OpenOffice.org 3.1.0 Final and OxygenOffice Professional 3.0.1.3 – Direct Download

New builds of both OpenOffice.org and OxygenOffice have been released. These are free office automation suites which can be used as alternatives to commercial suits such as Microsoft Office, Corel WordPerfect Office, etc. It seems that there is a lot of confusion among readers regarding the differences between OpenOffice and OxygenOffice. OxygenOffice Professional is an enhanced version of OpenOffice which features security, reliability, performance enhancements as well as some extra content. Both versions are still being actively developed and they apparently have a huge fan base from across the world.

openoffice

According to Wikipedia article, OxygenOffice features the following enhancements:

  • Possibility to run Visual Basic for Application (VBA) macros in Calc (for testing)
  • Improved Calc HTML export
  • Enhanced Access support for Base
  • Security fixes
  • Enhanced performance
  • Enhanced color-palette
  • Enhanced help menu, additional User’s Manual, and extended tips for beginners

Apart from the above list, OxygenOffice suite includes several additional templates, additional samples over 3000 clip art, close to 100 new fonts, and several tools that are not available in OpenOffice suite by default. The core applications such as Writer, Calc, Impress etc are more or less unchanged in both versions.

Download

[Click Here] to download latest OxygenOffice Professional for Windows and Linux from SourceForge

[Click Here] to download latest OpenOffice Professional from official download page

PS2P Tracker – PS2, PSX and PSP torrents and video game soundtracks

When we first posted about PS2P back in late 2008, it was just a start up tracker that had to face the test of time like any other new BitTorrent site. Six months later, PS2P still stands - with a bigger community, better content and many new features. For those who don’t know, PS2P is a private torrent tracker specializing in Playstation 1, 2 and Playstation Portable games. It has a lot of ISO images and ROMs of PS games which can be played both on modded consoles and on PCs (with the use of emulators). In addition to games, there is a great collection of official soundtracks  (OST) of video games released for Playstation consoles over the past few years.

ps2-p

Statistics won’t tell you much about PS2P – rather than focusing purely on numbers, they seem to be focusing on gaining active members as well as quality content. There are currently 1500+ users and 250+ active torrents on this site. Out of the 250+ torrents, most are packs, FULLSETS or collections with multiple games in one torrent (for example all PS2 games beginning with letter A in one torrent). This includes 1200+ PS2 PAL Games/Versions, 1800+ US PS2 Games, around 800+ Asian PS2 Games – that’s almost 4000 console games right there. Some PS2, PSP emulators, Hacks, Mods, DVD Covers and other Tools for the Playstation console scan also be found on this tracker.

As you can see, there is a huge amount of Playstation games available for download here on PS2P. Most of the torrents are uploaded as ‘contributions’ or as parts of ongoing projects by the site’s active community. There are also a lot of non scene releases available here which you might not find on any other torrent tracker.

ps2-p torrents

During This includes the PS2-P Wiki, the past few months, lots of new features have been added to this tracker. This includes the new Wiki, cool new category icons, revamp of categories, several new projects and ‘contributions’, games from REDUMP.ORG, the ‘featured torrents’ section and many more. Also don’t forget that PS2-P has a cool, unique interface.

If you still are not a member, we hear that public signups for PS2P will be open till the 4th of May, 2009. Quoted from site homepage:

PS2PTT will open its doors from this Friday 1st May am till Monday 4th May am GMT.
Tell all your friends.

Check it out. It’s a great resource if you have a modded console or if you are planning to play emulated PS/PS2 games in the future (something we’ll cover in more detail in an upcoming article).

Site Name: PS2-P Tracker (http://ps2ptt.com)

Signup URL: http://ps2ptt.com/signup.php

Categories: 

  • !Featured
  • Contributions/New Games: PSP
  • Contributions: Lossless VGM
  • Contributions: PS2 Projects
  • Contributions: PSX
  • Covers
  • Extra Projects
  • Project PS2: ASIAN SET
  • Project PS2: PAL SET
  • Project PS2: USA SET
  • Project PSP: SCENE SET
  • Project: Lossless VGM SET
  • Project: PS2 Undubs
  • Project: PsOne SETS
  • Project: X-BOX SET
  • PS2 New Releases
  • REDUMP.ORG
  • Requests
  • Tools

Thanks to Oleg and frank for the heads up.

