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by Published on October 28th, 2012 18:29- Categories:
- Android News,
- Zx81 Dev News
Hi All,
VecX emulates the Vectrex game console on systems such as Linux and Windows.
It has been written by Valavan Manohararajah.
Here is a new version for Android console (JXD and Yinlips).
Enjoy,
Zx ...by Published on October 28th, 2012 01:23- Categories:
- DCEmu,
- PC News,
- Android News
November 20th comes the release of the larger screenedKindle Fire HD 8.9"
On Sale here --> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...pf_rd_i=507846
For more info and to preorder click here --> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...pf_rd_i=507846 ...by Published on October 28th, 2012 01:15- Categories:
- Apple iPad
Assuming you were suitably impressed by Apple's show earlier this week, you can now begin queuing for one of its new iPads, whether regular or mini-sized. The WiFi-only versions start shipping November 2nd, with cellular equipped models due mid-month. If you need to see all the specs lined up next to each other we have comparisons between models old and new right here. Of course, if you need an alternative, Microsoft's Surface should start showing up on doorsteps today, and we're expecting to see some refreshed competition at Google's event next week. The choice is yours, hit the link below to see all of your options.
http://www.apple.com/ipad/ ...by Published on October 28th, 2012 01:04- Categories:
- PS3 News
PS Plus is "contributing in a big way" to PSN sales, Sony informs us
Sony Computer Entertainment America
us.playstation.com
Sony's online efforts have come a long way in the last six years, and while some would argue that Xbox Live is still superior, one unique differentiator for PlayStation Network is its PlayStation Plus offering. In fact, one industry veteran close to Sony told us recently that Sony has "drastically undersold" the value of PlayStation Plus. Sony appears eager to change that, if you ask John Koller, VP of PlayStation Home and Handheld Consoles.
Koller, who also oversees all PlayStation brand marketing, told GamesIndustry International that PlayStation Plus has seen a big rise in interest and that Sony is going to put some significant weight behind marketing the program from here on out.
"PlayStation Plus is fantastic. This is going to be a significant part of our marketing efforts over the next 6, 12, 24 months. This is a big part of what we do. The amount of value that you get from PlayStation Plus is significant. Since E3, we've seen a significant rise in PlayStation Plus adoption and we'll be utilizing this," Koller said.
"This is a nice weapon in our arsenal that we'll be utilizing and it's just a great value for a consumer that's coming in. If you look at a consumer that's coming in in year 6 or year 7...you could call them a later adopter and giving them an instant game collection, which is what PlayStation Plus provides, has really proven to be successful. So this is going to be a very important part of what we do here over the next few months. You'll see it at holiday. You'll see it even beyond that with various integrations into our ecosystem."
PlayStation Plus is offered for either 3 months at $17.99 or a full year for $49.99. Subscribers gain access to a wide variety of games, early access to demos and betas, discounts on PSN content, 1GB of cloud storage for game saves, and 1-hour trials of full games for select titles. It's an interesting idea, and it's certainly helping to communicate the value of digital to gamers.
"Some of PlayStation Plus' benefit is getting consumers more comfortable with digital content who may not be. Obviously, there's the current PlayStation 3 consumer who tends to be fairly comfortable with digital and we have a great DLC sales and full game downloads and those types of things. But the new consumers who are coming in in particular, which is what I'm looking at here, if we can introduce them to PlayStation Plus and this instant game collection idea, you're bringing them into a world that may be a bit foreign to them if they don't own a system this current cycle. So that comfort level is important to us, it's important to publishers, it's important I think to most people in this industry that we get them comfortable with digital content," added Koller.
So far, so good for Plus. While Sony Computer Entertainment America couldn't share exact figures on the number of Plus subscribers, a spokesperson did tell us that customer satisfaction rates are at the highest ever at 97 percent while renewal intent rate is at 93 percent. "The success of PS Plus is contributing in a big way to driving overall PSN sales, as our last quarter was the biggest in terms of transactional sales in PSN's six-year history," she noted. "The immediate consumer reaction was completely off the charts, and membership sales more than doubled during the week of E3."
