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Week of March 13, 2005
Next Xbox may contain motion camera
>> [QUOTE]
Microsoft Corp. said the next version of its Xbox, the world's No. 2 video-game console, might offer a camera that lets players use body movements to control games.
The camera, mounted on a TV to capture a player's gestures, would rival Sony Corp.'s EyeToy, said J Allard, who helps run the Xbox unit.
Microsoft has sold about 20 million Xbox units globally and is adding features to bolster the popularity of the next edition, due as soon as this year. Sony, maker of the top-selling PlayStation 2 games console, also plans to unveil a new version of its device.
"We're trying to take some learnings from what our competition has done" with cameras that let players control games, said Allard at the Games Developers Conference in San Francisco. "We've got a couple of those answers. We're going to turn that into a couple of solutions."
[QUOTE]
News-Source: nwherald.com
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(Saturday 19 March 2005 11:14 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
Xbox with New Replacement Cords Still Dangerous
>> Some articles in Swedish newspapers about the "new" xbox power cords. One box sprayed sparks over a kid even with the new cord.
Loose translation by Jaydee/DDay:
[QUOTE]
The XBox blow even with new cord - exploded directly in the face of Anahi, 25.
Sammy,8, got the cord exchanged on his dangerous XBox - that had sparked when he was playing. When the new cord was plugged into the Xbox it exploded into the face of a friend of Sammy's mother.
"I got sparks in my face and the whole apartment smelled of the burn" Anahi Reinoso, 25, says.
It has only been a few weeks since MS , the manufacturer of the XBox, had 14.1 million power cords exchanged all over the world.
According to the company 30 serious cases about the Xbox have been reported, in 7 of the cases people have gotten burns on their hands.
8 year old Sammy's XBox had been sparking and crackling where the old cord fitted into the XBox. Now the new cord from Microsoft had been pluged in, but when Sammy went to play there was no picture on the tv. This was when Anahi reached over the gaming console to "shake" the cord a bit.
"The 'banf' was heard in the whole apartment and the power went out" Nadia Hussein,28, says. The girls and Sammy fled the apartment. After awhile Nadia dared to go in and unplugged all powercords.
They immediately contacted MS support and are now to send their XBox in for technical research. "Incredibly sad" Peter Svanfeldt, Sales Manager on MS HDR, says. "I have never heard about a similar case... I do not know if it have to do with the cable, the xbox, the powernet or if it is something different... We are taking this very seriously of course"
Anahi Reinoso luckily walked away without visible injury. "I was red and swollen on my chin, but we cooled it off as we we told to by the ER. I am still shocked, Anahi says. Sammy is sad that he can't play his games anymore.
[/QUOTE]
Original Swedish Article: Aftonbladet.se
Sad indeed. MS lies about the power cord issue will sooner or later cost someone more than their console. MS needs to address the issues now and stop pretending $2 replacement cords will fix issues that stop and start at the faulty power supplies. -HSD
[QUOTE]
This weekend Aftonbladet reported about how a boy's XBox exploded when he changed to the new power cord.
"We have started a technical evaluation and have picked up his XBox. It has been sent to Ireland for analysis" Peter Svanfeldt, Reginal Director for consumer market on MS, says.
Peter Svanstedt don't want to speculate into what exactly could have happened with the boy´s Xbox, and if it has to do with the console, the power cord or the powernet in the apartment.
That a XBox can short even though the power cord has been exchanged is confirmed by sources on the net that instead say that the problem isn't the cord itself but rather the power supply inside the XBox. On the power supply there are two solder points that xbox users say are weak and that can break. Most commonly nothing happens, but sometimes the broken solder points causes the Xbox not to boot, to short and in some rare cases catch fire.
MS changing the power cord doesn´t solve or fix the issue, but rather lessen the damage when the XBox short´s or catch fire. To fix the problem MS would have to replace 14.1 million which would cost enormous amounts of money. Instead the company exchanges the power cords .
Peter Svanfeldt hasn't heard about the sources/claims that say that the power supply is at fault. "I havent heard anything about this and do not want to speculate" he says.
