GLBasic.com are holding a Boardgame Competition. Deadline is the 12th January 2010. Check out the full announcement via the link below.

Quote:

1. The competition starts at 01-Oct-2009 and ends at 12-Jan-2010 (full 3 months, x.mas incl.).
The topic is “board games”.

2. The game must be a computer version of an existing board game. For little-known games, please provide a proof.

3. The submissions must be written exclusively for the “GLBasic-Board Games Competition 2009”. It must be new games, created from scratch. Extensions of extisting projects will have to be disqualified when discovered.

4. All submissions must be freeware and stay so. If you submit, you agree that this version of the game can be published as freeware for good. Selling a further development is no problem, though. The copyright stays with the autors. All included media files must have all rights reserverd.

http://www.glbasic.com/main.php?site=boardgames-compo&lang=en

Dear visitors,

Once in a while I can leave the place I am working for and enjoy some days outside my office. I’ll be spending a few days in China and will be back in nine days.

Kedo will be taking over the news for the time beeing. As our server goes nuts regular and needs a manual reboot, Kedo, EvilDragon and Celeth are notified and should be in the position to reboot as fast as possible, when required.

See you in nine days!

-Kojote

PS: A few news from me might follow before the plane takes off 🙂

Bushing comes up with more RAM tracing/hacking news.

Quote:

As we probe deeper into the DSi, we come across some neat stuff. Scanlime got a new FPGA board from Sparkfun, which gives him more GPIOs and the ability to run them at the 1.8v necessary to properly talk to the RAM.

…

Please read the full article at it’s source page.

http://hackmii.com/2009/09/dsi-ram-tracing-camera/

Bushing is currently trying to hack the Nintendo DS and along with this analyzes the RAM, which is impressivly shown by the picture below.

His attempt to dump stuff for now failed, but head over and read the full article.

http://hackmii.com/2009/09/dsi-ram-hax/#more-686

Retroaction is an interactive magazine featuring old and new games on retro platforms like the Amstrad CPC, Sinclair, Commodore, DOS, Arcade, Atari, Sega, Nintendo, NEC, MSX, Acorn, Apple, and more.

Content:

Features:
On the Cutting Edge of Sci Fi Adventuring: Blade Runner
We look at Westwood’s epic sci-fi adventure, and chat with the main man behind the game’s production Louis Castle.

Ghostbusters Through the Ages
With Ghostbusters getting a current-gen update, we thought this was the perfect time to look back at the various games, ports, remakes, and sequels.

Retro Fanzines
Retrogaming enthusiasts have been creating their own fanzine publications for over 20 years. We racked our memories and hunted around the ‘net to find out more.

Twilight of the Spectrum, part 2
We continue our trek through the Spectrum’s twilight years in Eastern Europe.

Computer Warrior, part 3
Further adventures of the Computer Warrior comic strip, from the 1980s Eagle comic, where gamers discover how to play computer games within the computer’s realm.

Atari STE: What Could Have Been
We look at the history of the Atari STE and think of what could have been Atari’s resurgence in the 16-bit computer market.

Interviews:
Louis Castle
We talked to Louis Castle about everything Blade Runner, and how it all came to be.

Tom Livak
A special preview / interview with Tom Livak on his NES game GemVenture.

Clyde “Mato” Mandelin
We speak to lead translator, Clyde Mandelin (a.k.a. Tomato, or just Mato), about the epic Mother translating projects.

Mukunda “eKid” Johnson
We caught up with Mukunda Johnson to discuss his PDROMs compo winning SNES game Skipp and Friends as well as his other projects.

Regulars:
Retroscene
The latest happenings in the world of retrogaming.

Emulator Profile: STEEM
Often cited as the emulator of choice for Atari ST gamers, and with good reason.

Retro Respect: Magic: The Gathering
We’ve all missed a classic during our time (I know I have). This is where we pay respects to the forgotten classics, the misunderstood, and the underdogs.

Killer App: F-Zero
These are the games that are so outstanding that you would buy the system just to play that game. The essential games that every retro gamer should play.

Raiders of the Lost Arcades: Aliens vs. Predator
Unfortunately, the arcade is becoming extinct as a gaming platform, so we take a trek back through time to relive some of the arcades’ greatest and underrated games.

Retro Respect: Defender of the Crown
Cinemaware’s classic arcade strategy gets the Retro Respect treatment.

