ZeroPaid.com » gaming

Instant Fame for All the Wrong Reasons

Drew Wilson — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 06:14:41 +0000

It all started with a question over a simple game accessory. Now, the story has propelled one PR firm into a spotlight so fast, it has been extremely hard to keep track of all the updates. It should be a PR firms dream come true, but it has become exactly the opposite.

Public Relations (PR) is always a tricky business. One wrong move or one wrong comment and it can take an otherwise decent campaign to promote something straight in to catastrophe. It's not hard to imagine this type of business as walking a tightrope between not losing the audience and pushing the envelope. If you've followed the Ocean Marketing saga, you are probably aware of just how off the rails PR can go - and this particular story goes well in to the realm of absolute absurdity. On December 16, a customer known as Dave, contacted Ocean Marketing to find out what happened to a pre-order of a gaming accessory made on November 3. The e-mail was straight forward enough given that it was merely a question on an update on when the product was going to arrive. Not that unreasonable of a question which probably should have been relatively straight forward to answer. After a few exchanges on verifying which order Ocean Marketing merely commented on the whereabouts of the shipment. The website was updated during this time to lower the price of ordering. Naturally, Dave asked whether or not it would be better to cancel the pre-order and just order the version with the discount. Ocean Marketing replied that this would not be allowed, but took it a step further and threatened to sell his pre-oder on eBay for 150$. The customer was not amused by this and became frustrated with this and asked to cancel his pre-order. Usually, something like this get's dropped, but the chain e-mail was forwarded to Penny-Arcade. In response, Ocean Marketing shot back at the customer, saying things like, "Grow up you look like a complete child bro.", "people have inquired but you’re the douchiest of them all", "You just got told [explitive]", and infamously saying, "Son Im 38 I wwebsite as on the internet" (the rest of the comment would be Not Safe for Work) while saying that the orders are actually still in China. Mike Krahulik, at this point, stepped in and threatened to cancel his booth at Pax east. Ocean Marketing responded to Krahulik saying that he had "bigger and better shows to be at" as well as saying how he has connections to big name gaming companies. He even went further by sending this veiled threat in the e-mail, "money buys a lot and connections go even further. He’s a native Bostonian from Little Italy" Krahulik replied by essentially explaining that he does PAX east. Ocean Marketing responded by saying how he's got big connections and Krahulik didn't know who he was messing with. After complaining about the original customer in question, he say, "he’s a customer unless you’re his boyfriend then you should side with the company not the customer. Be Careful " After a few more testy exchanges, the chain ended with Ocean Marketing saying, "I have about 125 dedicated people to run PR , Blogs , Articles , Videos you have no clue who I am . Thanks again" Sometime after the exchange, the e-mail chain was posted to Penny Arcade (Warning: NSFW language). It turns out, the person behind Ocean Marketing making those e-mails was the president Paul Christoforo. You'd think that after this got the spotlight, Christoforo might realize that this has gone well in to the realm of the absurd and figure out how to dig himself back out of the hole he created. Evidently, that wasn't the case. Scott Lowe, Executive Editor of IGNTech caught wind of this story and sent Christoforo a Tweet, saying, "Please refrain from referring to me or IGN as support for you, your company or your clients. You do not have it." In response, Christoforo replied, "Your a douchebag anyway Scott we sent you how many units for review , How many conversations You were the unprofessional one" In a move that should surprise no one, N-Control fired Christoforo as a result of the events that unfolded. The story did not end there. The story didn't just hit the web in some small way, it pretty much exploded in comparison to how small this story originally was. It not only sparked an internet meme or two, but also a parody video (NSFW language) and posted on numerous social news sites. On thread on Fark reached well over 900 comments as well as hitting Slashdot, and launched a nearly 4,500 comment long thread on Reddit (hat tip to TechDirt for the Reddit link) Even Geico got in on the action by tweeting, "Great savings, outstanding service, and a proven 75-year track record. And we will never wwebsite as on the Internet." With all of this happening, even Christoforo, as it turns out, has his limits. An update was posted to Penny Arcade where Cristoforo was begging for forgiveness by saying things like “You have the power Mike Please make it stop” and "I didn’t know how big your site was and I really didn’t believe you ran Pax , So for what’s its worth I am very sorry." The apology was apparently unconvincing as Gabe comments, "I think there is a big difference between being sorry and being sorry you got caught. I have a real problem with bullies. I spent my childhood moving from school to school and I got made fun of everyplace I landed. I feel like Paul is a bully and maybe that’s why I have no sympathy here. Someday every bully meets and even bigger bully and maybe that’s me in this case. It’s the same thing that happened with Jack Thompson. It might not always make the most business sense and it is a policy that has caused us some legal problems, but I really don’t give a shit about that. When these assholes threaten me or Penny Arcade I just laugh. I will personally burn everything I’ve made to the fucking ground if I think I can catch them in the flames." With such an incredible storm being sparked over something so little as a video game accessory, it's hilariously astonishingly outrageous that it has escalated as much as it has. With the internet responding in almost unanimous fashion against him, the only thing impressive about Christoforo is how much hate he managed to direct towards himself in such a short period of time. I think the reason why this story has ultimately exploded as much as it has is simply the attributes people see in Christoforo. While comparing him to the school yard bully is a popular way of describing him, there are so many other ways people can compare Christoforo to that one annoying drive-you-up-the-wall person they know in their lives. Whether it happens to be that arrogant boss that almost everyone in the workforce loathes, or the guy that gets a promotion he so clearly does not deserve or just that person you know through someone else who is so egotistical that he can't see past his own nose, many people see these attributes in Christoforo as evident in the discussions around the internet. Everyone dreams that this one individual in their lives that drives them oh so crazy would eventually slip up and mess with the wrong person - that mouth that gets the owner in so much trouble that years of karma comes back to haunt him. I think a lot of people got a lot of that satisfaction when they saw the complete and total self-destruction of Cristoforo in the Ocean Marketing saga. I think this is a big part on why this story really seemed to strike a nerve with so many people in such a short period of time. I don't think of myself as an evil person, but I have gotten a sort of satisfaction of seeing someone who exhibited several different flavors of assholery get what he deserves. Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

7 Emulators That Can Play Classic Video Games

Drew Wilson — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 21:55:22 +0000

We've been testing, prodding and, well, having a perfectly good excuse to play some video games for the last two weeks. If you wondered how to play some of those oldschool video games on a computer, you've come to the right article. We've compiled a list of 6 emulators that can allow you to play some of the older video games of yesteryear including emulators for the Atari2600, NES, SNES, Sega consoles and even the original Playstation.