[/QUOTE]
Original Swedish Article: Pcforalla.idg.se
Well.. he's heard about it now. MS can continue to deny the problem.. and maybe the next article won't be about someone almost/or getting slightly singed. It could be about a home burning down or worse. Can't wait to see MS spin this. - HSD
Recent Articles:
Game sites Swallow MS Cord Propaganda March 9th 2005
Power cord: Microsoft denies soldering problems Feb. 28 2005
Xbox Users Question Power Cord Recall Feb. 28 2005
Different power cords Feb. 25 2005
More to the power cord replacement than meets the eye? Feb. 23rd 2005
Microsoft Announces Power Cord Replacement for Xbox and MS Xbox Faq: Faq Feb. 17 2005
Xbox-Scene Discussions and Research:
Unreal Graphics
>> [QUOTE]
Following on from confirmation that Epic Games would provide the Unreal Engine 3 and tools for Xbox 2 game development, Interactive Data Visualization's much-touted SpeedTreeRT has been officially planted (sorry) directly into the roots (sorry again) of Unreal Engine 3, and will be used by developers using Epic Games' toolsets to create Xbox 2 software.
What this means is that, rather than having to spend excessive time creating technology from scratch, Xbox 2 developers can quickly create amazingly life-like environments by making use of the stunning middleware options.
[/QUOTE]
Check out the full article as well as images at Gamesradar.
Next Generation Consoles to Share Same CPU Core?
>> From TeamXbox.com:
[QUOTE]
According to AnandTech, there might be chance the next generation consoles from Sony and Microsoft end up sharing the same Power architecture core developed by IBM. Here is an excerpt:
"The Cell architecture debuted in a configuration of 9 independent cores: one PowerPC Processing Element (PPE) and eight Synergistic Processing Elements (SPEs). The PPE and SPEs are obviously different, but all eight SPEs are identical to one another.
The PPE is IBM’s major contribution to the Cell project. It also appears to be very similar to the core being used in the next Xbox console, meaning that IBM’s commitment to Cell isn’t necessarily to see it used in everything from consumer electronics to PCs, just the two major game consoles. "
Could it be possible that the next generation Xbox is powered by a multi-core processor that feature two or more of these PPEs? Since IBM might be the wholly responsible developer for the Power architecture part, it might also have the rights to license its technology to any company, including Sony’s competitors Microsoft and Nintendo.
So although Microsoft can’t use the Cell processor, which is made of one PPE and eight SPEs, it might have licensed the PPE core to create a processor that features several PPEs. This would be what is known in the industry as a “system on a chip”, which is basically putting various processors on a single die.
To read the complete Cell processor article by Anandtech, click here. The first part of the interview with J. Allard that Tom’s Hardware ran at GDC can be found here.
[/QUOTE]
Read the whole article on TeamXbox.com.
X3 Bundle Competition Part 3 and other Xecuter updates
>> From TeamXecuter.com:
[QUOTE]
No we are not in jail and no we didn't retire. That's an end to those two rumours at least :-)
We are now into part 3 of the X3CE + X3LCD + X3 Pro Switch competition. There are 20 Prizes up for grabs this time for the 20 BEST X3CL SKINS !
Get your asses over to Allxboxskins.com and upload your entry. Make sure its in Zip format and you include the x3skin.ini and any TTF font files. Be creative guys - boring entries will only win 2 things - jack and shit.
Good Luck !
Other quick updates:
Finalizing an improved v1.6 no-solder design - tried many new ideas - current designs on the market are simply not reliable enough in our opinion.
X2CL out soon (RL work side tracked the release)
X3 bugs - many fixed (mostly debug / ftp issues / other niggly things) out soon
Blue X3CP to be released
We have also been very active with Gamecube projects - watch this space
[/QUOTE]
Gentoox kernel 2.6 good/ bad news *updated*
>> From ShALLaX on :
[QUOTE]
Gimli (Ed) has spent much time trying to debug his new FatX drivers (many thanks to his excellent work - without him, we would never have progressed anywhere with regards to kernel 2.6! Excellent work Ed!) and we have concluded that there is either some bug we cannot see or (more likely) the 2.4 fatx drivers were bugged. I was given a forum link by a couple of people which pointed to a post on xbox-scene stating that the 2.4 FatX drivers don't write to FatX correctly (a bit is not set correctly). This would make sense as I can run with 2.6 perfectly (editing files on E:, making new files etc...) but then when I boot back to 2.4, make some file changes, then go back to 2.6 the files appear to be corrupt!
