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DCEmu.Com is a site that brings you the very latest in Gaming news that isnt console specific and the latest Current Gen news from around the world, Part of the
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February 15th, 2013, 01:53 Posted By: wraggster
New 3DS title sells 872,922 in week one
It seems Japan is finally starting to tire of interior design and mortgage payments, as new entry Dragon Quest VII: Warriors of Eden knocked Animal Crossing: New Leaf off the top of the software charts.
The top 5 was dominated by 3DS titles, led by the new Dragon Quest which sold 872,922 in its first week after shipping 1 million units.
- [3DS] Dragon Quest VII: Warriors of Eden - 872,922 (New entry)
- [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf - 81,559 (Lifetime sales - 2,513,424)
- [3DS] Fantasy Life - 13,342 (221,720)
- [3DS] New Super Mario Bros. 2 - 11,685 (1,910,708)
- [3DS] Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate - 10,523 (218,097)
While on the hardware charts sales of the 3DS XL and 3DS both saw growth, with 37396 and 12617 more sold than last week respectively.
- 3DS XL - 89,050 (Last week - 51,654)
- 3DS - 38,645 (26,028)
- PlayStation 3 - 17,004 (18,106)
- Wii U - 12,185 (12,959)
- PSP - 11,056 (12,191)
- PlayStation Vita - 8,762 (9,596)
- Wii - 1,945 (1,904)
- Xbox 360 - 593 (870)
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...ssing-in-japan
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February 15th, 2013, 01:50 Posted By: wraggster
Call of Duty continues to top the charts as 2013 gets off to slow start
After an abysmal 2012 for video games retail, US game sales in January were perhaps slightly more encouraging (depending on your viewpoint), as total industry sales climbed nine percent to $834.7 million. Hardware sales increased four percent to $205 million while software (including PC games) was flat at almost $393 million. Accessories, however, jumped 30 percent to $256.6 million, thanks to Skylanders and point or subscription cards.
The news is tempered somewhat by the fact that January was a five-week reporting period for The NPD Group. NPD explained that a 'Leap Week' is needed every five to six years "in order to preserve the seasonal integrity of the months." The last adjustment was made in January 2007, and NPD said this is "consistent with the US-based National Retail Federation's (NRF) published Retailer Calendar, which most retailers and NPD follow."
So in truth, software sales for the month, when normalized for a typical reporting period, were actually down 19 percent, NPD explained.
With the exception of Capcom's new Devil May Cry, January saw no major releases to speak of on the top ten, so 2012's year-end hot sellers like Call of Duty and Far Cry 3 continued to top the charts. That said, new releases did fare a bit better than in past January periods. "While the number of new SKUs was relatively consistent for January 2013 compared to January 2012, performance of new SKUs this year versus last was six times as high, lifted by the success of titles like DMC: Devil May Cry and Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch," observed NPD industry analyst Liam Callahan.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...january-period
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February 15th, 2013, 01:45 Posted By: wraggster
Plug in the power and Ethernet and this Raspberry Pi board will automatically collect Windows hashes from computers on the network. With a couple of RPi boards on hand [Travis] was searching for more hacks to try with them. This made a great little test to see how the board performs with the well established attack.
To start he booted into the standard Raspbian distribution. From there he loads the Metasploit framework which brings most of the necessary tools into play. It uses the Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Protocol (WPAD) to request hashes from any Windows machines listening on the network. Some version of the OS respond with LM hashes, others don’t. The importance of this and the particulars of using rainbow tables to crack the hashes is explained in this article on the subject.
We wouldn’t mind having a little hardware hack that adds a couple of LEDs to the GPIO header so you know when the RPi is done collecting the data.
http://hackaday.com/2013/02/14/raspb...ash-harvester/
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February 13th, 2013, 23:07 Posted By: wraggster
Upbeat Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney has said the studio is "more enthusiastic now than ever" for Sony and Microsoft's next-generation offerings.
<figure style="font: 14px/21px sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 20px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px currentColor; width: 300px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; clear: both; word-spacing: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; float: right; display: block; white-space: normal; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class="article-image article-image-alt article-image-300"> </figure>The studio founder said the new consoles will match what the studio is currently capable of doing on high-end PCs."We're more enthusiastic now than ever about the future of high-end platforms," Sweeney toldEdge. "What we're doing on high-end PCs is going to be representative of the future consumer gaming experience and it's going to be awesome," he added.
