Sephiroth_FF7 has released a new version of his rather cool looking Ghostbusters game for the Nintendo DS.
Adding the fight against Grozer
The keys on the keyboard are still more red
- Opportunities to cancel purchases of objects
- The ghosts can be caught on the end of the journey
- The ghosts are no longer paralyzed when they are affected by emanations
- Fixed a bug on the bank accounts
Welcome to the home page for my port of NetHack to the Nintendo DS. The goal of this project is to create a port of NetHack for the DS utilizing the unique features of the DS to create an easy-to-use NetHacking experience. I think I've succeeded in that goal. I'm probably wrong.
Features
An unscaled, scrolling map view on the lower screen, which can be interacted with using the touchscreen.
Minimap, message, and status information rendered to the top screen.
Support for 16- and 256-color BMP tilesets, including non-rectangular tiles (tiles must have dimensions which are a multiple of 8, e.g. 8x8, 8x16, etc).
Support for text mode, with optional full color and IBM graphics.
Popup command window for easy access to the full command set.
On-screen keyboard for text input and extended commands.
Keys are almost completely configurable.
Support for both left- and right-handed modes.
Save and restore.
Sleep mode.
News
December 31, 2007
Version 1.15a Released.
Yes, already. Fixed a map rendering bug in graphics mode caused by wall tile substitution in the NetHack core (this was evident when going from the regular dungeons to Sokoban, where the wall colours are supposed to change, but didn't).
Version 1.15 Released.
Added the CHORDKEYS configuration option, which allows the user to define which keys may be used in combination of others for the purpose of key binding.
Removed triggermode (yes, after just two versions), in lieu of CHORDKEYS.
Display help for key bindings if a chord key is pressed.
Changed extended command input to use a menu, rather than the virtual keyboard.
Added the ability to bind keys for toggling boolean options (eg, holdmode, hpmon, etc).
Added "Show Keys" command, which pops up a window listing the current key bindings.
Added hilite_pet support.
Added new option "keyrepeat", which controls whether or not keys repeat in the game (default on). Doesn't affect menus, command window, etc.
Now, you may ask, "why did you remove triggermode?!?". Well the answer is simple: CHORDKEYS allows the same functionality, only moar betar! Specifically, if you set CHORDKEYS as follows:
CHORDKEYS=up,down,left,right,rYou can then bind Up+B to Up, Up+Right+B to Up-Right, Right+B to Right, and so on. And this happens to be identical to triggermode. BUT, it also allows one to bind Up+X, Up+Y, and so forth, which is basically triggermode on steriods (and allows one to duplicate other key arrangements, such as that found in DSCrawl).
But note! If you change CHORDKEYS, your keybindings are reset! This is necessary, as there's no clean way to migrate an old keyset forward if the CHORDKEYS setting changes.
And yes, this modification is backward compatible with the old keybinding file, so your settings won't be lost (again, unless you change CHORDKEYS).
Lastly, in CHORDKEYS, the free shoulder button is always "r", whether or not lefthanded mode is enabled. Call me lazy...
GP2x Store have let me know they only have a few flash carts left, heres the listing of price changes:
DS-X 4Gb Flash Cart
Offering a SINGLE unified solution which allows you to do the unthinkable and...
$94.99 Sale Price: $74.99
Supercard Lite Micro SD
Supercard Lite is a miniature mobile NDSL file Manager and Bakup device. To...
$54.99 Sale Price: $34.99
SuperCard DS One
As the first extra flash memory game cartridge, SuperCard team has been...
$54.99 Sale Price: $32.99
SuperCard SD Slot 2
SuperCard SD is a miniature mobile GBA(SP)/NDS/NDSL file Manager and Bakup...
$44.99 Sale Price: $24.99
Supercard Lite Rumble Micro SD
The Supercard Rumble uses a Micro SD and features a rumble system which can...
$34.99 Sale Price: $23.99
Get them while they are hot because once they are gone they are GONE, GP2x Store come very highly recommended not only by DCEmu but by many other big emu/homebrew sites.
Agentq has released an updated version of ScummVM for the Nintendo DS, heres whats new:
Hi Everyone,
Here is a second beta version of the 0.11.0 release of ScummVM DS. It needs lots of testing, since there are so many games that I don't have time to do much of it myself. So please download it. Please post, even it it works fine!
The new scaler makes text a lot more readable, at the expense of some slowdown in some of the newer games.
New function keys should make all the AGI games playable.
This is a beta release, therefore there are not full instructions. This is designed for those who already know how to use ScummVM DS. Full instructions for the older version 0.10.0 are provided on the ScummVM DS website. Please refer to these instructions, as this beta works in mostly the same way.
Also, I have been told that the same code which runs Day of the Tentacle and Sam & Max can also run some of the earlier HE games, so I have added these to the list below. They seem to work fine. Please test them too!
Changes
Beta2
- Future Wars and Gobliiins now work again
- Swapping the screens while the software scaler is enabled no longer causes odd effects
Beta1
- New games supported: Elvira 1 and 2, Waxworks (Amiga version)
- Software scaler for improved image quality. Turn it on using the DS options screen (press select during the game). Thanks to Tramboi and Robin Watts for this feature!
- Function keys added to virtual keyboard (used in AGI games)
- Plenty of bug fixes
Supported Games
Build A:
Manic Mansion
Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Loom
Passport to Adventure
The Secret of Monkey Island
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Day of the Tentacle
Sam & Max Hit the Road
Bear Stormin' (DOS version only)
Fatty Bear's Birthday Surprise (DOS version only)
Fatty Bear's Fun Pack (DOS version only)
Putt-Putt's Fun Pack (DOS version only)
Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon (DOS version only)
Putt-Putt Joins the Parade (DOS version only)
Build B:
Beneath a Steel Sky
Flight of the Amazon Queen
Build C:
Simon the Sorcerer 1/2
Elvira 1/2
Build D:
Sierra AGI games
Gobliiins 1 - 3
Bargon Attack
Ween: The Prophecy
Future Wars
I just give you a little game conducted between 2 evenings watered during this tough period which is the end of the year: A set of Battleboats
How to play:
In stylus ...
Done:
The game 1 player with 3 modes of difficulty, music, automatic positioning of boats ...
To do:
Manual positioning of vessels
Multiplayer modes
Possibly a way to test how wi-fi program the thing ...
Voila, I hope it entertain you, if you have any ideas for improvement, they are welcome.
I have not yet been able to test it on DS so if ever you find a bug please let me know.
PS: Sorry for the interface really ugly but good, I am really sous-doué Graphic ...
PS2: The bug his departure under my version of NO $ GBA but apriori everything going well on DS.
Happy New Year to all of you. DSONE/DSONE(sdhc) OS3.0 SP1 released. We redesigned the realtime save program. Realtime save function speed is much faster than before. Especially for SDHC version. It can be saved and loaded in 2 seconds. It has become a very very applied function. We supercard team release it as a new year gift for all DSONE user.
Main Feature:
Upgraded the Realtime save function speed. Now, save/load speed is much faster than before. SDHC version can save and load in 2 seconds.
Added RESET plug in. Homebrew software Imgview can press START to use RESET function.
Fixed DLDI data align problem.
Homebrew software do not creat *.sav and *.sci files to save the storage space.
Added the config database for each game. Player can setup patch info. for each game dividual.
Added write card check-up to avoid error when writting card.
Fixed some problems in patch database.
If realtime save make noise, please close NDS to sleep mode and open can fix the problem.
Important:Please backup the save before upgrade OS.
Sephiroth_FF7 has released a new version of his rather cool looking Ghostbusters game for the Nintendo DS.
GhostBustersDS
The remake of the game with the same name
ALPHA
This game is a port of the game GhostBusters released on various platforms, the graphics are taken mainly from the version Sega Master System. The elements of the game are not quite the same, I took a bit of all versions and add my personal touch.
1/1/08 Version 0.5
- Ability to change the city when you have finished the game, for the moment it has the ability to have the game faster
The Nintendo DS Scene is an amazing scene with so many homebrew releases that are commercial quality games spanning so many genres and applications that make the DS the premier console for homebrew but still so much can be done, as fans heres a question for you?
What are your Hopes for the Nintendo DS both in Homebrew and the Commercial Arena ?
Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed has finished 2007 at the top of the UK's all formats charts with a drop of only 7 per cent in sales.
Electronic Arts' FIFA 08 missed out on the top spot by around 1000 sales, for the week ended December 31.
The Christmas number one, Activision's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, has slipped down the charts to number three with a 37 per cent decline in sales.
Sales of EA's The Simpsons Game fell by 24 per cent as it dropped one place to number four, while Need for Speed Pro Street stays at number five, with sales down 23 per cent.
The only game in the top ten to see sales increase for the period was Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 2008, as the game moved up the charts from number 13 to number six.
THQ's WWE Smackdown Vs Raw 2008 is at seven, Nintendo's More Brain Training is at eight, Activision's Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock at nine and Sega's The Golden Compass enters the top ten at ten.
EA Japan has whipped the festive wrappers off of plans for a second SimCity DS game.
The sequel was spotted in the latest issue of Famitsu, handily scanned by DS-x2, and features a couple of shots and some words we cannot understand.
However, according to Kotaku the premise will be similar to Civilization, and let you build settlements through the ages, from cavemen to the industrial revolution.
We are still waiting to hear back from EA UK whether it will be available here, but will let you know when we do.
SimCity DS was released in July last year but failed to really live up to its obvious potential, preferring wacky mini-games and puzzles to the franchise's familiar strategical depth.
Still, it was far from awful and clearly demonstrated it can and does work on the handheld. Pop over to our SimCity DS review to find out more.
US Nintendo DS owners will soon be able to download DS games through their Wii, Nintendo US boss Reggie Fils-Amie has told the New York Times.
The service will offer both complete games and demos, which will be directly downloaded to Wii via broadband, then wirelessly transmitted to DS.
Additional content for newer titles will also be a possibility, with new puzzles already confirmed for the upcoming Professor Layton.
Nintendo looks to be widening the range of services it provides as its user base also grows. At a baseball game last year in Seattle, fans could watch the game, order food and view statistics, all using their handheld console.
Whether this is just whimsical experimenting on the part of Nintendo's research team is a matter for debate, but it sounds interesting to us.
Currently there is no confirmation that the service will arrive in the UK, but given there's little reason for it not to, we speculatively expect to hear more later this year.
Quirky has posted news of his port of the classic Elite to the Nintendo DS:
A hectic few weeks in RL (I'm now a dad) have meant that I have not been able to dedicate much time to coding. However, I've ironed out the last few DS specific bugs in my port of Elite AGB and it is now playable. The only major issue left to resolve is the sound. The XM player that I wrote for the GBA version is incompatible with the DS by design, due to the hardware differences. I have integrated libntxm but it has a problem that causes notes to be cut short. The GBA sound effects use the GB sound hardware, which can be emulated on the DS using its PSG sound system. I got this working without too much hassle, but I get the feeling that it doesn't play nicely with libntxm either. The sound effects work when libntxm is not activated in the build, but adding it in causes the sounds to break.
I think the best option at this point is to remove XM playback - remove the crappy music ;-) - until I port my own XM player to the DS. This way I can make a release soon-ish before I get really sick of the whole thing.
The latest sales charts for Spain and Germany show strong support for the Nintendo platforms, with DS titles Dr Kawashima's Brain Training and More Brain Training coming in the top two in both countries.
The charts, compiled by Media-Control GfK International for the sales week ending December 23, also show Nintendo featuring in all top five positions in Germany, and eight of the top ten in Spain.
Wii Play, Super Mario Galaxy and Mario & Sonic at the Olympics rounded out the German top five, with Need for Speed Pro Street, FIFA 08 and High School Musical taking the next three places for the PlayStation 2.
The only other format represented was Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for the Xbox 360 - meaning that neither Sony's nor Microsoft's next-gen platforms were represented at all.
That was also true in Spain, although WWE Smackdown! vs Raw 2008 and Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 were third and fourth on the PS2.
The rest of the top ten was all Nintendo, however, with four more DS titles and two Wii games.
The full charts are as follows:
Germany
1. More Brain Training with Dr Kawashima (DS)
2. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training (DS)
3. Wii Play (Wii)
4. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
5. Mario & Sonic at the Olympics (Wii)
6. Need for Speed Pro Street (PS2)
7. FIFA 08 (PS2)
8. High School Musical: Sing It (PS2)
9. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC)
10. New Super Mario Bros (DS)
Spain
1. More Brain Training with Dr Kawashima (DS)
2. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training (DS)
3. WWE Smackdown! vs Raw 2008 (PS2)
4. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PS2)
5. Eye Training (DS)
6. Wii Play (Wii)
7. Mario Party DS (DS)
8. Triiviial (Wii)
9. Imagine Babyz (DS)
10. Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)
This cover case has the special cutting design,100% compatible with your console and can give you comfortable feelings.
It can protect your console from dusty and scratches,prolong its life.It is for NDS Lite only.
The NDS Lite Airfrom Game Pouch adopt super material,soft and strong;has double zipper,can open 180 degree.It can give your console the best protection.
This pouch has a portable design,easy to carry.It is for NDS Lite only.
I'm keen on IRC and I spend 24 hours a day in it. Not less I'm keen on my Nintendo DS. And no doubt, after the appearance of "dswifi lib" I was waiting for a good IRC client. Some clients appeared at last, but they seemed being made
anyhow. They were suitable just to connect to IRC from DS once, impress and forget about the program. They seemed to be very inconvenient and unfinished, to say nothing of absence of Russian in-out (Yes, I'm russian). So I set myself the
task of creating a new client for DS, which would be practically as convenient as IRC clients for desktop PC. Truth to tell, I met some difficulties connected with screen size. It's quite impossible to place on DS screens a list of
channels, a nick list, the chat itself and a keyboard display simultaneously. Switch buttons of these modes would also take large place. I tried some variants and decided that the good-enough solution is to make just one switch button: tap
it by stylus, hold - and then icons appear, drag stylus to a required icon and release. So the switching can be realized just by one shift of stylus or by buttons. Besides I wanted others to like this program, especially those who don't know what IRC is. That's why I suggest that they should use minimum of primary settings. You shouldn't even enter your nickname - it would be taken automatically from DS settings. Just connect to an access point and go ahead!
But I digressed from the topic. Well, what was finally made?
* A clipboard in all dialog boxes. You can even copy from upper screen, holding "L" button.
* Using up to three servers at the same time.
* DCC chat support and file transfer by DCC in both directions (I really don't know what for, but in fact )
* Storing of logs directly to flash.
* Identification of server answers by numbers. I.e. not an interface only but the great deal of server answers is in English for non-english servers).
* An alternative mode of nicklist request. Now you can see user's "away" status plus a complete list of his modes on server.
* Flexible settings of colors, highlights, etc.
* The prototype of scripts for advanced users. You can set commands, which will be executed after opening or closing of DS (turn away automatically, for example). You can previously make a list of commands for channels, privates and nick list, where the appropriate variables will be substituted as well. I.e. mIRC popups' analog
* All settings can be changed during a program work - it's no need to bother with ini files.
* Something like multitasking. At the same time you can download several files by DCC, get a list of channels and chat. Practically all tasks are working simultaneously, except the moment of connection.
* Russian in/out and interface (only for Russian version).
Gizmodo reader Phil Nolan, a profesional 3D modeler and animator, got inspired by our Nintendo DS 2 mock-up and wish list and sent us his cool version of this dreamed-up third iteration of the Nintendo DS. It looks so yummy inside that I want to get it out for a date:
As you can see, he took the original design and added a whole lot of the iPhone and the PSP. Looks quite good to me, even while it still has some unresolved issues, like the hinge, which can't be like the MacBook because it will block the shoulder buttons. Still, a very doable, even slimmer form factor than the Lite which can perfectly fit all the not-so-crazy features we thought could make it to the next revision of the Nintendo portable console.
And before the anti-Apple camp gets up in arms, let's not forget that the original DS got redesigned with a clear inspiration on the Apple's all-white, all-shiny, all-simplicity iPod design. People didn't think the same could be done with the original DS and look what happened with the Lite.
Some more thoughts from the "buts" that people claimed about the first 2D mock-up:
"But the screen on top should be the same size"
Not necessarily. For compatibility, you can play original DS games letterboxed. Even new games could retain exactly the same format and keep backward compatibility if you want. The top wide-screen, however, could be used very well in most games. But specially, for media playback.
"But the it should be a totally new concept. Nintendo broke the rules and will do it again in the next generation"
That may be true, but the True Next Generation is years away. It took decades for Nintendo to change the paradigm of the original Gameboy to the Nintendo DS. Until the latter arrived, the first went through many iterations, each adding more things: smaller package, more power, color, backlighting, etc.
They milked the cow until it was dead. Then, they reinvented themselves with the DS. The next DS will be an evolution of power and features, not of basic concepts. It works great now, it sells like crazy, so you don't need to change it dramatically just yet. Nintendo just needs to keep the distance with the PSP and that will be it.
"But it will be too expensive to make"
Like I said in the original mock-up article, given the sinking prices of current components thanks to the proliferation of smartphones like the iPhone or multimedia players, a DS 2 with shaved corners, better screens and built-in multimedia playback will be very doable in 2008. Granted, it may not take this shape, but it will happen sooner than later.
via WorthPlaying (There are many screens for every platform, click now!)
SEGA Superstars Tennis has over 15 playable SEGA idols including Sonic the Hedgehog, AiAi from Super Monkeyball fame, Ulala of Space Channel 5 and Amigo from Samba De Amigo. In addition to their own unique attributes, each character will also come equipped with their own superstar tennis skills, putting a whole new spin on each match played!
Exhibition mode offers the chance to challenge Sonic, or the character or your choice, to a match on one of many courts, including Sonic’s home court of Green Hill Zone, or Amigo’s Carnival Park court. Wherever you play there will be a host of SEGA celebrities cheering you on from courtside and by partaking in crazy doubles matches with your choice of partner, you could end up playing against some pretty unusual couples! Prove your SEGA hero is the shining star of SEGA Superstars Tennis by collecting silverware in the Tournament Mode. There will also be the opportunity to unlock a host of exciting extras which will be announced in the near future!
Complementing the Exhibition and Tournament modes, there will also be new and innovative ways of enjoying some of SEGA’s classic titles, plus platform exclusive ways to play the game, including online modes for X360 and PS3 versions!
“SEGA Superstars Tennis has the potential to be one of the most fun and accessible sports games ever.” commented Gary Knight, European Marketing Director. “The fantastic Sumo Digital team has had access to a wealth of SEGA IP and you’ll be surprised at the gaming icons that will be making an appearance!”
Available on the PS3, PS2, X360, NDS, and Wii, SEGA Superstars Tennis will release in early 2008.
Welcome to this week's Games & Toys update, our weekly summary featuring all new product arrivals from the last seven days.
Following the busy Christmas season, the year has as usually started very slow, this time with just one new Japanese video game release. Japanese suppliers are on their New Year holidays, closing down for the first week of the year. Just like every year, we are trying to keep additional buffers on hot selling items but there are unavoidably slight delays for items that are not in stock until suppliers return back to work coming week.
Here is a quick summary of what's been new in stock this week, followed by a quick preview of what is expected next week.
Nintendo DS™:
Rune Factory 2 JPN US$ 48.90
Books & Magazines:
Arcadia Magazine [February 2008] JPN US$ 12.90
Famitsu Wave DVD [February 2008] JPN US$ 16.50
Xbox 360 Achievements: Unlocked US US$ 9.99
Toys & More:
.hack//Sign Lovable Collection Vol. 2 Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Black Rose JPN US$ 12.49
.hack//Sign Lovable Collection Vol. 2 Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Sabaru JPN US$ 12.49
Armored Troops Votoms 1/12 Scale Pre-painted PVC Figure: Brutishdog & Fyana JPN US$ 179.90
Bleach Characters 5 Non Scale Pre-Painted PVC Trading Figure JPN US$ 5.90
Burst Angel 1/8 Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Sei JPN US$ 29.90
Burst Angel 1/8 Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Sei (Limited Version) JPN US$ 29.90
Creator's Labo #015 Neon Genesis Evangelion 1/6 Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Rei Ayanami JPN US$ 59.90
Dragon Ball Z Non Scale Pre-Painted Gashapon: Neo Super-soldier of Legend Version JPN US$ 5.90
Dragon Quest Chapter of Heaven Vol.1 Collection - Pre-Painted PVC Trading Figure JPN US$ 4.90
Eushully's Meishoku no Reiki 1/6 Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Silfietta Luashia JPN US$ 74.90
Feyenoord Rotterdam 14 Pre-Painted Mini Figure: Shinji Ono JPN US$ 9.90
Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Play Arts Pre-Painted Action Figure: Sephiroth JPN US$ 38.90
Final Fantasy X Play Arts Pre-Painted Action Figure: Tidus JPN US$ 38.90
Gradius Sky Girls 1/60 Scale Model-Kit: Vic Viper (Sky Girls Version) JPN US$ 39.90
Hamburger SV 32 Pre-Painted Mini Figure: Naohiro Takahara JPN US$ 9.90
Ikkitousen 1/6 Scale Pre-Painted Figure: Ryomou Shimei JPN US$ 59.90
Ikkitousen 1/7 Scale Painted Figure: Ryomou Shimei (Black Nurse Ver.) JPN N/A
Ikkitousen Scale 1/7 Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Kanu Gothic Lolita Dress (Black Version) JPN US$ 49.90
Ikkitousen Scale 1/8 Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Sonsaku Hakufu Maid Fighter (Black Version) JPN US$ 49.90
Kasutama P Yoake Mae yori Ruri Iro na Non Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Estel Freesia JPN US$ 64.90
Kasutama P Yoake Mae yori Ruri Iro na Non Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Feena Fam Earthlight JPN US$ 74.90
MM Train No.44 Pre-Painted Gashapon JPN US$ 1.90
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS 1/6 Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Takamachi Nanoha JPN US$ 159.90
Masterpiece of Shunya Yamashita 1/7 Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Shoko-San (Repainted Version) JPN US$ 59.90
Neon Genesis Evangelion 1/7 Scale Metallic Pre-Painted Action Figure: EVA-00 Prototype JPN US$ 19.90
Neon Genesis Evangelion 1/7 Scale Metallic Pre-Painted Action Figure: EVA-01 Test Type JPN US$ 19.90
Neon Genesis Evangelion 1/7 Scale Metallic Pre-Painted Action Figure: EVA-02 Production Model JPN US$ 19.90
Raki Suta Collection Non Scale Pre-Painted PVC Trading Figure JPN N/A
Robot Mini Figure Collection Vol.1 Pre-Painted Trading Figure JPN US$ 3.49
SIF EX The Onee Chanbara 1/6 Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Aya (Special color Ver) JPN US$ 54.90
SR Super Sea Story Figure Collection Gashapon JPN US$ 3.49
Sake Cellar Tour Cup Series Non Scale Pre-Painted Trading Figure JPN US$ 2.90
Samurai Spirits: Iroha 1/6 Scale Prepainted PVC Figure JPN US$ 59.90
Sound Pot Yamanote & Osaka Loop Line Gashapon JPN US$ 2.90
Tokustsu Daihyakka Gamera Pre-Painted Mini Figure Collection Trading Figure JPN US$ 1.90
Unisonshift Collection Pre-Painted PVC Trading Figure JPN US$ 4.90
Zero no Tsukaima - 1/8 Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Louise (Kneeling ver.) JPN N/A
Zoids Command Geno Saurer 1/72 Plastic Model Kit JPN N/A
Video Game Soundtracks:
Guilty Gear 2 Overture Original Soundtrack Vol.2 JPN US$ 27.90
Honeycoming - One More Chime! JPN US$ 29.90
A separate Video/Music update containing Japanese releases from this week, including new Anime, J-Pop and Movie releases will follow prior end of the week.
It's going to remain relatively calm next week, with just eight new releases in Japan, most of them budget reprints. Expected to be among the better selling releases are Kateikyoushi Hitman Reborn! Dream Hyper Battle! Wii for Nintendo Wii™ and the Asian release version of Wipeout Pulse for PSP™.
Celebrities such as Nicole Kidman and Patrick Stewart have been misleading us about Brain Training, according to a recent study.
In a television advert the Australian actress claims, "I have quickly found that training my brain [with Nintendo's Dr Kawashima's Brain Training computer game] is a great way to keep my mind feeling young."
But cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Jason Braithwaite from the University of Birmingham believes that could be a load of old codswallop.
"There is no conclusive evidence showing that the continued use of these devices is linked to any measurable and general improvements in cognition. Practice at any task should lead to some form of improvement for that specific task," he said.
Challenging these celebrity endorsements is the work of Sense About Science (spotted by The Telegraph), which aims to avoid household names promoting "quackery and mumbo-jumbo".
However, it is far from the first time someone has picked up on the so called pseudo-science, with Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani keen that games should validate claims before making them.
We have put up a December 2007 release of Laser Hockey DS. Due to the holidays, game development took a back seat to game playing so there are only two minor changes from the November release.
The new internal build number is 0.1.7.
The scores display on each screen
The game goes into sleep mode when you close the lid
To add a spot of good news, there is a homebrew DS-DS wireless multiplayer library named liblobby from MightyMax. We will look into using that for multiplayer in the next build.
Sephiroth_FF7 has released a new version of his rather cool looking Ghostbusters game for the Nintendo DS.
GhostBustersDS
The remake of the game with the same name
ALPHA
This game is a port of the game GhostBusters released on various platforms, the graphics are taken mainly from the version Sega Master System. The elements of the game are not quite the same, I took a bit of all versions and add my personal touch.
3/1/08 Version 0.6
The 3rd city is accésible but is not yet over
There is a different atmosphere according to the city
Bugfix: Press Do not jump the screen of choice for cars
Myke38 has released Starlite a Clone of the awesome Starcraft to the Nintendo DS, first take a look at these screens;
Heres the full and translated to English Release info:
Hello everyone
Being a fan of Starcraft some years now, we decided to recreate the game on Nitendo Ds.
Our team (commonly called the "StarDev") consists of the time for 2 people, me included. The project has been ongoing for 3 weeks, and today we offer some screenshots and the first version (0.01) "playable" StarLite.
Now you can create units, build buildings, and you fight for small marine red. Far be it from us pretend to get a match on Thursday Starcraft true, but we take pleasure in recreating gradually this universe fascinating.
We are aware that many bugs exist, and we try to correct them as they arise. Trying to turn a blind eye when appparaît bug.
Regarding Stardev, we are now hiring two or three programmers in order to move faster. If you are motivated and interested, please contact us.
Thank you for your attention, and do not hesitate to give your opinion.
Sincerely,
The StarDev.
History:
To do for the next release:
-- We are currently experiencing a lot of worries about the pathfinding and management of collisions. We hope that this problem will be set by the next version.
-- We are attacking also wifi ad-hoc mode, in order to be filled with 2 ds play against one another.
-- Finally, we rajouterons few new units / buildings.
How to play:
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you want to test the game on an emulator, I urge you to use $ NO GBA, as it is the only emulator to my knowledge, which generates sounds correctly.
Tip: in order to appear more marine Mangement press several times on "A".
