Do your PS2 games look too jaggy on the PS3? Here's a semi-fix

December 31st, 2006, 17:20 Posted By: wraggster

via ps3fanboy

We're calling this a semi-fix because not everybody has their television set up like I do (in Athens, not at home... this one rocks out with HDMI and such). A while back, we did a short investigation on the YouTube video claiming PS2 games look a lot worse on the PS3 -- in my particular case, it appears to be true. Kind of. Yes, there are a lot more jaggies and oh, goodness, the text is atrocious. There is, however, light at the end of this tunnel. I'll tell you how my TV's set up to quickly repair the damaged graphics.

All right, so currently my PS3 is connected to my TV via the HDMI and those cruddy composite cables -- the yellow, white, and red. Why both? Because my TV has channels dedicated to both. When I run a PS2 game on the HDMI channel, yeah, it looks bad. So what do I do? Go to my Display Settings and swap the PS3 back onto the 480i channel -- the channel most PS2 games were probably meant to be seen in. I think that's the problem -- PS2 games didn't plan on getting their resolutions increased so drastically. Anyway... so I swap it back to 480i and re-load the PS2 game and guess what? The text is gorgeous and the graphics look fine. I think. They don't look perfect, but it's a lot better than the HDMI shows.

You guys can go ahead and test this if your TV is prepared for the journey of multiple wires. Or computer monitor, which I know a lot of you swear by (and rightly so, it seems)! Let us know if this works for you. In all seriousness, though, it doesn't bother me that much. If I can still enjoy the gameplay, I don't mind having a jaggy sword, or funny-looking handrails. Perhaps Sony will strive to fix this in the future, but for now, keep your PS2 hooked up if it gets too unbearable.

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Sony's PS3: High-Scorer No More

December 31st, 2006, 17:18 Posted By: wraggster

via thestreet

After more than a decade at the top of the video game heap, during which it sold more than 200 million consoles, Sony is set to be knocked off its firm position as King of the Hill because of its flawed PlayStation 3 strategy. This is only one of many reasons to avoid shares of the consumer-electronics conglomerate, but it's certainly the most important.

Sony's video-game business is easily its crown jewel. At its best, it has provided more than 60% of Sony's operating profit despite hovering around 10% of overall Sony revenue. Given that Sony is almost certainly going to lose market share, the company's profitability will be dragged down dramatically.

This state of affairs means Sony's historically lucrative video-game unit is very likely to lose its luster over the next few years as Microsoft and Nintendo gain market share in this segment. Plus, one must consider the generally tough state of the consumer electronics business, given how competitive businesses such as high-definition televisions have become. With that in mind, it is nearly impossible for me to come up with a bullish case for Sony.

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Space Invaders 2600 Final

December 31st, 2006, 16:32 Posted By: splodger15

wbb has just updated his Space Invaders 2600 homebrew game to the final version, adding a few code tweaks and optimization to this great game. Space Invaders 2600 Final features different play modes including Time Trial, and the ability to view, save, and load replays. wbb has assured us that any replays you have from the previous version should still work, so don't worry about overwriting the original EBOOT.

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Ten Reasons why the PSP will Rock in 2007

December 31st, 2006, 15:49 Posted By: wraggster

Pocketgamer have put up a list of why the PSP will rock in 2007, heres the summarised top 10:

1) New PSP
2) New Peripherals
3) EU PS3 Release
4) Price Drop
5) Downloadable video content
6) Gran Turismo Mobile
7) Technical Improvements
8) MGS Portable Ops
9) Nintendogs and co
10) Sony refocus

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SWAT teams under scrutiny after PS3 shooting

December 31st, 2006, 15:42 Posted By: wraggster

via Fox

A criminology professor says SWAT team raids are usually reserved for high-risk situations to prevent suspects from arming themselves or destroying evidence.

David Klinger is an associate professor at the University of Missouri-Saint Louis. He was talking about the death of Peyton Strickland on December First in Wilmington.

Strickland was was shot as New Hanover County's Emergency Response Team, a SWAT equivalent, raided his house to arrest him in connection with an attack in which another teenager was struck with a blunt object and robbed of two PlayStation 3s.

Strickland was unarmed.

In the Strickland case, the team was requested by the University of North Carolina Wilmington police, who were investigating the PlayStation robbery.

They had seen an image of another of the suspects and two other men posing in pictures on the Internet with a shotgun, assault rifle and handguns. They considered that suspect likely to be armed.