There is something about old video games. Maybe it's the two dimensional layout, maybe it's the story-line, maybe it's the simplified graphics or maybe it's just overall nostalgia of playing something that blew your mind years ago. In any event, many gamers might have that urge to just pull out that set of decade old games, shut the door and play with a buddy or two all the way to 6AM in the morning the next day doing things like trying to frag each other. In any event, it is technically possible to play those old games again and one way to do so is through emulation software. We've reviewed a number of these emulators as thoroughly as we could to, you know, ensure emulation consistency for several hours at a time. We want to warn you ahead of time, these pieces of software may distract you for long periods of time. Stella (Stella emulating BurgerTime) This emulator emulates the really old Atari 2600. You can grab the emulator on their Source Forge page. The emulator is nice and small and there's minimal configuring (mapping your keys and browsing to a ROM directory that you'll use regularly is about all you need to do) If you're wondering what those weird blocks are in our screen capture. Yes, we verified that that is what those bad guys really looked like in the original hardware. We didn't really run in to any emulation issues when taking this emulator out for a spin. FCEUX (FCEUX emulating Cobra Triangle - which looks easier than it really is) This is one of numerous emulators that can emulate old Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) video games. While some might know of NESter, the development of that particular emulator ended a long time ago and the FCEUX had some development done to it since then. Presumably, there's better video game compatibility with this particular emulator, but we don't really have the time to sit down and test the over 1,000 games that were available on this particular gaming system. Can be found on the official home page. Minimal to no installation. Key mapping can be found under Config > Input. Plenty of emulation features and still in active development (last release made June 4, 2011). No emulation problems that we found. Game Genie downloaded separately. SNES9X (SNES9X emulating Dirt Trax FX) Now, before you start complaining, we've selected this particular emulator for a very good reason as our Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) emulator. We chose not to recommend zSNES because, while it has a unique and easy-to-use interface, game compatibility was an issue for some of the games we tested. First example: Super Mario RPG. Some of the sounds were not accurate. While that might not sound like much to complain about, one enemy attack gave a high pitch sinewave sound which can be a little annoying after a while. In a more serious example, Dirt Trax FX doesn't play past the title screen. On the other hand, we chose not to recommend bSNES for a rather different reason. Most ROMs available today are in the .SMC format. bSNES does not support this format and, instead, supports the .SFC format. This format is substantially more rare than the .SMC format for numerous games. SNES9X seems to better emulate some of the games we tested and supports the popular .SMC format. Current version (1.53) can be found on the SNES9X forums. Should a newer version appear, it'll probably be in an updated announcement on this particular board of the SNES9X forums. For whatever reason, the main home page for SNES9X doesn't have download links. Right after installation, we encountered a DLL error. Apparently, you need DirectX 9 in order to run this emulator. So if you get a missing DLL file error, download and install DirectX 9 to see if that clears up the problem (it did for us). Map keys through Alt+F7 and hot keys via Alt+F9 if that needs configuring too (or if you just need to look them up). Great emulator overall during our tests. Visual Boy Advance (Visual Boy Advance emulating Duke Nukem Advance) Small emulator that can emulate both GameBoy and GameBoy Advance titles. Emulator can be found on the VisualBoy Advance downloads page. When running (with a ROM loaded), we noticed that Windows has to change the overall color scheme just to compensate for the emulators limited colors (We tested this with Windows 7). Saving states caused the whole screen (not just what was in the emulator) to flicker briefly, but it passes. These were really our only complaints about the emulator though. No bugs were found in the emulation itself that we found. Key mapping can be found via Options > Joypad > Configure > 1... Besides some of the weird graphical things that happen to the screen (which stops after you exit the emulator), this was a joy to test. Kega Fusion (Kega Fusion emulating 32X game Doom) Another emulator that emulates numerous different systems including Genesis, Gamegear, 32X, CD and other Sega systems. Emulator can be found on their home page (scroll down a little) Key mapping can be found via Options > Set Config > Controllers (tab) > Define (button) We really didn't run in to any issues while testing. Interface might be a bit confusing (it can run multiple systems after all) at first compared to the other emulators we've tested, but it is manageable. Project 64 (Project 64 emulating Destruction Derby 64) When it comes to Nintendo 64 emulators, there doesn't seem to be much of a contest here. Project 64 seemed to have the fewest graphical issues and highest game compatibility out of all the emulators that we've tested. version 1.6 can be found on this page of the Project 64 website (note: This page will ask you if you'd like to save the emulator which is an .exe file). Puzzlingly, the developers decided to disallow the general public to use 1.7 and only allowed those that pay money to use the latest version (something I personally disagree with for a number of reasons). This has generally meant that, as far as the general public are officially concerned, development has stopped completely for years now. Some games have a "high system requirement" which means you need plenty of RAM and other system resources to play some of these games. Sometimes, older systems means games have more graphical and timing issues than what is to be expected. By today's standards, you don't have to have a super computer to run this properly, but it is, at times, resource demanding. Several games have graphical issues including black boxes around effects, whited out polygons, corrupted textures, slow game play, and bad sound (not all at once for the most part). So emulation is far from perfect (yes, this was also the emulator that was the most thoroughly tested here). Still, a number of games do work through this emulator with minimal problems and most games are playable. Key mapping through Options > Configure Controller Plugin. This emulator seems to continue to be your best bet when it comes to emulating the N64. ePSXe (ePSXe emulating Driver - "Hey man, OK, OK, OK!!!") A decent emulator that, unfortunately, is a case of some assembly required. You can download the emulator off of the ePSXe downloads page. Downloading the emulator won't be enough though. If you run the configuration wizard, you'll find out that you'll need a BIOS and a GPU. While we technically can't link to a BIOS (which actually isn't all that hard to find), we can save you some trouble and point to Pete's GPU downloads page (since we are using Windows 7, the first link ("OpenGL2 PSX GPU") is what we used for a GPU. In our limited testing, we did encounter graphical glitches in the emulation which leads us to believe that you'll probably encounter similar problems to that of N64 emulation issues with some games. Unlike all of our previous emulators, the ePSXe uses CD images instead of ROMs (naturally, because all the other emulators are emulating games in cartridge format while this requires emulating the CD images). The emulator will recognize several formats of CD images, but if you run in to ECM formats, you'll need to decompress the image first before you can run the image. This can be accomplished through PakkISO which can be found on the EmuParadise website. Since there is no interface on this particular piece of software, you'll have to open the ECM file you want to decompress with the correct EXE file found in the PakkISO installation folder (might be the unecm.exe or the unpakkiso.exe file - you'll know if the DOS prompt window says that it's decoding either way) Each CD image can be half a gigabyte each and up, so having a number of games can take up a lot of space. Another issue is that some of the "X" buttons in the windows don't work for some reason, so you'll have to hit buttons like "OK" or "Cancel" buttons instead if you go poking around in the system. Key mapping can be found via Config > Game Pad > Port 1 > Pad 1. While this emulator has a learning curve compared to other emulators, there wasn't much that couldn't be overcome that we found outside of whatever in-game emulation problems and errors that might crop up. Final Thoughts We'll say this right off the bat before you ask, no, we will not provide links to ROMs and/or CD images. Don't bother asking, you'll have to find those on your own. This was probably one of the most distracting things to test. It was next to impossible at times to tell the difference between simply testing the emulator and just playing the game (not that we're complaining too loudly here) Also, we can't totally test every single game that exists to figure out which emulator is ideal for sure as that would require an astronomical amount of man hours (there are thousands of games that could be tested that these emulators can run in total after all) so we welcome any additional feedback on these emulators and other emulators that might not have been mentioned - and, of course, general discussion about games. Have fun! Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

