anyway just found out the reason for the really slow forums the last 24 hours and ive removed the code until our server admin fixes things, the forums and sites are now running lovely again.
We also know about the corrupt files and that will be fixed asap (those bloody hackers and the server crash have really hit DCEmu hard)
When we say "DIY" we don't necessarily mean you have to "do it yourself" but rest comfortably knowing that someone somewhere had the unique skill-set required to build themselves a homemade Ms. Pac-Man cocktail cabinet. While Christian, the set's creator, didn't write up a detailed step-by-step or record a fancy video, he did take post ten pages worth of pics showing the cabinet in all stages of construction. Wakka wakka wakka!
The GAME Group has issued a brief statement noting that it has enjoyed a "continued strong sales performance" over the Christmas period, and since its last trading update on December 11.
The company's financial year, which is due to end on January 31, should now yield profits of at least GBP 70 million, up from GBP 29.5 million last year, despite the recent costs of integrating GameStation into its business and complying with the Competition Commission's investigation.
The company will provide a full report of the Christmas trading period for the six weeks to January 12 on January 15.
The NASDAQ Stock Market has once again threatened Atari with delisting following the value of its publicly held shares dropping below USD 15 million for 30 consecutive days.
To regain compliance, Atari's market value must reach or exceed USD 15 million for ten consecutive days. The deadline for compliance is March 20, 2008.
Atari has faced delisting by NASDAQ on numerous occasions over the past three year's, not just for the value of the company declining, but also for failing to file its annual reports on time.
At the beginning of 2007 Atari shareholders approved a stock split in order to remain listed on NASDAQ.
IGG Inc, the publisher of a number of free-to-play MMOs, has announced that it has secured additional funding to the tune of USD 4.5 million.
The company will use the money "to expand global sales and marketing, to implement strategic plans, and to further the development of more innovative and entertaining games," according to a statement, while existing games will be localised further.
The company, which launched in 2006, is responsible for a six titles to date, including Myth War Online and Zu Online (pictured), and claims over 3.5 million registered users, although it's not clear if that figure relates to total numbers, or just active users.
The funding will be provided by IDG Technology Venture Investments, a US venture capital firm with strong links to China.
Fantasy adventure Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was the most successful film at the UK and Ireland box office in 2007.
The movie, the fifth in the series based on JK Rowling's best-selling books, made more than £49.4m.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, came in at number two, earning in excess of £42m.
Meanwhile, Will Smith's apocalyptic thriller I Am Legend topped the UK and Ireland box office this week.
TOP 10 FILMS OF 2007
1. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (£49,420,484)
2. Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End (£42,237,960)
3. Shrek the Third (£38,620,659)
4. The Simpsons Movie (£38,544,114)
5. Spider-Man 3 (£33,547,946)
6. Ratatouille (£24,716,887)
7. The Bourne Ultimatum (£23,703,150)
8. Transformers (£22,863,864)
9. Mr Bean's Holiday (£22,142,332)
10. Hot Fuzz (£21,005,064)
Source: Screen International
Both the Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean films and the third instalment of the Shrek series beat The Simpsons Movie - the first big screen outing of the animated TV sitcom.
It amassed more than £38m in ticket returns to take fourth place.
Action adventure Spider-Man 3 took fifth position, while the movie version Transformers came in at number seven behind animation Ratatoutille.
At number 10 was Hot Fuzz, the latest film starring Spaced and Shaun of the Dead stalwarts Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, which took more than £21m.
I Am Legend, the latest version of a film based on the 1950s sci-fi novel by Richard Matheson, topped the first box office chart of 2008.
It took more than £6.5m after being released on Boxing Day.
TOP FIVE FILMS THIS WEEK
1. I Am Legend (£6.55m)
2. The Golden Compass (£2.19m)
3. Enchanted (£2.15m)
4 St Trinian's (£1.78m)
5. Alvin and the Chipmunks (£1.37m)
Source: Screen International
The film stars Will Smith as New York's apparent last human survivor of a plague which has killed millions and turned the rest of the population into mutants.
It knocked fantasy film Enchanted from the top slot to number three.
The Golden Compass, based on the Philip Pullman novel and starring Nicole Kidman, remained at number two.
Slapstick US comedy Balls of Fury made its debut at number seven, while The Kite Runner entered at nine.
The downside [of 2007] is that it was also full of disappointments large and small, from new memory technologies to nearly-broken operating systems (and we're not talking about Windows Vista). 2007 saw some hotly-awaited technologies sputter; they failed to live up to their lofty potential. That's not to say they never will; they just didn't by the end of this year.
10. DDR3
9. The VoIP Revolution
8. Safari for Windows
7. Mac OS X Leopard
6. Tech Piling Up in Landfills
5. The Never Ending Format War
4. DirectX 10
3. Games for Windows Live
2. AMD's CPU Lineup
1. Gaming as the Universal Boogieman
Researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine are performing clinical trials of a vaccine that teaches the immune system to attack cocaine, preventing it from giving a high. The vaccine is made by attaching inactivated cocaine molecules to the outside of inactivated cholera proteins. When the immune system attacks the cholera proteins, it also 'learns' the cocaine molecules as well. The result is that the immune system 'recognizes the potent naked drug when it's ingested. The antibodies bind to the cocaine and prevent it from reaching the brain, where it normally would generate the highs that are so addictive.'"
An earlier story from The Star notes that human trials for vaccines against both cocaine and nicotine are well under way.
According to MSNBC, scientists are experimenting with using a sperm's flagellum to overcome the problem of supplying energy to nanobots that could be implanted in the body as smart probes that would release disease-fighting drugs, monitor enzymes and perform other medical roles within a patient's body. Powered by a compound called adenosine triphosphate or ATP, a sperm's flagellum can propel it at about 7 inches an hour. Energy from ATP could also power the pumps charged with dispensing the medication at a certain rate from the nanobots
Following a successful event in Lyon at the beginning of December last year, the organisers behind the Game Connection events have issued a reminder that the exhibitor deadline for this year's Game Connection America will pass in ten days' time.
