News from C&VG

Many thanks to Andrew Steele who has emailed us in a full translation of the Sega Direct webpage in question. The Dreamcast consoles for sale are indeed repaired and refurbished units that have been returned to Sega by customers. "The set that once cost 15,540 yen (including tax), has dropped to 10,000 yen (including tax)! If purchased as a stand alone unit, the price gets even better; 5,540 yen a unit!", Sega declares.
The company says that the machines function fine, although anyone purchasing one should expect the likes of scratches on the casing. The consoles are only available to Japanese punters, and it's a one-console-per-person deal and they can only be purchased through Sega Direct: ". We ask that you register with Sega Direct in order to purchase the machines. And we must also inform you that the number of units is limited, and so may sell out quickly."

Here's more from Andrew Steele's transcription/email:

Please take the time to read and understand the important points listed below.

What is the DC Resale?

We at Sega, have taken the Dreamcast units returned to us by customers, repaired them and refurbished them to a working state. The new units differ in no way to brand new machines.

Please be aware that, although these units no function as brand new machines, they still bare a little external damage in the form of scratches and other imperfections.

The DC Resale will be conducted through Sega Direct. We ask that you register with Sega Direct in order to purchase the machines. And we must also inform you that the number of units is limited, and so may sell out quickly.

About making a purchase

To Sega Direct customers,

Only those currently residing in Japan are eligible to purchase the machines

Point of importance:

Sales are limited to 1 unit per person.

Resale of the units is prohibited.

The repair and maintenance service for the resold units will expire on 31st March 2007 (The same length of time as the original units)

These machines are NOT compatible with MIL CDs.

About malfunctions:

If the machine malfunctions within 2 weeks of purchase:

Although we have taken great care to ensure that all machines function normally, in the unlikely event of a problem, please contact the Sega Direct Customer Centre within 2 weeks of purchasing the unit and we will endeavour to replace the machine. (Replacement machines are also resale models)

If the machine malfunctions after 2 weeks:

If the machine has been used correctly according to the included instruction manual, and is still within the guarantee period (within a year of the initial purchase), please send it, along with the guarantee form, to the customer service centre. We will repair the unit free of charge.

We cannot replace the machine with a new one.
++ UPDATE ENDS ++

Well, there you go. If you've read the rumour previous to this latest news and got a bit excited, sit down and drink grandma's large sherry. It'll make you feel much better. And finally, we can't bugger off without declaring that Sega's Dreamcast was a great console with some equally great games. Sadly, it only ever managed to live in PlayStation's shadow. It deserved better.

So it doesnt look like those bundles are good for Homebrew Dreamcast fans ...

fox68k has post on dciberia.net of a new N64 emu for the DC is in the works.

Using Chui's work with the MMU, and using ported mips r4300i and RCP cores from x86 to SH4,so far Nincast64 runs N64 roms of up to a maximum of 32Mb and runs at max of 12FPS without sound (it appears from the screenshots that Mario runs between 6-8fps)

Hopefully a preview version will be released before the end of the year. ...

From Gamesindustry.biz:

Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios president Phil Harrison has claimed that Microsoft's Xbox 360 "doesn't have true HD functionality," saying that consumers seeking a HD experience will have to wait for the PS3 to arrive.

Speaking exclusively to GamesIndustry.biz this week, in an interview to be published tomorrow, Harrison described the Xbox 360 as "a lot better than their [Microsoft's] first introduction to the console business," but questioned the console's claim to being a High Definition device.

"The true definition of HD is the three elements of the HD value chain - the display, the content and the hardware to play back that content," he explained, "and PlayStation and Sony is the only organisation that has all three bits of the value chain together."

"As you well know," he continued, "the Xbox 360 doesn't play high definition movies and doesn't have true HD functionality - PlayStation 3 is the only format that has 1080-progressive, which is the true definition of HD, so it's really premature to be talking about the HD era."

"The HD era really only starts when we are on the market," he concluded.

Harrison's comments refer to the fact that the PlayStation 3 is the only next-gen console which will support the top end of the HD standard, the 1080p resolution, and also the only device which will be able to play high definition movie content, thanks to its support for Blu-Ray discs.

"High definition as far as the consumer is concerned means high definition movies, which means Blu-Ray disc, and that is the reason that people will buy high definition displays coupled with a player that is capable of playing movies and games - which is obviously PlayStation 3," he claimed.

Also in our exclusive interview, Harrison discussed other aspects of Sony's attitude to the next-generation console from its key rival, Microsoft, along with the company's ongoing plans for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable platforms and his belief that the games retail model is set to undergo a major shift in the coming years.

Check back tomorrow for our full interview with one of the key architects of Sony's console dominance. ...

The great people over at Lik Sang have done a crackin handson of the new NO MOD PSP TV Adapter by Blaze, heres their findings:

We have today received a new TV Adapter Kit from Blaze, which follows up on the so-called PSP2TV Adapter Kit that we have been reviewing in October. There are two major differences between the latter and the new Blaze product: this new model requires no modification of the PSP whatsoever and comes in at half price. Additionally, it offers a NTSC-PAL switch which makes the item universally compatible. Please note that this new Adapter Kit is also different than the 98.90 US$ model from Q-Mark/Gametech that we have been reporting about, and which is also known as PSPonTV, after some american marketing genius renamed it this way. The Blaze TV Adapter Kit for PSP is in stock and ships within 24 hours for the attractive price of US$ 59.90 only.



