Jeff Lait once again releases a hefty update to Powder, his dungeon crawler game for the PSP and the DS. The game gets even more impressive with new features and a new spell. Details after the link.

Download: Powder Release 109 (PSP)
Download: Powder Release 109 (DS)

After months of hype for the New Line Cinema film to hit these holidays, Sega has shown 10 screenshots of The Golden Compass' (PS3, Wii, Xbox 360, PSP, DS, PC) game tie-in. These screens are looking nice and true to the franchise, but are they hiding a darker undertone? Some QJ.NET users think so. Read on and find out why.

 

A new batch of screenshots for Sega's The Golden Compass is out. Faithfully created to match the feel and sensibility of the movie, The Golden Compass is about Lyra Belaque and her quest to rescue her uncle in prison and her kidnapped best friend. Travelling with her on her quest is Pantalaimon, a daemon, and Iorek, the armored bear. The Golden Compass is her one true way to lead her on her journey.

The Golden Compass will be released in time with the movie on December 2007 for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS and PC.

PS3 Screenshots:

Wii Screenshots:

A video game based on a movie that is based on a book doesn't have to be disappointing. Many have been successful and amazing adaptations. And being avid readers as well as gamers, we have to admit our bias for this upcoming adaptation: "The Golden Compass" is going to be a video game.

The image below is of Lyra and Iorek Byrnison, a huge Panserbjorne or armored bear.

 

About the game. Sega of America Inc. and Sega Europe Ltd. announced that a "His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass" game is under development by Shiny Entertainment (acquired last year as another subsidiary of the very busy Foundation 9 Entertainment). This big, multi-platform project is based on the movie adaptation (out later this year) of Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy of books.

• The game lets you assume the role of Lyra (we're not sure if you can also take the role of the daemon Pantalaimon).
• You can also assume the role of Iorek Byrnison.
• You travel to the north to beat The Gobblers (we assume the so-called "anti-Christian" sections of the trilogy will not be very relevant to the game and the movie in order to appeal to a wider audience).
• Release date is around Christmas 2007. Consoles: Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3), Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360. Handhelds: Nintendo DS and Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP). There is also going to be a PC version.

Shiny Entertainment created Earthworm Jim, MDK, and Sacrifice; those three games sold well, were critically acclaimed, and continue to be critically acclaimed. Shiny Entertainment also brought us the often-maligned Enter The Matrix - which got mixed reviews because it looked unpolished and rushed, so let us hope that the "His Dark Materials" game will follow in the footsteps of Sacrifice instead of Enter The Matrix.

About the movie. "His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass" will be released December 2007 by New Line Cinema.

About the books. If you like reading books (even those that don't have pictures), Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy is worth considering. Reviews of the award-winning trilogy (Whitbread, Carnegie, Astrid Lindgren) are available online.

Booster's taken a break from his usual stellar PSP 'brew codes and emulators, and has opted to give you something new. His USB Special System Storage 1.00 is something that could be most helpful to you, especially in organizing all those knick-knacks you've got for your PSP.

This allows you to directly mount PSP system data and/or system devices - like say, the UMD drive - as a USB storage device on your PC. For now, it does support the following:

• UMD ISO9660 image
• System memory and some registers
• Iflash (NANDflashROM) parition image
• Iflash (NANDflashROM) direct. (FAT12 direct file access)

Now, as it is mounted as read-only (except in normal mode), you can guarantee that the flashROM and system data is safely protected, just in case you click the mouse over whatever it is that shouldn't be clicked on. It would also be better if you use UMDGen or DAEMON Tools in accessing the UMD files.

Have fun! And be sure to check the Read Me for more details.

Download: [USB Special System Storage 1]

TyRaNiD announced the release of PSPLink 2.0. We added his name to this homebrew app so you don't get it confused with another app with the same name.TyRaNiD's PSPLink is an application that aids in the making of homebrew apps using C/C++. The features include an easy way to debug applications and update the eboots while the application is running.

The changes in TyRaNiD's PSPLink v2.0:

• Few disasm bugs fixed
• Added a sysstat command to print things like number of clock cycles spent in the idle thread
• Added a psplink.ini option for a startup script, by specifying this a script will be run every time psplink is reset. Superceeds the the old modload command and allows you to do anything including patching up ram.
• Added a uidinfo command to print some more info about a specific UID
• Added a daemon mode to remotejoy
• Added a few more instructions to the disasm
• Added a specific hardware breakpoint command, before you had to know how the hardware debugger worked to set a hardware breakpoint

Now for the bad news: TyRaNiD says this is his last public release of this app. The good news is he says he might keep updating svn (but dont expect a binary release again).

As soon as we get a copy of the TyRaNiD's PSPLink v2.0, we'll post it here for you homebrew masters to download.

Update: Thanks to QJ Reader Cory1492 for pointing out where to find TyRaNiD's PSPLink v2.0 download file, which we missed yesterday. Also, we are calling this TyRaNiD's PSPLink v2.0 just so you'll have an easier time distinguishing it from the other app which we will call Danny_Kay's PSPLink.

Download: [TyRaNiD's PSPLink v2.0]

Developers would be very happy to know that there have been significant progress made on the v.1.1 release of their favorite application by TyRaNiD, the PSPLink. It is a very helpful tool for developers to make their homebrew on using C/C++. Since you can make updates on your eboots while the application is running, it will save you a lot of precious dev time. TyRaNiD warns that it is still a work in progress so each should treat it as such. So, far it only works for FW 1.0 and FW 1.5.

If you want to know more about PSPLink or on PSP development in general and in the proximity of Helsinki/Finland, you might want to drop by in the Assembly scheduled on August 3-6, 2006.

Changelog:

• Ability to reboot psplink into a different operating mode (i.e. game, vsh or updater) and have it persist.
• Ability to run usbhostfs_pc as a daemon, when in this mode the shell is lost but you can send commands to it by passing commands from pcterm prefixed with '@'
• Ability to use multiple PSPs on the same PC over USB by setting the product ID on the PSP and on usbhostfs_pc instance
• Added a new tool to dump kprintf output via the normal printf channels.
• Readded tab completion to pcterm, only tab completes local filenames and directories but can be useful if pcterm is running in the same directory as the mounted host.

Download: [PSPLink 1.1]