NullDC author answers questions about PSP emulator
Posted by Graham. Filed under G, News, Sony PSP, Video. Tagged with Dreamcast, Emulation.
Drk||Raziel, creator of NullDC, has posted a few updates on his (new) blog about the PSP version of the emulator.
One of the updates shows Dead or Alive 2 running (see above video) on the PSP… still at about 1fps - so totally unplayable, like Shenmue was in the last video we posted on this. But on the plus side the visuals look pretty good.
But more importantly he (she?) has posted up more details on the emulator, and talks about the speed issues:
Finally an affordable hand held Dreamcast right on your PSP?
Posted by Graham. Filed under G, News, Retro, Sony PSP. Tagged with Dreamcast, Emulation, Sonic Adventure 2.
[Update: A lot of people think that the video is a fake. In all honesty I'm not sure - it certainly had me convinced. Hopefully the guy will put up some more videos, and I shall try to do some digging in the mean time. If it's a fake then I shall hold up my hands and say "Yeah you got me, well done." But if it's real then... "Woohoo!"]
We’ve seen a few hand held Dreamcasts being made over the last few years, one we reported on quite recently.
The biggest problems with these hand helds is that you either need to be a technical/electronics wizard, or have a healthy cash flow - and buy it off those that are wizards. But it seems now you won’t need to possess much more than the Internet (which, if you are reading this, you must have already), and a PSP!
I knew that the emulation and homebrew scene has been steadily growing over the past few years, but this is the first time I have actually seen a PSP running Dreamcast games. And to be honest, I’m pretty damn excited by the concept! As you can clearly see, the video shows the PSP running Sonic Adventure 2, and it looks pretty much perfect in game play.
Unfortunately I’m not totally sure on all the information here. All that I can really tell you is that it is running on the “AutoBrew” emulation software - which supports several retro consoles, including; Ps1, N64 and (of course) Dreamcast.
Hopefully we can find some more information on this for you guys soon.
[Source: TheGameForum]
iPhone gets a Genesis emulator
Posted by Chris. Filed under Chris. Tagged with Emulation, Homebrew.
The iPhone just never ceases to amaze us. After Sega ported an impressive version of Super Monkey Ball just recently, word comes around that a Genesis emulator aptly named genesis4iphone is about to be released by a homebrew developer by the name of ZodTTD.
This video showcases the second version of the beta, and ZodTTD promises a public release by the end of the week. Of course, the iPhone has no buttons, so players will use a virtual Genesis controller through the iPhone’s touch screen. Amazingly enough, it seems to work pretty well, even with games that require top-notch button precision as Mortal Kombat.
For the longest time, I’ve hated cell phones because I’ve seen what evil they have done to the poor Koreans. Seriously, cell phones have taken over that entire country! But the iPhone is doing some extremely cool things that are beginning to soften my cold, black heart.
[Thanks for the tip, Mike!]
New Years Nerdaway - 1 week remaining!
Posted by Graham. Filed under G, Japan, Microsoft Xbox 360, News, Nintendo DS, PC, Retro, Sonic, Sony PSP. Tagged with Condemned, Crazy Taxi, Downloads, Emulation, Exclusive, Fan Stuff, Giveaways, Handheld, House of the Dead, Imports, Nerdaway, NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams, Saturn, Sonic Rush, Super Monkey Ball, Total War, Virtua Fighter 5, Virtua Tennis.
Just over a week ago, we announced the New Years Nerdaway, our special giveaway for the start of 2008. Featuring 4 great bundles of gaming goodness.
So far we have been inundated with scores of entries, but the contest is not yet over. No sir!
The closing date for the contest is on January 31st 2008. Which, at the time of posting this article, leaves anyone who has not yet entered, with exactly 1 week (7 days) left, to try and win these fantastic prizes.
For full details, follow this link.
Sonic X-Treme prototype released
Posted by George. Filed under News, Retro, Sonic. Tagged with Emulation, Saturn.
Sonic X-treme, you remember it? Oh, well its a canceled game for the Sega Saturn. Well now you get to test drive the prototype. You will need a copy of your favorite emulator for Saturn first. Also a worthy note, you should have a pretty good pc if you expect to play this game.
Torrent Download
Rapidshare Download
[Source: SonicStadium Thanks: Blek]
Mac users to receive Dreamcast games via GameTap
Posted by Graham. Filed under Arcade, G, News, PC. Tagged with Emulation.
Â
The popular games download service, GameTap, has been one great way for PC users to obtain some classic arcade, PC and console titles with ease. Well now it is the turn for Mac users to get their fill of downloadable games, from the service.
The service has been available, on the PC, for about 2 years now, and is one of the better known services for ‘legal emulation’. Gamers pay a subscription fee, which allows them access to hundreds of games, from various consoles.
Earlier this year we reported that games for the Sega Saturn were to be available on the service, starting with BUG!. And it seems that Mac users will be getting the same treatemnt, with the inclusion of Dreamcast titles! {whoop, whoop!}
“And when the Deluxe version launches later this summer, Mac users will also have access to titles originally developed to run on Sega’s Saturn and Dreamcast consoles. Ultimately, Mac users will be able to count the number of games they’ll have access to in the hundreds, said Sanchez — more than 500, in fact.”
So far further reports on which Dreamcast games will be available, but I think it’s about time I looked into subscribing for the service myself.
