Access_Denied and Appleseed629 (thanks for the tip) have unveiled a brand new Lua tutorial system that you can study on your PSP, meaning that you can learn to code in the popular PSP coding format with no experience necessary at any time in any place! ProgramLua has a whole host of Lua programming tutorials packed into a 6MB WinRaR archive just waiting to be sent to your PSP. It's all you need to get started and have your coding skills honed to perfection; who knows, your veins may be tinged with the blood of Dark_Alex, Fanjita, NJ, zx-81 and the rest of the more popular developers out there.

And it doesn't stop there, Access_Denied and Appleseed629 will continue to release upcoming add-ons and expansion packs for the program, enabling you to have a text editor and read downloaded tutorials from within the program. They will also upload new tutorials so that you can continue reading through series of tutorials so you're never short of reading material. ProgramLua has been made into 1.0 and 1.5 EBOOTS so you don't even have to have Lua Player installed on your PSP to run it.

No need to pierce your skin and look for the coder's blood, just give this program and go and start learnin'.
 

    

Download: [ProgramLua v1.0]
View: [Forum release thread]

If players of The Sims found interesting companions through playing The Sims: Unleashed, those who play the sequel to the wildly popular game will have an equivalent set of friends - from the dog world, this time - in the new expansion pack, The Sims 2: Pets.

Not only will you guys have the chance to choose from a variety of existing breeds and hot designer mixes, you'll also be able to customise your pets by choosing their body shape, unique markings, and even their personality (one area where games like these put real pets in the shade). As in real life, your Sims' pet also needs to be taken care of and trained. You don't want to come home to a clawed-up new couch, don't you? You still have to put your foot forward and let your new pet know who's the master of the house.

Of course, you don't want to be just a drill sergeant to your pets, so you'll also want to teach them to shake hands, roll over and play dead, spend some play time with them, or perhaps go shopping together and grab some cool pet accessories that will make the neighbor's dog go green with envy. All of which you can do in this game.

The Sims 2: Pets will be available on the PC, PS2, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS. A version for the PSP will follow. What's interesting is that there will be unique features for each game platform.

The DS version will have a "Manage a Pet Care Center" feature where you can pamper, preen and nurse your pet at your very own Pet Care Center. You can also earn extra Simoleans by selling pet products in your shiny new pet shop.

The PSP, PS2, and GameCube versions allow you to take your pet for a stroll at the Central Town Park. And while you're at it, you can drop by the Town Center and shop 'till your pet drops.

PSP Screens:

 

DS Screens:
 

We already know that the NEOGEO emulator developer, NJ, is one helluva miracle worker! Just look at all the updates of his app, the NeoGeo Emulator for PSP, and you'll be nodding your head in approval. This guy works in a fast and efficient manner and the end product is well close to perfect. I could go on and on about how immensely talented NJ and all the other developers are, but I'm afraid I won't have enough space for that. I would pay good money just to obtain a portion of their talents.

Which brings us to this junction: Recently, the good developer has just released the official version of the NEOGEO Emulator for PSP, this is already version 0.1.1. Just to quote the author first, "this is the official version. There won't be such frequent updates like before. There won't be any more functional expansion but bug fix and speed improvements." We're good with that. So now, we go over to the changelog which is of course done tirelessly (and effortlessly, I may add) by our resident translator, Jeff Chen.

Changelog

[ver 0.1.1 Changelog]

- Fixed a bug that the BIOS selection screen cannot be opened before you play a game.
- From this version, when you start the emulator, config and nvram files will be totally deleted (this should have been done in v0.1 but I forgot to).

[ver 0.1 Changelog]
This is the official version. There won't be such frequent updates like before. There won't be any more functional expansion but bug fix and speed improvements.

- The emulation of watchdog has been changed. There are some games that has a part of their SRAM protected. When starting these games, some reset operations may occur. This is normal and please don't mind.

- The System Language Setting and Machine Mode can now be modified.

Setting items has been added to the Game configuration menu.
Yet, only "MVS BIOS" is support.
*AES BIOS is not supported yet, because once the settings are changed, it won't accept any input.
*uni-bios is not modified, because the BIOS can set itself.
*I don't quite understand Debug BIOS so it's not supported yet.
- Analog input implemented for irrmaze and popbounc.
-The settings are added as an exclusive item, "Analog sensitivity", in the Key configuration menu. This setting can adjust the sensitivity among 3 levels.
-irrmaze (The Irritating Maze/Urudora Denryu Irairabou)
No special setting is needed, you can go with the standard analog input. D-pad and analog are both usable in the game.
-popbounc (Pop 'n Bounce/Gapporin)
Digital input is set to default. When you want to use the analog input, you need to change the dip switch to start in test mode, then change the controller to PADDLE.
- The accuracy of sound emulation in sound Test has been improved.
Rather than conversion, the sample rate can no longer be specified. The sound will always be played under 44100Hz.
- BIOS setting menu will be forced to open when specified BIOS cannot be found.
- Other bugfixes.

And as always, your constructive criticisms, observations, and suggestions would be greatly appreciated by the developer, since your comments fuel him to improve the app, and in the process, perfect and hone his craft. So don't hesitate to think out loud through your comments.

Download: [NEOGEO Emulator for PSP 0.1.1]

After giving us all the latest build to his now popular Nintendo 64 emulator Daedalus, StrmnNrmn took a much needed break from the development scene and went to Barcelona, Spain. But StrmnNrmn's heart must really be into delivering us a better N64 emulator as fast as he can because just coming back from the vacation, he's giving word that he'll "have something ready by the end of next week, or early July".

The next release of Daedalus will tackle a bunch of graphical issues like "adding new combine modes to fix various pink+black textures" among others. Since StrmnNrmn suspects that stability problems related to operating the emulator with dynarec for an extended period of time are caused by the memory running low, he is looking into reducing memory requirements for the coming build. This plan can also improve the Expansion Pak support, says the author.

Time willing, StrmnNrmn promises to look into adding support for configuring the controls on a rom by rom basis. Also up for the coming build is an improvement on the savegame support.

Moving away from the upcoming Daedalus build, StrmnNrmn also highlighted in his blog some clarifications on his issue with PSDonkey. Just before he released his latest Daedalus build, StrmnNrmn received a comment by PSDonkey saying, "I went ahead and compiled the new source for everyone and also added a couple of minor changes to the source for speed improvements."

Having read this, the Daedalus author went into "a bit of a Hulk rage" (his own words) and wrote in his blog that he "[suspects] PSdonkey might simply have been attempting to take partial credit for several weeks development work".

PSDonkey however came clean and made a clarification. He says,

"About the pre R5 build that I made. Yes I did change a couple of minor things in the source code and things seemed to run a tad bit better. However, after reviewing your updated R5 release, none of the changes that I made in the other build had any effect in this new R5 build that you released. In fact most of what I did was clean up some of the excess code and I can see that you already did this in your R5 release."

Having read this, StrmnNrmn extended his apologies and even invited PSDonkey to drop him an email so they can "talk about the possibility adding [PSDonkey] as a contributor on sourceforge".

And that's all StrmnNrmn has for us this week. I bet the coming days will again be nerve-wracking for all of us whose already excited about the prospect of yet another amazing build of the Daedalus. Keep up the good work, StrmnNrmn!