Here are some progress news from the Giana’s Return homepage:

Gianas Return (Beta 06-11-2007)
Please note this beta is not public… Changes:
New tileset for world 1 (not final, should follow soon)
New credit screen (replaced the 5 other credit screen, compressed information)
New langage selection screen (with new flags)

discouraging feedback
we actually find it quite amusing if people try to discourage us… we know the project takes some time already, we know many people are waiting for the final of gianas return, but people who try to demotivate wont be the winners

please flame now, thank you! 😉

update 5th november
things seem to speed up a bit, as everyone is willing and ready to finish the project as soon as possible.

our new gfx guy is having slight problems with the engine it seems, he might need some attempts to fully understand the used engine and provide perfect results, but we are on the way. if everything goes straight, there will be new screenshots in the next three days.

our artist jayne, responsible for storyline and handdrawn backgrounds will have some time again from 7th novemeber on. this means we can expect progress in this matter.

some translators are already contacted, as soon as the storyline has been finalized, the texts will be sent out for translation into different languages. this will make giana a multi language game 🙂 we will keep the storyline short, so don’t expect a fully featured book a la harry potter 😀

we really want to push out the game in the next two months and we will do our best for this, but please everyone – the game is done, when it’s done. the public beta which was spreading around was a small failure as it contained bugs, which destroyed the gamefun pretty easy, we don’t want to have something like this again. we want a 101% product and not a 95% one… it’s also in your sense and will grant the fun you are looking for, at least for some hours 🙂

translations
the ones who offered translation… confirmed are catalan, dutch and spanish – the other guys didn’t reply to our e-mails ;´:(

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

GoSub2, the successor for GoSub has been updated… Build 48 is out!

Release notes:

With banks 6, 7, & 8 to fill up, now I can have around 80 mazes instead of just 20! Now it can’t possibly be too short! Bank 5 is where the Easter egg is, and banks 4, 6, 7 and 8 are where the mazes will be. Right now, though, banks 6, 7 and 8 are empty. And, if you want to design mazes for me, go right ahead. Each maze is 32 pfblocks wide and 15 pfblocks tall, and the beginning should be at the lower left-hand corner, and the exit can be anywhere on the right side. Here’s the first of many 32k revisions. I added two mazes, for a total of 11 so far. Only 71 more to go!

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=111854&st=75

Chilly Willy updated his PSP Doom port:

Changes:

v1.3 is up! Networking finally works; you can also play against compatible PC/Mac/Amiga versions of DOOM. The GUI has been revamped to make it easier to set up and play a network game. You can now set the starting level and skill.

http://groups.google.com/group/chilly-willys-ice-flow/web/doom-for-the-psp?hl=en

DSKara is a karaoke application for NDS. There are three versions available:

Bet On It – Zac Efron / High School Musical
Wake Me Up When Septembert Ends – Green Day
Work This Out – High School Musical

You need to find the music itself on your own, no one can help you with it.

http://www.dev-fr.org/projets/(nds)-dskara-(v0-7)/msg14692/?topicseen#new

Woopsi is a Nintendo DS GUI library for rapidly creating user interfaces for homebrew software. Modelled after the AmigaOS windowing system.

Changes:

V0.25 (20071105)

– Fixes:
– Added vector to store hidden gadgets, reducing the complexity of maintaining gadget lists and focus.
– Removed all screen dimension magic numbers and replaced with defines.
– Tidied up a lot of the code.
– Gadget deletion queue now handles solely in the VBL events.
– Optimised TextWriter by preventing it from drawing empty glyphs.
– Changed TextWriter into a static class.
– Optimised TextViewer so that it uses much less memory.
– Text font and glyph font now sent around hierarchy instead of each gadget creating their own font.
– Improved Font class.
– Removed 8-bit code from Bitmap class.
– General refactoring and code tidying.
– Made EventHandler methods virtual instead of pure virtual.
– Split gadget events into “raiseXEvent()” and “x()” functions.
– Clicking a gadget automatically notifies its parent that it is the new clicked gadget.
– Moved dirty child redraw function into gadget class.
– Added horizontal clipping to rect splitting functions.
– Fixed SuperBitmap border.
– Relevant gadget methods are now virtual for subclassing.
– Removed all unnecessary all_gfx includes.

– New features:
– Added non-draggable screens and windows.
– Added show/hide gadget functionality.
– Added ability to hide a window instead of closing it when the close button is clicked.
– Added closed/hidden/shown events.
– Added monochrome output to Font class and definable text colour.
– Added drawText() function to SuperBitmap class.
– Added window depth button.
– Added enable/disable gadget.
– Started work on alert requester.
– Moved text data manipulation out of TextViewer into a separate class.
– Added Gadget::moveTo method.
– Added Gadget::resize method.
– Added resize event.
– Added move event.
– Added value change event.
– Added window resizing (API only).
– Added radio buttons.
– Added radio button groups.
– Added “clicked” glyphs for screen and window depth buttons.
– Most gadget action methods (click(), moveTo(), etc) return bools to indicate success or failure.
– Added enabled/disabled events.
– Added checkboxes.
– Added NDS screen flipping and support for top NDS screen.
– Added screen flipping gadget.
– Updated screens to swap to front when clicked.
– Added a variety of gadget depth manipulation functions.
– Split Woopsi library code into separate directory for ease of integration in other projects.

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=207650

fMSX PSP is a MSX emulator for PlayStation Portable.