Humble Indie Bundle 3 Earns Over $1 Million

Drew Wilson — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 22:29:31 +0000

We've been watching the Humble Indie Bundle releases since the beginning and the Humble Indie Bundle 3 is no exception. Recently, with a little less than a week to go, the latest iteration of the sale, the Humble Indie Bundle 3, went over the million dollar mark.

For those who have been following ZeroPaid for several months now know that we've covered previous iterations of the hugely successful Humble Indie Bundles. The first Humble Indie Bundle, which, no doubt, exceeded expectations by a long shot, raked in $1,275,000. The Humble Indie Bundle 2 surpassed that total with well over $1.3 Million and closed with earning roughly $1.8 million. Then, the Humble Indie Bundle FrozenByte was also raking in a huge sum of cash, easily getting in to the 6 figures. Well, the latest installment, the Humble Indie Bundle 3, is currently going strong. The sale has raked in over $1 million. Very good for independently produced video games. The sale is much like the other sales. DRM free. Pay what you want. Optionally support charity as well. This particular sale features Crayon Physics Delux, Cogs, VVVVVV, Hammerfight, and also And Yet it Moves. As an added incentive, people who by the Humble Indie Bundle gets Steel Storm for free as well as being able to play MineCraft for free for a limited time. Included in this sale is the option to support charity - namely Child's Play and the EFF. As of this writing, there is just over six days left of the sale. True to form, there is a video included in this too: What I like about all of this is the fact that being open to your customers and not treating them like criminals can be a very profitable thing. These types of sales prove that using things like DRM isn't the only way to sell a video game these days. Treat your customers with respect and they will return that respect in kind. Personally, I think it's very uplifting to see things like the Humble Indie Bundle be a success. Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

Guide: How to Rip N64 Video Game Music Via Audio Logging

Drew Wilson — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 11:29:04 +0000

We've already discussed how to get N64 game music with the MiniUSF format (and included an FAQ as a bonus. However, not all music on the N64 can be obtained this way. Today, we'll introduce a second line of attack at getting N64 music - audio logging.

