Slashdot Mirror
Lik-Sang Back Online
Alexander Burke writes "Lik-Sang appears to be back online (until we slashdot them). However, their selection of PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and Xbox "backup and import" (pronounced modchip) items seem somewhat lacking. Coincidence? Surely not..." This previous posting should provide some good background reading if you've not been following this episode.
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/10/15/155821 5
this site gamegizmo.com has a lot of stuff if you miss lik sang (or however it's spelled).
It's unfortunate that the unofficial Game Boy Advance tools are no longer sold through them either. There is a big community of budding game developers out there, but with the prices Nintendo asks for the official development kits, the unofficial tools are their only way of getting started.
Of course, tools like that will always find their way. Unfortunately also the site of the company that makes them is either hacked or taken down. Anyone know which?
Jouni
Jouni Mannonen | Game Designer, Consultant
Back online? isn't this the same story as posted on the 16th here? Seems they've been back for a few weeks, despite the attempts at slashdotting them previously
Glenn
The Smrt way to trade CFDs on the ASX
Old one...
For the XBox go buy a Matrix chip from EasyBuy2000. They are shipping them faster now and they don't require any soldering. Easy to install.
There are some good homebrew apps coming out too. The XBox Media Player is very nice. You can stream VCD/SVCD/DIVX/MPEG to your TV. It works VERY well.
In the GBA Develop and Backup category, Lik Sang still has the MBV2 cable.
If you want flash memory cartridges and writers for GBA, CDworld and Game Gizmo still have them.
Will I retire or break 10K?
If these mod chips become any more difficult to obtain, I might have to buy the games I want...alright, fuck that, how much does a plane ticket to Hong Kong cost? Can't be that much, right?
At least a week or two. Sure it was on Slashdot earlier, somewhere.
:)
Must be a slow posting day or something
"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." - Thomas Jefferson
And so should, ohhh... this one.
DUPE! (and from 2 weeks ago, too!) :)
If you want to run Linux on an Xbox, build a $200 PC and you get better.
Do I get NTSC TV output for that price? A 25" TV is cheap; a 25" computer display is way out of my price range.
And what if I want to write software to run on a $70 handheld device? No Palm device has the graphics power or battery life of a Game Boy Advance system.
Will I retire or break 10K?
I still don't know how M$ was able to leverage a foriegn company that well, I thought that the only multi-national evil corporations out there were Sony, Nike, and IBM... :p
On a somewhat related note, I was in Best Try (or Buy if you like the place) today and saw a 24" RCA television with the label "XBox Ready" slapped on the plastic. We are not talking about a sticker, but the text is actually printed on the face next to the control buttons so it is a perminent fixture on the front of the unit.
The borg's marketing machine is in motion. (Like that should be news to anyone.)
What TV can you purchase now adays which is not "XBox Ready"? I wonder how much cash MS pushed their way to get that label. I would not even consider buying the unit just due to that.
The TV was on and endcap no less.
-Pete
Soccer Goal Plans
Just because they stopped distributing mod chips doesn't make them a dead company. I look on their website and I see many things that I might like to buy...if only I had any money left from college tuition...
now you can't run illegally copied games, boo hoo.
What TV can you purchase now adays which is not "XBox Ready"?
How about a TV that pukes when it sees the 524-line (as opposed to 525-line) image that many consoles output?
How about a TV that reacts poorly to Macrovision encoded signal?
How about a TV with only RF input as opposed to composite video input (yeah, I still see those)?
How about a TV that cuts too much off the sides and corners of the image?
Any of those four might introduce a compatibility problem between a game console and a television set.
Will I retire or break 10K?
You people do realize that it was primary Sony and Nintendo, NOT MICROSOFT, that causes the shut down of the site, right?
Microsoft send a letter of support, and was one of the official plantiffs, but did not originally bring the case.
Yet Slashdot still picks the MS-Borg icon for the story. How transparently bias.
In theory, you should be allowed to make backup copies of your own games, since you paid for them.
In practice, most people will run illegally copied games, because most people are dishonest fucks.
evil adrian
now you can't run illegally copied games, boo hoo.
Would you consider homebrew software to constitute an "illegally copied game"?
Will I retire or break 10K?
Obviously, they only just recovered from the Oct. 15 slashdotting.