[Source: MacWorld.com]
Think the PSP and GP32 are best handhelds for emulation?
Posted by Graham. Filed under G, News, Retro. Tagged with Emulation.
Introductiong the ‘V2000′ by Ainol (that either sounds rude or it’s a medical term).  Similar in design to Apples PMP (Portable Media Player), the iPhone, the similarities really stop there. While it may look like the iPhone, this PMP is smaller, with a slightly snaller screen, 3.0″ to Apples 3.5″, and the V2000 has no phone function. It’s purely for playing different forms of media on it,music, pictures, videos and even games.
This is what caught my attention really. The gaming is said to have a strong emphasis on emulation for NES, SNES, Sega Genesis and NeoGeo titles. In excess of 10,000 games (holy crap!) will be playable according to the company. Ainol says the vast majority of these are best enjoyed with a dedicated controller, but (frustratingly) hasn’t let any details slip on the controller yet.
If you are wondering where you will store all these games, the PMP has no internal memory, but instead uses SD cards, with a capacity of up to 4gbs, to store your entertainment on. While no internal memory is bad for most, using SD cards is good, as they are one of the most common forms of memory storage these day and prices in the last year have fallen dramatically, which is nice.
The other decent thing about the device, aside from the possibility of playing 10,000 games, is the movie support. While alot of PMP devices have the ability to support movie files; PSP, iPod, iPhone, Gizmondo (had to throw that one in!), Zune, even DS (yes it can- its an add-on, I have one!) etc… the list goes on and on. The point is while all these devices support video files, very few of them support AVI files (one of the most common used PC video formats) and often mean one has to convert their videos before watching them on the go. The V2000 also supports, Mpeg2, Mpeg4 and RealVideo (another that is often over looked).
So with the possibility of playing, far too many, hours of emulated gaming (without having to ‘hack’ your device- *cough*PSP*cough*) and use various video files, where do you get one of these babies? That’s the bad news. It seems that right now the device will only be available in China, and even the website doesn’t seem to show offthe new device, just older models. But fingers crossed…
[Source: Ainol.com via trustedreviews.com]
Ecco II: Sentinels of the Universe videos released
Posted by Chris. Filed under Chris. Tagged with Dreamcast, Emulation, Fan Stuff.
A few months ago, eBay seller StingerHu auctioned off a Dreamcast development kit and showed off some pretty sweet pics of Ecco II: Sentinels of the Universe. Although he didn’t sell the code along with the devkit, there’s now a couple more videos at Past to Present to show us some more dolphin action (No, not that kind of action).
According to the video, the code is still in the pre-alpha stage, but there are five playable levels, which are titled: Atlantis, Ancient City, Galleon & Port, Home of Narwhals, Hanging Spheres and Caverns.
Even in its early stages, the game sports the same great visuals that made us all fall in love with the first on the Dreamcast. It really is too bad Sega never finished the game, because it looks like it was shaping up nicely.
Here’s hoping we can someday get this code in playable format.
The final breath for the Dreamcast?
Posted by Graham. Filed under G, News, Retro. Tagged with Dreamcast, Emulation, Fan Stuff.
Since Sega stopped production of the Dreamcast consoles back in 2001, the argument over whether the Dreamcast was dead has been raging in forums and message boards across the gaming community.
Some say that because Sega stopped officially supporting the console and that the system was no longer being manufactured, that it was dead.
But all those stubborn Dreamcast nuts out there, (me included), argued the point that titles were still being made (even though small, Japan-only titles), the homebrew scene was thriving, seeing many new games and ported PC titles emerging from the underground gaming scene. And some of the online games were still able to be played online. Also Sega was still repairing the systems, that they had not stopped supporting the system entirely, and all this meant that it was not dead.
Could the end to that argument be at hand?
Earlier this year we heard that Sega had stopped the production of the official format for the Dreamcast- the GD-ROM. a special disc, only used by the Dreamcast, which was essentially a high quality CD-ROM that could hold 1 Gig of data. This meant that no games (by any company) could be officially released for the system. The only way to get new games would be through the homebrew/ underground scene, where users will need to burn games onto a normal CD-ROM. However many will not like to do this, as playing CD-ROMs on the Dreamcast has been known to wear down the laser.
Even then that was not such a big problem, anyone who could afford to, could get their Dreamcast sent of for repairs….
Now I’m afraid it seems that Sega have announced that as of September 28th 2007, according to German website Gamefront, they will no longer accept Dreamcast, Saturn consoles or their accessories for repairs. This could be the final blow for Dreamcast (and Saturn) lovers everywhere.
PC Saturn Emulator - ‘SSF’ - update.
Posted by Graham. Filed under G, News. Tagged with Emulation, Saturn.
ÂÂ
A few months ago we reported a couple of promising Saturn emulators available for your PC. One which we ‘reviewed’ was SSF, a Saturn emulator that, while not perfect, was running most games and running them pretty darn well!
The good news is that the people/person (not sure how many are at it) behind SSF have been working on it further and have recently released an updated version of the program. But before you get too excited, the software still isnt perfect. In fact some may not notice much between this version and the last.
But I can tell you it has been improved, even if slightly, because I tested a few of games with the last version and re-tested them with this one and a couple of them were definitely running smoother. But as I say, still not perfect.
Check for more information and new screenshots after the jump…