|
|
PSP News is a News and downloads site for the PSP, PSVita, PS4, PS3, PS2 and PSOne, We have all the latest emulators, hack and custom firmwares, homebrew and all the downloads on this site, we also cover commercial gaming and console news., the latest homebrew and releases, Part of the
DCEmu Homebrew & Gaming Network.
This Website
THE LATEST NEWS BELOW
|
May 10th, 2007, 01:11 Posted By: wraggster
via blueray
Heise Online, a German IT website, is reporting that during a press conference, representatives from Pioneer announced that Universal will break their exclusivity agreement with HD DVD. This would allow Universal, the only large studio exclusively supporting HD DVD, to freely distribute their movies on Blu-ray. It is important to note that this announcement has not yet been confirmed by Universal.
It has long been speculated that Universal was receiving monetary compensation for being an exclusive HD DVD studio. This announcement would signal that they have decided to forgo the compensation in order to release titles on Blu-ray. Most would agree that this move would effectively end the war, and no matter what side you support, a single HD format is the best long term solution.
Keep watching this space, and we'll update the story as needed.
To read more of the post and Download, click here!
 Join In and Discuss Here
Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here |
|
 |
|
|
|
May 10th, 2007, 01:09 Posted By: wraggster
via joystiq
Those dying to download Marl Oukoku no Ningyou Hime (and who isn't?) from the Japanese PlayStation Network will now find another payment option nestled in the aisles of the nearest convenience store. IGN reports that PlayStation Network Tickets will soon be procurable from convenience stores and post office ATMs across Japan, allowing those without a means of direct electronic payment to enjoy and more importantly, pay for the wares of the PS3's virtual marketplace.
The tickets will function in a similar fashion to Nintendo Wii Point cards and Xbox Live MS Point vouchers, with the exception that they'll be grouped in a non-bogus currency. Available in units of ¥1,000, ¥3,000, ¥5,000 and ¥10,000, the cards will contain a 12-digit code recognized by the PSN as a command to fill up your virtual wallet with the corresponding amount.
As for the possibility of PSN Tickets becoming available elsewhere, Sony offers, "We have no announcement regarding any changes to the electronic payment options on the PlayStation Store in North America at this time."
To read more of the post and Download, click here!
Join In and Discuss Here
Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here |
|
|
|
|
|
May 10th, 2007, 00:34 Posted By: blackrave
Yet another great update from StrmnNrmn's blog:
While I'm at it with the blog updates, I also invesitgated why Goldeneye no longer works in Daedalus (it did run with some of the very early releases, but stopped working some time ago.)
Goldeneye is quite an unusual game in that it's one of the few titles that executes code from virtual memory. I'm not sure exactly why it does this, but I suspect that it's to allow it to free up as much RAM as possible. It sets up a virtual memory range for the code, and pages in chunks of data to physical RAM as required (i.e. on TLB miss exceptions). I guess this means that it can just keep a few dozen KiB of code in RAM at a time, rather than the entire code segment.
Anway, emulating this accurately is incredibly slow - for every instruction that is executed, the emulator needs to check whether the instruction fetch would cause a TLB miss exception, and if so invoke the N64's exception handler. This is quite a time consuming process, so I tend to cheat and assume that the instruction pointer is in physical memory.
To get around this problem with Goldenye, I set up a couple of bogus entries in Daedalus' memory map that point directly to the correct region in the ROM image. In a way it's as if the N64 has a much larger TLB, and all the pages are permenantly mapped.
Normally (i.e. on the PC version of Daedalus) this all works fine. The problem as far as the PSP version is concerned is that the rom (all 12 MiB for Goldeneye) must be permenantly loaded into memory, and there just [url=http://strmnnrmn.blogspot.com/2007/03/look-inside-daedalus.htmlisn't enough memory[/url] left to do this anymore. As most N64 roms are simply far too large to fit in the PSP's RAM, I have to page chunks in from the memory stick on demand (pretty similar to what Goldeneye was doing on the N64 really  )
So, there are a few possibilities for getting Goldeneye to work:
- Permenantly disable dynarec for Goldeneye, and reuse the dynarec buffers (6MiB) the expansion pak (unneeded anyway, 4MiB) and anything else I can scavenge, to fit the rom in a contiguous block in memory.
- Investigate a way of getting the memory-mapping hack to work with rom caching.
- Re-examine how I handle TLB miss exceptions for instruction fetches, and implement them correctly.
Of all of these, the first solution is probably the easiest, but it's a bit hacky (I'd have to allocate a 12 MiB for Goldeneye at startup, and carve this up for different subsystems if other roms were run).