We have played around a bit with this new toy earlier today and have been overall satisfied with the item, without jumping up and down of excitement neither. Hooking up the device took less than two minutes: pluck the big black adapter on top of the PSP screen and connect both the supplied AV cable as well as the original AC Adapter that you received with your PSP console. Turn it on with the black button on the top, select NTSC or PAL with the switch at the back of the product, and configure the focus with the dialer. It's that simple. The image displayed on the PSP screen is captured by a mirror-and-lens system, similar to what you can find inside a camera. Yes, this means finger prints and dust will be visible on the TV, if you don't properly clean up your display beforehands. Compared to the previous TV Adapter that we had in our hands a couple of months back, the display result you get varies from "as good" (16:9 ratio wide screens) to "better" (on 4:3 ratio) depending on the type of television set you use the devices with.

At the end, the picture quality is alright, the price is affordable (at last), and the installation is a piece of cake... but... one still has to wonder what exactly is the point. Except of course if you're in it for the fun of freaking around with a new gadget, we have to say that for playing PlayStation games or even movies on a TV, you get a better result by using a PlayStation 2 and sticking to just that configuration. As a matter of fact, , even though it's still relatively lightweight, the adapter kind of makes the handheld bulkier and less comfortable. It for sure doesn't quite stand the comparison when playing with the good old Dual Shock 2. Same goes for the display of the image: it works fine and all but it doesn't come close to the crispness of the graphics you can get by using a home entertainement system with an RGB or S-Video cable. In conclusion, it's probably the TV Adapter Kit for PSP that makes the most sense so far but it doesn't transform the PlayStation Portable into a PlayStation 2. Mankind just can't fight fate or change destiny I guess. To go down from my philosophical horse, I would say you can't change the purpose of a system by releasing any kind of converter for it. If the PSP was meant to be played on a television, there would be a signal output going out of a connector on the actual machine, and there would be an official Sony cable allowing you to do just that. Like Sony does for all its digicams. Like Sega did for the Nomad in the nineties. Or like with the PlayStation 2 actually.



Many more screenshots and a movie of the device at Lik Sang ...

Using Metroworks CodeWarrior, how do I add files and folder trees into a compiled .SRL file?

In a makefile, this would be the MAKEROM_ROMFILES value, but I need to do it in CodeWarrior.


L. Spiro ...

bosteen has released an early WIP port of Fuse the Spectrum emulator to the GP2X, Its the First version and runs with sound and is playable



Download Here --> http://gp2x-emulation.dcemu.co.uk/fusegp2x.shtml ...

god_at_hell has updated the CPU / LCD Tweaker.

Changes since last version:
- merged to one version
- using commandline-options
- cleaning up the code (indend was really necessary)
- fixed some issues
- added output
- removed "disable_940t()", because it doesn't do anything.

Download via comments ...

ZodTTD has updated his rather excellent Playstation Emulator for the GP2X, heres the latest news from the coder:

Hello...

Back in the mix with GP2PSX v0.16:

So I spent the past time implementing the dual cpu feature into GP2PSX. It worked, and I had an async blit (drawing) routine. Thing is, it barely made a speed improvement. It could be the way I used it. I'll have some people look over the code. So for now, dual cpu use has been removed from the code, as it caused a few glitches here and there.

This release uses the old GPU core, now that it's been updated to support 3D rendering. It's compatibility is higher than the last GPU used.

You may notice up to TWICE the FPS compared to the last release, on frameskip 0 (now 0 is the default).

The L2/R2 button mapping is still not implemented. I'll look through the PSX docs I have for their map info.

Btw, someone asked how much I've made in donations and if it paid off my GP2X. Answer, not paid off, but 3 kind people have donated. I'm planning a future release for people who donated, so they can check out a milestone release like this one in advance.

New in this version:
- PSX rootcounter timers have been simplified allowing for further optimization of timings.
- Speed increase of almost 2x in some games.
- Due to speed increase, frameskip 0 is now the default.
- Back to the old GPU now with a 3D engine working.
- Better compatibility.
- Alpha blending enabled in the GPU

I'll keep an eye on the compatbility lists/wiki out there so I can see if this new release is in the right step.

Case in point, you'll see approx. 60 FPS with 0 frameskip in some areas of some games (2D areas as far as I've seen). Let me know if this is occuring in your games...

Download Here --> http://gp2x-emulation.dcemu.co.uk/gp2psx.shtml ...

Reesy has updated his Killer Emulator for the GP2X, heres whats new etc:

- Everybody's noticed problems when saving data. It seems you need to call the sync() function after writing to a file in order to force linux to finish writing the file. People were losing data because they switched off their GP2X before Linux had written the data to disk. I have now made sure that any fwrite commands are now followed by sync() so we should be ok from now on.

- Noticed a bug in my code that will crash the emulator if you try to scan more than 512 roms. Never been a problem before as the GP32 only had 128MB cards. The rom limit is still 512 roms but now the code will stop and display a message informing you that you have too many roms. In the next version I'm planning on a new file browser that will allow you to browse to any directory, this is why I don't want to spend too much time updating the current browser system.

- Change the menu colour scheme.

- Removed code that updates the gamma of the menu when you change the gamma menu setting as its a waste of time and looks crap. The gamma setting now only affects the games.

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