Console and PC Game Emulation Under Linux

Unless I'm blind, today might just be a slow news day. But that downside turned into an upside, as I came up with the most common-sense idea ever... linking to our old content! So from now on, if news is coming in slower than tar dripping from an Alaskan rooftop, we'll pick some random interesting piece of content from over the 600 we have lingering around.

The first article to come to mind was posted just over a year ago, on May 28th. It targets Linux users, but for those Windows and OS X users interested in PC/console game emulation on your rig, then you can still gain some valuable information. I might be a huge fan of Linux, but I'm the first to admit that the gaming situation sucks, with Windows demanding all of the attention. Well, if you bring console or PC game emulation into the mix, things improve vastly!

In the article, I take a look at how to set your PC up for the NES, SNES, MSX, Playstation 1, Genesis, DOS and of course, the ultra-popular MAME. Other tasks delved into is properly installing a joystick and taking care of some dirty deeds that need to be tackled before something will work. If you already know how to install emulators on any OS out there, then perhaps our simple (though perhaps slightly outdated) list of many different emulators available will kick off some new interest.

It seems simple, but there is no doubt that the coders behind these emulators work long and hard to create a stable program. Emulators became popular in the late 90's, but it was far from being just a fad. If there was a console that existed, there is a good chance that there is an emulator for it. To this day, many emulators are still in development, so they will not be going anywhere, anytime soon.

Source: Game Emulation in Linux

VIA Pulling Out of Chipset Business

In a somewhat surprising move, Richard Brown, VIA's VP of Corporate Marketing in Taiwan, told Custom PC that the company would be leaving the motherboard chipset business in order to focus on more important products, such as their Nano processor (which, as we've seen, is a serious competitor to Intel's Atom).

Brown went on to say that the reason VIA moved into the x86 processor scheme of things to begin with is because they believed the third party chipset market would disappear, and that they'd need the capability to provide a complete platform. Fair enough. But I'm sure it also doesn't help that AMD, Intel and NVIDIA are all offering great chipsets right now, and are more capable of pumping cash into constant development.

Regardless of this decision, VIA's processors are on the up, as we've seen before. The Nano is seriously competitive with Intel's Atom, so it makes all the sense in the world to shift more focus there and become even more so. Oh well, VIA will forever remain in my heart for providing a great chipset on my old MSI KT4-V Socket A board. Wasn't great for overclocking, but was incredibly stable otherwise.

VIA's previously had a rocky relationship with Intel over its third-party chipsets. Back in 2001, VIA released the Apollo P4X266 chipset, which brought DDR memory support to the Pentium 4, despite not having a license from Intel. To avoid the wrath of Intel, motherboard makers produced boards based on the chipset using VIA’s name rather than their own brands.

Source: Custom PC

Time for Nostalgia: 101 Classic Computer Ads

Regardless of how old you are, it's likely that you enjoy sitting back and reading through an old magazine, or a really old magazine, just for fun. I have many old EGM's, GamePro's, Nintendo Power's and others, and it's great fun looking through just to see how far we've come along. There is a certain simplicity about those old mags, when games were games, and graphics didn't matter, but gameplay did.

Well, nostalgic reading aside, Boing Boing has posted a massive list of 101 different classic computer ads, and if these don't bring back memories (some where released before my time), then I'm not sure what will. The best one in my opinion is the one shown below. "If personal computers are for everybody, how come they're priced for nobody?" - You'd almost swear they were referencing current-day Apple's!

Ok ok! I'm kidding, please no e-mails!

Seriously though, this is one MASSIVE list, and one very worthy of checking out regardless of how old you are. It's still amazing to me how far we've come in twenty years... but really, that could be said over and over in five year intervals, because even comparing today's computers to those of five years ago is incredible. Take a hard look at the ads out there today, because those same ads will be viewed again in twenty years in the same manner we are looking at these now... scary thought.

Source: Boing Boing

"Why Do You Pirate Games?"

Although it's been said that PC gaming is on the downslope, piracy of PC games has been steadily increasing ever since it's existed. It's not too often (if it's ever happened before) that a game developer has come straight out and asked, 'Why?'. Why exactly do people pirate games? Is it the high cost? The difficulty in purchasing? Laziness?

Cliff Harris, an indie developer for Positech Games, came out and asked the question, not to whine like many large developers, but rather to gain an insight into what goes through pirates' minds. Personally, most people I know who pirate software or games wouldn't purchase the game even if it were a single dollar. It comes down to laziness and lack of care, and I'm sure they are not alone. It's a sad reality, really.

Cliff wants pirates to e-mail him with their insight, and in return he promises to not expose them, nor even relay their e-mails to the public. Rather, he wants to contemplate each message he receives and see how he and other developers can work to decrease the abundance of piracy, but that thought in itself is an extreme one. Piracy has been rampant in the past few years, and to slow it down by any means at all would be one impressive feat. Definitely a commendable move though, without question.