The event itself will take place at the Moscone Centre's West Hall from February 19 to 21, and the likes of Eidos, Microsoft, Namco-Bandai, Sega, Ubisoft, THQ and Konami have already registered.
The Lyon event saw a 40 per cent increase in the number of exhibitors over the previous year, and remaining spaces for the San Francisco event are expected to fill quickly.
For more information on registering visit the Game Connection America web site.
Virgin has announced Q4 financial results for its Virgin Megastores retailers, reporting growth of 11.5 per cent over the same quarter last year.
The company indicated that videogame sales had increased 111.9 per cent, far outpacing growth in the sales of other media. DVD sales were up 18.1 per cent and fashion sales increased 35.1 per cent.
"It is the second consecutive year that sales have way exceeded our expectations," said Simon Wright, CEO, Virgin Entertainment Group, North America.
"We started seeing positive results in 2006 from our diversification strategy and the sales in those departments continued to climb throughout 2007. Virgin Megastores are being recognized as an entertainment lifestyle destination, rather than solely a music retailer."
The US chain of Virgin Megastores has launched a new retail website, even as the company has been closing stores throughout the country. There are now only 10 stores remaining in the US, four of them in California.
"We're trying to reposition the business," Wright told the LA Times, "and a lot of our stores are too big for the future, primarily due to the drop in music sales."
Asteroid impacts, massive volcanic flows, and now biting, disease-carrying insects have been put forward as an important contributor to the demise of the dinosaurs. In the Late Cretaceous the world was covered with warm-temperate to tropical areas that swarmed with blood-sucking insects. A theory explored by researchers at Oregon State suggests these bugs carried leishmania, malaria, intestinal parasites, arboviruses and other pathogens. Repeated epidemics may have slowly-but-surely worn down dinosaur populations while ticks, mites, lice and biting flies tormented and weakened them. 'After many millions of years of evolution, mammals, birds and reptiles have evolved some resistance to these diseases,' says Researcher George Poinar. 'But back in the Cretaceous, these diseases were new and invasive, and vertebrates had little or no natural or acquired immunity to them.' The confluence of new insect-spread diseases, loss of traditional food sources, and competition for plants by insect pests could all have provided a lingering, debilitating condition that dinosaurs were ultimately unable to overcome
alphadogg writes with a link to a NetworkWorld article about a troubling security scenario. Indiana University IT researchers are now saying that a WiFi attack intended to piggyback across unsecured access points could do serious damage in a city like Chicago or New York. By essentially brute-forcing the passwords on insecure routers, a worm-like firmware agent could be introduced to an estimated 20,000 networks in New York City alone.
"Although the researchers did not develop any attack code that would be used to carry out this infection, they believe it would be possible to write code that guessed default passwords by first entering the default administrative passwords that shipped with the router, and then by trying a list of one million commonly used passwords, one after the other. They believe that 36% of passwords can be guessed using this technique."
Back in 2004, Slashdot posted about computer solitaire being patented. It was a ridiculous patent and made it onto the EFF's list of worst patents. However, not much had been heard about that patent until now. It turns out that the patent holder, Sheldon Goldberg, is now using that patent to sue a bunch of different online publications, including Digg, eBaum's World, the NY Times, Cnet and the Washington Post. He's also suing Google, Yahoo and AOL (why not?).
Hey, we try our best to be as paranoid as the next guy, but we confess we were caught a little off guard by this one. US Department of Homeland Security folks announced yesterday that three American Airline passenger planes that frequent JFK airport are going to be set up with anti-missile systems in a test run to see if they'd be effective in helping to prevent a terrorist shooting down a jet with a shoulder-fired missile. It's step three in a government-mandated program to determine the suitability of such systems, which involve radar jammers to throw ground-fired missiles off course. The tests are to determine if the jamming system works in real-time conditions, and what sort of sustained costs of maintenance will be required, but all actual tests of the technology have already been performed on non-passenger jets, so it appears no actual missile-firing will be required. Oh come on, you know you were thinking it.
David Kravetz of Wired.com covered last year's Capitol v. Thomas trial gavel-to-gavel. It's worth noting, then, his article saying that the RIAA's recent statement — that Sony's top litigation lawyer 'misspoke' during the trial. She said that making a copy from one's own cd is 'stealing', which (in his words) may have caused a major miscarriage of justice. Wired further points out that later on in the trial, during the RIAA's examination of Ms. Thomas, 'On the hard drive she [turned] over were thousands of songs Thomas said she ripped from her CDs. The RIAA's Gabriel suggested to jurors that copying one's purchased music was a violation of the Copyright Act. Gabriel, for example, asked Thomas whether she had ever burned CDs, either for herself, or to give away to friends.' Gabriel, the RIAA's lead attorney, apparently misspoke too — prejudicing jurors along the way."
The folks at ZDNet are eulogising over the upcoming death of physical media music sales. They refer to the noticeable drop in physical sales of albums whilst digital sales continue climbing (albeit at a reduced rate). Their central argument is that 'the music industry was pillaged by piracy and competition from other forms of entertainment such as video games ... [2007] marked the lowest tally and the steepest decline since Nielsen began publishing estimates based on point-of-sales data in 1993, a Nielsen representative said. The peak year in that time was 2000, when sales reached 785 million units.'
De-licious! Here's a box of "Pokémon Ningyou Yaki" (Pokémon Doll Fried) manjuu treats. And what's the best way to show the sweet bean paste inside Pikachu's brain? Slice his fried head in half! Never has something this tasty been oh so gruesome. Eight to a box and priced at only 900 yen (US$8.25 [£4.18])!
US analyst firm Bear Stearns has downgraded consumer electronics retailer Best Buy from 'outperform' to 'underperform' as a result of narrowing profit margins and slowing sales growth.
