MGAceman's AI Blogger

This was something I meant to blog about yesterday, but forgot to... The M33 team have released an update to their 3.52 custom firmware. Changes: Document.dat of psx games were broken due to some important changes in popsman.prx and now is fixed. Plus, now document.dat does not need the same gameid as game which is played. The compatibility issue with irshell loading psx games in usbhost/nethost has been solved. Changes in recovery: Removed the advanced config option "use isofs on UMD inserted", as it is not useful now. Added "Format flash1 and restore settings" in Advanced. Added speeds 20 and 100. When in usb mode inside recovery, it is impossible to turn PSP off. The chineses and korean languages did not work in XMB, because they crashed homebrew and recovery. The issue has been fixed, but korean font is not there, so you need to take it with psardumper from official updater, and put it in flash0:/font/kr0.pgf. M33 driver: fixed SBK07, now it wor...

An update for the R4 Kernel has been released today, I've uploaded it without the themes folder to here . I've left the themes folder out to lower the filesize and for you to be able to transfer the files over to keep whichever themes you already have. Solved the soft reset of some games, for example: 1158 Zelda Solved the white screen issue of game 1209 Adding the on/off option for real-time cheats switch Updated moonshell to v1.71 and supporting soft reset Full download play support (Please use trim_tool 2.0 to trim ROMs) Just unzip and transfer the files onto the R4, overwriting the existing files and you will be updated.

After wondering what kind of skin to do next for the R4DS, I remembered that I had some NiGHTS images that were sitting there doing nothing, so I went and turned them into skins. There are 5 to select from with another on the way soon as I've done 2 featuring NiGHTS, 2 featuring the girl and just 1 of the boy, but I've seen an image to make the 2nd boy skin with. Not only are there some NiGHTS skins, but also a skin based on the DS game Sonic Rush Adventure. Another unique skin that features Sonic holding a DS on the logo screen with an actual screenshot of the game in the background, the icons are from classic Sonic with the Hedgehog as the Game icon, the E102 robot as the media icon and Tails for Slot-2. The NiGHTS skins can be found on the NiGHTS Skins page, while the Sonic skin can be downloaded from the Game Characters page. NiGHTS R4DS

There's nothing else to say, but watch and be amazed! Chocolate Rain

I managed to get a theme I've had my eye on for a couple of days and with a quick Google search, also managed to find out how to install it. I like it and it was easier than I thought to install. Remember to backup any files you're about to replace. /!\ Warning! /!\ Although a fairly easy task, there is still half a chance of bricking the PSP. This 'guide' is for M33 3.51 Custom Firmware themes ONLY , do not attempt to install any other themes or icons that haven't been flashed for M33 3.51. {Edit} My PSP is a standard install that hasn't been updated to M33-7, so I can't tell you if it works on the latest update or not. Connect the PSP to your computer with the USB lead, hold down the Right trigger and turn on the PSP to go into Recovery Mode. Go to Advanced -> Toggle USB (flash0) and the box should pop up. Once in the directory, open the vsh\resource folder and copy the .rco files and .bmp image of the theme over. Go back to the root dir and go in...

Great aren't they! That is all. lucy pinder

M33? Yes, M33. Not so long ago, I downgraded my PSP to the 1.5 firmware which allows homebrew apps and programs to be run, but I was limited to using DevHook which could only emulate 3.01 firmware, which is why I went and 'upgraded' to custom firmware. I'll admit that I was fairly worried about doing it at first since it's easier to brick a PSP installing custom firmware than it is when just downgrading. If you watch videos on YouTube or wherever, it can look more complicated than it really is, but it's basically 4 steps once you have the following files: M33 Custom Firmware Official PSP FW 3.51 PSP Firmware 1.50 File (EBOOT) North America Backup the contents of your mem card onto your PC and format it using the PSP (Settings > System Settings > Format Memory Stick™ .. why that's trademarked, I don't know). In the " M33-3.51-Rel " folder on your PC (that you have downloaded from my box.net account above, the 'official' folder is ...

