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Games

Submission + - Dos Emulation Arrives on the Raspberry Pi

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Homebrew Coder Pate has released a Dos Emulator for the Raspberry Pi, originally released for the Nintendo DS and Android the emulator currently can emulate a CPU: 80486 processor, including the protected mode features (for running DOS4GW games) but without virtual memory support. The emulation runs at a speed of around 20MHz 80486 (which equals a 40MHz 80386) machine. It has support for Super VGA graphics, Soundblaster 2.0, Memory, USB Keyboard and Mouse. Perfect for playing old classics such as Doom, Duke Nukem 3d and Theme Park.
Android

Submission + - Archos Gamepad Released In The USA

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Archos have finally released their much anticipated touchscreen gamepad in the USA. The console boasts a Arm Cortex Dual-core A9 1.6GHz cpu, 1024MB Ram, 8GB internal storage and uses the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS. The Gamepad has 14 physical buttons and dual analog thumb-sticks as well as a touchscreen which means the latest 3D Android games should work great and for fans of emulation the traditional gamepad design and buttons will make N64/PS1 emulators work great on the gamepad.
Nintendo

Submission + - Nintendo WiiU Released in The USA

Submitted by YokimaSun
YokimaSun writes: Nintendo have today fired the first salvo in the Next Gen Console Wars with the release of their WiiU Console in the USA, a console which is massively more powerful than the Nintendo Wii and also the PS3/Xbox 360(so they claim). Yet again Nintendo have done a world first and released a gamepad which is also a Tablet and should provide us with games that stretch the boundaries even more. Wii Games are compatible with the console as is the WiiRemote.The WiiU comes in 2 SKUs a 32GB Deluxe package and an 8GB Basics pack. The Games line up is a strong one with games such as New Super Mario Bros U, Arkham City Armoured Edition, Assassins Creed 3, Call of Duty Black Ops 2, Sonic AllStars Racing, Nintendo Land, Tank Tank Tank, ScribbleNauts Unlimited, Epic Mickey 2 The Power of Two, ESPN Sports Connection, DarkSiders 2, Rabbids Land, Mass Effect 3, Ninja Gaiden 3 Razors Edge, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Wipeout 3 and Just Dance 4 all available on Launch Day. Will this console be able to fight off Tablets such as the iPad and Kindle Fire HD?
Android

Submission + - PSP Emulator for Android Released

Submitted by YokimaSun
YokimaSun writes: This may be one of those projects that will get trounced on soon enough like the great Bleemcast Project, but a group of developers calling themselves the PPSSPP Project have released the first PSP Emulator for the Android OS, the emulator lets you play PSP Games with a touchscreen which was something PSP owners had wanted for years. At the moment games that are playable are Puzzle Bobble Deluxe, Puyo Pop Fever & Pinball Fantasies. The emulator has also been released for Windows and BlackBerry.
Earth

Submission + - $1 Billiion Dollar Mission to Reach the Earths Mantle (cnn.com) 1

Submitted by black6host
black6host writes: Humans have reached the moon and are planning to return samples from Mars, but when it comes to exploring the land deep beneath our feet, we have only scratched the surface of our planet. This may be about to change with a $1 billion mission to drill 6 km (3.7 miles) beneath the seafloor to reach the Earth's mantle — a 3000 km-thick layer of slowly deforming rock between the crust and the core which makes up the majority of our planet — and bring back the first ever fresh samples.
Nintendo

Submission + - Nintendo WiiU Price and Release Date Announced

Submitted by YokimaSun
YokimaSun writes: Nintendo have revealed the release date of the WiiU, in Japan it will launch on the 8th December. The console will ship in 2 versions a Basic version with 8GB of internal memory and a Premium version that has 32GB of internal memory and comes with a stand and docks. Both versions have 1GB of Main and the same for Game Memory. Nintendo claim the console is 20 times more powerful than the Wii and supports 1080p visuals out the box and comes with an hdmi cable. All existing Wii accessories will work with the WiiU but the new Tablet Gamepad will set you back around £100/$173 when you convert yen over. The price of the Premium SKU converts to £250/ $405 but expect that to change when each region announces their release date and price.
Space

Submission + - How Does the Tiny Waterbear Survive in Outer Space? (smithsonianmag.com) 1

Submitted by
DevotedSkeptic
DevotedSkeptic writes: "The humble tardigrade, also known as a “waterbear” or “moss piglet,” is an aquatic eight-legged animal that typically grows no longer than one millimeter in length. Most tardigrades (there are more than 1,000 identified species) have a fairly humdrum existence, living out their days on a moist piece of moss or in the sediment at the bottom of a lake and feeding on bacteria or plant life.

In 2007, a group of European researchers pushed the resilience of this extraordinary animal even further, exposing a sample of dehydrated tardigrades to the vacuum and solar radiation of outer space for 10 full days. When the specimens were returned to earth and rehydrated, 68 percent of those that were shielded from the radiation survived, and even a handful of those with no radiation protection came back to life and produced viable offspring.

How do the little tardigrades survive such a harsh environment? Although amateur tardigrade enthusiast Mike Shaw recently made waves by postulating that the animals may be equipped to survive in outer space because they originally came from other planets, scientists are certain that the creatures developed their uncommon toughness here on earth.