This poses a problem. Using magic will almost certainly brick your system (unless straight after running magic you backup your E: partition, then format it, then transfer it all back...). However, I refuse to let the mistakes of the past halt future progress - so I'm going to open magic after I run a final test. Theres now a lovely big warning saying your version of Gentoox is now deprecated ;) As you might have guessed... this means I'm working on Pro v2.0 and Home v4.0 as I'm typing this (this is a pretty major change so warrants the big version number change).
I would like anyone who tries upgrading to post their experiences here.
Sorry that this solution isn't very elegant, but its the only way I can see it happening... it's going to be a long weekend.
*Status (version, status)*
Resctoox(info)-1.7: (Complete)
Stardust-*.*: (Complete)
Sparkle-1.5: (Complete)
Pro-2.0: (In progress)
Home-4.0: (Pending)
MCE-1.3: (Pending)
*Update*
Magic's doors are open again. Use at your own risk.
*Update 2*
While I'm making such a massive change, I've decided to implement NPTL into Gentoox (see info here). This should make things ever so slightly faster and hopefully futureproof Gentoox for a little while longer. This change will NOT be implemented via magic, but only via the new versions of Gentoox which will be released shortly (hey - thats an incentive to upgrade!)
*Update 3*
Run into problems. The fatx driver for 2.6 is UBER slow:
ext3:
Xbox tmp # time dd if=/dev/zero of=./zero bs=1024k count=500
500+0 records in
500+0 records out
real 0m20.611s
FatX:
Pro e # time dd if=/dev/zero of=./zero bs=1024k count=500
500+0 records in
500+0 records out
real 3m0.907s
So FatX is 9x slower than ext3 at the moment which is just wrong!
[/QUOTE]
Hitachi-LG DVD drive firmware and Flasher
>> This firmware flashing software was designed to flash a GDR-8163b with the LG 8050L firmware.
Use at your own risk.
This firmware with flashing software is suppled by LenteSubigo.
Wenid - Extracted the firmware
Anonymous Source - Created the executable firmware flashing tool.
For more info please visit:
http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=325005
Download: n/a (Copyrighted Binary)
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(Thursday 17 March 2005 14:07 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
Selling custom content via next-gen Xbox live
>> [QUOTE]
The first details of the new Live services, which will be a compulsory part of Xbox 2 games, were revealed by Microsoft VP J Allard at the Game Developers Conference last week, with one of the most notable updates being a micro-payments system that would allow companies to sell small pieces of add-on content for their games, such as skins, vehicle mods or maps.
Now OXM is reporting that this functionality may be extended to users as well as companies - allowing players to create and trade their own in-game items, although presumably the game would have to provide some creative tools for this to be possible in the first place, so we wouldn't expect it to be a feature of every title.
[/QUOTE]
News-Source: GamesIndustry.biz
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(Thursday 17 March 2005 10:13 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
sXb Release 2
>> Those who have been visiting us for a long time will probably remember there was a port of the Slackware linux distro on Xbox called Slaxbox that has been renamed Slothbox(info) later on. This Xbox distro has no longer been updated and the website/download aren't even available anymore.
Now a new group is working on a Slackware port to Xbox called sXb. sXb Release2 has been made available on the net today:
[QUOTE]
sXb is Slackware on Xbox started by bollywood and maintained by chadkeck and bollywood. It is aimed to be a small, fast, modular, and customizable distro.
sXb Release 2 is now available in the downloads section of .:sXb:. Slackware on Xbox. Please read the README for more info.
New features include:
-xpad support
-Virtual keyboard
-Graphical login
-Install to HD script
-New graphics thanks to weslee
-AND MORE!
[/QUOTE]
Official Site: http://sxb.keckstar.com
Xbox-Scene Forum Discussion: forums.xbox-scene.com
Download: here
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(Wednesday 16 March 2005 16:37 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
Spong.com Confirms Xbox360 name
>> From Spong.com:
[QUOTE]
SPOnG is now pretty much certain that the finalised name for the Xbox 2 is actually Xbox 360, with one of our staff infiltrating a top-tier focus group held by Microsoft for its new Xbox last night.