According to a report on Bloomberg analyst Christopher Horvers is making the recommendation to clients despite Best Buy's rising profits in seven of the past eight quarters, and regardless of sales last month.
He is quoted as citing a "slowdown in the product cycle" which in turn hurts sales, and favours the larger stores that can discount on huge bulk orders.
Additionally, the sales boom that the videogames industry has seen in the past couple of months across a strong Holiday season could simply be "the last hurrah in the stock" according to Horvers.
US stocks are under pressure at the moment with continuing fallout over the subprime credit market as well as bad news in employment.
The company's share price has fallen from its one-year high of USD 53.38 a couple of weeks ago to USD 47.14 at the close yesterday, with a December sales report due later this week.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that hedge fund Jana Partners LLC, which holds an 8.1 per cent stake in CNET, plans to nominate seven people to the online media company's board.
According to the Journal article, Jana has teamed up with Paul Gardi of Alex Interactive Media and venture capital firm Spark Capital in its bid for board seats.
Asset management firm Sandell Asset Management, which has a separate 5 per cent nonvoting stake in CNET, said that it will support Jana's efforts. Jana's nominees for CNET's board include Mr. Gardi, Spark Capital founder Santo Politi and Jon Miller, a former AOL chief executive and founding partner of Velocity Interactive Group.
In a filing with the SEC, Jana said its nominees will increase shareholder value at CNET by leveraging the company's editorial content and staff, broadening the company's properties and by focusing on return on investment.
CNET said that it has determined Jana's proposal for board seats is improper under its bylaws, and believes that no person or group of persons "should be able to gain a majority of the board and control of the company without offering sufficient value to all stockholders."
Shares in the company rose more than 9 per cent in pre-market trading Monday following a New York Times report that a consortium of investment funds had amassed a 21 per cent stake in CNET and was seeking to oust the company's directors.
By the end of trading, however, CNET shares closed at USD 8.44, down 13 cents from Friday's closing price.
CNET runs GameSpot, following its acquisition of ZDNet in 2000.
Next door in Islands of Adventure you can see some 'slight' action with the construction of the new Harry Potter area. Nothing major as of yet, but there is movement since our last update.
Universal Ignited has some new photos of the Harry Potter construction site as well as a last look at Grinchmas. Meanwhile we’ve also been sent a link to a video posted to YouTube showing off a slideshow of the Potter artwork we’ve all seen before, but ends with a couple of new pictures I haven’t seen before, including one showing off what looks like the Hogwarts Express locomotive.
McCrory's next project will be another British venture. She will appear as Narcissa Malfoy, wife of Lucius Malfoy, in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth film in the series. Filming is about to start. "I'm looking forward to it. It's unusual to have such a successful film only starring British actors. I have really started to enjoy the craft of film acting. I do a lot more film and television now than theatre. The difference between screen and stage is that in theatre it's tangible whether someone can act or not. I've worked with people, who will remain nameless, where a film scene has had to be cobbled together from a whole day's worth of takes because the actor is shit. They can't remember the lines; if they do remember the lines, they can't remember the moves. In the final project, they will look great, because the director will cut the film for them. In theatre, you can't employ someone who can't remember their bloody lines. That's the difference," she says.
Play Asia have posted a new weekly special offer and this weeks it the latest harry potter game for the PS3 and at $14.90:
Heres the details:
In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry returns for his fifth year of study at Hogwarts and discovers that much of the wizarding community is in denial about the teenager's recent encounter with the evil Lord Voldemort, preferring to turn a blind eye to the news that Voldemort has returned. Fearing that Hogwarts' venerable Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, is lying about Voldemort's return in order to undermine his power and take his job, the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, appoints a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher to keep watch over Dumbledore and the Hogwarts students.
But Professor Dolores Umbridge's Ministry-approved course of defensive magic leaves the young wizards woefully unprepared to defend themselves against the dark forces threatening them and the entire wizarding community, so at the prompting of his friends Hermione and Ron, Harry takes matters into his own hands. Meeting secretly with a small group of students who name themselves "Dumbledore's Army", Harry teaches them how to defend themselves against the Dark Arts, preparing the courageous young wizards for the extraordinary battle that lies ahead.
With the ability to play multiple characters, including Harry Potter, Dumbledore and Sirius Black, the videogame of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix offers fans the opportunity to wield a wand, explore all around Hogwarts, and experience one of the most exciting and dangerous years in the life of the Boy Who Lived.
EA's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for PlayStation3™ is now available at US$ 14.90 only. This is the region free Asia release version, with full English in-game language support.
The word "brick" isn't something that usually makes gamers excited. Oh no, it's something that makes us scared. No more! Since 2006, a Dutch ceramicist has been creating Game Boy bricks. Yes, bricks — like in to build stuff. He writes:
"I put quite some time into creating them, in the beginning they would explode in the oven quite often..
You can see some of the exploded gameboys in the two bags in the pictures area.
There are also some gameboys i made into a wall and buried into the ground. They have been in the ground since about summer 2006.. so nature has already done its work a bit, and has grown over them."
Exploding Game Boy bricks? Get out! Click through below to get a better gander at his handy work, which you can even buy (except for the colored ones, which aren't for sale). So cool.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin announced at CES last night that his agency will be looking into Comcast's data-meddling ways. "Sure, we're going to investigate and make sure that no consumer is going to be blocked," he said. Per FCC rules Comcast is allowed to use "reasonable traffic management" solutions to keep its network running, but Martin said he thinks Comcast and other ISPs should be required to disclose filtering to customers even if it's found to be reasonable. That's pretty encouraging, but we'll see how this all plays out in the industry -- especially since NBC and AT&T execs were talking excitedly about ISP-based copyright filtering on another stage at CES earlier in the day.
Sometimes it seems like I write this post every year. Mega retail gaming store GameStop has announced that the 2007 holiday season saw a record $2.3 billion dollars, an increase of 35% over last year's holiday sales. To put this in perspective, this is more money than I have in my pocket right now. GameStop boss Dick Fontaine cites the proliferation of next-generation consoles as a driving force of the triumph over the numbers of yesteryear.
