News via http://www.aep-emu.de/PNphpBB2-file-...c-t-13244.html

Cogwheel is an emulator for various Sega 8-bit systems such as Sega Master System, Sega Game Gear and SG-1000. The ColeceVision is also emulated.


Quote:
I managed to break save states in the last build of Cogwheel (attempting to load a save state would fail, not being able to set a property). I´ve marked the offending read-only property with [StateNotSaved] and made the loader slightly more robust in Cogwheel 1.0.3.0 beta 3. It´s beta 3, not 2, because I uploaded 2 and then noticed another issue - you couldn´t change the controller mappings! This is something that must have been broken for ages, but either nobody noticed or they just didn´t care to report it. Oh well, that´s been fixed now. For some reason Google don´t let you re-upload files, so beta 3 it has to be.

Another addition is this build is preliminary support for persistent cartridge RAM. Some games, such as Phantasy Star (pictured above) let you save your progress in the game onto battery-backed RAM built into the cartridge. If you come back to the game later you should now be able to continue your progress without needing to manually save the entire emulator state.

I´ve had reports of rather bizarre crashes bringing one poor user´s machine to its knees. I´m at a loss to establish why; I´ve tried the emulator on four machines (two Vista, two XP) and although one of the machines displays a white screen instead of the emulator output (no pixel shader 2.0 support on its Radeon 9000) the software trundles along just fine otherwise (I can at least hear the game music!) The one notable difference between my machines and his machine is that he´s using a 64-bit version of Windows, and all of the ones I have access to run 32-bit Windows. To see if this is the issue, I´ve changed the configuration to x86 (I´ve encountered strange bugs with .NET code using unmanaged 32-bit code on 64-bit Windows) to see if this will remedy issues, but if anyone has any bright ideas I´d be interested to hear them.

http://code.google.com/p/cogwheel/ ...

Runik posted this news concerning his Sega Saturn emulator for Windows:

At least ! After months of work, my cache is finally up and working ! I spent the last weeks trying to understand why some pages weren't properly reloaded. After adding a cell viewer to the debugger, it dawned on me that I wasn't detecting any color ram change, hence the cache trouble I was experiencing ...

Now everything works fine, and I can move on something else. I will come back to it later, as there's a lot of room for improvement, but currently I need to work on something else for a change

What's next :
- understanding why the cdblock gets full while playing some videos, and doesn't clears itself
- start working on the DSP, as it's used in quite a lot of games
- adding the rotating backgrounds (yeah, some mode vdp2 :/)
- adding the line / cell scroll (used by some Capcom games)

I also have to understand why some games (like Radiant Silvergun or Metal Slug) run that slow ingame ... it's not a display problem, as when it's disabled the speed stays the same, but it's annoying.

Well, that's all for now

http://runik.free.fr/comments/display.php?id=26 ...

New special offer from Play Asia:



The UP video game will take players on an exotic adventure with Carl Fredricksen and his young sidekick, Wilderness Explorer Russell, as they set off on a wild journey through the undiscovered jungles of South America.

Players will be able to experience all four main characters from the movie -- Carl, Russell, Dug the lovable dog or Kevin the prehistoric bird -- while playing as a single-player or with a friend cooperatively throughout the entire game.

Players will encounter exciting, new environments as they navigate through treacherous jungle terrains, battle dangerous creatures and trek the slippery slopes of the Amazonian Tepuis.

In addition, the game also features multi-player game modes, including an epic level that will allow up to four players to compete in aerial combat.

There is only one direction to go, UP. The UP video game is available for an unbeatable bargain price of US$ 24.90. As an Asian version, you can play it on any Xbox360™ console. The game offers English and French language options, play the game in a language you are more familiar with.

http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-...-24z-84-n.html ...

[Mike] sent in this project he’s been working on. He has posted instructions on how to get your Palm Pre to tweet its GPS coordinates at regular intervals. It does require that you have Linux installed on your Pre, but that’s not that big of an issue as he has a tutorial for that too. Getting the tweet to happen involves setting up a custom PHP file that sends the tweet, then a cron job to get it to run on a schedule. He mentions this could be use full for finding a lost phone as well as keeping track of loved ones. We would like to see him ad a script to do similar with a picture. Maybe take a picture and upload it every time a call is placed?

http://hackaday.com/2009/08/25/palm-pre-gps-tweets/ ...

Sony Computer Entertainment boss Kaz Hirai has said that PlayStation 3's success cannot be judged after less than three years on the market.

"If you look at the growth of the installed base, it is slower than the PS2 was but it's pretty much on track with the growth that we had with the original PlayStation," Hirai told The Times.

"We also always look at our business as being a 10-year lifecycle for all of our platforms. It's kind of difficult to say whether a platform has been successful or not going into our third anniversary. The fifth anniversary and beyond is when we really start to say how's our trajectory looking?"

