Word is out on the street that a flaw in the Xbox 360 DVD firmware may allow a hacker to install his own custom firmware in there unchecked, and as such gain full control of what the DVD will or will not accept. In practice, this would mean that the drive could gain the capability to boot backups of original game DVD’s by flashing a self-built firmware in there which ignores the mandatory disc signing.

Read more here:

http://www.xboxic.com/news/455

[uPDATE] Sony confirms delay for next-gen console, says it will support an Xbox Live-like online gaming service; console will require a 60GB Linux HDD--but will it be sold separately?

TOKYO--Today at the 2006 PlayStation Business Briefing in Tokyo, Sony Computer Entertainment president Ken Kutagari made it official--the PlayStation 3 has been delayed. The news confirmed widely circulated Japanese newspaper reports, which said that the delay was due to copyright-protection problems with the next-generation console's Blu-ray drive. For his part, Kutaragi would only say the delay was due to "Blu-ray spec finalization."

Kutaragi told the crowd at the event that the PS3 would now launch in November 2006 worldwide. That dispelled fears that the console would make it to Japan in time by the fall, but would miss the all-important holiday shopping season in the US and Europe. In fact, Kutaragi explicitly told the crowd of game retailers and journalists present that the PS3 would arrive before Thanksgiving in all territories.

Besides the delay, Kutaragi also made official another widely reported aspect of the PS3. He said that Sony is indeed preparing an Xbox Live-like online gaming service for the console, which would be called the "PlayStation Network Platform." Though he was short on specifics, the executive did say that currently Sony planned the service to be "free."

While the simultaneous tri-territory PS3 scheme may sound much like Microsoft's international launch of the Xbox 360, Sony plans to avoid the shortages that befell its competitor. Kutaragi said that the company plans on producing at least one million units of the console each month in order to keep the supply channel full. He said the goal was to ship 6 million PS3s worldwide by March 2007.

[uPDATE] The SCE president also told the crowd that the PS3 would use a 60GB 2.5" hard disc drive (HDD). A slide show during the presentation said the HDD would will be loaded with the Linux operating system versus Microsoft's Windows OS. The show also said it could be used as a "home server" and be directly connected to the Internet, and be full "upgradeable."

Kutaragi also made it clear that the hard drive will be necessary to play games, as it is telling developers to make games assuming every PS3 had a hard drive installed. "We view the Hard Drive to be mandatory for the PS3," he said. "Rather than to have developers create games for the PS3 with or without the HDD, we will be asking them to develop them as though all PS3s have the HDD installed."

However, Kutaragi revealed that Sony had not decided whether or not the PlayStation 3 would come with the hard-drive pre-installed. "We might end up installing it in all PS3s, though that depends on the market," he said. This raises the possibility that the PS3 could be sold without a piece of hardware needed to play PS3 games--in effect forcing consumers to buy a peripheral for basic functionality.

Kutaragi also said that PS3 games would only be released on Blu-ray discs, as DVDs have become too easy for software pirates to duplicate. The high-capacity format is capable of storing around 50GB on a single disc.

By Tor Thorsen, Brendan Sinclair, Henry Niizumi -- Gamespot

Pre-determinded fate for Sony? Will they fall? Will they rise again? Are they going to get knocked off the mountain? If history has taught us anything, they get super cocky, then BOOM, crash.

Neo-Geo

 

- Updated The whole "2003" Sets (fixed and working) - thanks iq_132 for the help with the drivers

- Fixed bug on "How to play" screen on kof2002 (and clones) - thanks to iq_132

- The emu was returning a wrong value for the video hardware, 0, and it should be 0xFF

- Re-added "vs-bios.rom" as japan bios, and updated the bios patch code - Thanks to iq_132

- Updated Universe Bios to the latest version (2.2)

 

- Added the korean sets for the following games:

-- Art of Fighting 3

-- The Last Blade (The Last Soldier)

-- Samurai Shodown 3 (Fighting Swords)

-- Real Bout Fatal Fury 2

 

CPS 1 & 2

 

- Fixed Dip Dipswitches on CPS1 games

- Added Hyper Street Fighter 2 (NOT WORKING)

- Just for reference until the xor's (or the phoenix set) come out

- Added "[4 Player]" hack for the following games:

-- X-Men Vs. Street Fighter

-- Marvel VS. Street Fighter

-- Marvel Vs. Capcom

- Renamed some sets to match with the latest mame

 

Dynamic

 

- Fixed bug with Neo-PCM2 code - Thanks to iq_132 (It works perfect now)

- Updated some games inits

 

Misc

 

- Fixed the annoying noise when you paused the game with the "Low pass filter" on - thanks to mai

- New skin,"about" picture and FB EvO icon - thanks to Coffinator

- Fixed a bug with the inputs when you tried to rename it after a recording

- Changed the saved input name, to this:

"gamename [Mounth-Day-HourMinuteSecond].fr" (like the screenshots)

- Added a "Recording Input Slots" option: (It works very much like kawaks inputs now, read "rec_inputs_tuturial.htm" for more infos)

- Added a code to disable the pause if you start recoding an avi

- Added the follow shortcut keys:

-- Alt + I = Replay normal input

-- Ctrl + A = Record AVI

-- Alt + A = Stop AVI Recording

- Changed the follow shortcut keys:

-- F5 (configure inputs) ---> F10

-- F10 (save state) ---> F5

-- F7 (Memory Card) ---> F9

-- F9 (Load state) ---> F7

-- F6 (Load Game) ---> Ctrl + L

-- F8 (Atc. state slot) ---> Shift + F8

Credits for the article go to Emu Dreams, and you can download it there as well.

2006-03-14

 

* CPU:  Added a few missing LDM/STM instructions 

* CPU:  Added MRS/MSR SPSR 

* CPU:  SWI 3 emulation is more accurate 

* MMU:  Fixed some timer bugs 

* MMU:  Fixed some VRAM mapping bugs 

* MMU:  Fixed handling of out-of-bounds ROM accesses 

* GUI:  Fixed some bugs in the disassembler and memory viewer 

* GUI:  Added an auto update mode to the I/O register viewer 

* GUI:  DMA transfers can be logged to the debug console 

 

The CPU plugins is this release are not compatible with earlier versions of the MMU and GUI.

>> Get it HERE.