Rough with the Smooth

Fuck sake. Had to get my car MOT-ed yesterday, which for our non-UK readers means that I had to take it to a local garage for it's annual check-up. As predicted, the piece of shite failed the test and I had to shell out 400 quid for some grease-monkey with no neck to tighten a few screws and scratch his arse. As you can probably guess, this left me in a mood that could be described (quite accurately) as the exact opposite to 'euphoric.' Moral of the story? Never buy a Ford Mondeo that smells like a chicken shed off a Farmer. Rather, contact a man called Gary and spend your money on Dreamcast games instead - definitely an activity more associated with happiness than getting your jalopy fixed.

You may remember the enigmatic Gary from sporadic posts here at the 'Yard over the last couple of years. We first encountered him through his enormous DC collection, and then again when we managed to prise a copy of DC Half-Life from his grip several months later. Now, he's only gone and dumped a fucking lorry load of even more amazing stuff through my letterbox...

Granted, all of the following games are CD-Rs, but for the average non-importer like me, this is probably the only way I would ever get a chance to sample the delights of the following gems without paying an arm and a leg for them on eBay:


4x4 Evolution
A favourite of online gaming community UK-Rockers, 4x4 Evolution is an off-road racer that eschews the arcade stupidity of 4 Wheel Thunder in favour of a more realistic SUVs-racing around-the-countryside setting. Posh twats in tweed and carrying shotguns are, however, thankfully absent. The sheer number of real-life vehicles on offer is mind-boggling, with nearly every major 4x4 manufacturer represented by their most popular gas guzzlers. So, you get Nissans, Mitsubishis and the like jostling for position, rather than made-up monster trucks and buggies. Sweet. The game itself offers a multitude of play modes (single race, time trial etc), but the main meat of the 4x4 Evolution experience is to be found in the Career mode in which you start out with a limited bank balance (a bit like mine after that fucking MOT) and must buy a vehicle, kit it out and then enter championships.

Just like in Sega GT, you can only enter certain championships with certain vehicle classes so this means you need to juggle which trucks you buy and upgrade. The actual gameplay is also about as far removed from 4 Wheel Thunder as you could possibly get - there are no nitro boosts or time limits here, instead the majority of the races are of the point-to-point variety and set on large open plan circuits where you have to follow an arrow to the next checkpoint. Because of this open-plan nature, it isn't always essential that you stick to the beaten track, indeed the AI vehicles usually don't and this leads to some great races through wooded areas and through rivers etc.
Graphically, Evo's vehicle models are pretty sweet although the environments can feel a little sparse at times and the game engine shudders occasionally. This minor niggle aside, 4x4 Evo is a solid racer and the fact that it never got an official PAL release remains something of a mystery to me.


Project Justice: Rival Schools 2
Project Justice is a game I actually owned in it's official guise many moons ago when the DC still had a pulse. I got it from Gamestation for about a tenner and boy, do I wish I'd held on to it now - it regularly appears on eBay for upwards of £100. Alas, my copy went when I (somewhat foolishly, with hindsight) traded in my DC set-up for a PS2 and a copy of NHL 2001. For shame. Getting hold of this replacement copy through Gary then, was like welcoming back an old friend. Project Justice is a 3D beat 'em up by those masters of the 2D genre - Capcom, and rather ingeniously features a storyline like something out of an episode of Saved by the Bell.

Yep, the game features characters who are all pupils at different schools and throws them all together for one almightly playground scrap, although these fights are nothing like the ones we had at my school - there are no endless headlocks or rolling around on the football pitch here, people. No, instead the kids from Justice High are all masters of kung-fu and have the ability to throw balls of fire with their eyes - a skill that would undoubtedly have resulted in multiple detentions when I were a lad. The fights are similar to those in Marvel Versus Capcom 2 in that they allow multiple characters to be called upon to lend a hand should you find your ass being handed to you, and so you choose a team of 3 fighters to wade into battle with and can use them to gang up on an adversary depending on whether or not you have the required power in your little whup-ass meter.