Dismissing any possible scepticism over the technical gap between current and next-generation machines, Sweeney assures that the improvements will be significant.
"It's going to be a substantial leap over the current generation," he said.
Speaking during a presentation at the Montreal International Game Summit in November 2012, Sweeney cited huge costs developing the Samaritan Unreal Engine 3 tech demo, which took four months to finish with a team of 30 people involved.
Sweeney said he expects development costs "at the start of the next generation" to be around double that of start of the previous generation.
http://www.computerandvideogames.com...-gen-consoles/
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February 13th, 2013, 22:49 Posted By: wraggster
EA isn’t to blame for the decreased focus on horror in Dead Space 3, the market is.
That’s according to former Epic and Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski, who argues in an extensive blog post that out-and-out horror is simply not compatible with modern gaming business models.
What will suit it, however, is the proliferation of digital delivery methods.
“In the $60 disc based market horror doesn’t fly – it’s the ultimate ‘Campaign Rental’ that’s played for two days and traded in and I’m sure EA knows this,” he wrote. “When we’re fully digital we’ll see more true horror games coming back. Look at Amnesia and Slenderman on PC.”
Cliffy B also embarks on a spirited defence of Dead Space 3, which despite critical and to a certain extent commercial success has (surprise surprise) faced the wrath of the online internet shouting posse.
“At the end of the day this franchise feels like it’s starting as a solo experience, a solitary and confined horror game, and now it’s evolving into much more than that,” he argued. “You can either fight it or embrace it. I choose the latter, as at the end of the day it’s FUN.”
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/blesz...-genre/0110842
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February 13th, 2013, 22:48 Posted By: wraggster
 60 per cent of GamesStop’s customers simply wouldn’t buy a console without the ability to play pre-owned games, the US retailer has said.GameStop’s chief financial officer Rob Lloyd warned platform holders of the potential risk in blocking second-hand games during a presentation at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference,reports GameSpot.“It does not have a big impact on the sale of new product,” said Lloyd. “So that’s why publishers understand how important the preowned business is to them. Sony has said publicly that they don’t intend to block used games in their next console. Microsoft has refused to or has not commented on the rumours that have hit the marketplace.”Lloyd said that GameStop had conducted some internal research since our next Xbox story broke and, unsurprisingly, stressed the importance of preowned to consumers. In its most recent quarter, used game sales accounted for 28% ofGameStop’s revenue and 43% of its profits.“Consumers want the ability to play preowned games; they want portability in their games; they want to play physical games. And to not have those things would be a substantial reason for them to not purchase a new console.”“I think it’s approximately 60 percent of the customers who have said they wouldn’t buy a new console if it didn’t play preowned games,” he added.
http://www.edge-online.com/news/most...arns-gamestop/
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February 13th, 2013, 00:49 Posted By: wraggster
Some video game thieves are smart, some are sassy, and some just don't know when to quit - as is the case with 34 year-old William Gooden, who attempted to stroll out of a St. Louis Kmart with 19 games shoved down his pants. Classy.As reported by kmov.com, Gooden's haul was worth approximately $500, which means each game was only worth about $26. Allegedly they were for "Xbox and PlayStation," though the report didn't get more specific than that.Bridgeton Police Department Captain Masati said Gooden is being held at a Missouri correctional facility waiting to serve a five-year sentence for a prior offense.Now seriously, those must have been some pants!
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...m-in-his-pants
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February 13th, 2013, 00:39 Posted By: wraggster
Next generation consoles are unlikely to feature backwards compatibility with current-gen titles, and will focus on deep cross-device connectivity.
<figure style="font: 14px/21px sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 20px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px currentColor; width: 300px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; clear: both; word-spacing: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; float: right; display: block; white-space: normal; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class="article-image article-image-alt article-image-300"> </figure>That's according to EA's chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen, who has spoken out on what gamers can expect from Sony and Microsoft's next offerings."We have internally, but no one externally has really seen what the look and feel will be like on the new consoles. So I'll reserve judgement other than to say that I think people are going to be pretty excited," he said, speaking during a Q&A session at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco today, reports Gamasutra.
