Xport has once again updated the GBA, GBC etc emulator for the Xbox:

whats new:

* Save files are now only moved to their new location once. If you wish to use your save games on a previous version of XBoyAdvance, then do the following:
+ Run this version of XBoyAdvance once and then exit back to the dashboard.
+ Copy the save games from their new location back to the old location
Default new location is E:\SAVES\XBOYADVANCE\[gamename]
Default old location is E:\SAVES\XBOYADVANCE\
+ Run any previous version of XBoyAdvance and your saves should work again and they will never be moved again.
* Added an option to display FPS on the General Settings page.

More info --> http://xport.xbox-scene.com ...

Financial website TheStreet.com does away with all the doom and gloom surrounding the increasing likelihood that Sony's PS3 won't make its spring release. Writer Troy Wolverton covers the ins and outs of the whole messy affair before concluding, "As long as the console is launched this year, it would still be on the shelves for the holiday season, when the lion's share of game hardware and software purchases are made. This means a slight delay wouldn't result in significant lost sales, especially with Microsoft still struggling with supply issues of its own with the Xbox 360."

He acknowledges that if Sony misses the crucial holiday season, they will be offering Microsoft an "opportunity" to further increase their market share; though, if the rumors are true, the system will see a September '06 release.

Will a fall delay impact the purchasing decision of any PS3 hopefuls? How about a delay until next year? Will you be able to make it through the holiday season without a next-gen console? ...

Source Gamespot

Heavy-hitting role-playing franchises crossover in Itadaki Street board game for the PSP; FFXII characters and new stages confirmed.
TOKYO--Square Enix announced last week that it is developing "Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Portable" for the Sony PSP. The Japanese RPG powerhouse put up a teaser page on its official site, but specifics about the game were few and far between. That changed this week, as the latest issue of Shonen Jump includes a number of details about the project.

Back in late 2004, Square Enix released a PlayStation 2 board game named "Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Special" in Japan. The game featured an all-star cast of characters from the two RPG series, and it was one of the publisher's major hits in the country for the year. However, Itadaki Street Portable for the PSP will be a new installment rather than a port of the PS2 original.

Itadaki Street Portable looks similar to the PS2 version of the game, but it features new characters and new stages. Square Enix has already confirmed the appearance of new characters from Final Fantasy XII (with Fran and Balflear playable for certain), and Shonen Jump reports that the game's new stages will include a map based on the Phantom Train in Final Fantasy VI.

Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Portable is slated for release in Japan this spring. ...

The PS3 and the Xbox 360 may both look shiny on the outside, but it's the guts of each machine that determine their retail price tags.
Consumers who buy the PlayStation 3 will certainly get high-priced components in that new game console whenever it hits store shelves. The big question will be how much of a financial loss Sony will have to swallow on each box in order to get consumers to buy them.

The estimated total bill of materials for Sony's next-generation game console will be between $725 and $905, according to various estimates. In comparison, the Xbox 360 from Microsoft comes with a component bill between $501 and $525.

Though Sony hasn't disclosed the price of the PS3, analysts figure it will have to be in the ballpark of $299 to $399--the price for the two versions of the Xbox 360. PS3 pricing speculation has heated up in recent days, along with rumors that the long-awaited game console could be delayed for up to a year.

The pricing disparity between the components for the two consoles comes largely because the Sony box will contain a Blu-ray drive, which supports the new high-definition Blu-ray DVD format. That could cost $200 to $300 or more per console. The processor in the PS3 also will likely cost more.

The unusual nature of the new console's component menu makes it difficult to pinpoint the cost estimate. The PS3 will be one of the few machines on the market with XDR memory, based on designs from Rambus.

Some analysts have suffered addition problems, too. Merrill Lynch wrote in a widely publicized research note that the component bill would total $900, not including a detachable drive. But Merrill later told CNET News.com that it meant to say $800.

Nonetheless, the cost of the rest of the components is roughly equal for both the Sony and Microsoft consoles, according to various analyst estimates.

The price estimates for materials do not include marketing, software development, advertising, or other costs, which will push Sony's total cost per console even higher. A Sony representative said the company would not comment on pricing.

A mismatch between the retail price and the cost of materials for a game console isn't unusual, because console manufacturers expect to make up the difference by selling games to run on the consoles. That's what Microsoft did with the Xbox 360.

The cost of making game consoles also drops rapidly over time because manufacturers don't usually upgrade the configurations year after year, while the cost of the components they're using drops. Merrill Lynch, in fact, estimates that the component bill, not including the detachable drive, will drop to $320 in three years.

