TotalGamerZ

FpseCE information dump

2010-01-05T00:38:55Z

Time to dump some information after using the new release of FpseCE for a little over a week.

I have been asked several times on what the best INI config file is for the Touch Pro 2 (Rhodium, Tilt 2). The answer is, there isn't one specific INI file that is going to be an all around configuration for your phone. You may ask 'Why?' and the answer is simple. The GAMES! Some games require specific "patches" or "hacks" for it to properly run or look right on your device. That said, I am attaching an INI file (below) that is a good starting point to get you going. In fact, you may not need to change any options depending on the game you play. I've only played a few games, but everyone I've tried has been good so far. Please note sound is disabled in the INI. If you wish to turn on sound, make EnableSound=ON. Be warned as sound will drop your FPS.

The following is a short list of games that I tested and get good FPS with the linked INI:

Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy IX
Twisted Metal 2

I am sure other games run good, but I haven't had the time to test very many. Final Fantasy VII is my favorite game and is nice that it happens to get high FPS. On the TP2 FF VII gets (on average) anywhere from 45-60 FPS. Where 60 FPS is the norm for NTSC PlayStation games. FF IX gets a tad lower and Twisted Metal 2 gets around 45 FPS.

The INI has some screen button overlays configured. I recommend using the screen button overlays because using the keyboard drops the FPS down a LOT. If you find a fix for the keyboard FPS lag, please drop me a line. You will probably want to customize the screen overlays for each game you play. This INI also works good for Touch Pro 1 and Diamond 1 & 2 models (possibly others). If you use this for a different phone, be sure to change the GFXDRV=X to your appropriate screen resolution.

Download the INI here: TP2-RhodiumINI-II.zip

For FpseCE device support visit their forums
View the corresponding FpseCE forum post.

FpseCE is Out!

2009-12-25T15:28:09Z

The best PS Emulator for a Smart Phone ( in my opinion). So if you have Windows Mobile you should be heading to this site now and installing it.

First impressions:

I have mainly only played RPGs so far, but the FPS is a vast improvement from the previous versions. I get about 48-53 FPS on FF VII & FF IX. The full speed of a NTSC game on the PlayStation is 60 FPS, so it is not exactly full speed but is also not very noticeable. I briefly tried Gran Turismo and get around 40 FPS and you can definitely see the low FPS there.

I am still tweaking the config file to get more performance and will report back on this later.

PS - The phone I am using of my Tilt 2 (Touch Pro 2) of course :)

New(ish) phone

2009-12-23T04:07:26Z

A few weeks ago I got a new phone that I have been enjoying and I finally got off my lazy ass to review it.

Behold the AT&T Tilt 2 (aka: Touch Pro 2). This phone is my favorite phone to date. It comes packaged with Windows Mobile 6.5, a 528 MHz processor, 288 MB DDR RAM, GPS, slide-out QWERTY keyboard and much more.

Many people may boo it for being a Window Mobile phone and in some cases I might agree with them, but Windows Mobile isn't half bad if you know.....

(Continued)
]]> where to go to customize it. Plus the rumor I want to believe is that FpseCE (the best PlayStation emulator for a SmartPhone) is to be released this week! Yes, I know the iPhone has some sort of PlayStation emulator, but it is very limited in game compatibility and uses frame skipping to achieve high frame rates.

Anyways, I recommend installing a customized ROM on your phone (although your could VOID your warranty if you send it in "modified"). When I first turned on the Tilt 2 I was astonished on how awesome it looked, but was very disappointed at the stock software AT&T decided to put on it. The phone was sluggish and internet browsing was slow which was a partial let down. But with some of the aforementioned customizing, you will be in business and a happy customer once again.

As for the hardware, the screen is a 3.6" WVGA 480 x 800 LCD and will blow you away once you see it. The resolution is perfect for Remote Desktop, Citrix, Gaming, Word & Excel documents and many more applications. The slide-out QWERTY keyboard is a vast improvement over previous HTC models. The keys are evenly spaced which makes it easier to type faster without worrying about hitting other keys. The camera takes good pictures, but is limited to areas with good lighting as there is no flash. Also, there is no directional pad on the device which took a while to get used to coming from a phone that had one.

As for the main reason the phone was named "Tilt 2", the tilting screen! When I first saw it, I thought it was a marketing gimmick, but after using it for several weeks it is a very nice feature. The tilt enables you to sit the phone down and view the screen in landscape to watch videos, read email and surf the internet.

The battery life is pretty good at 6.5 hours talk time and 650 hours of standby time in 3G. In the real world I am sure the numbers are lower due to web surfing, downloading email, text messaging and who knows what.

If you are in the market for a new phone I would definitely recommend this phone or the same phone provided by other US carriers. On other carriers, you may find the phone listed under the original name, Touch Pro 2.

Pros:

High Resolution Screen
A well spaced slide-out QWERTY keyboard
Tilting Screen
Battery life has been improved over the previous model (Touch Pro)

Cons:

No camera flash
No directional pad
AT&T stock ROM is sluggish (but is easily fixable)

FpseCE Wiki

2009-12-12T22:17:46Z

I have created an un-official FpseCE Compatibility List Wiki.

Hello again

2009-12-12T17:07:59Z

Long time no update.

Exciting news in the world of Windows Mobile users. The long awaited FpseCE 0.10 has been said to be nearing release within the next week (hopefully). FpseCE is a PlayStation emulator for Windows Mobile and has been around for several years, but with very little updates to the program itself. There are several youtube videos by beta tester i900frenchaddict that show the awesomeness of this application. If you have no idea what I am talking about visit the FpseCE forums. I go by the name of mastanobu on the forums. So if you see me stop by and say Hi.