Zamunda – Huge private tracker with no mandatory ratio rules (signups open)

In our quest to find new and old private torrent trackers, we have come across some really large sites such as ArenaBG, RARBG, Partis.Si, Torrents.Ru, Gamato, etc. Today we present you another huge private tracker – Zamunda.net (we we’ve talked about it before but it’s time for an update). Zamunda is apparently a very popular site in Bulgaria, Turkey, Russia, etc but it does not seem to be as popular in English speaking countries. This is a bit of a surprise because underneath an interface with Bulgarian characters lies a solid private tracker which actually has more English content than TorrentLeech and doesn’t have any mandatory ratio rules.

zamunda tracker

The administrator of Zamunda is a Bulgarian. However the site is no longer hosted in Bulgaria - legal pressure caused it to relocate in Russia. However no obstacle has been able stop Zamunda’s growth – it currently has more than 600000 members (that’s over half a million) and tracks close to 65000 active torrents.

At the start of this article we mentioned that Zamunda does not seem to be a popular choice among users who seek English releases. Our guess is that most of them get turned off by Zamunda’s interface which is by default displayed in Bulgarian language. This clearly is a mistake – majority of Zamunda’s releases are English movies, TV shows, games, software, music, E-books and other general content released by scene and p2p groups. Additionally, interface language can be set to English – simply click on the English flag icon on top left corner of the page.

However, even in the English interface, every torrent name and description is displayed both in Bulgarian and English. Do not be fooled into thinking the actual content tracked by the torrent is also Bulgarian – it is most probably English. For example the torrent title Paul Blart: Mall Cop / Пол Бларт: Ченгето на мола (2009) actually points to the English version of the movie. Also the Bulgarian flag next to a torrent title means it has optional Bulgarian subtitles, not that it has BG audio. Movies with Bulgarian and Russian audio are usually located in ‘Movies/BG’ and ‘Movies/Russia’ categories. Movies in other sections almost always have English audio.

In addition to general torrents, Zamunda also has a great selection of PC game rips (with over 700 rips) as well as a huge collection of non scene DVDRips which are sometimes not even found on dedicated movie trackers. However torrents seem to be renamed during the uploading process and release group name is sometimes not included in the renamed version indexed on the site (just Turok instead of 'Turok -Skullptura').

zamunda screenshot  
Screen: Some of the torrent packs at Zamunda. Despite the Bulgarian text, all torrents in this screenshot feature English audio

Another great thing about Zamunda is the large number of peers connected to the tracker – even torrents that are a few years old are well seeded thanks to it’s 0.6+ million strong user base.

One thing we had failed to mention in our last article about Zamunda is that it does not have any mandatory ratio rules unlike many other private trackers. There is something called the ‘rating system’ which records download and upload stats of a user but this is only used for user class promotions. Your ‘rating’ will also affect the ability to make requests on Zamunda (to make a request you need to be a power user).  However users are not banned or warned for having a low ratio. Following is quoted from the FAQ:

Q: What is that "Rating"? Can I raise it ?
A: The rating is actually the ratio between leech and seed. Try to be high because the high rating gives some benefits - you can become a Power User, for example. Your rating becomes higher when you seed files. If you seed more, you'll have a better rating. Your rating becomes lower if you download.

This should be welcome news to those with low upload speeds but always keep in mind that lax ratio rules are not an excuse for hit and running (HnR) - BitTorrent is based on sharing so always try to give something back to the community. Also, don’t expect the download speeds of ScT or SCC from Zamunda. However this tracker is a lot faster than most general/0day sites out there and perhaps more than 100x faster than TPB, Demonoid or H33T in most cases.

Zamunda is a private tracker and is closed for public registrations most of the time. They do not have an invite system so the only way in is during an open signup. If you are looking forward to get into this site today is your lucky day – Zamunda is currently open. We don’t know till when the open signups will last so get in while you can.

