May 2003

New Decaying Orbit Demo, Chomp Revision and Libsprite Library 5/19/2003 by K3V

DragonShadow Industries pulled a triple play for the NUON community today, by releasing a new libsprite, new Chomp v1.4E (emulator-friendly) with source, and a new Decaying Orbit demo. You can download all three and read more about them at the DragonShadow website.

Merlin Racing 2 bound for Xbox/PS2 5/15/2003 by K3V

In some correspondence with Miracle Designs, they've revealed that a true successor to Merlin Racing is on the way for Xbox/PS2. While details are still scarce at this point, they are interested in hearing what suggestions and ideas you may have for the sequel. This is your chance to have a say in the development of a game (well, aside from Llamasoft titles maybe), so head over to the forums and speak up! In regards to the budget PSOne titles based on Merlin Racing that are coming out, currently only Miracle Space Race is available in North America. ATV Racers and Rascal Racers are still awaiting SCEA approval, which could take a while. All three titles have been approved by SCEE, and will be available in PAL regions on May 30th. There is also one more PSOne title in the works called Airboat Racing (featuring the hoverboat levels from Merlin Racing), but no further information nor publisher details are available yet.

Merlin Racing hits the PSOne 5/14/2003 by K3V

It looks like Miracle Designs, makers of Merlin Racing for NUON has taken their only NUON title and broken it up into three games for the Playstation One. ATV Racers (PS one), Miracle Space Race (PS one) and Rascal Racers take the various levels of Merlin and divide them up into three budget-priced ($9.99 each) titles. The games have been found in MicroCenter stores, and the PAL versions can also be pre-ordered from Midas Interactive. It's also available over on the EB Games website, and you can read some impressions of the game right here in our forums.

DRC300N Region Hack + PAL Compatibility 5/4/2003 by K3V

Justin42 from the NUON-Dome Forums has discovered that the RCA DRC300N can be hacked into region-free mode, and that it will convert PAL to NTSC! Here's the scoop: I just discovered that not only can the DRC300N be made region free, it will also play PAL DVD's (and plays anamorphic PAL discs properly without stretching!) Turn on the player, and without a disc in the drive, (using the remote), press MENU, 1, 6, 7. You should see a line asking which region code you want (1-6), if you press 0, "Region Free" flashes on the screen for a split second. I have tested this with 2 Region 2 PAL DVDs, Region 2 NTSC DVD, and a Region 3 NTSC DVD, and then going back to Region 1 NTSC, and they all look gorgeous! The screen will flicker green/pink for a split second when you change format (going from an NTSC disc to PAL or vice versa), no big deal. Resume play seems to work fine across regions (i.e., if you put a PAL DVD back in, it'll pick up where it left off, like it does normally) The only strange thing I see is it doesn't seem to automatically start DVDs anymore, I have to hit Play at the menu once I put the disc in. Nice extra bonus for us DRC300N owners! (I was trying different hacks from dvdrhelp.com, and found the unit uses the DRC220N's hacks) There is also POSSIBLY a Macrovision code, but I can't seem to figure out if it works on the 300N: Menu, 2, 4, 6, then press 1 to unlock dealer lock. Great find Justin!