Filed under: Gaming

“Touching is good,” but hacking? Not so much. Nintendo has gone on the war path against five Japanese companies that make their living helping users rip off DS games. Of course, a primary use for such hardware — such as the R4 Revolution, pictured — is homebrew and emulation, but good luck convincing Nintendo (or any massive console manufacturer) of that. Details of the actual lawsuit are trim, but Nintendo has brought along with it 54 Japanese software makers to lend a bit of gravitas to the suit. If you haven’t managed to hack your DS yet, now might be a good time to score the requisite hardware — we might be facing a scarcity before too long.

[Thanks, Michael]

Filed under: Gaming

“Touching is good,” but hacking? Not so much. Nintendo has gone on the war path against five Japanese companies that make their living helping users rip off DS games. Of course, a primary use for such hardware — such as the R4 Revolution, pictured — is homebrew and emulation, but good luck convincing Nintendo (or any big console manufacturer) of that. Details of the actual lawsuit are trim, but Nintendo has brought along with it 54 Japanese software makers to lend a bit of gravitas to the suit. If you haven’t managed to hack your DS yet, now might be a good time to score the requisite hardware — we might be facing a scarcity before too long.

[Thanks, Michael]

Filed under: Gaming

If you’ll recall, the evolution of homebrew on the Wii started out quite similar to this. First comes the Hello World proof of concept, then comes Pong. It would just be wrong to unfold otherwise, right? Dragula96, the same guru who whipped up the original homebrew hack, has now introduced 2 Player Pong 1.0 — the first notable game to take advantage of the Java devkit (at least, that’s how it looks from here). Currently, the collisions are “very basic” and further tweaks are necessary before it’s perfect, but it should be stable enough to take you to some sort of blissful say for now.

Filed under: Gaming

If you’ll recall, the evolution of homebrew on the Wii started out quite similar to this. First comes the Hello World proof of concept, then comes Pong. It would just be wrong to unfold otherwise, right? Dragula96, the same guru who whipped up the original homebrew hack, has now introduced 2 Player Pong 1.0 — the first notable game to take advantage of the Java devkit (at least, that’s how it looks from here). Currently, the collisions are “very basic” and further tweaks are necessary before it’s perfect, but it should be stable enough to take you to some sort of blissful say for now.

Filed under: Gaming, Laptops

So yeah, quite a few NVIDIA GPUs have been acting up. Nothing new there. However, Dell’s attempting to help its laptop owners out by making a few notable BIOS updates readily available for download. Apparently the issue “is a weak die / packaging material set, which may fail with GPU temperature fluctuations.” In order to combat the problem, Dell’s BIOS flashes “modify the fan profile to help regulate GPU temperature fluctuations,” though the Round Rock powerhouse only promises that the updates will “help reduce the likelihood of GPU issues.” Hit the read link and give it a go — it can’t hurt… we hope.

[Via Electronista]

Filed under: Gaming, Wearables

Just as Mr. Adams wrote of the summer of ‘69, some heralded pop star decades from now will pen a smash hit recalling the summer of two-thousand and eight. Oddly enough, the tune will likely focus on the revitalization of the Nintendo Entertainment System, which has somehow wiggled into just about everything imaginable over the past few months. The latest concoction is a bit different, though, as the NES Belt Buckle doesn’t really shove NES abilities into a buckle; rather, the NES is the buckle, which is sort of weird to be frank. Still, for $300 you can have your very own, but we’d suggest boosting your self-esteem and saving your cash by just making your own with that dusty system that’s still in your attic. Tons of laughs await you in the demonstration vid just past the break.

[Thanks, Harrison]

Continue reading NES Belt Buckle: most inelegant, awesome NES-in-a-whatever mod out there

Filed under: Gaming

We’re going to guess you’ve never heard of the Weemote, a tiny blue remote control made by a company called Forbis. The egg-shaped remote control and its parent company are reportedly in financial trouble ever since another company came out with something a lot of people are calling the “Wiimote.” While the Nintendo Wii Remote’s official name isn’t that word (we refuse to type it again), evil bloggers and retail chains have taken to the term and Forbis claims its brand has been diluted, confused, and passed up. Owner John Stephen told Game Politics that he would like nothing more than to have Nintendo purchase out the trademark and let him move on to something called, oh, let’s say, the X Bocks, a new microbrewery project. The massive surprise out of all of this? Nintendo isn’t interested. In fact, it has no legal reason to do so, either — it’s never officially called the Wii Remote anything else. Of course, that’s not to say Ninty shouldn’t do the right thing here (and make our jobs just a hair easier) by buying out the mark and sanctioning the nickname, but don’t hold your breath.

Filed under: Gaming

Sony and Microsoft may have sorted things out with Anascape (otherwise known as the self-proclaimed ruler of all analog sticks) before things got too out of hand, but Nintendo has been busy fighting it out with the company in court, which resulted in them being ordered to dish out a hefty $21 million earlier this year — a ruling that Nintendo naturally appealed. The massive N is now facing another setback, however, as a US District Judge has rejected Nintendo’s request for a new trial, which could potentially result in a ban on sales of Wii Classic Controllers, WaveBirds, and GameCube controllers (not to mention GameCube systems). To avoid that, Nintendo will apparently either have to post a bond or put royalties from the controllers into an escrow account. For its part, Nintendo seems to be remaining defiant, saying that it “was already planning to appeal this case to the Federal Circuit court,” and that this new ruling “does not impact that decision.”

[Via Slashdot]

Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds

Generally speaking, Oppo has stuck to its bread-and-butter: decently stylish PMPs and a well-received family of upscaling DVD players, respectively. Now, however, we’re seeing a trio of concepts which allude to a future unit (or three) boasting gaming functionality. Unfortunately, details beyond that are few and far between, and we’re not even certain of their place of origin. In other words, don’t bet on seeing these hit shelves in the foreseeable future, but keep your fingers crossed that they do anyway.

[Thanks, Raz]

Filed under: Gaming, Laptops

There’s just one problem with this, the way we see it: most folks with $3000 earmarked for a gaming laptop probably already own an Xbox 360. Just a thought. Other than that we see tiny to dislike about this little promotion. Dell is offering up its top-of-the-line XPS M1730 system with an Xbox 360 Elite bundle tossed in for good measure. The bundle includes, a pair of faceplates, two game and of course the Xbox itself, and while it’s not exactly “free” — you’re looking at a couple hundred dollar premium over a similarly specced M1730 — it’s still a savings of over $300, and should be eBayable, if nothing else. Offer expires July 24th.

[Thanks, Cezar]