Download and Give Feedback on this excellent release for all Nintendo DS Fans
THQ will be making a videogame version of Pixar's latest offering, WALL•E, and should be releasing it this summer to coincide with the launch of the film.
Well, Heavy Iron Studios, which is part of THQ, will be the ones actually making it, and those clever men and women will be assembling it for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, DS, PSP, PC, Mac and mobile.
WALL•E is the typically comedic Pixar tale of the last robot on earth, who seems to have been left to run around doing what he's meant for while humanity's scarpered, and what happens when he bands together with some malfunctioning fellow robots on a journey across the universe to do something and so on.
The game features ten worlds, with storyline, characters and locations from the film, plus some new bits, and head-to-head multiplayer challenges. It all adds up to a "fast-paced adventure game" according to THQ.
I really like the idea of the popular minigame Crayon Physics: You draw an object on the screen and it instantly becomes physical and interacts with other objects. The first thing that sprung to my mind when seeing it was "This would be awesome on the DS!" And Pocket Physics is what I came up with after two weeks. It isn't really a game, but more of a physical construction kit for your pocket. You can design scenes freely by drawing things with the stylus. Things can be solid, like ramps and floors, or dynamic, like balls or boxes. Like in The Incredible Machine, you can reset the scene, change it, and start the simulation again. It's even more fun if you have a DS Motion, which can be used to control gravity!
v0.2 (2008-01-03)
Pins! Pin things to the background or pin two things together
Numerical fixes in Box2d => (Hopefully) better stability
Removed dynamic timestep adjustment => Subjectively slower, but more reproducible results
Standby mode
Dragonminded on IRC posted an alpha for people to try and let him know if theres any bugs, DSOrganize is a great web browser/ pocket planner and more for the DS for those who somehow havent heard of it
Good news for Sega fans: the UK release date for NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams has been confirmed as Jan. 18, so anyone looking to spend some leftover Christmas money has just two weeks to wait (see our preview for a quick look).
The release date for Condemned 2 has also been set in stone, arriving on our shores on the 14th March for the PS3 and Xbox 360. The 'Bloodshot' tagline has also been dropped.
Here's Sega's full list for the next couple of months:
Jan. 25
Phantasy Star Ambition of the Illuminus, PC, PS2
Universe at War: Earth Assault, PC
Jan. 18
NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams, Wii
Ghost Squad, Wii
Feb. 8
The Club, PS3, PC, Xbox 360
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, DS
Feb. 14
Condemned 2, Xbox 360, PS3
Feb. 22
Sonic Riders Zero Gravity, PS2, Wii
Feb. 29
Bleach, DS, Wii
March 7
Universe at War: Earth Assault, Xbox 360
March 28
Sega Superstars Tennis, Wii, PS3, DS, PS2, Xbox 360
Viking: Battle of Asgard, PS3, Xbox 360
Wow, it hasn't been a good week for the New York Times.
Turns out that New York Times story didn't just mix up the DS and PSP's features, oh and misspell Reggie's name twice, it also screwed up what exactly was downloadable to the Wii as a full-blown game and what was just for demos.
That's right, according to Nintendo, the Wii will NOT be able to transmit or download full DS games. Apparently the New York Times confused DS demos with WiiWare titles. So you can download full on Wii games (which we knew), but only wireless DS demo games (which we also knew).
From Nintendo:
An article about the Nintendo DS video game system in the Dec. 31 Business Day section of the New York Times incorrectly referred to future capabilities of the device. The statement that complete Nintendo DS games will eventually be able to be downloaded into the device via a wireless connection with the company's Wii game console is incorrect. Users can download games to play on Wii, and, in the future, the Nintendo DS will be able to receive demo versions of some DS games from Wii, but not the entire game. The demo will be erased once the Nintendo DS is turned off.
Good lord, that's four mistakes in one story, five if you include the correction to the correction they had to run. A new record?
Kukulcan has released a smart looking game for the Nintendo DS with a space theme to it, heres the translated info:
A simple adaptation of the principle of Flash game to the DS does not motivating me, I took my time to find several ideas and to reach this version.
The game:
The goal is simple, it is necessary that each color or balls in the right area to finish the level. This is a dire blue balls in the bottom of the screen and the red balls in the top of the screen. The transition zone between the 2 areas is the black area.
I added options to choose the size of the ball (8x8, 10x10, 12x12, 14x14 or 16x16), and 5 levels of speed for moving balls, each can set the game following his desires.
Orders
START = Exit
PAD Left / Right or Motion DS = Move the black zone
R = Music (yes / no)
NightFox has released a new version of colors for the Nintendo DS. Heres the release info:
Hi!
Game is almost completed. Only rest wait for definitive music, some test for bugs and do the savegame to file (i'm little lazy today to do this, and minor graphics corrections (game title screen, credits, etc) Now game ends at 25th level (or if you fill the screen and gets game over). Keep in mind the important thing in this game is earn the maxium score posible using the combo system.
Oh yes, i added 7 bg's and bgm's, they switch every 4 levels and 1 special for last level
Hope you enjoy it
See readme for instructions and adition credits about free sound, mp3 and space bg's i used on my game
Welcome to the home page for my port of NetHack to the Nintendo DS. The goal of this project is to create a port of NetHack for the DS utilizing the unique features of the DS to create an easy-to-use NetHacking experience. I think I've succeeded in that goal. I'm probably wrong.
Features
An unscaled, scrolling map view on the lower screen, which can be interacted with using the touchscreen.
Minimap, message, and status information rendered to the top screen.
Support for 16- and 256-color BMP tilesets, including non-rectangular tiles (tiles must have dimensions which are a multiple of 8, e.g. 8x8, 8x16, etc).
Support for text mode, with optional full color and IBM graphics.
Popup command window for easy access to the full command set.
On-screen keyboard for text input and extended commands.
Keys are almost completely configurable.
Support for both left- and right-handed modes.
Save and restore.
Sleep mode.
News
Version 1.16 Released.
Allow users to bind commands to individual chordkey presses (note, you can't bind combination presses, and commands are activated when the key is released).
Added support for binding run and fight movements (movements prefixed with 'g' and 'F', respectively).
Added the 'cmdkey' option, which lets the user define the key used to open the command window.
Added 'keyhelp' option which controls whether the bindings are shown on the screen (default is now off).
Added HELPLINE1 and HELPLINE2 directives. These take key lists, which determine which keys appear in the key help, and in what order.
Moved minimap colours into a palette file (minimap.pal).
Properly ignore all input when in sleep mode.
Various commands which didn't show a prompt now do (eg, wear, take off, eat, etc).
Fixed a bug in the default X keymapping. ie, it actually works now (the default was mistakenly set to "o," instead of just "o").
Fixed a bug where dismissing the "Toggle Option" key binding submenu without selecting anything would cause a crash.
Fixed a bug where responding to the "Press A…" prompt would result in the action bound to A getting executed.
Fixed keyboard colours, and changed the palette to plain text.
Regarding the keymapping code, the new cmdkey option adds interesting new possibilities. For example, by switching the cmdkey to 'start', you can free up both shoulder buttons for chording:
OPTIONS=cmdkey:start
CHORDKEYS=r,lIt's interesting to note that the 'lefthanded' option is somewhat unnecessary now, as the same thing can be achieved with cmdkey and CHORDKEYS. However, I've left it in for backward compatibility, and it results in the L and R keys being swapped.
Note, make sure you copy over kbd.pal and minimap.pal from the distribution archive to your /NetHackDS directory (assuming you don't just unzip straight over the old copy)..
A.A. van Zoelen has posted a screen and info of his latest project for the Nintendo DS and it looks awesome
Heres his latest news on the subject
Progress is going quiet well with Ports of Call DS. So good even that i descided to put a little teaser online of the progress.
The game mechanics are in place and the basic elements such as trade and travel can be done. What is still left open is banking and map events. When i am finished with those parts i know how much memory is still available for sound effects and music.
Alex has released a new version of his excellent Puzzle game collection for the Nintendo DS, heres whats new in this latest version:
PuzzleManiak is a port of the marvelous
Simon Tatham’s Portable Puzzle Collection
on Nintendo DS.
27 games integrated: Tents, Dominosa, Mines, Bridges, Light Up (aka Akari), Pattern (aka Picross), Net (aka Netwalk), Untangle (aka Planarity), Sudoku (aka Solo), Galaxies, Slitherlink (aka Loopy), Blackbox, Mastermind (aka Guess), Map, Filling, Solitaire (aka Pegs), Sixteen, Fifteen, Slant, Rectangles, Netslide, Samegame, Unequal, Flip, Inertia, Twiddle and Pyramid (adaptation of Cube).
Support of graphic themes
Daily challenge downloadable via wifi
Score submission via wifi
Global ranking computed from all scores submitted available on NDS/Website
Game translated into 7 languages:
English
French
Italian
Spanish
Brazilian Portuguese
German
Dutch
Version 3.6’s changelog:
- Fix bug in Mastermind (thanks stephen for having found it)
- Fix bug in Again/Undo button detection
- Fix bug in themes management => a maximum of 7 seven graphic themes are managed now, if you’ve more themes installed, they won’t be accessible in the game’s theme management.
Sephiroth_FF7 has released a new version of his rather cool looking Ghostbusters game for the Nintendo DS.
GhostBustersDS
The remake of the game with the same name
ALPHA
This game is a port of the game GhostBusters released on various platforms, the graphics are taken mainly from the version Sega Master System. The elements of the game are not quite the same, I took a bit of all versions and add my personal touch.
5/1/08 Version 0.7
3 opportunity to catch different city in the 3rd.
Display lyrics at the start of Thursday
Birslip has posted a great looking game for the DS, heres the release info:
On the composition of drunken coders, I made a little game, which is a little void, but that is 3D, maybe it compensates? Well, the story is not there, you embody a character that responds on behalf of Uummarmiut (I can find worse name!), Which must seek its Christmas gift itself (what sadness ...). In short, under this concept a little corny did not conceal much, there are a dozen levels at which you Face fir, ice, bears and even yétis! With always with the idea to collect all gifts.
Some practical information anyway:
Move the stylus to move the guy
Up or X for the sauté
Cam left / right or double click to launch balls
Select Start, or to take a break
What's more you can change the difficulty, by clicking on "options" at the outset. In terms of music, they are not really me, I have bitten on I do not know what flash game then I bidouillé. The graphics is almost the same, the models come from the excellent egoboo Thursday except the tree and cubes (), but by contrast textures were made by myself (which explains a lot of things). I tried to make essemble fairly consistent, I hope I arrived, if not too bad!
I will distribute the sources, but as usual, I must comment and that j'enjolive parts. Well, if j'oublis do not hesitate to remind me!
Regarding bugs, there are probably, but not that prevents play. Good game!
A major release of Patater's DS programming manual is here!
This manual now covers additional aspects of Nintendo DS Programming including multiple sprites, multiple backgrounds, multiple palettes, the touch screen, Slot-1 devices, and more. The manual's case study has undergone a significant rewrite and covers more ground than ever before.
Falafel has posted his first homebrew game for the masses, heres his release news:
hello everyone!
Well this is my first homebrew game
It's a 2 player game you can play during boring lectures ^_^
the objective is to get to the goal on either side of the field (the one with the moving cube in your colour is the one you have to hit)
and if you hit a point where you hit another line you "bounce" and you can put down an extra line.
if the screen goes red, red player wins.
green is the same but (guess what?) green player wins
and blue means your stuck and noone wins (or whatever you want to happen anyway)
press B to restart
The Virtua Peanuts team have released a new hoomebrew app that when you touch the touchscreen tells you the coordinates of where you touched, good for testing your screens fully working i suppose ;D
Moose At Play have updated Laser Hockey DS. Heres whats new:
We have put up a build with a couple more updates.
Internal build: 0.2.0
* We have a nice looking title screen with a single button for Practice which just launches the same old game with no way out.
* Added a real player two paddle, it's blue.
Chroma is an interactive application inspired by "The Colour Game," directed by the artist Joe Mc Kay, which was Set in 2003 at Smack Mellon Gallery in Brooklyn and in 2004 Berkshire Museum. (Link to the author's site).
Originally this "game" was for 2 player, however, due to technical limitations of the DS (try to play
2 persons simultaneously on a touch screen) it is the moment for a single player (and loses the coup
Part of its initial originality). However, a solution may be found in the future.
This game is played on DS with a SUpercard, R4 or equivalent device. For those of you who do not,
You can still use an emulator as no $ gba (download here) to play, opening the file. Nds.
On the screen are willing higher forms of color, and on the lower screen push buttons. The player
Control the color of a form by using the pushbuttons 3 (each controlling a component (red, green, or blue)),
Aim to reproduce the second color. A small margin of error is present at the beginning, which will decline with the game in the final version.
Here, it can be adjusted through the triggers L (drive less) and R (harder). Everything on relaxing music, Oxygen 3 Jean Michel Jarre.
Awhile ago I started working on a simple DS tile editor that runs on the DS. I haven't touched it in awhile, but I decided to go ahead and release the source code after updating it to compile and run with devkitARM r21.
I got it to the point where I could edit simple tiles and display them on the top screen as a hardware tile (or tiles, depending on the view mode) and save/load tiles to SRAM. It also has basic undo/redo functionality, as well as the ability to view consecutive tiles to see how their borders match.
The user interface is very primitive so be sure to read the README for how it works. It doesn't have any way of editing the palette yet, so its usefulness as an art tool is limited, but I'm hoping someone might find it a useful base to work off of if they are interested in extending its functionality.
Myke38 has updated Starlite a Clone of the awesome Starcraft to the Nintendo DS, first take a look at these screens;
Heres the full and translated to English Release info:
Hello,
Voila version 0.02 of StarLite.
Unable to start the WiFi mode, we decided to move StarLite with regard to its playability. So this was the work of this weekend.
The program,
-- A debut management collisions between "unity and building" (only for the marines for the moment).
-- A new map without any party "space", thus greatly simplifying the problem of pathfinding
-- An improvement at the level of gunfire from marine earlier, the marines shot at the first enemy they saw, at the risk of not capitalize on a navy closest to him, when the latter was. Now, the Navy simply pulls on the nearest unit.
-- In addition, the marines go out of barracks derénavant de facon coerente
-- And finally, the most important part: the construction of buildings is now limited to the place where you can really build a building ... which avoids two batiements overlap. Moreover, it is prohibited to build a building too close to a rude.
-- And ... no, still nothing for the left-handed, but that will come
Voila, it's not much, but to so many post, it would indeed merit a new update Thanks again for your support.
How to play:
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you want to test the game on an emulator, I urge you to use $ NO GBA, as it is the only emulator to my knowledge, which generates sounds correctly.
Tip: in order to appear more marine Mangement press several times on "A".
Download and Give Feedback on this excellent release for all Nintendo DS Fans
Square Enix has today announced details of its schedule for the fresh end of 2008, with Final Fantasy I and II on the PSP and Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings on the DS both being given firm street dates.
Details of the release dates for other UK-bound Square Enix titles are somewhat more vague, with DS titles Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates and The World Ends With You due as the leaves begin to sprout, while we can expect Odin Sphere on PS2 and Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker on DS sometime before said leaves turn brown.
The full list follows:
8 February 2008
Final Fantasy I & Final Fantasy II (PSP)
15 February 2008
Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings (Nintendo DS)
Spring 2008
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates (Nintendo DS)
The World Ends With You (Nintendo DS)
Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors (Nintendo Wii)
Konami has revealed a fancy new Yu-Gi-Oh! card battling game for DS due out this March.
It will go hand-in-hand with the real-life 2008 World Championship, and recreate over 2,000 of the cards that line the palms of spotty teenage tacticians.
Interesting additions come from wireless capabilities to take on friends from all over the earth or in your house - either on your own or in pairs - as well a voice chat system to talk about things before battle begins.
Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2008 will have its own single player to get to grips with, too, in case you are a bit flustered about airing your abilities so soon, and you will be given three special limited edition cards to use in real-life as coasters or as motorbike noise-makers on your BMX.
Tom wanted me to tell you about it because "these aren't actually bad games", as you can tell from our World Chapionship 2007 review, but you have a long road ahead of you if you want to beat 2007 World Champion Toro Andres from Chile.
The goal is to prevent the cat from leaving the screen by impairing its progression with blue pellets that are created using the stylus. At every turn the cat advance of a case until it reaches the edge of the plateau Thursday Support on the select button can generate a new plateau. The game is very simple once you understand the trick
Please let me have your comments if you find bugs.
Kukulcan has released a beta of the Game Xump for the Nintendo DS
Heres details via mollusk and his Pocket PC Site
Xump consists of a 20x12 playfield which is filled with various types of blocks. Your job is to make the blue blocks disappear from the playfield by stepping on them. There are five main types of block, each of which behave differently.
Grey Blocks: A grey block allows you to step on it with out disappearing when you stand on it. Your start point is always a grey block, the last block you step on must be a grey block as well.
Grey Arrow Blocks: Arrow blocks forward you AUTOMATICALLY in the given direction without warning, with exception to the two way arrow blocks which have either a vertical or horizontal black line.
Warp Blocks: Warp blocks always come in a double pack. If you jump in, you come out at the other warp block. Warp blocks are grey and have a hole in them, they do not disappear when you step on them.
Blue Blocks: Blue blocks have to be destroyed by stepping on them.
Darkblue Blocks: Darkblue blocks turn into blue blocks, be careful: Darkblue blocks are sometimes an essential part of the puzzle elements.
DekuTree64 has released a new version of Animanatee for the Nintendo DS:
Heres the release details:
Yet another little art program for DS.
The controls are explained in the program, but here are the basic features:
- 2 layers ("BG" and "frame"). BG gets copied over when you create a new frame, so you can have a persistent background, or modify it as you go.
- 60 color palette, which can all be modified.
- 4 brush sizes
- Up to 10000 frames, or until memory runs out.
- Undo/redo. Up to 32 levels, or until it fills its 128KB buffer.
- Onion skinning (sort of, only shows one previous frame).
NEW in v1.3
- Error checking on file access.
- Changed export format to .avi instead of .flc.
- Added a button so you can save without exporting, since it takes a while.
- Added a progress bar when saving.
Things I'd like to add:
- Better onion skinning.
- Better save system. At the very least, thumbnails or something.
- Offsetting (like to scroll the background a few pixels per frame).
- Less stylus jumping.
- A Mario Paint style music sequencer.
- Playing a wav/mp3/etc. file along with the animation.
- Recording a sound track with the microphone.
Feel free to add to the list, or to vote for which of the ones on there that you'd like to see first.
Sure, it felt good being the only cat on the block rockin' 8GB of microSDHC storage in your DSFlashcart, but time doesn't stand still, player -- SanDisk's just upped the status quo to 12GB. Yep, there it is, impossibly small and ready to be filled with data -- too bad we don't have any pricing info yet.
Nintendo ended 2007 on a high across mainland Europe, with DS titles topping the Spanish chart and Wii games heading the German list for software sales in the week ending December 30.
According to the data from Media-Control GfK International, More Brain Training and the original Brain Training took the top two places in Spain, followed by Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 for the PlayStation 2.
Super Mario Galaxy was fourth while WWE Smackdown! vs Raw 2008 took fifth place, with Assassin's Creed for the PlayStation 3 in sixth. Other PS2 and DS titles rounded off the top ten.
Meanwhile in Germany Super Mario Galaxy was top, followed by Mario & Sonic at the Olympics, with More Brain Training in third.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare took fourth place, with the original Brain Training and New Super Mario Bros in fifth and sixth respectively.
The full charts are as follows:
Spain
1. More Brain Training with Dr Kawashima (DS)
2. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training (DS)
3. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PS2)
4. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
5. WWE Smackdown! vs Raw 2008 (PS2)
6. Assassin's Creed (PS3)
7. SingStar Latino (PS2)
8. Imagine Babyz (DS)
9. Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)
10. FIFA 08 (PS2)
Germany
1. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
2. Mario & Sonic at the Olympics (Wii)
3. More Brain Training with Dr Kawashima (DS)
4. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC)
5. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training (DS)
6. New Super Mario Bros (DS)
7. Need for Speed ProStreet (PS2)
8. SingStar: Apres Ski (PS2)
9. Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)
10. FIFA 08 (PS2)
Nintendo aren't sitting on their collective asses with this DS and its inherent Wi-Fi capabilities. Speaking with Japanese news site Asahi, Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata says he'd like to expand the device's non-gaming capabilities. Like how? Like say you've got your DS, you get off at a train stop and don't know where you are. He'd like you to be able to whip out your handheld, download a map, get your bearings and turn geographical adversity into triumph. Sounds great to us, but we also know any such service would launch in Japan and stay in Japan.
For the second year in a row, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has honoured Nintendo with an Emmy Award for excellence in engineering creativity.
The Academy recognised the Wii for its innovative motion-sensing controls and the Nintendo DS for its touch-screen control scheme and distinctive dual-screen display.
Atari and Mattel were also honoured alongside the DS for Handheld Game Device Display Screen Innovation, for the Lynx (Atari) and Football and Auto Race (Mattel).
The awards were presented in Las Vegas at the 59th annual Technological and Engineering Emmy Awards on January 7. This is the second year that the awards show was held during the International CES.
"The pioneering interfaces for Wii and Nintendo DS reflect our long tradition of seeking new ways to enhance the gaming experience for users at every level," said Don James, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of operations.
"We're grateful for this award and thank the academy for honoring us a second time."
Last year, Nintendo received an Emmy for the development of the D-pad and Sony was recognised for the XMB (Cross media bar) and DualShock controller.
Other game-related 2008 Emmy award winners included:
Development of MMO graphical role playing games:
Sony Online Entertainment for Everquest
Blizzard for World of Warcraft
AOL/Time Warner, Stormfront, Ubisoft and TSR-Wizards of the Coast for Neverwinter Nights
User Generated Content/Game Modification:
EA for Pinball Construction
Id Software for Quake
Linden Labs for Second Life
Submitted by: Lobo
Description:
Virus DS is a puzzle game (now with Xmass spirit) with simple objective to infuse the viruses with serum thus making them grow until they explode!
Controls:
The game can be played with DPAD or Stylus
Submitted by: melw
Description:
Snowflakes is an action platformer / puzzle game. Roll your snowball around, collect snowflakes and complete the quest of rolling a giant snowman!
Controls:
Pad to move the ball.
X/Y to zoom.
Touchscreen controls the camera.
Submitted by: rugal
Description:
Collect Santas missing presents that have been scattered around two alternate dimensional area
Controls:
Press A to jump. B to float down(maybe other way round)
L and R rotate camera
X and Y Zoom camera
Special Instructions:
Fall off the edge and you transport vertically up
Submitted by: bogus
Description:
This is a demo project I worked on to experiment with the various graphics modes and input methods on the DS. It is meant to simulate the accumulation of snowflakes on a window.
Controls:
Up = increase the number of snowflakes.
Down = decrease the number of snowflakes.
A = reset the number of snowflakes to default (300).
Left = increase the strength of the wind to the left.
Right = increase the strength of the wind to the right.
B = reset the wind to the default (none).
X = clear the snow drifts.
Submitted by: Jayenkai
Description:
You played it last year, and now it's back in a really minor way!
8 extra levels of varying difficulty, with a new "Light up all the Xmas Trees" theme, and a bit of snow.
Controls:
Y and A to jump, B to grab! If you need more help, try playing the old levels first.
Special Instructions:
This was done as a nice Xmassy thing for the people at gbadev and PALib, and really it's just the old one with a Xmas theme strapped on for the heck of it.
I wasn't going to post it as an entry, but then I thought "Heck, why not!" so here it is!
I fully expect this game to fail miserably, and probably be disqualified for being such a cheap entry!
Submitted by: Programix
Description:
The game can be played with a stylus as well as with a motion card. Drag a gift with the stylus and throw it into one of the windows on the upper screen. If you are playing with a motion card, move DS forward and to the left or to the right (to aim correctly) and while moving it, press [A]. This will throw a gift, same as with the stylus. You get 10
points for hitting a window and 22 points if you hit a window and the gift does not touch the window frame. You also get some extra points for achieving more successful hits in a row. The game has two modes. There is a timed mode where you have to reach the highest score in two minutes and there is a level-based mode where you have to reach a certain required score in 25 seconds in order to get to the next higher level where you have to reach a
little higher required score in order to get to the next higher level and so on.
Controls:
Stylus OR Motion sensor and A button
Special Instructions:
Just don't forget to DLDI patch the ROM for correct saving of highscores
Submitted by: Jayenkai
Description:
Ward away the evil snowmen with your super snowball rifle.
Controls:
Tap to aim, hold to fire.
You can move using either the DPad, or the Face Buttons (for all you left-handers out there)
Special Instructions:
Watch out for the time, there's only 33.33 seconds on the clock! (or 2000 frames, to be more precise!)
Collect the Green Gifts for extra time.
Submitted by: Lynx
Description:
A "game" to help children learn the names of letters and the sounds they make.
Controls:
Just touch the screen..
Special Instructions:
Make sure the DSs date is set to December to see the "Drunken Coders" feature. Also note that this version has never been released.
Submitted by: cbeley
Description:
Help Santa get back all the ornaments that were stolen by Evil Santa! Play though an infinite amount of levels (considering you are inhuman and have too much time on your hands) of ornament grabbing, granny evading, floating elf invader, fruitcake-tasting goodness!
Controls:
You can control your character and navigate the menus using the touch screen and view additional screens using physical buttons when told to. While playing you can also fire using either the Up arrow or X buttons, or the shoulder buttons (which ever is more comfortable). Refer to on-screen help for special additional controls.
Special Instructions:
Refer to the short in-game instructions for more info on how to play by tapping “Save Christmas!” and then pressing A to cycle through the help screens. If you use online scores, be sure to have your DS set up for it using a game such as Mario kart DS. Finally, the 42 ornaments give you a few more points than the other ornaments. :-P
Submitted by: GeekyLink
Description:
Story:
It is December, and Santa is preparing to give his toys to all the children of the world. But he got lost on December first when his sled crashed in the North Pole woodlands. Now he needs to find his way back in twenty-four days or else Christmas will be ruined for all the boys and girls of the world! To return, Santa must find and return as many presents as he can to his sled, by giving them to his elf friend, and then passing the level exit. But Santa must beware for lots of sneaky traps out in the woods, or else Christmas might never come! Let us hope Santa can return to the North Pole in time for Christmas...
Description:
The three of us that made this game have always loved puzzle adventure games, but it seems that lately they are just getting easier. With random NPCs always telling you what to do, and annoying endless lines of text to scroll through which basically tell you how to solve the puzzles, they just aren't the same. So our goal with Santa's Challenge was to create an older style puzzle game without all the modern conveniences, only on the DS. We tied this theme in more by trying to keep the graphics from being overly fancy and by using music with an older feel to it.
Controls:
Controls:
The game is designed so it can easily be played by a right or left handed person. You can move Santa by pushing the directions on the directional pad or by using the 'A', 'B', 'Y', and 'X' buttons. Also, you can tap a tile and Santa will move to that square. Santa always moves in the straightest path to the tile and he will not dodge obstacles for you. If you wish to stop him from moving on the path you set you can either set a new path by tapping a different tile or pushing one of the buttons, or you can tap Santa to make him completely stop moving. A special note is that if the path you set is the same number of squares up or down as it is left or right from Santa, his first move will always be vertical.