MiniUSF sets are an excellent way of getting music losslessly from N64 games. However, there is no complete archive of every N64 game soundtrack available in this format. In fact, some sets aren't even properly named or timed in some cases even if a set for a particular game exists. There is an alternative option for getting the audio, but it involves a little more work. Audio Logging Audio logging is different from doing a sound chip rip. A sound chip rip records sounds produced by your computer. While there are many instances in which a sound chip rip is one recommended way of obtaining music, ripping music from an N64 emulator in this fashion is not. The simple reason is that emulated N64 games tend to introduce a large amount of skipping. Whether this is because the video is slow in the emulation process or your computer is simply not fast enough, a sound chip rip will most likely result in a very poor quality version of the track you are after. So what is audio logging? Audio logging is a feature in the N64 emulator known as Project 64. What it does is take all audio from the emulator and logs it. If the video is slow, or emulation otherwise introduces numerous skips, audio logging will actually remove those skips as it's going, thus, increasing the quality of the music in the final file. In short, it obtains the audio within the emulator, practically skipping the process of the audio reaching the sound chip on your computer. The only downside to this is the fact that audio needs to play at least somewhat correctly in the game in question before you can log the audio. If the game in question doesn't have a supported plug-in for the audio, then this process won't work. Fortunately, there is a very select few games that still have this problem. Step 1 - Getting the Emulator You need the Project 64 emulator to accomplish this task. For that, you need to download and install the emulator. This can be found on official Project 64 download page. Step 2 - Obtaining a ROM Emulators do not come with the games usually. So if you have a particular game you want to rip the audio from, you need to track down the ROM in question. We'll let you figure out how to get it. Step 3 - Open the Rom and Getting Ready for Audio Capture Once you get a ROM, create a directory and place the ROM inside somewhere on your hard drive. As long as there's a fixed folder on your hard drive that the emulator can read, you should be fine. Just know how to browse to it in your emulator settings. Double click on that ROM. Once the game is running, click on "Options" in the emulator menu and select "Configure Controller Plugin": You should see a new window with a list of controls. These are the controls that correspond with N64 input controls. Some of the controls on the left of each box is short form, so just remember: L is Left, U is up, D is down and R is Right in all but the cases in the bottom left quadrant of the window. Each box shows you what key on the keyboard corresponds to that standard N64 controller input. If you'd like to change any of these values, click on the small box on the right of the value you want to change and press that key on your keyboard. You should see the value change in the larger box between the N64 button and the clickable box. As an example, the following is the relevant portion of the screen for the "B" button typically found on an N64 controller: Once you are happy with the controls, you can hit the "Save Profile" button. You'll be saving this in a file so the emulator will remember the control functions next time you want to open the emulator. Now, the next thing you want to do is locate the song in question in the game. Fortunately, many games have an audio options menu which allows you to play the song in question. If the game you want to rip the music from has this option, go to the audio options. In our example, we'll use a game I personally spent way too much time playing years ago - Destruction Derby 64. In this example, the first thing we did was turn to turn down all the sound effects to nothing so that there are no extra sounds heard - remember, audio logging records all sounds, not just the music. The next thing we did was select the first track as the track we want to log. Since we want to log the first track, we've selected track number two so that track 1 doesn't play right away as we can see here: Now, we are set to log the audio! Step 4 - Logging the Audio The next step is to simply go back in to "Options" This time, we want to select "Configure Audio Plugin": This will open up a new window which is really mostly just about the audio logging feature: The "Sync Game to Audio" is about one of the few options you have for experimentation purposes. Sometimes, the audio isn't quite right, you might get better logging results if you tick this option. By default, this is unticked and it's probably fine unticked. For experimentation purposes, I've ticked this option. Volume really is just how loud the audio will record at. Most of the time, it's fine the way it is, but if you experience any distortion from the audio being too loud in the logging, you can turn this down in a later attempt. If you are ready, then click "Start" This will bring up another dialogue box asking you where it wants to save the WAV file. Just name the file and save it somewhere on your hard drive where you can find it later. Hit save when you are done naming and finding a place for that file. Now, in the remaining dialogue box, hit "Close" When the emulation is resumed, this will start the logging. I quickly selected "Playsong 1" in the game to start the song I wanted. This is the tedious part of the process. Since it is logging the audio, you are only going at a 1x speed - meaning you are recording as fast as you are listening to the song. For most video games, most songs have an intro part, then it starts looping through the rest of the song. Wait for the song to fully loop once and wait a few seconds after it loops again. When you do this, you'll have a fully captured song! Go back in to options and "Configure Audio Plugin" In the new window, click on the "Stop". This will terminate the audio logging. Click on "Close" to get out of the dialogue box. Minimize the emulator so that it pauses emulation (and you year nothing). Step 5 - Testing and Editing the Logged File It is highly unlikely you'll be able to get a perfect logging of the song right off the bat, so we'll need to do some quick editing of the song. First, of course, open the WAV file in any music player you use to listen to music normally and give it a listen to see if it sounds OK. Don't worry if there's a little bit of extra sound at the beginning, this can be edited out. If it sounds good to you quality-wise, you can go on to the next part of this step, otherwise, you can go back and re-log the song using different settings we mentioned earlier. In our case, it sounded good. Editing out the beginning of the file is very easy. You can download a free application called Audacity. If you don't have Audacity, this can be downloaded and installed from the official home page for free. Once you have Audacity installed, have it open. Click on "file" and "open": Browse to the WAV file you created when you logged the song of your choice and open it up. In our case, our logged file will look like this after it is opened: Use the zoom tools I've highlighted in the screen shot and zoom in a little and scroll to the left side of the file. We're going to take care of that legacy sound. After you zoom in, hit the play button and listen to when the song you want starts playing. Pay particular attention to the little line as it moves across as this will help you determine where to edit. When your song starts playing, hit the stop button, noting where the song you want starts. Use the tool that looks like an insertion point (highlighted in picture) and highlight the area that is not the song you want like so: Since this is a bit of a picky process, you can simply move your cursor to the edge of the highlighted area (where the blue stuff is, not where the numbers are) and click and drag to expand or contract the highlighted area to make finer adjustments. Click play. It should only play the highlighted area. I like to go a little bit after the beginning of the song I want to check and make sure I'm editing all of the legacy sound out and stretching it back to the point where the song begins. Once I have it down to the very moment that the legacy sound ends, I click on the cut button (the button with the scissors right next to the master button) This will delete the highlighted area. Play it back and see if it sounds right. If it doesn't sound right, you can always hold down "Ctrl" and hit "Z" on your keyboard to bring back the deleted area for any additional attempts you need to make. If it sounds good, you should only hear the song you want beginning. We are almost there! Next part is determining where the song begins to loop. For that, you need to listen to the first little bit of the beginning of the song. Then, go to the end of your file and listen to the last minute or so. When does the song sound exactly like the beginning? In my case, there was an affect added at the end of the song, so it actually loops right at the symbol crash after the highlight point I've inserted in the picture (the line in the blue stuff): The next part is a lot like editing out the beginning, only now, we are inserting a fadeout (why we wanted to wait a little while after the sound looped when we initially logged the file). A fadeout is simply making the music seem like it's fading out in to the distance and going quiet. This makes the song not seem like it's just cutting out and makes it sound like a professional recording. To accomplish this, we want to highlight the area that is merely looped portions of the song (again, using that insertion point looking tool like we did before). Lucky for us, it doesn't matter as much if it's exact. Chances are, you won't notice it fading out too early if you are using the zoom tools to be reasonably accurate. You'll probably have something like this: Now comes the easy part. Click on "Effect" in the toolbar and click on "Fade Out" This will create a fade out effect within the highlighted area. The result should look like this: Now, deselect the area by clicking anywhere in the blue stuff and we're done editing! Step 6 - Saving the File Audacity likes saving it in its own file format, but chances are, we need to save it to a format that is compatible with other programs. You can save the file in the Audacity project file format, but that also takes up disc space. Besides, you can always open up the WAV file in Audacity at a later time anyway if you want to do some more things to the file. So to save it in WAV format, just click on "File" and "Export": Save the file wherever you like on the hard drive. In fact, I highly recommend saving over top of the old WAV file you used to log the original audio. This will also save on disc space. If you choose to do so, you'll be asked if you want to replace the file. Select "Yes". Another dialogue box will appear. You can insert metadata here like artist and track name, but I just hit "OK". If you close Audacity, you'll be asked if you want to save the file. This will create some project files on the hard drive if you choose yes, but since I won't be using this anymore in Audacity, I just click on "No" to save on disc space. Now, you'll have two WAV files. The new file you created and a legacy file. The file that ends in "-old" (or "-old.wav") is actually the original WAV file when you first started. I personally choose to delete the file - again, to save on disc space. Some Final Thoughts This is a time consuming way of obtaining music from the game. Not all games have the option to go in to a menu and select the song you want. Sometimes, you might have to simply go to the level in question and log the file that way. You might be forced to have some beginning sound effects and you might even have some other sound effects polluting your logging. This is why it's best to just stick to MiniUSF files if they are available as this is just direct data from the game instead of an audio log. Still, with a combination of this guide and the MiniUSF guide, you should have access to just about every song ever made for the N64 with only a very rare exception. Happy listening! Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