"Driven by robust domestic and international sales, GameStop achieved the most successful holiday season results ever," said company chairman and CEO Richard Fontaine. "Video game software sales grew by 45%, while the next generation installed base is now triple last year's base and a very positive leading indicator for future sales growth."
In the wake of sales news, the company raised their fiscal 2007 earnings guidance by $0.13 a share, indicating that I really need to read up on financial information to better understand what that means. I know it's good at least - otherwise it wouldn't have made it into the press release, after the jump.
This extremely extreme wheelchair mixes two very distinct, yet not disharmonious, aesthetics: tank treads and, what appears to be, the most comfortable seating apparatus modern science can come up with. This isn't the first TankChair – that one came out in 2006 – but the newer TankChair has made some notable improvements, including a lower center of gravity, more torque, a stronger chassis, and the aforementioned comfy seat. We're not sure about the cost or availability but, for the right person, we can imagine the new TankChair being a godsend for the rural handicapped.
A 18-year-old was arrested this week after trying to kill his father strangling him with the cable of his videoconsole gamepad. While the videogame console brand hasn't been disclosed yet, the police have been able to establish the circumstances that lead to the almost surrealistic (but strangely understandable) murder attempt:
According to the police, the teenager was playing intensely with a game at the time of the event. The father, who warned him several times to stop playing, went into the room to demand that he turn off the videoconsole. The son ignored the father's orders and kept playing trying to finish his game. As a response, the angry paterfamilias unplugged the power cable, making the son lose his progress in the game.
At that point, the son furiously jumped off the sofa and, angered by the fact that he lost all his game progress tried to strangle his father with the cable of the gamepad, almost achieving it. Fortunately, the wife heard the struggle and helped his husband to break from his agressor. After that, the police and emergency medical teams arrived to the scene, taking the father to the hospital. A few minutes after this, the police arrested the son in a nearby street in Bilbao, the spanish city where the events occurred earlier this week.
The son is now under custody and going to be judged for a domestic violence crime. Now, while I don't approve of his reaction, I have to confess that sometimes I have felt an intense desire to smack someone because of similar reasons, being losing my progress in a long game or a document. I don't care if it happens because someone steps over the power cable or a general electric failure, but I have to say that I have crashed more than one gamepad and mouse against the wall. What about you?
Apparently, the FBI hasn't been paying the telcos for the wiretaps they've initiated, so the telcos have canceled the wiretaps. From the AP article linked: 'Telephone companies have cut off FBI wiretaps used to eavesdrop on suspected criminals because of the bureau's repeated failures to pay phone bills on time.
A Justice Department audit released Thursday blamed the lost connections on the FBI's lax oversight of money used in undercover investigations. Poor supervision of the program also allowed one agent to steal $25,000, the audit said. In at least one case, a wiretap used in a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act investigation "was halted due to untimely payment," the audit found.
The Photosimile 5000 is a professional office photography machine that is able to take professional 3D images from physical products/people placed in its central chamber. The imager work by utilizing a camera running along a rail, which can take a number of user defined images that are then translated into one unified 3D photo. The device can only capture the uppermost half of the item in the central cage, as the camera rail does not run along the base; however, the item being captured is rotated in 360 degrees, meaning the resultant snapshot can be viewed from all angles. Check out the video to see it in action.
The Photosimile 5000 will be able to output GIF and flash files, and the camera can be removed and replaced, if needed. There is no distributor in the US, and the guys at Ortery were unwilling to provide a price range for the Photosimile 5000, but it looks really promising nonetheless.
BoingBoing is reporting that Steve Eaterbrook, McDonald's UK CEO, says that video games are leading the charge in obesity. He does have the decency to at least admit fatty foods are a part of the problem, but points the finger at interactive games for keeping kids indoors and not out burning off energy.
"According to The Times, McDonalds UK is 'on the brink of its best year for two decades'. The firm has enjoyed six per cent like-for-like sales growth in the last year. More than 88 million visits were made to McDonald's restaurants last month, up 10 million on the previous year."
Don't forget, we have known for ages that video games make us fat and mean.
Would benefit gamers and game makers in a massive way
In comments recently made on his blog, the outspoken God of War and Twisted Metal developer said the features that might be lost without competition would be made up for in terms of massive content choice.
"One game publisher would be bad. One giant game developer would be bad. I get how those things would hurt gamers," Jaffe said. "But why would one unified hardware platform?"
Although he did not go so far as to suggest that a unified console is inevitable, as Denis Dyack has said, Jaffe did say that he had yet to hear a good argument as to why a single console is wrong.
"We have it with DVD, we had it with VHS. We have it with televisions (in the sense that- for the most part- every TV is capable of broadcasting the same signal). So what do we lose by having it for game consoles?"
Jaffe thinks that a unified console will allow for more competition on the software side - where it counts - because developers won't have to struggle to create the same content on two or three systems.
"Competition is great," Jaffee agreed. "But I think the leaders of the biggest groups should come together from time to time - like the big Mafia families do in the movies - and make some decisions together for the overall health of the business.
"Heck, maybe they already do this and I am just not aware.
"But if they do, they have not made the right decision on the one thing I think that could benefit gamers and game makers in a massive way: a single console."
A Pennsylvania company has filed suit against Nintendo and Sony for allegedly violating its patent held for a "hand held computer input apparatus and method." The Wiimote, Nunchuk, Sixaxis, and PS3 Blu-ray remote were all named in the lawsuit filed last month in the US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. Copper Innovations Group claims that these devices infringe on its 1996 patent for a method of sorting devices connected to a system by number identification.
Copper is after a cut of Wii's lucrative profits and PS3's (once there are some), seeking payment for damages, with interest, and legal fees. Copper is also calling for a permanent injunction that would prohibit Nintendo, Sony and 3rd-party manufacturers from further infringing on the patent.
