If you're an owner or prospective owner of the Cowon Q5W, you're probably impressed with its myriad audio and video playback capabilities -- but did you know it can handle emulation as well? Apparently, since the device is based on Windows CE, it's fairly easy to get game emulators up and running on the 5-inch PMP. In the video you can watch a setup of what appears to be an SNES imitator playing both Donkey Kong Country and Super Mario Kart (two favorites of our SNES fanboy, Paul Miller, we suspect). The games are controlled by a decidedly non-Nintendo accessory -- a PS1 controller connected via USB adapter. With that recent $50 price drop, this may be just the incentive you need to spring for a shiny new edition to your gadget library.

After 219 pages of postings to what has become the go-to forum thread in regards to Sony's PS3 jaggies fiasco -- a problem that was hitting certain PS1 and PS2 games with a pixel-flipping ugly stick -- it looks like Sony finally heard the cry of its users and has released a fix to the problem inside the firmware 1.5 update. Oddly enough, Sony still hasn't really copped to the problem, or even mentioned the fix in its 1.5 changelog, but reports of the fix are widespread, and we won't look a gift horse in the mouth. Joystiq notes that the fix does not include upscaling of PS1 or PS2 games, a much-desired feature for the HD-friendly PS3, but we'll take what we can get for now.

[Via Joystiq]

When we heard the PS3 was going to feature a whole PS2 chipset for the sake of backwards compatibility, we didn't think it would suck so much. Beyond the games that are straight-up freezing or glitching out on the new box -- for which Sony is promising a patch -- the PS3 seems to be having heaps of trouble with 480i games in particular. In a sort of "double your jaggies" scenario, that's sure to leave fans of classic PlayStation titles delighted, the PS3's upscaling method for the low-res titles introduces all sorts of "jaggies" and artifacts into the image, as can be seen above in a splitscreen comparison between the PS3 and PS2 in Final Fantasy X. Some speculate that the PS3 lacks the necessary upscaling hardware, making a firmware update impossible for now, but we're hoping that somewhere in that heap of PS3 horsepower, Sony can find a way restore that beautiful shimmer to Tidus' hair. Peep a comparison video after the break.

[Via Joystiq]

Gee, Sony, we're a bit confused now why you found the combination of motion sensing and rumble so difficult. It looks like it took SplitFish a bit of effort, but 4 patents later and they've got their new MotionFX adapter, which clips onto a regular 'ol PS2 or PS1 controller and allows for motion-based control, without disabling that fancy rumble feature we've heard so much about. Could it be you were just in such a rush to tack on rumble, with Wii breathing down your neck? Or was it that pesky lawsuit? We're just curious, is all. A MotionFX will cost you guys $39.99, and should be available in stores now, just in case you wanted to check one out.

Have some PS1 games kicking around, or just are itching for some "Twisted Metal" action? Sure, you could go the easy route and download them from the PlayStation Network, but what if you were one of the 99.9% of folks who couldn't get their hands on a next-gen console? Well today there was a new PS1 emulator released for the PSP that will apparently play most games, but like previous attempts, there are still are some bugs that need to be worked out -- the intro movie on Final Fantasy 7 won't play properly (although the game itself is fine) and the L2 and R2 buttons don't always work right, for instance. So if you've got a PSP and a PSX but no PS3, this may be your only chance to load up your favorite classic titles for quite some time.

Hot on the heels of the big 3.0 firmware update for the PlayStation Portable, Sony's finally let loose its pricing plans for the forthcoming PS1 game downloads, although the downloads themselves are still apparently a few weeks away (unless you're in Japan, in which case you can get your Tekken 2 fix today). When they do show up, however, you can plan on dropping between $5.99 and $10.99 for the games, with each taking up between 140MB and 550MB on your Memory Stick Duo. The biggest sticking point for many PSP users, however, is that, as previously reported, you can't just download the games directly to your PSP -- instead, you have to download them onto your PS3's hard drive first and transfer 'em to your Memory Stick Duo from there. No problem for some but, last we checked, there's a heckuva lot more people with PSPs than PS3s, and at the rate things are going, that looks like it'll be the case for a while yet.

Forget all those "PlayStation 3 box" or "PlayStations, 3 of them" scam artists, this "PS1 + PS2 = PS3" guy is the real deal, bringing true innovation to the realm of scamming hapless PS3 wannabes. Unfortunately, this PS3 system, held together by the mightiest of adhesives, might be a little too ahead of its time, since so far the auction is at a paltry C$152.50 (about $1.40 in real money). Oh well, there's always the next next-gen hysteria, right?

[Via Digg]

If you thought you were going to have to wait until the PS3 came out to rock Playstation 1 titles on your PSP, you've just been granted a reprieve. Well, kinda. MaxConsole is reporting that a clever hacker named Yoshihiro has just released the first PS1 emulator for your trusty portable console, and that the so-called PSX-P app will run on firmware versions below 2.71, with users of 1.5 and above obviously requiring the eLoader exploit. As a reminder, the only way you can legally use this program is if you already own a Playstation and a number of games, as it requires the SCPH1001.BIN PS1 BIOS file and ripped ISOs of your game discs -- which can be found elsewhere, but we like to keep it legit 'round here. So all is well and good, right? Eh, not really; since PSX-P currently lacks a dynamic decompiler recompiler, games apparently run super-slowly, in the neighborhood of 10fps: i.e. a good proof of concept for the homebrew community, but until Yoshihiro or one of his colleagues manages to achieve a playable frame rate, for now this breakthrough is little more than a frustrating tease.

Update: Check out the YouTube vid!

[Via DCEmu, thanks wraggster]