Sega Becomes Latest Hacking Target

Drew Wilson — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 22:28:37 +0000

Sega, a franchise known for its Sonic the Hedgehog character, is now the latest company to be hacked. While an investigation is under way, LulzSec was quick to deny any involvement.

With revelations on just how lax security is in some institutions, it almost seems like hacking has become quite a sport for some in the last few weeks. If you're wondering just how many institutions were hacked, CNET has a compiled chart on, not just who got hacked, but also by who. While an interesting number of organizations were simply a part of Sony, Sony isn't the only people being hacked these days. The BBC is noting that Sega, namely the Sega Pass database, has become the latest hacking target. While a number of hacking groups are more than willing to claim responsibility, the identity of this hack is unclear at this point. LulzSec not only denied any involvement, but threatened retaliation against the hackers should they find out who did that because they were fans of Dreamcast. According to Sega, the server that was hacked contained e-mails and dates of birth, but other confidential details were handled on a separate server not affected by the hack - though an investigation is ongoing at this stage. It is, indeed, good news that the company at least put sensitive information on a completely different server because it does allow for the creation of an additional barrier of security. So far, it sounds like it did its job. As a precaution, Sega has reset everyone's passwords in the mean time which is also a really good idea in my mind. What will come out of all this is really difficult to say at this point. What is interesting is seeing how some of these companies weather the publicity storm. In this case, so far, so good. Sega is trying to show that they did put forth a fair amount of effort to protect user data - especially financially related information. Additionally, it was very transparent and has already done something to further protect its users once a problem arose. All of this does reflect positively on the company in my view. It's just a question of how it handles this from here on will be an interesting thing to watch. Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

PSN Outage: Day 10.5 – Sony’s Press Conference and More

Drew Wilson — Sun, 01 May 2011 07:13:09 +0000

After a long and, for many, painful 11 days, Sony has held a long awaited press conference to explain what happened during the outage, whether or not credit cards were stolen, who all is involved in fixing this issue and when the network will be back up and running.

There are a lot of people seeking answers from Sony over the infamous Sony PlayStation (PSN) outage that saw 70-77 million accounts compromised. Now, we are able to post up what was said during the conference. Pnoscker posted up what they heard in the conference:

Sony held its long awaited press conference tonight regarding the PSN hack and its future. As expected, there weren’t any concrete details regarding new security and it’s already been confirmed there are no new features as of now so what did we get? Sony says they’re working on a much more sophisticated security system out of San Diego and have enlisted the FBI’s help in fixing the security problems. There remains no evidence that credit card numbers have been stolen but security codes have not been. Sony urges users to keep tabs on their credit card accounts though as they believe it was possible they were compromised by these sophisticated hackers. PSN will be back up this week apparently and users will receive a free software gift which will be determined by which region they reside in. They gifts are unknown yet but all PSN users will receive one free month of PlayStation Plus.

These points were backed up by NBR which offered the following summary:

* There is still no evidence PlayStation Network (PSN) credit card data was obtained, but it cannot be ruled out * Some PlayStation Network gaming services will come back online this week, with full service (including TV and movie downloads) resuming "mid May" * The security breach, which prompted Sony to take the network offline, was the result of a "criminal cyber-attack" on a San Diego data centre. * Selected software will be available under a welcome back programme * Sony would create a Chief Information Security Officer position in response to hack * Sony has called in the FBI to help investigate network intrusion