[DJCarlos] (Operating system) Microsoft Windows XP Professional (SP2), version 5.1.2600 (40 processes running, 526.93MB free RAM, installed 20w 1d 21h 24m 38s ago, 5w 2d 3h 26m 38s uptime, 5w 2d 3h 26m 38s uptime record) [garyh] naa on a serious note, impossible to keep xp up longer than 4 weeks Yeah ... impossible...

I haven't used Internet Explorer for years because in my opinion, it's crap. If you want to download lots of images, and due to me being a site admin on Mental Gamers , I tend to download quite a few per week, after a while IE stops saving images as jpg and decides to save every image, no matter what format it originally is, in bitmap (bmp). For that reason, I've used Firefox for around the last 4 years or so (I used Mozilla for about a year or more before that) since it doesn't suffer from the same affliction and with a couple of small extensions, it's also that bit more secure. You've probably seen or read on the net recently that IE is starting to lose it's dominance in Europe, that would be due to word getting around about how good Firefox is. It's easy to use and once you've got the hang of it, it can be quite a powerful browser. Now, I thought I would see what all the fuss about Opera was and so installed it the other day. Despite it being mo...

Hello! I'm posting this from Facebook to check out what it looks like. If it's the same as posting from YouTube, then it will be a bit b0rk3d, but if it works good, then I'll have no complaints. One thing I do have a little complaint about while I think about it, this theme on my blog puts too much border around images, I think I'm gonna have to change again soon. (edit) It seems to work quite well, the only thing is, it puts 2 posts in your profile due to you posting from Facebook and then it counts the post again on here. It's posted the subject, tags and post properly, I think it just needs to realise that you've only made one post and not two.

Ace added the WordPress application. 4:15pm When this is posted, according to the WordPress announcement , it will appear in my Facebook profile. It's still new, so there might be a few bugs or something, but hey, it's worth trying out! The one little problem with Facebook is that the profile pages are so basic, is anyone really going to be that interested in everything you have in your profile to scroll down and read it all? I'm trying to keep things to a minimum, but my profile is still 2 and a bit scrollbar lengths. Yesterday saw this blog get over 1000 views, what I can't quite understand is why the majority of hits go to my R4DS skins page. I know that loads of hits come from people looking for info about the R4DS and I'm glad it's helpful (which is why I did it), but the last few days have seen a massive influx of views to just that one page. :? While I'm here, I'd like to moan a little about Google Toolbar. I decided to add it to Firefox to help...

Just taken a look on my Google Reader to see that Engadget are reporting that Peter Moore, the head guy at Microsoft, has resigned. It's hard to call the Xbox 360 anything but a success, but having missed some sales numbers, ringing up an extra unexpected $1b on the corporate card because of warranty issues, and still generally failing to make a profit, it looks like Peter Moore , who we just sat down with a few days ago , has stepped down from his embattled position as the ringleader of Microsoft's Xbox group. It seems that he's not leaving the gaming industry completely though, he's to become President of EA Sports. Maybe not quite the same calibre as being Vice President of Microsoft, but a pretty darn decent job.

Once again, I've been looking through the Tag Surfer here on WordPress and one of the blog entries posted by bricksb was about the upcoming Limited Edition soundtrack of The Simpsons Movie. It seems they brought Hans Zimmer in to reproduce the old classic theme tune originally created by Danny Elfman. Fifteen tracks adorn the soundtrack with notable track names like Clap for Alaska , Thank You Boob Lady and His Big Fat Butt Could Shield Us All . It's due for release at the end of the month, so I'll be sure to place my order soon!

I don't know what Tasteful Celebs are on about, but yeah, I agree that Salma Hayek has a lovely pair of breasts, but I don't think she has bad hair in this picture. I don't know if it's just me and my 'fetish' for women with big hair, but I think she looks great. Ok, so it may not be the shiny and glamorous look that you usually see in films or photo shoots, but I think she looks hot. What these gossip people need to realise is, celebrities are just normal people like everyone else, when they're not working, they look the same as a normal human does when they're out and about. I don't understand the infatuation over how good or shitty <insert A-List celeb here> looks when they're out getting something to eat or shopping or just sitting around relaxing. They don't have to keep themselves looking like they did in whatever film they looked hottest in, I always laugh at how sad the journalists are when they show another 'star without m...