Because as it happens, the three Democratic frontrunners are best understood in relation to the top three video game consoles:
* Hillary Clinton is the Microsoft Xbox 360: Backed by the most money, seen as a reliable and established brand, Hillary appeals most to the Democractic base, much the same way the 360 is most popular with hardcore gamers. Transitioning from her husband's Xbox era, she offers not revolutionary change but steady, reliable content.
* Barack Obama is the Nintendo Wii.
* John Edwards is the Playstation 3.
This past holiday (I've been bugging him since November about it) my good friend Don Hopkins got a lot of work done on the finishing touches on releasing the original SimCity source code under the GNU General Public Library (GPL). The code won't have reference to any SimCity name as that has all be renamed to Micropolis. Micropolis was the original working title of the game and since EA requires that the GPL open source version not use the same name as SimCity (to protect their trademark) a little work had to be done to the code.
Download the Source Code Here, What is initially released under GPL is the Linux version based on TCL/Tk.
Any of the Homebrew Coders on Any Platforms at DCEmu interested in Porting Sim City to any Consoles ?
The Coder will rename anonymous until such a time as he or she requests not to be.
So remember if you are a coder/hacker and want to release for any systems such as PSP, Wii, Xbox360, PS3, Nintendo DS, Gamecube, Dreamcast, PS2, GP2X etc the contact me and ill do the rest.
Harry Potter fans are set to get a double treat in the film of the final story – and movie makers are set to double their money.
Crew working on the sixth Potter film, Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince, have been told J.K. Rowling's seventh novel, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, will be released in two halves.
For film-makers Warner Bros, whose first five Potter films have made £2.5billion in box office receipts – more than any other movie series – it could mean a £500million bonus in ticket sales.
But sources insist the reason behind the two-movie plan is artistic rather than financial.
The books got progressively longer – the first, the Philosopher's Stone, had 223 pages while Deathly Hallows has 776 – and fans have complained chunks of later novels have been left out of films.
A film source said: "There's so much to fit that the view is the last movie should be in two halves. There is a huge battle when Harry, played by Daniel Radcliffe, takes on Voldemort that needs to be done really well."
And Ms Rowling points out on her website: "It is simply impossible to incorporate every storyline into a film under four hours long."
At Warner Bros, who are rumoured to be thinking of Oscars and a big-name director such as Steven Spielberg for the final film, a spokesman said:
Pressure is mounting on SCi Entertainment boss Jane Cavanagh to step down after last week's revelation that the company is no longer in sale talks.
A report by The Times Online states that investors have labelled Cavanagh's position as "untenable" whilst also demanding the resignation of commercial director Bill Ennis and chairman Tim Ryan.
The report also claims that SCi has been forced to borrow GBP 30 million to stay afloat to the end of the year, after annoucing that it would be delaying numerous titles, including the latest in its flagship Tomb Raider franchise.
Shares in the UK publisher tanked last week to an eighteen-year low of 62p.
"It seems likely the company will run out of cash by May or June," said an analyst to The Times. "Since it is now delaying the release of its new games, it will need ths extra cash just to keep the lights on."
SCi Entertainment had not responded to request for comment at the time of writing.
The reception bars on your cellphone represent EC/I0 values, which is the scientific measurement that signifies how much of a cellphone's available reception is actually usable. Well, according to the chaps at Ask Metafilter, the bars that are actually present on your cellphone are a watered down representation of the true values. Why so?
Apparently, the EC/I0 readings are far from stable and fluctuate many times a minute. Due to this fact, the approximation that is employed is largely meaningless. On the flip side, if you are constantly in an area with strong reception, the deviations in readings are not going to be large, so the vague representation shall be accurate enough. Still, you conspiracy whores, get your hats off and do some sweating.
It was only last October that we reported on how the Wolfenstein movie was shaping up nicely from a writing point of view. Whether the director's arrest will impact the movie isn't known yet, but it can't be good.
Avary has been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter and driving under the influence after a Ventura County car crash that killed a man and injured Avary's wife, authorities have reported.
He was the driver in the single-car collision shortly after midnight Sunday. Italian Andreas Zini was killed in the accident. He was apparently visiting the couple. Avary's wife was ejected from the car and found in the road by deputies.
Avary was a fan of the game and was looking forward to doing id Software's masterpiece justice on the silver screen.
"One of the foremost experiences I had growing up was playing Wolfenstein 3D. I played the original Castle Wolfenstein game, but really it was 3D that changed things. It was like a quantum leap in graphics at that point, and it was the first time I was transported inside another world and in control of it. My avatar was me, and when I turned it off, it was like I was leaving a very real world."
Following complaints from Opera and the European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS), the European Commission has launched two new antitrust investigations into Microsoft.
The first of these will focus on an allegation that the company "illegally refused to disclose interoperability information across a broad range of products, including information related to its Office suite, a number of its server products, and also in relation to the so called .NET Framework."
The second complaint focuses on the linking of Internet Explorer to the Windows operating system, and the introduction of new technology which limits compatibility with open Internet standards, as well as some further allegations regarding search functionality and Windows Live.
No date has been set for the publication of the investigations' findings, although the previous case between the EC and Microsoft took six years, and resulted in fines for the software company of almost EUR 800 million (£602.74m).
High Street retailer GAME has revealed that sales over the Christmas period increased by 76.3 per cent across the group, with total UK and Ireland sales up by 77.9 per cent.
Group like for like sales – which exclude the recently acquired Gamestation chain – were up by 31.9 per cent, and 30.3 per cent in the UK and Ireland.
International sales also saw a similar boost with an increase of 72.8 per cent and like for like sales up by 35.4 per cent.
"The Group has delivered an outstanding sales performance particularly given the very strong comparatives for the prior year period when the Nintendo Wii launched," offered Peter Lewis, chairman of GAME.