Last week Sony's European boss Andrew House confirmed that worldwide PS3 sales stood at 23.7 million since the console's November 2006 launch. Xbox 360 launched a year earlier and has sold over 30 million.

Hirai also rejected suggestions that DVD and even Blu-ray may be on the way out as digital distribution becomes more prominent.

"The death of physical media is a very nice conclusion, that seems to be nice to say, but it’s not something we're going to see soon," he said, pointing out that even in a few years' time 40GB PS3 games will take ages to download.

Sony will become the first platform holder to launch a digital-only console in October when the PSPgo launches, but Hirai said Sony was "committed" to maintaining the PSP-3000 and UMD businesses in spite of that - partly because of the need to continue serving customers in countries without the same rates of broadband growth.

"We're not going to deprive consumers in all those other countries," he said.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/hi...ter-five-years ...

It's the general consensus that Wii was the console that opened up gaming to a whole new audience of mainstream gaming with its friendly Remote and cooking sims. But PlayStation boss Kazuo Hirai disagrees.

"It's a very astute observation, but it doesn't take in history," said Hirai. "The most successful console is still the PS2 and it's still going strong.


"I think that's the console that really broke the barrier from video games being just for video gamers into more of a mass market on a global basis. Nintendo's obviously done a great job in following that mass acceptance," Hirai told Times Online.

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

What's it they say, "You never hear about a drug deal gone good?" Same for selling games. In this case, an unhappy customer took a Utah teen for a ride when the PSP that changed hands didn't work as advertised.

The suspect's now in custody, so, this ends well. But it began badly, on Saturday, when a 17-year-old sold his PSP to one Jose Eduardo Espinosa-Arellano of American Fork, Utah, who took it home and said the thing didn't work right.

He went back to confront the seller and demand his money back, but for whatever reason, that wasn't happening. So Espinosa-Arellano said, "Let's go for a ride," and the kid, saying he was defusing the situation but really lacking some common sense, went along.

That ride went for about 20 miles up the road to Salt Lake City, while the victim texted some friends to say, well, whatever was said, certainly the message began "OMFG." When the driver exited the interstate and came to a stop at a red light, the victim bolted and ran to a gas station.

"The suspect made comments to him were very concerning to the victim," a law enforcement spokesman said. "He felt like he was in grave danger, and that's the reason he jumped out of the car."

Espinosa-Arellano was arrested and taken to jail. He could face kidnapping charges.

http://kotaku.com/5344641/kid-napped...-deal-gone-bad ...

What's it they say, "You never hear about a drug deal gone good?" Same for selling games. In this case, an unhappy customer took a Utah teen for a ride when the PSP that changed hands didn't work as advertised.

The suspect's now in custody, so, this ends well. But it began badly, on Saturday, when a 17-year-old sold his PSP to one Jose Eduardo Espinosa-Arellano of American Fork, Utah, who took it home and said the thing didn't work right.

He went back to confront the seller and demand his money back, but for whatever reason, that wasn't happening. So Espinosa-Arellano said, "Let's go for a ride," and the kid, saying he was defusing the situation but really lacking some common sense, went along.

That ride went for about 20 miles up the road to Salt Lake City, while the victim texted some friends to say, well, whatever was said, certainly the message began "OMFG." When the driver exited the interstate and came to a stop at a red light, the victim bolted and ran to a gas station.

"The suspect made comments to him were very concerning to the victim," a law enforcement spokesman said. "He felt like he was in grave danger, and that's the reason he jumped out of the car."

Espinosa-Arellano was arrested and taken to jail. He could face kidnapping charges.

http://kotaku.com/5344641/kid-napped...-deal-gone-bad ...

What's it they say, "You never hear about a drug deal gone good?" Same for selling games. In this case, an unhappy customer took a Utah teen for a ride when the PSP that changed hands didn't work as advertised.

The suspect's now in custody, so, this ends well. But it began badly, on Saturday, when a 17-year-old sold his PSP to one Jose Eduardo Espinosa-Arellano of American Fork, Utah, who took it home and said the thing didn't work right.

He went back to confront the seller and demand his money back, but for whatever reason, that wasn't happening. So Espinosa-Arellano said, "Let's go for a ride," and the kid, saying he was defusing the situation but really lacking some common sense, went along.

That ride went for about 20 miles up the road to Salt Lake City, while the victim texted some friends to say, well, whatever was said, certainly the message began "OMFG." When the driver exited the interstate and came to a stop at a red light, the victim bolted and ran to a gas station.

"The suspect made comments to him were very concerning to the victim," a law enforcement spokesman said. "He felt like he was in grave danger, and that's the reason he jumped out of the car."

Espinosa-Arellano was arrested and taken to jail. He could face kidnapping charges.

http://kotaku.com/5344641/kid-napped...-deal-gone-bad ...