Additional controls:
Sometimes you may find yourself stuck or just wanting to restart the level, in this case pressing select will restart the level. By pressing start you can access the pause menu, from here you can go to the title screen, save your progress, or return to the game. Additionally You can change the song by pressing 'L' or 'R' and if you press both at the same time the music will stop completely. To get the music back, press 'L' or 'R' again.
Special Instructions:
How to Play:
For the most part we want you to have to figure out the game the way it was back in the day. But we'll tell you a few important points The top screen represents your stats. The first row of numbers is how many moves you have to beat the level with, if you run out of moves you will have to start the level all over. The two empty spaces are used for holding ice skates and fire boots which allow you to walk on ice and fire respectively. The number next to the present represents how many presents you must find to beat the level, the number after the warp is the level number you are on. The number after each key tells you how many of that key you have. To beat a level you must reach the warp within the amount of moves provided. However, normally an elf will block your path. To pass the elf you must have collected the designated amount of presents. Finally, if you land on the same square with one of the Grinch's brothers they will steal your ice skates and fire boots.
A special note:
Please keep in mind this is a puzzle game. Certain levels are designed to look impossible but every level has been tested. There is a way to beat every level if you look hard enough. Also, note that the first several levels are easy, it doesn't start getting tricky until around level ten.
Final Note:
We would like to thank Drunken Coders for holding this contest, without it this project probably never would have been made.
Submitted by: davgav
Description:
Help Santa to destroy the worm.
Controls:
1 player:
Use the touchscreen or the keypad to move Santa, shot with A.
2 players:
1P-Use the keypad to move Santa, shot with L.
2P-Use the buttons (as a pad) to move Santa, shot with R.
Special Instructions:
To find more NintendoDS and PSP creations look at my Webpage: http://davgav.no-ip.org
Submitted by: scognito2
Description:
Ok this isn\'t a snow themed game, so -40 points for me, but the game is placed in Brazil where there is no snow right now!
The goal of the game is to let the frog jumping over all the tree trunks.
The only avaiable direction the frog can move are forward, left and right (no diagonals), with no jump distance limit!
Remember that the frog cannot jump backward!
Clean the stage for going to the next level (they are 10) or press START to go to the next one(this is only avaiable if you make the \"konami trick\" (you know what is that, didn\'t you?)) at the titlescreen
Thanks Kenney for the title screen and frog!
Controls:
Any direction except the current mapped for back movement.
SELECT restart the level.
START go next level ONLY if you have the trick enabled.
You can use the stylus to touch the trunk to jump to.
Submitted by: aron
Description:
The Christmas Turkey is a game where you have been given the task to look after a turkey (The plot is implemented in the game). It appears like a platform game where you control a turkey. The game contains four levels, the aim is to collect all the 100 seeds on each stage as quick as possible. Your score is based on how much time that is left after you have collected all the seeds. So basically try to beat it as quick as possible and get a nice score!
The game is (as you might notice) made to look and sound NES-ish.
Finally, please play it on a real GBA to get the most out of it!
Controls:
Use LEFT and RIGHT to move.
Use A to make a jump.
Hold B to move faster.
Press and hold A in the air to fly for a bit.
Hold A while falling to glide.
Press START to pause.
* Jump while running to make a slightly higher jump.
* You don\'t have to release the A-Button after a jump to start flying.
Special Instructions:
There are several lifes and time-ups at the levels, make sure to collect all of them to get a better score. The bonus for each level is simply based on how many lifes you got when you finished it.
Submitted by: Maple
Description:
Fill the empty present boxes with toys and get the assembly line going. Fill toys into like-colored boxes to score points. Mismatching colors or trying to put a toy in an already filled box will count against you. Rack up enough errors and it's Game Over. Consecutive fills without an error will result in an impressive combo Streak that further multiplies your score.
In addition to Normal Mode, there is Perfect Mode, where you must continue on without allowing a single error. Listen to two different wintery tunes and choose from 3 different starting difficulties.
Controls:
Use the stylus to slide toys up, down, left, and right. Tap the chute button to send the lowest toy down into the present box waiting below on the conveyor belt. Press Start (or just close the lid) to pause the game.
Special Instructions:
No fancy FS-patching stuff here, just run the file as-is, and you're ready to go. Source code can be found at "http://radiofree1653.dyndns.org/~micha/console/ds/".
Submitted by: birslip
Description:
Help «Uummarmiut» to find all gifts! You can also kill polar bears. This is an action/platform game.
Controls:
Move the stylus to move the character.
Up or X to jump.
Left/Right trigger or double click to shoot.
Start or select to make a pause.
Special Instructions:
You can change the difficulty in «options».
Submitted by: MystBoy
Description:
wecker ds is a simple alarm clock that wakes you up with an mp3 file.
Wecker is german and means alarmclock..
Controls:
Chhoose the minutes with thew left butons and the hours with the riget ones...
Special Instructions:
the file must be in the root of your card it must be named wakeup.mp3 please don't forget the dldi patch! warning some cards are case sensitiv...
Submitted by: wykz
Description:
Saving Santa is an fast-paced, addictive mini game where you have to protect Santa on his journey around the globe during the Christmas Night. The dangers he faces are giant, monstrous snowflakes falling from the sky and you protect him by using your trusty magical bubble cannon.
Controls:
draw circles around the falling monster snowflakes with the stylus.
Drawing circles costs mana. You gain mana by successfully trapping monsters.
Each time a monster snowflake hits the shield around Santa, you lose Health Points (hp). When your HP reaches zero, the game is over.
Special Instructions:
Put the data directory in the root folder of the homebrew card and then launch one of the nds files.
You may have to DLDI patch the .nds file because the game uses libfat\'s read and write.
The game works fine on my ds-x and m3 lite. I have not got it running on any emulator because of libfat.
Submitted by: puzzlemaniak
Description:
PuzzleManiak is a port of the marvelous Simon Tatham’s Portable Puzzle Collection on Nintendo DS.
PuzzleManiak can also be used as an mp3 player.
* 27 games are available: Tents, Dominosa, Mines, Bridges, Light Up (aka Akari), Pattern (aka Picross), Net (aka Netwalk),
Untangle (aka Planarity), Sudoku (aka Solo), Galaxies, Slitherlink (aka Loopy), Blackbox, Mastermind (aka Guess), Map, Filling,
Solitaire (aka Pegs), Sixteen, Fifteen, Slant, Rectangles, Netslide, Samegame, Unequal, Flip, Inertia, Twiddle and Pyramid (adaptation of Cube).
* Support of graphic themes
* Daily challenge downloadable via wifi
* Score submission via wifi
* Global ranking computed from all scores submitted available on NDS/Website
* Game translated into 7 languages:
o English
o French
o Italian
o Spanish
o Brazilian Portuguese
o German
o Dutch
* MP3 Support (thanks TOM)
* When the Nintendo DS is closed and an mp3 is playing, pressing buttons ‘L’ / ‘R’ will go to the previous/next song in your mp3 playlist.
=> This feature can be disabled in new ‘options’ screen
* Past Daily Challenges can be played again and again (without submitting your scores, for sure!)
* Press ‘Select’ to change screen’s brightness
* Several players can play the game on the same Nintendo DS => For each one, a profile is stored so that the user keep his settings like language,
colors, background, mp3 folder, mp3 options (repeat all, repeat one, mp3 path) and so on…
* The 3 players have their own score file, and a ‘overall local ranking’ is managed, so that you can train yourself against your scores,
but also against all scores on your NDS.
* When displaying scores, you can switch between your scores, scores of other players, local overall scores and overall scores downloaded via
wifi by pressing the Left / Right buttons.
* DLDI patching is required.
* PuzzleManiak file and “PZMK” folder must be extracted on your linker root.
Cobradragon1020 has released a beta of Halo for the Nintendo DS, this game is a submission to the drunken coders contest and was private messaged to me back in late December for me to post on the coders behalf, but i was hesitant having not heard of the coder and that fatquack was the original coder of the project, anyway heres the release info:
This is a beta of my game Halo Nds, also fatquack made the beginning for me but i did two of the levels. but he taught me to code while making the game so as a thanks for teaching me i put his banner and website name on the splash screen. Also i lost the source code and could not add a winter theme *weeps* i know i will lose alot of points probably and i didn't mean to lose the source but i did so no Christmas halo
Controls:
D-pad left and right to choose level a to start level and in -game controls are left right to shift camera view and x to reload
Submitted by: JimmyLord
Description:
'ramming Santa is some sort of strategy/puzzle/action game where you have to give commands to you player in advance then watch how it plays out.
Your goal is to pick up the gift and deliver it to the sleigh, just watch out for the competition.
Up to four players can play over Wifi, and a single player game with three AI's is included for practice.
Controls:
Just use the touchscreen to select the five commands you want to program your player with.
Special Instructions:
There's slightly more detailed gameplay instructions in the readme, but it shouldn't be hard to figure out with a couple of missteps.
I understand that a long time ago, when XtenDS was first released, people discarded it as trash because of it's lack of functions and options. I agree with them now, it was overly simple, however let's forget the past and concentrate on what XtenDS 7.2 has to offer.
If you don't know what XtenDS is, it is a gamemaker where you can make DS Games by just clicking to assign backgrounds, where you want sprites and more. See below.
+ Sprites - on either/both screens, any size that PALib supports, simple click to add, right click to remove, supports Magenta transparency
+ Backgrounds - on either/both screens, high 16 bit or average EasyBG mode, backgrounds too large automatically resized in either tile or stretch mode (ideal for photos, wallpapers, images from Google)
+ Sounds - 57 .raw files included, easily playable with XtenDS events system. Option to choose sound channel for sounds to be played through in preferences screen, can add own sounds easily converted with Switch/Audacity
+ Splash Screens - Set a condition (Start, stylus etc), screen - top/bottom, and image to show
+ If - Test condition using the inbuilt expression builder, easy to make conditions using drop down boxes, such as Pad.Newpress.A, also includes End If and Else functions for complex structures
+ Scripts - Easily execute scripts stored in XtenDS/Scripts folder. They will need to be in PALib C++ format, but a code editor/script manager is included with Insert Varilable tools, comment tool etc.
+ Move Sprite with D-Pad, ability to move a sprite on the screen using the D-pad with just one event added
+ More error handling and high compile-success rate with newer system
+ Emulator support - launches an emulator straight after compile with your game in it, you can configure 2 if the first falls out, e.g. exe not found
+ Ability to have the game pause when the DS lid is closed
+ Advanced Options - set Palet name, Transparent color, Background Quality, Sound channel, compile includes and more
+ System scan - finds errors with PALib/devkitpro setup, like missing environment variables, missing paths
Not only are all these changes positive, your games are strored in just 1 file (e.g. Monkeys.xds), meaning less chance for bugs, and they can be stored anywhere on your PC.
Much more is included than what I can think of right now, plus the install is less than 5 megabtes! Also, there has been a big documentation rewrite, it is now a full step-by-step tutorial from download to scripting.
Please try to forget what the Alpha was like, now we are striving for the best DS Gamemaker available!
Brain Training titles and Wii Play demonstrate the new importance of casual
Electronic Arts has at least one reason to be cheerful heading into 2008, with the news that the best-selling game of 2007 was FIFA 08.
According to Chart-Track numbers the title sold over 25 per cent more copies than the second-placed game, Dr Kawashima's Brain Training, one of three casual Nintendo titles that made the list, demonstrating clearly the effects that a wider casual audience is having on the games industry.
In fact Nintendo will be pleased because it ranked as the top developer in the top ten, and the only one with three titles represented - Wii Play and the two Brain Training titles.
Activision's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare took third place, with Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 in fourth.
Undoubtedly the most-hyped game of the year, Halo 3, was sixth selling around half the copies of FIFA 08, while EA's The Simpsons Game sold just under that.
The figures mean that Nintendo sold the most titles just based on the top ten list alone, with EA coming second on around 16 per cent less - although of course those bare numbers would be boosted significantly when all of the other titles outside the top ten are taken into account.
The full list is as follows:
1. FIFA 08 (EA)
2. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training (Nintendo)
3. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision)
4. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (Konami)
5. More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima (Nintendo)
6. Halo 3 (Microsoft)
7. The Simpsons Game (EA)
8. Wii Play (Nintendo)
9. Assassin's Creed (Ubisoft)
10. WWE Smackdown VS Raw 2008 (THQ)
The top ten titles sell over 1 million units in the last week of the year
Nintendo platforms ended the year in Japan in the same kind of dominant software sales position that they've enjoyed for most of the rest of it as seven of the top ten in the chart in the last week of December were Wii or DS games.
But they did fail to land the last number one of 2007 - that honour went instead to new entry Super Robot Wars OG Gaiden for the PlayStation 2, selling just under 200,000 copies according to data from Media Create.
Wii Fit, Mario Party DS and Final Fantasy IV followed, all selling more than 125,000 units each, while new entry Star Ocean 1: First Departure sold just over 105,000 copies for the PlayStation Portable.
Wii Sports and Super Mario Galaxy also featured in the top ten, while Dragon Quest IV for the DS broke through the 1 million mark in that week, and ensured a good week for Square Enix.
The full chart for the week ending December 30 was as follows:
1. Super Robot Wars OG Gaiden (PS2)
2. Wii Fit (Wii)
3. Mario Party DS (DS)
4. Final Fantasy IV (DS)
5. Star Ocean 1: First Departure (PSP)
6. Wii Sports (Wii)
7. Haruhi Suzumiya's Promise (PSP)
8. Prof Layton and Pandora's Box (DS)
9. Dragon Quest IV (DS)
10. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
Alex has released a bugfix version of his puzzle game collection, heres whats new:
Version 3.6a’s changelog:
- Fix bug in Mastermind (thanks stephen for having found it)
- Fix bug in Again/Undo button detection
- Fix bug in themes management => a maximum of 7 seven graphic themes are managed now, if you’ve more themes installed, they won’t be accessible in the game’s theme management.
the menu upgrade for MK6 / R6-Gold and R6-Silver Beta 0.91 [Jan.8th 2008]
We just finish the new boot menu for MK6 / R6-Gold and R6-Silver, after you upgrade it,can make them support SDHC,and more function.
This is an universal menu, support all MK6 and R6, and it can auto detect the cart type.
How to upgrade :
[1] rename the "R6_Upgrade-0007-selfburn.nds" to "_boot_ds.nds", put it to slot-1 or slot-2 device and run it;
[2] when you see screen show "Install bootstarp" , then insert your MK6/R6 ,press A to continue;
[3] after it finish,re-power on, then you will see the new loader menu.
Move over, Our House. Our twisted curiosity has been now been consumed by the newly announced Cake Mania 2, the sequel to the online PC hit and DS title predictably known as Cake Mania.
The new game in what will surely turn into a franchise includes 200 levels of baking and frosting madness.
"We are continually inspired by the legions of fans of Cake Mania that simply can't get enough of Jill Evans and her baking adventures," said Daniel Bernstein, founder and CEO, Sandlot Games.
Surprisingly, Cake Mania 2 includes features not usually associated with cooking titles. For one, a branching, non-linear storyline lets players decide which path Jill should take, including six possible endings.
There even seems to be a character you can romance. The official announcement cites a mission to rescue an old flame in his underwater theme park, which begs the question exactly how bad was the break-up if Jill's ex felt the need to buy a business underneath the sea?
Also hinted is Cake Mania for the Wii. No word yet on a release date for either, but we'll be sure to keep you updated when we hear anything.
A recent US Patent hints that Bioware's upcoming RPG may be called 'Sonic Chronicles', it has emerged.
There is little information other than a filing for the name by Sega, and the connection to the unnamed role-playing game is based purely on the lack of new announced Sonic games in the pipeline.
The name has also been used by blogger and tipster Surfer Girl, who has decried the game to be the most inspired game in the Sonic franchise in years. Given some of the mediocre offerings in the franchise as of late, this comes as little surprise.
In related news, Sega has also filed a patent on something known as The Dark Brotherhood, a title which Surfer Girl claims is an action-RPG. Our money is going on it being the unannounced Sega project from Obsidian.
As a sidenote, we happen to think Sonic Chronicles and The Dark Brotherhood are some of the most uninspired titles we've heard in quite a while.
More screenshots of the promising Populous port have just been released, revealing a remarkably faithful recreation of the PC version.
Originally released on the PC in 1989, Populous was a massive success and is regarded by many as beginning of the god game genre.
Players assumed control of a deity and were tasked with the duties of shepherding civilisation by direction, manipulation and divine intervention.
Unfortunately, those wanting to indulge their megalomaniac sides will have to look to their favourite import store, as Populous DS is still tapped to be a Japanese only release. Still, we can dream. Or import.
The Nintendo DS capped an excellent year in Japan with a strong flourish in the last two weeks of 2007, with sales of the hardware falling just shy of 500,000 units.
That compares, according to the latest data from Media Create, with the Wii which sold 385,000 and the PlayStation Portable which sold 332,000 in the same time frame.
While sales overall slowed from the previous week, the week ending December 30 still saw above average sales of consoles, with the PlayStation 3 now firmly outselling the PlayStation 2 - albeit with numbers around a third that of the Wii.
The Xbox 360 continued to lag far behind its rivals, despite picking up moderately in recent months, and broke the 500,000 units barrier right at the end of 2007.
Hardware sales for the week ending December 30 are as follows:
1. Nintendo DS: 218,894
2. PlayStation Portable: 161,370
3. Nintendo Wii: 152,209
4. PlayStation 3: 52,706
5. PlayStation 2: 25,569
6. Xbox 360: 8,304
Nintendo has explained how Professor Kageyama's Maths Training will work when it's released on DS next month. Result! Or "solution", probably.
Kageyama Hidea is a Japanese primary school head-teacher, apparently, and he came up with this idea of writing numbers along the top and left of a 10x10 grid and then getting you to do various sums involving them, filling in the little boxes on the grid.
Sounds quite clever, and of course it's a "Training" game so the idea is that it stimulates you mentally if you play it every day, mixing in other among its maths "exercises" to build up a steady diet of number-crunching. You get to hold the DS like a book and jot down all your answers, too.
Depending on speed and accuracy, you'll be rewarded with bronze, silver or gold medals, and then given a tick, just like you got in school (well, probably not you, but you understand the principle), and then eventually you will be able to work out whether you have enough change in your pocket for a Snickers or whether you need to break into the emergency fiver.
Anyway, Maths Training is due out on 8th February, and given how much we enjoyed doing quick-fire sums in Brain Training we can only imagine it will be good, and wipe away the pain of Sight Training.
Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker will be available for the DS on UK shores as from March 14, Square Enix has confirmed.
Wildly dubbed as Square Enix's answer to Pokemon, Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker is the latest in the Dragon Quest Monsters series and the first to be featured in full 3D.
In Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker (one of the most unwieldy titles seen in quite a few months) players must rise to the top of the ranks by gradually collecting and fighting over 200 monsters.
In this latest iteration, a number of new changes have been made to the game play. The random dungeons have been jettisoned, and instead the game is built upon predefined levels and a world full of quests to complete.
For those who are so inclined, you can also take your monster teams online and participate in the Wildcard World Cup, available via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.
The Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (or ELSPA to us plebs) and Chart-Track announced today that the UK saw record-breaking "interactive entertainment software" sales in 2007 of £1.72 billion ($3.37 billion), a 26% increase over the record previously broken in 2006.
The DS topped devices in number of software units sold and nearly one-third of software sales were on handhelds, a 45% increase showing how much the UK loves their DS and sees the value in the PSP. The top three games sold across the board were FIFA '08, Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training and Call of Duty 4. Director General of ELSPA, Paul Jackson, took the opportunity of the strong sales to remind anyone who would listen that despite the UK's obvious game-lust, there are still problems for UK developers in terms of tax incentives and the threat of international competition.
Welcome to this week's Games & Toys update, our weekly summary featuring all new product arrivals from the last seven days.
It remains expectedly calm during the first weeks of the year, just seven new games were published this week in Japan.
Highlights have been the Asian version game releases Wipeout Pulse (PSP™) and Dance Dance Revolution Universe 2 (Xbox360™), followed by Kateikyoushi Hitman Reborn! Dream Hyper Battle! Wii for Nintendo Wii™.
There's not much more to say, so check out the complete summary of this week's new arrivals, followed by once again a rather short preview of what is expected next week.
Xbox360™:
Armored Core 4 (Platinum Collection) JPN US$ 34.90
Dance Dance Revolution Universe 2 ASIA US$ 49.90
Super Robot Taisen XO (Platinum Collection) JPN US$ 39.90
Table Tennis (Platinum Collection) JPN US$ 29.90
Xbox 360 Messenger Kit JPN US$ 34.90
PlayStation3™:
Armored Core 4 (The Best Collection) JPN US$ 34.90
Nintendo DS™:
Chishiki-Ou Series: Train Master JPN US$ 39.90
Sony PSP™:
Wipeout Pulse ASIA US$ 39.90
Zero Shiki Kanjou Sentouki Ni JPN US$ 48.90
PC Games:
Neon Genesis Evangelion: Koutetsu no Girlfriend Special Edition ASIA US$ 21.90
Toys & More:
Bleach EX 3 Phone Strap Gashapon JPN US$ 2.90
Diamond & Pearl Pokemon Pocket Monsters Mega Collection: Mega Colosseum JPN US$ 59.90
Dragon Ball GT Super Saiyan 4 Pre-painted PVC Figure: Son Gokou JPN US$ 17.90
Dragon Ball GT Super Saiyan 4 Pre-painted PVC Figure: Vegeta JPN N/A
Excellent Model Core Queen's Blade P-4 1/8 Scale Pre-painted PVC Figure: Nix JPN N/A
Ikkitousen - Dragon Destiny 1/6 Scale Prepainted PVC Figure: Kanu Unchou (Chinese Dress Version) JPN US$ 74.90
Neon Genesis Evangelion Extra Tokyo Police Figure: Rei Ayanami JPN US$ 17.90
Neon Genesis Evangelion Extra Tokyo Police Figure: Sohryu Asuka Langley JPN US$ 17.90
Nohohon Grapefruit Type US$ 9.90
Nohohon Lettuce Type US$ 9.90
Nohohon Strawberry Type US$ 9.90
One Piece Collection Grand Pirate Non Scale Pre-Painted Trading Figure JPN US$ 2.90
Persona 3 1/10 Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Akihiko Sanada JPN US$ 64.90
Picoo Z Infrared Control Sidewinder (Blue) US$ 29.90
Picoo Z Infrared Control Sidewinder (Green) US$ 29.90
Picoo Z Infrared Control Sidewinder (Red) US$ 29.90
Super Robot Taisen: Original Generations Scale 1/144 Fine Model Kit: PTX-003C Alteisen (Re-run) JPN US$ 29.90
Togai no Chi: True Blood - One Coin Figures JPN US$ 5.90
Video Game related Soundtracks:
Hikari (Prism Arc: Awake Theme Song) (~Ayumi Murata) JPN US$ 11.90
Hikari (Prism Arc: Awake Theme Song) [CD+DVD Limited Edition] (~Ayumi Murata) JPN US$ 17.90
Windows Game Honey Coming Original Soundtrack Character Song Album JPN US$ 28.90
A separate Video/Music update containing Japanese releases from this week, including new Anime, J-Pop and Movie releases will follow prior end of the week.
It remains rather quiet next week, once again with less than ten new Japanese game releases. Here is a short preview of what you can expect during the next couple of days.
Nintendo Wii™:
Caduceus: New Blood / Trauma Center: New Blood JPN US$ 59.90
Sonic Riders: Shooting Star Story JPN US$ 59.90
Nintendo DS™:
Jackass: The Game US US$ 34.90
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games JPN US$ 48.90
Sephiroth_FF7 has updated his version of Tetris for the Nintendo DS.
Update 0.2 with the following changelog:
- Setting the speed of departure
- Behavior improved mirror
- Changing the speed curve
- Showing where the piece will fall
- Adding a forgotten pentamino
- Fixed the score did not return to 0 when you start a new game
- Ability to start with boxes already filled
- Start to pause
- Adding to choronomètre
Update 0.3:
- Bugfix: The reserve does not rénitialisait when you start a new game
Fill-in the matrix when the party is over
- Affichahe of 3 parts to come
- Selection of the frequency climb of the matrix
- Bugfix regarding the elimination of lines
- The number of lines and the level at the end of the party
- Bugfix on the stopwatch
- Adding music
This implementation of a DOS title with four colors CGA graphics plays out Very good. Besides sound and multiplayer is also a port on the 1:1 DS managed. It is a question with his Sopwith aircraft all Opponents and buildings in the level to destroy either the weapons (MG, Bombs, missiles), or a collision, alone or against a CPU, Propeller-driven machine. They loosen some gags as Graphical
Oxen, bird swarms and the flashes angestaubte optics. Even the Ansrpuchsvollen mastery of the physics engine needs some exercise, Making the game a bit more demanding but ultimately more
Fun.
1.Copy_DSLINK_.NDS file to TF card root directory.
2.Enter the DSLink interface to run this NDS file then appears the Kernel update interface for update.User can also enter the Kernel update program by long pressing START key to start the NDS.
3.Press SELECT key in the update interface to begin the update. There will be progress notice when updating,when it appears the notice to turn off the power that means update successfully.
Note:If any error happened when updating, user can follow the instruction or restart to update by long pressing START key again. User can backup _DSLINK.NDS to any GBA backup card that can run NDS file to update DSLink.
ive been waiting for this update for a long time.
i was wondering when it was going to come out.
just found out about it today, but at least it got updated.
New update of the Nintendo DS emulator for PC, this beta being released now for Windows.
Changelog:
• Fixed a bug in LDRs ARM opcodes.
• Fixed a bug SMLAXY opcode.
• Fixed a bug in cycle N,S for ARM9.
• Fixed a bug in 3D pipeline for invalid coordinates.
• Fixed a bug in Auto Sort for Traslucent Polygons.
• Fixed a bug in Windows Mode Drawing.
• Added support for Hinge.
• Added None Save Type.
The situation of console sales last week in Japan are below as thus:
Nintendo DS Lite: 266,568
Playstation Portable: 218,234
Nintendo Wii: 207,797
Playstation 3: 64,183
Playstation 2: 32,010
Xbox 360: 9,763
The DS lite tops the list as usual while the PSP trails just behind it, beating the Wii by about 11,000. Lagging beind is the PS3, PS2 and Xbox 360, faring the worst out of all on the list. No sign of Game Boy Micro, Game Boy Advance SP/Original, Nintendo Gamecube or the original Xbox.
Two new TV spots for Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games on the DS have arrived straight from Japan this morning, which should cause even the most jaded cynic to smile a little bit.
The infectious enthusiasm of the commentator certainly plays a part, but the videos reveal a vibrant and bold game that should be perfect to dip in and out of on train journey's and bus rides.
The only worry is whether the more active interactions like clapping will be mandatory. We're still getting over the looks we received when we tried to blow out candles in WarioWare Touched! on a crowded morning commuter train.
