How to Run PlayStation 2 (PS2) Games on Your PC with PCSX2

There has always been a gap between computer gamers and console gamers. Generally because of the impossibility of a console gamer to play computer games or a PC gamer to play console–only games. Luckily for us, some people just don’t understand when to quit and keep on trying to create a bridge between consoles and computers as far as gaming is concerned.

Those people are the ones behind console emulators for the PC allowing PC gamers to play titles that appeared in a console-only format. This is how emulators such as Chankast for the Sega Dreamcast, Dolphin GameCube emulator, ePSXe PlayStation One emulator and many more appeared. Next generation consoles, however, seemed to be impossible to emulate on a modern computer mainly because their architecture is pretty different from that of a computer. Although it is said that console manufacturers have created emulators, there are no real facts confirming these speculations.

There are numerous teams working on Xbox360 and Nintendo Wii emulators, and one has just succeeded in making the first emulator to play PlayStation 2 video games. Starting with version 0.9.6, PCSX2 can play most console games on your computer at acceptable speeds. I will continue by showing you how to configure your PCSX2 emulator.

For more info :

http://gadgets.softpedia.com/news/Unleashing-Console-Fury-on-Your-PC-With-PCSX2-1976-01.html

PS3 Gets High Precision Mouse and Nunchuck

There's always been a problem with playing certain types of games on platforms that weren't meant to support them - beat ’em up games on the PC or first person shooters and real time strategy titles on consoles such as the PlayStation 3. One can get a wide variety of joy pads or joy sticks for the PC, but it's been pretty hard up until now to bring the keyboard and mouse to a console such as the PlayStation 3.

A while back, I wrote about the mLani PS3 Controller. Well, Splitfish seems to have been disappointed with the mLani controller, since it has decided to make its own FragFX PS3 mouse and Nunchuck. It turned the regular controller into a mouse and Wii-like Nunchuck. The mouse has a wide variety of buttons, since it's the right half of the controller, it has the four “square,” “circle,” “triangle” and “X” buttons and the mouse acts like the right analog stick.

A pretty interesting contraption, especially if you love playing games such as Killzone 2 but can't get that special “playing a first person shooter on the PC” feeling. By the way, this controller looks fantastic. Beautiful and slick, optimized for navigation of the PlayStation Home virtual world, with a menu mode that allows it to function as a regular mouse during menu selections, not to mention the “FragChuck” (as the Nunchuck is being called), the FragFX v.2 for the PS3 is a god amongst controllers and the mobility it gives gamers is a blessing from God!

The FragChuck features what is called “the Frag button,” which slows the mouse movement down to incremental movement for those millimeter-perfect sniper shots. Mouse precision and Wii Nunchuck for the PS3. All I need now is the console.

Be Impressed by the Nokia 7205 Intrigue

Although I normally don't cover mobile phones created for only one network, the Nokia 7205 Intrigue for Verizon Wireless is cool enough to make me want to write about it. Not quite state of the art (Nokia has definitely done better), this handset distinguishes itself with its price (180$ with a two-year Verison Wireless contract) and absolutely fabulous appearance.

The phone has A2DP Bluetooth, a 2-megapixel camera, PMOLED display on the back, microSD slot of up to 8GB and a great-looking home screen. It has a shiny, all-black sleek exterior and is dashboard-capable. It uses a standard Li-ion battery to recharge and is available in Silver and Pink. You all know how I hate pink. However, the cool pink to black blending effect makes even me think about getting the pink version of this phone (my wife would love it).

Too bad I'm a GSM user and also a European. But knowing Nokia, it is probably planning something just as good looking for Europe, too. This phone is intriguing to say the least. But the feature I like most is the Habitat Mode, a cool-looking user interface that allows the phone to assign nature-inspired icons displayed in chronological order. The icons can also be replaced by photos of your loved ones and friends.

Your phone's background picture changes colors in accordance with what time of the day it is but the possibility of selecting a non-cycling color theme is also present. The Nokia 7205 Intrigue definitely deserves its name, wouldn't you say?

Oh, and for all you eco-friendly people out there, this phone comes packaged in eco-friendly materials, with an eco-friendly literature bundle and environmental theme. Add to this a downloadable Captain Planet ring tone and you're set (there has to be a Captain Planet ring tone somewhere)!

