Just a few days ago, mod-chip sellers were raided by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Because of this, even Team-Xecuter, leader in XBOX and XBOX 360 mod-chips, have thrown in the towel and will no longer be making products for the industry. This could only be the beginning.

Federal agents have carried out a series of raids against individuals and businesses in 16 states as part of an investigation into the distribution and sale of mod chips. Dubbed "Operation Tangled Web", the 32 search warrants were executed by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from 22 offices, with assistance from the gaming industry.

Related Stories

 

* Modder faces jail time after raid turns up counterfeit games, mod chips

* Mod chip seller hit with million-dollar damages

 

Those targeted by Operation Tangled Web are accused of direct involvement with the console-modding community, including those engaging in the import, distribution, sale, and installation of mod chips for the PlayStation 2, Nintendo Wii, Xbox, and Xbox 360. The ICE was the lead agency in the raids due to its responsibility for keeping counterfeit and pirated goods off of US store shelves.

 

The raids come in the wake of the arrest of a San Diego resident for selling pirated games and modded consoles. Frederick Brown was arrested in late June by the San Diego Computer and Technology Crime High-Tech Response Unit after advertising his services on Craigslist and other web sites.

 

"Illicit devices like the ones targeted today are created with one purpose in mind, subverting copyright protections," said Julie L. Myers, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in a statement. "These crimes cost legitimate businesses billions of dollars annually and facilitate multiple other layers of criminality, such as smuggling, software piracy and money laundering."

 

Despite Myers' assertion that mod chips are created for the sole purpose of subverting copyright, the truth is that they are popular with gamers for a number of reasons—some of which arise from frustrations related to fair use. Mod chips extend the functionality of the consoles, allowing gamers to load full games onto hard drives (making it easier to lug one's favorite games to a friend's house), use the consoles as media centers, and play homebrew content. In contrast, the hardware companies and the Entertainment Software Association can't stand them because they can also be used to play pirated discs; that's the rationale given by the ICE for the raids.

 

In a statement released this afternoon, the ESA applauded the crackdown. "Enforcement initiatives of this scope send a clear message to both the public and pirate community that this illegal activity will not be tolerated," said ESA president Michael Gallagher. The ESA estimates its total worldwide losses due to piracy at $3 billion annually. Those numbers should be taken with a large grain of sodium chloride, as actual losses from piracy are notoriously hard to assess, and the software industry is not above inflating its piracy-related losses.

 

Those arrested could be charged with violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, specifically its provisions dealing with the circumvention of copy-protection controls. Although the raids won't wipe out the modding community, it is likely to drive sales of mod chips further underground—especially since some storefront retail operations were targeted in the raids.

Source: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070...wide-raids.html

NeoGeo CD emulator for GC/Wii

What's new?

 

Nothing much - only it now works on SD too!

 

Fortunately, the NeoGeoCDs contain 8.3 formatted filenames, which fits elm-chan's TinyFATFS perfectly!

 

Follow the instructions for DVD - same rules apply.

 

The compiled binary is for SD in SLOT A only.

 

Enjoy!

 

UPDATE: 0.1.52A - Corrected directory navigation.

The attached redux32.7z contains a GameCube only version of redux. The only difference is that the higher bus rate (32Mhz) is used.

Source and Downlaods: TehSkeen release thread

Front End

EasyMame 5.6 release info:

 

 

- Adapted the rom scanning to the new mame.117u1 build. Because of this change Easymame isn't compatible anymore with older mame versions.

- Added all new mame options.

- Updated some things to Vista conformity (both visual and under the hood)

>> Get it HERE.

EMULATORS

=========

SDLMAME

SDLMAME for the Mac

DATS

====

History.dat 1.17a

MAMEinfo.dat

Story.dat, mamescore.ini, default.el

Info.dat

History.dat 1.17b

AGEMAME

=======

Patch for 0.117u3

Fully-built binary

NOTES

=====

Note to developers: We will link to your build only if you make your source code available for download.

Otherwise, the text will not be clickable.

The u1 input problems should be all fixed now, but delete your old CFG files to avoid problems.

- ######## LATEST EMULATION NEWS WILL APPEAR BELOW ######## -