"Our customer demographics are changing, with more women and mature gamers buying products than ever before. Our strategy of evolving our specialist proposition to meet the demands of these customers has driven our record growth," he added.
Total group sales for the 50 week period ended January 12 were up by 86.7 per cent, with the company expecting group profit for the full year to January 31 to be not less than GBP 73 million, compared to 29.5 million in 2007.
The best-selling games for the six week period ended January 12 were EA's FIFA 2008 and The Simpsons Game, Activision's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Assassin's Creed from Ubisoft and Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 2008.
Other titles singled out as "exceptional" were Sega's Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games for the Wii and Dr Kawashima's Brain Training for the DS.
The retailer also expects another good year in 2008 due to the amount of hardware and software on the market, although it anticipates a smaller like for like growth given the strong comparative period.
"The current range and quality of products in the market is unprecedented," said Lewis.
"We are confident that consumer demand for our products will remain strong as we approach the March anniversary of the launch of the Sony PS3, and that the supply of the Nintendo Wii and DS Lite consoles will continue to improve
"Next year the existence of five successful hardware formats and the evident broadening consumer appeal should stimulate further growth," he concluded.
The Homebrew and Emulation scene is now bigger than it ever was with so many consoles to enjoy using Homebrew games, demos, applications and emulators.
The Homebrew Community plays host to some of the most ardent fans and at times the friendliest community of gamers and gamers who put their consoles on the line in the name of homebrew and hacking.
The Homebrew community is host to some massive communites from sites such as Xbox Scene, Xbox Hacker, Tehsskeen, PSX Scene, Wii Newz, Emuholic, GP32X, PDroms, 1 Emulation, The Emulation64 Network, Max-Console, GBA Temp, DevFr, PLayeradvance, QJ and of course DCEmu and tons of other websites who at this time i may have forgot but i dont mean any discredits by not mentioning you.
I feel as a community of homebrewers and that means every site if the release is posted their ought to support the coders who spend long hours working on toys for us to use.
One such way is donating to them via the likes of Paypal etc but also and a very easy way is to use the social sites such as Digg etc and instead of linking to ones own site use the digg link to link to the coders site. Imagine the exposure our scene will get by joining together and as a scene promoting the coders, in the end all of us sites gain because the whole homebrew community benefits.
It doesnt matter what went on in the past but the future that counts, every release of quality deserves to be main paged on the likes of Digg and the other big sites that usually only cover Commercial gaming.
Can the Community join together to help our coders, lets hope so. From Now on if a Coder has a Digg Link or a donate link (has to be a link VB is funny on that) then we will gladly post it on our pages.
Sega Inc. said Monday that it has broken ground on an expansion that will more than double its headquarters.
The new 32,600-square-foot building is to be done in July, the Overland Park-based engineering and technical services company said. The project budget is undisclosed.
Sega's expansion will accommodate growth that added 29 employees in 2007.
Two more buildings could be constructed on 12 acres where Sega moved into its current 27,800-square-foot building in 1996.
Sega ranks No. 7 on the Kansas City Business Journal's list of the Top Area Engineering Firms.
My good buddy from new zealand bigbobrocks has just been to the worlds first screening of cloverfield and he had this to say
so you get to see it first.
in new zealand today the very first screening of cloverfield was shown in the world.
i was lucky enough to be there security was very tight and i couldn't get a camera in
or anything that could record audio either.
but i did see the monster lots. i've made 2 videos the first a comparison
the second just lots of my bad fan art but it gives you a general feel.
the video's are exclusive to megavideo do not post it on youtube! or though you can post
a link to the video on youtube.
The GAME Group's share price has fallen steadily since the markets closed on Monday, despite positive news for the company in general.
Earlier in the week it released a trading update for sales across the Christmas period, which were up 76 per cent, and outlined strong growth for the third year in a row.
Additionally, the Competition Commission today officially cleared the completion of the deal originally announced last year that saw GameStation integrated into the business.
But the company's share price fell from 226.25 pence to 186.25 pence as of publication time, possibly prompted by the prospect of a more difficult time ahead for the industry as a whole.
The company announced that it still expects a good 2008, but that like for like growth is likely to be slightly smaller all the same.
The Competition Commission has finally cleared the acquisition of Gamestation by High Street rival GAME.
After announcing the preliminary results late last year, the official body has stated it does not expect there will be a substantial lessening of competition in the UK gaming retail market.
"The board of The GAME Group is pleased to note that the Competition Commission, in its final report published today, has unconditionally cleared the completed acquisition of Gamestation," said GAME in a short statement.
GAME announced in May 2007 that is was acquiring Gamestation, a move that adds a further 235 stores to its UK and Ireland group, which now totals 650 outlets in the region.
Peter Lewis, chairman of the GAME Group has stated that the company intends to keep the Gamestation brand alongside GAME, as both stores appeal to a different consumer.
"By investing in both brands we will further enhance the group's retail strategy while continuing to deliver and broaden our consumer reach," he said at the time of the acquisition announcement.
HMV has released details of its trading over the ten weeks to January 5, with an overall like for like sales growth of over 14 per cent.
Much of that improvement has come from strong hardware and software sales, which now make up 23 per cent of the group's overall sales, and while the overall market for videogames was up 32.1 per cent, HMV's videogames numbers were up by 44.1 per cent.
An HMV spokesperson told GamesIndustry.biz that while the numbers were pleasing, as more supply of Nintendo hardware becomes available and software sales increase as a result, there's "still a lot of growth to come."
And in the company's financial statement chief executive Simon Fox saw these results as a good base to work from.
"Less than a year into our transformation programme the initiatives we are undertaking to revitalise our business have helped to deliver a highly successful Christmas.
"Having stabilised the business, we will continue to focus on revitalising our store propositions as well as growing new channels to market and carefully managing margins and costs. The Group is, therefore, well positioned for the next phase of its turnaround."
Market estimates for the company's profit before tax stand in the GBP 43-53 million range, and at the opening of the London market the HMV share price had jumped almost 12 per cent to 112.75 pence.