Windows 7 Is Great for Gamers, Forget XP or Vista, Says Microsoft

PC gaming has almost always been tied to a generation of Microsoft's Windows operating system. Whether it was 95, 98 or the more recent XP or Vista, the Redmond giant was responsible for the main platform on which developers brought their video games. Windows XP has been and still is the preferred platform for gamers around the world, due to its low requirements and high degree of compatibility with almost all the titles that appear on the PC.

But ever since Microsoft introduced Vista, by saying that it would be perfect for any activity, including gaming, players have been somewhat reticent to upgrade to the company's new OS either because a lot of titles weren't compatible, or the system took up too much of the PC's resources, or due to the fact that it was filled with a lot of bugs or glitches that rendered games unplayable. But it seems that for gamers Windows 7 will be the best operating system, at least according to Microsoft's VP of the Interactive Entertainment Business for the EMEA region, Chris Lewis, who talked with GamesIndustry.biz about the future operating system. He went on to say that the resource hog that was Vista would be replaced with a much more robust and compatible OS, which would make the transcendence from XP to it almost seamless, while offering a lot of new features, including the hyped-up DirectX 11. “Windows 7 will be great for games, undoubtedly,” he said. “It's all good news - it's even more robust, it's quicker relatively, and the early testing cycles are proving very promising overall. I think it'll be nothing but good news for PC gamers, but we'll have more to say on that later on this year. Ultimately we're a Windows and PC company at heart, and that's not going to change, and the development on both platforms will remain central and important. The business ebbs and flows, and there will be times when we do more on one platform than the other, but they do co-exist very nicely, and as a company we're in a pretty unique position that we have a strong legacy on PC.”

Small yet Powerful

Sony VAIO VGN-UX1

When we first laid eyes on the imported Vaio UX50, bells, horns, whistles and fireworks formed a crescendo in our gadget-hungry heads. It was, quite simply, the most breathtaking portable computer we’d ever seen. As the first UX-series model to officially hit the UK, the UX1 has enormous expectation placed on its rather slim shoulders.

Look, don’t touch

Physically it’s an almost identical beast to the UX50, albeit with a cool all-black livery. The 4.5in touchscreen is still there, and it’s simply awesome. Slide it up to reveal the tiny QWERTY keyboard – this time with all the correct English symbols, of course.

The display resolution is an astounding 1024x600. It’s a touchscreen, but you’ll hardly bother using the stylus, because the control nub is so good. Should you have problems with the size, try the zoom in/out buttons on the right to help read small text.

Has to have Vista, baby

The real changes, though, are inside, with the hard disk being replaced by 32GB of flash memory – which must be the reason for the huge price tag – and Windows XP getting bumped off in favour of the new Windows Vista OS. The processor’s also been beefed up a little and the RAM’s been doubled, but thanks to the extra strain caused by Vista, you don’t notice the difference.

The New PALM PRE

The Buzz is all about the new OS !

To say Palm has struggled to keep up with the smartphone big boys is like saying the UK’s economy is going through a rough patch.

But the maker of the classic Pilot and Treo handsets is nothing if not a tryer, and the new Pre looks every inch a contender for the iPhone’s crown.

Shiny new OS

The curvy Pre isn’t just a shiny new piece of hardware – Palm has also come up with a flashy new OS, making it a real bundle of hurt for smartphone pretenders like the BlackBerry Storm and T-Mobile G1.

With a 3.1in touchscreen, 3G, GPS, 3MP camera, and slide-out QWERTY keyboard, it’s certainly got a strong feature arsenal. But where it’ll really live or die is on the quality and power of that new operating system.

Classic Palm DNA

As you’ll see from our hands-on video and report, early samples are running unfinished versions of the new WebOS, so we’ll refrain from giving a final verdict on the user experience. But it seems to have captured the simplicity of early Palms, and that’s got us excited.


The OS has all the eye candy that makes the iPhone such a joy to use, and it’s clever too. All your online calendars – whether they’re on Facebook, Google or Outlook – are pulled together in one place thanks to Palm’s Synergy tech, and the same convenience applies to messaging, letting you group together conversations with ease.

Multi-tasker

It’s built for multi-tasking too – we saw it running several applications simultaneously without breaking into sweat – and all apps can be minimized as cards on your desktop, like the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1’s tile system.

But it’s impossible to ignore the iPhone’s influence on the Pre – it has the same tilt sensors, multi-touch controls and full web browsing, though the 3.1in screen is much more cramped.