It's interesting that Sony has said in the conference that the FBI was involved. This was known yesterday, but there are many more players involved including Congress, as well as the Department of Homeland Security. It's a little puzzling why they only mentioned the FBI. The point about when the network is coming back sometime this week has also been known. Some sources suggested it would be on Tuesday while other, more recent sources, say Wednesday. It was also known that it would be only a partial restoration of the network. What wasn't known was when the full network was coming back (mid May). Sony is continuing to deny that anyone has illegally obtained credit card credentials, but they are saying that they can't rule out that possibility. It was a more recent bit of news that the description of the attack was upgraded from an "external intrusion" to "criminal cyber-attack", so this was a piece of repeating news. Neither description really says a whole lot about the attack, so it doesn't necessarily mean a whole lot. So, that leaves what is news in this conference. The news of one month free on PlayStation Plus is certainly welcome news. There is also some free software gifts to be handed out depending on region, but what they are is not known. The only other bit that is really new is the fact that they will be creating new position within the company: Chief Information Security Officer. Not really clear what that means precisely in these reports. So, overall, a few denials, but many users will be getting what they were hoping for - compensation for the outage in the form of one free month on PlayStation Plus. The question is, will this curb fears of stolen credit cards? Maybe, maybe not. More reports are surfacing from users alleging that their credit cards used for PSN are getting cleaned out by fraudsters. one report even goes to the trouble of obtaining a screen shot of the alleged incident. From VGN365:

For the past few weeks PSN users had been reporting that their credit card linked with their PSN account had been compromised and they have had to close it down. However, many had been skeptical if they were telling the truth. Now, however, a PlayStation Network user has stated he’s had $12,500 taken from his credit card; this time, though, the user has provided picture proof from their bank account that someone has indeed tried to take $12,500 from his card that was linked to his PSN card.

There's been some debate over whether these are related to PSN or not. Some suggest the cards in question might have been stolen, but from a source other than PSN. Other's accuse these people of falsifying these reports flat out while others suggest that stories like this might suggest that Sony may have been lying about the credit card aspect of the story. These stories, as many know by now, aren't isolated incidences. ArsTechnica compiled a number of fraud stories that might suggest these credit cards are, in fact, out in the wild:

"My American Express card was compromised over the weekend," one commenter stated. "This card sits in a drawer in my house for emergencies, but I did use it once on my PSP for an account. Luckily American Express is very good at notifying me immediately after the first fraudulent purchase." Another reader e-mailed with a similar story. "About two or three days ago, my bank notified me that I had gotten my own [credit card information] stolen, the one I use for my PSN account, and with it a ticket was purchased through a German airline for nearly $600," she told Ars. "They are still looking into the fraud charge meaning that right now I have a negative $500 in my account, with no good chance that I'll be getting that back any time soon." Another reader had a similar issue. "I had a call from my credit card company trying to verify a purchase which ended up being fraudulent. Same card I use on Sony's network. They denied [the charge] and issued me a new card," the reader commented. "Might be coincidence, but with the other security gaffes recently, I'm guessing not. Not sure what my opinion of Sony is right now and what my future is with them." Let's keep this ball rolling! "I also had an attempted fraudulent charge on my American Express card, about $8,000 going to some Japanese store. This all happened about when PSN started having trouble, so I'm betting this had something to do with it," another commenter said. "My advice: if you have your credit card info on PSN, watch your accounts like a hawk. I'm buying pre-paid cards from now on; you know, if I decide to ever spend money on PSN again." Here's a response to a complaint of fraudulent charges in the comments. "Probably not a coincidence, I had the same thing happen this weekend. I got an Easter Sunday call from American Express about suspicious charges that began Saturday."

ArsTechnica says that these are not the only cases they were informed of as well. One bit of speculation revolves around the truth of the comments of the story. Sony said that the credit cards were encrypted. Meanwhile, there are reports of credit card fraud. Some have suggested that both could very well be true. Sony could have encrypted the data, but hackers might have been able to decrypt this and gained access to the cards. That aspect might be muted a bit thanks to Sony saying that there is no evidence that the cards have fallen in to the wrong hangs though. Meanwhile, there are a few more government entities who are involved to report on. According to the Straight Times, Hong Kong is also asking questions about the 400,000 users who's accounts may have been compromised:

Hong Kong Privacy Commissioner Allan Chiang said he was probing the breach and met with local Sony official Katsuhiko Murase who told him 400,000 Hong Kong PlayStation Network user accounts were involved.

Bloomberg is reporting that a number of European countries are joining the investigation of the PSN hack:

U.K., Irish and Italian information watchdogs said this week that they will investigate the hacking of Sony’s PlayStation Network after the company warned 77 million customers may have had their personal data stolen.

One more note, updates are being made about the conference on Martyn Williams twitter account. Here are some of the latest tweets about the conference:

passwords were "hashed". No room to explain, but google or wikipedia should help!

looks like networking gaming and music unlimited will be first back online

We will update you if anything more from the conference surfaces. Did you find Sony's explanation satisfactory? Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

PSN Outage: Day 9.5 – Sony Hit With Second Class Action Lawsuit

Drew Wilson — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 00:57:03 +0000

It was only two days ago that we learned of the first class action lawsuit against Sony in the wake of the PSN outage. Now, two days later, we are learning of a second class action lawsuit filed against Sony. This time, this was filed in a Los Angeles court.

Did Sony encrypt users credit card credentials? Is there no evidence to suggest that users credit card information is in the wrong hands? Are the reports of stolen money and stolen credit cards for real? Was the encryption strong enough? Sony says that the data was encrypted and that there is no evidence to suggest that the credit cards are in the wrong hands while troubling news has already surfaced that consumers are already losing money and even one unverified source saying that 2.2 million credit card credentials from the data leak is already being sold in shady black markets somewhere online. That aspect of the story has been murky for quite some time now, but a second person has decided that a class action lawsuit against Sony is the course of action. Just two days ago, the first lawsuit against Sony was filed in a California court accusing Sony of a number of things including being too slow to notify customers of potential data loss, negligence and a whole lot more. While it is unclear how far the lawsuit will go, especially in the wake of a recent Supreme Court ruling that made class action lawsuits more difficult to file, that isn't stopping a second class action lawsuit against the company. Citing the Wall Street Journal, Fox is reporting that an additional lawsuit was filed in a Los Angeles court recently. From the report:

The data breach also prompted the filing of a lawsuit in federal court in Los Angeles on Wednesday, alleging Sony was negligent in allowing the theft of its members' personal data. "Sony broke its contract and violated its customers' trust," said Caleb Marker, an attorney representing plaintiffs in the Los Angeles lawsuit, which is also seeking class action status.