The second solution is a bit less horrible, but I'm still not sure it's possible without checking the instruction pointer for every instruction that's executed (and paging in chunks of ROM as required).
That leaves the third solution which is probably the most work, but I think will be the most stable solution in the long run. It may also help a few other roms that are using similar techniques to Goldeneye to run correctly. If I can get it to work in conjunction with the current dynarec implementation, it shouldn't even be any slower than the current hack that's in place.
Anyway, given the work involved Goldeneye isn't an immediate priority, but I am thinking about it.
-StrmnNrmn
All these updates should keep us satisfied for some time. 
To read more of the post and Download, click here!
Join In and Discuss Here
Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here |
|
|
|
|
|
May 10th, 2007, 00:09 Posted By: blackrave
Another update from StrmnNrmn's blog:
As a few people have pointed out on the R11 release comments page, I broke the HUD in Mario 64 in R11 
I investigated a little, and it turns out it was due to a tiny change I made sometime on Saturday. Basically I changed the alpha threshold test from >= to >, and so nothing with an alpha of 0 is ever rendered. This shouldn't be an issue, except for the bizarre render states that Mario sets up to render its HUD.
I don't think this is a too significant issue as Mario is just as playable in R10. I'd rather release R12 a little early to fix this than mess around releasing an R11b version or whatnot. We'll see how things go with the SSB work.
-StrmnNrmn
To read more of the post and Download, click here!
Join In and Discuss Here
Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here |
|
|
|
|
|
May 10th, 2007, 00:03 Posted By: blackrave
StrmnNrmn just posted this news about progress for Daedalus:
As I mentioned on Sunday, my main focus for R12 is to fix whatever's causing the dynarec to hang with SSB, but to start with I've spent a little time looking into fixing some of the graphical issues plaguing Super Smash Bros.
In the end I fixed four or five separate problems which were all causing quite significant glitches.
The first bug was that I was assuming that the fixed-point texture coordinates specified in the TexRect (i.e. 2d textured rectangle) commands were unsigned. It turns out that they're actually signed - SSB just happens to be one of the few roms that ever specifies negative values.
The next issue was that I was ignoring the RDP tile* mask parameters, and assuming that the tile width and height always defined the extents for both wrapping and clamping. As it turns out, the mask values (if set) define how many bits from the texture coordinate to accept - all the other bits from the texture coordinate are ignored. This means that if a tile defines a mask of 5, the texture will wrap every 2^5, or 32 texels. What's quite interesting about the N64 is that it lets you define different limit for clamping than for wrapping. For instance, you can wrap every 32 texels, but clamp the texture to a coordinate of 100 (i.e. after the texture has repeated 3 and a bit times.) It turns out this is exactly what SSB was doing.
A related issue was that as the PSP only supports textures with power-of-2 dimensions, I have to pad out non-power-of-2 textures from the n64 with empty space. As I was assuming that the n64 always clamped at power of 2 boundaries, it meant that the PSP occasionally displayed texels from bits of the texture that I hadn't initialised. To get around this I just manually repeat the last column/row of the texture when converting it on the PSP.
Another issue I fixed was relating to how I handled 'swizzled'** textures that were not an even number of texels. In the second screenshot on the left below, you can see a fringe of corrupt pixels down the right-hand side of each character's icon. This was due to me not correctly handling all of the texels the swizzled rows, but it only happened when the rows were not a multiple of 8 bytes (in the example below, the textures were 30x32 texels at 16bpp). Again, this is something SSB does that I've not seen in other roms.
I fixed a bug relating to how I was recolouring textures. In order to support some of the N64's more complex combiner modes on the PSP, I need to replace the RGB channels of a texture while maintaining the existing alpha channel. As it turns out, I wasn't handling this correctly for textures that weren't a power of 2. This is what is messing up the black background behind the 'Super Smash Bros' text on the first screenshot. Whoops.
Wow! That's quite a few bugs! Here's a few screenshots, with SSB running in R11 on the left, and the R12 work-in-progress on the right:
What's quite nice is that even though I've been fixing these with SSB in mind, there are likely to be lots of other roms which I've not tested that are relying on the same behaviour.
Graphically SSB is looking pretty slick, so now it's on to chasing down that dynarec bug
-StrmnNrmn
* The RDP has 8 tile attribute descriptors, which are used to tell the RDP how to interpret the data loaded into it's 4KiB of texture memory. They define properties such as the tile's format, width, height and whether to clamp or wrap and so on.