I also added and cleaned up some of my links on our links page. Be sure to check out the newly added links.

Small Updates

2009-11-18T00:19:19Z

Apologies for the lack of updates, but Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has taken up a lot of my time. It sucks Infinity Ward took a huge dump on PC users, but still enjoying it on the 360!

Anyways, I made some updates to the website. The links page is now formatted to the new layout. Although the actual links themselves have not been updated, I plan on revamping the page soon. Changed the title of the site to reflect: "TotalGamerZ: Webcomics, Reviews & Gadgets". This may change in the future, but it sounded good at the time. Also made some minor updates to other pages most users won't notice.

Whats left?

Update the Staff page to the new layout.
Some minor tweaks
Play some more COD: MW2

Downloads & more!

2009-10-31T19:58:40Z

The downloads section has been updated! The wallpapers are properly linked and mods & articles have been properly updated. Oh and the Wavebird Mod has been resurrected to now include the orignal pictures!

I also added a new feature to the website and it will be used for any new posts and articles going forward (most archived posts will not change). Starting with the PeerBlock review (pictures) and the downloads page (wallpapers), we are now utilizing Shadowbox.js media viewer. The is a real nice javascript application that supports several media files (pictures, flash, videos, etc.). Be sure to check out the aforementioned locations to see it in action.

Comics

2009-10-31T15:41:06Z

My apologies. For some reason the Comic archive was not functioning correctly and displaying an old version. This has been corrected, so go enjoy some comics!

I am still in the process of converting all pages to the new layout. So some sections of the website still have the old look. The next area I will be working on is the Downloads section, so be on the lookout for a new Download page!

PeerBlock - Updated!

2009-10-24T06:16:09Z

**10/31/09**

We received feedback from the developer of PeerBlock - Be sure to read their comments at the end of the article!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is time for another TGZ Reviews.....

PeerBlock

If you are an avid torrenter, you may already be aware of PeerGuardian and what it does to help protect you while you torrent. PeerBlock picks up where PeerGuardian left off. With many bug fixes and full install support for 64-bit operating systems (including Windows 7) PeerBlock has become one of the best free IP Blockers for Windows.

Continued.....
]]>

You no longer need to worry about grabbing the latest List update before torrenting or surfing the web because PeerBlock can automatically download updates for you. You can also view what IP addresses have been prevented from accessing your computer. If you find an IP that has been inadvertantly been denied, simply select the IP address and choose 'Allow'. PeerBlock can also make your web surfing a little safer, but I prefer to disable HTTP filtering. There have been a few times I have accidentally enabled HTTP Blocking and haven't been able to access a website due it being tagged in the block list.

PeerBlock recently raised money to purchase a Signed Driver to allow installing in a 64-bit environment. Whereas in the past with PeerGuardian & PeerBlock you would had to test-sign a driver and hope that it worked. They have also fixed several instability issues where PeerGuardian would crash or not even load at all.

I highly recommend anyone who is going to download a torrent to go out and download PeerBlock. As with all software, be sure to tip the developers to let them know you appreciate their hard work.

Website: http://www.peerblock.com
Project Lead: Mark Bulas

***10/31/09
We received some feedback from one of the PeerBlock developers and wanted to share their comments with everyone:

"One thing to note though: when you tell PeerBlock to "Allow HTTP" it actually allows any outgoing traffic on port 80 or 443 (the defaults for HTTP and HTTPS,
respectively). We do not currently do any sort of "Deep Packet
Inspection" or anything to make sure that only HTTP connections are
allowed there. This leads to a potential security hole in that if a
"bad guy" were to, say, set up their P2P program to make use of port
80, PeerBlock would not be blocking your connections to them. And I have seen a few outgoing connections on port 80 to IP addresses flagged as "Mediasentry"..."

Update #2

2009-10-04T17:41:29Z

The update to Movable Type appears to have been successful. Time for some site update information!

Comics Restored (finally):

All comics have been uploaded! This includes the original TotalGamerZ comics, SodaBreak comics, Sticks & Stones and the short lived Mafia Boss.
I have restored the comic archive. It can be found by clicking here or on the comic link on the right of the page.

New Content:

Yes, the infamous coming soon. It has been said multiple times, but this time I'm serious. New content coming soon.
Two and a half years is long enough without any new content. This will also take TotalGamerZ in a slightly new direction. Comics are still on hold unless we get an artist (new and old one's welcome! *hint hint*). Reviews will pick up once again and will not be the standard game reviews (stay tuned).
In the meantime, I am working on fixing broken links and restoring old content.

EDIT: All comics are finally restored.

Update

2009-10-04T16:47:07Z

Post before the update to Movable Type. Then new news for the website!

We're preparing....

2008-09-13T15:44:53Z

Please be patient as we continue to build our site.

Domain Name Change

2008-04-08T23:05:03Z

In the coming days we will be changing the domain name to SodaBreak.net instead of .com. So please be sure to update your bookmarks. I will be writing a script that will automatically forward you to the new domain name.

We are alive

2007-04-18T03:33:46Z

Just wanted to post so our visitors know we are still alive and doing well. Dive is in the process of getting into graduate school. I am in the process of graduating undergraduate school (2 1/2 more weeks). This means I should have more free time to work on the site (hopefully).

Short Break

2007-03-21T02:19:51Z

Class projects are taking too much time at the moment. Comic will resume around the begining of May.