n64 Emulation on the PSP - the fabled dream of a madman?

I was just reading Strmnnrmn’s blog this morning. For those that dont know, Strmnnrmn is the coding genius behind the PSP port of daedalus, a n64 emulator. Whilst I have been hanging on his every release since R6, I am starting to get a bit frustrated at the lack of perceivable progress with every release. Whilst I do not doubt that Strmnnrmn is working hard and implementing new features in every build, to the end user, if the frame-rate increases marginally per release then they should be happy.

Why am I not then?!? Partly because with every release I harbor the notion of playable (even if it is sub real-time) emulation. This so far has not happened. The recent R13 release broke a few of the roms and despite all the technical improvements made, still felt like a step backwards which was really disappointing. Every time a new post appears on his blog, there is talk of a minor improvement here and a fair few extra fps there although it is barely perceivable.

I should say at this point that I am simply in awe of Strmnnrmn, I am not about to criticise a man for giving his personal time and effort for a free community focused project (AND release the source code) I just hope he cracks it soon! Until then, pop over to his blog and read his recent progress update.

Listing all those games is more than a little over enthusiastic given the present compatibility of R13. One thing I will say is Strmnnrmn needs to do a bit of SEO, I always have to make sure I bookmark his site as its buried some where deep on the second page when the google query “n64 psp emulator” is searched for. SEO, for the uninitiated is not the black art of search engine result page (SERP) hijacking (although frequently used for this) but a method of optimising parameters of websites to make it easier for search engines to identify their relevancy. This in turn helps Google serve more relevant results and is one of the main factors responsible for Google’s success in the search engine market. But anyway I had better wrap this up before I majorly digress.

UPDATE 05/04/08 : No word from the Dev for almost four and a half month - this is not encouraging although there are murmers he has adopted a different Alias. I will post more about this when I know.

UPDATE 30/05/08 : Still no word from the Dev - lots of murmerings on the comments about a new identities and conspiracy theories etc. There has been longer gaps between updates before, but I starting to get a little concerned. After all, how hard is it to post “Hi, really busy but still alive - be patient” ?

Drift City Thursday

xfire are holding a special event starting today, geared at getting as many people playing the free MMO Drift City. The competition appears to be fairly simple, log on today (Thursday 29th) and play as many hours as you can before December 9th. Prizes include Logitech Keyboards and Mice in various categories based on the amount of hours logged in game.

Xfire is holding a special Drift City event for Xfire users. From November 29th to December 9th, you are challenged to log into Xfire and play as much Drift City as you can during the promotion period. All you have to do to enter is join the Drift City Rockets [DCR] Team!

How to participate: Play Drift City while signed into Xfire to be eligible to win!

Play 0-5 Hours: (1 Winner)
PLANTRONICS GAMECOMPRO1 USB Connector Supra-aural Gaming Stereo Headset
Play 5-15 Hours: (1 Winner)
Logitech G5 Mouse + ijji.com Pillow
Play more than 15 Hours: (1 Winner)
Logitech G5 Mouse and G 15 Keyboard + ijji.com Pillow

 

Whilst the Drift City client has rocketed to number 4 in the list of most downloaded files on xfire today and for this week, at the moment the game has not broken into the top 10 games list, however I dont know how many times a day the list is updated.

Seems to be a rather shameless way to promote a game that has been lingering on the sidelines for too long. Still, perhaps thats just the cynic in me talking, I will certainly be downloading and trying this MMO so I guess in terms of generating exposure, xfire have succeeded rather well, whether or not it breaks into the top 10 remains to be seen.

EDIT: A few hours later the numbers seen above have doubled, still no sign of Drift City…

You have got to be kidding!!

I just randomly stumbled across a blog post showing an early mock up of an Nokia N96 phone. All I can say is I dearly hope this is a mock-up / fraud. The picture shows what looks like a 3-4″ diagonal screen with TWO sliding out keypads which form a mini QWERTY keyboard. This is highly reminiscent of the old Nokia 6820 although in that design, the flip out keypads locked firmly into place and actually seemed comfortable to use. I own a N95 and whilst i love certain aspects (all the gadgets, screen size etc) I simply HATE the slide out keypad. This is compounded mostly by the fact that Nokia cant seem to manufacture it correctly and everyone who owns this phone likely has a slide which rattles on the right side. This is both annoying and concerning as I had to take out an 18 month contract for this phone.