Not to mention the logistical nightmare of clapping whilst holding on to a DS.
Clever Internet men have hunted down box artwork for the upcoming Nintendo DS version of Assassin's Creed, subtitled Altair's Chronicles, and an examination of the wordses and pictures sheds some light on how it will all work.
Apparently it tells the story of what happens to Altair prior to the events in the console Xbox 360 and PS3 versions already on the market, but the shots and feature details also suggest that it will be trying to deliver something to fit the other game's sense of scale.
For a start, it's all done up in a 3D rendered world, with fancy-looking graphics that allow Altair to perform the sorts of acrobatic moves he does on the big-boy consoles, including sword-fighting, stealth assassinations and combo attacks, with plenty of weapons at his disposal.
The game will also draw on the stylus for use in interrogating informers and pickpocketing, although specific mechanisms are left somewhat to the imagination by the screenshot to which the caption declaring as much is appended.
These are of course things Altair got up to on the consoles, where he had to track down nine evildoers in the cities of Jerusalem, Acre and Damascus as his mentor Al Mualim pranced around his castle at Masyaf throwing pigeons out the window.
It was a largely enjoyable game that we felt was badly let down by lots of repetition and a pretty silly storyline, but it's worth pointing out that we still felt compelled to go back and play it again. (In fact, second time round I did absolutely all of the side missions - it wasn't worth it.) Check in with our 360/PS3 review if you somehow missed all the fuss.
Ubisoft reps weren't around to tell us when exactly Assassin's Creed: Altair's Chronicles will be released, but nothing is real and everything is permitted so as soon as we hear back we'll let you know.
Eidos parent SCi has decided to hold the new Tomb Raider game back until the fourth calendar quarter of 2008.
But when Underworld does come out it will be on six platforms instead of three, adding Wii, DS, and PS2 offerings to the existing PC, PS3 and 360 versions.
Three other undisclosed titles will follow it into Q4, prompting SCi to warn its investors they might see some red numbers for this financial year that ends in June.
Still, SCi has also revealed it is no longer selling itself to the highest bidder, because apparently no one made a formal offer within a "timeframe requested".
Perhaps this has alleviated pressure to present a healthy financial report to potential buyers and rush games to launch, but the publisher admits it might need a little more pocket money to help it through this now barren patch of releases.
Titles like Conflict: Denied Ops and casual outings Looney Toons and Wacky Races should help limit the damage, plus strong performances from Kane & Lynch - apparently selling over a million copies - and its casual games like Pony Friends has made board members crack a smile.
Tomb Raider: Underworld is one of our picks for 2008 in the action adventure genre. To find out the others, keep your eyes peeled on Eurogamer "going forward".
Wii and DS titles pack out the entire top ten and 25 of the top 30
If ending 2007 on a dominant note wasn't enough for Nintendo, the first Japanese software chart of 2008 will be depressing reading for Sony and Microsoft in that territory.
All of the top ten in the software sales chart for the week ending January 6 were games for either the Wii or DS, with those platforms taking up 25 of the top 30 positions as well.
According to the latest Media Create data only three PlayStation 2 titles and two PlayStation Portable games prevented a complete whitewash.
Top of the list was Mario Party DS, selling just under 200,000 units, while Wii Fit broke the million total sales barrier in second and Wii Sports saw a revival in third.
Final Fantasy IV raced past the 500,000 mark in fourth, Super Mario Galaxy was fifth with Dragon Quest IV in sixth – but not one of the top ten was a new entry.
In total there were four Mario titles in the top ten, while Nintendo itself published seven of the games present – Square Enix was responsible for two, and Level 5 for one
The highest non-Nintendo title was Monster Hunter Portable 2nd for the PSP in 14th place.
The full Japanese top ten chart is as follows:
1. Mario Party DS (DS)
2. Wii Fit (Wii)
3. Wii Sports (Wii)
4. Final Fantasy IV (DS)
5. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
6. Wii Play (Wii)
7. Dragon Quest IV (DS)
8. Prof Layton and Pandora's Box (DS)
9. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii)
10. Mario Party 8 (Wii)
Cover Case provides a strong protection with highly convenience for DS Lite console. It not only protects the surface of the console, not only allows all the original functions being accessed directly, but also provides 2 DS cartridges slots to make them much easy to carry with
This NDS Lite Touch Pen Set including a plastic pen,a copper pen and a retractable pen.It was made by plastic,copper and alliminum material,having high quality and good feelings.
It is for NDS Lite only.
features
Blow buildings apart, start raging fires and damaging lightning as you cause mayhem in towns, cities, and the countryside!
Unleash lightning, tornadoes, earthquakes and many other forces of nature. Use your wits or be thwarted by weather harnessing enemies that wish to stop you.
Compete for elemental dominance with up to three friends in two fast action multiplayer modes—Race and Tug-of-War.
description
Become the Master of Disaster!
Some people predict the weather, now you can create it. Use Mother Nature to create, control, destroy and exact revenge using all of the awesome forces of nature at your disposal.
jackass the game DS brings the zany stunts and irrreverant humor of of MTV’s jackass to the Nintendo DS platform. Explore an open ended interactive environment as you meet the jackass gang and prove yourself through dozens of insane challenges and stunts.
AgentQ has posted a new beta test versionof ScummVM for the Nintendo DS, heres the release news:
Hi Everyone,
Here is a third beta version of the 0.11.0 release of ScummVM DS. It needs lots of testing, since there are so many games that I don't have time to do much of it myself. So please download it. Please post, even it it works fine!
The new scaler makes text a lot more readable, at the expense of some slowdown in some of the newer games.
New function keys should make all the AGI games playable.
This is a beta release, therefore there are not full instructions. This is designed for those who already know how to use ScummVM DS. Full instructions for the older version 0.10.0 are provided on the ScummVM DS website. Please refer to these instructions, as this beta works in mostly the same way.
Also, I have been told that the same code which runs Day of the Tentacle and Sam & Max can also run some of the earlier HE games, so I have added these to the list below. They seem to work fine. Please test them too!
Changes
Beta3
- Fixed CPU scaler in FM Towns games
- Enabled use of CPU scaler in menus even when turned off in the game
- Fixed function keys F5 and F7 in AGI games.
- Rearranged DS Options Menu to make things clearer and not allow conflicting options to be selected together
Beta2
- Future Wars and Gobliiins now work again
- Swapping the screens while the software scaler is enabled no longer causes odd effects
Beta1
- New games supported: Elvira 1 and 2, Waxworks (Amiga version)
- Software scaler for improved image quality. Turn it on using the DS options screen (press select during the game). Thanks to Tramboi and Robin Watts for this feature!
- Function keys added to virtual keyboard (used in AGI games)
- Plenty of bug fixes
Supported Games
Build A:
Manic Mansion
Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Loom
Passport to Adventure
The Secret of Monkey Island
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Day of the Tentacle
Sam & Max Hit the Road
Bear Stormin' (DOS version only)
Fatty Bear's Birthday Surprise (DOS version only)
Fatty Bear's Fun Pack (DOS version only)
Putt-Putt's Fun Pack (DOS version only)
Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon (DOS version only)
Putt-Putt Joins the Parade (DOS version only)
Build B:
Beneath a Steel Sky
Flight of the Amazon Queen
Build C:
Simon the Sorcerer 1/2
Elvira 1/2
Build D:
Sierra AGI games
Gobliiins 1 - 3
Bargon Attack
Ween: The Prophecy
Future Wars
Yoshi's Labyrinth will be a 3D game for FPS where you contrelerez Yoshi must find that the famous star that will enable him to get him out of the labyrinth.
Win2DS / DS2Win v0.80f
January 11, 2008
-------------------------------------
This is an unofficial build of the Win2DS client and server, both the client and server have been updated
with new code to enhance the speed and quality of the service.
Changelog:
----------
0.80f "ultra-licious"
server - very yummy new icon (thanks TPDK!)
client - ULTRA speed option added for the (current) maximum possible frames per second
client - applied dswifi hack for faster TCP communications (thanks masscat!)
The Moon Books Project, in co-operation with the filmmakers are proud to present to you, the only pirate movies you need to see this year: Steal This Film 2
Steal This Film Two (sometimes subtitled 'The Dissolving Fortress') was produced during 2007. It premiered (in a preliminary version) at a conference in Berlin, Germany in November. A cam version leaked soon after. It was officially released on file sharing networks on December 28, 2007 and, according to the filmmakers, downloaded 150,000 times in the first three days of distribution.
Thematically, Part Two examines the technological and cultural aspects of the copyright wars, and the implications of the internet for copying. It includes an exploration of Mark Getty's infamous statement that "Intellectual Property is the oil of the 21st century'. It was selected for the Sheffield International Documentary Film Festival and is forthcoming at a number of other film festivals worldwide.
SvSIP is a software that you allow to use your Nintendo DS [1] like phone. For this, it uses SIP protocol. This protocol is an open standard for creating, modifying, and terminating sessions with one or more participants. It is widely used as a signaling protocol for Voice over IP.
This software is under development, it currently allows:
to call to number with figures,
to receive calls,
to question IVR by using DTMF tones.
This new version uses the last versions of libnds, dswifi and pjsip libraries. They contain bug fixes, but it should not change the functionnalities of SvSIP.
Two options have been added to config.txt:
—use-ice, activates "Interactive Connectivity Establishment"
—nameserver, defines the server to resolve hostname. This option can be specified multiple times.
The keys are programed like this:
key function
A call or answer
B hang up
Y mdify the luminosity
start switch between console and graphic mode
start+select reboot
A+B+X+Y power off
I began to implement graphic mode for top screen. You can see hours and battery state.
Somehow the whole DS Scene missed this release back from late November, godknows how but these things happen sometimes.
Download and Give Feedback Via Comments
Love Fords? Love budget racing games? Well lucky you, as this morning Xplosiv announced the next instalment in their ongoing Ford series, Off Road.
Coming to the PS2, PSP, PC and Wii, Off Road is also bringing the Land Rover brand into the mix, so expect a multi-marque mash-up. There's the requisite selection of tracks, with desert, water and ice environments to pit your off-roader against, and there will also be 18 officially licensed vehicles. Hit the gallery below for a fresh batch of screens.
The game is coming to the PSP, PS2 and PC on 21 March with a reasonable price tag of GBP 19.99, and the Wii version is expected soon after.
Sephiroth_FF7 has updated his version of Tetris for the Nintendo DS.
- The music of the gameboy version of Tetris lvl starts at 200, that of the NES version is played in the lower levels. A faster music is played from 400 level
- Adding backgrounds changing all 100 levels, some are animated
- The resources are built up to level 499
French gaming site Jeux-France is reporting that the Nintendo DS adaptation of Mistwalker's Blue Dragon has been delayed without a future release window. The title was planned for a March release, although given its original September revelation, we thought the date was a bit suspect.
Despite the indefinite loss of a portable Blue Dragon, fans of Hironobu Sakaguchi's work can look forward to other DS releases from the studio, including ASH: Archaic Sealed Heat (already out in Japan) and Away: Shuffle Dungeon.
While the marriage of the story-heavy RPG architects of BioWare to Sega's speedy azure mascot may seem like a combination too oddball to believe, we assure you -- the same company who made Mass Effect and Knights of the Old Republic is in fact making a Sonic the Hedgehog RPG for the Nintendo DS. Need proof? French gaming site JeuxFrance.com has early scans of the next issue of Nintendo Power, including a few details about the game, and a handful of intriguing screenshots.
The game, titled Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, will feature eleven playable characters from the Sonic universe, as well as other mainstays from the series, such as chaos emeralds, rotund mustachioed antagonists, and rings. We'll have to wait to see whether the game will feature some BioWare mainstays, such as murderous robots, or opportunities to swap tartar sauce with a member of another species. Oh, wait -- we guess that's a Sonic thing, too.
Ant512 has posted a new release of his Windowing System for the DS, heres whats new:
Changes mostly limited to API improvements and a few new gadgets. There's a new Pac Man demo, though, ported from a JavaScript version I wrote for the canvas tag a while ago, and a debug console that will pop up when you press any of the d-pad keys whilst the Pac Man window is active (just flip it to the top screen or move it out the way).
I've also added an optional SDL layer that simulates the features of libnds that Woopsi uses. This means that you can create, build and debug Woopsi applications for your native development platform, then build exactly the same code for the DS. Writing apps is much easier when you can take advantage of VC++'s step-through or Xcode's memory leak visualiser. You just need to replace a couple of files in the "woopsi" folder with the files in the "sdl" folder to enable it.
Note that the SDL layer does not simulate anything other than the features Woopsi needs; if your app uses anything other than the Woopsi API (ie. it hits the hardware) you have to develop the hard way again.
This is my first program on DS, which enabled me to learn how to use PA_lib and libfat. The object of this game is to put the body on the goals. For the moment you are limited to 14 levels but later on I will create a low data online. For the moment the graphic its ugly but it's not my cup of tea ...
V0.4 on 12/01/08:
- Adding 10 levels
- Addition of a multi-lingual support
- Addition of funds at the game
- Adding a son
- Lib addition of a "MY_lib => MY_ini"
- Correction of the bug when you move the body
- Remake of Menu
Overview: This game is presented in several enigma as a result you will have to solve
History:
1.0:
- Reedition of any sources of the game
- Adding an Enigma
- Re-establishment of the click between enigmes
- Change in how to remove it with the keyboard
- Ferification of fat that evite to make two versions (one with and one without)
How to play: it is the first enigma
Thanks to:
-- Ali Banana allow me to continue its project
-- Persons who Devfr m'on restore sources that make me go faster
Hi all today i finally got around to getting my hands on the TOPTOY DS (TTDS) a new flashcart for the Nintendo DS from Neoflash. Heres my review of the TOPTOY DS (TTDS).
I am not an expert on anything even though i webmaster one of the biggest homebrew sites, i am infact a fan just like most others and more of a noobie than an expert, if i dont know i ask, so from me youll get a review in a way that as long as it works then im happy, i am no expert so you wont get a massively technical explanation youll get a straight yes or no.
What is the TOPTOY DS (TTDS) ?
Heres the description:
* Slot-1 1:1 Original small size
* Build in passme function
* Not need patch, just need drag and drop, then plug and play
* Support all roms, compatibility = 100%
* Support homebrew app & game, auto DLDI patch in memory
* Support moonshell MP3/Movie player
* Support cheat code function, more fun now
* Support 4-class brightness adjust in menu (NDSL only)
* Pure hardware save, never lose data
* Automatically detect and generate save type
* TF menu core upgradeable
* Supports FAT/FAT32, works on any OS
* Supports any TF card speed without any lag in the game
* Built-in power-saving function
* User friendly skin able interface. Touch screen or button operation
* Supports skin DIY
◇Support normal TF and SDHC, up to 4096GByte.
◇Support soft reset in the game
◇Support wireless multi-player (WIFI Game)
◇The save data can use in NDS Emulator directly
Heres Some Photos of the TOPTOY DS
The Cart
The Packaging and Contents
Review
Neoflash are one of the worlds biggest and well known makers of flash carts for the Nintendo DS and the toptoyDS is the latest one to grace the DS Community.
The Toptoy DS comes in a sturdy plastic packing which means that no damage should occur on route to your house, Inside the packaging comes the Flash Cart, a Mini USB adapter for Micro SD Cards (they go inside the flash cart) and a Mini CD containing drivers/firmware for the Flash Cart.
The Flash Cart itself takes Micro SD Memory Cards which are fairly cheap these days, so you can easily go up to 4GB and yes thats a shedload of Homebrew
OK now my DS Lite hasnt got a power lead so i couldnt do a thorough review but heres my findings
When i first switched on it booted up with a question mark and an error with no menu so i went to Neoflash and installed the latest one from them. I just unzipped the file and dropped it on the root of the Micro SD Card.
I then booted up and was presented with a Nice and functional Menu screen with the list of games and apps i put on to try.
Needless to say i tried some commercial roms of games i own ie Mario 64, New Mario Bros, Nintendogs and Theme Park all loaded perfectly and saved too, no slowdowns or glitches to report of. With the commercial games it does tell you some info but me being me takes no notice of it
Then onwards to the Homebrew stuff and my first to try was the latest version of DSOrganize the browser cum filofax type for the Nintendo DS and believe me Nintendo Should actually make this a base app that is on every Nintendo DS, anyway it played perfectly.
I then tried another fave A Touch of War the RTS game and yet again perfect. One game that stalled on loading was Starlite the Starcraft Clone for the DS, it had a blue cross signal so must be imcompatible i presume.
Moonshell was last on my list whilst trying to preserve my battery and it worked flawlessly.
Conclusion
An easy to use Flash Cart with excellent compatability both on Commercial and Homebrew Games, simple to use and easy to understand just drag and drop. One big feature is the ability to auto DLDI patch in memory.
The ability to use any size Memcard makes this a decent buy and well recommended.
Score out of 10, well for me id give it an 8.5/10
For those who have the TopToyDS Please give your reviews via Comments
Sephiroth_FF7 has updated his version of Tetris for the Nintendo DS.
-Version 0.5:
- Bugfix regarding the elimination of lines
- Addition of émimination Push: when each column contains at least 1 block, the matrix is pousée down. The parite ends when 20 holes left.
- The matrix is hidden after the lvl exceed 999.
Bugfixes-miners
- All resources have been integrated
Nintendo is no closer to narrowing down a European date for DS game Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney.
But it has confirmed the US release for 12th February, which is useful for those who like importing their games.
It would seem that Phoenix Wright will no longer be the star of the Ace Attorney series - looks like Capcom will be introducing a whole new cast of characters instead.
Last we heard, Apollo Justice was due to arrive here in March. But we're still waiting on Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations, which is lurking mysteriously in "2008".
You can always torture yourselves and read our Trials and Tribulations review, where John Walker tells you how good it is and how he wishes he was new to the series because then he would get to see it with fresh eyes. It's quite moving actually.
Alternatively you could run around in circles and never stop.
The online presence of UK specialist retailer Game has opened the voting for this year's People's Choice Award.
Game.co.uk has listed 43 titles for members of the public to choose from, including big-sellers such as FIFA 08, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and More Brain Training with Dr Kawashima, and some cult favourites like Okami and Super Paper Mario.
Voting for the award is open now and closes at 11:30pm on Thursday January 17, with the winner announcement expected on the web site on Friday January 18.
Other awards being contested include Best Publisher and Best Developer, which have already been won by Nintendo and Bungie respectively, with Best Console, Best Value for Money and Game of the Year yet to be announced.
The full People's Choice shortlist is as follows:
Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
Final Fantasy XII (various)
Resident Evil 4 – Wii Edition (Wii)
Tiger Woods 08 (various)
Football Manager 2008 (various)
Mass Effect (360)
Assassin's Creed (various)
Need for Speed: ProStreet (various)
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (various)
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (PS3)
God of War II (PS2)
Tomb Raider: Anniversary (various)
Forza Motorsport 2 (360)
Project Gotham Racing 4 (360)
The Darkness (various)
John Woo Presents Stranglehold (various)
Virtua Tennis 3 (various)
Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree (Wii)
Rainbow Six Vegas (various)
Guitar Hero III (various)
Pokemon Diamond / Pearl (DS)
Singstar PS3 (PS3)
Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (various)
FIFA 08 (various)
Super Paper Mario (Wii)
Mario Vs Sonic at the Olympics (Wii)
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (various)
Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions (PSP)
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)
Half-Life 2: The Orange Box (various)
Metroid Prime III: Corruption (Wii)
Okami (PS2)
The Simpsons Game (various)
Skate (various)
More Brain Training By Dr. Kawashima (DS)
WWE SmackDown Vs Raw 2008 (various)
LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga (various)
Crysis (PC)
Cooking Mama (various)
Wario Ware: Smooth Moves (Wii)
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (PC)
Halo 3 (360)
Bioshock (360)
Alone in the Dark has not been delayed until September, according to Atari.
A spokesperson for the publisher claimed Games for Windows magazine was spouting a rumour, so presumably everything is on track for PC and 360 versions to appear in March.
Atari recently launched the official site for the game, which has some viral marketing based around Central Park and the scary things that lurk within it.
Interestingly it appears to be based around real-life occurrences like the you-must-know-about-it insect invasion of 1888, where nine different families of spider were taken from a single tree and a meaty five pounds of caterpillars taken from another.
Less interestingly Atari added PS2 and Wii versions of its survival-horror game to its schedule last November. As with the PS3 offering, no dates have been mentioned.
The Elegant Leather Case being made of special antifriction leather and refined velutinous liner,providing strong protection for your NDSL. It can hold a game cartridges.The magnetic closure makes it quite stylish.
Protect your NDS Lite console from scratches ,shock and dusty
Adopt special antifriction leather, high quality
Magnetic closure ,makes it quite stylish
Can hold 3 game cartridges
For NDS Lite only
This NDS Lite Leather Case Pro being made of special antifriction leather,providing strong protection for youe NDSL.The simple yet fine design makes it stylish.
Protect your NDS Lite console from scratches ,shock and dusty
Adopt special antifriction leather, high quality
Simple and stylish design
For NDS Lite only
The historic sports action face-off of the video game industry now comes to the Nintendo DS?in dual-screen glory with new DS-only features! Utilizing the Touch Screen and stylus technology, players will make their favorite characters - including Mario, Sonic, Luigi, Knuckles, Yoshi and Tails - run faster, jump higher and compete like true champions. Up to four friends can connect wirelessly and compete for the much sought after gold medal in actual Olympic events from track & field to swimming in the ultimate showdown between Team Mario and Team Sonic.
Hello, it was doing last night's game with cars 3d "misleading" (you can see the thread and the demo for this forum) where to go to sleep, I think I would like to have a flashlight in ds, since the menu the supercard, is fine, but the bottom, being black does not give all the light that could give and for the stairs without turning on the light to not melestar anyone, is going very well.
Well, this is the first version and the latest ^ ^ so I just hope you enjoy it and I comenteis that you think.
Introduction:
This is a puzzle game. There is a grid of 3 columns and 3 rows. And there are 9 images with 3 shapes and 3 colors. On the right are the next 3 images (from top to bottom). You place the top image into a blank cell by touching the latter. Then a line with certain patterns will disappear and you score. The goal is to score as high as possible.
Line rules:
Vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines with the following patterns will disappear and you score.
1. Same shape and same color.
2. Same shape and distinct colors
or same color and distinct shapes.
3. Distinct shapes and distinct colors.
Legend:
1. Question mark: Help.
2. Grid: new game.
3. Right images: the next 3 images, top to bottom.
4. High: high score.
5. Score: current score.
6. Number: number of images placed.
dominik81 has posted a fantastic release for the Nintendo DS, heres the release info:
Here it is, the very first sneak peak at my Nintendo DS port. While it looks pretty much the same as the last screenshots I posted, a lot has changed internally and it is running much smoother now. Through the elimination of the wasteful _chatmessage_backup (a 440KB global variabl ) it is now possible to load bigger maps, up to 128x256.
Other notable changes are:
- based on r11844
- maps up to 256x128 running (but saving only works for 64x64 right now)
- saving and loading works
- in openttd.cfg you can define a path where your data resides
- loading time greatly reduced from 45 seconds to 15 seconds
- rewritten the blitter to free 96KB of main RAM
Some serious bugs still remain:
- pathfinder crashes
- open road station gui, then click on road depot icon -> crash
- station gui crashes / not displayed correctly
To get it running you probably need to DLDI patch it. I have a R4DS card which takes care of patching by itself. Please report any bugs / hardware issues here.
Following yesterday's report by UK tabloid The Sun, in which Prime Minister Gordon Brown was quoted talking about knife crime and associating it with videogames, the government has moved to dispel concerns that any new crackdown is imminent.
A Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) spokesperson has told GamesIndustry.biz that the report didn't highlight any change in policy, nor did it add anything to the debate.
"The Prime Minister has previously expressed concern about the content of computer games, and their effect on young people, which is why he commissioned the Byron Report.
"We're aware that the games industry is working with the Byron Report to address those concerns."
Paul Jackson, director general of publisher association ELSPA, added:
"We were obviously concerned by the Prime Minister's comments yesterday on knife crime and computer games.
"Since this time we have been reassured by BERR that the government's position in this area has not altered; the Prime Minister remains concerned about the protection of children from access to certain new technologies which is why the government commissioned the Byron Review.
"We have been further reassured that there will be no changes to government policy in this area until Dr Byron publishes her findings at the end of March."
Activision's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare has climbed back up to the number one position in the UK all formats charts, as sales across retail continue to fall following the Christmas period.
Sales for the acclaimed first-person shooter were only down 21 per cent, compared to EA's FIFA 2008 which slipped to number two with a sales drop of 50 per cent, and Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed which suffered a 43 per cent fall in sales, although it managed to move up the charts to number three.
EA's The Simpsons Game drops to number four this week with a 53 per cent decline in sales, while Activision's Guitar Hero III manages it's highest chart position at number five, despite sales dropping 30 per cent.
At number six this week is Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 with sales down 42 per cent, and EA's Need for Speed: Pro Street is at seven with a fall in sales of 46 per cent.
Position's eight and nine are occupied by Dr Kawashima's Brain Training and More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima (sales down 26 per cent and 39 per cent, respectively), with Sega's The Golden Compass at ten with a drop in sales of 51 per cent.
No new releases have entered the entire top 40 this week, with the decline in sales across the board a reflection of the traditionally quiet January sales month.
Pokemania shows no sign of letting up. Today in Japan, Nintendo announced the latest entry in the franchise, Pokemon Ranger Batonnage.
This new entry in the Pokemon Ranger series will bring the exploits of the Pokemon Rangers back to the DS. You once again take control either a female or male Pokemon Ranger and capture Pokemon by drawing circles around them with the stylus. Pokemon that have been caught accompany you on your adventure and can be used to clear obstacles.
While the details are admittedly scarce, we have a few screenshots that should speak many thousands of words. A Japanese release for Pokemon Ranger's return is set for March 20. Expect an international release to follow.
The folks behind Baten Kaitos and Xenosaga may be Nintendo property now, but they're still working with the Bandai Namco Group. According to the latest issue of Famitsu, Monolith Software is developing Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier. The game will be published in Japan by Banpresto this Spring.
In Endless Frontier, you play as a bounty hunter called Hawking Browning who's out to... well, we're not sure what his goal is, but at least he's surrounded by chicks! Joining Hawking on his journey are the female android Ashen Brade, the heroine Kaguya Nanbu, and the princess Suzuka.
Outside of the human (and humanoid) characters, the game will feature robots -- not too surprising, since it's a Super Robot game and all. While Famitsu couldn't get confirmation from producer Kouji Ishitani and director Soichiro Morizumi, it appears that the Super Robot characters will act as your enemies.
Gameplay details are a bit scarce right now, but it is known that the game will feature random battles. Hawking and his party face off against enemies on the bottom screen using a battle system that allows for devastating combos through simple button presses.
The game will also have a world map which you traverse as you explore the Endless Frontier, a territory that is said to be closely connected to the Super Robot Taisen OG world in some way. We're not sure how much RPG-style exploration you can expect, though, as a screen in the magazine shows the player selecting their next location from a menu.
