Here is the BIOS version 0.4 of the first mod chip for Gamecube, the Viper GC. You can flash this release from DVD if you already have Cobra 0.3 installed!

Microsoft Corp. has applied and been granted a patent that possibly confirms previously leaked Xbox 2 specs.

Team Xbox

Engadget have a new guide out for storing DVD movies onto your Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) for free!

This week?s How-To is only going to apply to the lucky six or seven of you who?ve managed to already get your hands on a PlayStation Portable, the rest of you will just have keep this one in mind and come back to it when the PSP comes out here in the States in March. We?re going to show you step-by-step how to get video clips on to your PSP without having to spring for any additional software.

X-Bit labs reports some peculiarities of the PlayStation 3 graphics processing unit developed at NVIDIA Corp. showed up on the web. It appears, that the visual processing unit will merge NVIDIA?s present and future generation architectures and will have built-in memory controller that supports Rambus? XDR DRAM.

Damn, that was fast. Actually, the first Nintendo DS ROM was released on the 21st, so exactly one month after its North American release. Progress, progress.

Engadget

A review of the long awaited first mod chip for Gamecube is online! It seems that we can finally play backups of Gamecube videogames. Not every media is good for burning. On the Maxconsole forum there is a discussion about the best supports.

Viper GC is the world's first amateur coding module for NGC. The onboard flash memory allows users to boot Homebrew applications, loaders or BIOS'. A high speed parallel port programmer is provided along with the FFC cable to connect to the Viper GC main module. An intuitive PC application has been authored to facilitate easy transfer of BIOS', loaders or Homebrew applications to the flash memory.

Xbox-Scene

Lik Sang have got their hands on Nintendo's DS systems and have posted there review!

The Grail has been delivered this Saturday morning and the whole Lik Sang is now in effervescence. The first batch of Nintendo DS systems has come in very limited amounts. So far, only a small share of the preorders (placed in March!!) are on their way to the luckiest hardcore gamers among you. Three much larger shipments are expected throughout the next weeks until the Japanese version arrives as well.

NVIDIA has released a new set of Forceware BETA drivers for Windows 2000 and XP. The drivers are dated for November 15th.

SPOnG reports Resident Evil 4 will also be coming out on Xbox. About the same time as the PlayStation 2 release in just short of a year's time, we were told, confirming our news from earlier this week that additional versions will not see the light of day for a considerable amount of time.

There is a lot of news about the PSP today. TC Mag have three stories about Sony's PSP (Playstation Portable), which include: Release date of the PSP, expected release date of lots of PSP titles and a list of the basic specifications and features of the PSP. Read more for the links to all three stories...

Nintendo of America has just woken up and released the official US launch details for the Nintendo DS. They are almost identical to the Japanese launch details reporter earlier, except for some minor differences.

Just spotted this bit of news over at Lik Sang.

For all of you out there waiting for Halo 2, Killzone, Doom 3, Unreal Championship 2, Half-Life 2 or any other of the highly anticipated First-Person Shooters, we have good news for you. For all of you who still couldn't dare to step back into the real life from HALO, Counter Strike, Medal of Honor, SOCOM II, Rainbox 6, Return to Castle Wolfenstein or any other addiction keeping you away from daylight, we have got good news for you as well.

This is not just another Konami game, though. Gradius V is the latest in a series of arcade shooters whose name alone will bring nostalgic tears to most thirty year olds' eyes. Younger players need not apply, for the series fell into obscurity in the nineties, mostly due to two decent but unexceptional releases, in the form of Gradius IV and Gradius Gaiden. Besides, this one's been developed by Treasure, one of the most respected arcade shooter developers of our age .

BBC NEWS reports the best-selling PlayStation 2 games console has been given a makeover, with a new slimmed-down, lightweight model due to go on sale in November.

Laut dem PC & Konsolen Spielemagazines "Ghome", befindet sich die "X-Box2" schon zu Testzwecken in den Händen mehrerer Spiele-Entwickler, die angeblich schon fleißig an der Entwicklung einiger Spiele für die kommende "X-Box2" arbeiten.

PSP-IGN reports that Sony Computer Entertainment showed off the Sony PSP on the online news service for the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri, giving members of the Japanese press a chance to see and try the product. This marks the first showing of the system since its May E3 debut. The streaming video play, and the presented games are not anything you haven't seen before (although any glimpse of GT4: Mobile on PSP is well worth the download), but it's certainly very cool to see the handheld game system actually being held in a person's hand.

GameSpy have gathered all the lastest info on Xbox 2 and put it altogether in a 7 page article!

With the release last week of a purportedly leaked white paper directly from a Microsoft employee, speculation has begun anew over the state of the follow-up console to Microsoft's Xbox. For months, Xbox fans and industry wags have been putting their two cents in regarding the console, speaking up on everything from the name of the system to the detailed specifications to the possible launch titles, but it's hard to figure out who to believe. Well, we're here to tell you that we don't know who to believe either, but we're going to try to give you all of the details we could find on the new system.

The VIA Glory Personal Gaming Console Platform is a suite of silicon and software technologies optimized for PC gaming, that extends the boundaries of living room entertainment by enabling the powerful graphics and digital audio available on the PC to be experienced through a TV and Hi-Fi set-up, with easy installation and playing of PC games and digital media.

Electronics giant Sony announced that it will begin selling the PSX, a new multifunction version of the company's PlayStation 2 game machine, in Japan on Dec. 13.

The PSX will combine a PS2 game machine with a digital video recorder and and a DVD player/recorder. The device is set to become available in other parts of the world next year.

The PSX is seen as the first step in Sony's strategy to push "convergence" devices that combine various home entertainment functions. The company identified convergence as a key part of its turnaround strategy to recover from substantial losses it posted earlier this year.