While trying to remain unspecific, Jorgensen did go on to reveal more significant hints as to what to expect from the new machines.
"An important thing to remember is that next-gen consoles will most likely not be backwards compatible," he said, discussing the transition of EA's anual sports games to the new platforms. "And if you [play] multiplayer on a game, you'll most likely not be able to play with someone on a different generation," he added.
Hinting at a potential late 2013 release for the new consoles, which EA is referring to as 'gen-four', Jorgensen went on to say, "If you're a FIFA player and, and the soccer season's starting in August, and all your friends are playing FIFA, you're going to want to be on the same box that they're on. So if they all go out and buy a gen-four box if it comes out at Christmas, then you'll most likely do it. If they all hold on and continue to play on third-generation, you'll probably not see that box purchase until after the soccer season's over."
Jorgensen also spoke about the new console's focus on deep connectivity with devices such as tablets and phones.
"I do think once again without describing the new consoles, you've got to assume they're going to be highly integrated into the living room and the house, and there will be a lot of capability for interaction," he said, citing significant "connectivity potential".
Jorgensen went on, "I think as well you're going to see a lot more integration between tablets, phones, and the consoles over time. You're going to see people playing on glass at the same time they're playing on the console. And there's going to be some exciting innovations around that.
"And I think it's going to be an extension of moving from what's in the living room to what's outside the house. Even though it might not be playing on the console, it's connected to the console in some way."
Sony Computer Entertainment looks set to officially unveil the PlayStation 4 at an event set for February 20 at 6pm EST, where it says gamers will "see the future".
http://www.computerandvideogames.com...lity-unlikely/
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February 13th, 2013, 00:37 Posted By: wraggster
The used games market can be "critical" to major retail outlets, and good retail health is important to the games industry as a whole.
<figure style="font: 14px/21px sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 20px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px currentColor; width: 300px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; clear: both; word-spacing: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; float: right; display: block; white-space: normal; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class="article-image article-image-alt article-image-300"> </figure>So said EA CFO Blake Jorgensen, who acknowledged the 'benefits' of the used games business at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco today."It's one of these classic double-edged swords," he said, reports Gamasutra. "In one way the used game business has been critical for the health of the retail channel, and having a healthy retail channel is an important thing for us."
Jorgensen said that the industry "will probably never be 100 percent digital" do to "bandwidths constraints" and the limitations of in-home storage, pointing to the continued importance of high street retail channels.
"Would we like to sell everything at full price and not have a used game market? Sure," he added, "But I think the used game market's a little like any other kind of market where it creates liquidity. The fact is, that liquidity benefits us in some fashion. So if someone goes in and trades in a game, there's a good chance they're going to buy another one of our games. And so if there's a liquid market, I think that that's not a bad thing at all."
A recent Edge report claimed that Microsoft's next Xbox will require an internet connection to function, and will block the use of second-hand games - a move which US retailer GameStop has condemned.
"I can't really comment on where the next generation boxes are going to be relative to used games," said Jorgensen during the Q&A. "I will say that the trend in the business is to have that always-on connectivity and connect with a customer, and to the extent that the software identifies a certain customer is going to create some issues going down the road in the used game market."
http://www.computerandvideogames.com...dged-sword-ea/
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February 13th, 2013, 00:33 Posted By: wraggster
After a year of effort the Raspbmc team announced it has reached the 1.0 milestone. This means the team is confident they've delivered a stable distro to run the port of XBMC specifically designed to run on the Raspberry Pi, created by TeamXBMC, and the image is ready to be downloaded for free and copied to your ready and able SD card. If you were already enjoying the fruits of the early builds of Raspbmc, you'll need to do a complete re-install but that shouldn't be too much trouble since you probably store your content on a network drive or external USB.
Raspbmc 1.0 is based on the recently finished XMBC 12 Finaland supports DTS decoding in software. This is in addition to many other codecs supported in software and you can purchase licenses from the Raspberry Pi Store for MPEG-2 and VC-1 hardware decoding for just a few bucks. A good move, since hardware decoding of today's most popular video codecs is almost certainly a requirement for any proper XBMC setup. Now, if the Raspbmc team would release their own custom case for the RPi then everyone would know what's going on just by looking under your TV.
http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/12/r...our-raspberry/
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February 13th, 2013, 00:25 Posted By: wraggster
Seeing this IBM joystick again really brings back memories. But it can be used on a modern system thanks to this USB conversion project.