Given the Spring release date, we expect to hear a lot more on Endless Frontier in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for further details and hopefully first screens.
Quite easy to put a release date in a quarter. You get three months to fart around with and it sounds closer than "2008". Seasons are even worse; no one knows when they begin or end. Yes really. The result is now, in the dreary, dark, damp and depressing months of calendar quarter number one, publishers need to own up and tell us if their game is actually soon to be released or if they were just telling porky pies to look better.
SEGA looks ever so confident with its first quarter stable of contenders, though, brazenly branding 7th March on Condemned 2 and 14th March on Viking: Battle of Asgard - so excited cannot sleep. Others got the same sort of treatment - NiGHTS and Ghost Squad moved forward to this week. Oh, not to forget Football Manager 2008 on Xbox 360, which finally hopped out of the closet with a 28th March tag.
Ubisoft looked a bit bolshy to begin with as well, revealing to everyone that Assassin's Creed was making lots of money so it would push Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway, Far Cry 2 and Tom Clancy's EndWar into its next fiscal year (starting in April). Still, there's Dark Messiah of Might & Magic: Elements (360) on 8th February, apparently.
From one eagerly awaited port to another then, as Bully (aka Canis Canem Edit) on 360 and Wii will now be with us on 7th March. Got 9/10 on PS2. One to look forward to while moaning lustily at GTA IV.
Closer still is the PS3 version of Lost Planet, which you may not be too excited about as it is the third version and over two years after the first. But, it will be with us on 29th February. Bet you didn't know that. Did you? We didn't.
Neither did Square Enix, which has absolutely nothing to do with it dating Dragon Quest: Jokers (DS) for release on 14th March. Nothing to do with Atari saying Beautiful Katamari will be out in February, either.
On the darker side of happy we heard Nintendo date Wii Chess for 18th January - we're not sure if we knew that or not - before rousing Internet anger by delaying Super Smash Bros. Brawl by a month in the US. Still no date for Europe. Incidentally, we won't usually cover US dates, but this is quite big news or something.
Frustrating that LittleBigPlanet has been held back until September, too, and that Tomb Raider: Underworld has been manhandled back to Q4. Evil quarters. Get out of my head.
But every cloud has a silver lining, as Konami remains confident Metal Gear Solid 4 will be out in Q2 and the Sin City game shapes up for next year.
Are you still a ways off from finishing your quest in Blue Dragon on the Xbox 360? Then you'd better stop reading now, as this story is full of mega spoilers!
Are you sure you want to continue?
Okay, here goes!
The latest issue of Famitsu has a tiny update on Blue Dragon DS, the sequel to that Xbox 360 RPG that you've hopefully finished if you're reading this. While still a bit on the vague side, we were able to extract a few new details.
Blue Dragon DS takes place a year after the events of the original. As per that game's ending, the world has split in two and is comprised of a bunch of little cube-shaped mini worlds.
Shu's portable adventure begins when Zola and King Jibral come upon an evil shadow emerging from one of the cubes. Jibral sends Shu and friends out to investigate.
As previously announced, gameplay in Blue Dragon DS is real time strategy as you control an army of shadow-wielding troops against an army of enemies. Shadows are the key to your success, as they have special attacks that can deal simultaneous damage to multiple enemies.
You'll find a few new shadows in the game. While everyone returns from the original, you'll also be able to make use of three new shadow casters: King Jibral, Zabo (the robot villain from the original) and Unchi. That's right, Unchi, the poop-shaped enemy from the original, is now a playable character and he and his shadow look alike.
The Feel Plus developed Blue Dragon sequel will hit the Japanese DS in March. Hopefully by then we'll have gotten a more specifics on the game.
cuicui666 has updated his Japanese learning app for the Nintendo DS:
Version 0.5a (2008 January 14): ------------ * Renamed Japanese Training.txt --> README.txt * Fixed bug for hard difficulty * Sound is now ok on R4 and M3
We know that Nintendo dominated 2007, with a constant, reliable stream of good news and strong sales. But how did the rest of the competition stack up? We've decided to look back at a full year of sales data from Japanese analyst outlet Media Create, whose sales data we regularly feature in the Simple 2000 Japanese Sales Chart series.
With a license to seemingly print money, Nintendo took 2007 by storm, establishing console and handheld dominance with its two casual friendly game devices. Nintendo DS and Wii dominated software and hardware charts, seeing a steady flow of week to week sales for both platforms, appearing to only weaken when supply was constrained.
Sony's offerings, the PSP, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2, had a solid (if not spectacular) year. The PS3 didn't make any waves, but the PSP did. The PS2, now seven years long in the tooth, still had a bit of life in it.
The Xbox 360? Well, we don't have nice things to say about its Japanese performance, so we'll just let the charts do the talking.
When units of each platform are presented side by side, the stranglehold the Nintendo DS has on the Japanese market becomes apparent. Its weekly sales outpaced every other console's and handheld's performance for nearly the entirety of the year. The only platform to outperform the DS at any point was Sony's PlayStation Portable, aided by a pair of marquee releases (plus a hardware redesign) in the first and third quarters of 2007.
The Nintendo DS saw its largest weekly period sales alongside a few high-profile software releases and in time with holidays, but was less dependent on individual software releases to pull in big numbers. Media Create software sales charts were regularly heavy on DS software, and it wasn't uncommon to see weekly charts feature nothing but DS and Wii software in the top ten—see Dragon Quest Swords and Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings launch weeks and this past week for examples.
In general, however, Nintendo DS sales trends tended not to spike as severely as other platforms did, with sales of older titles such as New Super Mario Bros. and Animal Crossing Wild World still doing solid business for Nintendo, many months after their respective release dates.
When we look at year-to-date sales in handy bar graph form, we get a much better perspective on the share of the Japanese market that Nintendo carved out for itself in 2007. This was the year that Nintendo DS hardware sales surpassed those of the PlayStation 2, with each at about 21 million consoles sold in the nation, lifetime to date. It's an impressive feat for the handheld, as it surpassed that figure in almost exactly 3 years, compared to a 7 year shelf life for Sony's console.
The DS pushed some 7 million-plus units into the hands of Japanese consumers, a third of its total sales. Not a bad year for the platform widely considered a gimmick before its launch.
On Sony's side, 2007 saw the PlayStation 3 outsell the PlayStation 2 in its first full year on the market, with the PSP achieving just shy of one-half of the DS's sales, a similarly impressive feat for a non-Nintendo portable device.
The Xbox 360, despite seeing a handful of video game releases that sold admirably over the year, continued to be a non-factor in the console war overseas. Its annual sales were about a quarter-million, something the Nintendo DS accomplished on a weekly basis multiple times in 2007. Sure, it's a bit apples to oranges, considering the price differences in hardware and software, but its illustrative of consumer tastes in Japan. Microsoft's efforts to appeal to Eastern gaming tastes with a pair of Mistwalker games, hardware bundles and a few exclusives from Namco Bandai were met with flat sales in the nation.
Today has seen a new release of ScummVM for many systems, heres a description first followed by the news for this release:
ScummVM is a program which allows you to run certain classic graphical point-and-click adventure games, provided you already have their data files. The clever part about this: ScummVM just replaces the executables shipped with the games, allowing you to play them on systems for which they were never designed!
Some of the adventures ScummVM supports include Adventure Soft's Simon the Sorcerer 1 and 2; Revolution's Beneath A Steel Sky, Broken Sword 1 and Broken Sword 2; Flight of the Amazon Queen; Wyrmkeep's Inherit the Earth; Coktel Vision's Gobliiins; Westwood Studios' The Legend of Kyrandia and games based on LucasArts' SCUMM (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion) system such as Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max and more.
Todays release news:
ScummVM. Do you hear it? Do you smell a new version? It's now here. And as usual and regularly, it is packed with tons of new features. Hold on, and take a look at the list:
Support for the FREEWARE adventure Lure of the Temptress (available for download here)
Seven other new supported games: I Have no Mouth, and I Must Scream, Elvira 1 and 2, Waxworks (Amiga version only) and 3 Sierra pre-AGI games for children
Two newly available ports: iPhone and Maemo
Support for the Mac version of The Legend of Kyrandia and the Amiga version of Nippon Safes
Better support for Sierra AGI games
Improved support for modern 64-bit systems
Support for FLAC encoded music in Broken Sword 1 for the purists among you
Better support for non-English versions of games, including eastern languages
Sound compression for SAGA games
Heres the release notes:
New Games:
- Added support for Elvira: Mistress of the Dark.
- Added support for Elvira 2: The Jaws of Cerberus.
- Added support for I Have no Mouth, and I Must Scream (demo and full game).
- Added support for preAGI game Mickey's Space Adventure.
- Added support for preAGI game Troll's Tale.
- Added support for preAGI game Winnie the Pooh in the Hundred Acre Wood.
- Added support for Amiga version of Waxworks.
- Added support for Lure of the Temptress.
New Ports:
- Added iPhone port.
- Added Maemo port for Nokia Internet tablets.
General:
- Added ARM assembly routines for code in the sound mixer and SCUMM video playback, resulting in some nice speedups on several ports.
- Improved the way keyboard input is handled internally, resolving some odd quirks in some game / port combinations.
- Added optional 'confirm exit' dialog to the SDL backend.
- Added support for TiMidity++ MIDI server.
- Added DMedia MIDI driver for IRIX.
- Improved detection of new game variants and localized versions.
- Completely reworked internal access to files. (GSoC Task)
- Added option to delete games from the list with Del key.
- Added support for "~/" prefix being substituted by $HOME in paths on POSIX systems (Linux, Mac OS X etc.).
AGI:
- Added support for AGI256 and AGI256-2 hacks (GSoC Task)
- Added support for Amiga menus and palettes (GSoC Task)
- Better support for early Sierra AGI titles
AGOS:
- Fixed crashes related to OmniTV playback in The Feeble Files.
- Improved work on 64-bit systems.
Broken Sword 1:
- Added support for FLAC encoded music.
Kyrandia:
- Added support for Macintosh version.
Parallaction:
- Added support for Amiga version of Nippon Safes, Inc.
- Many bugfixes
Queen:
- Added support for Adlib music.
- Added missing music patterns playback in Amiga version.
SCUMM:
- Added subtitle skipping (via '.' key) in older games which didn't have this feature so far (e.g. Zak, MM, Indy3, Loom).
- Added support for Chinese COMI.
- Better support for eastern versions of games.
- Various fixes for COMI and other games.
- Added support for original save menus (browse only). Use Alt-F5 to activate.
- Added support for Spanish version of NES Maniac Mansion.
- Better support for German version of C64 Maniac Mansion.
- Fixed bug with cursors in Windows versions of Humongous Entertainment games.
SAGA:
- Added support for compressed sound effects, voices and music.
Touche:
- Added workarounds for some glitches/issues present in the original game.
WinCE Port:
- Switched compilers again. Now using cegcc (http://cegcc.sourceforge.net/).
- Plugins now supported for WinCE (but not used in this release).
- Redesigned 'Free Look' action, mainly for the lure engine's requirements.
- Smaller optimization setting to counteract the growth of the executable.
- Various bug fixes.
GP2X Port:
- Support F200 Touchscreen
- Various fixes to input code
Nothing good can come of this. Not content with plaguing the PSP and PS2, Jackass the Game is on its way to the Nintendo DS sometime this year.
Jackass is a free roaming adventure title that attempts to mimic the TV shows banal stupidity and nauseating stunts like a fifteen old delinquent whose only life goal is to appear as a human fireball on YouTube.
In a gross misjudgement of the appeal of the franchise, we're told you can customise your character with a "near limitless combination of customizable items and outfits." Clearly there's the appeal for the DS audience right there.
You can also raise your characters attributes like a RPG levelling system and battle your friends in a multiplayer mode. If you have any, that is. Which you won't obviously, if this is the sort of thing you waste your money on.
If that doesn't paint you a mental picture, then check out the screenshots that show off the quality of writing in the game. Our favourite is a tie between the farmer guy who asks you to eat crap and the chap in the helmet who appears frozen in mid sentence, presumably because he's too stupid to remember what he was trying to say.
"Everyone's favorite group of 'asses' are back," reads the official release. They're right about one part of it, anyway.
ith the post-Christmas lull in new key title releases, the charts across Europe are showing no sign of real change, and Nintendo continues to fill the majority of the top ten chart slots in both Spain and Germany.
More Brain Training actually sat top of both charts in the data provided by Media-Control GfK International for the week ending January 6, with Germany putting Super Mario Galaxy in second and Mario & Sonic at the Olympics in third.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was fourth, with Eye Training, Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and Mario Party DS following.
Need for Speed ProStreet took eighth, while the original Brain Training was ninth and World of Warcraft made a surprise re-entry to the top ten in tenth place.
Spain's top three also consisted of Nintendo platform titles, with both Brain Training titles in the top two, followed by Super Mario Galaxy in third.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 took fourth place, with Imagine Babyz, WWE Smackdown! vs Raw 2008 and SingStar Latino next in the list.
Assassin's Creed for the PlayStation 3 was in eighth with Need for Speed ProStreet and New Super Mario Bros rounding off the top ten.
The full charts are as follows:
Germany:
1. More Brain Training with Dr Kawashima (DS)
2. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
3. Mario & Sonic at the Olympics (Wii)
4. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC)
5. Eye Training (DS)
6. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)
7. Mario Party DS (DS)
8. Need for Speed ProStreet (PS2)
9. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training (DS)
10. World of Warcraft
Spain:
1. More Brain Training with Dr Kawashima (DS)
2. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training (DS)
3. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
4. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PS2)
5. Imagine Babyz (DS)
6. WWE Smackdown! vs Raw 2008 (PS2)
7. SingStar Latino (PS2)
8. Assassin's Creed (PS3)
9. Need for Speed ProStreet (PS2)
10. New Super Mario Bros (DS)
The ad for the 18-rated third-person action game featured a prolonged shoot-out between four men. During the gunfight a voiceover stated, "Honour is his code. Vengeance is his mission. Violence is his only option. John Woo presents Stranglehold. The next generation of action gaming has arrived."
The ASA received complaints about the advertisement from at least two viewers. One argued that the commercial “glorified violence and gun crime and that it was a dangerous incitement to susceptible people”, while another challenged whether it was acceptable for transmission before the 9pm watershed.
The agency responsible for the commercial, Picture Production Company, said that it had edited the footage to ensure bullets were seen to be fired into mid-air and did not result in any character or person being shot. It also argued that it was clear to viewers that the ad featured animated game play and not real-life violence.
In its assessment of the advert the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said that that the shooting was almost continuous throughout, and noted the realistic appearance of the violence, even though it was computer-generated.
“We considered the voice-over… suggested that it was honorable to seek revenge and that violence was an acceptable solution to a situation,” said the watchdog.
“We considered the ad was likely to be seen as encouraging and condoning violence. Because the issues raised by the ad could not be addressed with a timing restriction, we considered the only solution was to withdraw the ad from transmission completely.”
Midway declined to comment on the ban when contacted by Next-Gen.
Game Genie, Game Shark, plus clasical cheats for Sega, Nintendo, Sony PS, XBox, PC/MAC games, and much more. All in a single CHM file with full text search.
With their focus on fun for everyone, Nintendo's Wii™ and Nintendo DS™ systems are leading a new movement in the world of video games. Games based on brain exercises. ... New experiences that surprise even core gamers. ... Grandparents buying video game systems - for themselves! Surely, these are unprecedented times.
"The video game industry has never had so many new players, and they've never had so much fun," said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales & marketing. "Our momentum is not limited to one system or one game. We're going broad and bold in 2008, with something for every member of the family."
Nintendo DS and Wii finished as the No. 1 and No. 2 best-selling systems of the year, respectively. Nintendo continues its momentum into 2008 with a strong lineup of games. In the first half of 2008 alone, more than 65 new Wii games will add to the current library of more than 195 and 80 new Nintendo DS games will add to the current library of nearly 500. Nintendo DS opens the first half of the year with games that demonstrate the breadth of the Nintendo DS library. Advance Wars®: Days of Ruin is a treat aimed squarely at core gamers, while Crosswords DS™ is for all consumers, whether they currently play games or not.
Likewise, the first half of 2008 brings a diverse array of Wii games from Nintendo, including core games like Super Smash Bros.® Brawl; games with universal appeal for gamers old and new with Mario Kart® Wii, which uses the easy-to-pick-up Wii Wheel™; and Wii Fit™, which comes with the Wii Balance Board and has appeal for new consumers well beyond the traditional video game audience. On top of all that, new downloadable WiiWare™ games will make their debut. These unique games have much lower entry barriers for developers and let consumers enjoy an incredibly diverse selection of content.
Third-party publishers also continue their strong support for Wii and Nintendo DS. Some of the innovative Wii games for the first half of 2008 include Ninja Reflex from Electronic Arts, No More Heroes™ from Ubisoft, DeBlob from THQ, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed from LucasArts and Okami from Capcom, in addition to compelling Nintendo DS games like FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: Rings of Fate from Square Enix, Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword from Tecmo and Quick Yoga Training from Ubisoft.
The following is a partial list of Wii and Nintendo DS software for the first half of 2008. Note that details are subject to change.
Wii
Jan. 7: Kidz Sports Ice Hockey from Destineer
Jan. 8: Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law from Capcom
Jan. 15: SAMURAI WARRIORS: KATANA from KOEI CORPORATION
Jan. 15: Furu Furu Park from Majesco Entertainment
Jan. 21: Endless Ocean™ from Nintendo
Jan. 22: One Piece™: Unlimited Adventure™ from Namco Bandai Games America Inc.
Jan. 29: Bomberman Land from Hudson
January: No More Heroes™ from Ubisoft
January: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation™: Hard Evidence from Ubisoft
Feb. 8: Kawasaki Jet Ski from Destineer
Feb. 11: Go Diego Go!: Safari Rescue from 2K Play
Feb. 12: WWII Aces from Destineer
Feb. 12: Dream Pinball 3D from SouthPeak Games
Feb. 18: MX vs. ATV Untamed from THQ
Feb. 25: Agatha Christie And Then There Were None from DreamCatcher Games
Feb. 26: Baroque from Atlus USA
Feb. 26: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors from Square Enix
Feb. 27: Kidz Sports Soccer from Destineer
Feb. 27: London Taxi: Rush Hour from Destineer
February: Garfield® Gets Real from DSI Games
February: Yamaha Supercross from DSI Games
February: Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore from Konami
February: Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30™ from Ubisoft
February: BALLOON POP from UFO INTERACTIVE GAMES
March 3: Destroy All Humans: Big Willy Unleashed from THQ
March 9: Super Smash Bros.® Brawl from Nintendo
March 10: Worms: A Space Oddity from THQ
March 25: Okami from Capcom
March 25: OPOONA from KOEI CORPORATION
March: MiniCopter: Adventure Flight from Aksys Games
March: Alone in the Dark from Atari
March: Ninja Reflex from Electronic Arts
March: Obscure: The Aftermath from Ignition Entertainment
March: Target: Terror from Konami
March: Nitro Bike™ from Ubisoft
March: Emergency Heroes™ from Ubisoft
March: HEAVENLY GUARDIAN from UFO INTERACTIVE GAMES
March: Rebel Raiders from XS Games
April 15: Castle of Shikigami III from Aksys Games
April: Pro Evolution Soccer from Konami
April: Wild Earth: African Safari from Majesco Entertainment
April: THE MONKEY KING-THE LEGEND BEGINS from UFO INTERACTIVE GAMES
April: Super Pick Ups from XS Games
May 6: Speed Racer from Warner Bros. Games
May 13: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian from Disney Interactive Studios
May: BlastWorks: Build, Trade, Destroy from Majesco Entertainment
May: King of Fighters: The Orochi Saga from SNK Playmore
May: THE DOG Island™ from Ubisoft
June 8: Wonderworld Amusement Park from Majesco Entertainment
June: Catch of the Day from Electronic Arts
June: Ford Racing Off Road from Empire Interactive
June: Cooking Mama Cook Off 2 from Majesco Entertainment
June: Rygar: The Battle of Argus from Tecmo, Inc.
June: DeBlob from THQ
June: Wall-E from THQ
Spring: Mario Kart Wii with Wii Wheel from Nintendo
Spring: Major League Baseball® 2K8 from 2K Sports
Spring: Don King Presents: Prizefighter from 2K Sports
Spring: Top Spin 3 from 2K Sports
Spring: Kung Fu Panda from Activision
Spring: LEGO: Indiana Jones from LucasArts
Summer: Deca Sports from Hudson
Summer: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed from LucasArts
Summer: Active Life™: Outdoor Challenge™ from Namco Bandai Games America Inc.
Q2: Wii Fit from Nintendo
Nintendo DS
Jan. 21: Advance Wars: Days of Ruin from Nintendo/Intelligent Systems
Jan. 21: Mazes of Fate DS from Graffiti Entertainment, LLC
Jan. 22: Mega Brain Boost from Majesco Entertainment
Jan. 24: Aquarium by DS from Bold Games
Jan. 24: Fantasy Aquarium by DS from Bold Games
Jan. 29: Pet Pals: Animal Doctor from Majesco Entertainment
January: N+ from Atari
January: Barnyard Blast from DSI Games
January: Command & Destroy from DSI Games
January: Miami Nights: Singles in the City™ from Ubisoft
January: Brain Challenge™ from Ubisoft
Feb. 4: Paws & Claws: Pet Resort from THQ
Feb. 5: Homie Rollerz from Destineer
Feb. 5: Nanostray 2 from Majesco Entertainment
Feb. 10 (street date): Professor Layton and the Curious Village™ from Nintendo/LEVEL-5
Feb. 12: Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney from Capcom
Feb. 12: New Zealand Story Revolution from Ignition Entertainment
Feb. 12: Dream Pinball 3D from SouthPeak Games
Feb. 19: Spitfire Heroes: Tales of the RAF from Destineer
Feb. 19: Zoo Tycoon II from THQ
Feb. 25: Bratz: Super Babyz from THQ
Feb. 26: Bubble Bobble Double Shot from Ignition Entertainment
February: My Horse and Me from Atari
February: M&M'S® Kart Racing from DSI Games
February: Garfield® Gets Real from DSI Games
February: Yamaha Supercross from DSI Games
February: Insecticide from Gamecock Media Group
February: Anno™ 1701: Dawn of Discovery from Ubisoft
February: Assassin's Creed Altair's Chronicles™ from Ubisoft
February: Petz® Wild Animals: Tigerz from Ubisoft
February: Puppy Palace™ from Ubisoft
February: Real Soccer® 2008 from Ubisoft
March 1: Project Exile from Graffiti Entertainment, LLC
March 3: Let's Ride: Friends Forever from THQ
March 4: Diary Girl from Konami
March 4: Go Pets from Konami
March 4: Disney Friends from Disney Interactive Studios
March 4: Eco-Creatures: Save the Forest from Majesco Entertainment
March 8: Plushees from Destineer
March 8: River King: Mystic Valley from Natsume Inc.
March 8: Harvest Moon DS Cute from Natsume Inc.
March 11: FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: Rings of Fate from Square Enix
March 11: Lost in Blue 3 from Konami
March 11: Pro Evolution Soccer from Konami
March 25: Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword from Tecmo, Inc.
March: Alone in the Dark from Atari
March: Drone Tactics from Atlus USA
March: Double Sequence from DSI Games
March: Ninja Reflex from Electronic Arts
March: Myst from Empire Interactive
March: Naruto™: Ninja Destiny from Tomy Corporation
March: Petz® Bunnyz™ from Ubisoft
March: Imagine™ Figure Skater from Ubisoft
March: Commando from XS Games
April 15: Teenage Zombies: Invasion of the Alien Brain Thingys from Ignition Entertainment
April: Super Dodgeball Brawlers from Aksys Games
April: Rondo of Swords from Atlus USA
April: Quick Yoga Training from Ubisoft
May 5: Crosswords DS from Nintendo
May 6: Speed Racer from Warner Bros. Games
May 8: Organize It from Summitsoft Corporation
May 13: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian from Disney Interactive Studios
May: Winx Club: Mission Enchantix from Konami
May: Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles from Aksys Games
May: Garfield® Fun Fest from DSI Games
May: 1 vs. 100 from DSI Games
June 8: Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness from Natsume Inc.
June: Shining Stars® from DSI Games
June: Catch of the Day from Electronic Arts
June: PipeMania from Empire Interactive
June: Wall-E from THQ
Spring: Sid Meier's Civilization® Revolution™ from 2K Games
Spring: Don King Presents: Prizefighter from 2K Sports
Spring: Top Spin 3 from 2K Sports
Spring: Kung Fu Panda from Activision
Spring: LEGO: Indiana Jones from LucasArts
Spring: The World Ends with You from Square Enix
Summer: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed from LucasArts
Summer: Tamagotchi Connection®: Corner Shop® 3 from Namco Bandai Games America Inc.
Q2: Bangai-O Spirits from D3 Publisher of America
Q2: PREY THE STARS from KOEI CORPORATION
Q2: Pokemon® Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time from Nintendo
Q2: Pokemon® Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness from Nintendo
Just to let you know that marovada has now made a windows version of Wee Basic - you can code and test basic programs for the NDS on your PC.
Wee Windows: Windows version of Wee Basic
Instructions
1. Key mapping
D-Pad: use PC arrow keys
A, B, X and Y: PC keys F1, F2, F3 and F4
Keyboard: Use PC Keyboard
(Do not use the on-screen keyboard in the emulator as it is only there to show if the keyboard is hidden or not on the real DS. Other than that it does NOTHING).
2. Mostly self explanatory. Use ‘run’ in menu to run your basic program ( a DS emulator will suddenly appear!)
3. To install: change ppt to zip. The unzip all files into a single folder of your choice.
4. Known issues
-pressing F12 crashes when using key()
- stylus coordinates cannot be used - they don’t scale to the DS
- only capital appear when using the input function
- residual keypress on run
Empire Interactive today announced that MYST, the popular adventure-based video game, will immerse North American fans in a new experience created specially for the Nintendo DS. Adventure-seekers will be captivated by the mesmerizing worlds and environments that have been enhanced and recreated with an original soundtrack, re-mastered video and an all-new age - the Rime Age - that was never included in the original MYST. Taking full advantage of the system's technology, the game uses the stylus as the key method of interaction and the dual screen as a vehicle to provide additional information for a greater challenge. MYST for the Nintendo DS is scheduled to ship in North America in March 2008.
The new interface for MYST enhances the gameplay in all-new ways. The upper screen of the system provides information and allows players to view magnified images, while the bottom screen is used to access mini-tools and navigate throughout the realistic worlds of MYST. Additionally, to aid in their expedition to uncover clues and solve the mysteries of MYST, players have a new arsenal of mini-tools at their disposal, including a magnifying glass, camera, notebook, and map. Now, players can closely inspect and interact with clues and items, take snapshots for future use, keep notes in a diary, and pinpoint key locations within the game.
"As one of the strongest video game franchises in history, with more than 12 million games sold, we felt it was only natural to partner with Hoplite Research and Cyan Worlds to bring MYST to an innovative system like the DS," said Karim Farghaly, vice president of sales, Empire Interactive. "The DS addition to the MYST game library allows players to take advantage of the new features created exclusively for the DS, while still maintaining the integrity of this classic game, creating a refreshed, on-the-go adventure experience for players of all ages."