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Sony's PS3 Timeline

December 31st, 2006, 15:34 Posted By: wraggster

Heres the Sony PS3 timeline for this year, and im still pissed at losing Lik Sang:

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PS3 Blu Ray vs Xbox 360 HD DVD vs DVD

December 31st, 2006, 15:28 Posted By: wraggster

Via gamescentral

So the “next gen” format war is upon us with two sides lined up, ready to take your money for your fourth version of Full Metal Jacket (I can’t believe that you actually got it on Laser Disk…what were you thinking). If you are like most people, you are wondering a couple of things, the first being why would I want to buy another version of Full Metal Jacket, and is the $200 add on drive for the 360 worth the money, especially if I already have the PS3? More importantly, which one of the two (the PS3 or 360 HD DVD drive )looks and performs better. This article will attempt to answer these questions with background and information, as well as present evidence to why the ultimate conclusion was reached.

What is the difference between next gen and current gen?

Well, with Blu Ray and HD DVD, you get the picture that the creator intended. This is full, uncompressed motion picture glory brought to you in up to 1080p resolution with true 16x9 widescreen support. Compare this to the current gen of DVDs which offer only 480p and although they do offer widescreen support, it is not “true” in the sense that it is not output in 16x9 format. DVDs, and anything that is broadcast in 480p is actually a compressed signal that is stretched by the display that is projecting it. This causes image degradation and coupled with the fact that current generation movies are limited to, at the most, 9 GBs of space to work with, and that is the reason why artifacts (those little digital square thingys) and picture noise are so common on DVD.

Next Gen disks have much more space to work with, and will therefore (if the transfer is good) nullify any artifacts and noise as well as increase picture depth, color intensity, black level and clarity. If you have watched TV in HD and then switched to the standard feed, you will experience an exaggerated version of what I am explaining. DVDs have better quality then standard TV, but HD DVDs and Blu Rays have better quality then HD TV, so the comparison is not completely crazy.

OK, so that question is answered (I hope) and I have piqued your interest. Well, your second question (one of multiple parts) is why are their two formats, what is the difference, and which one (and player) is better? This is the “money” question, and the reason that I have written this article. You see, unlike most sane people, I have both HD DVD (in the form of the Xbox 360 add on drive) and Blu Ray (in the form of the PS3) players and I am going to try and answer all of your questions while staying completely unbiased (I am not a 360 fanboy even if my previous story on the 360 HD DVD drive was featured on a site by that name).

Why are there two formats?

Remember the debate between Beta Max (a Sony format) and VHS? Well if you don’t, those were the two formats that battled it out to be the first home video, with VHS being the ultimate winner (there are still plenty of bad jokes made at the expense of poor Beta Max). The funny thing is that when Beta Max was introduced, it was highly touted as a superior format sporting better quality, and although this was true, it was ultimately the arrogance of Sony that caused its demise. Sony has been behind a few of these proprietary blunders (MiniDisc, UMD), always attempting to push new formats on consumers that must be played on Sony players, and the comparisons in this generation are warranted.

With Toshiba being the leader of the HD DVD camp, and having numerous other companies supporting their format, HD DVD has already been called the winner. This may be a little presumptuous as Blu Ray has many backers as well. The real issue is not that there are two formats, but rather that not all studios are supporting both formats. The war was almost avoided, but the two sides were unable to come to an agreement and the confusion to the consumer began. The war may be pointless, however, as there are reports of players capable of playing both formats being released in the not to distance future, so there may be never be no clear winner.

So what is the difference between the two formats?

This is a question that I have attempted to answer in my previous two write ups of the individual players, so this may be a bit of a rehash. I find that the best way to show not only what each drive is capable of, but to also showcase their differences is with the following chart.

More at the link above

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PSP hacking 101

December 31st, 2006, 11:53 Posted By: splodger15

So what's in the latest episode of PSP hacking 101? They discuss which particular PSP's are good to buy, give a run-through of which firmwares can run homebrew, show how to install and Run Devhook 0.52, inform you folks how to install 3.02 OE-B, and how to to subscribe to Audio and Video Podcasts with the RSS Reader. You can watch the video HERE

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2.71 PSPs for Sale at Linkers4u.com

December 31st, 2006, 02:59 Posted By: wraggster



Linkers4u.com have posted the sale of 2.71 Firmware PSPs on their site for a price of 220 Dollars or around £110, excellent for those who want to play popstation or if people want to downgrade to firmware 1.5.

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Sony PS3 Import Price Drop

December 31st, 2006, 02:25 Posted By: wraggster



News from SuccessHK of a pricedrop of the Import Price of the Playstation 3.

The 20gb PS3 now retails for USD 564.00

The 60GB PS3 now retails for 601.00

The great thing about SuccessHK is that they ship to Europe as well but best to use Airmail to avoid customs charges.