This particular model had a connector which is foreign to us. It looks like a boxy USB-A plug, but has an eight-pin sockets which looks like it’s 0.1″ pitch. You could try to make your own male connector using a dual-row pin header, but [Gruso] just went ahead and lopped off the end of the cable. He managed to dig up the pin-out for the device and found that it could be wired up to a gameport — the connector being the only real difference. He gutted a USB gameport adapter, removing the DB15 connector and soldering directly to the board. The boxy old peripheral has just enough room to house that PCB.
If you’re looking for a few more details than this build album provides check out [Gruso's] comments in the Reddit thread.
http://hackaday.com/2013/02/12/conve...ystick-to-usb/
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February 13th, 2013, 00:22 Posted By: wraggster
Variety is the spice of life, but there’s precious little to be had at games retail at the moment.
A cursory glance at the charts in any given week will show the usual franchises scuffling over positions in the Top 10: FIFA, Call of Duty, Just Dance, Need For Speed – brands that have dominated sales for a decade.
But look at the Steam charts. Or XBLA and PSN. Or iOS and Android. Each Top 10 is riddled with rarities: a medieval combat game for PC, truck simulators, auto-run platformers, episodic outings like The Walking Dead, stunt racers, puzzle games, indie sensation Minecraft and all manner of Angry Birds variants.
The digital stores shift a far more diverse catalogue than their bricks-and-mortar counterparts, but why is that important?
“Variety in gaming experiences is fundamental to growth in the industry, both in terms of appealing to many millions of consumers and the creativity that it allows developers,” says Xbox UK marketing director Harvey Eagle.
And if the games industry needs anything right now, it’s growth.
The rise and relevance of digital is not news to any MCV reader. The more pressing question these days is how you ensure that consumers find, and most importantly purchase, these downloadable delights.
With retail games, it’s comparatively simple: bung the bulk of your advertising spend into TV and print ads in an attempt to reach as much of a targeted audience as possible.
Older or smaller titles with less marketing support depend on customers who browse the shelves.
But with digital games, such ads might be too expensive and browsing through thousands of games listings is more likely to bore than win over consumers.
“Games can’t be pigeonholed any more by a dozen or so genres and require more defining attributes."
Shiny Loot co-founder Chris Palmarozzi
The trick is promoting your downloadable wares in as many targeted ways a possible, says Eagle.
“We market digital games through a variety of ways and channels,” he explains. “Dashboard placements and weekly updates to our Sales and Specials app highlight new releases and discounted games. Weekly charts help to show which games are popular right now, and newsletters to our community draw attention to upcoming releases.
“Consumers can even find the most popular Xbox Live content merchandised on-shelf at GAME stores, something we’ve been doing for three years now. Additionally, Bing Search recommends content based on your search term.
“With so much content available digitally, being able to curate and discover great new content is key for people and we are always looking at ways to do that ourselves, with our retail partners, and through the Xbox community of gamers.”
New digital retailer Shiny Loot has actually been built on the basis that standard search mechanics are no longer sufficient for the reams of downloadable games out there.
The site uses new filters that let users search for specific features, such as squad-based combat or Skyrim-style skill-based progression.
“Games can’t be pigeonholed any more by a dozen or so genres and require more defining attributes,” says co-founder Chris Palmarozzi.
“That’s a huge reason for why we created Shiny Loot. Users can search for games with over a hundred options that they can filter and cross-reference to find the game that’s right for them.”
One proven way to raise a game’s profile is price promotions. The famous – some would say infamous – Steam Sale held every summer and Christmas sees countless titles heftily discounted, while regular PSN and XBLA promotions draw more attention to those marketplaces.
“The right sales at the right times can help introduce more consumers to a game, or extend a particular title’s lifecycle,” says EA’s digital EVP Kristian Segerstrale adds.
“In many ways, consumers already have prices in mind that they’re willing to pay based on different factors including the type of game, platform they’re playing on, and more. We all want to be able to try more games, and as developers we want to have more people playing.”
EA Origin has also run its own sales, though its discounts were not as high as Steam’s. In fact, digital sceptics argue that extraordinarily low prices such as those in the Steam Sale or the 69p apps on iOS are devaluing download products.