Site Name: Zamunda (http://www.zamunda.net)

Signup URL: http://www.zamunda.net/signup.php

Categories:

  • Mobile/GSM
  • XXX
  • Animation
  • Video/HDTV
  • Video/x264
  • Other
  • Games/PC ISO
  • Games/PC Rip
  • Games/PS
  • Games/Console
  • Clips
  • Books/Comic
  • Music
  • Music/DTS
  • Music/DVD-R
  • Music/Lossless
  • Programs/PC ISO
  • Programs/other
  • Serial/TV
  • Dox
  • Movies/DVD-R
  • Movies/HDTV
  • Movies/XviD
  • Movies/BG
  • Movies/Science
  • Movies/Russia
  • Hentai

DarkCoder cracks Chronicles of Riddick : Assault on Dark Athena v1.01

DarkCoder has done it again! The one man cracking powerhouse has developed a seemingly working crack for Chronicles of Riddick : Assault on Dark Athena. Although a full DVD ISO of this game leaked online right on the release date, DRM embedded in this title held off pirates at bay for nearly a month. Assault on Dark Athena was protected by TAGES + SolidShield – a combination that has proven time consuming to crack on many occasions. The game also had to be activated online. Only three activations were allowed by the DRM on a single copy and this caused an uproar even among die hard fans of the series.

Getting back on topic, DarkC0der’s crack is supposed to be used with v1.1 of Chronicles of Riddick : Assault on Dark Athena. The ‘crack’ comprises of several modified dll files which seem to be related to TAGES client. It is not clear if the protection is bypassed or completely removed (maybe DarkCoder found a loophole in the v1.1 update?). Although I have not tried it myself, comments on various online communities are very much positive towards the crack’s functionality. By the way, TAGES drivers which gets copied during install will still be present on the system even if you use the cracked dll files.

With the release of a crack for Chronicles of Riddick : Assault on Dark Athena, DarkCoder gives out a strong message to his critics – his success with SecuROM PA was not just luck. He has yet again managed to beat scene groups in cracking an extremely difficult modern DRM system that was seemingly invincible until today.

Note: Do to ask for or post download links to cracks, key generators or anything of that sort. This is a news blog only.

Related Articles:

Solutions for X-Men Origin : Wolverine crashes, sound & gameplay issues

Earlier we reported about the release of X-Men Origin : Wolverine (hereby referred to as XMO:W) which is an action adventure game based on the movie of the same name. The game was developed for the PC by Raven software and published by Activision. Personally i think the devs did a good job on creating a polished PC game that is loads of fun to play. However it’s not a perfect, 100% error free title (which game is, btw?). This article discusses both technical and non technical gameplay issues you may encounter with XMO:W - we have tried our best to include solutions that may help you alleviate such issues.

Note: This article is a Work-In-Progress. It will be updated as we discover more issues/solutions for XMO:W. If you run across something new, feel free to post it in the comments section.

Technical Issues

How to play XMO : Wolverine with a game controller or a gamepad (XBOX360 controller, Logitech gamepads, etc)?

If you run into any problems trying to attach a 3rd party gamepad/controller into the game (certain functions in the gamepad don’t work, freezing, etc) , you can try using the XBOX360 controller emulator to fix these. Download links and instructions can be found here (the game exe means the folder where the main executable for your game is located – in this case paste dinput8.dll, xinput1_3.dll and xbox360cemu.ini in the /Binaries dir inside your XMO:W install location). You might need to tweak xbox360cemu.ini file a bit if you are using something other than an X360 controller (for example, here is a config file optimized for Logitech gamepads). If you get an XInput Test error message, edit your xbox360cemu.ini so that it has the line UseForceFeedback=0 in place of the string UseForceFeedback=1. If you still experience issues try powering on the controller before you launch the game.

How to run X-Men Origin : Wolverine in Windowed mode?

To get most recent games to run in Windowed mode, you needed to edit some config file. But no such hassle with XMO : W – just hit Alt + Enter and the game will switch to windowed mode.