Ken Kutaragi, who heads up Sony Computer Entertainment, is counting on it. In 1999, the processor and the graphics chip inside the PS2 took up 239 and 279 square millimeters in surface area, respectively, which made them relatively large (and hence relatively expensive) chips, he noted in a speech in February in San Francisco. By 2004, the two chips were condensed into one that took up only 87 square millimeters, almost one-sixth the size.

Here's how the components stack up.

Processor: The PS3 will be a showcase for the Cell processor from the SIT powers (Sony, IBM, Toshiba). The cell consists of a PowerPC core with eight signal processing cores. While the large number of cores help run multimedia applications, they also make for one large chip. Cell will take up 221 square millimeters of space, larger than the 168 square millimeters of the Xbox 360 processor. Larger chips are typically more expensive to make.

A greater percentage of the real estate on the Xbox 360 chip, also from IBM, is given up to cache memory. Cache is typically cheaper to manufacture than logic transistors, which own more of the real estate on Cell. As a result, Sony faces two disadvantages in terms of cost.

Kevin Krewell, editor in chief of the Microprocessor Forum, estimates the chip will cost between $150 and $170 at launch. Merrill Lynch puts the cost at $230, dropping to an estimated $60 in three years. In comparison, iSuppli estimates the cost of the Xbox 360 chip at $106.

The optical drive: For the PS3, this is the killer. In 2006, manufacturers will have to pay $200 to $300 for Blu-ray drives, according to Wolfgang Schlichting, an analyst with IDC. By 2007, the price will drop to between $100 and $200. The Xbox has a standard DVD drive, with an optional HD-DVD drive.

Standard DVD drives sell for $20 or less. Even recordable DVD drives at wholesale sell for a mere $28 to $32.

Graphics chip: This looks like a tie. Microsoft worked with ATI Technologies to develop a chip that costs about $141, according to iSuppli. Sony teamed with ATI rival Nvidia for its chip, which could cost $120 to $150, according to Dean McCarron at Mercury Research. Since the two chips are based on the high-end PC chips from the two companies, and since ATI and Nvidia are such fierce competitors, it's a safe bet that the two are roughly equal here.
...

Dubbed WA!PS3 Online, Sony plans to combat the Xbox 360's download service with their own service for the Playstation 3. Though this is only going to happen in Asian markets at first, this adds even more fuel to the fiery debate over whether the Playstation 3 will have a hard drive included with the system. The Playstation 3 will be able to download games to the console for gamers to play and Sony says it will be better than the Xbox 360's features. ...

Finally, for the man who has everything -- except a job where he can dress casually -- it's the Commuter Tie from Thomas Pink. The bright pink silk tie has a hidden pocket on the back that's the perfect size for an iPod nano, and includes an extra loop to keep headphone wires from getting tangled (though from Pink's promo pic, right, it looks like the wires will get a bit jammed anyhow, since the headphone jack on the nano is on the bottom). We can't help but worry that using this with anything heavier than a nano would result in a curious tightening around the throat -- not to mention a rather unattractive stretching of our neckwear. And if you're going to spend $95 on a tie, we'd like to think you can also come up with a few bucks for a dedicated carrying case for your audio player. Of course, all of this is irrelevant to us, since we're not in the market for a pink tie -- it would clash horribly with our pajamas.

http://www.thomaspink.co.uk/us/produ...s/?70104057R2X ...

Finally, for the man who has everything -- except a job where he can dress casually -- it's the Commuter Tie from Thomas Pink. The bright pink silk tie has a hidden pocket on the back that's the perfect size for an iPod nano, and includes an extra loop to keep headphone wires from getting tangled (though from Pink's promo pic, right, it looks like the wires will get a bit jammed anyhow, since the headphone jack on the nano is on the bottom). We can't help but worry that using this with anything heavier than a nano would result in a curious tightening around the throat -- not to mention a rather unattractive stretching of our neckwear. And if you're going to spend $95 on a tie, we'd like to think you can also come up with a few bucks for a dedicated carrying case for your audio player. Of course, all of this is irrelevant to us, since we're not in the market for a pink tie -- it would clash horribly with our pajamas.

http://www.thomaspink.co.uk/us/produ...s/?70104057R2X ...

Franxis has updated his fantastic port of Mame for the GP2X, heres whats new:



TV-Out support. Thanks, Kounch, for the information.
New option to configure video synchronization: Disabled, Double Buffer and VSync.
Support for more GP2X Clock speeds: 133-300 MHz (without flickering).
Volume control corrected.
Some improvements in the frontend.
Improvements in DrZ80 core: Flubba optimizations have been re-added over Reesy latest core. Also some fixes have been added.

Download Here --> http://gp2x-emulation.dcemu.co.uk/mamegp2x.shtml ...

http://www.racketboy.com/retro/2006/...ast-shmup.html ...