But Sweden-based downloads store Gamersgate tells MCV that it sees sales of games rise after they have been temporarily discounted – even when they return to full price.
“Price is a significant driving force for digital sales,” adds Ztorm’s Anders Emblad. “However, we feel this is due to the price differences between physical and digital products, rather than a perceived lower value of the digital edition.”
Ultimately, it is consumers that dictate what does and doesn’t work online. While price promotions have proven to be popular, digital stores must be careful not to overdo it.
“The right sales at the right times can help introduce more
consumers to a game, or extend a particular title’s lifecycle.”
EA digital EVP Kristian Segerstrale
“I think the right way to handle this is to make sure the sales feel special,” says Palmarrozzi. “If scarcity is removed then sales lose some of their luster.”
Segerstrale adds: “Players will choose how they want to purchase, where they want to purchase, and whether a game matches up against their criteria for price. We want to meet all of those expectations.”
Another challenge and advantage of download stores is driving longer tail sales of back catalogue titles.
At retail, games have to make their money in the first few weeks with a massive drop in sales almost inevitable after a couple of weeks on shelves. Beyond the first month, only a select few continue to be stocked.
Not so with digital, of course.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/digit...bility/0110764
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February 12th, 2013, 13:35 Posted By: wraggster
The BAFTA Games Awards nominations for 2013 have been revealed, with Journey picking up the most nods. thatgamecompany’s PSN release got eight nominations in total, while Telltale’s The Walking Dead received seven, Ubisoft’s Far Cry 3 picked up six and thechineseroom’s Dear Esther got five nominations.The awards take place on March 5th at the London Hilton, with Dara O’Briain on hosting duties. The full list of nominees is below:Action:
Far Cry 3
Hitman: Absolution
Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2
Halo 4
Borderlands 2
Mass Effect 3Game Innovation:
Fez
Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2
Wonderbook: Book Of Spells
Journey
Kinect Sesame Street TVArtistic Achievement:
Journey
Far Cry 3
The Room
Halo 4
Borderlands 2
Dear EstherMobile and Handheld:
LittleBigPlanet Vita
Super Monsters Ate My Condo
The Room
New Star Soccer
The Walking Dead
IncobotoAudio Achievement:
Journey
Far Cry 3
Beat Sneak Bandit
Halo 4
Assassin’s Creed III
Dear EstherOnline – Browser:
The Settlers Online
Amateur Surgeon Hospital
SongPop
Merlin: The Game
Dick and Dom’s HOOPLA!
RunescapeBAFTA Ones to Watch:
Pixel Story
Project Thanatos
StarcrossedOnline Multiplayer:
Assassin’s Creed III
Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2
Borderlands 2
Journey
Need For Speed Most Wanted
Halo 4Best Game:
Far Cry 3
Dishonored
FIFA 13
Journey
The Walking Dead
Mass Effect 3Original Music:
The Unfinished Swan
Journey
Diablo III
Assassin’s Creed III
The Walking Dead
Thomas Was AloneBritish Game:
Need For Speed Most Wanted
The Room
LEGO: Lord Of The Rings
Forza Horizon
Dear Esther
Super HexagonPerformer in 2013:
Nolan North (Nathan Drake, Uncharted Golden Abyss)
Danny Wallace (The Narrator, Thomas Was Alone)
Melissa Hutchinson (Clementine, The Walking Dead)
Dave Fennoy (Lee Everett, The Walking Dead)
Adrian Hough (Haytham, Assassin’s Creed III)
Nigel Carrington (The Narrator, Dear Esther)Debut game:
Deadlight
The Unfinished Swan
Forza Horizon
Dear Esther
The Room
ProteusSports/Fitness:
Forza Horizon
F1 2012
FIFA 13
Nike+ Kinect Training
Trials Evolution
New Star SoccerFamily:
LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes
Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition
LEGO Lord Of The Rings
Just Dance 4
Skylanders Giants
Clay JamStory:
Journey
Far Cry 3
Dishonored
The Walking Dead
Thomas Was Alone
Mass Effect 3Game Design:
Dishonored
Far Cry 3
Journey
The Walking Dead
Borderlands 2
XCOM: Enemy UnknownStrategy:
Dark Souls
Diablo III
Football Manager 2013
Total War Shogun 2: Fall Of The Samurai
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
http://www.edge-online.com/news/baft...ions-for-2013/
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February 11th, 2013, 23:12 Posted By: wraggster
via http://rpix86.patrickaalto.com/rblog.html
On last Thursday I decided to order a Raspberry Pi computer, as I have been toying with the idea of porting DSx86 to it as well as to Android. It arrived on Friday, and I could not resist the temptation to start working on it immediately. Thus I began to experiment with porting my current ax86 version to it. The Friday evening was spent in an attempt to create my own Makefile system to compile ax86 (or rpix86 as I decided to call it), but after miserable failures and considerable frustration (it turns out I am really NOT a Makefile guru!) I decided to copy the Makefile system from Nintendo DS DevKitARM pretty much as-is, as it seems to work nicely and I am familiar with it. Using that I got practically all the code to compile on Friday, but the hardware-specific stuff was still missing, so it did not actually run yet.
