First of all, readers of our Forums know (with the assistance of our Members) we have recently been doing research into the PS3 RCO file format.
Note that it is different than that on a PSP, however, contains similarities as well. We have received a few questions as to "why" we want to examine the files... it's for a few reasons. First off- We are all curious! Secondly, the RCO files, in support with other files, enable/disable "links" to PS3 XMB options.
In related news, we have now accessed the PS3 Flash's FileSystem, and among other things (to be posted in Part 2 or 3 of this article) it contains a folder called "ps1emu".
What is it for? We found out! Inside the ps1emu folder, upon the insertion of a PS2 disc, a file is copied there by the name of "ps1_rom.bin". Oddly enough, it is actually the custom made PS2's BIOS for th... More »
Not only is Gizmondo coming back, Carl Freer says you can expect to see a new version of the handheld console by the end of the year—this time without the whole defrauding investors and crashing Ferraris schtick, supposedly.
In an interview in the Gizmondo forums, Freer claimed that, "There is still incredible value in the Gizmondo. And with the enhancements we're adding... we feel it's only the beginning of where we can go with the product."
Gizmondo version 2.0 will include a new graphics chip, Windows CE 6.0 (which comes with "a lot of 'new' goodies," Freer says), and a bunch of original content to be downloaded off the gizmondo.com website. It'll be ready by Winter 2008, and the developer community can expect more announcements soon.
Left unanswered by the interview was why Freer thinks anybody is going to trust him with anything a second time around. Maybe he hasn't heard the adage: "Fool me once, your CEO gets sent to jail for three... More »
Competition becomes even more vital in an industry that is technology driven. It's quite amazing that Moore's law, which states that computing power doubles every 18 months, still holds true.
This rapid evolution is primarily driven by competition. People are constantly trying to outdo each other. Consoles typically have a shelf life of about five to six years. What would happen without competition?
Where did the Genesis go? What happened with the PlayStation 2? Having nightmares yet?
In other words, we would potentially skip a whole generation of hardware. So what would make this such a likely scenario? Because when no competition exists, then you have a situation where a company's bottom line is less aligned with consumer needs.
As an example, Nintendo was once clearly dominating the market with the NES. While the Sega Master system was on the market, it had less than 5% marketshare. Nintendo was so comfortable in their positio... More »
Rockstar Games just confirmed that they have released a patch for the PlayStation 3 version of GTA IV which was causing issues with online play.
Specifically, it prevents Gamespy's servers from being overloaded, and therefore reduces the impact on those servers that were causing the game to stutter and lock up.
To quote: Rockstar Games has released a GTA IV patch for Playstation 3 today that prevents Gamespy’s servers from being overloaded and therefore reduces the impact on those servers that were causing the game to stutter and lock up.
We continue to monitor the performance of the game both on and offline and will provide further updates as necessary. We want to assure everyone that, together with our hardware partners, we continue to strive to give our fans the best possible interactive entertainment experiences possible.
This update will ensure that everyone will experience Grand Theft Auto IV the way it was intended. We apol... More »
Blu-ray player sales are sucking wind as well they should. According to Cnet, sales of the DRM infected format players are dropping like rocks.
The not so bright people out there had expected sales to skyrocket once the format war was done, but it didn't. They thought was people would ignore the massive defects of Blu-ray and buy like the dumb sheep that they are, handcuffing themselves to the Sony bank account.
Surprise, it didn't happen. US consumers are still dumb sheep, but this time they are realizing what is being done to them and they aren't biting. Sony's hope of having 50% of disc sales this year be Blu-ray are more likely to happen because of falling DVD sales than rocketing Blu-ray.
The format has three problems, DRM infections, BD-J and greed. The greed part is obvious, Sony won the format war and are trying to charge people between 50 and 100% more for a product with marginally better quality. Sure, it looks better, and the 0.07% of p... More »
Movies based on video games may be God's punishment for an evil world, but there were plenty of excellent films that (surprisingly) gave us hours of gaming gold.
Today, we're bringing them all back in a list of The 25 Greatest Movie-Based Games EVER! Grab a bucket of popcorn, have a seat, and let's roll the film!
25. T2: The Arcade Game
"Come with me if you want to live."
There were plenty of games that spawned from the cinematic awesomeness of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, but the arcade version blew them all away. Once you put your quarter in the machine and took hold of the T2 gun, all Hell broke loose. Dropping you right in the middle of the post-Judgment Day war, hundreds of T-101s and Skynet machines stormed the screen, eager to terminate you. It was pure chaos. Without a pocketful of quarters, you'd survive for mere minutes, but it was still a fun ride.
24. Judge Dredd (SNES, Genesis)
"Throw down your weapons and pr... More »
Well, you’ve just stolen your umpteenth car for Brucie, taken Michelle to the Chicken Shack and banged her like a drum for the tenth time... What now?
Instead of the single player missions, I’m gonna give you a top 5 things to do when you’re not performing a single player mission.
Number 5:
Ladies of the night. Whether it’s the strippers or the hookers, Rockstar has made sure that Niko’s nookie is taken care of. Sure, there’s lots of variations on this one, like find all of the different types of hookers, kill the hookers, or run the hookers down. Then go to the strip club and, of course, shoot up the strip club, kill the strippers, run the strippers down, or check out the different lap dances, but it all boils down to finding the ladies.
Number 4:
Got this extremely fun activity from Rothbart. He likes to steal a motorcycle then drive as fast as possible into oncoming traffic and see how far he can jettison ... More »
We mentioned in previous Site News posts that we're working on converting a Retail PS3 into a Debug PS3.. and we have some updated news on the process to share today.
For starters, we had quite a delay. Our PS3 Devs have been using an expensive external programmer to do the job, however, these dumps differed than the dumps from the Infectus chip. It was quite a puzzling issue indeed.. which was the proper dump?!
After many hours of examination spanning over a few weeks time, it turns out the external programmer was the culprit! The software that the manufacturer provided had a flaw in it that would drop certain bytes, resulting in a corrupt dump missing OOB 64 bytes of data. Luckily our PS3 Devs managed to find and correct the initial problem, so a big THANKS to them!
Once that was sorted, testing began by modifying both the IPL and METLDR..... More »
The first legalised home computers have gone on sale in Cuba, but a ban remains on internet access. This is the latest in a series of restrictions on daily life which President Raul Castro has lifted in recent weeks.
Crowds formed at the Carlos III shopping centre in Havana, though most had come just to look. The desktop computers cost almost $800 (£400), in a country where the average wage is under $20 (£10) a month.
But some Cubans do have access to extra income, much of it from money sent by relatives living abroad. Since taking over the presidency in February, Raul Castro has ended a range of restrictions and allowed Cubans access to previously banned consumer goods.
In recent weeks thousands of Cubans have snapped up mobile phones and DVD players. But only now have the first computer stocks arrived.
Internet access remains restricted to certain workplaces, schools and universities on the island.
Firstly, this is not for the 60GB PlayStation 3's, some of which freeze up at the beginning of the game. This is for those with a 40GB console whose game often freeze up, particularly during missions.
Yesterday I connected my PlayStation Network ID to the Rockstar Social Club, ever since then my console often started with a temporary 2 - 3 second freeze when I load up my game, then luckily the game continues. But when I started with missions today my console constantly froze up at certain points, specifically at the start or end of missions.
I reset my console multiple times, yet the problem still continued. I read that others were having a similar problem, so I knew I wasn't alone. Then I thought about signing out the PlayStation Network, and for hours of playing after that the game has not frozen up once!
I then scouted the message boards and found that this particular solution completely works ... More »
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