The low tie-in ratio of Wii software to hardware can be attributed to the amount of low quality games being put out on the platform, Blue Fang chief operating officer Scott Triola has told GamesIndustry.biz.

"There's a circular argument going around in the industry. There's a low tie ratio on the Wii platform therefore it's not worth investment, therefore we'll just put out a bunch of low quality title," he explained.

"From a consumer's standpoint, a lot of families have bought those low quality titles and once you spend 40 hard-earned dollars on a game that just isn't very good, you're less likely to buy another product. Or, you're more likely to buy from a proven brand like Nintendo that takes quality seriously.

"I think we've entered a bit of a downward spiral here in this industry that we need to get out of."

Speaking about the Zoo Tycoon studio's new game World of Zoo, published on DS and Wii by THQ, Triola said he hoped the title would "cut through the noise" as a result of positive word of mouth and consumer feedback.

The game is a "triple A, original IP product that was designed ground-up for the Wii," he said. The studio has better technology than a lot of those with rival animal products, added Alex Chouls, Blue Fang's creative director, as well as a "great development team" consisting of animators from Disney and technology staff from MIT.

And it's also a game parents can feel safe buying their children, said Chouls.

The studio has won numerous parent and family focused awards for its Zoo Tycoon series, and a National Geographic partnership that was formed for World of Zoo was important for the developer.

"There are a lot of games out there that frankly upset parents," said Chouls. "They look at the state of our industry and a lot of it is a lot of death mongering and violence and destruction. We really focused on creative, fun, constructive play that the parents can feel really good about buying and kids enjoy playing."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-to-get-out-of ...

News via pspita/pspgen

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News via http://www.nintendomax.com/index.php...99&format=news

Reversi DS is an open source (GPL liscensed) reversi game for the Nintendo DS. It features an intelligent computer opponent and an intuitive touch screen interface. It is developed to run on the Nintendo DS using 3rd party homebrew capable media or on Nintendo DS emulators. It is programmed in C++ and uses devkitPro. The project was started by Darren Earl in the Fall of 2009.

Version .2
11/10/09--Improved AI and computer avatar

Version .1
The first release of Reversi DS. Features fully playable game with beginning level AI opponent, touch screen interface, end of game recognition, and restart. The player can only play as black, the first color to play.

http://reversids.sourceforge.net/index.html

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Evil Dragon has just posted this news over at the official Pandora site:


http://www.openpandora.org/index.php...emid=2&lang=en ...

Evil Dragon has just posted this news over at the official Pandora site:


http://www.openpandora.org/index.php...emid=2&lang=en ...

SDL MAME Wii (official Release link) 0.4 released by Toad King:

SDL MAME Wii is an Arcade Emulator based on SDLMAME. Many games for early arcade boards can be played with varying amounts of success.

Issues
Lots of ROMs are supported, but not all of them. If you don't see the ROM in the list in the emulator, then support for that ROM isn't included. This is to keep the size of the emulator low enough to run effectively on the Wii. A list of all the ones that are can be found here: http://www.toadking.com/wiimame-0.4.txt
Just because a ROM is supported does not mean it will run. Even games for early boards like CPS-1 can fail to run due to RAM limitations. If the emulator suddenly kicks you out to the Homebrew Channel, look in the MAME folder (sd:/mame/) for a file called errors.txt. If it says something about failing to allocate space, then odds are the ROM can't run on the Wii. The emulator might also crash outright and leave you with a code dump if RAM runs out.
Only software rendering is supported. This makes playing games without using the frameskipper slow, but the auto-frameskipper feature is enabled by default.
The joystick on GameCube controllers can't be used.
The default UI font is way too small. A custom font is included, called Helvetica LT. (http://mrdo.mameworld.info/mame_artwork_supp.html)
The default controller mapping is unsuitable for lightgun games, but there is currently no way to make seperate mappings for lightgun and non-lightgun games. If you wish to change the configuration for lightgun games, replace the default.cfg file in mame/cfg with the default-lg.cfg file included.
Changelog
0.4 - November 24, 2009
Upgraded MAME to 0.135
Added WiiMote Sensor support
Stereo support fixed
Game list now shows up to 150 ROMs instead of just 15
Changed USB/SD detection (Tries USB first, then falls back to SD)

Download and Give Feedback and Compatability Reports Via Comments ...