The study, held in London’s Soho, saw a mixture of male and female gamers and Xbox owners presented with a series of prospective marketing campaigns for the Xbox 360.
The three lead contenders to be offered by the best in media and marketing to date are - somewhat depressingly - Xbox 360: Amplify Yourself!; Xbox 360: You're Next!; and Xbox 360: Shine! Really, that’s what they’re working with right now.
The tagline for Xbox Live is another Nadbaggian example of consumer lifestyle marketing at its most generic. Xbox Live: Ménage a Billions.
[/QUOTE]
Read the whole article on Spong.com
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(Wednesday 16 March 2005 13:58 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
Sony plans new legal challenge to mod chips in Australia
>> From GamesIndustry.biz:
[QUOTE]
Changes to copyright laws in Australia have opened the door for a fresh legal challenge to mod chips, according to Sony Computer Entertainment Australia, which has instructed its lawyers to prepare a new case against the devices.
Australian IT reports that the company is planning to base its new case on changes to local copyright laws which have come about as a result of Australia's new Free Trade Agreement with the USA, which came into effect in January.
The legal tussle over mod chips in Australia has been watched with interest around the world ever since the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission intervened in a case taken by Sony against mod chip supplier Eddy Stevens in 2002.
[/QUOTE]
Read the whole article on GamesIndustry.biz.
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(Wednesday 16 March 2005 13:51 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
Gentoox: kernel 2.6 W.I.P.
>> From ShALLaX on gentoox.shallax.com:
[QUOTE]
What I've been working on the past two days (and the past 12 hours solid) is implementing kernel 2.6 into Gentoox. The patching works fine, the changes to all the existing patches work fine, the mouse emulation works fine, sound works fine (no more separate ALSA downloads since its all built into the kernel). In short, the entire implementation of 2.6 into Gentoox fits like a glove. The ONLY problem now is the FatX driver. I installed Gentoox Home(info) v3.2 onto a freshly formatted Xbox hard drive. I ran magic and upgraded to 2.6, xorg, etc.. then rebooted and found that the FatX driver in 2.6 was spewing errors such as the following:
Xbox root # ls /mnt/fatx/e/
ls: /mnt/fatx/e/vmlinuz: No such file or directory
ls: /mnt/fatx/e/sparkle: No such file or directory
ls: /mnt/fatx/e/sprkrd.gz: No such file or directory
ls: /mnt/fatx/e/swap: No such file or directory
UDATA initrd.gz vmlinuz-2.6
CACHE gentooxx.xbe linuxboot.cfg
TDATA initrd-2.6.gz rootfs
This is obviously nonsense as it picks out "vmlinuz" from nowhere, then says it doesnt exist... when it actually does. A rather large problem I ran into was that on this occasion it said that "rootfs" didnt exist meaning that Gentoox couldnt boot - the solution? Formatting the drive then copying everything back onto it. This is a totally unacceptable solution so instead of pressing the big green "GO" button for release of the new patches, I'm putting them on hold until FatX is fixed. This may take a day, week, month, year... who knows. The uncertainty at the moment is whether the 2.4 driver was at fault all along, or whether the 2.6 driver is bugged (since the corruption only seemed to occur after using 2.4). One things for sure - it's not being released until its "safe" to use. If it turns out that the 2.4 driver was bugged, it may mean that previous versions of Gentoox will need to be deprecated so that 2.6 can be released (since a magic upgrade doesnt seem to be viable).
Anyway, with that essay out of the way, I'll resume service of the untouched backup of magic and keep the 2.6 version safely stowed away.
[/QUOTE]
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(Wednesday 16 March 2005 01:49 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
New consoles promise big problems
>> From bbc.co.uk:
[QUOTE]
Making games for future consoles will require more graphic artists and more money, an industry conference has been told.
According to Robert Walsh, head of Brisbane-based game developer Krome Studios, next generation games will cost between $10-25m to make, with teams averaging 80 staff in size taking two years to complete a title.
