Games Archive

Fans of the classic computer game Ultima V (from the c64/Apple][e era) have re-created the game, using modern game tech, thanks to the Dungeon Siege engine. The Ultima re-make, called Lazarus, is free for download, runs on Windows or Mac, but needs the Dungeon Siege engine (commercial software) to run. More details at the Ultima5 Lazarus site. Update: URL fixed.

Read about the design, verification, and making of the 165-million-transistor Xbox 360: a first-pass-good processor with advanced debug and test features, designed to the exacting standards of a gaming platform, with high throughput, low latency, low cost and low power - and very tight deadlines.

The Xbox-Linux team have got to work on trying to port Linux to the Xbox 360, in a project named 'Free 60'. The Free60 Project aims to port open source operating systems like GNU/Linux and Darwin to the Microsoft Xbox 360 gaming console. Here is some interesting documentation already from their website.

Devotees waited hours in the cold for the long-awaited, next-generation game console. But reports of system malfunctions indicate that the launch honeymoon may be over. Microsoft was quick to respond, stating that "the call rate is well below what you'd expect for a consumer electronic product of this complexity."

As a kind of follow-up to ArsTechnica's previous round of technical articles on the hardware that powers the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, they decided to step back a bit from the technical details and take a broader look at how the next generation of consoles fit into the home entertainment picture.

"Yesterday, I was among a few lucky journalists in New York City who got a rare chance to play a collection of new games on the eagerly awaited Microsoft Xbox 360 gaming console. In short, I was impressed. The brain, capable of one teraflop, is three symmetrical IBM cores running at 3.2 GHz each. Stellar graphics performance is provided by a 500 MHz custom ATI graphics processor and backed up by super fast memory, 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM that is shared with the CPUs via a unified memory architecture."

AppleInsider is reporting that Sony's PlayStation 3 gaming console will support Apple's Mac OS X Tiger operating system. "Sony is expected to offer optional hard drives for the PlayStation 3 with potential memory capacity of 80 or 120 GB. It remains to be decided whether the standard version of the PS3 will come complete with a hard drive. The operating system has also yet to be clarified. The integrated Cell processor will be able to support a variety of operating systems (such as Linux or Apple's Tiger)."

Sony announced that version 2.0 of the PSP system software will be available for download today. The user agent is "Mozilla/4.0 (PSP (PlayStation Portable); 2.00)" (in contrast to the older hacked web browser's "SCEJ PSP BROWSER 0102pspNavigator"). If you can upload a picture of the new PSP web browser rendering the HTML version of OSNews, please post a link below.

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."

Mario creator Miyamoto discusses what's wrong with the video game industry today.

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.

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.