The ScummVM Team recently posted 2 updates on their site, heres the info:
We are pleased to announce another series of games from HorrorSoft are supported, which use the AGOS engine:
Elvira - Mistress of the Dark
Elvira II - The Jaws of Cerberus
Waxworks (Amiga version only)
Help rescue Elvira in Elvira 1/2, and resolve a family curse in Waxworks.
And also this
ScummVM now adds another freeware title to its list of games: Lure of the Temptress, which was the first game to use Revolution Software's Virtual Theatre engine. Players must help Diermot escape imprisonment, unravel the mysteries surrounding the Skorl occupation of the town, and eventually defeat the evil enchantress that controls them.
Excellent News for fans of ScummVM
What Is ScummVM?
ScummVM is a program which allows you to run certain classic graphical point-and-click adventure games, provided you already have their data files. The clever part about this: ScummVM just replaces the executables shipped with the games, allowing you to play them on systems for which they were never designed!
Some of the adventures ScummVM supports include Adventure Soft's Simon the Sorcerer 1 and 2; Revolution's Beneath A Steel Sky, Broken Sword 1 and Broken Sword 2; Flight of the Amazon Queen; Wyrmkeep's Inherit the Earth; Coktel Vision's Gobliiins; Westwood Studios' The Legend of Kyrandia and games based on LucasArts' SCUMM (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion) system such as Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max and more.
Among the systems on which you can play those games are Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Dreamcast, PocketPC, PalmOS, AmigaOS, BeOS, OS/2, PSP, PS2, SymbianOS/EPOC and many more.
Even though SEGA isn't producing the Dreamcast anymore, the console lives on. Heck, tiny Japanese hobby developers still make shooters for it. The DC's legacy continues in our hearts, minds and Czech children's books. Over at UK:RESISTANCE, a reader writes:
"Hello from Czech republic. I like to read UKR so I decided to send you pics from book I found in niece's hands. It shows many common life things include electronics in form of drawn pictures. The author of book had to be very distinguished as Dreamcast was choosed as example of true video game system (and not the Sony crap) which should be recognized by kids"
The Mac clearly dates the book, but still. There's a generation of Czech kids who equate the Dreamcast with a video game console. Think about that!
The GP2X Store have just posted that they have the special edition Treamcast back in stock for those interested.
Heres more info on what a Treamcast is:
Treamcast Special Edition is the latest edition of the Treamcast family. This special edition comes in matt black with a sharp TFT screen for optimum performance. This collectors edition has also be redesigned using the some of feedback we have received from happy users.
Description
Comes with: Treamcast console, Joypad, AC adaptor, Car adaptor, Case. Everything in the picture is included.
- Matt Black for a more sleek look
- The first 128bit console
- Advance PowerVR graphics chip
- Samsung 5” TFT screen for optimum performance
- Brightness and Volume control
- Headphone output
- Plays all region Dreamcast games
- Plays Dreamcast homebrews
- 12v car adapter
- 100-240V auto switching power adapter comes with 2 pin cable (cable can be changed to suit your needs)
- Comes with an original Dreamcast controller for optimum performance
- Can be connected to a normal TV (cable not supply and its outputs a NTSC signalfor best compability)
Trademark application sparks excitement over SEGA re-entry into console market.
SEGA Corporation has filed a new application to protect the trademark Dreamcast - sparking rumours that the Japanese publisher is planning on making a shock return to the console manufacturing market with the Dreamcast 2.
The application, sent to the United States Patent and Trademark Office's Trademark Applications and Registrations Retrieval (TARR) dated August 13 2007, relates to:
"Home video game machines; player-operated electronic controllers for electronic video game machines; video game interactive controller, namely, hand held pads, and floor pads or mats; joysticks for video games; computer cursor control devices, namely, computer mouse; flash memory cards; video game software, computer game programs".
Web chatter suggests the proof is in the detail of the application - the original Dreamcast didn't have a floor mat accessory and the Dreamcast's Visual Memory Unit (VMU) is far from the flash memory cards we know and use today - although we'd say that the VMU is pretty similar to the modern day memory cards.
The filing could, of course, simply be a further effort from SEGA to protect the Dreamcast name. According to the USPTO the original Dreamcast trademark is still active. However, the two descriptions are very different. You can see the original trademark description here.