All of this is already in the midst of Sony facing tough questions from governments all around the world over its handling of the data breach. The question is, how much damage has this done to the company so far? A Reuters article on Wednesday says that the stocks plummeted by 5%. There are some who have been trying to pin a number to how much financial damage this will do to the company and Reuters suggests that it could cost the company $1.5 Billion. Has the shares plummeted since then? A quick look at Google Finance would suggest that the stock value has fallen even further, slipping from around the 29 point mark all the way down to 28.31 mark as of this writing. Hard to say if it's entirely due to the data leak or if it's a part of a mix of a host of reasons why the stock values went down, but it's hard to say it had nothing to do with the data leak. Perhaps another key question is, is consumer trust going to be negatively impacted by this data breach? Certainly, there are no shortage of comments that say that they will avoid Sony products in the future already, but there are others who probably just want the network to be back online so they can keep playing their games on the PSN network. So, ultimately, it will be very interesting to see how many people stay connected to the PSN network after the network is back up and running or if the pool of players will dramatically shrink on that network. Does this data breach change your perception of Sony? Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

PSN Outage: Day 8 – Governments Get Involved Over Data Breach Fears

Drew Wilson — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 18:20:36 +0000

Day 8 of the PSN outage. It appears that fears have been intensifying over the massive data breach where 70-77 million credit cards were stolen. After a class action lawsuit was launched against Sony, both the US and UK governments have expressed concern over this incident amid the growing concern over the lasting effects of this data breach.

Major, monumental, and historic, these are some of the words some are currently no doubt using to describe the security meltdown that happened with Sony's PSN network. Yesterday, it was very apparent that 70 to 77 million identities were compromised. By yesterday afternoon, a class action lawsuit was filed against Sony in a California court. While a lot has happened yesterday, much more has happened today. As we noted earlier, US Senator Richard Blumenthal has already sent a letter expressing his concerns over the data breach. It turns out that the US government isn't alone in voicing concerns. After Eurogamer contacted the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) in the UK, the ICO apparently contacted Sony with their own concerns about the Sony data breach. From play.tm:

The watchdog office stated that it "takes data protection breaches extremely seriously. Any business or organization that is processing personal information in the U.K. must ensure they comply with the law, including the need to keep data secure. We have recently been informed of an incident which appears to involve Sony. We are contacting Sony and will be making further inquiries to establish the precise nature of the incident before deciding what action, if any, needs to be taken by this office."

If that wasn't enough, fears over stolen data has only been growing in the last 24 hours. Security expert Graham Cluely has weighed in on the data breach saying that PSN users should cancel their credit cards. From TechRadar:

"If you're a user of Sony's PlayStation Network, now isn't the time to sit back on your sofa and do nothing," said Cluely. "The fraudsters won't wait around - for them this is a treasure trove ripe for exploiting. You need to act now to minimise the chances that your identity and bank account become casualties following this hack." "That means, changing your online passwords (especially if you use the same password on other sites), and considering whether it would be prudent to inform your bank that as far as you're concerned your credit card is now compromised."

After advice like that, it's very interesting to hear what Visa has said in all of this. Visa recommended keeping a close eye on your credit card activities. From MCVUK:

“Concerned cardholders should keep a close eye on their accounts and report any unusual or unexpected activity to their issuing bank," a statement issued to MCV reads. "Cardholders who are innocent victims of fraud will get their money back, subject to the terms and conditions of their bank.”

It's curious that Visa recommends waiting until money has been stolen first. How long will it take for fraudsters to steal your money? According to unconfirmed reports, money is already vanishing from PSN users credit cards. VGN365 posted this excerpt from a users e-mail:

A total of $300 was taken from my debit card on Saturday. However, my bank called me to notify me of a suspicious transaction and they confirmed it was indeed a fraudulent withdrawal. I’ve had to cancel my card and order a new one which the bank will transfer my previous account’s money into. The thing isI worry that many users who linked their bank accounts with their PSN account are in serious danger; I hope they all call their banks to immediately take action and prevent any fraudulent withdrawals.

Another user also passed this along to VGN365:

I had $200 taken out my debit card as well. This occurred in Florida and I live in MN. Luckily my bank’s fraud dept caught it right away and I have since cancelled my card. This just sucks.

In all of this, GeoHot has even weighed in on this fiasco. From Geohot's blog:

To start, I sure am glad I don't have a PSN account about now. And, as a onetime victim of identity theft, I feel for everyone who's data has been stolen. I'm not going to make cracks at Sony for flipping a shit when /their/ data is compromised, and not even having the decency to apologize when it's your data that's misappropriated. And to anyone who thinks I was involved in any way with this, I'm not crazy, and would prefer to not have the FBI knocking on my door. Running homebrew and exploring security on your devices is cool, hacking into someone elses server and stealing databases of user info is not cool. You make the hacking community look bad, even if it is aimed at douches like Sony. One of the things I was contemplating back in early January was a PSN alternative, a place for jailbroken consoles to download homebrew and game without messing up anyone else's experience. Unfortunately events led me off of that path, but gamers, if I had succeeded you would have a place to game online with your PS3 right now. I'm one of the good guys. I used to play games online on PC, I hated cheaters then and I hate them now. Also, let's not fault the Sony engineers for this, the same way I do not fault the engineers who designed the BMG rootkit. The fault lies with the executives who declared a war on hackers, laughed at the idea of people penetrating the fortress that once was Sony, whined incessantly about piracy, and kept hiring more lawyers when they really needed to hire good security experts. Alienating the hacker community is not a good idea.

