Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has revealed that a simultaneous global launch is planned for the Revolution, confirming that the console will not launch before March 2006.

Speaking to Nikkei Business, Iwata said: "I can only say that it's coming out during 2006, but it will be after the current fiscal year."

"We hope to make it a simultaneous worldwide release as much as it's possible."

Iwata did not offer any specific sales targets for the Revolution, but did state that it was imperative that the number of consoles sold was higher than the number of GameCubes sold - a figure which currently stands at 18.76 million.

"[Revolution] would be a complete failure if we didn't sell more units than the Nintendo GameCube," Iwata said.

He went on to talk about the Revolution's innovative new "freestyle" controller, revealed at the Tokyo Game Show last month. Perhaps suprisingly, Iwata revealed that former Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi had no involvement whatsoever with the controller's development.

Iwata confirmed that the controller makes use of a variety of new technologies, although he declined to give details, and that it can be used with any type of television or digital projector. ...

Zi Corporation has announced a licensing agreement with Nintendo that will allow developers to make use of handwriting recognition. PDAs have been offering handwriting recognition for some time and with the DS's touch screen it seemed inevitable that the console would eventually gain handwriting recognition technology. An agreement between Zi Corporation and Nintendo means that DS developers will be able to utilise Zi Decuma handwriting recognition technology when creating software for the handheld ...

News from Lik Sang

The second FPS for the PlayStation Portable hits this week with the US edition of Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex. Based on the hit anime, Section 9 are back to give the cyber-terrorists a run for their money, and Bandai have done a fantastic job with the games storyline, while the show's voice actors add a new dimension to cut scenes. With four different playable characters, you can use Motoko's agility, Batou's strength, Togusa's stealth or Saito's sniper skills to investigate the mysteries of Berutarbe. There's also just over 50 different weapons to help get the job done, from hand guns to rocket launchers, sub-machine guns, and then stun guns for those stealth missions.

You can train and customize your Tachikoma (a sort of tank like robot), of which there's four different robots to choose from, with a massive number of parts to be found like weapons and accessories to enhance their abilities. You can send your Tachikoma in to help back you up, or give it commands via a quick menu system. With six player wireless support, you can also fight as either members of the Section 9 team, or as your Tachikoma bots! Again in stock this week, Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex is not only perfect for fans of the anime, but for those FPS starved PSP gamers too. ...

News from Lik Sang

Rolling into a ball, Samus is perfectly suited to a pinball spin-off, not to mention how the vertically dual screened NDS is too. Much more than a stop gap while waiting for next year's Metroid Prime Hunters, with realistic physics and the ability to nudge the table in any direction via the touch screen, this is a great pinball title. The Metroid license however takes it all so much further, and the tables perfectly match areas you'll recognize from Metroid Prime. Fuse Games have done a stunning job with the graphics, right down to the occasional rain in the Tallon overworld table. The CD quality music is some of the best ever to come out of the NDS too, and there's more voice samples here than in all of Metroid Prime for GameCube!

The game sets a new record for multi-player fun on the NDS too, letting up to 8 people play over the wireless, with just one copy of the game! Multi Mission mode on the other hand, lets you play through and unlock new tables on your own, of which you can return to anytime in single mission mode and aim for a new high score. Enemies and bosses from Metroid Prime are also present, and in some of the thirteen mini-games, Samus will rip out of her ball and you can aim any weapons you collected around the table. Lastly, further enhancing the realism, the game comes with a free rumble pack inside a GBA style cartridge, which while a bit noisy, works well. This can then later be used in Metroid Prime Hunters and Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time. Nintendo also announced the GBA slot will be used for many other NDS accessories to come, and we look forward to seeing what they come up with. ...

News from Lik Sang

For a plump plumber, Mario sure can boogie down. Yesterday the US version of Dance Dance Revolution with Mario arrived, and in a first for any DDR title, there's a full storyline mode where Waluigi stole the Music Keys. Without these, the unstable power of sound is wreaking havoc on the land, and Mario himself must recover them before the chaos destroys the entire Mushroom Universe! As you complete the levels, you'll unlock 12 fun filled mini games, like running as fast as possible to jump up the flag pole classic NES style, catching bananas falling from the sky, or playing Whack-A-Goomba. Another all new addition is the Gimmick setting, having you dance while at the same time avoiding (or sometimes aiming at) classic Mario obstacles on screen like Goombas, Koopas or hammers.

Players can have fun getting into shape with the special 'Workout' feature, which tracks the calories burned while playing, or dance with a friend on split screen multi-player. There's 29 different dance-flavored songs included, from classic Nintendo themes to familiar favorites. The line-up boasts those from Super Mario Bros. and others in the series, to Mario Party 5, Mario Kart 64 and Double Dash, Donkey Kong, Wario World, Paper Mario RPG, Dr Mario and much more. Full of colorful graphics bursting with unmistakable Mushroom Kingdom charisma, and with no noticeable loading (just a million "warning" screens, haha), Dance Dance Revolution Mario Mix certainly has that polished Nintendo Disney-like quality. All the pre-orders have been shipped already, and new orders are welcome anytime. ...

News from Lik Sang

If you thought the PSP Value Pack lived up to its name, check out the upcoming Giga Pack, just in time for Christmas. Due Nov 17th, you get a Sony 1GB Memory Stick Duo card instead of 32mb, a Sony PSP Stand, a USB Cable, a Cleaning Cloth, plus the PSP Console in either Black or the Japan only White, Headphones, a Remote Control, Soft Carry Case, AC Adapter (100V - 240V, 50/60Hz, works worldwide) and a battery pack. Pre-orders are open now for both extreme PSP bundles, the Ceramic White Giga Pack and Black Giga Pack. ...

News from Divineo China

Thanks for your patience waiting but we are sorry to tell you that the manufacturer told us the product will release on 15 Nov . We know some of you have been waiting for almost 2 months but such situation is out of our control. You can change the order to CF version , please send mail with the order number to us and our staff will handle with it for you. You can also visit the official site : www.m3adapter.com for the update shipping schedule of the product. Sorry for any inconvenience caused. ...

Blaze who are one of the worlds leading producers of accessories for just about every console have released screenshots and plans of their forthcoming PSP to TV Projector, this is now the 3rd PSPTV adapter being worked on but Blaze are known for good products at a fair price so this could well be the cheapest yet.

Managing Director of Fire International, Jason Cooper said The PSP to TV Projector offers users the first opportunity to view their PSP content on the screen of their choice. From the feedback we have received from PSP owners, the ability to use their console via the TV was undoubtedly the No. 1 product on their wish lists. Unique titles such as the PSP only GTA: Liberty Stories is a typical example of an exclusive to PSP title that can now be enjoyed on the big screen

This exciting new product will be available from December 2005, for now heres some screens:





3 Options should mean a cheaper price for all and increased competition for a quality product. ...

source - drunken coders

sgstair has his IP stack listed at 80% complete and has this to say on the state of DS wifi:

Rudimentary IP layer has been created... so now just TCP is required to make a proper demo. Should be soon. (Yes, I know I could just as easily demo with UDP or whatnot, but I'm committed to bringing TCP, mainly because I remember the gamecube situation where for the longest time the only public code was UDP without ARP.)
Maybe it should be noted that the percentages on my list are to initial completion, until I have something to show for it.
I will very likely make the source code public on initial release, but please stay tuned as I'm not going to drop this project and will release a much more polished version not much later.

http://http://akkit.org/dswifi/ ...