Friday, March 17, 2006 - Posts

New Extreme Metal Racer Hits PSP

EARACHE EXTREME METAL RACING announced for PSP.

EARACHE RECORDS is proud to announce a joint partnership with Metro 3D, a leading Value Price video games publisher, in conjunction with the games developer Data Design Interactive in the creation of EARACHE EXTREME METAL RACING for PlayStation 2 and PSP formats which will be due for shipping on July 7, 2006.

EARACHE EXTREME METAL RACING will feature ten evil EARACHE racing teams burning a lot more than rubber through hell and other wastelands. Along with themed tracks from the combatants on the starting grid there’ll also be a plethora of extreme Earache classics making up the soundtrack of the game from such luminaries as Napalm Death, At The Gates, Cathedral, The Haunted, Hate Eternal, Cult Of Luna, Beecher, Urkraft, Anata, Mistress, Severe Torture and many others. The following EARACHE artists have been confirmed to be part of the game: Mortiss, Deicide, Morbid Angel, Akercocke, Decapitated, Biomechanical, Municipal Waste, The Berzker, Linea 77, and Society 1.

Ashley Mortimer, Marketing Manager, Earache Records says:
"EARACHE prides itself on innovation. As an independent label, we've been on the cutting edge of unique and groundbreaking music for 15 years and we relish every opportunity, particularly a new or unusual one. We don't know of any other labels who have released their own game and the cross-marketing possibilities are really exciting. Culturally we don't think music and gaming are so far apart, many music fans play computer games, and nearly all gamers listen to music so we have teamed up with DDI and Metro3D to produce EARACHE EXTREME METAL RACING. Your car shreds the opposition, the soundtrack shreds your ears - what a great combination!"

EARACHE EXTREME METAL RACING uniquely was conceived and created by 17 year old Gothic metaller Sky Nash and all started as a possible way to not only keep her amused but potentially to dissuade her from following her overworked father into a gaming career.

Source and more info at Advanced Media Network.
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Future takes PSP magazine bi-monthly

Future is to publish a bi-monthly magazine dedicated to the PlayStation Portable (PSP) from next month.

Official PSP Guidebook replaces a series of irregularly-published PlayStation 2 magazine specials, largely covering the PSP console, which recorded an average ABC of 31,859 last year.

On sale from 27 April, this is the third magazine dedicated to the console. Imagine bought the monthly title Go Play from Highbury last year while in January, start-up publisher Evolve Publishing launched the four-weekly title Pure PSP with a print run of 40,000.

Unlike existing titles, the magazine will offer playable demos of new games on a covermounted UMD disc.

Future is also in the process of overhauling its ailing unofficial PlayStation titles, PlayStation World and PSM2, to cover the forthcoming PlayStation 3 console, following Sony's announcement last week of a worldwide November launch.

In 2005, PSW's circulation fell 37.6% to 70,077 and PSM2's dropped 25.7% to 54,442.

Future will relaunch both titles this summer, though Sony has yet to award a licence for an official PlayStation 3 magazine to replace Future's established Official PlayStation 2.

Source: Media Week
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So what's the difference between PSP and Microsoft's Origami? Tom's Hardware tells us...

Tom's Networking points out the differences between Microsoft's newly announced UltraPortable XP machine (UMPC) with Sony's Playstation Portable:

With the US suggested retail price of PSP dropping to $199.99 this upcoming Wednesday, the as-yet-unannounced prices of the PSP-300 camera/VoIP attachment and the PSP-290 GPS receiver would have to be astronomical to forge the price gulf between the PSP platform and the $900 average price for similarly equipped UMPC devices available this year. So what would the differences be, to justify the UMPC's apparent price premium?

Microsoft would point out that the UMPC runs Windows...and quite possibly, so would Sony. The PSP lacks a keyboard, but then again, so do the UMPC devices we've seen thus far. The UMPC, however, has a touch-sensitive screen that utilizes Windows' built-in handwriting input.

By comparison, some PSP applications including the new Web browser utilize text input software using the joystick controls, which some users have likened to operating a cell phone by remote control. One intrepid group of engineers have actually developed a Web site which acts as its own virtual PSP keyboard, so browser users can perform a process slightly more similar to typing.

While Microsoft could argue that a PlayStation Portable is far from a fully functional PC, especially in terms of possibilities, Sony could come right back with the question, exactly what does a UMPC do?


Source: Daily Wireless

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Homebrew Releases for March 17, 2006

Great games today! And an update to the great XviD4PSP app!

Games
Sokoban v0.1 - Sokoban for the PSP!
Super Mario Portable March 10 Edition - A clone of Nintendo's popular Super Mario bros game.

Applications
XviD4PSP v3.100 - PSP audio/video conversion shell.

Emulators
[e]mulator v0.80 Beta 2 - eSwan and HuE emulators combined into one.

Firmware Hacks and Launchers
PSPsetX 0.3b for PSP Firmware 2.0 - Tricks a 2.0 PSP into thinking it's running a different firmware version.

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Sony drops price on official PSP Software Development Kit (SDK)

At the Playstation Business conference yesterday it was announced that Sony would be changing the price on the official Playstation Portable Development Kits. Development kits for the PSP typically cost $6,400, the equivalent of 750,000 yen. Now the development kits have been slashed in price, down to a cool $4,200 ( aka 500,000 yen). Sony hopes that the drop in price will lure more development houses and studios to take a chance and start making games for the handheld.

This is probably a good move on Sony's part. We can all agree that there have not been many new games being released for the system, however as we all know Sony has also had problems with "hackers" unlocking the PSP in order to "play games that they do not own". Hopefully this does not offset the flood of developers that Sony is hoping for. To date over 5,400 PSP development kits have been shipped to developers.

Source: PSPUpdates
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SNES9X_TYL (Super Nintendo Emulator) Version 0.4 Coming Soon

Sony PSP from PSPZone has spotted that Yoyofr, the author of SNES9X_TYL emulator, released some new info of his W.I.P. new version of the great emulator in his forum. Here it is:

Here's a quick status update of the upcoming 0.4 version:
  • Cheats code implemented
  • GUI rewritten
  • Still some issues with ME full sound, but most games are working now.
  • Compatibility lowered :-(
  • The new APU handling isn't 100% perfect, but it will be improved in next version.
    Right now it requires playing with a new debug parameter, APU cycle speed. Most games work with a 75% value, some need some tuning
  • 2 players AdHoc mode is nearly finished
    I just need to add a simple sync control and it should be ok
  • Some rendering issues (GFX corruption) fixed
  • SPC player added
  • More input config options
It should be ready for a release very soon if the last NetPlay stuff goes well (the sync control).

Yoyofr has released a WiFi demo video of the incoming version 0.4 back in February, to demonstrate the WiFi function of the emulator, which is very great. You can check it out [Here].

Thanks for spotting the news, Sony PSP!


Source: PSPUpdates
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