HMV's results come just a few days after GAME posted a Christmas sales jump of 76 per cent.
Japanese game company Sega says it will help build a massive game arcade in Dubai, in an under-construction shopping centre which purports to be the largest in the world once it opens.
Sega, a unit of the Sega Sammy group, said it had signed an agreement with the United Arab Emirates' Emaar Malls Group to build the two-floor arcade inside the Dubai Mall later this year.
Under the license agreement, Sega will offer development and management know-how to Emaar Malls Group, which will build and operate the facility.
Sega says the arcade will occupy some 7,000 square meters of the shopping centre.
Sega became a household name with popular arcade games such as the 'UFO Catchers' claw vending machine, and in 1998 won a fan base with its Dreamcast machine.
It stopped producing the Dreamcast in 2001 under fierce competition from Sony and Nintendo.
The company has since focused on arcade machines, software and theme parks.
It saw a new lease on life after merging in 2004 with Sammy Corp, Japan's top maker of pinball slot machines.
Sega in a statement said it hoped the Dubai deal would open up new opportunities as Emaar Malls plans eventually to build more shopping malls in the Middle East, India and other emerging markets.
You probably don't know the name Mark Haigh-Hutchinson, but you've almost certainly been entertained by one of the games he helped to create. From Paperboy and Zombies Ate My Neighbors to a series of Star Wars titles like Dark Forces and Rebel Assault, his career has spanned several years and several genres. Sadly, the programmer died on Tuesday after a struggle with pancreatic cancer. He was 43 years old.
Perhaps the part of Haigh-Hutchinson's legacy that will be familiar to most of you though is his work with the Metroid Prime series, for which he served as senior engineer and helped to create the game's camera system. Besides his gaming legacy, he leaves behind him a wife and two daughters.
Hi all im sure regulars will know that we were hacked back in November and also that we suffered an Hardware failure in December.
It was either that or some other act of god that caused many problems here at DCEmu.
As far as i know, heres the problems
Corrupt Files - Please Let us know Via Comments any Files that you come across that are corrupt, ill either source a replacement file or ask Martin for a backup.
So im asking every DCEmu Member who comes across a file to post the link of whats corrupt so we can fix
DNS Problems- This is a weird one i myself dont have any problems whatsoever but many users cant access some sites but i guarentee they are all working, again post what browser and what site you are struggling to get on, the more info the better is needed.
Forum Problems - Any forum problems you come across let us know in the comments.
Dreamcast Download Site - yes its down but for some strange reason i cant get the cgi up and running.
Now i am trying to fix things but sometimes 4000 or more sets of eyes is better than 1, so if you notice any problems then please answer via comments.
I like everyone who visits wants it running perfectly. we live in hope
While this image of a gigantic waterfall cascading down from beneath the Brooklyn Bridge looks like some wacky photoshop, it's actually something that's being installed this summer. A new art project will have four waterfall sculptures installed in New York City from mid-July to mid-October, spewing water from heights of 90 to 120 feet, or about as high as the Statue of Liberty.
The installations will cost about $15 [£7.67] million to put in place, but they're expected to bring in over $55 [$28.14m] million in tourist revenue. Because hey, nothing says "road trip" like going to see a freestanding waterfall in the middle of the East River. Which is where all of the waterfalls will be: one in the river under the Brooklyn Bridge, the other three just freestanding scaffolds in the middle of the river. Personally, I'm pretty excited about this as I see the Brooklyn Bridge every day as my train goes over the Manhattan Bridge and I'm always on the lookout for things to stare at so I can avoid eye contact with other people. Here's to ambitious public art installations actually being funded and created!
After a mammoth building session, Lego master Mark Kelso has just recently put the last brick on his model of the Invisible Hand, General Grevious' ship from Star Wars Episode III. Yes, that photo of him and his model is to scale—it's frickin' massive. It took an equally massive 9 months to build too.
The completed ship is 231 studs long (that's almost 73 inches, for us non-Lego-geeks), 41 studs wide and weighs about 30 pounds. It's packed with attention to detail that has to be seen to be believed, down to different antenna sizes dotted around the tower and complex engine-plumbing. Mark's decision to avoid too many exposed studs must have added considerably to both the expense and building time, but has resulted in something that looks almost like a prop from a Lucas' set.
Whether you think "dedication to hobby" or "Lego nutcase in action", you've got to admit its pretty awesome. Now, who on Earth would think of taking on a project like that?
Moviehole talked to ''Sweeney Todd'''s Timothy Spall who confirmed he'll be back as Peter Pettigrew in another ''Harry Potter''.
“Well I'm actually.... yes... I'm in the next one”, reveals the British actor. ''And I'm also in the one at the end – I have a very big scene in that. I think they might be shooting two of them back-to-back – hard to know though, what with this writer's strike and all. They're shooting the penultimate one at the moment – which I have a brief appearance in it. I should be doing that soon.''
Spall appeared as Peter Pettigrew in ''Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'' and ''Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban''.
Whilst working on the forums tonight i got rid of the old hacked Java chat and ive uploaded a new JAVA IRC Chat that connects to our DCEmu Chatroom on Efnet #dcemu
Also we now have Tags on the forums and the cool thing about that is once its been in a while it will be mega easy for you to search for items of interest and for google to send us more visitors
Finally we have installed Zoints Local which is a blog/social addon for the forums so basically once you get used to it you can use it as a homepage/coders site i suppose its endless what it can be used for.
TCPalm.com has a small quote from Universal Orlando Resort President Bill Davis, stating that the Wizarding World of Harry Potter may be opening as early as December 1st, 2009.
As we reported back in August, a NEC filing for the park stated that the earliest it could open is December 15th. This earlier opening may be good news at first sight. However, you may remember a report from Jim Hill Media in November, which won't leave fans as excited. The website suggested that phase one, to be opened in December, "will probably only include Hogwarts Castle and Hogsmeade Village." Phase two, which would include the Forbidden Forest and a flying-car attraction, will open in 2010.