And since when is reverse engineering illegal, if I may ask?
Try out fish, the friendly interactive shell.
Thats the raeason I put the " ", It isn't. But since when did MS declare this legal? Not that I give a reats tail what MS really wants or doesn't.
And since when is reverse engineering illegal, if I may ask?
Since you were born without money. A console maker can sue you for anything, and if you don't have the money to show up in court and defend yourself, you lose by default.
Will I retire or break 10K?
One more week and this story'll get posted a 3rd time..
have any other stories out there been triple posted? Quadruple posted?
Like half the story timothy posts are reposts. I think he deserves an award. Please take the time and vote timothy for slashdot repost king.
I can understand Microsoft bashing, but this is pure lie. Next time, maybe it will turn out to be only Sony. The story changes every time.
After a bit more searching, I found a GBA compatible 64 Mbit flash cartridge with a linker for only $50 + S&H at Success Compu.
Will I retire or break 10K?
It's just a component input:
Question: What is the Exclusive RCA VPORT(TM)? Article #1960*
A. The RCA VPORT(TM) is a unique jack which simplifies the connection of Microsoft's Xbox(TM) video game console. It also functions as a second component video input.
In the light of so many repeated stories...I was wondering, did slashdot perl programs hit a nasty bug when Daylight Savings Time hit this morning?
No, if it was a slow posting day, they would have accepted the "messiertom Takes over the World" story I submitted.
What is it with this site and it's endless promotion of criminality? Folks, the DMCA is law and you will obey it at all times and report those who do not. You're a felon if you do not.
The IP laws are here to stay. No amount of effort on your part is going to make them go away or diminish them in any way. In fact they are going to grow even more powerful. The same holds true for the drug laws, sensible common sense gun laws, and other laws which take away your liberties that you shouldn't have.
I feel like a dipshit for not including this little gem in my submission.
Oh well, here it is...
He should have just said "illegal game". No need to narrow down the field to only illegally copied games.
Stealing the devkit to make your own games is illegal too. Of course, there are other ways to deem a game illegal.
It's not very hard to get VGA to NTSC anymore. Most cards, even the cheapy ones support it.
Unfortunately, I didn't get to pick which video card to put in my Dell computer two years ago. What inexpensive video card do you recommend as an upgrade from an NVIDIA TNT2?
would you really want to run it on a TV? The answer is no.
Would you really want four players to crowd around a 17 inch VGA display? The answer in my circle of friends is no.
TV (NTSC) is not useful for your every day computing needs. Mainly because text would have to be rather large to be [readable].
Which is why games designed to run on TVs have big 20-point text.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Stealing the devkit to make your own games is illegal too.
So why should making your own devkit be illegal?
Of course, there are other ways to deem a game illegal.
I know of only a few, such as using somebody else's copyrighted cartoon character, using somebody else's copyrighted music, using somebody else's copyrighted story, etc.
Will I retire or break 10K?
X BOX READY...
If that's common enough any enterprising consol maker can FUD "Our games run on ALLTVs. Even the ones that are X Box ready"
Leave an image of "If you want to use X Box you gotta buy a brand new tv or use ours on your exsisting perficly good 50 inch wide screen"
I don't actually exist.
2 weeks from now we are going to reading another story how we slashdotted them, and they are back online after that slashdotting.
By encoding the libraries into non-human readable code, Nintendo has effectively created an "access control".
By encoding the libraries into non-human readable code, Nintendo has effectively created an "access control".
The only thing required to get a GBA game to boot is a valid header, and reproducing that is fair use under Sega v. Accolade. From there, most homebrew GBA games just use newlib (a Red Hat libc under BSD style license) or something.
Will I retire or break 10K?
What was once legal is now illegal.
But how can you prove that a simple checksum constitutes "effective access control" that the DMCA requires to kick in the ban?
Will I retire or break 10K?
It would be one thing if you post two articles at the same time, but this was some time ago and used the EXACT SAME TITLE. Jesus Christ, people pay $5 a month or more for this?