** On the N64, all odd rows in a texture have pairs of texels alternated (or more precisely pairs of 4-bytes of data.) The reason for this is that the N64's texture memory is composed of two separate banks of 2KiB, and organising texels like this allows for multiple texels to be accessed simultaneously when sampling from the texture. I use the term 'swizzled' loosely as it's quite a different process than swizzled textures on modern consoles (such as the PSP and the Xbox (see page 28)), even if it is performed for similar reasons.
The best of luck to you, StrmnNrmn!
To read more of the post and Download, click here!
Join In and Discuss Here
Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here |
|
|
|
|
|
May 9th, 2007, 23:49 Posted By: wraggster
New from Play Asia
Final Fantasy Tactics: Shishi Sensou (aka. Final Fantasy Tactics: The Lions War) for PSP™ is a port of the PSone™ version of Final Fantasy Tactics, with new job classes such as the Onion Knight, anime style cutscenes, new playable characters and a widescreen display mode.
To read more of the post and Download, click here!
Join In and Discuss Here
Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here |
|
|
|
|
|
May 9th, 2007, 23:37 Posted By: wraggster
via joystiq
Err, guys? Not to alarm you, but a new scan from Japan's Shonen Jump magazine seems to indicate that Square Enix is looking to revisit the fighting genre. Recently revealed as a Sony PSP title, Final Fantasy Dissidia appears to do away with traditional RPG fare, distilling epic conflict into one-on-one battles between series protagonists, antagonists and, in most cases, exhibitionists.
If you examine the page, you're sure to spy the presence of Final Fantasy IX's rat-tailed thief, Zidane, duking it out with his crystal-hating nemesis, Kuja. It remains to be seen whether Square Enix will include characters from across the series in a Power Stone-esque battle royale, but the possibility is sure to be an exciting one for intense Final Fans. Can Squall mope the floor with Cloud? Will Quina Quen clobber Kefka? Could Tidus and Vaan even manage to injure each other? Final Fantasy Dissidia may just hold the answers. For now, we'd best wait until Square Enix provides some of their own.
To read more of the post and Download, click here!
Join In and Discuss Here
Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here |
|
|
|
|
|
May 9th, 2007, 23:34 Posted By: wraggster
via joystiq
The HD version of classic puzzle/action title Rampart will release on the PlayStation store May 10. This is keeping with Sony's announced titles and follows last week's release of Gauntlet II. Rampart will play in 1080p and is expected to cost $4.99 USD.
Rampart charged players with creating a fortification using Tetris-style blocks and then placing cannons inside to eliminate opponents. It's certainly surprising that this game never made it to XBLA, but we'll take it on the PSN at that low cost. Enjoy the fort-building and cannon-blasting goodness tomorrow.
To read more of the post and Download, click here!
Join In and Discuss Here
Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here |
|
|
|
|
|
May 9th, 2007, 23:27 Posted By: wraggster
via kotaku
A student from Malaysia's Multimedia University in Kuala Lumpur has started developing with a team of 10 student volunteers a downloadable English version of the Koran for the PSP. Ikhwan Nazri Mohamad Asran decided to design the software seeing a similar version for the bible.
Aided by a team of 10 student volunteers, he started developing the Koran software between classes in January.
It was launched earlier this month to a gathering of parents at a Muslim charity dinner who responded well, Ikhwan said, adding that he would later include Koranic recitations following requests. The software will be available for download for free after May 19 from his website.
Ikhwan hopes that this software will appeal to parents who sometimes distrust the internet and gaming. I would also think it would appeal to people who are bibliophobes.
More Info
To read more of the post and Download, click here!
Join In and Discuss Here
Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here |
|
|
|
|
|
May 9th, 2007, 23:22 Posted By: wraggster
via kotaku
I have to say I'd be much more excited about Dungeon & Dragons: Tactics for the PSP if it utilized the beloved 1st and 2nd edition rules I grew up with, rather than the jumbled mess that 3 and 3.5 turned out to be. Heck, I was still getting used to 2 when 3 came out. Call me old-fashioned, but back in my day a Paladin with an AC of 17 was either stupid or had just had an unfortunate run-in with a rust monster.
For those of you unfamiliar with Dungeons and Dragons, I shall translate: They've screwed up the game since I used to play it - humorous anecdote.
Despite the ruined nostalgia factor, there is a certain allure to having grid-based D&D battles at my fingertips. The promise of alignment making an actual difference in gameplay is certainly novel, and the promise of downloadable content has a lot of potential. Well see when the game hits next month. For now, check out nine new screens of square dancing goodness.