"It was important for us to work with a partner that understood family adventure titles to support the North American launch of MYST for the Nintendo DS," said Manny Granillo, president, Hoplite Research, LLC.
Under obscure circumstances, a mysterious person known as the Stranger (the player) finds a bizarre book titled MYST. Upon opening the book, the Stranger discovers the first page is occupied by a single moving image - the Linking Panel - showing a glimpse of an island. By touching the Linking Panel, the player is transported to the island to explore the breathtaking environments.
MYST is an engaging experience that draws adventure-seekers into beautiful yet eerie worlds with unique settings in varied times and places. While venturing through the six worlds of MYST, players help individuals trapped in parallel dimensions - without ever actually encountering living beings - by solving a multitude of puzzles, mazes and problems. Close observation and precise logic will help players unlock the secrets of MYST. The non-linear gameplay of MYST is designed unlike any other adventure game, with no instructions, inventory, death or dialogue. MYST is about the experience encountered throughout the breathtaking worlds and environments.
Senzo has released a new version of his Noughts and crosses game for DS
Well, we have a new version of the 3 bay, has some bug q correct but he made good progress XD, the chips are placed alone in the boxes and I have started the matrix to determine the winner in the v0.4 already know who won the game; ). Without further delay some catches and liaison.
Björn Geisler has updated his Ebook reader for DS, heres some info:
* Only recognizes files in. Txt
* Its interface leaves much to be desired in terms of image but it is easy to use.
* This in English.
* The reading of the text will in vertically as if it were a book.
* You can save 3 booksmark marks or book well save our progress in reading.
* Not occupies a lot of space in our card.
Well, now they explain how to do work.
1) Download the file DSreadmore Alpha Version
2) After unpacking the file to be downloaded.
3) Open the folder and they find themselves with 4 components: 1 folder called Fonts, 2 files reading READ ME (these can erase those) and the program. NDS.
4) Parchean the homebrew. Nds DLDItool with the program according to your flash card.
5) They create another folder called States that is where you keep your reading progress.
6) saving files. TXT wishing to read.
7) Copy this entire folder in the flash card and enjoy reading them.
We are still alive and judging I figured I would give a bit of an update on the process.
We have about 1/2 of the judging results in and promises that all we be complete by Sunday. This should coincide with a few touch ups that need to be done to the results display page. What this means to you is that, should things go well, the results will be posted Monday.
As usual, this is about a week later than promised. Having finished my own first pass at judging I just wanted to thank the scene for turning out so many quality entries. This was the best turnout for the winter compo by a fair margin.
• Fixed a bug in CPU Speed Mode.
• Fixed a bug in Bind Textures.
• Fixed a bug in Use Temp File for compressed file.
• Fixed a bug in Fog Effect.
...and other small fixup.
Audio PlugIn 1.0.0.9:
• Fixed a bug in Load State capabilities.
DirectInput PlugIn 1.0.0.4:
• Fixed a bug in choosing buttons.
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates will launch on DS on March 21.
Featuring wireless play and unique action-based gameplay, the exclusive Nintendo DS title promises to be the most accessible Final Fantasy ever.
Sounds like great news, though considering that we still don't fully understand the battle system in Final Fantasy VII, it's not exactly a difficult goal to achieve.
Echoing similar obsessions of Jackass DS of all things, Ring of Fates will include hundreds of different items and costume combinations to make your character unique. Does everybody think that all DS players want is a high-tech Barbie dress-up game or something?
Bad news for cheeky importers, though. The UK version contains additional content over the Japanese version, with four new quests available. It's worth buying twice over anyway, though. Just check out the glowing review from NGamer and these screenshots to prove it.
Will wonders never cease? In one week, Alone in the Dark went from being released in March to being released in September to "not delayed until September, but we're not saying when it's actually coming out." Now, according to CVG, the survival horror title will drop on the Xbox 360, Wii, PC and PS2 in May of 2008. As you may have noticed, the PS3 is absent from that list, and with good reason: That version is now due "sometime in 2008." That's especially interesting to those who have been following the AITD release drama, as Atari previously said that the PS3 version would arrive day-and-date with its brethren on other consoles.
We have to admit that we're still looking forward to getting our hands on the game, if only to see if all the delays were time well spent. If we could be so bold though, could we suggest that the game ship with a special bonus copy of Chinese Democracy?
Fans of point-and-click classic Myst will have a chance to relive the experience this March, when publisher Empire Interactive brings a DS adaptation of the title to the US. Myst DS has been out in Europe since last Fall, but this will mark the title's debut in the States.
A tad more than just a straight port, the DS version of Myst features remastered video, a bonus area previously available in the realMyst remake, and touch-screen features such as note-taking and shortcut icons. The game will also feature the ability to take snapshots of certain screens for later reference, hopefully cutting down on all the tedious backtracking and rote memorization made so popular by the groundbreaking PC game. It seems that developer Hoplite Research put a lot of thought into this adaptation, making it a tempting buy for anyone who actually enjoyed the original.
Cid2Mizard has released a new version of his rather cool Mario Galaxies game for the Nintendo DS:
Heres whats new
-2 Languages English and French.
-8 Worlds and 8 levels.
- Support DLDI (A patch if necessary).
- Backup hiscore.
- Addition of the Pause.
- Adding sound and music.
- Adding CheckLid
- Using the EFSlib of Noda for. Mods.
Myke38 has updated Starlite a Clone of the awesome Starcraft to the Nintendo DS, first take a look at these screens;
Heres the full and translated to English Release info:
Hello,
Voila version 0.03 of StarLite.
On the agenda:
-- StarLite is now using 3D Sprites, which allows to see 1024 in total.
-- The wireless Ad-Hoc mode is now functional. It is a saying that you can play with 2 DS in the same piece, one against the other!
Here's how to follow in order to play a new version:
-- Copy the file StarLite.nds on 2 DS. (So far, everything is normal)
-- On the DS numero 1, copy at the root of your memory card file "equipe.txt" with the content as simple character "1" (without a return line, no spaces)
-- DS on the number 2, copy the same file, still has its roots, but this time containing the only character "2".
This file helps to inform the DS that you are the player 1 or 2 player!
-- Run Starlite, and wait for the 2 games is launched on 2 DS. You can now begin to play.
Why this file "team"? In fact, we have not had time to create a menu to select its colour and number team. And this menu will permit synchronize the start, which is not the case here ...
But all that will come in the next version.
In conclusion, you can see for yourself that this is indeed the beginning of WiFi mode, but it works! (Plant it again from time to time, but it takes care)
Known Bugs:
-- Some of the crashes DS.
-- The death of a marine leaves desired: If you kill a marine enemy is your Promis who dies, we will correct it tonight!
Download and Give Feedback on this excellent release for all Nintendo DS Fans
Niateph posted a new release of Byook for the Nintendo DS:
Byook is a system of adventure game combining books and video games for Nintendo DS.
The DS, held on the side, symbolizes the open book and invites the player to delve into the story.
Gommant few letters, playing with words, altering the meaning, and it guides the story and discovered the consequences of his choice.
When the story intensifies, the virtual book comes to life and leaves room for Thursday: page is overshadowed by scenery and words are born playable characters. Became player, the player saw his book while a narrator tale scene played.
The text and the game gradually merge to form a new way of living a story: figures of speech playable, fun gameplay literary puzzles, games on the words and so many others!
16/01/2008 : Horus 0.5
+By drawing a box on the touch screen you can now make the In-Game menu appear.
- You can't make it appear when you are in game mode with the text screen up.
+When the texts change they appear in a different color.
+There are ink stains at some points of the text. By clicking on it you can change various things including gameplay functions or scenario orientation.
-There is no more sound since we are shifting to ASLib.
+Page displaying system has been recoded.
+Copyright screen are here !
+Hieroglyphes riddle has been modified and is supposed to be easier to understand.
+Pages' numbers are here !
+Various endings depending of your choices and success in the riddle.
* Plug and Play, not need any driver
* Support all OS
* Build in LED indication
* Support all third-brand NAND card, like N-card , DS fire linker ......
* Support USB 2.0
* Don't need NDS console work together
Welcome to this week's Games & Toys update, our weekly summary featuring all new product arrivals from the last seven days.
It's been another rather calm release week, with just eight (+one Limited Edition) releases in Japan as well as a few new US version game arrivals. Highlights this week have been EA's NFL Tour (PlayStation3™ / Xbox360™), Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity (Wii™ Japanese / Wii™ US / PS2™ US) and Capcom's multi platform Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law.
As usually, here's a summary of all new releases from this week, followed by a quick preview of what is expected to be hot next week.
Xbox360™:
Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights JPN US$ 64.90
Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom US US$ 64.90
NFL Tour US US$ 54.90
PlayStation3™:
NFL Tour US US$ 59.90
Nintendo Wii™:
Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law US US$ 49.90
Luxor: Pharaoh's Challenge US US$ 44.90
Sonic Riders: Shooting Star Story JPN US$ 59.90
Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity US US$ 49.90
PlayStation2™:
Dance Dance Revolution: Disney Channel US US$ 39.90
Dance Dance Revolution: Disney Channel Bundle US US$ 59.90
Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law US US$ 39.90
Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights JPN US$ 49.90
School Days LxH JPN US$ 64.90
School Days LxH [First Print Limited Edition] JPN N/A
Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity US US$ 44.90
World Champion Paintball US US$ 24.90
Yu-Gi-Oh! The Beginning of Destiny US US$ 34.90
Nintendo DS™:
Brain Challenge US US$ 24.90
Code Geass System Carrying Case (Blue) JPN N/A
Code Geass System Carrying Case (Brown) JPN US$ 14.90
Dragon Ball Z Carrying Case - Goku JPN US$ 12.90
Dragon Ball Z Carrying Case - Shinryu JPN US$ 12.90
Elements of Destruction US US$ 24.90
From the Abyss JPN US$ 48.90
Jackass: The Game US US$ 34.90
Touch de Zuno! DS JPN US$ 39.90
Sony PSP™:
Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law US US$ 34.90
Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 ASIA US$ 42.90
PC Games (Adult):
Discipline: The Record of the Crusade US US$ 26.90
Toys & More:
Devil May Cry 3 NoScale ArtFx Statue - Vergil JPN N/A
Dragon Ball Z Flash Key Ring JPN US$ 5.90
Dragon Ball Z Non Scale Pre-Painted Candy Toy JPN US$ 2.49
Fist of the North Star Non Scale Final Ulitmate Box Set Pre-Painted: Raoh & Kokuoh-Go 200X JPN US$ 139.90
Hot Gimmick 3 Digital Surfing 1/7 Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Novia (Pink Hair Version) JPN US$ 59.90
Monster Hunter - Pinky P-Chara Bone Hunter: Poon (Equipment Vers) JPN US$ 19.90
Monster Hunter - Pinky P-Chara Kosu Hunter: Monchan JPN N/A
Monster Hunter - Pinky P-Chara Sword Hunter: Leia (Equipment Vers.) JPN N/A
Nohohon Cherry Pink Type US$ 9.90
Nohohon Honey White Type US$ 9.90
Player Select Soul Reaver Pre-Painted Action Figure: Material World Raziel US US$ 15.90
Player Select Soul Reaver Pre-Painted Action Figure: Spirit World Raziel US US$ 15.90
Revoltech Yamaguchi Series No.043 Ironman 28 Non Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Ironman 28 JPN N/A
Rio Calendar 2007 Super Black Jack - 1/7 Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Rio JPN N/A
Shakugan no Shana 1/8 Scale Pre-painted PVC Figure - Shana (Himitsu Ver.) JPN US$ 59.90
Shakugan no Shana 1/8 Scale Pre-painted PVC Figure - Shana (Nekomimi Ver.) JPN US$ 59.90
Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica 1/8 Scale Painted PVC Figure: Koutikarute Apa Raguranjesu JPN N/A
Shuraki Trinity Box 3 1/8 Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Char Rhousemann JPN N/A
Tales of Phantasia One Coin Figures JPN US$ 5.90
Togainu's Blood - PS2 Soft Sale commemoration Non Scale Pre-Painted Soft Vinyl Figure: Arubidoro JPN US$ 29.90
Video Game Soundtracks:
Fairchild GM Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 33.90
Nights-Hoshi Furu Yoru No Monogatari-Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 36.90
Ryusei No Rockman 1&2 Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 31.90
Here is a quick preview of what is expected to be hot. Please note that Nintendo's Dairantou Smash Brothers X / Super Smash Bros. Brawl has been pushed back for one week, now shipping January 31st.
Xbox360™:
Lost Odyssey (English language Version) ASIA US$ 49.90
PlayStation2™:
Lucky * Star JPN US$ 64.90
Lucky * Star [DX Pack] JPN US$ 89.90
Nintendo DS™:
Hijouguchi: Exit DS JPN US$ 48.90
The Prince of Tennis: Driving Smash! Side King JPN US$ 48.90
The Prince of Tennis: Driving Smash! Side King [Konamistyle Part.12 Special Edition] JPN US$ 139.90
Sony PSP™:
Winning Eleven Ubiquitous Evolution 2008 ASIA US$ 42.90
Winning Eleven Ubiquitous Evolution 2008 JPN US$ 48.90
Yggdra Union JPN US$ 48.90
Yggdra Union ASIA US$ 42.90
Wii Fit sat top of the latest Japanese software chart in a quiet week for sales as the end of year rush fell away.
There were no new entries in the top twenty, and Nintendo's activity title sold just 90,000 units compared to the previous week's number one seller which sold over twice that number.
Nintendo platform titles continued to dominate in the sales week ending January 13 according to Media Create data, taking nine of the top ten positions and 16 of the top 20, as Mario Party DS and Wii Sports rounded out the top three.
Final Fantasy IV was fourth, while the lone non-Nintendo platform game - Monster Hunter Portable 2nd for the PlayStation Portable - was fifth.
Most of the rest of the top ten was taken up with top Nintendo-based franchises, while the week's highest new entry was Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for the Xbox 360 at number 22 - two places above the next highest new entry, Mario Strikers Charged for the Wii.
The full top ten follows:
1. Wii Fit (Wii)
2. Mario Party DS (DS)
3. Wii Sports (Wii)
4. Final Fantasy IV (DS)
5. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd (PSP)
6. Prof Layton and Pandora's Box (DS)
7. Dragon Quest IV (DS)
8. Wii Play (Wii)
9. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii)
10. Mario Kart DS (DS)
The NPD Group has released its US hardware and software sales data for the month of December, bringing the year's total sales to USD 18 billion.
That figure represents a 43 per cent increase over 2006's total sales of USD 12.5 billion.
On the hardware side, NPD estimates that 8.5 million DS handhelds were sold in 2007, more than twice the 3.82 million PSP handhelds sold by Sony.
Nintendo sold 6.29 million Wii consoles, Microsoft sold 4.62 million Xbox 360 consoles, and Sony sold 2.56 million PS3 consoles during the year.
Sony also sold 3.97 million PS2 consoles in 2007, bringing its life-to-date sales to 41.12 million.
The year's Top Ten best-selling games in the US were:
1. Halo 3 (360) - 4.82 million
2. Wii Play w/ remote (Wii) - 4.12 million
3. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (360) - 3.04 million
4. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (PS2) - 2.72 million
5. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) - 2.52 million
6. Pokemon Diamond (DS) - 2.48 million
7. Madden NFL 08 (PS2) - 1.90 million
8. Guitar Hero 2 (PS2) - 1.89 million
9. Assassin's Creed (360) - 1.87 million
10. Mario Party 8 (Wii) - 1.82 million
Atlus, publisher of the Trauma Center franchise, is bringing a fantasy strategy RPG to DS called Rondo of Swords.
The plot sounds like absolute nonsense, with a king dying mysteriously and a kingdom plunging into darkness and an evil army invading and only a magical sword can save the kingdom and restore peace to the land. Told you so.
However, the features sound quite promising. A deep party management system allows you to send your party members off on errands or go on quests to level up on their own, so you don't have to suffer the tedium of grinding through thousands of boars to get XP.
The game also includes multiple storylines and endings that are determined by your actions. Your decisions will apparently affect the character you become and the ending you receive.
How the game plays is still somewhat of a mystery though. The 'unique combat system' uses route maneuvers and momentum counters, whatever they are. And skills are not just skills, but "dynamic strategic devices that you choose to build or not." Your guess is as good as mine.
Rondo of Swords will be released on April 15 in the US and possibly Europe. We've contacted Atlus for confirmation on the release date and clarification of what the terminology babble above means, and are waiting for a reply.
In Japan, all listed consoles have sales slashed back to normal levels. Seems like the excitement has gone away I guess. The figures are displayed as follows below:
Nintendo DS Lite: 97,369
PSP: 96,159
Wii: 84,530
PS3: 38,907
PS2: 14,499
Xbox 360: 4,690
All console maintain the same positions as last weeks' reading. PSP just some 1,300 behind the DS Lite while the Xbox 360 still fares badly.
Mistwalker fans get the tissues ready! Publisher AQ Interactive announced today a delay in the Japanese release of Blue Dragon DS and Away: Shuffle Dungeon, two DS games from the Hironobu Sakaguchi studio.
Originally scheduled for February 28, Away will now be released to Japan some time in the summer. Blue Dragon DS won't be far behind, as it to will slip from its planned March release to the summer season.
As reason for the delay, AQ cited a need to further improve the quality of the two titles in order to satisfy customers both within Japan and internationally.
That sounds like a confirmation of an overseas release for one or both games, so not all the news is bad.
Flashlinker Europe have today posted that they have Silver DS Lites with FlashMe Installed, good for those who want it but for me i dont want to be putting custom firmware on my DS, each to their own i suppose.
Sokoknight is a Sokoban clone which is a transport puzzle game. The player pushes boxes around a maze and tries to put them on floor tiles marked with a cross. Only one box may be pushed at a time and it cannot be pulled, so if you push it into a corner, you're lost. When all boxes are on the crosses the level is done.
Hello everyone.
I finally decided to launch me in offering my very first homebrew.
It is far from being finished (interface is minimalist, most search filters are absent), but it is already functional, so as long as you enjoy.
Presentation:
Above all else, this homebrew will serve only those who play the card game Magic: the House.
So if you do not know, homebrew this is not for you.
It provides fast oracle texts (ie, official texts) of all existing cards (except prohibited cards tournaments) and includes a search engine to look for certain cards following criteria (for the moment only the colors or Costs converted Mana)
Use:
For now, the interface is rather brief. I will summarize what the different buttons.
In the Main screen:
Stylus: It lets you scroll through the list and select a card (for the text appears at the top)
Up / Down: Allows forward / backward in the list of half a page.
A: advance in the list until the first map beginning with the next letter
L: declines in the list until the first map beginning with the letter earlier.
X: go to "research" (you can also get there by clicking on the top right corner of the screen)
In the menu found:
Stylus: to select / unselect. You click OK (or X) to the search and return to the main screen
X: the equivalent OK.
How does research? :
For the moment, only the "mana" of this menu functions (you can go see page "type" by clicking on the type, but it is no use at all for the moment)
Mana menu:
- Party "with" if you unchecks color, the color maps with n'apparaitront more, unless they have a different color, which is checked.
- "Without" of a color is selected, the cards with at least that color n'apparaitront more.
- "Converted mana cost": it's simple, only appear cards with a ccm between the two values (to be equal to a ccm vleur, simply save the min and max the same values by clicking Egal on)
- For the rest: a map corresponding to a test will not unchecked. (Eg if unchecks colorless, maps colorless (artifacts, land ,...) n'apparaitront more.
History:
Version 0.2 (0.1 remained at home):
Main developments:
- Oracle on external file (dldi)
Coming up:
-- Other filters for the search engine (type, text, etc ...)
-- Improve the interface (I had thought about doing a menu on the right side of the screen)
-- Oracle.lyo compress the file so that it takes up less space (1.5 MB for the moment).
-- Automatic update of the oracle. (Feasible)
-- Download images of maps (there will help me)
Cid2Mizard has released a bugfix version of his rather cool Mario Galaxies game for the Nintendo DS:
V0.71 Fixes a bug in the Font
Heres whats new from v0.70
-2 Languages English and French.
-8 Worlds and 8 levels.
- Support DLDI (A patch if necessary).
- Backup hiscore.
- Addition of the Pause.
- Adding sound and music.
- Adding CheckLid
- Using the EFSlib of Noda for. Mods.
Baroque, a role-playing game on the way for the Wii and PlayStation 2 from Japanese developer Sting, has been pushed back a month, according to the game's publisher, Atlus.
Here's what Atlus had to say when they announced the game back in December:
"You awaken to find the world in ruin, your heart beset with unexplained guilt. A cataclysm has destroyed the cities and empires of men and disfigured the spirit of humanity. In this nightmare, it falls to you to descend a mysterious tower in search of absolution. Battle merciless foes through treacherous dungeons, scour for new items to aid you in your travels, and unlock the secrets of a devastated land. You will find death in the depths, yet learn that death is not the end of the story; in the twisted world of Baroque, it is only the beginning."
Dark stuff, that.
Atlus has also released new details about the Wii version of Baroque:
- 16:9 widescreen support
- Progressive scan support
- "Subtle" motion control integration for power attacks
- "Intuitive" controls using Wii Remote and nunchuk
- Classic Controller support for traditional play
Here are some of the items and weapons that will be available in the game, with descriptions by Atlus, followed by our thoughts in italics:
Angelic Rifle - A uniquely shaped rifle that can annihilate any meta-being with one shot. However, its specialized ammunition is very limited.
Sword - A melee weapon to attack the enemy. There are swords that will possess enhanced attributes and added effects.
Coat - Protective gear to resist attacks. There are some coats that will have other effects besides just raising defense.
Torturer - Item that causes a variety of area effects depending on the type of Torturer. They can be combined with others to enhance their effects.
Parasite - It can grant a variety of effects by fusing it with the protagonist or equipment. You can also fuse a parasite with another parasite.
Wings - Imitation wings that provide the protagonist with special abilities
Flesh - Eat this to restore HP. Rotten flesh will cause stomachaches.
Heart - Eat this to restore VT. Rotten hearts will cause stomachaches.
Bone - Bite on it to restore HP or VT or throw it at the enemy to deal damage. Because they are small in size, the protagonist can hold quite a few of these
Fluid - Liquid that gives an instantaneous effect by injecting it into the protagonist. Most of them can heal status ailments and raise stats.
Box - An item is usually in the box and it can be obtained by opening it successfully. If the box explodes while opening it, the item is destroyed and you will take damage.
Brand - Special statuses can be obtained by using brands. It cannot be removed unless an Unbrand Brand is used.
Disk - Item that activates by stepping on it. It can be set anywhere. The effect varies depending on if it is placed face up or face down.
Idea Sephirah - The purified, crystallized form of one's true self. Information about the being prior to its crystallization can be gleaned if the crystal is formed from a living specimen
Baroque is set in a near future in which the world has been destroyed by a cataclysmic "Blaze" that has shifted the laws of nature and given rise to twisted "Meta-Beings." In order to stay sane, the population clings to delusions, called Baroques.
Crystallized selves, weaponized bones, torture devices and rotten flesh? Count us in.
Forget the talk of which secret characters will be making an appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, because surely this revelation is more significant: SEGA’s Alex Kidd will be appearing in the upcoming SEGA Superstar Tennis, his first videogaming outing for over 17 years.
The news comes plucked from the latest issue of Game Informer magazine and the beady eyes of Seganerds. The article writes:
In addition to featuring Sega’s top roster of talent like Sonic, Dr. Eggman, and Aiai, the game will include some of the company’s cooler, albeit bearly-forgotten characters. We’re happy to see Space Channel 5’s Ulala, Jet Set Radio’s Beat and Sega’s defunct mascot Alex Kidd from Alex Kidd in Miracle World back in action.
Alex Kidd, with his ape-like ears and bright red attire was SEGA’s primary mascot between 1986 and 1990, when the firm dropped him in favour of Sonic the Hedgehog.
SEGA Superstar Tennis will be released for the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS this March.
Alekmaul has released an Oric Emulator for the Nintendo DS.
Heres the translation :
Here is an emulator of Oric 1 / Atmos for DS!
This emulator is based on no other emulator but it pocketoric (http://www.edl.chez-alice.fr/index_gb.htm), which gave my desire to achieve an emulator of this type on DS.
History
It was created in 1982 by Oric, newly created British company with, among others, former engineers of the company Tangerine. Marketed early 1983, it is based on a 8-bit 6502 processor running at 1 MHz, 16 kilobytes of memory and a keyboard keys composed of 57 of the same plastic as the calculator keys. A few months later, he emerges with 48 kilobytes of memory.
Despite his keyboard pivot that some may find uncomfortable to use, and some bugs in the ROM, its low price (2000 F and 1000 F) gives it a success in France and the United Kingdom. Advertisements device as a printer or a floppy drive make it even more popular. He was elected computer of the year in France in 1983 and Atmos will be in 1984.
Its production ends in the summer of 1984 when it is replaced by Oric Atmos.
Sales of Oric-1 in France have reached 50,000 units in 1983 (out of a total production of 160,000 units), and those of Atmos 27,000 between February and June 1984.
In April-May 1984, prices in the UK are Atmos £ 170, £ 150 printer and Microdisc £ 260.
It is important to note that this is the first computer to enter public overwhelmingly in Mr. everyone, with a modest price and a connection to the TV is a popularization who created many vocations for Informatics and is still the cornerstone of the computer at home, the passion is still alive as evidenced by many sites: CEO, defence force, Oricgames, ...
Released in 1984, Atmos is a Oric-1 debugged (motherboards are identical between the two machines, with the only difference that bears the ROM version number 1.1).
The gearbox was changed and the old keyboard Oric-1 was replaced by a semi-mechanical keyboard (always supported the keys on the same membrane as the Oric-1). Price decreases successive contribute significantly to its success in France (1200 F to 990 F).
The Atmos has been handicapped by a load tapes unreliable.
Some drives competitors will be offered for sale, either by the player whose Oric called microdisc (selling price in France: 3600 francs), or by the company TRAN, de La Valette-du-Var, whose door model Jasmin's name followed by Jasmin II, which has the peculiarity of being able to access both sides of a diskette without returning these disks were formatted 3 "just as the Amstrad CPC6128
On 1 June 1985 Eureka (French company) bought Oric, retains the name Oric International and released on STRATOS IQ164 (prototype at the base by the British) under the name Téléstrat. The Micro was eagerly awaited by the media and especially promising. At this time, there are more than 120000 Oric in France.
Finally, in January 1986, further proof that Atmos has been distributed in other countries, a German firm in Dusseldorf, MSE offers a floppy drive 5 ¼ "for this machine. TRAN, for its part, announced a card for to make Oric, equipped with the player Jasmin, 100% compatible with the IBM PC! That, "the magazine Théoric not without malice," will give new impetus to Atmos. "
Despite all the goodwill of the company Eureka, Oric shut down a few months later. The Téléstrat comes too late. Also based on a 6502 (microprocessor 8-bit), it is upon exit concurencé by computers 16-bit type of Commodore Amiga and Atari ST. His only added value to a Oric Atmos lay in a Basic extended connectors largest (taken joystick or mouse) and a predisposition to telematics. The MIDI musicians that waiting was actually not functional. The Atari offered them the opportunity (standard).