How to Cause a Complete Controversy: Revenge of General Custor
Forget the GTAs and Manhunts; games were causing controversy from as far back as the 8-bit days. We look at the controversy that surrounded these games.

Retro Respect: RoboWarrior
The underrated NES game gets our overdue respect.

The Weird and Wonderful World of Retrogaming: UnSensible World of Cannon Moon Soccer Meets Bulldog Blighty
There have been some truly strange games, demos, and cover disks released in the heyday of retrogaming. This is where we dig up some of these weird and daft creations.

Reviews:
Skipp and Friends (SNES)
Knight Lore (MSX2)
Knight ‘N’ Grail (C64)
Kuiper Pursuit (ZX Spectrum)
r0x (Atari STE)
Nanako in Classic Japanese Monster Castle (Amstrad CPC)
La Corona Encantada (MSX, ZX Spectrum)
Biniax 2 (ZX Spectrum)
Infection (C64)
Gommy: Midievel Defender (ZX Spectrum)
International Soccer (PC Windows)
Shift (MSX2)
Legion of the Damned 2 (C64)
Factory Daze (ZX Spectrum)
Kung Fu II (PC Windows)
Poomania (GBA)
Berzerk Redux (C64)
Rambo (PC Windows)
Sudoku Master (Amstrad CPC)
Biohell (ZX Spectrum)

http://www.retroactionmagazine.com/magazine/1-magazine-issue-announcement/11-retroaction-issue-3.html

Brakken / http://www.tehskeen.com made an interesting posting, where he criticize issues with few scene pages, who mainly gain attention with others work.

Here is the quote:

It seems popular scene sites like *** and *** have decided to appease to a wider audience by copying RSS feeds from major gaming sites and posting their content. Aside from posting copied gaming news they also post many ADS for all kinds of boring shit. Anyway, what do you think about this? Do you think TehSkeen should copy RSS feeds of gaming news and post it along with tons of ADS for general gaming shit? Please reply or vote to let me know if I should bring TehSkeen behind a level.

http://www.tehskeen.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=13516

The french homebrew scene site Nintendomax got a C&D letter from Tetris Holdings LLC.

Obviously Nintendomax had a homebrew hosted, which uses the copyrighted name “Tetris”. Tetris Holdings LLC managed to get Nintendomax’s file account closed, so basically all downloads are not working anymore.

This is a great loss for the homebrew scene, but nothing is 100% lost yet, as the guys at Nintendomax try to sort out the issues.

All this shows once again, that homebrew coders should step away from using copyrighted materials for their projects, unless they have an official and legal permission. This applies not only to trademarks, brands, but also to music and graphics.

Let’s see where this journey will end up!

http://www.nintendomax.com/index.php?topic_id=10514&format=news

Openxile.co.uk are holding a Crap Games Coding Competition. Deadline is the 25th August 2009. Check out the full announcement via the link below.

Quote:

Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to introduce the openXile 10-Day-Craptastic-Coding-Contest. (Or the 10DCCC if you wanna be smart about it)

Featuring fabulous prizes, your task is to code the most interesting game or application in the ten day time slot. We aren’t looking for a work of art, just something that can keep our attention for more than a few minutes.
Platforms include, but aren’t limited to:

Wiz, GP2x, GP32, DC, PSP, GBA, etc

http://openxile.co.uk/crap/

Retrogaming Times Monthly #63 is available. RTM is a retro magazine, sometimes with focus on homebrew things.

Content of this issue:

01. Press Fire To Begin
02. Retrogaming News
03. High Score Monthly Profile
04. Show Report: California Extreme 2009
05. RTM Idiocy: Blissful Ignorance And Dangerous Knowledge (Act 3) |
06. Apple II Incider – Marble Madness |
07. All Eyes On Blaster Master 2 |
08. The Thrill Of Defeat: The Ugly Duckling |
09. Modern Retro – Bionic Commando: Rearmed |
10. Old Wine In New Bottles: Capcom Classic Collection Volume 2
11. Videological Dig – The Vid Kid
12. Laughing Pixels
13. Gaming Advertisements
14. Game Over

http://www.retrogamingtimes.com/rtm63/

For all of you who love to play homebrew and legit backups on your Nintendo DS, try avoiding to update the recent Nintendo DSi Firmware.

brakken ( http://www.tehskeen.com ) and Dave ( http://www.modsupplier.com ) report that many common flashcards are not useable anymore after the update.

Unless there is further information, we suggest to avoid updating!