It seems that a German bus driver became a little too distracted by the sexiness of Deborah C. and threatened to throw her off the bus. He apparently stopped the bus and said to her: Your cleavage is distracting me every time I look into my mirror and I can't concentrate on the traffic. If you don't sit somewhere else, I'm going to have to throw you off the bus. That would be so great if that happened while I was on the bus, the best we get is old folks having heart attacks or mothers that can't control their screaming kids. Source: Bild Newspaper or for a translated version, link through Google.

Someone known as melw has made a DS version of the Flash based game, Dicewars. Dicewars DS is a multiplayer version of a popular Flash based strategy game for Nintendo DS. Your task is to conquer the whole game field by rolling dice. Each turn you may attack any opponent's territory from one of your adjacent territories as long as your territory has more than one die on it. When attacking, If you roll more than the defender, you win. Latest release: 0.2.0 (network game disabled in this version) I've tested it out and it works great, if you would like to try it, I've uploaded the zip here . Just remember to use the latest firmware for your R4 or M3 carts as they have DLDI auto-patching! I'll be keeping any eye out for any updates, so there's a chance that the link to the download will be removed and replaced with any new versions in the future (for people reading this post in the future *waves hands, wiggles fingers and makes wooing noises*).

I couldn't resist making a skin out of a Mario wallpaper I found on the net, but I wanted to make it with it's own icons instead of the standard stuff I've been using. I managed to find some retro Mario icons which I think work well with the theme, but I just used the 'Vista style' images as the template. I think it works well and the Nintendo logo looks good on the DS, it's slightly off-center, but it doesn't look too bad. To download it for yourself, visit the newly created Game Character Skins page!

I've also put together a few babes skins for the people that prefer to use a skin of a slightly more mature nature, just as long as the kiddies that prefer anime/manga skins realise that the world doesn't evolve around cartoons and that people have different tastes. Anyway, I picked a few babes from a link in a comment and I have to say that although I tend to prefer brunettes, I do rather like Katina, she's quite cute. To download any of the babes skins, you'll need to visit the babes skins page of course!

Well, the weather got slightly better while I was making the skins and then decided to start raining again once I'd finished them. To start off with, I've put together three new Spongebob skins, one of which features Patrick. These are quite exclusive as they're done from screens taken from a couple of episodes that are on some free DVD the kids got from McDonalds. With these new skins, it brings the total available to 5, not a massive amount, but a choice nonetheless. To see the Spongebob skins, you'll need to go to the Spongebob skin page !

I sit here wondering what to do due to already having done everything I want to. I've recently downgraded my PSP, played the emulators and tested an iso/cso which seem to work, but as I'm using DevHook and not custom firmware, I can only go up to 3.01 firmware. I might consider using custom firmware so that I can play some of the later games I have (legal games by the way) as I really only wanted to downgrade to try out emulators and homebrew. That may seem a bit far fetched and I can imagine the groans of 'yeah yeah', but I do actually believe in buying games that I want rather than pirating them, just because I have the resources to download and play pirated games doesn't mean I do. It's the same with the Nintendo DS, yes, I have an R4 card and 2GB Micro SD card, that doesn't automatically mean I use it for illegal activities. I might try having a go at sorting my Xbox out which b0rk3d when using a dodgy disk to load something in, I should have just left i...

A new theme has been made available and here it is. I like this theme due to it being nice and wide with a decent column that's also wide enough to fit all my crap in. It's nice and simple that doesn't over do it with pointless graphics and isn't too dark, it was only the other day I changed back to the simple white theme, but now I'll be using this one. I'll figure out what to put in the new header image later, but it'll probably be just random stuff like before. I've managed to put DevHook on my PSP, but it doesn't seem to want to work properly. I start it up, choose the appropriate options and... nothing. It reboots and switches off, so I think I need to look up what's wrong or just change from 0.51 which is apparently known to be buggy. ...Ok, so now I've found out why and things are hunky dory! :D That's the woo, so what's the bleh? E3. It's good to see what's happening and coming up in the gaming world, but I really c...