Such sums mean it will be difficult for anyone to start a new game studio, said Mr Walsh.
"If you're a start-up, I doubt that a publisher is going to walk in and give you a cheque for $10m, however good you are," he said.
[/QUOTE]
Read the whole article on bbc.co.uk.
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(Tuesday 15 March 2005 17:48 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
SmartXX LT OPX Developer Documentation
>> Team SmartXX released the 'Hard & Software Developer Documentation' for their SmartXX LT OPX modchip in pdf.
It includes information for (homebrew) developers: a detailed hardware overview and a complete register map.
Official Site: http://www.smartxx.com
Download: here
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(Tuesday 15 March 2005 11:43 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
Microsoft Selects iBeta as Xbox Testing Facility
>> From TeamXbox.com:
[QUOTE]
iBeta Quality Assurance, leading provider of software quality assurance and software testing services, announced today they have been selected by Microsoft Corp. as one of only three approved and recommended third party Xbox testing facilities in North America. iBeta will offer a complete range of services for Xbox including functionality testing, Technical Certification Requirements compliance (TCRs), Xbox Live! & system link multiplayer testing, and peripheral testing.
[/QUOTE]
Read the whole article on TeamXbox.com.
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(Tuesday 15 March 2005 11:30 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
Next Xbox will feature online mini-purchases
>> [QUOTE]
Microsoft demonstrated how the Xbox sequel will feature Xbox Live screens that are consistent across all games, so that all online matchmaking will be handled in one place by one company. No more creating a custom playlist of songs for each game, either; the next Xbox will carry your favorites from one game to the next.
Microsoft's J. Allard told the conference that the next Xbox will allow for mini-purchases of content, such as buying a tricked-out racing car for a racing game for amounts between a dime and a dollar -- something that's been proposed many, many times for Web sites but never really successfully implemented. He also hinted that the next Xbox's controllers may be wireless.
[/QUOTE]
News-Source: freep.com
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(Tuesday 15 March 2005 10:35 EST) - (Category: (default)) - (Posted by::
)
Macrovision Study About Gaming Piracy
>> From macrovision.com:
[QUOTE]
The surveys of 6,000 Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation 2 users show that 21% of gamers play pirated games, but 73% would have bought the game within one month if a free version had not been readily available. This high level of piracy on console systems, which are generally considered to be secure closed systems, is surprising.
The study also shows that 43% of all gamers who play pirated games download over 15 pirated titles a year. Over 74% of downloaded pirated games come from Internet websites or peer-to-peer networks, while 21% of the games are copied from friends. Of those who play pirated games, 64% have installed mod chips on their consoles.
The Macrovision report is based on surveys conducted in February 2005 of approximately 6,000 console game players. The survey participants were randomly selected from a pool of visitors to various game-related websites.
[/QUOTE]
Read the whole press release on macrovision.com.
New Xenon XDK Launcher screenshot
>> The guys over at cq-ef.net have what I believe is a screenshot of the XDK launcher of a Xenon (Xbox2, Xbox360, Xbox Next) aplha2 dev kit.
A similar image (with just the Dolfin.exe) of an alpha1 dev kit was already leaked on the internet some months ago, but this image contains different executables.
Check out the screenshot on cq-ef.net.
XWB Extractor 1.1
>> From readme/nfo:
[QUOTE]
XWB Extractor will parse your XWB files and extract the embedded files.
These files can be of any type, but I've found sound files PCM and WMA.
Source isn't included in this release because I'm not sure if one of the files I use can be released to the public.
This program has been tested on Burnout 3, Metal Slug 3, and Prince of Persia: Warrior Within.
I've received requests about BIG, MUS, and AWD files. From what I've found, some EA games use BIG files with BIG4 as the first 4 bytes, and some have the first 4 bytes as 05 00 00 00. The BIG4 ones look to have ASF files in them, because they have tags of SCHl, which is the ASF header. MUS files look like they have ASF files and BNK files, which I would guess is a sound bank file, maybe in a MIDI format. Don't know what app uses a BNK file.
[/QUOTE]
Official Site: n/a, by lee_hamel -AT- yahoo.com
Download: here
News-Source: xbins.org
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