US and UK office denies shock re-entry into the console market is in the works.
SEGA has denied the Dreamcast 2 is in the works, saying "We like our current strategy and have no plans to change in the middle of this outstanding growth."
We brought you the news yesterday that SEGA Corporation had filed a new application to protect the trademark Dreamcast - sparking rumours that the Japanese publisher was planning on making a shock return to the console manufacturing market with the Dreamcast 2.
www.Trademork.com, which discovered the filing, suggested that the proof was in the detail of the application - which talks about a floor mat and flash memory cards - accessories the original Dreamcast supposedly didn't have.
However, Sega of America PR Director Charlie Scibetta told US website www.GameDaily.com that SEGA "has no plans to get back into the console business," adding, "We're very happy being a platform agnostic company and have moved up the ranks the past three years from #11, to #9, and now stand at #6 in terms of our market share by units among third-party publishers. We like our current strategy and have no plans to change in the middle of this outstanding growth."
And when contacted by VideoGamer.com this morning, SEGA UK reiterated the position, issuing a flat "denial" that a follow up to the much-loved SEGA console was in the works.
Sad news for sure, but did we really believe it was going to happen? Really?
It is time to announce our next Big Testing SeasonTM. This means that pretty soon you, our fellow users, will see the new and shiny ScummVM version.
We have extended the set of our supported games by 8 new (or old ) games. The list includes: I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, Lure of the Temptress, Elvira - Mistress of the Dark, Elvira II - The Jaws of Cerberus, Waxworks (Amiga version only), and early Sierra preAGI games Mickey's Space Adventure, Troll's Tale, and Winnie the Pooh in the Hundred Acre Wood.
There are detailed instructions on how to perform testing in a helpful way. You will find them on our Wiki page. Please stick to those and report on our mailing list, in #scummvm or on our forums. The current list of tested games can be found here.
Last week, a newly updated Dreamcast trademark sparked rumors across the Internet that Sega might be looking at possibly creating a Dreamcast 2. At the time, Sega of America PR Director Charlie Scibetta immediately told GameDaily BIZ that Sega "has no plans to get back into the console business."
Today we received a new statement that explains in part why Sega actually updated the trademark. "SEGA has no plans to get back into the hardware business, but we also want to protect our past and current brands. The trademark application was filed to protect our current and potential future use of the word DREAMCAST and to prevent other parties from using it in a way that could be confused or linked with SEGA," Scibetta said.
While Sega has made no explicit comments regarding further digital distribution of Dreamcast titles, certain Dreamcast games have already appeared on GameTap, and from a business standpoint it would seem to make sense to make select Dreamcast classics available on services like Xbox Live or PlayStation Network. Protecting the trademark "for potential future use" leaves that door open as a possibility for the future.
That said, some of Sega's big properties saw previous releases on the Dreamcast, and when Sega releases a new game in the same franchise on the current consoles, the trademark simply protects their reference to an old Dreamcast version as well. We highly doubt Sega will ever launch another console, but digital distribution of Dreamcast games does seem like an attractive avenue.
This release fixes a number of serious bugs and adds a memory search function to the Windows port. The Windows, Linux and Dreamcast ports are already up along with the source package. The Mac port should be available soon
- fixed unhandled BootDreams icon in Add\Remove programs (huge blank space)
- now checks if a folder only has a IP.BIN, then stops if true
- now checks if scramble.exe successfully scrambled a file
- no longer continues if the IP.BIN does not point to the main binary and it does not get fixed
- ogg\voc\aiff\snd\au support for CDDA
- SoX with mp3\ogg support, mpg123 removed
- now checks for blank\multisession CD-Rs before burning
- the selected MR is now diplayed in the select a MR logo window
- drag and drop support, also works with MR and CDDA windows (dropped files are moved to the folders)
- CDDA, MR, and Main Binary lists are refreshed if new files are found
- now uses the same\one instance (did I already do this?)