How do I change advanced graphics options in X-Men Origin : Wolverine?

The graphics options menu in XMO : W has only around two options – not very good news for those who like to tweak games to perfection. However, advanced graphics settings can be changed by editing the configuration file – you will be able to change lots of graphics options such as motion blur, bloom, dynamic lights, shadows, vsync, resolution and more.

  1. Go to your game installation dir. Default is Program Files/Activision/X-Men Origins Wolverine.
  2. Open the "Engine" folder and then the "Config" folder.
  3. Inside Config folder there should be a file named BaseEngine.ini. Open this file with a text editor such as notepad.
  4. You will see a lot of configuration options. Advanced graphics settings are located below the [SystemSettings] string (do a text find on SystemSettings).

Note: Edit the configuration file at your own risk. Setting incorrect values can cause the game to not run or become unplayable.

How to enable VSync and Anti Aliasing (AA) in XMO : W?

In the graphics settings menu, you will not find an option to do either of these. You can however enable Vsync by editing the configuration file (see above). Just set UseVsync=False to UseVsync = True in the BaseEngine.ini. I have still not managed to find a way to force AA via config file editing. However I tried forcing AA from NVIDIA control panel and it seems to work well. Should work with ATI hardware as well but I have not tested it – you might need to rename the wolverine exe to something else that uses Unreal Engine 3 such as masseffect.exe or bioshock.exe if forcing via ATI control panel.

How to manually change screen resolution of the game?

It seems that some screen resolutions including several widescreen resolutions are missing in the XMO – W options menu. Missing resolutions can be set by editing the BaseEngine.ini configuration file (see above). The values next to strings ResX and ResY represent width and height, respectively.

For example ResX=800 and ResY=600 represents a screen resolution of 800x600.

Black screen at startup, ‘X Men Origin Wolverine has encountered a problem and needs to close’ errors, no sound or stuttering audio, display glitches and other technical issues

Although some users have reported having such errors on various gaming forums, I couldn’t find a major fault with the game which triggered these. The errors seem to be random or present only on certain hardware/OS configurations (machine specific) so only general advice can be given on troubleshooting. Following are some steps you can take to reduce the possibility of crashes and other errors in X-Men Origin : Wolverine:

  1. Update your video drivers
    ATI Drivers: Download the latest ATI Catalyst drivers from this link: http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx
    NVIDIA Drivers: Download latest official NVIDIA drivers from this link: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
    For Beta ATI/NVIDIA drivers for Windows 7, XP and Vista, check out this page: http://downloads.guru3d.com/
  2. Update DirectX – This is very important if you are using Windows XP. Not having the latest monthly DirectX updated could cause all sorts of problems ranging from missing dll file errors to crashes or ‘needs to close’ error messages. Latest monthly runtime can be found here.
  3. Update sound card and motherboard drivers - Click Here to download 3DP Chip for Windows Vista/XP – This program will automatically detect your hardware (video card, sound card and motherboard) and find available driver updates.

Note that there is no guarantee that following steps above will make your problems vanish. However they are basic yet important tips that many chose to ignore. IMHO the updating drivers/directx should be done as frequently as possible (or as soon as updates are available).

GamePlay issues

What is the difference between X:Men Origins : Wolverine Uncaged Edition and regular edition?

Uncaged edition is the name given for PC/XBOX360/PS3 versions of the game – these are rated M (mature). XMO : W for the Wii/PS2 does not have the ‘Uncaged’ tag and are rated T (Teen).

How to unlock and change the costume for the character (Logan)?

First you need to unlock the challenges for each costume. This is done by collecting costume figurines that are scatted around in the game. Collect at least two statues of the same type and a challenge will be unlocked. Then go to Main Menu –> Bonus and complete the challenge. You will then be able to select the costume at the start of game. If you are wondering what’s the big hype about unlockable costumes, well they automatically regenerate.

Towards the end of the jungle, there are three statue platforms one needs to jump on to get to the other side. How do you do this?