I continued this work on Saturday, and finally by Saturday evening I was able to get 4DOS to start up inside rpix86 on a Raspberry Pi! I still don't have any input (like keyboard) support on the Raspberry Pi side, so I just added a frame counter that exits the program after a few seconds, but still it was nice to see that I can use pretty much the same code for both Android and Raspberry Pi. From now on I think I will work on those two versions side by side, as I added some compile defines to places where I need to do things differently between those two, and most of those places are in a single source code module which contains the native interface.
It also looks like I will be able to do some development things (like using a cycle counter to help me optimize some routines) more easily on the Raspberry Pi than on Android. Eventually I will probably want to add some processor-specific optimizations to my code, so that will cause differences between the versions (since RPi has ARMv6 and modern Android devices have ARMv7 processors), but for now I can work on both at the same time.
Next I will probably spend some more time on the Raspberry Pi side to get it at the same level with the Android version (namely to get keyboard and AdLib support working), after that I need to add mouse support and floating point support to both, as those are the things that currently limit the number of games I can test on ax86/rpix86. Then I will need to add SoundBlaster digital audio support, implement the missing graphics features, and so on, so there is still quite a bit of work ahead before the eventual public release.
During the past week I have continued working on rpix86, to get it up to the same level as where my ax86 currently is at. Here is a sort of a timeline for last week, the improvements and other things I have managed to get implemented. - First, I found a very interesting technique by a Raspberry Pi forum member Andrey for using the OpenGL ES hardware vertex and fragment shaders to perform the palette lookup table handling in hardware from the Raspberry Pi forum Atari 800 emulator thread. I spent a couple of days converting this code to plain C (as I am not very familiar with C++ and prefer to work with C) and changing it to work in my rpix86 environment. The converted code is available here as gles_video.c in case you are interested in it. This speeds up the graphics rendering considerably especially in the 256-color modes. I still need to do some changes to my code to have it handle all the Mode-X variations and such, but in any case this was a very useful technique!
- I also joined the Raspberry Pi forums myself, and created a thread for rpix86 there. So, if you have questions about rpix86 that might interest other future users, feel free to post on that thread!
- Next, I spent some time to get cycle counting working on my Raspberry Pi. I found a blog post explaining the required steps, but sadly the kernel module that was included was not compatible with the kernel that my Raspberry Pi uses. However, it turned out that simply using a hex editor to change the vermagic string in the module to match the kernel one allowed the module to load. I'm sure hacking the module like this is something that should not be done, but hey, it works! :-) I also noticed that the blog post does not mention that by default the counters are disabled, so you need to enable them with:
.global ccnt_enableccnt_enable: mov r0, #1 @ Enable all counters mcr p15, 0, r0, c15, c12, 0 bx lrAfter I got the cycle counters working, I implemented the same profiler features into rpix86 as what I used in DSx86. I ran Doom several times to determine the slowest opcodes, and it turned out that most time is spent in a simple opcode 0x8A (mov reg8,r/m8). It looks like Doom uses a lot of SIB (Scaled Index Byte) versions of that opcode, and my SIB byte handling is not very optimal. I have been trying to figure out ways to improve that, but so far have not been able to come up with anything noticeably faster.