- changes to file association
- burning DiscJuggler images with CDDA is now supported
- create dummy files for 650 MB CD-Rs
- bugfixes
- fixed dummy files not big enough for CDDA and audio dummy layouts
- changing the write mode for ISOs in ImgRecord and CDRecord's multisession format (Mode1 or Mode2 Form1) supported
* x86-64 architecture support
* Preliminary Mac OS X support
* Pbuffer support (to support OpenGL drivers without EXT_framebuffer_object)
* Support for more recent CDI and NRG image file versions
* Minor bugfixes
Sega's Phantasy Star series turned 20 years old on December 20th, 2007! To celebrate the 20th anniversary, Sega has launched a mini-site which can be accessed at: http://phantasystar.sega.jp/20th/. Not only that, but you can also purchase a 20th anniversary poster via Sega Direct!
Starting tomorrow, Cryptic Allusion (namely, me) will be posting a screenshot of an unseen, newly artisted (Yay! I made up a word) level of Donk! We'll finish off the the stint of sweet posts on the first of January and add another special something that I'll be putting together over the week and a half ahead of us.
Let's hope what I’m planning actually works out ^_^, but I'm sure you'll all enjoy the new screenshots at the very least!
Now for a slight bit of bad news: as you may have guessed, we've once again underestimated the amount of work and time this project would consume. We're still working like crazy people, but I'm not going to announce another 'estimated release date' for Donk until I know for sure that we're going to be able to meet it. It really shouldn't be too much farther into the future, but I refuse to disappoint everyone yet again (after this time of course) by missing a release date. Truthfully, it pains me to have to write something like that, but we can't let Donk get out there and be a poor version of what is supposed to be a great platformer. Thank you for your understanding, or your need to kick us square in our nether regions...at least you're being honest! ^_^
I'll end with a positive note: Cryptic Allusion WILL release this game on Dreamcast in the not-so-distant future. We've already got pre-orders! We promise to release it! Plus, I'm going to try to get a comparative screenshot at some point tonight as an early bonus...just so you can see the difference between the two sets of graphics.
The upcoming Dreamcast emulator for windows blog has posted some great screens and this news:
This will so not fit into PS 1.4 though. And yes, "Deep Figher" and "Cosmic Smash" show graphics now - I've fixed TA registering process. It should be good up to 8 continuations of any list.
In other news: "Project Justice" has BGM now - although not exactly on every run (I hate timing-related bugs). "Giga Wing 2" shows intro movie, and has more sound as well. All this thanks to FPU fixes on SH4 part - FTRC mostly.
I could release T9/1 as a quick fix to T9 in few days... It would include the new AICA code, but probably not fog support. That's kinda stopgap right now.
Become my Soul Reaver
I found few bugs in T9, here's quick summary:
- T9 actually reports itself as Test 8/3, my bad. The EXE file info should be correct though.
- Due to small changes in SH4 recompiler it may now trip on illegal opcodes, including ones that real hardware would ignore (like 0x0000 in delay slot). That breaks "Tokyo Highway Battle 2" and some "backups". I've already fixed that.
- "Street Fighter Alpha 3" freezes when entering attract mode. Cause yet unknown.
- SH4 fast interpreter is very slow, I was testing something and forgot to undo the changes. And there's a key that will break it even further if pressed Fixed.
- ARM7 was set to normal interpreter rather then fast one and this will add a bit to CPU usage. Fixed. Actually, I've finally completed the ARM recompiler - not very sophisticated but it is somewhat faster. And is default now.
Somehow - thanks to the free time perhaps - I was also able to come up with several improvements to the AICA module. I got more things done in past 2 days that in last 3 months... Anyway:
- There are two types of ADPCM streams on DC, and both can be looped even if only one is supposed to be used that way. But that didn't stop people from trying... Long story short, background music in Soul Reaver sounds fine now. Also, ADPCM samples don't like simple linear interpolation it seems so I've removed it. Trust me, it's better this way.
- I've implemented the Amplitude Envelope Generator (AEG in short). There's very little information on how it works, not to mention several special cases that I found got me scratching my head for a while. It has to be recalculated per-sample, though on the bright side I've designed it to use integer math only. Makes "Gundam Side Story 0079" and "Gun Bird 2" BGM nicer.
I think I could now try to add FEG and LFO too, but before I do I might need to redesign the module so it's more clear what's happening and where. In other words: it will take time.
