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Mod Chip Resellers To Pay $9 Million
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Culture, Mods/Hacks, PlayStation 2,
The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has reported that $9 million in damages has been awarded against Divineo and other defendants for DMCA violations. The violations included the trafficking of mod chips and the sales of the HDLoader software package, which allowed users to copy and play Playstation 2 games from a hard drive. According to reports on Gamasutra, Judge Claudia Wilken of the U.S. District Court awarded $3,750,200 in damages against Divineo, Inc. and Canadian resident Frederic Legault. The judge also awarded $5,791,400 in damages against Divineo UK, Divineo SARL, and French resident Max Louarn.
Read More 
| Gamasutra
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Xploder HDTV Player For Playstation 2 Preview
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Mods/Hacks, PlayStation 2,
A while back, “video game enhancement” company Xplodr created a stir by announcing a product that promised to unlock the available HDTV modes in the PS2 through their Xploder HDTV Player. The product promised to allow users to run their existing PS2 games in 480p, 576p, 720p, and 1080i, and many gamers wondered if Xploder could deliver what they promised. Now, Computer And Video Games magazine has previewed the device, and at least playing OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast seemed to work as promised, with no drop in frame rates. Now, the software still has not been tested in the wild with the wide spectrum of Playstation 2 games available. Whether the scaled up resolutions impacts the framing of the games or exposes texture flaws is not clear. Xploder disclaims their product slightly, saying that not all games will work, but the product does seem to be a relatively cheap way for PS2 owners to improve their visuals on their HDTV sets.
Read More | Computer And Videogames
Microsoft Fighting Back Against Firmware Hacks
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Mods/Hacks, Xbox 360,
According to reports from the Xbox-Scene forums, Microsoft has started shipping Xbox 360 consoles in the UK and Australia regions with an updated Hitachi DVD-ROM drive. The new version of the drive has implemented changes to the hardware designed to make hacking the firmware much harder than before, including changing the firmware chip type, removing debug mode, and encasing the chip with black hard glue to make it harder to access the chip and controller pins. Consoles with a manufacture date of August 2006 in the two affected territories have been shown to have the updated drive, but it is certainly possible that consoles manufactured on earlier dates have the changes as well. Microsoft has made its first counter-move against the hackers looking to open up the Xbox 360, and this will probably only be the first salvo in an ongoing battle.
Read More | Xbox-Scene
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Wii Records What You Play, How Long
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Internet, Mods/Hacks, Wii,
In a recently released “Iwata Asks!” interview, Nintendo delves into the decisions that went into making the Wii Message Board and discusses some interesting features. The one that might raise the most eyebrows, though, is Iwata’s discussion of the “Play History”, a feature which automatically collects information on what games you’ve been playing and for how long and, currently, it can’t be erased.
The idea behind this functionality came from Iwata wanting parents to get more involved with their children’s play-time and being able to keep track of how much time they spend on the system.
I thought constantly about what we could do to stop games being regarded with hostility in the family. So I came up with a suggestion, perhaps a rather outlandish one! (laughs) What I thought was that if a parent said that their child was only allowed to play games for one hour a day, how about making it so the console actually turns itself off after an hour? I realise the head of a games company shouldn’t think things like that! (laughs)
Fortunately, the Wii won’t be turning off automatically on you, but your Mom, Dad, or spouse will be able to find out if you’ve been logging serious hours on Princess Peach’s Erotic Journey (hey, Nintendo said they weren’t going to shy away from M-rated titles this generation!)
Read More | Nintendo of Europe
Low-End PS3 Still $500, But Now with HDMI
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Accessories, Corporate News, Mods/Hacks, PlayStation 3,
After Ken Kutaragi’s announcement that the Japanese low-end PS3 would now feature an HDMI port and see a price drop down to about $425 USD, us Americans became pretty curious about whether we’d see any benefit out of this. The answer is yes and no…
Yes, the rest of the world will indeed now be getting an HDMI port on their 20GB PS3’s and
No, we don’t get a price drop.
According to Sony, adoption of HD televisions has been much higher than they expected, leading to the reason for the HDMI port on even the low-end version. Still, with the 20GB version comprising only 20% of the shipped PS3’s, one wonders if the low-end version won’t be impossible to find anyway.