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Popstation: Everything You Need to Know

December 31st, 2006, 02:15 Posted By: mavsman4457

I often find myself looking for different Popstation threads and finally figured that someone should organize them. So why not me? Anyways, I hope this helps, gets stickied, and gets updated.

Simple Popstation GUI (Image, save and title support) (v.0.7)
http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=47763

Yet Another GUI for Popstation v1.0
http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=47416

PSX2PSP v0.7: a new converter for PSX games
http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=47238

Smiths' Popstation Front 1.2.2 - No, Really this time...
http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=47334

popstation for Linux and Intel Mac OS X
http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=47333

DCEmu official guide - how to install 3.02 OE-A, then to OE-B, to run PSOne Games
http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=47121

Popstation Icon_Sound pack.
http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=47529

DCEmu Dark Alex/Popstation Compatibility List
http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=47123

PopStation Icon and Picture thread
http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=47122

Pixelstation web site: popstation backgrounds and icons - highest quality
http://pixelstation.pixelreview.net/

If there are any that I missed please tell me. I will try to add the new threads as new Popstation related things are made but I might forget so if you want to remind me that would be fine.

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PSP: Popstation Icon_Sound pack.

December 31st, 2006, 01:50 Posted By: MasterChafed

This is a pack of only a few of the original icon/background pack that MikeBeaver first released, but also includes Atrac3 files that I ripped, resized, and converted. This is for use with the psx2psp converter. Readme included for the rest of the information.

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Cw Cheat 0.1.6 Rev.e 3.02 Oe/pops

December 30th, 2006, 23:39 Posted By: splodger15

Weltall has informed us that he's back with another revision of CWCHEAT called CWCHEAT 0.1.6 Rev. E for 3.02OE/POPS. The name's still long, but that doesn't matter because in this version, you can finally load the memory cards from your PSX and PS2 emulators onto your PSPs.

According to weltall, these mem cards are stored and loaded in the ePSXe format. This means that you can load them directly using the best emulators out now (ePSXe, pSX) or convert them using any decent mem card management tool.

You can also use tools such as DexDrive to extract your saved games from your PSX memory cards or extract the single saves and put them in the ps2 with applications like ulanchelf. To do the latter, weltall says that you need to use psxmemtool to "extract the mc as ps1 remove the 0x80 header so it starts with SC and put the name you see in the header as the file name."

CWCHEAT can store up to 256 memory cards per game. They are identified using GAMEID-MEMCARDNUM.mcr. Here's an example from weltall: "for the first memory card of Xenogears which has id SLUS_00664 it will be SLUS_00664-0.mcr." These memory cards will be stored in /seplugins/cwcheat/mc and can be easily loaded to slot 1 or 2 by selecting the corresponding option.

Here's the changelog for CWCHEAT 0.1.6 Rev. E for 3.02OE/POPS:

fixed a little thing which for some game could make cwcheat not loading the id correctly

fixed the directory were the db is saved from the cwcheat interface now it's saved in the correct folder
new folder "mc" under /seplugins/cwcheat/

fixed some reported things here and there

BUILTIN SUPPORT to loading/saving epsxe (mcr) memory card to/from the psp emulator!!!

in this way you can load your own game saves from pc or psx/ps2 on the psp and vice versa!

but also go over problematic points in games.

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Japan's Software And Hardware Sales Before Christmas

December 30th, 2006, 15:44 Posted By: splodger15

news via jeux-france

It is safe to say that Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops is Sony's "go-to guy" in the land of the rising sun. We mentioned a couple of days ago that the game sold around 100,000 copies, just 24 hours after it was released. Well, when we're talking about a star player, we don't want rough estimates. We want the actual statistics, down to the most minute fraction.

According to Media Create, a total number of 178,370 copies of Konami's stealth game was actually sold in Japan during the week before Christmas. Despite this impressive number however, the game only came in second to DS title Pokemon Diamond. But then again, we're talking about Japan here and we know that this is Pikachu's territory. A second place outing is not that bad. Really.

The complete list of the software and hardware sales for December 18 to 24 in Japan is as follows:


Software

1. Pokemon Diamond (DS): 209,379
2. Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (PSP): 178,370
3. Pokemon Pearl (DS): 164,670
4. New Super Mario Bros. (DS): 154,107
5. Wii Sports (Wii): 152,756

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PSP GUI PSX2PSP 0.6 (auto pal-ntsc convert etc)

December 30th, 2006, 15:20 Posted By: gunntims0103

new release via KingSquitter

A little GUI for popstation that lets you change images, save id and title.