We'll be bringing you our full interview with John Koller tomorrow. We talked about Sony's holiday positioning for PS3 and Vita, price cuts, the competition, and much more.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...enal-says-sony
...by Published on October 28th, 2012 01:00- Categories:
- Wii U News
It isn't unprecedented, exactly, but the announcement made by Nintendo president Satoru Iwata earlier this week concerning the Wii U's pricing was momentous nonetheless. "Rather than determining a price based on its manufacturing cost, we selected one that consumers could consider to be reasonable," he stated during the firm's latest financial briefing - or, in short, Nintendo is set to launch its new console at a price lower than its cost of manufacturing.
"Today's market, flooded with smartphones, tablets and other perfectly game-capable devices, simply won't support a profit-making, high cost console"
This is a compelling sign of just how difficult market conditions have become for Nintendo. For years, the company has been pulling off a pretty remarkable trick - competing with bigger rivals like Microsoft and Sony, and even beating them, all while refusing to be drawn into the business model of selling hardware below cost. Other hardware manufacturers routinely launch their hardware at loss-making price points, recouping investment through software sales and betting that manufacturing costs will fall faster than price cuts (not a bet that always pays off, at least not at first). Nintendo does no such thing. It makes a profit when you buy a console, and makes more profit every time you buy a game.
Or at least, that's how things used to be. The first big crack to appear in Nintendo's dam came with the price cut to the 3DS in early 2011, which brought the system's price tag below its cost of manufacture only a matter of a few months after launch. By all accounts, Nintendo's high unit sales and talent for dropping manufacturing costs has now reined this situation in, with the 3DS back at or below break-even, but a precedent had been set. Now the Wii U will break with Nintendo's traditional business model entirely, launching from the outset at a loss-making price point.
I have no doubt that such a move was debated hotly in Nintendo's Kyoto boardrooms, but in the end, it's reality that has won out. Today's market, flooded with smartphones, tablets and other perfectly game-capable devices, simply won't support a profit-making, high cost console - and some of Nintendo's critics would do well to recall that Sony and Microsoft will also be announcing deeply loss-making next generation hardware in due course. This is how consoles are sold; the wonder, in some ways, is that Nintendo has held on to its ability to sell at above cost for such a long time.
"People have been buying up the Yen in bulk, driving up value relative to other currencies, and making life very hard for export-driven companies like Nintendo and Sony"
It's worth thinking about the factors which have driven Nintendo's decision - which have, in effect, backed the company into such a corner. The wider market picture is definitely a part of it; this Christmas, Nintendo will not just be competing with rival game systems, but also with iOS, Android and Windows Phone / Windows 8 devices aplenty. Christmas lists (and birthday lists, and shopping lists of all kinds throughout the whole year) only have space for so many devices. Nintendo has always had a wide view of its competition; many years ago, it already understood that it wasn't necessarily competing with Sony so much as it was competing with "watching TV" or "playing board games" or "going out". Now it understands that it must jostle for mindshare with devices like the iPad, the Nexus 7 or the Galaxy Note. They don't do the same things as a Wii U, of course, but Nintendo of all companies can see that they're still powerful competition. Moreover, since Nintendo's software prices remain very high compared to the low-cost or free-to-play business models which dominate on phones and tablets, device pricing is a vital weapon in this battle.
That's the factor we're all going to talk about, inevitably, because Nintendo's newly aggressive stance on pricing matches up with an ongoing industry narrative - the squeezing of dedicated consoles by powerful multifunction devices. However, we should be careful not to overstate that side of the argument, because the fact is that while Nintendo is undoubtedly feeling heat from the changing market, it's only a mild glow of warmth compared to the sweltering, searing heat wave that is the perilous state of the Japanese export economy.
Oh god, you think, this sounds dull. It is - far more dull than an exciting narrative about a former reliable pillar of the industry being felled by advancing technology and market change. It has the benefit, however, of being quantifiable. Nintendo reckons it lost ¥23.2 billion due to Yen exchange rate problems over the past six months - that's about $290 million. That figure only hints, however, at the sheer lack of options which Nintendo has on pricing due to the strong Yen. On its balance sheet, the value of every Euro or Pound the company earns is only about 60 per cent of what it was a few short years ago; the value of every dollar has pretty much halved. Local consumers can't ...by Published on October 28th, 2012 00:58- Categories:
- Wii U News
On face value, a shortage of day one Wii U stock will be frustrating to all retailers and publishers hoping for a smooth launch day and plenty of hardware and software sales.
