, unless you pay for some super expensive hardware accessory that won’t even give you HD.

It will be expensive.
Sure, we’re all excited now, as this is clearly the most powerful portable device we’ve ever heard of. Except, it will be released in 10 months. In 10 months, will we accept to pay the same price as a smartphone for something that does less?Will you pay a 3G subscription for something that’s not a phone? Technically, the NGP will compete against the 3DS (which will be way cheaper and will have a larger library of games by the end of 2011), tablets (that will handle medias – ebooks, movies, music – way better), and smartphones (on which the GPS allows you to find where you are and where you want to go, rather than what games are being played in Shibuya…).

By the end of 2011, it will be easy to find a 3DS for 200$. Smartphones can go up to 600$ but the price go down when you take a carrier subscriptions. I believe that by the end of 2011, some tablets will have most of the technical specs of the PSP, for a similar price, and less crapware. Sony officials said the NGP would be sold at an “affordable price that’s appropriate for the handheld gaming space”, and my current guess is that it will be more than 400$.

The games will not be as good as you expect, because your expectations will change in 10 months.
Is that me, or does playing a high quality graphics hardcore game make no sense on a 5 inch screen? I’d rather play an awesome game on the PS3(PS4?), in my couch, on my 40 inches TV, than the same game in direct sunlight, in a crowded train, on a 5 inches screen. In general, People who play action games in public areas are disturbing other people, and not even playing in good conditions. Portable gaming for hardcore games is an ersatz ...

News via http://www.nintendomax.com/viewtopic.php?t=12895&f=54

Titmouse offers version 0.34 of its Shoot 'em up space for the Wii, " Bolt Thrower ".

See 0:34 - GAME - 29/01/2011

* Added more sounds
* Added probe mines
* Added missile trails
* Added probe mine trails
* Added player ship thruster trail
* Added player collision
* Added blue (ok) to red (overloading) shields
* Added 'Well Done' message once everything (including satellites) are destroyed
* Added 'You are very Dead' message
* Added XML configuration, data used to store graphic positions,sizes, frames & other game data like 'AmountStars'
* Added more types of explosions

http://wiibrew.org/wiki/BoltThrower ...

News via http://www.nintendomax.com/viewtopic.php?t=12895&f=54

Titmouse offers version 0.34 of its Shoot 'em up space for the Wii, " Bolt Thrower ".

See 0:34 - GAME - 29/01/2011

* Added more sounds
* Added probe mines
* Added missile trails
* Added probe mine trails
* Added player ship thruster trail
* Added player collision
* Added blue (ok) to red (overloading) shields
* Added 'Well Done' message once everything (including satellites) are destroyed
* Added 'You are very Dead' message
* Added XML configuration, data used to store graphic positions,sizes, frames & other game data like 'AmountStars'
* Added more types of explosions

http://wiibrew.org/wiki/BoltThrower ...