Eke-Eke has just released an updated binary version of the SMSPlus Master System emulator for Nintendo's Gamecube and Wii consoles. Thanks to the binary, there's no need to recompile the source file, so those who don't know how to recompile can just go ahead and play their hearts out.

Here's what's new:

(19/03/2007)

• added SDCARD support (copypasted from Genesis Plus)
• NO more linked rom needed, rom data is now dynamically allocated

(09/03/2007)

• updated to last version (1.3) from Charles McDonald (http://cgfm2.emuviews.com/): added TMS9918 display mode support for SMS2 and GG video chips.
• corrected NGC savestate loading (fix FM & graphics problem on loading state)
• added an option to change Joypad Type in Misc Menu (SMS button 1 is assigned to Button A (typeA) or Button B (typeB))
• added options in Misc menu to change some internal settings (Region, CPU , Mapper, FM Type, Console Type)
• updated NGC Sound Engine (copypasted from Genesis Plus)

For installation instructions, please read the SMSPlus.nfo file included in the binary download. SMSPlus is open-source, so if you feel like tinkering a bit with it, download the source code too.

Download: SMSplus v1[1].3 binary
Download: SMSplus v1[1].3 source code

While we are all gamers here and our own little virtual universe is enough to contain our wants and needs, we certainly don't want to be secluded from the rest of the real world. And so from time to time, we share with you scientific studies that reveal how the rest of the world view us.

Oftentimes, we find these studies as negative factoids for our growing culture. But there are rare occasions when these findings put our life in a good light.

Today, we'd like to share with you another study that is utterly misconducted and we believe that it has no bearing, not by a long shot.

Dr. Chow Yuan-hua, a psychiatrist at the Veterans General Hospital in Taipei, maintains that playing violent videogames result to lower language proficiency. He arrived at his conclusion by studying another emerging culture, the text-speakers.

Before we proceed, let us define textspeak. It is the process of shortening words and adding numbers to an SMS message. There are various reasons why this is being done but for most part, it is about economics and being cool. An example of this is "Mit me at my haus 2nyt", which (as we're sure you already know) "Meet me at my house tonight."

In his study, Yuan-hua used just 12 young adults as the sample population and asked them to play PS2 title Real Three Kingdoms: Nonpareil 4 Generations for 30 minutes and then no more. With that hurried experiment, if we may call it that, the psychiatrist shamelessly announced:

Reduction in blood circulation in the frontal lobe indicates that it may affect language proficiency. How far will it harm their language capability, if they play for a longer time and almost every day My findings just prove there is a statistically significant association between violence in video games and low language proficiency. Further study is urgently needed.

Our take on this? Actually he said it himself already. Further study is needed. We honestly can't comprehend how he got from point A to point B. If any of you get the rationale and the sense behind this study, please, tell us kindly.

Remember ages ago (it's been that long?) when Wii had been registering trademarks left and right? Among those trademarks include WiiKids, WiiCulture, WWWii, and a whole slew of other things that probably won't even see the light of day. But rest assured, Nintendo's got them reserved as trademarks already.

From these trademarks, we can see the track that Nintendo is taking in expanding their console. We somehow get some feel of what their future plans would be. One of those trademarks is !!M (that's "Wii" inverted 180 degrees).

Zi Corporation has just announced that they would be working with Nintendo to bring their predictive text input software, eZiText, into the Wii. Milos Djokovic, President and CEO of Zi Corporation said that "By embedding eZiText in Wii, Nintendo is empowering its customer with a more user friendly method for text input." To continue:

This announcement heralds the future use of eZiText outside of conventional mobile usage. The global gaming industry has become a worldwide phenomenon and is becoming an important new avenue for the distribution of our products. As such, we will continue to progressively pursue new gaming customers.

Now whether this project will end up as the supposed !!M, we're still not sure if what they're trying to aim at is an SMS Messaging service or an Instant Messaging service. Either way, expect a lot of communication between Wiis, Wiimotes, and Miis in the future.

We've already posted about several WiiConnect24 features that Nintendo's Satoru Iwata himself announced. But more news is good news right? So here, we found this interesting little bit. Just look at the screenshot above, scan through the text, and look what it says about SMS.

Done? You sure? Scan it again. Yep. WiiConnect24 can be accessed via SMS. If they can find ways to somehow have that feature interface with, say sim games, then Nintendo has something great going.

Imagine leaving your Wii on and your god game or your simulation is running on the Wii, and then you leave from work. And then you suddenly feel like ordering your troops to attack the next country or something. All you have to do is type a few keys on your cellphone and then press send. Et voila! Instant world domination!

Of course that's just us dreaming that scenario up. For now, what's sure is that the Wii Message feature will work wonders with Animal Crossing.