I tried the other day to downgrade my PSP with the latest Lumines exploit and couldn't figure what I was doing wrong, I couldn't be bothered at the time due to doing other stuff, so I left it until last night. It really is so simple after watching a YouTube video that takes you through each step, in simple terms... Get the files necessary from QJ.net PSP Firmware 3.50 (North America) PSP Firmware 3.50 downgrader PSP Firmware 1.50 File (EBOOT) North America Please make sure you connect the PSP to it's power lead/charger and leave it plugged in so there's a constant power source, the PSP doesn't like updating with less than 75% power, having it connected to the mains will provide a constant flow of 100% power. Update the PSP to 3.50 Backup the PSP folder by transferring it onto your PC, then delete from the mem card* Transfer the PSP folder from the 3.50 downgrader to the PSP Unzip the 1.50 file, rename to UPDATE.PBP and place in the \PSP\GAME\UPDATE fol...

..or just going back to an old one, either way, I've gone back to this old plain theme which allows me to have a better Gamercard in the column on the right there and anything else that's around 200 pixels wide. I'm not a big fan of her music, but she is absolutely gorgeous, Katie Melua. Mmm, oh so nice!

Yet another Fergie post from me and this time it's to say how good she looked at the Live Earth concert, so I'll say no more and just show a couple of pics (click to see bigger versions on my Flickr)... Hubba hubba!

So, the brain training, does it really work? After just the first week, my memory has actually improved slightly, not particularly a major improvement, but it has got better. There are still some tasks that need work such as analysing and thinking, even though my progress is fairly steady and results are ok, I need to improve on them a bit more if I'm to see better all-round results. I took the back off of my TV yesterday to find it was caked in dust, that would explain the poor performance with it going into auto-standby for no reason at any time it felt like. I had a great session on Colin McRae DiRT which saw me rake in 160 achievement points and make my gamerscore look a tad more respectable, although, I'm still yet to break the 1000 mark, I could probably do it with DiRT. I'm playing the Forza 2 demo at the moment to get a feel for it before taking the plunge and buying it, just about to test out the 2006 Lexus IS350... I'm usually more of the arcadey type of drivi...

Well, I've done the Facebook thing, so what else is there? I refuse to do crySpace, so that's a no go, the thing in the right column at the top there is my 'meez', dunno if it's a majorly massive thing yet, but it seems quite new and could become a big thing, click on the pic. Yeah yeah, everyone's doing a Simpsons 'avatar', so there's my effort. It's shit and couldn't get it to look anything like me, so that's really as close as it gets. Colin McRae DiRT came this morning, so I'll have a blast of that later...

That's the brain training out of the way for today, I do like the masterpiece revival part of More Brain Training , tis quite fun. I'm not a fan of the Head Count bit of the first Brain Training though, even if I did get 5/5 today, it's still not a favourite. Big Brain Academy isn't quite on the same level, but is pretty good with the exercises it gives you, just one problem with it, a certain section of the game requires you to click on things to add up totals, but it gets to a stage where the problem cannot be answered due to the solution not being there. Mind Quiz is the infamous game that will call you a 'Super Spastic' apparently if you don't meet a certain criteria, I've tried getting that 'Super Spastic' status, but failed. Am I stupid in not being able to do that? Seems quite ironic doesn't it?! :P It has now been recalled because of it using the word 'spastic' in what is deemed as an offensive manner, but considering it...

It's July 1 st and I've made a pledge to test out the theory of whether these Brain Training games really work. So, through the power of Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training programs, Big Brain Academy and any other stimulating type of program I can be bothered with after those, I'm going to see if teh brayn powah increesis capn. I'll be doing the tests every day of July and although I really don't like doing the memory type tests, if I am to succeed in this test, I'm going to have to do them. Sony were quite crafty and released a firmware upgrade for the PSP, supposedly fixing 'a security issue', but we all know that it's try and stop that new Lumines exploit. Speaking of which, I managed to order Lumines for a half decent price of £9.49, now I just need to rely on ChoicesUK to get off their arses and send it, they tend to be pretty slow in processing orders and don't let you know what's going on. I managed to find a download of the 3.50 upda...