Screens Via Link Above
To read more of the post and Download, click here!
Join In and Discuss Here
Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here |
|
|
|
|
|
May 9th, 2007, 23:05 Posted By: wraggster
Konami has yet to announce a new release date for Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops after it failed to launch last Friday.
It was all down a missing BBFC rating stamp, which is supposed to be added before retailers can dish copies out to punters. Konami expects a statement to be made soon.
MGS: Portable Ops has been available in the US since the end of 2006. It marked itself out as one of the best games on the system back then, whetting our Euro appetite for the game.
via eurogamer
To read more of the post and Download, click here!
Join In and Discuss Here
Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here |
|
|
|
|
|
May 9th, 2007, 21:34 Posted By: wraggster
PC gamers have been hammering it for weeks but on Friday Xbox 360 owners will finally get their grubby mitts on EA's third, long-awaited Command & Conquer installment.
If EA chatter is anything to go by Xbox 360 might not be the end of C&C3's console campaign either: "We haven't officially confirmed anything, but I don't see why it's not feasible," Senior Producer Mike Glosecki said of a PS3 version, in an interview with Gameplayer. "The controls are practically the same."
Although trickier, a Wii version with motion controls obviously brings up a lot more exciting possibilities for the RTS legend - and it looks like EA is pondering as well. "There isn't as much under the hood," says Glosecki, "so it obviously won't look as good. But as far as control goes, I don't see why it can't be done."
:
As for the future of the 360 version, Glosecki promises new multiplayer maps on Xbox Live Markeplace "over the coming months".
via cvg
To read more of the post and Download, click here!
Join In and Discuss Here
Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here |
|
|
|
|
|
May 9th, 2007, 21:12 Posted By: wraggster
Continuing to bolster the flood of announcements primed for this weekend's Square Enix Party, the company has revealed The Last Remnant, a new RPG franchise set to focus on the Western audience.
Earlier this year the RPG powerhouse confirmed that it had licensed the stupidly-popular Unreal Engine 3 - and it looks like this is the game that's using the Epic tech.
The not much info going around on the new franchise yet, apart from its simultaneous release in both Japan and North America (with us hopefully getting it within a year after that, if we're good).
Look for more details to emerge from Square Enix's bash this weekend.
via cvg
To read more of the post and Download, click here!
Join In and Discuss Here
Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here |
|
|
|
|
|
May 9th, 2007, 21:09 Posted By: wraggster
Gamers hoping to play Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure, the Nihon Falcom action-RPG for PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system localized and published by Mastiff, LLC, should have an easier time of it, as Mastiff announced today that supply has been increased at a number of retail locations nationwide. Copies of the critically acclaimed action-roleplaying game can be found at retailers across North America.
Gamers in some regions had trouble finding the game in the weeks following its February release, as supplies were extremely limited; however, consumers who failed to find the game initially will have their patience rewarded - the suggested price of Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure has been cut in half, bringing the price down to only $19.99.
"The PSP system has dropped to $169.99," commented Parin, the 14-year-old star of Gurumin, "So you really don't have any more excuses to not run out and pick up my game now. If you're still holding out, you should just give up video games entirely, and take up something more your speed - like needlepoint!"
"Between the increased availability and the economical price, RPG fans should now have no trouble getting their hands on Gurumin," said Bill Swartz, Head Woof of Mastiff, LLC.
Gurumin has won the hearts of dozens of reviewers, including Gabe Graziani of GameSpy, who said, "Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure delivers the classic Japanese RPG experience and is simultaneously adorable and hilarious ... if you're only planning to get a single RPG for your PSP® this year, this could well be the one to play."
"Charming, full of personality, and with a gentle sense of humor, Gurumin is a bright and catchy portable game," said Heather Campbell of Play magazine. Electronic Gaming Monthly even compared Gurumin to a gaming legend: "Gurumin's solid gameplay and likeable characters make it the closest thing to a Zelda game you'll find on Sony's handheld."
To read more of the post and Download, click here!
Join In and Discuss Here
Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here |
|
|
|
|
|
May 9th, 2007, 17:40 Posted By: wraggster
via consolespot
This is information I recieved from my EB Games Regional Manager source in:
Sony was sending out Emails to its Commercial Retailers that all new PSPs to be sent out will have 'Downgradable Prevention' built right into them. All new PSPs to be shipped out as of next week Friday, May 18th, will be a higher firmware, 4.xx (specifics were not released), but they were promised to include new security features to prevent hacks and downgrades. Apparently this is one of their first steps to start focusing on the PSP again, instead of diverting all attention to the PS3.