GRRLIB 4.1.1 released by the GRRLIB Team

GRRLIB is a C/C++ 2D Graphics library for Wii application developers. It is essentially a wrapper which presents a friendly interface to the Nintendo GX core. With it, coders can quickly and easily start creating graphical applications.

As of v4.1.0, GRRLIB is supplied as a standard C/C++ library (aka. archive) called 'libgrrlib'. Because GRRLIB processes JPEG and PNG images, it requires the installation of the 'libjpeg' and 'libpngu' libraries. 'libpngu', in turn, requires 'libpng' and 'libpng' requires 'libz'. GRRLIB also has FileIO functions to allow real-time loading and saving of graphical data, and thus also requires 'libfat'.

Update History
4.1.1 - November 24, 2009
Fully compatible with devkitPro release 18 and 19 (code and examples)
libpng was updated to version 1.2.40
Support for MS-Windows Bitmap format uncompressed (1-bit, 4-bit, 8-bit, 24-bit and 32-bit)
New function called GRRLIB_DrawPart to draw a specific part of a texture
Extra parameters to GRRLIB_Screen2Texture
Video is now initialized even without a SD card
Fixed a problem with scaling images
Documentation improvement

http://wiibrew.org/wiki/GRRLIB ...

It seems that Spain is a country that is pretty consistently figuring out that we shouldn't just throw out all other rights the second "piracy" is shouted by the entertainment industry. We've noted recently that the country hasn't just rejected three strikes and declared broadband a basic right, but has also ruled, repeatedly, that personal file sharing is legal. And now, it even has judges who realize that "anti-circumvention" laws should have limits as well.

As you probably know, one of the key things that the entertainment industry has pushed for throughout the world is "anti-circumvention" clauses in copyright law. In the US we have this in the DMCA and it's a total mess. The law basically says that any attempt to circumvent (or to make or sell a tool to circumvent) DRM on a digital work is a violation of the copyright law -- even if making a copy of the content in question wouldn't violate copyright law.

Spanish copyright law includes an anti-circumvention clause, but as Leo Martins alerts us, a judge in Salamanca, Spain has taken a much more nuanced view of it in a case pitting Nintendo against Grupo Movilquick, who produced alternative cartridges for Nintendo DS devices. The judge's ruling (translated from the original) appears to find that the alternative cartridges do, in fact, circumvent Nintendo's DRM and can be used for "pirating" games, but also extend the utility of the devices for perfectly legal purposes. For that reason, the judge dismissed the lawsuit (translation from the original) noting that it doesn't make sense that the law would be intended to say that only Nintendo can expand the functionality of its devices, and the fact that Nintendo doesn't offer similar functionality shouldn't preclude others from doing so. There are areas where Nintendo can still bring a lawsuit, such as for patent and trademark issues, but the judge notes those should be dealt with in a civil court.

http://techdirt.com/articles/20091120/1152097027.shtml ...

A new patent filing by Microsoft suggests that the company is planning its own online help system for games, with content submitted by both gamers and developers.

As reported by website Siliconera the filing, by Microsoft director of games platform strategy Andre Vrignaud, describes a system where stuck gamers would be able to pause the action and access a database of online user-submitted tips.

The Xbox system appears to be similar in concept to the popular free-to-use website GameFAQs, where users submit guides and tips of varying complexity. The Xbox system would allow gamers to include annotated screenshots and video clips, as well as audio commentaries.

Microsoft is also considering allowing developers to offer their own guides, although there is no indication that any of the content would be paid-for. It is also unclear how the system might affect the existing strategy guide business which has proven a lucrative market for both videogame and book publishers over the years.

Nintendo recently launched the Super Guide system in new title New Super Mario Bros Wii which, along with detailed in-game hints, also allows the user to accede control to the game after a pre-set number of deaths. The game then plays itself on autopilot, allowing the player to take control again when a difficult section is overcome.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...ox-super-guide ...