Archive for March, 2010

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Spark news; update on the Android Market Seeding Program

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010

As mentioned earlier, Spark is near release – at this point, it’s mostly being tested, with the odd piece of code thrown here and there. What’s coming:

  • Compare games/achievements with friends
  • View own and friend avatars
  • Send messages in the background
  • Slightly lighter theme

I’ve also received the promised Nexus One phone from the Android Market Seeding program – the one I originally mistook as a scam. The device is real, and should go a ways in helping me ensure better compatibility with Android devices – thanks Google!

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Posted in OpenSpark, Update | Comments Off

PSP turns five; Spark continues evolving

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010

I’d like to take a moment to wish a Happy Birthday to the best little classic gaming device, the Sony PSP. What it lacks in terms of keyboard, it makes up for in its portability and abundance of various emulators. And good looks, of course.

The other news is that another release of Spark is nearing. This update will send certain tasks such as message sending to background, allowing you to browse around while the message is being sent. In addition, this release will include the oft-requested ‘Compare games’ feature, which allows you to see your friends’ play history and achievements (see screenshot after the jump).

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Posted in gsDroid for XBox Live, OpenSpark, PSP, Update | Comments Off

Future PSP releases; Time rewind in computer emulators

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

ColEm will be the next emulator to be brought up to the latest version of the PSP library. It will also include the ‘time rewind’ feature found in several other emulators.

I have not completely given up on Castaway PSP (I’m still poking it from time to time), but I am rather running out of options and patience.

For those of you wondering if/when the ‘rewind’ feature will make it to other emulators, especially computer emulators such as fMSX and Fuse, the issue is as follows.

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Posted in ColEm, Update | 2 Comments »

fMSX PSP version 3.5.41 released

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

This release fixes the “Button mode” (US/JP) bug in 3.5.40 reported by several users. The bug caused the emulator to start in US button mode, even when Japan mode was selected.

If you always use US mode, you do not need to download this version.

Download

Posted in fMSX, Release | 5 Comments »

Spark update, a few words on PSN support

Saturday, March 13th, 2010

I’m currently working on fixing the back-end of Spark. Once this is done, messages can be sent in the background, and ‘compare games’ can be re-enabled.

Today I spent some time getting to know the PlayStation Network website. Intimately. And I was pleasantly surprised – going from zero to fetching the achiev.. pardon, trophy list took a little over two hours. And I remembered why I love dealing with plain web scripting languages that do not wrap cumbersome, complicated functionality inside a deceptive layer of HTML and POSTdata (I’m looking at you, ASP.net).

The gist of this story is that PSN support is no longer a question of if, but when. I don’t know how many people are actually looking forward to PSN support (I’m much more fond of my 360 for games – my PS3 is largely used for BluRay discs, and the occasional PS3-exclusive title), but if you are, I’d like to hear about it. (I still love my PSP, though for reasons that do not include modern games.)

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Posted in OpenSpark, Update | Comments Off

And now for something completely different…

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

One of the best things about having a smartphone is being able to use one’s own sound effects and tunes as notification sound effects (“notifications”) and ringtones – without having to pay some sleazy company for the privilege.

I’ve lost no time in turning some of my favorite video game sounds into ringtones for my Android phone, so for those of you who don’t mind looking like an overgrown kid in a room full of strangers, I offer my “notification” and ringtone collection, so far.

Notifications include Start Tune (King’s Valley 2, MSX), Coin Pickup (Super Mario Brothers, NES), Ring Pickup (Sonic the Hedgehog, Genesis) and Heart Pickup (Vampire Killer, MSX). Ringtones are Start Tune (Antarctic Adventure, MSX), Level 1 Tune (King’s Valley 2, MSX) and Coda (SD Snatcher, MSX). They’ve been recorded using OpenMSX, Gens32 and NesterJ.

And if chiptunes float your boat, I can’t recommend Kohina enough.

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Posted in Android | Comments Off

Android Market Seeding program

Friday, March 5th, 2010

A couple of days ago, I and a number of other Android developers received an email claiming to be from one of Google’s programmers. The message is posted here in its entirety, and basically thanks the developer for writing Android apps, and offers a free Nexus One or Droid phone as a “thank you” for having an app on Market that fits a specific set of criteria.

Having seen all sorts of scams in the last 15 years, and judging by the content of the message as well as the form, I was immediately skeptical. But a large number of sources (here are a few) claimed that the message is legitimate, so after several hours of consideration, I went ahead and applied for the program. I’ll post more if I actually receive the device.

Well played, Google. You just made it very difficult for me to use any other phone (not that I wasn’t sold on the platform already).

UPDATE: Today I received an official confirmation that the information was received and confirmed.

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Posted in Android, Rant | 3 Comments »

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