- After getting tired of playing with the profiler, I decided to look into audio support, namely porting the AdLib audio support to Raspberry Pi. I just an hour ago managed to get this working, and it looks like the audio latency is much better in RPi than what it is on the OpenSL system I use on Android. However, adding even AdLib audio to Doom made it again run considerably slower than before.
- The next step is to change the EGA (16-color) modes to work with the new OpenGL ES rendering technique, and after that rpix86 is pretty much at the same level as ax86.
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February 11th, 2013, 21:50 Posted By: wraggster
North American Wii U sales came in between 110,000 and 125,000 units in January, the console's second full month of availability in the territory, analysts have estimated.
<figure style="font: 14px/21px sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 20px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px currentColor; width: 300px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; clear: both; word-spacing: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; float: right; display: block; white-space: normal; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class="article-image article-image-alt article-image-300"> </figure>Weighing in with sales predictions ahead of the NPD Group's release of official market data this Thursday, both Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter and fellow analyst firm EEDAR said Xbox 360 remained the best-selling games platform in North America last month, followed by 3DS, PS3 and Wii U.On the software front, Pachter said he expects sales to be led by Call of Duty: Black Ops 2and Just Dance 4.
Wedbush / EEDAR January 2012 hardware sales estimates (change year-on-year):
- 360 - 180,000 (-33%) / 260,000 (-4%)
- 3DS - 160,000 (-7%) / 120,000 (-30%)
- PS3 - 145,000 (-24%) / 120,000 (-37%)
- Wii U - 125,000 (n/a) / 110,000 (n/a)
- DS - 60,000 (-21%) / 31,000 (-59%)
- Wii - 52,200 (-66%) / 39,000 (-74%)
- Vita - 45,000 (n/a) / 35,000 (n/a)
- PSP - 7,500 (-63%) / (n/a)
- PS2 - 300 (-96%) / (n/a)
- Total - 775,000 (-13%) / 715,000 (-20%)
On the subject of Wii U's performance to date, Pachter said: "Nintendo must improve sell-through of its Wii U if it hopes to maintain significant market share in the next generation.
"The console received a tepid response from consumers, for a variety of reasons: first, we think that the console was misunderstood by many as a peripheral for the Wii; second, the price point for the Wii U is relatively high, and the launch was into a weak economy; and third, firstparty software support was thin, and third-party software was not sufficiently differentiated to convince many that they needed a Wii U as a replacement for their Xbox 360 or PS3.
"If the Wii U is to thrive, we think that Nintendo must market it more effectively, must speed up the pace of first-party development, and must convince third parties that they must support the Wii U or they will lose market share."
Last month Nintendo lowered its annual Wii U sales forecast from 5.5 million units to four million following weaker than expected demand for the console. However, Iwata moved quickly to rule out the possibility of a Wii U price cut.
http://www.computerandvideogames.com...lysts-suggest/
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February 11th, 2013, 21:44 Posted By: wraggster
House Minority Leader contests idea that media creates real-world violence in Fox News interview
Politicians in the US have been weighing in on violent games for decades, usually to attack them. However, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D, CA) this weekend broke from the norm by offering up a defense to violent media during an interview on Fox News Sunday.
The remarks came after interviewer Chris Wallace criticized President Barack Obama's call for more scientific research into the effects of violent media and ties to real-world violence.
"We don't need another study, respectfully," Wallace said. "We know these video games where people have their heads splattered, these movies, these TV shows... Why don't you go to your friends in Hollywood and challenge them, shame them and say, 'Knock it off.'"
Pelosi said as a mother and a grandmother, she understood the concerns about violent media. However, she said, "In Japan for example, they have the most violent games than the rest, and the lowest mortality from guns. I don't know what the explanation is for that, except they may have good gun laws."
The legislator wasn't willing to completely dismiss the possibility of violent games causing real-world violence, but she said researching the issue was one part of a solution that also included stricter gun control laws and improved mental health care.
"I think we have to do it all, and that's why we included in there that we have to take a look at what these games are," Pelosi said. "I don't think we should do anything anecdotally. We have a saying here, 'the plural of anecdote is not data.' So we want to know what is the evidence, what will really make a difference here. And I think it has to be comprehensive."
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-violent-games
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February 11th, 2013, 21:43 Posted By: wraggster
Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter has called the UK games retail market "a joke," with prices pushed so low that the market has become unsustainable - forcing companies like HMV, Blockbuster and Game into administration.