But the truth is that, managed right, a tighter flow of hardware can avoid any money lost to overstocks or hasty price cuts and bundles.
Do we really want a repeat of the 3DS launch, which overestimated what the launch weekend would offer? While that format has hit its stride now, can anyone in the trade really say they want to relive what happened in March last year?
No, what we want is another ‘Wii moment’, that hard-to-hit sweet spot between supply and demand.
Nintendo’s honesty in the stock situation this week is at least preparing the trade for what we really want to happen: for a new machine to prove popular. It’s a long time, after all, since this industry has had to cope a console shortage.
RETAIL’S X FACTOR
Of course, some people with vested interests want you to think that there will be no such thing as a console shortage.
Apparently, demand has been ruined by tablets and online games, and consoles are on the way out.
They might have a bit of a point. The word ‘Xbox’ being quietly repositioned to mean a broad online offering, not just a physical box is one example in their favour. SingStar transforming into a free offering is another.
And next week, we’re dedicating a huge chunk of the magazine to the free-to-play market and how it is having an impact at the heart of the industry.
But I still can’t help but think the draw of something quirky, or innovative, or simply something you can touch will never lose its appeal.
It’s this lowercase-f X factor that Nintendo always banks on that drove the smartphone boom, and is helping matters closer to home. Skylanders, for instance, had a strong opening weekend last week, with decent sales likely to come. Even video games’ fair-weather profits-first friend
WH Smith is stocking the game’s collectable action figures.
I think the free-to-play set – either unfamiliar, lacking understanding, or being simply uninterested in console and physical goods – fail to understand this. And that will always be a strength that video games and physical retail have, when handled right.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/opini...essing/0105296 ...by Published on October 28th, 2012 00:45- Categories:
- Xbox 360 News
Make no mistake. Microsoft’s new operating system, tablet and music service doesn’t mean Xbox is out of the spotlight.
The platform holder hopes the raft of new hardware and software going live today (Friday, October 26th) has built bridges between the likes of Windows 8 and its console – and will transform the Xbox brand into a games service, not just a games device.
Does that sound like an awful lot of high-level Microsoft buzzwords? At first glance, yes, the claims feel a little hollow. This week, the firm pushed out an update to its 360 dashboard, adding features such as Internet Explorer, which it says ‘enhances’ its 70m-selling console.
Today’s Windows 8 launch adds a digital app store and Xbox-branded apps, plus SmartGlass functionality which ‘expands Xbox to hundreds of millions of devices’.
New and rebranded services like Xbox Music and Xbox Video, meanwhile, make more claims on that over-used Microsoft label ‘entertainment’.
“This is a big week for Microsoft,” Xbox Live product manager Pav Bhardwaj told MCV at briefings for the service this week. “From the Dashboard and IE for Xbox through to launch of Windows 8 and its apps, we’ve created a seamless bridge between a console, PC and smart device.”
Microsoft has made much of its ambitious plan to link up its platforms through its SmartGlass app, which was unveiled at E3 and provides either companion experiences for the things on your TV screen, or a portable screen to watch content on the go.
SMART THINKING
These are “not innovations for the sake of it” insisted Bhardwaj. The first examples of games content for SmartGlass are apps to support Dance Central and Forza from developers Harmonix and Turn 10, although other content is thin on the ground.
“You will see SmartGlass in games – it’s the same with Kinect, where we haven’t incorporated it into every experience. But if we can use SmartGlass to enhance the experience, we will. We announced a game called Ascend at E3, and we will be sharing more about that soon. Plus there are already other first-party and third-party apps in the works, although we have nothing specific to announce yet.”
But the biggest innovations, perhaps, are the deeper ones that look to fix issues around promoting and displaying digital content for games, movies and music.
On 360, new dashboard elements have been added around recommending games based on the other titles you have played or looked at, while another new features allows you to ‘pin’ links and stuff you’ll be interested in later to a list in the front end.
Microsoft’s also gone further into the tiled display interface – now common across Windows, Xbox
and Windows Mobile. There are more segments for promoted content, ads and recommendations.