Eureka throw in the towel in 1988 for lack of money.
I would also link in the history of the site oric fired, it is very instructive to understand all the problems of money that the firm developing the Oric had.
Compatibility List
You can send directly from DSoric, the compatibility of files that you test. The page is updated directly from the DS.
It can be found here: Compatibility files with DSoric
Technical Specifications
Main Processor: MOS Technology 6502A running at 1 MHz
Memory (RAM): first in 16 Kio, then 64 Kio Kio including 16 with the overlay in ROM.
Only Memory (BIOS): 16 Kio with the BASIC
Resolution: 240x200 pixels in 8 colors
Its General Instrument AY-3-8912: 3 lanes on 7 octaves and a white noise generator, integrated loudspeaker.
7-pin DIN connector for external tape player
Centronics parallel connector for thermal printer or not
34-pin connector port extension floppy drive 3 "(Microdisc then Jasmin), or V23 modem
5-pin RGB connector cable connector (PAL) provided
This text is taken from the french on wikipedia oric 1.
Portable gaming is on the rise according to the 2007 NPD numbers issued this week. While the increase in handheld hardware and software didn't make quite as significant a leap in 2007 over the previous year as the console market, the spike was still significant.
Handheld systems, which includes the Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, and Game Boy Advance, bumped up about 7% in 2007 over 2006. Portable software sales showed a slightly higher spike, showing an 11% increase in sales last year compared to the same time frame in 2006.
In the system battle between the Nintendo DS and Sony's PSP, Nintendo clearly came out on top in 2007. Nintendo sold through more than 8.5 million DS units, more than a third of those systems (2.47 million) came from holiday sales in December. All told, the Nintendo DS has sold through more than 17.65 million system since the debut in November 2005.
PSP system sales were nothing to scoff at however; in 2007, Sony sold more than 3.82 million handheld systems, with just over one million sold in the month of December. Combine that with 2006 sales and Sony has put its system in the hands of more than 10.5 million gamers.
We don't keep you updated with every Wii sold like our friends at Kotaku, but the NPD's 2007 sales numbers have been released, so we thought that the occasion merited a rundown to fuel your fanboy flame wars. Here are the total consoles sold in the United States during 2007:
Nintendo DS - 8,500,000
Wii - 6,290,000
Xbox 360 - 4,620,000
PlayStation 2 - 3,970,000
PSP - 3,820,000
PlayStation 3 - 2,560,000
So what about the total cumulative US sales numbers to date? Those numbers paint a slightly different picture:
PlayStation 2 - 41,120,000 Nintendo DS - 17,650,000 PSP - 10,470,000 Xbox 360 - 9,150,000 Wii - 7,380,000 PlayStation 3 - 3,250,000
Our reaction: it's so easy to underestimate the success of the PSP hardware (and it's currently selling like hotcakes in Japan).
Nicolas Pillot has released Scrabble Assistant DS, sadly these release is only in French but heres the news anyhow
Scrabble Assistant DS is a utility program designed to run on the Nintendo DS plateform. It has been designed to run on homebrew-enabled flash carts. A simple "DS homebrew" google search will give you pointers if you have no idea what these things mean.
This utility is meant to ease the life of the board version of the Scrabble game players.
The idea came from the fact that if you have no dictionnary, you have to trust other players' words. So here comes the "Verify" function. And sometimes, when you have "good" letters, and you make your choice with a word, you feel that you could have done better... So here comes the "Search" function. And you have to bear with the cumbersome score calculation. So here comes the "Scoring" function. [To be implemented in an upcoming version]
I've released v1.4 of FlashAdvance Slot-1 (FAS1), the tool that allows you to flash a FlashAdvance Pro cartridge in Slot-2 from your Slot-1 device.
After using it so much to backup saves, I realized I didn't have a quick "now load Slot-2" key combo put in place. So that's now been added with L+R+START.
And here's a call to any Flash2Advance owner still remaining out there with some programming skills. See the README.TXT for information on where to find F2A programming routines that could potentially be implemented in FAS1 to support those cards.
Introduction:
This is a puzzle game. There are a grid of 3 columns and 3 rows and 9 images with 3 shapes and 3 colors. On the right are the next 3 images (from top to bottom). You place the top one into a blank cell by touching the latter. Then a horizontal, vertical or diagonal line with certain patterns will disappear and you score. The goal is to score as high as possible.
Line rules:
Horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines with the following patterns will disappear and you score.
1. Same shape and same color.
2. Same shape and distinct colors
or same color and distinct shapes.
3. Distinct shapes and distinct colors.
Legend:
1. Question mark: help.
2. Grid: new game.
3. Right images: the next 3 images, top to bottom.
4. High: high score.
5. Score: current score.
6. Number: number of images placed.
My high is 285 points. Please post your high here.
Versions:
0.2.0pre - Some bug fixes and add some documentation and background image.
Scrabble Assistant DS is a utility program designed to run on the Nintendo DS plateform. It has been designed to run on homebrew-enabled flash carts. A simple "DS homebrew" google search will give you pointers if you have no idea what these things mean.
This utility is meant to ease the life of the board version of the Scrabble game players.
The idea came from the fact that if you have no dictionnary, you have to trust other players' words. So here comes the "Verify" function. And sometimes, when you have "good" letters, and you make your choice with a word, you feel that you could have done better... So here comes the "Search" function. And you have to bear with the cumbersome score calculation. So here comes the "Scoring" function. [To be implemented in an upcoming version]
Changelog
-----------------------------
0.1 input interface
0.2 check existing word
0.3 anagramme research
0.3a added infinite loop
0.3b corrected bug in word input length
added display limitation to 1 screen
0.3c param?trage de la longueur des mots
et r?duction de la base ? 8 lettres
0.4 merged gfx and engine
0.4a RELEASE (2008-01-16)
0.4b added "input clear" button
full object-oriented implementation
0.4c switched french wordlist to ODS5.TXT
increased french word length to 11
0.5 RELEASE (2008-01-17)
added language support
en: added sowpod list, word length 15
en: added twl06 list, word length 15
fully automated language build process
Despite the fact it's already been sitting on the shelves for over a year on PS2, another ruckus is being kicked off over Rockstar's Bully, reignited thanks to the upcoming release of Xbox 360 and Wii versions of the game.
The Daily Telegraph describes the updated version, Scholarship Edition, as an "even more realistic" take on the 2006 original, which "encourages players to act out assaults on pupils and teachers." Beating a dead horse much?
The game's also sparked additional rows by changing its name from Canis Canem Edit back to Bully, which in itself is enough to get Daily Mail readers all riled up.
Niall Cowley, of the charity BeatBullying, said: "We're disappointed this game was created in the first place. Some mindless people thought this was a fun, interesting piece of software to create, but it undermines all the hard work that organisations like ours are seeking to do."
Cowley said that when the original was launched last year, Rockstar tried to persuade his group to back Canis by offering a donation. "It was the most distasteful thing in the world - the idea that we could be bought off like that," he said.
"We have the interests of the children of this country in our mind, not of the shareholders of this company."
PC World and Currys have already refused to stock the Xbox 360 and Wii updates, as they did with the PS2 original. The National Union of Teachers meanwhile has called for a wider ban on the game.
In a statement, a Rockstar spokesperson said: "It is a comedic romp. The last game sold fabulously in the UK and was critically acclaimed.
"It is not a game about playing a bully. It is about the trials and tribulations of a boy in his first year at school. He protects children against other characters. People have to be able to make their own decisions and to judge for themselves, with an open mind."
Is it really worth wasting our words over this anymore? Anyone who's actually played the game will realise it's a very tongue-in-cheek action game which mostly has you protecting people from bullies rather than picking on pip-squeaks at random.
It's one of Rockstar's better games in recent times, so we definitely recommend a look when it arrives in the UK this March.
A demo of Exit DS - a brilliant puzzle game in which you have figure out escape routes from a series of dangerous buildings - is now available for you to play.
Use the stylus to guide your long-coat-wearing dude through the hazards and dangers of the building he seems so prone to get himself stuck in, while trying to figure out a way to reach the exit using the items at hand.
It's pretty damn cool, and don't worry if you don't have a DS because the demo is actually played on your PC. Those clever people at Taito have constructed the little taster using Flash, playable on your web browser.
Just hit this link to go straight to the game itself.
We hope it gets a western release soon - the Japanese version is out this month and we don't even have a date yet.
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games has returned to the number one position in the UK's All Formats Top 40 chart according to data released by Chart Track.
It is the third different title to reach the top spot so far this year in as many weeks, as Activision's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare dropped to second place.
Nintendo exclusives - either for Wii or DS - made up over half of the All Formats Top 10 charts for the first time since September 2007.
With the exception of The Simpsons Game, which moved up one place, every multi-format game in the top 10 lost sales. Sega's Ghost Squad and Capcom's Zack & Wiki debuted in the Top 40 charts at number 20 and 25, respectively.
For the week ended January 19, the top selling games in the UK were:
1. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
3. The Simpsons Game
4. Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training
5. More Brain Training from Dr. Kawashima
6. Assassin's Creed
7. FIFA 08
8. Super Mario Galaxy
9. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
10. Wii Play
Two sources have confirmed that (the reportedly very neat) Arkanoid DS won't sleep properly when you close it, if you've got the paddle controller in. The reason has yet to be determined, but Lawrence presumes that the paddle still consumes power even if the game is in sleep mode, because you can't 'sleep' the GBA cart, in which the paddle resides. So the game itself is still sleeping, but it's consuming power at a normal rate, and so will drain very quickly. Thought people should know!
features
Battle your way through a lengthy campaign through many twists and turns of a highly engrossing storyline.
Exchange friend codes with a close circle of military geniuses, then declare war over Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection on over 170 two-, three-, and four-player maps . You can communicate with each other using full voice chat!
Pit your skill against the world as you take on random players on over 170 maps. You can choose to fight against people of your own skill level or engage whoever dares try you!
Use the Touch Screen to design your own maps, controlling every aspect from troop placement to terrain features. Use the stylus to paint and create your perfect map, then link to a friend via local wireless communication or Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection and swap your topographical masterpieces.
description
After a cataclysmic meteor strike exterminates 90% of the population, the survivors must battle barbarians, disease, and strongmen who seek only to secure their own power.
Advance Wars has been reinvented. Set amidst a world in chaos and featuring new characters and settings, a gritty look, an engaging storyline, and online Wi-Fi battles and map trading. Try you hand with new COs and units, realistic graphics, and a new environment.
Strategy fans will rejoice over the long-awaited inclusion of Wi-Fi play, which adds depth and re-playability. Use Nintendo WiFi Connection and battle against a friend halfway across the world, or use the map editor to create, trade and battle on your own custom maps.
description
Live the glamorous life you have always wanted in this groundbreaking social simulation game. Create a new you in the colorful backdrop of Miami, where your ultimate goal is to become a rich and famous model, singer or actress. Freedom has no limits, so prepare yourself for a star-studded, thrilling adventure filled with night clubs, yachts and beaches. Prove you’ve got what it takes to make your dreams come true!
Miami Nights: Singles in the City™ offers tremendous advances and new features over and beyond any social simulation game available on Nintendo DS™. You will benefit from an unprecedented freedom of action, massive customization options, and longer multiple-goal scenarios.
As in reality, life choices will transform your character into a unique, progressive individual, ultimately helping you reach your goal of becoming a star.
This game is based on the successful Gameloft Nights franchise on mobile, which has generated more than 4 million downloads.
Games for Sony's PlayStation 3 have surged into the Spanish software sales chart top ten, finally ending a lengthy run at the top for various Nintendo platform games, according to sales data from Media Control GfK International for the week ending January 13.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 for Sony's next-gen console topped the chart, with Uncharted: Drake's Fortune coming in third and Assassin's Creed taking seventh - the most titles that the PS3 has had in the top ten for many months.
Titles for the DS and Wii were still well represented, with More Brain Training in second, Super Mario Galaxy in fifth, the original Brain Training in sixth and other titles in the last three positions.
Meanwhile in Germany Nintendo continued to dominate the software sales top ten, with More Brain Training leading the way, followed by Wii Play in second.
PC titles Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, World of Warcraft and its expansion The Burning Crusade took third, fourth and seventh places respectively, while Sony could only muster one game for its consoles - SingStar: Apres Ski in eighth place.
The full charts are as follows:
Spain
1. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PS3)
2. More Brain Training with Dr Kawashima (DS)
3. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (PS3)
4. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PS2)
5. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
6. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training (DS)
7. Assassin's Creed (PS3)
8. New Super Mario Bros (DS)
9. Big Brain Academy (Wii)
10. Practice English (DS)
Germany
1. More Brain Training with Dr Kawashima (DS)
2. Wii Play (Wii)
3. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC)
4. World of Warcraft (PC)
5. Mario Party DS (DS)
6. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
7. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (PC)
8. SingStar: Apres Ski (PS2)
9. Mario & Sonic at the Olympics (Wii)
10. Eye Training (DS)
The Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia (IEAA) today announced that sales for the videogame industry in Australia reached $1.3 billion dollars in 2007. That's a new record for the industry, and an increase of 43.6% on the $925 million sales figure in 2006. It's also much stronger growth than the 7% rise in sales the industry achieved from 2005 to 2006.
The Australian figures come hot on the heels of a bumper year in the United States as well. The U.S. market saw a similar upturn – a 43% increase from the year before, with total sales of US $17.94 billion.
So how many games were sold in 2007? According to independent market research group GfK Australia, Australian gamers purchased 15.4 million games, with more than one third of those titles – close to 6 million – sold in the final quarter of the year. It's also worth bearing in mind that these figures don't take into account games purchased via digital distribution, and with high profile releases such as The Orange Box on Steam, and the ever-growing market for new and classic titles through the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii online services, the true figure is even higher.
"Last year, Australians welcomed the arrival of the PS3 and marked a full year since the release of the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii," Ron Curry, the CEO of the IEAA, commented. "The launch of highly anticipated next generation gaming drove console sales to almost $500 million, nearly double the $270 million sold in 2006. Sales figures also indicate a resurging popularity in handheld consoles with 2.3 million units of software for the Nintendo DS system purchased last year compared to the 840,000 purchased in 2006."
"The gaming industry is no longer a niche market appealing only to traditional gamers," he continued. "With a wide variety of games available, interactive entertainment is attracting people from all ages and all walks of life. It is interesting to note that as more Australians embrace the most advanced gaming innovations and purchase the latest games, the average age of gamers has risen to 28 years old."
We asked each of the platform holders for comment on the figures. Nintendo Australia's PR coordinator Heather Murphy told us that "It's exciting that Australia's gaming industry nearly doubled its sales in 2007. From Nintendo's point of view, we're finding a broad range of people playing our games. We have games for everyone, which is evident from something as addictive as Brain Training and More Brain Training, to the popular Super Mario Galaxy. We've even seen seniors in nursing homes embracing Wii, particularly Wii Sports; and schools using the Nintendo DS as part of the curriculum.
"What Ron Curry said is spot on," Murphy continued, "the gaming industry is no longer a niche market; the market has broadened. Nintendo has such a wide variety of games available to cater for everyone - games for the family, core gamers, young females, even seniors."
Adrian Christie, the Communications Manager of Sony Computer Entertainment Australia, believes that the boom is a good thing for everyone, telling us: "As a member of the IEAA we're extremely pleased with the collective success of the interactive entertainment category in 2007. Everyone (all manufacturers and publishers) can claim a 'win' or 'best of' in one category or another. This means the industry is strong and healthy, a great platform to build strong game titles and innovative technology applications. Bring on '08."
Last but not least, Jeremy Hinton, the Xbox Product Manager, commented that: "In 2007 the interactive entertainment industry went from strength-to-strength with Australian consumers delivering a record-breaking year for the whole industry. The Xbox 360 platform remains at the heart of that success, generating more revenue across the board than both our next-gen competitors. It's this kind of momentum – spurred on by major releases such as GTA IV, Rock Band and Halo Wars – that will ensure another great year of gaming ahead for all of us in 2008."
Ignition Entertainment today announced that it would be bringing Neves, the well-received DS puzzle game from developers Yuke's Media Creations, to the European market.
The game, which earned a respectable 7.5 when reviewed by IGN last November, is a take on the ancient Chinese game Tangram, whereby players are called upon to create a defined shape from seven pieces. Fans of Tangram may want to check out Thomas Hill's 1848 tome Geometrical Puzzle for the Youth in which the game first got its moniker, or check out the chucklesome 1903 spoof history of the game, Sam Lloyd's The Eighth Book Of Tan, in which the mischievous author managed to convince people that Tangram was invented some 4,000 years ago by a god named Tan.
Alternatively, you can buy Neves when it comes to these shores at some point in the first quarter.
505 Games has announced plans to launch Draglade in Europe this spring.
A DS exclusive, Draglade is described as a new fighting game where you use rhythm and combat to see off enemies. It follows the adventures of four young Grappers, whatever they are, named Hibito, Guy, Kyle and Daichi.
The live in the world of Draglade, where scientists have created a powerful sound weapon called Glade. It generates music when used in combat and a popular spectator sport has been invented as a result. Hardly a sumo wrestler doing tug-of-war with an orang utan though, is it.
Battle arenas will be displayed on the top screen, while you can mix and match moves on the touch-screen. You can also create "bullets", which unlock special moves and can be traded with other players over Wi-Fi Connection. The L button can be used to create rhythm-based Beat Combos, which you can customise to suit your fighting style.
An exact date has yet to be "locked down", but Draglade has been confirmed for a March release.
The DS has already proven some of its versatility by ordering food and dishing out replays at Safeco Field, and it looks like Disney's set to expand those non-gaming capabilities even further, with it now testing a system that turns the handheld into an interactive tour guide. Dubbed the Disney Magic Connection, the app appears to be fairly extensive, including not only maps of the Magic Kingdom, but details on wait times at various attractions, directions to the nearest washrooms and ATMs and, of course, the odd game. Unfortunately, at least in its current state, you'll only be able to take advantage of those features with one of Disney's pre-set up DSs and not your own -- no word if that'll change once the system moves beyond the testing phase.
This version has a lot of changes. The first thing that you'll notice is the reduction of the playable area. It was reduced from the full top screen down to 16 X 10. This is the same size as the playable area of Lumines for the PSP. The second major change is that block deletion takes place every 10 seconds instead of 15. Furthermore, block deletion also happens independent of a block being dropped. There's still no sweeper line or destroyer block. The sweeper line should be in the next release, but I'm still not sure about the destroyer block.
Anyway, there's still some bugs that will need to be worked out, and chances are better that you'll run into them in this particular version (bear in mind that they're still very very few and far between). That being said, all the bugs should be worked out with the next version, which will probably be the final release.
As always, comments, questions, and bug reports are welcome.
Download and Give Feedback Via Comments
via myersn024
Nuclear launch detected. The greatest thing to come out of France since fried potato sticks has been crushed under the heel of a faceless attorney. According to a forum post by one of the homebrew project developers, they have been forced to abandon StarLite for legal reasons.
Until Blizzard realizes that StarCraft on the DS would easily sell 3 times as many copies of World of Warcraft, does anyone have a copy of the last version (0.03) of Starlite? Thank you.
Disney fans have posted pictures and screenshots online confirming that the Mouse House plans to use the Nintendo DS as a travel guide, as we reported yesterday.
The service uses a cartridge that contains all relevant information and software for the guide.
The DS did bypass the menu screen and boot straight into the program, but this could be due to the DS probably being a debug kit.
However, the Disney DS was fully GPS enabled and consequently always knew where you were standing.
Whether or not this is some novel way Disney's network operates or additional hardware somehow built into the Disney DS is still unknown.
The pictures show off some of the features of the guide, including a visual map and a character locator. Perfect if you really need to grab the autograph of an out of work actor posing as Cinderella.
Also shown are trivia games, ride information and queue times. In all seriousness, it all looks extremely polished. Full credit should go to Disney for doing something like this.
Hopefully, London Underground will follow suit and we'll never get stuck on a train inexplicably skipping our stop ever again.
Sephiroth_FF7 has updated his version of Tetris for the Nintendo DS.
- Code for online ranking. The page where you can enter and where you will see the high scores can be found here
Advanced-Gravity
- Rotation random triominos in 3D
- Mirror of pentaminos in 3D
wardive is an adaptive game with locative levels. it converts wlan-waves into game objects.
# new features in 1.1o:
- new shield management
- musixs by trackermaster
- 3d-enemy-models partially generated from hotspot names
- more eyecandy
- save hotspotlist
- some bug fixes (cristal model)
# description
wardive captures the wlans in the immediate area like a wardrive-tool and creates a game. it reads the names of the hotspots in your immediate area and turns them into enemies which try to take over your wardive-cristal. try to fend them off with your touch pen, put your shields up. and don't just stay in one spot. take metro-wardive for a walk or on a ride through town. find out how may enemies hide in the area you are in or pass through. each time you play,metro wardive captures different data and creates a new level for you. metro wardive is an adaptive game with locative levels. it changes according to its real life location as much as to its virtual data world.
News/release from Nightfox of a new release of the puzzle game for the Nintendo DS:
Well, game is almost complete!
Just rest to do some test to find bugs and add some screens for endgame and credits.
Add-ons for this version
- Fast keys for drop, left and right
- Options menu to enable/disable combo/score display
- Save records to disk
- Save options to disk
- Minor changes on code
- Increase dificulty
- Enjoy
Please, send your comments and bugs to nightfoxweb@terra.es. to fix them before launch the final version
I've just finished porting SAMBA to DSLinux and it should be showing up on the official builds on Kineox shortly. This will allow you to connect to your DS using standard Windows Networking.
To enable, first get wireless working and follow the instructions here. To connect to it via Windows you can (reportedly) go to Start->Run and type in:
Code:
\\ds.ip.address\share
And enter in root/uClinux as the username/password. The password is held seperately from the system password and can be changed using smbpasswd.
Please note that this will probably require a supported RAM expansion in Slot-2.
DS2Win Fusion is a program designed to allow you to do ALL the things you could do with your PC, harnessing the
wireless capabilities and touch screen for maximum usability. Play movies, games and browse the net, check emails,
the sky is the limit! All you need is a windows PC and a wireless router or card.
This is an customized build of the Win2DS client and server, both the client and server have been enhanced
to provide new features, higher speed and service quality.
Note: This release will probably need to be DLDI patched before using (unless you have a R4DS like me and its done automatically)
Changelog:
----------
0.81a "the oracle"
server - completely rewrote server in Delphi and it is now perfectly stable, i think! =)
server - implemented CRC checking for better detection of duplicate screens
server - cursor no longer flickers when capture transparent pixels is enabled
server - all options can now be configured without restarting the server
server - JPEG quality is now configurable for zoomed and fullscreen views
server - JPEGs are no longer saved to disk before sending to DS which should speed up things a lot
server - extra quality setting added for mid-range CPUs
server - movie player beta (no sound, only works with fairly standard AVI files)
server - added option to run on windows startup
client - FAT support added (DLDI patching now required) only IP address is saved for now
client - disabled screen updates while lid is closed to save battery power
Gorgull has released a new version of Protein DScratch
The goal of the Protein project is to get a creative audio/visual toy you can play with anywhere you go - it is in some ways similar to ElectroPlankton concept.
DScratch is the first module (or "protein") made using my Protein engine - it's a little audio manipulation software running on Nintendo DS, which ables you to play with an .wav audio sample, a recorded audio sample or even audio streaming from DS's embedded mic. Moreover, DScratch sends MIDI through wifi connection, which ables you to control external applications, like a VJing software or audio sequencer, and can be motion-controlled.
v080122
--> # !!! a brand new WavePlayer (direct streaming from filesystem) = no more limit in file size !!! <--
# enhanced turntable behavior
# enhanced cross-fader cut
# volume control added
# xml config file added (waiting for a real control panel - I definitely hate coding GUI :-p)
# samples preview and info in file browser (press X)
# enhanced "BitCrusher" effect (renamed from DownSampling FX)
# scalable sample display
# fixed green led behavior (blinking while wifi activated now)
# a lot of bug fixes
- Protect your NDS Lite against damage
- Tough case, with secure zip
- Comes with a strap for extra support
- Extra specialized storage flap that holds your DS games securely
The NDS Lite Battery Charger charge the NDS Lite's battery quickly and efficiently .
It has built-in LED indicator - orange light goes on when charging, green light goes on after charging finished. And it is for NDS Lite only.
This portable gaming beast not only plays games from three classic Nintendo systems, it runs on the power of the sun. Out of the box, the player can handle NES/Famicom, Gameboy and Gameboy Color titles, as long as you can get the ROMs transfered to an SD card. Of course, I won’t tell you how to do that, but that’s what search engines are for, right?
In addition to taking on retro gaming sans batteries, the Mobile Power Station plays popular audio and video files, including MP3, WMA and MP4 (converted to AVI) formats. The compact player features a 3.5 color display, 2GB of built-in memory and an SD slot for up to 2GB more. The jack-of-all-trades can also display or speak E-books, has a voice recorder, and even a built-in LED flashlight. Heck, it’s even got a USB-out connector so you can use the solar panels to charge other devices.
So what are you waiting for? You can grab one yours gadget importer Chinavasion for about $123 USD.
Welcome to this week's Games & Toys update, our weekly summary featuring all new product arrivals from the last seven days.
After a relatively calm period of about three weeks, we've finally received the first 2008 gaming hits. EA's Burnout: Paradise (PlayStation3™ / Xbox360™) and an English/Chinese language edition of Mistwalker's RPG hit Lost Odyssey have been the most popular next gen console sellers.
Popular PlayStation2™ release has been the anime based girl advanture game Lucky * Star (also available as DX Pack).
Excellent handheld gaming refill has also arrived with Nintendo's Advance Wars: Days of Ruin and Konami's The Prince of Tennis: Driving Smash! Side King for Nintendo DS™ as well as Winning Eleven Ubiquitous Evolution 2008 (Japanese / Asia) and Yggdra Union for PSP™.
It's also been a fantastic week for toy statues collectors with arrival of First4Figures' long-awaited Metroid Prime Samus - Varia Suit Statue and The Legend of Zelda - Skull Kid Collectible Statue as well as Gaya's Virtual Legends Resident Evil - The Umbrella Chronicles Pre-Painted 1/6 Scale Statue: Tyrant.
Last but not least some interesting gaming soundtracks have arrived this week, including Lost Odyssey Original Soundtrack, No More Heros Original Soundtrack and Naruto Shippuuden: Narutimate Accel Best Sound [CD+DVD Limited Release].
As usually, here's a summary of all new releases from this week, followed by a quick preview of what is expected to be hot next week.