Read More | PSX Extreme
Epic’s Sweeney Talks PS3 Development, User Content At Tokyo Game Show
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: First Person Shooters, Mods/Hacks, PlayStation 3,
At the Tokyo Game Show, Epic Games’ Tim Sweeney discussed multi-core development, PS3’s Cell chip, and the possibility of user generated content on the Playstation 3, according to a report from Gamasutra.
Sweeney indicated that multi-threaded development takes “about twice the effort and development cost.” Speaking specifically about Cell, he claimed that development “required about 5 times as much cost and development time.” It seems like Sweeney accepts the fact that for CPU power to grow, they are going to have to go to a multi-core model, but the increased development costs are disconcerting.
Sweeney also mentioned that he was interested in bringing user-created content to the PS3. Sweeney’s comments indicated that Sony might be more favorable to providing user content on the PS3 Online platform than Microsoft. While it isn’t a lock that user mods and levels will be accessible to Playstation 3 Unreal Tournament 2007 gamers, this does seem to be a possibility at this point.
Read More | Gamasutra
Xbox Live Arcade Games Can Execute From CD-R
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Mods/Hacks, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Arcade,
The guys over at 360gamesaves.com have discovered that Xbox Live Arcade titles will execute from CD/DVD-R media, if the correct directory structure is burned. Now, the titles will still run in trial mode, unless the console owner has previously purchased the content. For gamers without the Xbox 360 Hard Drive, though, this may be a good way to play around with the trial versions of Arcade titles if they have a friend willing to download the games and burn them to disc.
Read More | 360gamesaves
For those Nintendo DS homebrew developers out there looking for just a little more space for their projects, Natrium42, creator of the PassMe homebrew enabling device has a new hardware hack on his blog. By hacking a GBA Movie Player CompactFlash interface, Natrium42 was able to add a 40 GB hard drive to his Nintendo DS. Now, the solution is hardly an idea portable solution with all the extraneous equipment and power required, but this is an interesting hack. Sure, people could buy the 4 GB Max Media Player for the DS, but this hack is a whole order of magnitude larger.
Read More | Natrium42
Second Life Database Suffers Huge Security Breach
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Adventure, Corporate News, Mods/Hacks, PC, Simulation,
Today Linden Labs notified users that on or about September 6th, a Second Life database server was compromised and that hackers may have gained access to users’ personal information including names, addresses, encrypted passwords and encrypted payment information. While, according to their press release there was no indication that the hackers could compromise users’ online accounts, Linden is forcing all of their users to change their Second Life passwords in response to the breach.
From the release:
“We’re taking a very conservative approach and assuming passwords were compromised and therefore we’re requiring users to change their Second Life passwords immediately,” said Cory Ondrejka, CTO of Linden Lab. “While we realize this is an inconvenience for residents, we believe it’s the safest course of action. We place the highest priority on protecting customer data and will continue to take aggressive measures to protect the privacy and security of the community.”
With more and more online games every year (most of them requiring payment of some type), the issue of data security could quickly become a major focus for game makers. Will we be seeing a Microsoft-circa-2000-esque push toward writing secure game code in the near future? It couldn’t hurt to start soon…
Read More | http://secondlife.com/corporate/bulletin.php
Retro Gaming for the Lazy Rich Kid: Arcade In A Box
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Fighting, Hardware, Mods/Hacks, Retro,
Maybe I’m just jealous because, like most MAME cabinet builders, I spent weeks planning out the perfect button layout, designing schematics, ordering parts, and assembling the final system. I felt special—I was part of an elite group with the motivation and know-how to build my own home arcade. But, alas, no longer - thanks to “Arcade In a Box” anyone with $1500 lying around can plunk down the cash for a plug-n-play MAME arcade setup.
Unlike your granpappy’s old X-Arcade joysticks, the setup above includes a fairly substantial built-in computer including a 3 GHz processor, 128 MB graphics card, ethernet, VGA/S-video, and USB ports galore front and back. Plug in a monitor and this set will have you retro gaming in minutes. And for a few extra bucks they’ll even customize the button colors and add in a spinner for that Arkanoid lovin’.
Now excuse me as I ramble to myself about the “good old days.”
Read More | Arcade In A Box via RealTechNews
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