  1. Destroy wooden support structure on two of the statues. Now go to the wheel and turn it.
  2. You should now be able to jump from the first platform onto the second. You can grab the extra health if you time the jump just when the status begins to move.
  3. Go to the 3rd statue, jump on the stone ledge and jump to the platform and do another jump.

In the Lab mission, just after you fight off the ghosts (sector 4) you need a power cell to active the elevator. But I cannot find a power cell anywhere?

  1. You should have found a power cell and used it to unlock the door to sector 4. Well you are going to use the same cell again.
  2. Head back to where you inserted the first power cell. The door should be open now.
  3. There should be a crate between the two large doors. Push that create in between the doors you just opened with the cell.
  4. Pull the power cell out from where you originally inserted it. The doors will shut but the create will jam them so you can still sneak through with the power cell.
  5. Use the power cell on elevator door.

How to perform fatalities (finishing moves) in X-Men Origin : Wolverine ?

You need to press the following action keys in the given order: Press Grab, then press heavy attack and once the fists glow press heavy attack again.

Article will be updated when/if new issues or tips are found.

Pirates crack X-Men Origins : Wolverine DRM (PC)

First of all we are 1-2 days late with this article – extremely sorry about that. While pirates from all around the world were waiting for a working crack for Chronicles of Riddick : Assault on Dark Athena, scene group RELOADED have released a cracked version of X-Men Origins : Wolverine. It’s an action adventure game based on the hit movie of the same name. I have had the time to play X-Men Origins : Wolverine for about 3 hours and I’m genuinely surprised at how good it is, specially given that it’s a movie based game (which usually suck balls).

x-men origins wolverine pc

X-Men Origins : Wolverine comes with embedded Digital Rights Management (DRM) software in a bid to fight piracy. However RELOADED are one of the few groups out there who seem to have mastered the art of cracking SecuROM. Besides, this game does not seem to be protected with SecuROM PA (online activation component) so it may have made things easier for the crackers. RELOADED’s release comprises of a full DVD ISO of the game as well as a cracked executable which has the DRM removed.

The cracked release has already made it to public and private torrent trackers and is being heavily downloaded. It’s not surprising because the user perception on this game in various gaming forums is pretty good. X-Men Origins : Wolverine has an aggregate review score of 74% on GameRankings (based only on two reviews) but I don't think this score does justice to the game. Anyway screw the critics - go ahead and play it – it’s a damn fun game with lots of blood and gore. Buy it and support the devs if you can.

Note: Do not post download/torrent links to cracks here. This is a news blog only.

Private trackers that offer free invites via IRC channel

At various points of time we have posted articles on various private torrent trackers that offer free IRC invites. IRC invites are probably one of the easiest and safest (but also one of the most underused) ways to get into a private site – you don’t need to worry about trading or the presence of known cheaters/scammers in the invite tree as the invitation comes directly from tracker staff/administration. So here is a list of 11 private trackers (plus 1 BitTorrent invite forum) and addresses of their free invite channels – hopefully this list will reduce the amount of invite begging you’ll have to do and provide easy access to at least a few of your favorite trackers.

Note that you might have to go through an interview or may be asked to provide speedtests, ratio proofs, etc during the IRC invite process. What you should do varies according to the tracker you are dealing with – we have provided tracker specific instructions where possible. Some common guidelines would be not to PM (private message) channel ops without permission and avoid spamming the channel.

Also, If you are an IRC noob, we suggest you read this article about mIRC and how to easily connect to an IRC channel using the software.

1. Tehconnection
tehconnection 
Site Name: Tehconnection (http://tehconnection.eu)
Type: Tehconnection is a Gazelle based movie tracker. More info can be found here.
Stats: 20800+ users and 7016 torrents
Invites IRC Channel: irc://irc.tehconnection.eu/TehConnection.Invites
Tracker Specific Instructions: Yes. Read this article.