Xbox360™:
Burnout: Paradise ASIA US$ 44.90
Lost Odyssey (English language Version) ASIA US$ 49.90
PlayStation3™:
Burnout: Paradise ASIA US$ 49.90
Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights JPN US$ 64.90
Shin Sangoku Musou 5 KOR US$ 79.90
Nintendo Wii™:
CSI: Hard Evidence US US$ 44.90
Furu Furu Park US US$ 24.90
Indianapolis 500 Legends US US$ 44.90
Nitrobike US US$ 49.90
PlayStation2™:
Lucky * Star JPN US$ 64.90
Lucky * Star [DX Pack] JPN US$ 89.90
TOCA Race Driver 3: Ultimate Racing Simulator JPN US$ 64.90
Nintendo DS™:
Advance Wars: Days of Ruin US US$ 39.90
Daikoukai Jidai IV: Rota Nova (Koei the Best) JPN US$ 29.90
Hijouguchi: Exit DS JPN US$ 48.90
Kawaii Koneko DS JPN US$ 48.90
Mahjong Taikai (Koei the Best) JPN US$ 28.90
Miami Nights: Singles in the City US US$ 34.90
SuperLite 2500 Brickdown JPN US$ 25.90
SuperLite 2500 Joshikousei Nigeru! Shinrei Puzzle Gakuen JPN US$ 25.90
Takahashi Shoten Kanshuu: Saihinshutsu! SPI Perfect Mondaishuu JPN US$ 29.90
The Prince of Tennis: Driving Smash! Side King JPN US$ 48.90
The Prince of Tennis: Driving Smash! Side King [Konamistyle Part.12 Special Edition] JPN US$ 139.90
The Sims 2: Castaway JPN US$ 48.90
Sony PSP™:
Clear Case Portable (Crystal) JPN US$ 9.90
Clear Case Portable (Graphite) JPN US$ 9.90
Lumines II (The Best Collection) JPN US$ 29.90
Winning Eleven Ubiquitous Evolution 2008 ASIA US$ 46.90
Winning Eleven Ubiquitous Evolution 2008 JPN US$ 48.90
Yggdra Union JPN US$ 48.90
Toys & More:
Amaha Collection No.3 1/6 Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Wild Cat Anna (Limited Edition) JPN N/A
Another Days To Heart 2 1/8 Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Yamada Michiru JPN US$ 39.90
Another Days To Heart 2 1/8 Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Yuzuhara Konomi (Maid Version) JPN US$ 44.90
Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 1/6 Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Lei Fang on the beach JPN US$ 64.90
Doubutu Nechan Series Tandem Twin Animal Girl 1/6 Scale Pre-Pianted PVC Figure: Panther MOMO JPN US$ 69.90
Dr. Slump Collection Pre-Painted PVC Mini Figure: Gacchan JPN US$ 6.90
El Cazador Scale 1/8 Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Nadie JPN N/A
Fate/Zero 1/8 Scale Pre-painted PVC Figure: Emiya Kiritsugu JPN US$ 59.90
Final Fantasy VIII Play Arts Pre-Painted Action Figure: Squall Leonhart JPN US$ 38.90
Fist of the North Star 200 X 1/8 Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Kenshiro and Kokuoh JPN US$ 189.90
Guilty Gear XX 1/7 Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: I-No JPN N/A
Gun x Sword 1/8 Scale Pre-Painted Figure: Wendy Garret (Removable Cloth Vers.) JPN US$ 54.99
Jingai Makyo Chaos Gate Non Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Makimoto Misae Fantastica Version JPN US$ 49.90
Metroid Prime Samus - Varia Suit Statue US$ 79.90
Naruto Shippuuden Phone Strap Gashapon Vol.2 JPN US$ 2.49
Nohohon Dancing (Green) US$ 9.90
Nohohon Dancing (Orange) US$ 9.90
Nohohon Dancing (Pink) US$ 9.90
Nohohon Dancing (Yellow) US$ 9.90
Original Generation Super Robot Taisen: Super Robot Wars 1/144 Scale Pre-Painted Model Kit: Real Personal Trooper R-1 (Re-Run) JPN US$ 34.90
Original Generation Super Robot Wars Non Scale Pre-Painted Model Kit: DGG-XAM1 Dygenguar (Re-Run) JPN US$ 34.90
The Legend of Zelda - Skull Kid Collectible Statue US$ 79.90
Togainu's Blood - PS2 Soft Sale commemoration Non Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Shiki JPN US$ 29.90
Treasure Figure Collection Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu 1/10 Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure Set: Tsuruya-san & Kyon's sister JPN US$ 49.90
Ultimate Transformers Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Bumblebee JPN N/A
Virtual Legends Resident Evil - The Umbrella Chronicles Pre-Painted 1/6 Scale Statue: Tyrant Europe US$ 199.90
WagaMama Capriccio 1/8 Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Melissa Seraphy JPN N/A
Zero no Tsukaima 1/8 Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Louise (Bustier Version) JPN N/A
Video Game related Soundtracks:
Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon: The Labyrinth Of Lost Time Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 19.90
Forest of Glass JPN US$ 29.90
Jikkyo Powerful Pro Yakyu Power Pro Ongakukan 4 JPN US$ 33.90
L.II remixes JPN US$ 19.90
Lost Odyssey Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 34.90
Minna No Golf Portable 1 & 2 Perfect Sound Collection JPN US$ 31.90
Naruto Radio Shippu Jinrai 2 JPN US$ 24.90
Naruto Shippuuden: Narutimate Accel Best Sound [CD+DVD Limited Edition] JPN US$ 34.90
Neo Romance Stage Haruka naru Toki No Naka De Maihitoyo Stage Music Shu JPN US$ 28.90
Neo Romance Stage Harukanaru Toki No Nakade Maihitoyo Stage Music Shu JPN US$ 28.90
No More Heros Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 34.90
Sekai Ga Yume Miru Yume No Naka (Suzumiya Haruhi No Yakusoku Outro Theme) JPN US$ 19.90
Shining Wind Drama CD Vol.2 JPN US$ 27.90
Super Eurobeat Presents Initial D Special Stage Non-Stop Mega Mix JPN US$ 29.90
True Blue: The Best of Sonic the Hedgehog JPN US$ 23.90
Here is a preview of what is expected to be hot next week. Please note that due to a huge supply cut of Dairantou Smash Brothers X / Super Smash Bros. Brawl, we are only expecting to fill around 10-20% of all preorders coming week. We will post an update and notify all customers that have preordered this title on its release date.
PlayStation3™:
Devil May Cry 4 JPN US$ 72.90
Devil May Cry 4 ASIA US$ 59.90
Disgaea: Hour of Darkness 3 ASIA US$ 59.90
Disgaea: Hour of Darkness 3 JPN US$ 64.90
Disgaea: Hour of Darkness 3 [Limited Edition] ASIA US$ 79.90
Disgaea: Hour of Darkness 3 [Limited Edition] JPN US$ 89.90
Xbox360™:
Devil May Cry 4 JPN US$ 72.90
Nintendo Wii™:
Dairantou Smash Brothers X / Super Smash Bros. Brawl (shipping date unconfirmed) JPN US$ 64.90
Family Ski JPN US$ 64.90
PlayStation2™:
Suzumiya Haruhi no Tomadoi JPN US$ 64.90
Suzumiya Haruhi no Tomadoi [Limited Edition] JPN N/A
Tales of Destiny Director's Cut JPN US$ 59.90
Tales of Destiny Director's Cut ASIA US$ 54.90
Tales of Destiny Director's Cut [Premium Box] ASIA N/A
Tales of Destiny Director's Cut [Premium Box] JPN N/A
Xyanide JPN US$ 59.90
Sakura Taisen and Mysterious Dungeon Shiren -- also delayed!
Okay, so the two latest delays from Japan probably won't cause much of a meltdown on message boards when compared to the earlier announced delays of Smash Bros. and Monster Hunter, but we're sure a few Sega fanatics will need the warm, comforting bosom of a lover tonight.
Sega Japan announced today that two of its high profile first quarter titles have been pushed back. Dramatic Dungeon Sakura Taisen, originally set for DS release on 2/21, will now arrive a month later on 3/19. Even bigger is the delay for Wii's Mysterious Dungeon Fuurai no Shiren 3 which, instead of its original 2/28 release, will now make it out in June. These dates are all Japan only.
As expected, Sega cited a need to up the quality of the two titles as reason for the delays.
While Sakura Taisen probably doesn't have a chance of release in America, Shiren is set for US release under the name Shiren the Wanderer 3. As the US version is currently with a TBA release date, expect the TBA to come post Summer.
As part of its recently-announced effort to trim the fat from its production pipeline, THQ has announced that it will cancel some upcoming games, kill two of its franchises and close a studio.
As part of an updated financial outlook the company released today, THQ said it has canceled the PlayStation 3 version of Frontlines: Fuel of War and the PlayStation 2 version of Destroy All Humans! Big Willy Unleashed. The PC and Xbox 360 versions of the former game and the PlayStation Portable version of the latter appear to still be alive.
Despite recording a killer fiscal third quarter, fueled by hot sales of SmackDown vs. Raw 2008 and MX vs. ATV Untamed, THQ said games like Ratatouille, Conan, Stuntman: Ignition underperformed and two unannounced games were costing more than expected.
The two unannounced games, under development for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, were scheduled for release in 2010. THQ has pulled the plug on at least one of those titles and closed the studio behind it - Concrete Games.
In today's financial report, THQ also said it no longer plans to "pursue its Juiced and Stuntman" franchises. The company did not say if it plans to sell off the intellectual properties or hold them for future use.
"In October, we announced certain product quality initiatives, including personnel and structural changes in product development and a more rigorous internal and external product evaluation and feedback process," said Brian Farrell, president and CEO of THQ. "Consistent with these initiatives, we have taken actions to strengthen our pipeline and position ourselves to compete aggressively with compelling, high quality games."
Nintendo Europe has revealed sales of the Wii and DS in the region have reached over six million and 20 million units, respectively.
First-party software sales in the region have also reached impressive figures, with four Wii titles sailing past one million units sold.
Wii Play has sold 2.3 million units, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess 1.3 million units, Mario Party 8 one million units and Super Mario Galaxy 1.3 million units.
Dr Kawashima's Brain Training; How Old is Your Brain? has now sold over 5 million units in Europe, while its sequel More Brain Training has clocked up 2.8 million units. However, the top-seller is the Nintendogs series, which has sold over 8 million units in the region.
New titles for Europe in 2008 include Wii Fit, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Kart Wii, and Professor Kageyama's Maths Training: The Hundred Cell Calculation Method for the DS.
Earlier today, Nintendo announced nine month profits to December 31 of JPY 258.93 billion (USD 2.43bn/EUR 1.66bn), almost double that of the year previously.
A piece at the MTV Multiplayer blog is exploring the issue of kids and gaming, wondering aloud how old is 'old enough'. A recent CES talk indicated that you should wait until at least seven to introduce your children to Mario, and we've talked in the past about the educational role games can have. MTV's Tracey John spoke to a pair of mothers who offered their own opinions on this topic:
"When I asked Alisa why she thought that games weren't imaginative and explained that many games have challenging, puzzle-solving elements, she conceded a little but remained skeptical. 'Honestly, I haven't really explored video games thoroughly, and I'm sure there are video games that fit more the bill of something that I'd be interested in, but I'm kind of hard-pressed to find a game that's like reading a book or something like that. I understand the kids like it, so I allow them to do it; it's monitored but it's not my favorite thing for them to be doing.'"
What's the right age for a kid to start playing games? Do you see games as more or less acceptable than traditional kid pastimes like TV or reading? Does it matter if the parents are gaming-savvy?
Germany's Gaya Entertainment brings Resident Evil to life on your shelf.
Coming with a series of 6 fabulous Resident Evil High End Collectible Statues 1/6 scale, licensed by Capcom and each of them limited to only 1500 pcs, 2008 will be a festival for all Resident Evil fans.
The first character to be released will be the powerful Tyrant, followed by Chris Redfield, the beautiful Jill Valentine, the terrifying "G" William Birkin, the mysterious Albert Wesker and last but not least the indestructible Nemesis!
Each piece comes in an exclusive box-packaging, hand-numbered and with incredible details.
Console hardware sales in Japan seem to have reverted to normal now, just with some levels lower from the last reading. Figures are shown below:
Nintendo DS Lite: 88,575
Nintendo Wii: 81,638
Playstation Portable: 79,923
Playstation 3 : 38,117
Playstation 2: 13,539
Xbox 360: 4,552
All console experience a drop by roughly 400 and 11,000 except the PS3 and Xbox 360, rising by about 800 and 100 respectively. Wii manages to regain second place and puch back the PSP the 3rd as usual.
Rockstar's battle to get Manhunt 2 on to the shelves of UK stores took another twist yesterday as the High Court ruled against the Video Appeals Committee, who had previously overturned the British Board of Film Classification's decision to prevent the game from going on sale.
Mr Justice Mitting told the committee that it must reconsider its decision, reached by a narrow majority, because it had committed a "clear error of law" in relating the game to the question of harm.
According to a report in The Metro the BBFC had argued that the VAC's original decision had threatened to undermine its position as a content watchdog, not just for videogames but for other entertainment genres, such as film.
The result means that publisher Rockstar, who had attempted to submit a new edition based on the cuts made for the now-passed and M-rated US edition of the game, is still unable to sell the game in the UK.
Sega's Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games was the top-selling game in Australia for the week ended January 20 according to sales data released by GfK Australia.
Four Nintendo DS games also made the Top Ten, allowing titles for Nintendo platforms to dominate half of the chart. Four of the Top Ten titles were for the PlayStation platforms.
The only Xbox 360 game to make the Top Ten - Activision's Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat - dropped to the number seven spot. Call of Duty 4 was also the best-selling PC game for the week.
The Top Ten best-selling titles were as follows:
1. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii)
2. The Simpsons Game (DS)
3. SingStar R&B (PS2)
4. New Super Mario Bros. (DS)
5. More Brain Training from Dr. Kawashima: How Old Is Your Brain? (DS)
6. SingStar Pop Hits (PS2)
7. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (360)
8. Sight Training (DS)
9. Assassin's Creed (PS3)
10. SingStar Rocks Ballads (PS2)
Rockstar has questioned the High Court of Justice's decision to send Manhunt 2 back for re-evaluation.
The publisher said it was unable to comprehend spending more public money on censoring a game that was well within the rules of an adult rating.
"We believe the Video Appeals Committee decision was correct and do not understand the court's decision to expend further public resources to censor a game that contains content well within the bounds established by the British Board of Film Classification's18-plus ratings certification," Rockstar said in a statement.
The VAC decision was overturned by Mr Justice Mitting who said an "error of law" had been made.
This error was related to the definition of what constitutes harm. Mitting said VAC had misinterpreted it as actual harm, rather than, as he put it, a wider sense of potential harm.
Manhunt 2 will now be re-evaluated by the Video Appeals Committee under new guidelines.
If Rockstar receives a negative response that would effectively end the appeals process, as it is unlikely the House of Lords would want to know.
Welcome to the home page for my port of NetHack to the Nintendo DS. The goal of this project is to create a port of NetHack for the DS utilizing the unique features of the DS to create an easy-to-use NetHacking experience. I think I've succeeded in that goal. I'm probably wrong.
Features
An unscaled, scrolling map view on the lower screen, which can be interacted with using the touchscreen.
Minimap, message, and status information rendered to the top screen.
Support for 16- and 256-color BMP tilesets, including non-rectangular tiles (tiles must have dimensions which are a multiple of 8, e.g. 8x8, 8x16, etc).
Support for text mode, with optional full color and IBM graphics.
Popup command window for easy access to the full command set.
On-screen keyboard for text input and extended commands.
Keys are almost completely configurable.
Support for both left- and right-handed modes.
Save and restore.
Sleep mode.
News
Version 1.17 Released.
* Added support for tapping menu section titles for selecting items in that section.
* Changed menus in keyboard mode to show item accelerator characters.
* After insisting I'd never do it, action menus (read, zap, eat, etc, etc) now display only relevant menu items (with an option to show all).
* Made 'cursor' a compound option, which can take three values: 0 (always on), 1 (disabled over hero), and 2 (always off).
* More refinements to touchscreen handling to ensure that stylus raises are promptly registered (fixes periodic hangs).
* Fixed directional prompting when keyboard mode is enabled.
* Fixed detection spells (such as "detect monsters"), etc, so they properly wait for user input.
* Fixed key bound option toggling, after I completely broke it in the last release.
* Fixed crasher triggered by popping up a menu immediately after resuming a saved game with the 'name' option set (yes, someone hit this .
Note, make sure you copy over kbd.pal and minimap.pal from the distribution archive to your /NetHackDS directory (assuming you don't just unzip straight over the old copy)..
Hi this is a very early version of a tool im developing.
This tool will convert 3D .obj files into GL values to use in your DS Project.
very primitive at the moment and will only convert vertex's but not normals or texture co-ordinates. new update on the way soon.This is the first tool I have ever written so I hope its usefull to people. Readme included in zip file.
-Rhys Thomas
Subleq DS is a mod of original subleq.
Subleq consists of just one command "subtract and branch(jump) if negative or zero)
Each subleq command consists of 3 words: a, b and c.
a, b and c are memory addresses.
If b - a is negative or zero, jump to c. Otherwise, go to the next command.
The code IS in the memory, so Subleq DS is self-modyfing.
Special memory addresses are addresses that don't execute subleq; instead, they execute
a command they're made to do. The addresses are put to b.
Command positions:
-1 - outputs a.
Limitations:
- 64kb of memory (thus, up to 64kb of code)
- Speed (fix the source code if you want it faster)
Well, if you think this is slow, I'd like to tell you that it uses 15 vblanks,
because only then you can see the results pretty fast.
If you still think it's slow, check the source.
How to use
1) DLDI patch subleqDS.nds
2) Put it on your flashcart device.
3) Put "test.slq" (a subleq file) in the root of your flashcart device.
Controls:
B - switch between silent mode (only output is shown on the screen) and
debug mode (everything is shown).
FAQ:
Q: Can you implement an (put any real CPU here)?
A: No. I want to do fun things.
Q: Why is it so slow?
A: Go and check the source code.
Q: Can you add (some feature)?
A: Go and implement it yourself, you have source.
Q: This sucks!
A: Do any better from scratch and I'll agree.
Neoflash's newest flash card will be a surprise for some people as it is not only a slot-1 flash card but it also has full motion sensing capabilities built right into it. There are already homebrew games and applications that take advantage of the DS Motion Card and DS Motion Pak,
and since the R6 Gold uses the same motion sensing technology, it means you'll be able to make full use of the device from the moment you open the box.
Conclusion
This card, like all others, has its pros and cons. On the one hand, it's micro sd based (including newer SDHC cards) so storage should never be a problem. You can easily fit all your mp3's or whatever on whichever sized card you have. On the other hand, the hardware saving slows down the loading process. With it's motion capabilities as well as hardware save support it's obviously trying to please both groups of flash cart users. Homebrewers will be happy, as it has very good homebrew support, and those who like to play 'backups' will be happy to.
I for one will be recommending this to any fellow homebrewer that asks.
Are you ready to careen around the world-famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway in a hand-built 1960s speed machine that hits speeds of nearly 180 mph, yet rides only 7 inches off the ground? Can you survive a moving minefield of crashes, spinning cars, rolling tires, oil slicks and 32 rivals competing for the perfect racing line?
Set from 1961-1971, a period of loose rules and ever-faster cars, Indianapolis 500 Legends lets players experience the traditions, rivalries, terrifying speeds and jaw-dropping maneuvers of the world famous Brickyard as they take on the arcade-style gameplay inspired by the birth of modern racing.
Circuit City has a cobalt blue/black DS Lite for preorder on their website. Considering three minutes have passed since the last time the DS got a costume change, this makes perfect sense to us. No word on the release date, but as always, it's $130.
Anton Romanov has released JabberDS, heres the details:
A Jabber client for the Nintendo DS.
Features:
Uses DSGUI for GUI
User defined keyboard layout
User defined fonts (DSGUI's BFont format)
Supports any Unicode characters availible in font
Roster operation (Add/Remove/Rename/Subscribe/Unsubscribe contacts)
Multi User Chat
Installation:
Download
Unpack
DLDI patch
JabberDS want's it's settings file as /data/jabberds.xml
Edit it to your likings
Run
DekuTree64 has released a new version of Animanatee for the Nintendo DS:
Heres the release details:
Yet another little art program for DS.
The controls are explained in the program, but here are the basic features:
- 2 layers ("BG" and "frame"). BG gets copied over when you create a new frame, so you can have a persistent background, or modify it as you go.
- 60 color palette, which can all be modified.
- 4 brush sizes
- Up to 10000 frames, or until memory runs out.
- Undo/redo. Up to 32 levels, or until it fills its 128KB buffer.
- Onion skinning (sort of, only shows one previous frame).
Experimental version 1.3a for those who are still getting corrupted saves. In daninski's files, it seemed to be writing out the correct number of bytes, but just big spans of zeroes in a couple of frames. I don't know if any DLDI drivers are using DMA or anything, but missing data seems suspiciously like a cache coherency problem, so I added a cache flush before saving.
NEW in v1.3
- Error checking on file access.
- Changed export format to .avi instead of .flc.
- Added a button so you can save without exporting, since it takes a while.
- Added a progress bar when saving.
Things I'd like to add:
- Better onion skinning.
- Better save system. At the very least, thumbnails or something.
- Offsetting (like to scroll the background a few pixels per frame).
- Less stylus jumping.
- A Mario Paint style music sequencer.
- Playing a wav/mp3/etc. file along with the animation.
- Recording a sound track with the microphone.
Feel free to add to the list, or to vote for which of the ones on there that you'd like to see first.
The port of Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe to the Nintendo DS has been updated, heres whats new:
Changelog for Alpha 4:
* based on r11899
* added a start icon and description
* the random seed works
* loading original TTD saves disabled (256x256 too big for DS)
* press A anytime (even after crashes) to toggle the console
* Fix: trains can load and unload now
* Fix: road depot window (and similar) doesn't crash any more
* Fix: YAPF is completely disabled now. If the player enables it or it is enabled in a savegame, an error message is displayed and it is turned off
* Fix: saving games with bigger maps is now possible. Due to this savegames have to be uncompressed. Still 256x128 maps is the biggest possible due to memory limitations.
* Reduced viewport memory. crashes due to not enough memory available shouldn't happen so often any more.
* The game bow the start menu at the beginning
* Added a 128x64 version of the title screen savegame
* Added a key combination for the cheat menu
* Some bugs not mentioned should be fixed due to general improvements
Known bugs:
* graphical glitches (mostly during scrolling) because the nds blitter needs to be rewritten
* minimap glitches
* trying to create mäps bigger than 256x128 crashes
* the screen resolution is too small making it impossible to click some windows
* ships make the game crash (unconfirmed)
The mainstream media and other non-consumers of video games have been portraying gamers as pasty, bleary-eyed shut-ins since the 8-bit days -- aside from some bruised feelings, that stereotype never really did us any harm. However, a recent proposal of the powerful environmental organization The Sierra Club to the New Mexico state legislature may put a dent in the pockets of consumers and retailers living in the Land of Enchantment.
The proposal calls for a 1 percent sales tax on televisions and video games; the proceeds of which would go to "outdoor education programs". According to an article in the Huffington Post, these programs would counteract the negative effects of video games -- "lower academic scores, obesity, and increased attention-deficit disorder." Supporters of the "No Child Left Inside" movement tried to pass a similar bill last year, but were unsuccessful.
Unsurprisingly, gaming advocacy groups have spoken out against the bill's obvious shortcomings, such as its assumption that video games are the sole contributor to childhood obesity, lower grades and ADD. We couldn't agree more. The only weight we've gained from being gaming enthusiasts is from our skin growing thicker due to constant attacks on our lifestyle.
Have you ever experienced this feeling after playing a real-time strategy game? You get used to the controls, learn all the hotkeys, become efficient with the mouse, and find that the best way to win is to build units and firepower as fast as possible and throw them at the opponent in successive, inexorable waves.
It's not that the game ceases to be fun, but that it ceases to be fresh: the basic strategy never really changes. Essentially, your only viable strategy -- your overall plan for success -- is to wear down your opponent and destroy him.
I have experienced this feeling. As empowering -- and, at least initially, as fun -- as real-time strategy (RTS) games are, I often find that they turn into real-time tactics (RTT) games after a while. So often, there is no other viable plan for success beyond attrition. Sure, I may construct that building here instead of there, or gain control of those resources over there instead of these here, but I can never really change my basic plan for victory.
I cannot win by convincing my opponent to lay down his arms, since he knows that the only way I can win is for me to destroy him. I must collect more resources than my opponent in order that he not wear me out first. The threat of force or the limited use of force would not convince my opponent that I would win if our military forces engaged one another. Since there is only one viable strategy -- attrition -- victory will go to the best tactician, not the best strategist.
I've decided to start modding DesMuMe. I release here my first mod. It does not improve game compatibility but it has more features. It is only for Win32 users.
-First, I've added joystick support through SDL. That was easy.
-Next, I've added support for SDL sound core under Win32. That was easy too, the SDL sound core was here already.
-Added Vertical resize option. It was harder, I spent some time to add this. When activated, the window can be resized only vertically, the screens keep their size and the gap between the screens will be filled with your favourite colour (approximative). This allows users to set a gap depending on the game to get better gameplay.
In Mod 2 I'll try to :
-get New Super Mario Bros to work
-increase speed
-add Avi Capture option
Here you can find all kinds of resources to develop and design your own graphical adventure games for the Nintendo DS portable console. The main tool that can be found is the free program 'Icarus Adventure System' (100% Spanish) that you do not have to know to create your games.
'Icarus Adventure System' lets you create your entire adventure compacted into a single file ROMs. NDS ready for transfer to your DS or for sharing over the Internet.
Here’s a new release of the DS port of Box2D. Robert Kavaler helped me out a lot on this by porting the changes to the SVN version of the (still work-in-progress) Box2D 2.0 and adding a nice build system. Although this is a patch of an unstable version of Box2D it works very stable. By using the DS’s hardware division and sqrt functions I improved simulation speed. Instead of the patches library, the archive now contains a patch with instructions how to acquire and patch Box2D.
Here’s a new version with a larger drawing area, dual screen support, updated physics and more!
I really like the idea of the popular minigame Crayon Physics: You draw an object on the screen and it instantly becomes physical and interacts with other objects. The first thing that sprung to my mind when seeing it was "This would be awesome on the DS!" And Pocket Physics is what I came up with after two weeks. It isn't really a game, but more of a physical construction kit for your pocket. You can design scenes freely by drawing things with the stylus. Things can be solid, like ramps and floors, or dynamic, like balls or boxes. Like in The Incredible Machine, you can reset the scene, change it, and start the simulation again. It's even more fun if you have a DS Motion, which can be used to control gravity!
v0.3 (2008-01-27)
larger paper (3x3 screens)
scrolling using either D-Pad, ABXY, or pen (hold L or R)
dual screen support (overview on top, zoomed view on bottom)
open shapes (drawn shapes are only closed if the end is close to the start)
Using the actual shape for picking => o more accidential deletions
updated to box2d 2.0 (svn r20)
using ds hw div/sqrt in box2d
if simulation is behind time, 2 steps are performed at once => subjectively faster
faster and better drawing code
pins are hidden during simulation