An Xbox app on Windows 8, meanwhile, promotes PC games in the Windows Store, and even allows console owners to buy content remotely and have it sent to their unit at home.
MICROSOFT’S NEW TUNE
It’s actually clearest on Xbox Music, the new service that Microsoft isn’t afraid to say combines the best of rival services like Spotify (streaming), iTunes (digital sales) and Pandora (US-only recommendation and radio service). Demonstrations showcased the ability to buy content and stream it on a handheld device, and then resume play on the console. That’s easily done with music and its smaller filesizes over decent broadband, but these principles could shape all of Microsoft’s efforts to sell digital content and the games store specifically in a future era of faster internet.
“We’re operating across all kinds of platforms with these services, with the idea being that we will be wherever you are,” explained Bhardwaj. Although there is a bit of delay until SmartGlass arrives on non-Microsoft platforms like iOS and Android, the device-agnostic aspiration is clear.
Some quiet repositioning of the Xbox brand has deeper ramifications, too, as the console name goes from being something simply slapped on a piece of hardware to a label used by Microsoft to represent all of its games, music and video efforts, regardless of the device played on.
Sure, it has the potential to be misunderstood, and underestimated. Microsoft’s wont is to pack its messaging with plenty of buzzwords and innovative ideas, and little content to showcase them.
In fact, the announcements and activity this week could be Xbox’s most significant shift yet. While in a games sense very little has changed – there are no updates or changes to Games on Demand downloads, or the way that Arcade or Indie games are sold – the way device owners can access, buy and find out about content has been overhauled and expanded.
And maybe that’s better for the industry in the long term than rushing out that supposedly ‘overdue’ next-generation successor to the Xbox 360.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/xbox-...rosoft/0105307 ...by Published on October 28th, 2012 00:37- Categories:
- Apple News,
- Android News,
- Apple iPad,
- Apple iPhone
Rockstar is to add to its Grand Theft Auto iOS library by releasing 10th Anniversary Edition of GTA Vice City.
The studio has already enjoyed success on Apple and Google’s mobile platforms with former DS and PSP hit GTA Chinatown Wars and PS2 classic GTA III.
The release will apparently boast “several enhancements unique to the iOS and Android platforms”.
Rockstar is also planning some wider activity to celebrate the game, which some still regard as the strongest release to date.
“To celebrate the 10th anniversary, there will be a series of commemorative assets released, including never-before-seen artwork and a brand new anniversary trailer highlighting some of the most iconic scenes and music from the game,” the studio stated.
“In addition, a limited run of collectable promotional items will be made available for purchase through the Rockstar Warehouse, with select items also available via online giveaways.”
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/grand...elease/0105311 ...by Published on October 28th, 2012 00:35- Categories:
- PS3 News
Keep next Tuesday night free – GAME will be opening its doors to welcome the unconventional Wednesday release of Assassin’s Creed III.
The flagship event will take place at GAME’s Stratford Store which will be transformed into “a scenic replica of the game’s winter wilderness, complete with Redcoats who will be patrolling and entertaining the queue”.
There’s also a treat for those in attendance at GAME’s Hull store where Ubisoft developer Tim Browne will be in attendance from 9:30pm to chat with customers.
“Assassin’s Creed fans can’t wait to get their hands on the next chapter of this epic game and we are really excited to be opening so many stores at midnight to celebrate in true GAME style,” GAME’s marketing director Anna-Marie Mason stated.
“We are bringing a piece of the adventure to life at GAME Stratford for London fans and we are delighted that developer Tim Browne will be attending GAME Hull, giving both the north and south a great experience to look forward to.”
Assassin’s Creed III will be released in the UK on Wednesday October 31st, with GAME stores opening their doors at around 11:45pm on the night of Tuesday October 30th.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/game-...ed-iii/0105313 ...by Published on October 28th, 2012 00:20- Categories:
- Android News,
- Zx81 Dev News
Hi all,
Here is a patched version of the Game & Watch emulator by Hitnrun (gp2x and pandora version).
This version fits the JXD and G18 screen size (this is main change compared to original hitnrun version).
You may also find on my blog :
- a new version of Atari 2600 emulator
- a new version of a Colecovision emulator
Enjoy, Zx ...- Search DCEmu
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Catherine: Full Body’s English translation for the Vita