Starship Tycoon - One of Positech's many titles

I'll just read them, nothing else. It will be entirely off-the-record and effectively anonymous. I won't hand any email addresses to the RIAA, MPAA, BSA or anyone at all under any circumstances ever." What he will do, however, is read every e-mail in an attempt to understand why pirates pirate and what developers can do to change the way that PC gaming is going.

Source: Ars Technica

Spicing Up Your OS with Amazing Free Icons

On Friday, I made a post about some Windows Vista themes that where not only great-looking, but completely free as well. Definitely check out that post if you haven't already, if you are interested in spicing up your home PC a little bit. Over the weekend, I set up a fresh Linux computer for benchmarking purposes (stay tuned) and had a massive craving to upgrade some of the icons for the games installed there.

Well, in my travels, I stumbled upon a great site (minus the pop-ups) that offers a slew of free icons for any OS that supports .ico or .png files, which all three common OS' on the market can easily do. You can see a sample of the gorgeous samples available, with the Crysis and Gears of War icons shown below, but those are just the beginning. Other game icons there take care of Diablo II, Half-Life 2, Oblivion, Quake I - IV, STALKER, and well, you get the idea.

Though I originally went there for gaming, the site offers a lot more than just that. There are categories for business, cartoons, computer, folder, funny (of course, gotta have 'em), people, TV and so forth. If you want to push your OS beyond the common theme, definitely check out the site to satisfy all your icon needs. I should say that I'm sure this is not the only good icon site out there, so if you have one to recommend, post in the thread!

The Icon Archive is a categorized collection of high quality desktop & web icon sets. We currently have over 19,200 icons in 696 sets from 166 icon authors. Icons can be used for Windows (XP, Vista, etc.), Macintosh (OSX, OS) and Linux (as PNG Files). Copyright of icons belong to original authors. Public usage license can be found on each icon set page. If you want to use icons commercially, please contact the author of the icons you want to use.

Source: Icon Archive

Intel Launches New Processor Models, QX9650 Gets Replaced

Back in May, I made a news post about the certain demise of the QX9650 Extreme processor - the very first 45nm-based offering out of Intel - which we first took a look at last October. Well, the time has finally come, as multiple e-tailers have its replacement in stock, the Q9650.

As mentioned in that news post, not a single thing changes between the two CPUs except for the name. The clock speed remains at 3.0GHz, the FSB at 1333MHZ, the L2 Cache at 12MB and the drool-factor at 10. As of now, the only 45nm Extreme Edition left is the 1600FSB QX9770, and it will remain as such until Nehalem's launch in the months ahead. For those not in a Quad mood, Intel has also launched other products that were sitting in the pipeline, including the Q9400, E8600 and E7300.

The Q9400 is a step-up from the Q9300 and sits at 2.66GHz with a 1333MHz FSB. The L2 Cache is scaled down from the higher-end models to remain at 6MB. That's the sole difference between this and the Q9450, as that processor runs with 12MB of L2 Cache.

Also new are two Dual-Core models, the E8600 and E7300. The former is a 3.33GHz offering very similar to the E8400, with the only difference being the overall speed. The same applies to the E7300 when comparing to the E7200, it's a 2.53GHz vs 2.66GHz, essentially. Very lackluster difference, if I do say so myself.

Not all e-tailers are currently selling the new chips, but NewEgg and Mwave are carrying three: the Q9450, E8600 and the E7300. Canadian e-tailer NCIX is listed for all four mentioned above, but none are in stock. Any can be placed on a special 2 - 5 day order, however.

• Intel Core 2 Duo E7300 - Mwave ($143.00)
• Intel Core 2 Duo E7300 - NewEgg ($144.99)
• Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 - Mwave ($275.00)
• Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 - NewEgg ($279.99)
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 - Mwave ($550.00)
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 - NewEgg ($559.99)

These are the lowest prices I could find, although other stores were selling them for much, much more. I'm sure as the week goes on, they will begin to creep up on many more e-tailers, so I'll report later this week if things change.

August 11th Tech Roundup

• ASUS P5Q Deluxe - ComputerShopper
• ASUS P5E64 WS Professional - Phoronix
• Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 - Motherboards
• Gigabyte EP45-DQ6 P45 - APH Networks

• ASUS MK241 24" LCD Display - ThinkComputers
• Visiontek Radeon HD 4870 - TechSpot

• Corsair Dominator XMS3 DDR3-1600 MHz 4GB - PC Perspective
• Super Talent Pico.C Gold 8GB - Accelenation

• NZXT Avatar Gaming Mouse - techPowerUp
• OCZ Alchemy Series Elixir Keyboard - DragonSteelMods
• Cyber Snipa Sonar 5.1 Sound Card - Technic3D

• Scythe Ninja 2 CPU Cooler - Overclockers Club
• Scythe Kaze Master Fan Controller - Mikhailtech
• NZXT Sentry LX Fan Controller - Rbmods
• Thermaltake NBCool T500 Notebook Cooler - Bjorn3D

• Akasa Omega - techPowerUp
• Cooler Master Real Power Pro 1250W - ThinkComputers
• Prestigio GeoVision 350W - InsideHW

• Tritton AX Micro TRI-BH200 Bluetooth Headset - DragonSteelMods