When you make unlicensed software (Ie. your own homebrew games - Without paying Nintendo $$ to license/release it) you are bypassing any profit that NINTENDO is supposed to be making off the game. Now, if they let everyone make their games for free, or run emulators etc.. Who would actually BUY the games in the stores? Well, a lot of people would, but a LOT of people would also just buy a GBA and play nothing but homebrew games and emulators and linux stuff that people developed for it, and this is where Nintendo loses money, they DEPEND of people who buy a GBA to BUY licensed and legit software because that is where they make their money. Right now MicroSoft is losing hundreds of millions because of people jhust buying the console and modding it to just use Linux and copy games. They need people to buy nearly a dozen games off the shelf to break even on the cost they spent to give you the XBOx that cheap - but the people who are fanatical are killing the consoles by modding and skipping the storebought software. It happened to the Dreamcast, it's happening to the XBox, and Nintendo doesnt want it to happen to their GBA.
If you're REALLY serious about devloping on a GBA, or any other console, you NEED to get licensed to do it, or join a company who already is. Otherwise you're literally hurting the company that you like so much.
It's great that you might want to program for the GBA - BUT - Nintendo does not want what happened to the Dreamcast to happen to their GBA (It died.). When you make unlicensed software (Ie. your own homebrew games - Without paying Nintendo $$ to license/release it) you are bypassing any profit that NINTENDO is supposed to be making off the game. Now, if they let everyone make their games for free, or run emulators etc.. Who would actually BUY the games in the stores? Well, a lot of people would, but a LOT of people would also just buy a GBA and play nothing but homebrew games and emulators and linux stuff that people developed for it, and this is where Nintendo loses money, they DEPEND of people who buy a GBA to BUY licensed and legit software because that is where they make their money. Right now MicroSoft is losing hundreds of millions because of people jhust buying the console and modding it to just use Linux and copy games. They need people to buy nearly a dozen games off the shelf to break even on the cost they spent to give you the XBOx that cheap - but the people who are fanatical are killing the consoles by modding and skipping the storebought software. It happened to the Dreamcast, it's happening to the XBox, and Nintendo doesnt want it to happen to their GBA. If you're REALLY serious about devloping on a GBA, or any other console, you NEED to get licensed to do it, or join a company who already is. Otherwise you're literally hurting the company that you like so much.
That is why MS is being bashed and not the other two. Duh? It doesn't take much effort to realise a crappy console and to bash it into the ground every chance people can get.
Nintendo relies on ALL software for it's systems to be license through them for a price. This is how the console and handheld market works. Everything that comes out needs to have money exchange hands. Any game you write yourself needs to be licensed through Nintendo/SOny/Whoever. If they allowed people to just simply write their own software for a hobby, the software library would grow so huge no one would bother buying any games in the stores, and Nintendo would go out of business. Do us all a favor and respect the systems you love.
Lik-Sang is still the only place where I can find those stupid nintendo proprietary screwdrivers.
DRINK DUFF (responsibly) DRINK DUFF (responsibly) DRINK DUFF
This previous posting should provide some good background reading if you've not been following this episode.
And THIS previous posting should tell you that slashdot likes to post duplicate stories if you're new here.
Everything that comes out needs to have money exchange hands.
Even if I'm willing to pay Nintendo to manufacture my carts, where do I sign up?
Any game you write yourself needs to be licensed through Nintendo/SOny/Whoever.
What law? What court precedent? A simple header check like the one in the GBA is Sega v. Accolade, judgment for the independent publisher.
If they allowed people to just simply write their own software for a hobby, the software library would grow so huge no one would bother buying any games in the stores, and Nintendo would go out of business.
Microsoft allows people to just simply write their own Windows applications for a hobby. People still buy Warcraft 3 and MOHAA in the stores. Does Microsoft go out of business?
Besides, if Nintendo requires all developers to work with licensed publishers, then how is a developer supposed to train himself or herself and get the critical "GBA experience" that publishers require on a résumé?
I'm sorry. I love Nintendo and all, but there's no constitutional right to a business model.
Will I retire or break 10K?
If you're REALLY serious about devloping on a GBA, or any other console, you NEED to get licensed to do it, or join a company who already is.
Under the no-homebrew-allowed-not-even-non-commercially scenario that some posters in this discussion have postulated, I have to be with a licensed publisher to get GBA experience, but even with a B.S. in computer science (due in May 2003), I apparently need experience to get a job with a licensed publisher. Where do I start?
