Gamer buys virtual space station
A virtual space resort being built in the online role-playing game, Project Entropia, has been snapped up for $100,000 (£56,200). Jon Jacobs, aka Neverdie, won the auction for the as yet unnamed resort in the game, which lets thousands of players interact with each other. Entropia also allows gamers to buy and sell virtual items using real cash. The space station is billed as a “pleasure paradise”. Last year, a gamer bought an island for $26,500 (£13,700). [via] Link.
Raphael writes “One day, I bought a genesis game console with a few games. I got tired of playing Sonic and MicroMachines so I decided to build a reprogrammable cartridge. It can be used for many things, such as running demos, homebrew games and music on the real console.” 
Firmware wars continued…Fanjita has updated his firmware 2.0 Eboot loader for the PSP to version 0.7. This program allows for the launch of some homebrew programs (not all since it is being run in user-mode and not kernel mode.) This program builds on the work done by Saotome to load homebrew EBOOT.PBPs into PSPs with v2.0 firmware, using the TIFF exploit. It will not work on any other firmware version – including v2.01 and 2.50. [
The best thing going for the Nintendo DS is “Nintendogs” a game of sorts where you raise a virtual puppy. I’m slowly raising one, more about that later, but – here’s a little “News from the Future” action, you can bring your virtual doggie to a GameSpot, place it in bark mode and get a free virtual gift. Of course, I want to set up my own version and give out treats, er tricks, outside… [
Rob writes “Years ago I really liked the game called Bing Bang Boing, I wanted to get one for my young son but since it’s no longer on the market I decided to make one for him. The game involves setting up small trampolines so that a ball bearing can successfully bounce along a number of them in succession.” 
This is interesting – Konami and Sony are doing 3D glasses for the PSP and they appear to work with more than just games – since the PSP does web, you could make 3D web sites and your own 3D images to view…3D game playing will be possible with “Metal Gear Acid 2,” scheduled for release on Dec. 8 in Japan. The goggles, to be hooked up to the game console, can also be used to view images other than those of video games. 
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