We're getting closer to the last ten QuickPeeks before we hit our first 100th issue! But before that, there's so much more to look back at in just this past week alone. The individual Warriors are all fired up, each of them having their fair share of controversies to address. From broken firmwares to debunked rumors of firmwares, broken street dates, and broken company reputations, we have them all right here, so just jump right in and dig in.

With the resignation of former president Yoshimi Yasuda and the legal tussle with Tomonobu Itagaki, Tecmo sure had a pretty rough 2008. But just when you thought that it's late into 2009 and they've moved on with their lives, well, they haven't. Kotaku reports that Wikipedia caught the publisher trying to edit details of last year's events out of its own Wikipedia page.

Homebrew coder return0000 has released a new shell for the PSP called Android. This shell, written in LUA, was inspired by Google's Android software for mobile devices. Read more to see the full list of features for this great looking shell.


Download: Android 1.0
Visit: QJ.NET PSP Development Forum

Them lucky Japanese are getting two more new titles for the PlayStation Portable next year: Cybersoft's Never 7: The End of Infinity and Ever 17: The End of Infinity. Details after the jump.

Don't look now, but it's the Game Of Life! Well, that's the title of this PSP homebrew at least. If you're bored and looking for something new, why not try this out? Author maxthebest says it's "a real version" of his Game Of Life. Create your initial configuration and watch it evolve.


Download: The Game Of Life RC1
Visit: QJ PSP Development Forum

Brett Ratner makes movies. He directed stuff like the Rush Hour series and the third X-Men movie. Recently, he confirmed to UGO.com's Movie Blog that yes indeedy, he's going to be working on the big screen adaptation of the God of War video game series.

AQ Interactive has launched the official website for Anato wo Yurusanai, its upcoming sound novel game for the Sony PlayStation Portable handheld gaming system.

Since our last post on this title got a few "What's a sound novel?" comments, here's a short backgrounder. According to Wikipedia, the term "Sound Novel" is a trademark of Chunsoft for use in their novel games like Otogirisou and Kamaitachi no Yoru. Sound novels and visual novels are essentially the same thing. The latter is just the term used by non-Chunsoft developers.

Anyway, back to the game. The story revolves around a woman called Takeuchi Ririko who works at her father's private investigation firm. Things take a turn for the worse when Ririko's husband leaves her and her father mysteriously disappears. It's now up to Ririko to look for her father while she takes care of his P.I. firm at the same time.

The website doesn't have a lot of content at the moment, but there is a brief guide there on how the game can be played. You can also check out a few screenshots of the game there. Those interested can take a look at the official Anato wo Yurusanai website by clicking on the Read link below. The game goes on sale in Japan on November 15.

What does Resident Evil, Phoenix Wright and Devil May Cry have in common? Pretty boys. Shinji Mikami of course! A warm Happy Birthday goes out to one of the gaming industry's living legends who turns 42 today!

Mikami has been in the gaming industry for more than 15 years now and is responsible for a number of games we all know and love. Aside from the ever popular video games mentioned above, he's worked on such classics as Aladdin and Goof Troop during the days of the Super Nintendo, Dino Crisis and God Hand.

After working with the Resident Evil franchise with Capcom for almost a decade (so many zombies, so little time,) he joined Studio Clover in 2004 where he worked with Hideki Kamiya to produce Devil May Cry. He later founded Seeds Inc. together with Kamiya and Atsushi Inaba which was last heard to be in the process of developing a new game.

Certainly a lifetime of achievement can't be fully captured in a scant three paragraphs but cheers to Shinji Makima and again a Happy Birthday!

Homebrew developer vashts121 dropped by the QJ.NET PSP Development Forums the other day and announced a new build for his PlayStation Portable application Phaze Portal. This new build is essentially the same as the previous one, version 1.5, but with some very important fixes.

According to the developer, there are two new themes available now for users: pink and black. More importantly, the links were fixed as several of the hosts were changed. Those who have been using Phaze prior to this might be aware that the previous build ran out bandwidth.

Anyway, in case you missed our last report, here is the changelog for Phaze Portal v1.5. The download below will provide you with the patched version.

• Downloads now has music, demos, wallpaper, videos and images
• Forum added
• News on homepage and is also a link
• More games
• More apps, pixel fixer added
• Forum added
• Search added (Yahoo, Google, Wikipedia etc.)
• File browser under Search
• Plethora of links
• Two new themes (in About)

Download: Phaze Portal v1.5 (patched)
Visit: QJ PSP Development Forum

Orson Scott Card, author of Ender's Game (the Hugo Award winner and Nebula Award winner), is a recovering game addict - or at least that's one interpretation you can give his interview over at Gaming Today. Ender's Game is being turned into a movie by Warner Brothers, and at the same time Orson Scott Card is open to the possibility of his book becoming a video game.

For those not familiar with Ender's Game, just understand that it's one of the best sci-fi books ever written (in our honest opinions). A fast-paced story about violence, evil, war, and leadership. It's required reading, or so Wikipedia claims, at the Marine Corps University at Quantico.

And if it's good enough for the US Marines, it should be good enough for you gamers out there, right? Anyway, back to the interview. Orson Scott Card talked about being addicted to gaming:

The weird thing was that even when I wasn't playing, I felt a tremendous anxiety. I had responsibilities - there were cities waiting for me to tell them what to build! Now, I'm not insane. My conscious mind knew that it was just a game, and when I wasn't running the program, nothing was happening at all. But I invested so much tension in the playing of the game that it didn't go away when I left the computer. The call of duty was still there.

The interview also tackled what goes into writing a story for video games. Card said:

Games CAN'T have the kind of storylines that movies and books have, or they wouldn't be playable. ... What makes a game work is the opposite of what makes a story work. In a story, you are seeking to find out what really happened - why people do what they do, what the results of their choices are. ... In a game, the opposite illusion must be created. Even though most games absolutely force you to follow preset paths, the gamewrights try to give you the illusion that you are making free choices (even though you are actually, in almost all games, still being channeled through certain puzzles with fixed solutions).

As for Ender's Game, it won't just be one game in Card's vision:

• The Battle Room. This pivotal set in the book can be several game modules in real life.
• Space war games. The three wars (back in Mazer's time all the way to Ender's time).
• Story-based games. Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow.
• MMORPG. This one is based on the Battle School in Ender's Game.
• The Fantasy Game. The "mind game" from the novel.
• The Hive Queen. It's like Civilization (a game franchise that Card was addicted to).
• Post-war war. Card describes this as being like Risk.

Well, Mr. Card, there are quite a few fans here at QJ.NET who would be first in line to get a game that follows the Hegemon.