Speaking to Digital Spy, Pachter poured scorn on the pricing policies of the country's highstreet chains, also claiming that the problem has been exacerbated by a dearth of opportunities for customers to sell on second hand games, limiting their funds to spend on new games.
As well as blaming these policies for the decline of existing shops, Pachter believes that it's this situation which has prevented the arrival of overseas chains on Britain's streets.
"Retail needs to make money to exist, and games retail in the UK doesn't make money."
Michael Pachter, Wedbush Securities.
"The UK games retail market is a joke, with retailers pricing below cost to drive traffic," he said in the comment to Digital Spy. "That's great for consumers, but retailers can't make any money on games, hence the bankruptcies of Game, HMV and Blockbuster, and the refusal of GameStop to expand into the market.
"If all retailers go broke, or if games are dominated by mass merchants like Dixons, gamers are ultimately going to get fewer selections. The absence of GameStop and the demise of GAME limits the ability of consumers to trade in used games, depriving many of credits that can be used to purchase new games. Retail needs to make money to exist, and games retail in the UK doesn't make money."
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...rket-is-a-joke
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February 11th, 2013, 21:41 Posted By: wraggster
Mojang, the folks behind Minecraft, have officially released Minecraft: Pi Edition. This free version of the popular game is optimized to run on the Raspberry Pi hardware, and has an API that exposes the game’s internals to a variety of programming languages.
Mojang intends this release to be an educational tool for teaching and learning programming. Since the API provides instant feedback in the game, it could be an interesting way to make learning to code fun for people of all ages.
Having access to the API on a RPi also means that the game can be connected to the real world. For example, using Python and the RPi.GPIO, pins on the GPIO header can be used for output or input. This creates a slew of possible hacks that interface with the game.
Any ideas on what you’d like to do with Minecraft on a RPi? Let us know in the comments. Also, we coincidentally just printed a minecraft pick on our 3d printer. There’s a time lapse video of it after the break!
http://hackaday.com/2013/02/11/minec...-rpi-released/
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February 11th, 2013, 21:02 Posted By: wraggster
 Dead Space 3 has topped the charts and has become the biggest launch of the year so far, according to the latest all formats chart from GfK-ChartTrack. The third title’s first week sales are down 26.6% on Dead Space 2’s launch week, though. The Xbox 360 version accounted for 65% of the week-one sales, with PS3 representing 31% and PC just 4%.Madden NFL 2013 is the second highest new entry this week, arriving at number 19. Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing Transformed returns to the top ten on the strength of the new 3DS version.The GFK Chart-track top ten for the week ending February 9th is as follows. Week-on-week sales comparisons are in brackets:1. Dead Space 32. FIFA 13 (-9%)3. Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2 (-12%)4. Far Cry 3 (+3)5. Hitman: HD Trilogy (-30%)6. Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (-63%)7. Need For Speed Most Wanted (-17%)8. Just Dance 4 (-15%)9. Hitman Absolution (-19%)10. Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing Transformed (+50%)
http://www.edge-online.com/news/uk-c...at-number-one/
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February 11th, 2013, 20:53 Posted By: wraggster
Organisers behind the Consumer Electronics Show have rejected calls to enforce a ban on 'booth babes' by introducing a dress code.
Instead, the US's Consumer Electronics Association, which runs the event, has announced it will revise the show's guidelines on booth babes but stated that an outright ban would be "unenforceable".
The event is not the only show of its kind to face a backlash over its user of booth babes, with both the E3 video games expo and Shangai's ChinaJoy digital conference facing similar criticism.
UK video games conference, the Eurogamer Expo, recently announced it would introduce similar restrictions for its future events.
The CEA has said its guidelines will be amended ahead of the 2014 CES event, with the association confirming it will warn exhibitors over their use of booth babes stating it may reflect badly on their business, and that any use should be given "thoughtful consideration".
Forbes journalist, Connie Guglielmo recently filed a petition calling for exhibitions to introduce a ban on the concept of booth babes, citing one firm's use of female models in just bikini bottoms and body paint at this year's CES event.
"I'm not against spokesmodels," said Guglielmo, "Hire all the pretty people you want. Just dress them as though they actually work at your company."
http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/...-banned/030229
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