Over the months there has been a lot of inaccurate information circulating in regards to how exactly the PlayStation 3's Service Mode works, and as promised in our previous Dev updates here are some of the facts to help separate the rumors and speculation.
It is a fairly simple process as follows.. For starters, the PS3 is powered off, and a special USB dongle, known as the Jig, is connected. The PS3 is then turned on, and then off, once it has detected the Jig.
After this occurs, the PS3 is then turned back on, into "Service" Mode. From here, the PS3 is re-flashed using a Firmware Update on a USB stick, specifically designed to only install from the Service Mode. Once the PS3 is re-flashed with the software, it is then used in conjunction with a PC running customized software, specifically the DEX.exe and CEX.exe's.
There are a multitude of special PS3 firmwares, basically three major ones. The first is a Core System, followed by the Service Sys... More »
Press Release: Burlingame, CA -- October 21, 2008 -- KOEI, recognized worldwide as the premier brand of strategy and action games, today announced that a free demo of DYNASTY WARRIORS®6 for Windows-based PC is now ready for download. Gamers can visit the recently re-launched DYNASTY WARRIORS 6 minisite at www.koei.com/dw6 for more details.
The full version of DYNASTY WARRIORS 6 for Windows-based PC will be available for purchase on November 18, 2008 exclusively through digital download for residents of North America and Brazil.
Containing all the electronics needed to run as a low- to medium-power PC, the Jack PC, as its name suggests, will fit into a standard size wall socket. The entire PC sits on two layered circuitboards. It contains an AMD RISC processor to help reduce power consumption and heat output.
According to Jade Integration's managing director, Andy MacLellan, low power was one of the big breakthroughs achieved with the Jack PC. "A regular PC will use 80 Watts or more of power, and this only uses 5 Watts. That makes a big difference to the cost of running it, as well as other things."
The device was developed by Chip PC Technologies, a company that specialises in what it calls "post-PC technologies". According to MacLellan, Chip PC Technologies created the first Jack PC over a year ago and has been working on perfecting it since then. The Univ... More »
1ra2 of PS3Gen (linked above) has discovered something quite interesting with the new PS3 Firmware 2.50. In the new firmware, a "hidden" Restore Menu has been added.
To access it, while the PS3 is in standby, hold the power button like you are doing a reset, but keep holding it down until there are two beeps, and you then can access it.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm always a fan of any hidden menu, be it in a TV, a PS3, or even a washing machine. However this is more for the technically inept. A video of it is below:
Lets go over the options available. For those who can not read French, from top to bottom:
1. Restart System
2. Restore Default Settings
3. Restore File System
4. Rebuild Database
5. Restore PS3 System
6. System Update
Restart System and System update are quite self explanatory, you can restart the system or upgrade the PS3's f... More »
We recently purchased a new 80GB PlayStation 3 console, and our very own PS3 Dev Courier dissected his new system.
The item that peaked his interest the most was that it had one single 56-pin Flash chip, the S29GL128N90TFIR2, and was 128MB in size in contrast to older PS3 consoles utilizing dual (2x256MB) 48-pin chips totaling 512MB. So, he bought a new adapter, and some blank chips and proceeded to pull the 56-pin flash, and dumped it.
To our surprise, he was unable to dump more than 16MB of it! At first, we believed that the other blocks in the flash were protected via password, however there was something else brewing.
He took the 16MB dump that was made and flashed it onto a completly blank chip, and reinstalled it in the PS3.
To our surprise, it worked!
Now, if you recall, newer version PS3 Firmwares have ask... More »
EA has released a patch to fix problems with The Orange Box PS3 such as friends not appearing on lists and certain accounts not connecting to EA servers.
Update 1.10 comes in at 128 MB and is available now, but no official documentation has been released.
To quote: The 1.10 update is 128 MB, and unhelpfully has no associated documentation to outline the changes. Early reports suggest friends not appearing on lists and certain accounts not connecting to the EA servers should no longer be a problem.
Orange Box PS3 owners have publicly complained for a while over the framerate and connection issues as well as slow loading times.
Valve does not develop PS3 versions of its games internally but outsources them to a third-party. It has said this is the model it will follow for the foreseeable future.
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