Nicely, the characters all represent various (Jap & US) student-themed stereotypes such as sporty jocks and science geeks etc (if it were based on UK themes, they'd all be drunk chavs and pregnant 14-year-old slags, no doubt), whilst the battle stages are all similarly school related in some way e.g. classrooms, gyms, playgrounds etc. Project Justice is very easy to pick up and play, so if your beat 'em skillz consist simply of mashing all the buttons with sausage fingers (like mine) you can get just as much enjoyment out of it as an expert. Aesthetically, it's not as good as Dead or Alive 2 (what is?!), but the variety and creativity of the stages and characters, coupled with the outlandishness of the special moves on offer more than make up for it.


Tokyo Extreme Racer 2
The original Tokyo Extreme Racer is a bit of a mixed bag really. Whilst the graphics are fairly decent, the gameplay was as deep as a puddle on Mercury: Race around one dull highway challenging boy racers to a duel. Repeat to fade. Enter Tokyo Extreme Racer 2, a game that offers more of the same, only with vastly improved graphics, more cars, and a slightly bigger stretch of highway. Like Project Justice, Extreme Racer 2 is a game that occasionally pops up in it's PAL guise on eBay for a hideous amount of money and is also a game I've owned previously in it's official form. The basic premise of Tokyo Extreme Racer 2, much like it's prequel, is to drive along the highways and byways of a neon-lit Tokyo searching for 'rivals' to race against.

When you eventually find someone willing to chuck their copy of the highway code out of the window, you drive up behind them and flick the high beams at them. This initiates the actual race, where two power bars appear at the top of the screen and whoever gets the furthest ahead has the least damage done to their bar. If your opponent gets too far ahead of you - you lose, and likewise if you leave the slow old twat in your dust you get the spoils of victory. As with most racers, the career or 'Quest' mode in Extreme Racer rewards your wins with credits with which you can upgrade your vehicle with body parts or engine/handling improvements. I suppose this game is pretty unique in the way that it pits racers against each other in a way that most other racers don't, but the repetitive nature of the tracks and the virtually non-existent music slightly let it down. Where it definitely shines though, is in the graphics department. The car models are some of the best on the DC - and while the cars aren't officially licensed you can generally tell what it is you're driving simply because the models are so authentic-looking.

Sadly, there are no damage models, but for a game with this degree of arcade slant, realistic damage would probably been more of a detraction than a bonus. In a nutshell, Extreme Racer 2 is an original and awesome looking game that is let down slightly by sub-par sound and some simplistic gameplay aspects - but overall, a decent little racer.

And so concludes part two of the documenting of my recent games haul. There's much more to come, dear enlightened reader, so keep checking for updates - and in the mean time, if you want to get in touch with Gary and take advantage of his massive stock of games for sale, email him at dreamcasting@btinternet.com for a full list of titles.

Super Furry Animals

So America has it's first black President and F1 has it's first black world champion. Yawn. I've got much more important news: I've been drinking alcohol and surfing eBay again! As such, it's been a bit hectic on the delivery front here at the 'Yard this week and seeing as DC games are still as cheap as ever, I've been snapping up every decent title I can find ont tinterweb. A knock-on effect of this blurry bidding action has seen an obscene volume of games drop out of the ether and into my DC, so here begins the arduous, but not unsatisfying task of documenting these purchases...

First on the operating table? Why, it's none other than:

Fur Fighters

At first glance, you'd be forgiven for thinking Fur Fighters was another shit kiddies game - indeed it appears to be the result of a sleazy hotel-room rendezvous between Conker's Bad Fur Day and Banjo Kazooie. Even if it was, it probably wouldn't be a bad thing...but it isn't. No - it's far more than that: It's one of the best shoot 'em ups on the Dreamcast - FACT. Look beyond the stylised cartoon visuals and super-deformed furry characters and what you have in Fur Fighters is a decidedly adult themed, and often slightly risque take on the 3rd person shooter genre - and it's also a damned good adventure to boot.