Place all the normal popstation files (BASE.PBP, KEYS.BIN and popstation.exe) in the "files" folder before use.

cygwin1.dll have to be in either c:\windows\system32 or in the "files" foler.

Don't have any other files than cygwin1.dll, BASE.PBP, KEYS.BIN and popstation.exe in the "files" folder.

since you need the files, there are no copyright infractions ENJOY!

v.0.6
* Fixed bug that made memory stick led flash to much.
* Added PAL 2 NTSC fix. (Based on info from CoNsOlEmOdDeR, thanx)
* PBP files can now be Previewed.
* Dont have to re-add all pictures when editing PBP files.
* PBP files are now 100% editable. All info in them, except the iso, can be changed.
* Can automatically add pictures based on Game id. Add pictures in Pics folder. (Check readme for some more info)
* Can use bigger pictures and sound files, in bytes, then files converted with only popstation.exe.

/KingSquitter



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Analyst: PS3 Dragging Sony Down

December 30th, 2006, 13:36 Posted By: wraggster

via kotaku

The PlayStation 3 analyst hate train just keeps on rollin' with research analyst Michael Comeau's latest piece for TheStreet.com. It's the typical fare, dogging Sony for their pricey inclusion of the PS3's Blu-ray drive and taking Sony to task for losing precious third-party exclusives (including the former time-exclusive Grand Theft Auto) like Guitar Hero and Virtua Fighter 5.

But Comeau's warning that Sony will lose market share combined with the fact that the PlayStation business has "provided more than 60% of Sony's operating profit despite hovering around 10% of overall Sony revenue" should give shareholders and Sony execs cause for concern.

I happen to love my PS3, but even my software attach rate is a meager 1:1.

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The Decline of the PS3 Grey Market

December 30th, 2006, 13:30 Posted By: wraggster

via slashdot

Kotaku has a great piece up looking at trends over time in the PS3 grey market. Michael Fahey has been tracking the falling prices for Sony's new console, via sales on eBay and other markers. He called around to stores as well, getting a feel for the number of returns and current availability of the console. His conclusions:
"As it turns out my gamer instincts and the threat of hordes of angry readers steered me clear of potential disaster. Aside from a couple brief spikes, there is no way I'd have been able to pull off the television, and I know damn well I would have waited for Christmas like so many others did, only to lose even more. The moral of this story? There's no such creature as a sure thing. The majority of eBay prospectors walked away from this experience with that lesson burned into the back of their brains. My suggestion for the future? If you want to gamble, go to Vegas. If you want to invest, try mutual funds. Leave the video game system buying to the gamers. We'll all be happier for it. "

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Super Mario Power Coins 1.2b {ANALOG SUPPORT}

December 30th, 2006, 01:29 Posted By: gunntims0103

new release via Xandu

Hey folks!

A little update to my Super Mario Power Coins which includes:

Changelog:
-Bug fixes.
-Smoother Mario movement.
-Analog Support.

Screenshots:



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PSP Dungeons 3D v0.7 Released!

December 30th, 2006, 01:12 Posted By: gunntims0103

new release via charnold



the changes:

- a Mac version
- ingame music
- weapon damage / enemy life can be changed
- level selection in the main menu
- renders more texturecolors than the last versions (the engine can now convert to pixelformat 4444, 5650, 5551 and 8888)
- textures not loaded into vram are rendered much faster than in previous versions
- mipmaps can be switched on/off per maptexture
- now possible to install several mods parallel on the psp (Dungeons folder name can be changed)
- a new level

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Extreme Link v1.3.0 Released

December 29th, 2006, 22:30 Posted By: Vega

new release via Quake

Quake's Extreme Link for Windows allows you to easily manage your PSP's media content -- music, photos, videos, etc... Also manage your homebrew, game saves, and keep track of your high scores. v1.3.0 includes support for PSX POPSTATION conversion and CWCheat db management.

v1.3.0 changes:

Main - Images:

1. Added EBOOT Icon
2. Added PBP Extension

Menu:

1. Added Easy GAME150 Folder Creator
2. Added Easy GAME302 Folder Creator

Options:

1. Added Compression Value Save
2. Added Version Info Viewer

Game/Homebrew:

1. Added Folder change. - 3.02 OE-A Compatible
2. Added Folder Maker. - For PSX games
3. Added More Menu’s

About:

1. Proper props to the coders.

POPstation: - NEW

1. Select POPstation.exe Directory
2. Select Game IMG. - Inside the POPstation directory

SAVEDATA:

1. ADDED MENU’s

CW Cheat: - NEW -

1. Added Cheat Insert
2. Added Cheat DB

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