Changes:

MSXMUSIC and MSXAUDIO emulation can now be toggled on and off at any time
FDD (Floppy Disk Drive) activity indicator – displays an icon whenever the virtual floppy drive is busy
Optional (and discouraged) hi-resolution renderer for screen modes 6, 7 and text-80

http://psp.akop.org/fmsx/

Funky Kong is based off the classic barrel-jumping-hammer-bashing arcade game, Donkey-Kong! Except, Funky Kong is a side-scroller unlike the original game. This time around, you’ll have to hurry and make it to the top, but by avoiding any possible danger. That includes; Falling Barrels, Spinning Barrels, Flame Enemies, Flaming Barrels and finish off by a boss battle after a level.

So far, the game is in beta form. It is still very buggy, but is playable.

http://consolenation.freeforums.org/viewtopic.php?t=20

Release notes:

Latest release with changes as from included readme-psp.txt:
PSP MAME4ALL v4.9r1 Hires by TTYman, 05/11/2007
——————————————————-
Install directions:
– Copy in /PSP/GAME (firmware 1.5) or /PSP/GAME150 (firmware 1.5 compatibility for 3.xx OE release);
There are three different builds in archive:
1) PSP-100x (psp_mame4all_v4.9r1);
2) PSP-100x without neogeo and cps1 support (psp_mame4all_v4.9r1-fat-noneogeo-nocps1);
3) PSP-200x (psp_mame4all_v4.9r1-slim);
Use psp_mame4all_v4.9r1 as installation base, then replace EBOOT.PBP with your needed/preferred build;
– Recreate zipped roms with included ClrMame compatible .DAT files (v0.34-v0.36 mixed roms);
– Add created zipped roms files in ROMs subfolder and samples in samples subfolder;
Samples must be in .sam old Mame pre-v0.35 format, downloadable from http://www.mameworld.net/samples/sam.htm
Specific Features:
– Based on latest GP2X MAME4All release v4.9;
– 480×272 full PSP Hires Support, now games with >320 orizz. and >240 vert. pixels are fully playable (Loderun, Galaga etc.);
– Overclock support, from 133 to 333 MHz;
– Fixed, Fixed Divided by 2, Software Scaled and Software Full Screen Stretched resolutions (all maximum 480×272);
– Frameskip as GP2X version (fixed 0-5, auto 1-5);
– Vsync on/off;
– Save configuration support, default and per game;
– 22KHz with 16 voices predefined sounds, 33KHz and 44KHz frequencies with 4, 8 and 16 voices combinations added;
– Preliminary analog support;
– Autocentering fix for all resolutions;
– Optimized compiled code as derived from GP2X version, but for PSP cpu (fastest graphics core!);
– Stripped & Packed executable, only 2.1MB;
– Original graphics theme from Gold edition;
– Music in menu (filename music.psp in data folder), in these supported formats: .MOD, .S3M, .IT, .XM and .OGG;
– Added, as bonus, 1st classified OldSkool at Assembly 2007 Music Competition (Commodore 64 based), in .OGG format;
– Graphic theme 480×272 BMP skins support, both pspmenu480.bmp and pspsplash480.bmp in folder skins;
Specific Controls:
– Button SELECT: Insert credits.
– Button START: Play.
– Button HOME: after Pause exit game and return to menu.
– Buttons L+R: Activate/deactivate screen fixed/fixed div2/scale/stretch.
– Buttons L+R pressed during one second: Pause.
– Buttons L+HOME simultaneously: Reset emulation.
Fixed from 4.7r3 (same as 4.8r1 unreleased)
– Crash when sampled used.
– Unified builds, thanks to new Z80 core, Mame 0.53 based, compatible with system16, neogeo and classic roms.
– Implemented PSP-2000 (slim) specific support, so double memory available to load roms, thanks to keiich-san code.
Fixed from 4.7r2:
– Sounds now are near arcade perfect, with minor gliches in some sound chips emulations;
– Gold (CPS1, System16 and Neogeo) specific emulations are now stand-alone, as require different z80 cpu implementation;
– Improved performance with sounds, oldies with 0 frame skip and vsync on, others with auto-1 and auto-2;
Fixed from 4.7:
– 133 MHz in menu and while paused, for battery saving;
– VSync really works now;
– Corrected build configuration and Makefile, so sounds in various games are now back;
– Correct fixed, div2, sw scaled and sw stretched resolutions, with autocentering;
Known Problems:
– General audio with some gliches due to original unoptimized threaded sound core;
– Preliminary Analog stick support doesn’t recognize very fast movements;
– No rotate support;
PSP MAME4ALL v4.9r1 Hires zipped archive (6.792.731 bytes)
PSP MAME4ALL v4.9r1 Hires zipped archive MD5 checksum file
Source code can be downloaded from official Franxis’s GP2X port, at http://www.talfi.net/gp32_franxis/.
TTYman 😉

http://ttyman.free.fr/?p=14

jbskateur released a game called Wormstation. Description at it’s release thread is in french language so I have to pass and refuse to use crappy bablefish translations as other pages 😉

http://www.playeradvance.org/forum/showthread.php?t=15139

After some work with Bezier curves at the university, eXdreAm made a little bezier application using the algorithm of de Casteljau for the DS.

Thanks to http:/www.dev-fr.org for the news.

http://palib.info/forum/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=3808&forum=28