News

Wire3D (Wii Independent Rendering Engine 3D) is an open source, object oriented, multiplatform 3D engine written in C++, supporting homebrew Wii and Windows (DirectX). It provides a framework to developers for writing platform agnostic 3D applications (including physics using the Bullet Physics library) that run on Wii and Windows out of the box.

Changes:

Wire
* draw call batching of static and dynamic geometry
* text rendering
* skybox node
* VertexBuffer uses 32bit color (instead of 4 floats) now, so no more conversion at Bind() time. Note: Although interface changed, there are no changes for the user due to implicit conversion operators to/from ColorRGB(A).
* IndexBuffer only uses 16bit indices, as Wii does not support 32bit indices anyways. Note: Interface only changed on IndexBuffer::GetData(), if you are accessing index buffers via operator there are no changes necessary.
* (PC) fixed renderer statistics bug when ResetDevice()/DestroyAll() was issued.
* (PC) fixed NVIDIA PerfHUD getting stalled when pressing a key.
* (Wii) fixed anisotropic texture filtering

Importer
* tleaking vertex data fixed
* support for “Static” flagged transformations
* fixed missing Spotlight parameters

Tools
* freetype2 font engine added

Samples
* updated Sample3, Sample10 and Demo to showcase new features

Dwedit has updated PocketNES, a NES emulator for Gameboy Advance, once again. This seems to turn out into a long time project and gets better every release.

Features:

* Seamless sound, no more crackling on square wave channels.
* Correct frequency sweeps and triangle wave volume.
* Completely automatic speed hacks that just work, so there’s no menu for them anymore.
* FAST. Turn off VSYNC and watch the games zoom.
* Many parts are more accurate than before.
* Working save states
* Fixed many bugs
* DMC IRQs! Play Fire Hawk and MIG 29 Soviet Fighter!
* Dendy mode

Broken:

* Mapper #9, #17, #33, #40, #64, 73, #105

Thanks to http://www.nintendomax.com/viewtopic.php?t=14399&f=27 and http://gbatemp.net/topic/328711-pocketnes-6-13-2012/ for the news.

EgoTrip updated his Nintendo DS homebrew game Ice Slider. Puzzle fun in 20 levels, more to come…

Thanks to http://www.nintendomax.com/viewtopic.php?t=14403&f=19 for the news.

Geki5 KXL is a game similar to Space Invaders. The original project page seems to have vanished from the internet, so the information available about this port is very little.

Retrogaming Times Monthly #97 is available. RTM is a retro magazine, sometimes with focus on the homebrew scene.

Content of this issue:

ATTRACT MODE
* Press Fire To Begin
* Retrogaming News

THE RETROWORKS
* Apple II Incider – Free Tools Association

THE GAME REVIEW H.Q.
* MAME Reviews – The Pit
* Commodore Du Jour – Starflight
* Dual Perspective – Super Mario Kart (SNES)
* The Pixelated Mage – The Legend Of Zelda: Parallel Worlds
* A Pixelated 21st Century

POWERING DOWN
* Middle Aged Gamer
* Game Over

sebt3 updated his Pidgin Internet Messenger pack for Pandora. Pidgin is an easy to use and free chat client used by millions. Connect to AIM, Google Talk, Jabber/XMPP, MSN, Yahoo and more.

UAE4ALL for the Pandora has been updated. UAE4ALL is a famous branch of UAE, an well known Amiga emulator. It’s very compatible and runs many games!

Features:

AGA/OCS/ECS, 68020 and 68000 emulation, harddisk-support, WHDLoad-support, Chip/Slow/Fast-mem settings, savestates, vsync, most games run fullspeed at 600 MHz with no frameskip, smooth 50Hz scrolling, custom controls, custom screenmodes, screen positioning, heavy/medium/light manual autofire, nub mouse input, support for stylus input

WiiMC (Wii Media Centre) is an open source media player for the Nintendo Wii written mainly by Tantric and rodies.

Changes:

* Fixed incompatibility with NAS devices

Quebarium is penetrating the GP2x with another demo, named 1897. It’s their first dual CPU demo on GP2X. The second CPU is mainly used to compute an old cathode ray tube image (distortion + color blending).

MazezaM is an addictive puzzle game created by Malcolm Tyrrell on the Spectrum in 2002. Thanks to the hard work of Kian Vincent this game is now available for Wiz. Escape from each of the 39 levels by moving the connected blocks. You are only allowed to push them, never pull.