Still, I guess no-one can accuse Nokia of not innovating, but the lack of basic keys (or even a basic keypad) which would be accessible without opening the unit up (like the 6820) could be a serious annoyance.

Source

The Fairer Sex

Some rather funny adverts from yester-year, its incredible the way women were considered an inferior gender even a few tens of years ago! They range from the crazy to the completely nonsensical!

Take a look!

Half Life 2: RTS Mod

I briefly talked about this mod over on my previous blog, however I had a chance to have a chat with one of the developers behind the project. This is a rough transcript of our conversation.

Briefly what inspired you to create this mod?

Nothing really, just the fun and challenge of turning Half-Life: 2 into a real-time strategy game.

Have you created any other mods before this and if so, for what games?

I made some maps for Half-Life 2: Capture the flag and Nightfall (which was a campaign for Guild Wars)

There has been talk on the forums that the UI was either lifted or heavily inspired by CoH. Whilst this is a great game in its own right, does it worry you in terms of potential legal difficulties further down the road?

I dont see why we as a project should be worried, it is unlikely that they have a patent on the UI. I chose it as it is a pretty standard but functional user interface which may be changed some time in the future.
The two categories RTS and FPS are very different. How are you planning to avoid making it just a simple 3^rd person top-down HL2 game

Does it looks to you like a simple 3rd person top-down hl2 game currently?
The physics engine in HL 2 is quite impressive, even more so with the improvements with Episode 2. Are you planning on implementing destructible terrain / buildings / cover etc?

Damage from environment (e.g. wall falling onto infantry)

Maybe, its something that we are considering.

Does the fact that it is chiefly a FPS engine limit you in terms of the potential tactical elements?

I dont see how it would. It is of course a lot of work to change things but that challenge is the reason I am on this project - its the fun part.

I see you have implemented Walkers already from the youtube video, are there any other vehicle you plan to implement like the drop ships? What rebel counter units are planned to balance the sides or are you relying on specialist infantry teams like rocket troops?

At this stage we have not decided.

What role do the sand lions play? Will it be a central role or more a territorial role i.e. just defending their terrain or actively being controlled by the player or a ‘third team CPU’ in skirmishes?

They will keep playing a territorial roll.

Are you planning a campaign or is this mod chiefly a multiplayer mod?

If I can bring an enthusiastic team together to create a large campaign, then at a later date there is no reason why this should not be the case. It is however a consideration for a later stage.

What is your next mile stone?

I don’t think in such terms. I don’t have a schedule.

How long before you anticipate a stable ‘fully featured’ release like a beta which would allow people to really get into this mod on a large scale?

It’s done when it’s done.

How are you planning on implementing buildings / structures?

Like what you would expect from a rts game.

What sets your mod apart from the others apart from the style of play?

Play and see.

Some interesting answers there, unfortunately either the Dev didn’t think much of me or didn’t want to disclose much about the project. It appears to be progressing and their new site can be found here. Lets hope they code better than they answer questions…

Logo Needed!

Ok so whilst my first impressions of WordPress are favourable, the fact that there are so few themes and that you have to pay to edit the css is a big downer. As such, I need a logo - I am in the processes of designing something, but lets just say design is not my strong point. As such, if any kind design orientated soul is kind enough to help me out with this, I will of course put the customary blog drop-ins where appropriate.  So  Ladies and Gents of WordPress - does anyone want to lend me a hand?

Welcome! (Wipe your feet)

Hello and welcome to my new blog! For those that do not know me, my name is Konrad and I am moving onto WordPress from my previous blog. Initially it was my intention to move my domain over to paid (i.e. proper) hosting from the free stuff that was given to me by madasafish and install wordpress. However, what to do with all my old posts and pages which were not blog related? Initially I was going to bite the bullet and just move them over painstakingly from my old blogging software (thingamablog) into wordpress, but when I discovered that madasafish wanted £25 just for me to change the tag on my domain I decided to part company with them for my blogging needs. As a result, my site will remain there for my nonblog projects (and old blog posts) and this shall serve and my new blogging ground. Ladies and Gentlemen of wordpress - I bid you greetings!