In the midst of all of this happening, Sony has been in full damage control at this point. One of the concerns was the speculation that personal data was not encrypted. Sony has now dismissed the allegations. From GameSpy:

"All of the data was protected, and access was restricted both physically and through the perimeter and security of the network. The entire credit card table was encrypted and we have no evidence that credit card data was taken. The personal data table, which is a separate data set, was not encrypted, but was, of course, behind a very sophisticated security system that was breached in a malicious attack." Sony goes on to confirm that it still has not discovered any evidence to suggest credit card data was stolen. However, the console maker states that "out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained."

Sony has also defended the slow security notifications. Slashgear has obtained the following comment from Sony:

“There’s a difference in timing between when we identified there was an intrusion and when we learned of consumers’ data being compromised. We learned there was an intrusion 19th April and subsequently shut the services down. We then brought in outside experts to help us learn how the intrusion occurred and to conduct an investigation to determine the nature and scope of the incident. It was necessary to conduct several days of forensic analysis, and it took our experts until yesterday to understand the scope of the breach. We then shared that information with our consumers and announced it publicly yesterday evening.” Nick Caplin, Head of Communications, SCEE

While it may be an answer, Slashgear also notes the following:

Users themselves, unsurprisingly, aren’t particularly impressed with Caplin’s reasoning. They suggest that Sony was negligent in not flagging up even a potential suspicion of a data breach from the start, which would at least have given them a chance to change their passwords, cancel credit cards and take other steps to minimize the impact.

Not exactly a ringing endorsement to say the least. Another concern is how long it's taking to restore the network. After the blunder of saying a "day or two" several days ago, Sony now says that services will b restored within a week. The next question is, will Sony players return to the network after this massive data breach? Only time will tell at this stage. Do you think Sony's handling of the situation is adequate? Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

PSN Outage: Day 5 – No End in Sight

Drew Wilson — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 18:27:08 +0000

We are now on day 5 of the PlayStation Network (PSN) outage. Reports are at least as grim as a few days ago, if not, worse. If Sony ever wanted to test the patience of their gamers, this was certainly one way of doing it.

The Easter long weekend is often a time of relaxation. Some people take the opportunity to spend time with their family and maybe eat a little chocolate. For others, it's a golden opportunity to put some serious gaming time. If you're a PSN player, though, you know all too well that was an impossibility thanks to an ongoing outage. The outage began on the 20th and was confirmed on reports by the 21st that the network had experienced an outage. By the 22nd, Sony said that the network would be back up and running in a "day or two". This was amid a backdrop of complaints and growing frustration. Some users were even suggesting that Sony should reimburse gamers who lost valuable gaming time on the network. Sony could only give a vague explanation of the outage, saying that it was an "external intrusion" which, for some, doesn't actually mean a whole lot. It was also around this time that some were pointing the finger of blame on Anonymous who did express grievances toward the company over the treatment of GeoHot who uncovered the Sony root keys, compromising the Playstation 3 DRM. Anonymous responded quickly to the accusations saying, "For once we didn't do it". While saying that Sony was simply being incompetent, the Anonymous statement read:

Sony's Playstation Network, its online service for Playstation 3 and its Playstation Portable consoles, suffered from a major outage today; which is on going as of this writting. According to Son'ys blog, the interruption in service may last into the long weekend - for at least another "full day or two". Sony released a statement through its EU blog, saying that the network outage may be a result of "targeted behaviour by an outside party", brining in the possibility of cyberattacks. Adding to the confusion is the fact that the message has since been removed. While it could be the case that other Anons have acted by themselves AnonOps wa not related to this incident and takes no responsiblity for it. A more likely explination is that Sony is taking advantage of Anonymous' previous ill-will towards the company to distract users from the fact the outage is accutally an internal problem with the companies servers.

While it became common knowledge by the 23rd that Anonymous denied any responsibility of this outage, some still blame the hacking organization for the collapse of the network. By the 24th, Sony said that the whole network was being rebuilt while they were trying to get the whole network back up and running. By this time, some were suggesting that this is a great demonstration of the pitfalls of cloud computing. If a server suddenly goes down, then everyone suffers, but if everything is local, the damage of a computer outage can be greatly minimized. As seen in the PSN outage, if the servers go down, then everyone with a PlayStation can suffer the consequences. Now, here we are, day five and still no PSN. According to reports today, Sony is not giving out a timetable for when the network. It might be possible that they learned from their mistake from last time since the promise of a "day or two" has expired yesterday. Sony also suggested that people's personal information like credit cards might also have been compromised throughout all of this - though this has yet to be confirmed. This might be an indicator that things are far worse than previously feared. So, for almost a week, all we know is this about the PSN outage: the network has been out for five days straight, it was an "external intrusion" and people's personal data that includes credit cards could have been compromised in all of this. It's not a whole lot to go on after all of this time and it seems that there is no end in sight to when this problem might finally be resolved. Have you been affected by the PSN outage? How much has it affected your gaming experience? Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

Third Installment of Humble Indie Bundle Rakes in Over $500,000

Drew Wilson — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 17:28:45 +0000

The Humble Indie Bundle gained quite a following by being an overwhelmingly successful pay-what-you-want DRM free sale. Now, the latest version of the famous sale has netted over half a million dollars in its first few days.

At it again. Video game developer Wolfire has posted the third instalment of the Humble Indie Bundle known as Frozenbyte after the featured developer FrozenByte. Like other bundles, a portion of the proceeds will go to the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Child's Play which is customizable for the contributor. The games featured this time around are Trine, Shadowgrounds: Survivor, Shadowgrounds, a pre-order of Splot and a prototype of Jack Claw. The games are DRM free and most of them are cross platform. As of ths writing, this sale has earned a total of $568,439.63 from a total of 110,708 sales. Last year, the original Humble Indie Bundle earned nearly $1,275,000 while its sequel, the Humble Indie Bundle 2, earned over $1.8 Million. The latest sale launched just three days ago and currently has just under a dozen days left. Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.