iSwitcher is a theme / keyboard swapping iPhone application.

http://www.modmyifone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24445

Everyone who wants to know whats going on with the jump’n run game “Giana’s Return” might be interested in this information, which has just been posted on the Giana’s Return homepage.

Quote:

Dear Giana Sisters enthusiasts,

Working on a sequel of such a famous game as “The Great Giana Sisters” is not an easy task. We have heared many comments up to now and most of you might still remember the public Versions of Giana’s Return v0.91 for GP32, Dreamcast and Windows (32-Bit). Most people are happy to see the progress, some just feel ashamed that we are touching an alltime classic and trying to put it in a new shape. As the team itself is very addicted to those kind of games, let us assure you, that we do our best to keep the faith of the original.

The current progress is in a stage, where everything is fully playable but needs a lot of graphical adjusting and level retouching. Our betatester Mulle, a kind and helping hand from Germany, has already put a lot of time into the game, by testing details. The game wont be out tomorrow, neither in a month – but we will not abandon anything.

The storyline is complete and currently beeing added to the engine, same applies for the illustrated story. The tile adjusting will require some more time, so far 4 tilesets are adjusted, this makes 3 sets left.

The rough final should be ready by end of this quarter, we will use the second quarter of 2008 to iron out and fix details – of course this timeline is rough and only applies if nothing bad happens.

To raise your mood and get the time of waiting a bit reduced, here are the links to the three videos, posted on youtube.

World 1 in action: http://youtube.com/watch?v=hu3oV1WUEQY
World 2 in action: http://youtube.com/watch?v=tuxvTYtLXPo
World 3 in action: http://youtube.com/watch?v=UgM7uDJNDt0

A new video of the lava world should be up in the next two weeks. For everyone who was in the dark about the “release date”, now you have more background information.

Greetings
Yours Giana’s Return Team

http://www.gianas-return.de/

In an effort to bring back some life into the GP32 scene, diabol of #gp32dev fame presents you the GP32 Revival Coding Compo!

– The compo starts Monday, January 7th, 2008 and ends 2 weeks after 20 people submitted their entries.
– You can use whatever programming language/toolkit you like (for example: Fenix, VNS…)
– You can enter as many entries as you like, but you’ll only be eligible for one prize
– Any kind of entry is allowed (ports, games, emulators, apps, libs…)
– Adding source code to the submission will get you bonus points.

Your submission should include docs, screenshots of title screen and ingame screen, and, if you choose to do so, the source.

Judges are diabol, donskeeto, mr_spiv and squidge.

First Prize: 1 GP32 BLU+
Second Prize: 1 Wonderswan Color
Third Prize: 1 C64g

You can DIGG the story here: http://digg.com/programming/GP32_Revival_Coding_Competition

http://compo.chemicalkungfu.de/

basfreak has released a new PSP game.

Here are his release notes:

In this game there are buttons, if they are above the river press the button. If you pressed a button right the speed is only times: 1.1 if you miss times: x 1.6.

Version 0.45: http://www.speedyshare.com/416833834.html

http://forums.qj.net/f-psp-development-forum-11/t-release-push-the-button-131869.html

Simpson474 has ported the Nintendo 64 emulator DaedalusPSP to the Dreamcast. It sounds very exciting, but the emulator is very slow which does not make it useable for playing any games. Read the details over at DCemu – there is also a video available along with the downloads.

http://dcemu.co.uk/daedalusdc-released-n64-emulator-for-the-dreamcast-2-versions--83587.html

Skinz Sudoku is a Sudoku game which combines good looks and ease of use…

It offers beautiful graphs by Daydream, with 4 different skins depending on the difficulty level.

The game’s particularity is that it offers 4 different input methods for you to select from, to fit everyone’s needs…
– Wheel : Select a number from the number wheel around the tile you touched. You can also set a hint by touching one of the corners…
– Square : Same thing, but in a simplier/more compact layout…
– Bar : Select first which number to plot, and then touch the grid to put it anywhere…
– Writing : In this mode, touch a tile to have it zoom, and just write down the number you want !

You can also add small number hints at anytime, with every input method, using the top right button, or undo if you make an error…

All the levels are randomly generated, so don’t expect to finish the game soon.

Code by Mollusk, graphics by DayDream.

http://www.xflib.net/index.php?action=games&name=SkinzSudoku

Bfth Software released their second Nintendo DS homebrew game called “Quadrangular”. It’s similar to Tetris but with different shapes.

In this early version only the first mode works.

http://palib.info/forum/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=4069&forum=9

Achim has updated his “catch the smily” game. It now features a minigame where you need to find a specific smily in time.

http://forum.gp2x.de/viewtopic.php?t=5039

Author “Art” can’t stop coding and brings us an updated version of his application Time Baby.

Release notes:

Focus of this update is:
Improvements to Solar Power Monitor mode functionality, and appearance.
Long Version Time Display mode with centisecond display,
which provides obvious potential for a future stopwatch feature,
and improved resolution of the Heart Rate Monitor is also on the cards.

Download from sendspace:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/vwyt3u
Download from RapidShare:
http://rapidshare.com/files/81654845/Time_Baby_V8d.zip.html

Cheers, Art.

http://forums.qj.net/f-psp-development-forum-11/t-time-baby-v8b-solar-power-monitor-131420.html

Spectar, released by Exidy in 1980, is the follow-up of Targ. Gameplay is apparently unchanged, you control a vehicle called Whummel into a 9×9 grid maze, chasing down, and being chased by, the alien invaders. Targs have evolved into the more dangerous Rammers, and Spectars appears more often, shooting at player’s ship.

You use a 4 way joystick to guide your vehicle in the maze, and a pushbutton to shoot at enemies. Up to two players can alternate in gameplay.

The most noticeable difference from his predecessor is that to complete a level you must now collect all the gems in the maze, in a Pacman-like game. Rammers and Spectars continue to appear from flashing pods, so you cannot rest and plan your course easily, or you will be overwhelmed by the alien force.

Graphic is highly improved compared to his predecessor: the maze now has barricades that must be avoided or can be used as a shielding against the enemies, and has ten environement settings, changing from the “square-block town” of Targ to a city, a forest, a lunar landscape and many more. The enemies too are smarter and faster, and the fact that they go on spawning from the pods makes the game a even more frenzy challenge.

Thanks to the kind generosity of H.R. Kaufmann, president of Xidy, the original ROM images for Spectar have been made available for free, non-commercial use.

http://mamedev.org/roms/spectar/