One of the things lacking on Linux is breadth of native commercial games. That's where emulating (or re-implementing) the host enviroment that the game was created for with Cedega (or WINE) comes in.
Prex is an open-source real-time OS for embedded systems. Prex version 0.2.1 was released today. The ARM processor support was added in this release. Now, Prex works on the Game Boy Advance with On-Screen Keyboard. The screenshots are available here.
From Gamespot.News: "... Kutaragi (Sony Computer Entertainment president) disclosed that he plans to install the Linux operating system on the PS3's hard disc drive (HDD) so it will be recognized as a computer, rather than a mere console."
When the Xbox 360 was launched two weeks ago WindowsForDevices.com wondered aloud, "What OS runs inside the Xbox 360?" Now, the editors think they've found the answer to their question.
Nintendo, once the unrivaled king of the home video game business, released details of its planned new game console and unveiled a new mini-portable device called the Game Boy Micro. The new console is said to be "only" 3-5 times faster than the GameCube.
IGN has details on Nintendo's next-gen console: "Revolution will be 'two-to-three times more powerful than GameCube,' according to Nintendo, which also acknowledges that the next-generation race isn't solely about new technologies. By contrast, Microsoft's Xbox 360 console is 13-15 times more powerful than the first, according to the publisher. And Sony says it's PlayStation 3 is roughly 35 times more powerful than PlayStation 2." Pictures of the system can be found here
The PlayStation 3 will feature the much-vaunted Cell processor, which will run at 3.2GHz, giving the whole system 2.18 teraflops of overall performance. It will sport 256MB XDR main RAM at 3.2GHz, and it will have 256MB of GDDR VRAM at 700MHz. It has 6 USB ports, 3 ethernet ports and Bluetooth (no WiFi support for gaming it seems and Bluetooth was chosen for controllers only as it has better latency over WiFi). There are also CF/SD and MemoryStick readers integrated.
The release of the Sony PlayStation Portable in the US has not been a rousing success so far, with many retailers only selling a few of their small allotment. It's be very successful in Japan. Is it just too early to judge? UPDATE by ELQ: OSNews now supports the PSP web browser and serves its mobile page automatically. We would appreciate it if someone could send us a picture of it.
AnandTech investigates the advantages and disadvantages of the new market trend: multi-core CPUs. Will dual core enhance your gaming experience? Tim Sweeney, the leading developer behind the Unreal 3 engine, was kind to answer their questions about multi-threaded development with concise answers.
Bare Feats, a popular site devoted to Mac vs PC benchmarks, benchmarked Doom 3 on the Mac to investigate what are the issues with Mac's slower performance in Doom 3 compared to the PC. They even contacted the developers responsible for the port who explained that it indeed has to do with Mac's architecture, gcc's slower optimizations and the OS X itself. From the article: "PowerPC architectural differences, including a much higher penalty for float to int conversion on the PPC. This is a penalty on all games ported to the Mac, and can't be easily fixed."
Linux has so far failed to establish itself as a gamer's operating system of choice. Attempts to create multi-OS compatible games and current attempts to build a bridge between Windows-based games and Linux have yet to bear much fruit. How might things change in future?
A company called AGEIA is working on Physics Processing Unit, a chip similar to the GPUs found on graphics card but with its sole purpose to offload phyiscs calculations found in most modern games from the CPU onto their new PPU. Read more for some thoughts on this development from Kaya Memisoglu.
One of the most prolific games of the BeOS platform was SpaceGirl (later renamed to "No Gravity"). The game is now being ported to Windows and Mac OS X (using DX and, software GL and GL) and also it has been fully open sourced. Hopefully, we will see a Linux/Unix and a PocketPC port soon (for the 2700G Intel accelerator found on Dell or other VGA-capable PDAs, e.g. the VGA Zaurus).
Games Knoppix is an entertainment-oriented version of the popular Debian-based LiveCD known as Knoppix. The idea behind Games Knoppix is excellent -- a LiveCD that you can give to your friends to show them some of the more frivolous aspects of GNU/Linux. Disappointingly, however, many of the games on the CD do not work, many more are duplicates of the same game, everything is in German, and there are driver problems with both the 2.4 and 2.6 kernel options. Linux.com has the review.
Jeri Ellsworth, a 30-year-old high school dropout and self-taught computer chip designer, has re-created the entire Commodore 64 on one chip and inserted it into a joystick, with several games, (like the cool Atari-in-a-joystick games) allowing nostalgic thirtysomethings to relive their youths. A NYT/news.com article has an interesting profile of Ellsworth, her creation, and other projects she's worked on.