2. Torrent-Damage
torrent-damage 
Site Name: Torrent-Damage (http://www.torrent-damage.net)
Type: Torrent Damage is an excellent General/0Day tracker running on a heavily customized version of Gazelle source. More info + screenshots can be found here
Stats: 40000+ users and 14700+ torrents
Invites IRC Channel: Channel #td-invite on Server irc.torrent-damage.net  or falcon.torrent-damage.net (only mibbit is supported)
Tracker Specific Instructions: Yes. Follow step by step instructions in this article

3. Underground-Gamer
underground gamer
 
Site Name: Underground Gamer (http://www.underground-gamer.com)
Type: Underground Gamer is a popular retro games torrent tracker.
Stats: ~30000 members and 7000+ torrents
Invites IRC Channel: irc://irc.underground-gamer.com/invites
Tracker Specific Instructions: No. Read the channel topic and most importantly read tracker rules before you ask for an invite. 

4. The Place
theplace.bz 
Site Name: The Place (http://www.theplace.bz)
Type: The Place is a popular lifestyle torrent tracker with videos, e-books and audio files related to day to day human life.
Stats: 6000+ users
Invites IRC Channel: irc://irc.theplace.bz/invites
Tracker Specific Instructions: Yes. Refer to this article.

5. The Vault
thevault.bz 
Site Name: The Vault (http://www.thevault.bz)
Type: TheVault.Bz has E-Books, videos, audio files, text documents and various other media associated with business related topics. This includes SEO, money making, sales/marketing, money management, etc.
Stats: 6700+ users
Invites IRC Channel: irc://irc.thevault.bz:6667/thevault-invites
Tracker Specific Instructions: Yes. Please refer to this article.

6. BitGamer
bitgamer 
Site Name: bitGAMER (http://www.bitgamer.com)
Type: bitGAMER is an excellent games torrent tracker. Our recent review of the site can be found here.
Stats: 21000+ members and 4000+ torrents
Invites IRC Channel: irc://irc.underground-gamer.com/bginvites
Tracker Specific Instructions: No. Read channel topic.

7. Pass The Popcorn
passthepopcorn 
Site Name: PassThePopcorn (http://passthepopcorn.org)
Type: PassthePopcorn is a popular movie tracker based on customized gazelle source. More information can be found here.
Stats: 13500+ users and 8800+ torrents
Invites IRC Channel: irc://irc.passthepopcorn.org/invite
Tracker Specific Instructions: No. Invites are given out based on interview results. Read channel topic first.

8. Animatoonic
animatoonic 
Site Name: AnimaTooniC (http://animatoonic.org)
Type: AnimaTooniC is an Anime, Cartoons and Comics torrent tracker based on Gazelle. More info and screenshots can be found here.
Stats: 750+ members and 1000+ torrents
Invites IRC Channel: irc://irc.p2p-network.net/animatoonic-invites
Tracker Specific Instructions: Yes. Refer to this article.

9. What.CD
what.cd 
Site Name: What.CD (http://what.cd)
Type: What.CD is one of the best (if not the best) music trackers.
Stats: close to 0.5 million torrents
Invites IRC Channel: irc://irc.what.cd:6667/what.cd-invites
Tracker Specific Instructions: Yes and if you try to get an invite without reading these, there is a high likelihood of failure.

10. BrokenStones
brokenstones 
Site Name: BrokenStones (http://brokenstones.me/)
Type: Brokenstones is a specialized Mac appz tracker.
Stats: 5000+ users
Invites Site: http://bswillyouinvite.me/
Tracker Specific Instructions: Yes. Refer to this article.

11. TorrentTech
torrenttech 
Site Name: TorrentTech (http://www.torrentech.org/)
Type: TorrentTech is a huge electronic music tracker.
Stats: 33500+ members and 46500+ torrents
IRC Channel: http://irc.torrentech.org/ (requires java)
Tracker Specific Instructions: No. But reading the TT rules is strongly recommended. It may take a long time to actually get invited.

12. The Pirate Society
the pirate society
Site Name: The Pirate Society (http://www.thepiratesociety.org)
Invites Channel: irc://irc.p2p-network.net/thepiratesociety-invites
Stats: ~5300+ members
Description: TPS is not a private tracker. It’s BitTorrent related forum with invites giveaways, news, recruitment and more. For more details of this site refer to this article.

Good Luck, Guys!