Will I retire or break 10K?
Because the mods are back, the first time you saw that Lik-Sang was back they had no mods.
"You can now flame me, I am full of love,"
I have read prolly 30 posts stateing this story is a dupe. Granted Lik-Sang has been back for a while but it was only very recently that they had mod-chips posted on thier site. The post on /. did a poor job of explaining this so maybe it should be pointed out.
"You can now flame me, I am full of love,"
This PHP website seems to be handling the load pretty well. Good to see, since PHP's scalability is often questioned.
In this case, would that not be a contradiction in terms?
~~~
Yeah, but what's really funny is the short-term memory of everyone on this site (editors included), and that they're gonna click through and slashdot the poor fools again even though this is a dupe from last week.
im happy to have got my flash linker before they wnet down :-)
Overuse of the Pumping Lemma causes blindness
What the post really should say is Lik Sang is back on-line again after the slashdotting the site got after the FIRST time this story was posted. Looks like you may see this story next week too.
STOP ROCK VIDEO
- Since Thomson/RCA (NOT Microsoft - they just provide the $$ and advertising) is actually the one that designed and manufactures the XBox, this is perfectly fine IMHO.
Acutally, no. Microsoft did concept and specs for the box and a nice little firm called Flextronics acutally designed and builds the hardware. Sorry.There comes a time in every man's life when he must say, "No mother! I do not want any more Jell-O!"
Obviously, they only just recovered from the Oct. 15 slashdotting.
...and I'll stop sending dead penguins to your desks on each friday as a part of the promise.
Dear michael and timothy,
It seems that you've done very good jobs here. Here are big buckets of money you deserved.
Keep up the good work, honey.
Best Rgds,
B.Gates.
YHBT
No, I'm serious. How does a fellow "legitimately" go from PC software development to console software development?
Will I retire or break 10K?
No DMCA in Canada. So no, I won't obey it, and no, I won't report dick all. In fact, there's a fair number of laws I'd be more than happy to break/not report.
Why? Because I think rather than blindly obey.
Karma: Non-Heinous
Wow, foot in my mouth. But... I could have sworn!
I knew RCA and MS were "like this" [makes appropriate finger motion] but looks like I was wrong. Hmmph.
And why do you need to hack an XBOX to do all that?
To save $200.
A $200 Xbox, a $90 modchip, and a $10 copy of Linux costs $300.
A $200 Xbox, a $200 PC, a $10 copy of Linux, and a $90 VGA to TV converter costs $500.
Will I retire or break 10K?
While you can buy a video card that adds TV out to a computer, I'm making the point that you still can't buy a complete computer with DVD ROM, optical out, and component out for 200$ USD.
Unless you can answer that, you don't really have a point, because the Xbox does provide all that for that price.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
i hold the view that if pairacy were not avaliable would i pay for it, if not but i still want to play it then i'll illegally copy it, but if it's a game that i think is good then i'll buy it.
i know it's still illegal but most of my games are legal it's just games that are fun for a few months and then i get sick of them then i won't pay for them.
so while i do commit piracy (and only a small portion of my games are illegal) i at least have some ethics involved, and the companys don't lose any mony they wouldn't have made.
That fag's constantly got Tacosnot dripping outta his ass... if you know what I mean...
Note to Timothy: Spend less time jacking off to gay pr0n, and more time doing your job, you lazy ass hole!!!
by evil pokeemon from the planet odnetnin
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
With many great features! Although the GameCube's beating it out right now, price/performance and library wise..
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
The fact that you copy *any* given game, and play it for a few months and don't pay for it is unethical.
You offer no rational justification for your action, you simply don't want to pay for it because it's fun "for a few months" -- that is not a good reason to steal *anything*.
evil adrian
I'm willing to pay Nintendo to manufacture my carts, where do I sign up?
It's a matter of contacting Nintendo and requesting a license. They likely won't manufacturer your carts, but they will make you a licensee and then you can write games to your heart's content and manufacture them too.
Giving up on assembly language was the apple in our Garden of Eden: Languages
whose use squanders machine cycles are sinful. The LISP machine now permits
LISP programmers to abandon bra and fig-leaf.
-- Epigrams in Programming, ACM SIGPLAN Sept. 1982
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