A tardigrade curls up into a dehydrated tun, allowing it to survive for years without water.
It turns out that the adaptation that allows tardigrades to live through these trying conditions is their ability to enter a dehydrated state that closely resembles death. When encountering environmental stresses, a tardigrade curls up into a dry, lifeless ball called a tun, reducing its metabolic activity to as low as .01 percent of normal levels. In order to do so, tardigrades produce trehalose, a special protective sugar that forms a gel-like medium that suspends and preserves the organelles and membranes that make up the animal’s cells.

The creatures are also capable of other types of transformations that allow them to survive in difficult conditions. If the oxygen content of their water medium drops too low for them to extract enough of the gas for respiration, they stretch out into a long, relaxed state, in which their metabolic rate is also reduced but the relaxation of their muscles allows as much water and oxygen to enter their cells as possible. If the temperature of a tardigrade’s environment falls below freezing, it forms a special cold-resistant tun, with molecules that prevent the formation of large ice crystals that could damage cell membranes.

This remarkably wide range of survival techniques leads to an obvious question: If tardigrades aren’t from outer space, just what barren environment did they actually evolve in? Although the exact placement of tardigrades in the evolutionary tree of life is still debated, scientists believe they are most closely related to arthropods, a phylum of animals with hard protective exoskeletons and that includes insects and crustaceans.

It is likely that the tardigrade evolved to survive intermittently freezes and droughts, and as a result they are able to survive the vacuum of space."

Submission + - PSVita Hacked - Native Homebrew Loader Coming Soon

Submitted by Busshy
Busshy writes: Since the release of the PSVita the console has clearly stuttered with sales that are pretty dreadful especially in its homeland in japan, where the PSP was selling more until this week with the release of Hatsune Miku Project Diva F which has seen PSVita sales quadruple. For the rest of the planet sales are still slow thanks to a dull line up of games. This could change now as Yifan Lu the coder of the Kindle Hack and PSX Xperia has revealed that he is now working on a Native Loader for the PSVita, basically its an Userland Vita Loader for loading unsigned executables on your Vita in other words a Homebrew Loader for the PSVita. To calm Sony fears he claims it is physically impossible to run "backups" with the exploit. The exploit cannot decrypt or load retail games. At this time the exploit is unreleased, naturally he doesnt want Sony to plug it.
NES (Games)

Submission + - The Rarest Nes Game Final Fantasy 2 On Sale for 50K

Submitted by Croakyvoice
Croakyvoice writes: In what seems to be the in thing at the moment comes another auction to add to last months Zelda Nes auction and that crazy Million Dollar Collection. This time for RPG fans this could be classed as the Holy Grail of Nes games. The game in question is Final Fantasy 2 which was never released outside of Japan but luckily for the person who at this time is selling this on Ebay for 50K, there was one made for the 1991 Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas by SquareSoft, sadly the USA version never had a release because they decided to work on the SuperNes instead.
NES (Games)

Submission + - Legend of Zelda NES Nintendo Prototype On Sale For 150K (ebay.co.uk) 1

Submitted by YokimaSun
YokimaSun writes: Following on from Last months Mega auction of rare games that went for a staggering 1.2 Million dollars, comes another auction. This time its of the only Legend of Zelda Nes Prototype cartridge in the world, bundled with it is a sealed copy of the retail version of the game, those of you excited by this news will have to dig deep because the price is set at a mouthwatering US $150,000.00.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Have Nintendo & Microsoft Finally Killed Homebrew on their Con 1

Submitted by Croakyvoice
Croakyvoice writes: A few years ago the Homebrew community went from one console to another releasing some excellent software, from the Days of the Dreamcast the first breakthrough homebrew console, to the PSP which gave us the first handheld Nintendo 64, GBA and PSX emulators on an handheld. The last few years we have seen Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony and Apple all bring out means to thwart homebrew develepment. The app store on both Android and IOS has took many homebrew devs over to them to try and break the market. With the major consoles they have so many firmware updates these days that the days of Homebrew seem to be numbered, is there a way back for the Homebrew Community?
Linux

Submission + - ScummVM 1.5.0 "Picnic Basket" Released (scummvm.org)

Submitted by
YokimaSun
YokimaSun writes: "Fans of classic graphical point-and-click adventure games, will be happy to learn that a new version of ScummVM has been released with support for new games such as Once Upon A Time: Little Red Riding Hood, Backyard Baseball 2003, Blue Force, Darby the Dragon, Dreamweb, Geisha, Gregory and the Hot Air Balloon, Magic Tales: Liam Finds a Story and more. ScummVM not only supports Windows, Linux and new platforms such as iPhone and Android but also consoles such as Dreamcast, Gamecube and Nintendo 64 and rarer handhelds such as Openpandora and Dingoo."
Handhelds

Submission + - 3DS XL is Out Now (dcemu.co.uk) 1

Submitted by
Busshy
Busshy writes: "A few months after the rather subdued release of the PSVita comes the release of the Larger screened 3DS XL, improvements are the obvious larger screens and much improved battery life, CVG report that the 3D effect has noticeably improved. As you'd expect with a larger display, the sweet spot in which you have to angle the device to consume your trio of dimensions is far easier to find on the XL. The console is shipping in 3 variations with sites such as Amazon offering different deals depending on where you live in europe. Those wanting the Transparent version of the 3DS XL are out of luck at this time. Slashdotters in the USA will have to wait till Mid August for the new console."

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