Of course, none of this is official yet. Given that the Potter park only has dirt laid on its ground right now, these dates are bound to change. We'll keep you updated! Thanks to Justina for the tip.
Seems the PS3 Scene is suffering the same crap that the PSP scene has suffered, heres the article from Brakkens Blog:
UPDATE: It seems the DDOS is over and the rumors of the site being totally compromised are true as it now redirects to Google. I don't really condone hacking, but God knows Daniel Serafin had it coming. I wonder how "bad" the hack is.
Well, it seems PS3News is up to no good once again. I'm sure you can all remember them as they leaked Dark_Alex's Custom Firmware source code fter hacking into the very insecure database over on Max-console, retrieved user passwords and gained access to the source. The backlash from the PSP community was enough for Daniel Serafin, the owner of PS3News (aka PS2NFO aka PS2OWNZ) to change his entire site layout and promised he would change his ways.
Well, it didn't take long for him to get back into his dubious activities. Of course, we all know his past activities have included editing the credits of releases and replacing them with his sites URL, stealing applications, exclusive pictures, not linking to sources, etc ... As Team Xecuter called them "scene trash" one would think people would avoid his site at all costs, but even after the "change" he still gets visitors - sorta.
After the PSP fiasco he lost his PSP user-base (sadly to Max-console, who is now losing them too) and only had his PS3 users left. Well, a lot of them didn't like the PSP situation and moved to a site named ps3hax.net. Since then he's been outraged and of course blames it on everyone but himself.
Now, lets step back a year or so. I'm sure a lot of you remember PS3News reporting that Paradox had made a PS3 ISO Loader which to my knowledge never existed and was used to luer visitors to his site and help sell Team Xecuter's products. Sadly, Paradox which is one of the oldest "hacking" groups around support Mr. Serafin. I'm not sure why, but they do. Anyway, the ISO Loader was never released and probably never existed in the first place.
Well, a few days ago a REAL PS3 exploit was unveiled by a team named Team ICE (not to be confused with the ICE Team who was known for releasing fake XBOX material in the past.) ps3hax had an exclusive video on their site and this must of frustrated Mr. Serafin greatly as he hacked into ps3hax's database, stole some information and then started a fake campaign to discredit Team ICE.
The first action taken after the hack was a mass banning of IP addresses contained in ps3hax's database. Basically, Daniel wanted banned the administrators, moderators, coders and some members of ps3hax using information contained in the illegally obtained ps3hax database.
Contained in this database was an earlier exploit named RFOM (Resistance Fall of Man Exploit) which helped hack into the PS3 GameOS system. PS3News then modified this exploit so it didn't work and then released it in a slanderous news article. This was their first attempt at tarnishing Team ICE's name.
"This caused basically a huge flame war to erupt on our forums and if you can go through the topics on our forum you can feel the hate of many members towards PS3News, these guys basically try to shoot down a few talented hackers for their discovery" - ps3hax admin
Next, PS3News released the exploit supposedly used in the video (which was fake of course). This caused further outrage in ps3hax's forum. Daniel must be really out on a limb to release two fake programs. Then came the third program. It was another application created called the "PS3 SDK v2.10.rar" which was a simple BAT file that resets your computer.
Luckily, it wasn't near as damaging as when Daniel Serafin released a modified version of Dark_Alex's Custom Firmware CFW M33 which bricked many Sony PSP's. Anyway, Daniel had his flunkies spam ps3hax's forum with the that "fake" PS3 SDK file resulting in further frustration from the PS3 Development Community.
At any rate, PS3News is now under a massive DDOS attack. I don't condone such activities, but they surely deserve some downtime due to their ****ing ignorance. You'd think after the PS2, GC and PSP scene shit they pulled they would stop, but I guess Daniel Serafin is just a piece of shit.
If you would like to contact him over the matter he can be reached via the information below. Please note if you do call please obey the laws, be polite, don't threaten him, etc... This information is in the public domain. So is mine if you look for it.
Daniel Serafin
117 Yorktown Dr
Webster, NY 14580
United States of America
(585) 671-6422
"I just want proper credit where it is due, I love the PS3 hacking scene thus why I run the site. I'm not in it for the fame, power or money...I'm in it because I love homebrew. Plus I wanted a place where people can come in and get information easily without any hassle" - ps3hax admin
Sam Kennedy is a guy you can respect. As the Editor of the 1up site, he's overseen some great features and some unbelievable breaking news; he also has a great point of view on the games industry. So his massive blog entry posted today talking about Gamespot's sad state of affairs post-Gerstmann-gate is something you should take seriously. Sam runs down the sordid affair itself, the changes to C|Net and Gamespot management that led to unreal expectations at Eidos, and what this could mean for the future of game reviews.
"Shortly after Gerstmann was fired, I got a call from a friend at one of the major nationwide news networks asking me what I knew about what happened, as he was considering trying to pitch a story to his editor. You want to know what it was? 'Game Reviews: can they be trusted?' Basically, 'You're a parent and you're going to buy a videogame for your kids this holiday season, but can you trust those reviews you're reading on the web?' That's why this story matters so much. Gerstmann-gate ... made him want to give the industry a nice kick in the pants. I applaud his motives, but again, it's a shame to have this sort of doubt hanging over us all."
If you haven't perused it yet, 1UP's Sam Kennedy's piece on Gerstmann-gate is really fascinating. Not only do you get a not-quite-insider's view on the whole situation, but there are also some really eye-opening nuggets on the methods GameSpot uses both to track users and to cater to its marketers. If you like the inside baseball side of games journalism, it's a must-read.
There's also an interesting rumor buried within: Kennedy reports that "word on the street" is that ousted Jeff Gerstmann and GameSpot founder Vince Broady would be teaming up to create a new site to "take on GameSpot." We don't know if it's true, but we'd keep an eye on Gerstmann's blog for more info.
