http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/07/31/...30107.html

Seems Sqeenix is making an MMO with actual real time combat.

Here's the official American boxart:



For reference, the Japanese boxart:



I'm a bit surprised that they didn't change the boxart more, but anyway it looks pretty good. Release date is September 26th.

http://www.double.co.nz/nintendo_ds/nds_develop1.html

Seems some people have been working on custom applications for the DS, as well as a method of getting them on there via Wifi (not a bit of bluetooth support in the DS by the way, just wifi).

The main problem is that without a memory card, the only way to actually run the custom code is by buying a special blank writable GBA cart.

But, I really don't care all that much about that stuff due to the costs involved. What I was actually searching for online is whether or not the firmware of the DS could, potentially, be updated. There are a number of things I was hoping could be, at least, fixed on the DS (like, for example, how you have to shut the system off and power it back on to exit out of ANY menu in the OS).

http://ds.gcdev.com/dsfirmware/

http://www.dspassme.com/FlashMe.shtml

Turns out, the firmware CAN be updated, but, at least using outside methods from hackers, so far it's a messy process. The potential seems to be there though. The question is, how much can be altered in the existing code, and how much extra space is there for more data? Those two things determine exactly how much the firmware can be altered or added to.

So anyway, I really don't want to risk doing anything to my DS right now, but hey maybe some of you are? Well, do with this info what you will...

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/det...s&n=507846

I got a copy of this book for my birthday. I was reading through it last night, and man oh man, the ease with which you can make nitroglycerin and other explosives is amazing. I took a year of chemistry, but I never thought any chemistry knowlege ever coming in handy, but it does and will if I ever to decide to make things that go boom. I looked up chemicals in the phonebook, and lookie there, dozens of chemical dealers. I called around and there's places that'll sell me nitric and sulfuric acids along with whatever else I might need. Holy crap!!!

However cool making explosives might be though, for Uncle Fester to publish a plain english book on how to make explosives, especially the parts in the book about how to make nitroglycerin from drain cleaner and stump remover, is crazy irresponsible. And if you put uncle fester into amazon, you'll find he's published MORE crazy books, that amazon happily sells! Theres ones on making meth, armor piercing bullets, nerve gas. It's just freedom of the press I guess, but I can't believe the governement lets him publish these books.

*shakes head*

GO!

Okay here's an interesting page...
http://www-pw.physics.uiowa.edu/mcgreevy/

What this consists of is some fellow's experiments with recording certain light frequencies and converting them directly to sound, as in, the same sound waves. The light waves are actually of such a low frequency that they are in the realm of sound wave frequencies. Specifically, really low radio wave frequencies.

Anyway, since it's a direct conversion, there's no pitch substitution like one might do with other odd conversions, and it really is pretty much hearing light.

These waves are produced by our own lovely magnetic field on the planet, which is being bombarded by the solar wind.

So um, what does it sound like?

Well, the entire reason I'm posting this here is because I thought of a certain video game. Listen to the first few files there and you may think, as I did "Hey, Earthbound!". It's like those crazy background sound effects (either played on their own or "under" the game's normal sounding music" used all over the place in that game for odd alien sounding effect! I have a feeling this is where they got the idea.

Quote:A research project at a Scottish University is underway to explore the effects that different types of music have on our gaming performance, it emerged this week. The work-in-progress study by 24-year old Gianna Cassidy at Glasgow Caledonian University has spent the past few months monitoring player responses to different types of music while playing Xbox driving classic Project Gotham Racing.

Conducted at the recently opened eMotion Laboratory, Cassidy has been able to closely monitor over 80 subjects using eye tracking device, a two-way mirror and custom control pads that measure the pressure on each button and the amount of movement players make during play.

Each player had their racing performances (lap times, accuracy, cones hit, etc) closely monitored during gameplay sessions with the Bizarre Creations title. Players were asked to listen to either aggressive music (such as manic mask wearing loons Slipknot) or mellow music (delicate Mancunian indie FLOWARS I Am Kloot, one such example out of the 40 different artists used) - but the findings so far haven't been quite as expected.

"I would have hoped that aggressive music would have made people drive a little faster," Cassidy asserted, although pointed out that players were less accurate and drove into barrier and cones more than when driving to mellow music.

Cassidy was even more surprised at the results of driving to relaxing tunes: "I would have maybe expected it would make them more relaxed and would make them more accurate," but apparently not, the results indicated. Although their driving was distinctly slower, players felt their own performance much faster than the test results suggested.

The best results of all came when subjects had no music to listen to, but the worst performances in the series of tests came when subjects couldn't hear their own car at all. Measuring other variables, it emerged that extroverts were more reckless when listening to Slipknot than the shy retiring types. Now there's a shock.

In her next set of experiments, Cassidy plans to measure how players respond to their favourite music, and also plans to extend the research to other types of games, such as Halo or The Sims. As with the PGR tests, levels of aggression and playing styles will be monitored while listening to the rampant howls of death metal and the gentle, plaintive waft of minor chords strummed with the exquisite pain of unrequited love.

Our own independent studies here at EG indicate that gamers that listen to Slipknot generally grow their hair, learn to play the drums, talk about pinch harmonics a lot and wear black. Our application for government funding to further our studies is in the post…

Quote:Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto and Wind Waker director Eiji Aonuma have admitted that the last instalment in the GameCube series wasn't quite up to scratch - promising they'll do a lot better with Twilight Princess. Aonuma told Swedish magazine Reset that the gameplay in Wind Waker was "dull", admitting that he was in a bit of a hurry when it came to working on the triforce piece hunt.

"At the end of the production we fought against the clock and there were parts that I was forced to approve even though it didn't feel complete," he said.

"I apologise that we didn't fix the triforce hunt at the end of the game. It was slow and dull."

But lessons have been learned, according to Aonuma: "During the development of Twilight Princess, I refused to repeat the same mistakes.

"It means more responsibility for me, but this time we can't let things go wrong."

Miyamoto echoed Aonuma's comments, telling Reset that he wants Twilight Princess "to contain all sides of what people think of the Legend of Zelda series.

"I have absorbed the criticism we got from The Wind Waker, that the sea was too big and the number of dungeons and caves were too few," he said.

"The new game will have more dungeons. Many more."

As previously suggested Twilight Princess will be a lot darker than previous Zelda games - Link is an adult now, and the storyline is "long, complex and occasionally serious," according to Miyamoto and Aonuma. It's slated for a November release and, as you'll know if you read our first impressions of the game, it's shaping up very nicely indeed.

About getting new members. How about we find a Nintendo website and propose that we become their official forums? That's how we did it in the past with Nintendojo and Tendobox. They get a nice, clean and shiny forum free of charge and we get intellectually stimulating conversation (lmao).

PS. I understand there's a dedicated forum for this kind of proposal but since I expect about 0.5 replies here, over there the ratio would spiral down to something like 0.0333...