Keyboard concern
Unlike the iPhone, the Pre has a 3MP camera with flash, removable battery, copy-and-paste function and, of course, full QWERTY keyboard, which is easy to type on but perhaps a little small and cramped for extended use.

We’ll bring you our final verdict as soon as we get a full sample, but the Pre certainly looks like a real smartphone contender. See for yourself in our hands-on video and CES blog preview.

PowerHouse for Gamerzz !

An innovative, noise-reducing design makes this minitower system a great choice for offices. Dell offers the OptiPlex 740, a system from its business desktops line, in minitower, desktop (horizontal orientation), and ultracompact versions. The inexpensively configured minitower we tested ($1024 as of 05/09/2007) had an inoffensive design, using mostly matte-black plastic but also a few shiny black pieces. The ultracompact version (which we did not look at) takes up about one-third the space of the minitower, and with an adapter, you can mount it on the back of Dell's 17-inch LCD monitor to save even more space.

Hard drives mount perpendicularly to the side of the minitower OptiPlex's case, in plastic sleds with rubber mounts to reduce vibration (though the mounts use less rubber than we used to see in Dell systems). If you pinch the sides of the mounts, the drives slide out easily; I had a slightly harder time getting them back in, however. Clips on the side of the air scoop route the SATA drive cables neatly, and the cables are precisely the right length for their connectors to reach the drive bays. If you were to premount drives in the sleds, you could probably have a new drive installed in less than a minute.

Slots cut into the interior of the OptiPlex 740 case let you slide optical drives in without screws; you simply press a button to pop the front bezel off and release a drive. You can install or uninstall an expansion card rapidly, thanks to a fairly good quick-release adapter; the power supply comes out without tools, too. The case's side panel pops off when you pull a lever (with a hefty integrated lock) on the top of the case. The Dell's side panel is much easier to reattach than those of the other two systems: You simply insert the panel's bottom edge into the side of the case and then tip the panel up and slam it shut, instead of sliding it on.

The system we reviewed did not have a chassis-intrusion-detection mechanism installed, but Dell offers it as a no-cost option. You can buy a security sleeve for mounting the desktop or ultracompact versions under a desk or on a wall, but with the tower system, you'll have to rely on a cable lock.

The OptiPlex 740's motherboard has an embedded Trusted Platform Module security chip; you can use this chip along with the included software to encrypt passwords and document folders. The chip works with Vista's Bit Locker security feature, which lets you encrypt your entire hard drive.

The configuration we tested had integrated graphics, and it allowed only a single, VGA-monitor connection, though Dell sells an internal DVI adapter card for $10 that you can use to connect dual displays. But if you're willing to spend a bit more money, you might as well opt for discrete graphics: Dell charges just $64 for a 128MB ATI 1300 card. Our test configuration also included Dell's low-end 20-inch wide-screen monitor, the E207WFP; we didn't subject it to a formal evaluation, but it had no obvious visual flaws. The monitor does not allow height adjustments or swiveling, however.

Adding a discrete graphics card might help the system's overall performance, if only because it wouldn't steal from system memory. Our test system had plenty of RAM, but in our WorldBench 6 Beta 2 tests, the OptiPlex 740's score of 70 only barely beat an identically configured Lenovo 3000 J115. But while the OptiPlex earned a Superior rating for performance, it was competing only against the J115 and an HP Compaq dc5750--these three are the first Vista value systems we've tested. Compared with the power Vista systems we've tested, all of these systems are quite slow--the fastest Vista system we've tested to date scored a 129 on our benchmark.

You can opt for the base 24/7 tech support and next-business-day on-site warranty service, but Dell also offers same-day on-site service for an extra $154 on a three-year plan. Dell trumpets that its OptiPlex tech support lines are based in North America (unlike those for its Dimension products). The company offers a special deal that guarantees access to tech support in 2 minutes or less for $69 extra--but Lenovo promises 1-minute-or-less access at no extra cost with its systems. Dell scored average in nearly all areas of our most recent reliability and service survey, except for a below-average mark for its phone hold time (so perhaps that 2-minute deal is worth buying).

The OptiPlex 740 is far from the fastest Vista system you can buy, but its innovative, quiet case design makes it a top choice among business systems, especially if noise reduction is a priority for your office.