The new firmware will be available for download off Official, and most likely Unofficial, sites 2 days after the shipment is sent out.
This also happens to be the shipment of PSPs to be sold for the price of $169.99CAD with a Game. As of now, you can still purchase the downgradable PSPs for anywhere between $190.00-$220.00 depending on the Commercial retailer.
This news is obviously coming from a Canadian EB Games, based in Calgary, so this might not be effective for those in Europe, but possibly for the USA. These shipments are expected to be North American wide.
So, check your PSP firmware and downgrade compatability before purchasing.
Nadclovek
DIGG THIS NEWS and let everyone know what Sony are doing.
As soon as us at PSP-News get any more info we will post it on the main page good thing Success HK are still selling v1.50 PSPs
To read more of the post and Download, click here!
Join In and Discuss Here
Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here |
|
|
|
|
|
May 9th, 2007, 17:33 Posted By: wraggster
New release of Final Fan-tasy VII: Last Chapter by kuraudo-sama:
I updated my game, mostly the battle system. Here is my changelog:
+ Doesn't suck(as much)
+ No slow downs
+ No choppy sound
+ No choppy aniéation
+ Added better hp status meters
+ Enemy can attack
+ A real town(poorly made)
+ Really real RPG battles
- Need to remove the white box from some sprite
- Need to make battles random
- Need make different battles
- Need to make houses enter-able
- Need to add people to the town
- Need to add save support
- Magic, and Items will be dropped forever
- Need more SFX, and music
Download and Give Feedback Via Comments
To read more of the post and Download, click here!
Join In and Discuss Here
Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here |
|
|
|
|
|
May 9th, 2007, 07:44 Posted By: wraggster
Noxa has posted a new screenshot and info about his WIP PSP Emulator for WIndows:
First commercial game There are a few things missing, like the guide lines while playing, but other than that it works! Speed is pretty good, but is being held back by some bad OpenGL code and probably some game-instructed waits that are taking too long. I actually listen when the game says 'pause for this amount of time' - maybe I should only wait for half the time requested or something. My CPU sits almost idle while playing.
Coming along nicely it seems.
To read more of the post and Download, click here!
Join In and Discuss Here
Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here |
|
|
|
|
|
May 8th, 2007, 23:44 Posted By: wraggster
via pspvault
On a certain forum that involves stairs and robots, sirchode wrote of Gameplanet Store New Zealand's article on the upcoming Killzone: Liberation download pack.
This is the online multiplayer pack we've all been waiting for, adding all sorts of additional content for multiplayer purposes like additional maps, modes, and headset support. But there's more -- the pack will allegedly also contain additional single-player content, making it a must-download for virtually anyone who is a Killzone: Liberation player.
The pack will supposedly go public on May 21st at killzone.com, which seems pretty broken for the time being.
To read more of the post and Download, click here!
Join In and Discuss Here
Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here |
|
|
|
|
|
May 8th, 2007, 23:42 Posted By: wraggster
via psphacks
This application is compatible with the Rosetta Stone language sets without any conversion needed. Unfortunately it seems some of the audio files from Rosetta Stone are not perfect. They play fine on the PC, but the PSP audio libraries are not able to play some without distortion. Copy your Language Set lessons to the Language directory in the RosettaShard installation folder. If your Language Set has much distortion, it will need to be repaired. This will be done with a PC application which will be released as soon as it is completed. Until then, you can repair them yourself by the following:
Rename the files so the extension SWA becomes MP3.
Encode the files to MP3 at 22khz with a bitrate of 80kbits.
Rename the files so the extension MP3 becomes SWA.
What’s new in version .8.5?
The HOME button is fixed. It now brings up the HOME screen and works as normal.
In Choose Setup -> Available Card Sets: Only Units and Lessons which are present on the memory stick are available to select.
In Choose Setup -> Available Card Sets: Lesson Descriptions have been removed as they were not exceedingly useful. In fact the whole menu system has been replaced.
Skins have been removed for now. This will be a feature in a later version. Currently the Skin can only be changed by replacing the images themselves. The entire interface can be skinned this way.
Download and Give Feedback Via Comments
To read more of the post and Download, click here!
Join In and Discuss Here
Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here |
|
|
|
|
« prev
1300
1301
1302
1303
1304
1305
1306
1307
1308
1309
1310
1311
1312
1313
1314
1315
1316
1317
1318
1319
1320
next » |
|
|