 

The back story is pretty original too. Basically, there are six playable characters to control, all of which have different abilities - one can swim, another can glide, whilst another can climb etc etc etc. These characters were all once members of an elite military unit, the titular Fur Fighters, that put an evil genius behind bars. With the task completed, the Fur Fighters retired to a quaint seaside village to have kids, read the Telegraph, eat crumpets and just generally wither away. Possibly with the intention of dying alone in a piss soaked bedsit. Thing is, the old nemesis (General Viggo) has done his time, got out of the slammer and launched into a revenge-fuelled campaign against the dudes who put him behind bars. How so? By kidnapping the Fur Fighter's kids, naturally. Comparisons to Gary Glitter aside, this obviously pisses the Fur Fighters off a bit, so naturally they dive straight back into the fray to get their offspring back and shut down Viggo once and for all...



As you can probably see from the screen grabs, it's a beautiful little game - the (VGA compatible) worlds which you have to shoot your way through are really well done and full of little details and tongue in cheek humour . In the opening level you have to blast your way to the top of the World Quack Centre in the heart of New Quack City (no prizes for guessing where the level is meant to be set, and yes Fur Fighters was released prior to 9/11 - I don't think it would have seen the light of day otherwise), and in the lobby of the aforementioned skyscraper is a games store selling these little delights:

Shenmoo

Metropolis Sheep Racer

Resident Weevil or Quack, anyone?

Each of the worlds is accessed from a central hub stage set within the tranquil surroundings of the Fur Fighters' home village and all require items salvaged from previous worlds in order to get past the guard at the door. So, in order to get into the space centre you need to acquire a degree in astrophysics; whilst getting access to New Quack City requires a subway token etc. 

One major area where Fur Fighters excels though, is in the sound department. Whilst the voices of the characters are ridiculous Star Wing-style garbled bollocks, the music and sound effects are stunning for a game this old. I've played 360 games with music and sound effects several leagues below those on display in Fur Fighters, so top marks to Bizarre Creations for truly squeezing the best out of the Dreamcast's sound gubbins. Remarkable. 



So, to top it off - I love Fur Fighters. It's good looking, fun to play, full of logical puzzles and features some great script writing and humour (check out General Viggo's pet human!). If you get the chance to buy this game, do yourself a favour and snap it up. And if you can't find the DC version, there's also a cell shaded PS2 port knocking about...but it'd be unpatriotic of me to recommend buying that...

Stay tuned for more updates in the coming days - I've managed to get my mud-covered claws on some truly mind-blowing games this week. Mind-blowing, oh yes!

Super Magnetic Aaaargh!

What a week it's been eh? Russel Brand (cock) and Jonathan Ross (arsehole) drown in a pool of their own turgid smugness, Hallow e'en comes and goes without even a hint of Armageddon/unleashing of the Legions of Hell (dammit), and the Dreamcast Junkyard gets a long overdue makeover (awesome). It's been emotional, people. Not, however, as 'emotional' as I've been in recent days. And by emotional, I - of course - mean 'synapse-endangeringly furious.' Why so? Three words:

1) Super
2) Magnetic
3) Neo

You know that old adage about the Devil disguising himself as something nice in order to appear more enticing? Well, meet the Devil. In the form of this little cunt:


Yes, I bought Super Magnetic Neo off eBay for the princely sum of £3.00 or thereabouts, and was expecting a colourful yet slightly childish romp through candy-cane worlds populated by jelly babies. And to a certain degree, I was right. You see, visually, Super Magnetic Neo is like an uber acid trip, helped on it's way by a couple of lines of coke, a bottle of JD and a punnet of magic mushrooms. You play as the titular Neo - a smurf-hued robot with a magnet for a bonce. An evil baddie bloke has taken over the world, or something, and populated it with similarly evil robots (although, I don't remember the Terminator just mincing backwards and forwards, minding his own business like the evil robots do here) and it's up to you to smash them to bits and restore order.




However, to accomplish your mission, you must utilise the aforementioned cranial magnet. How? Well, it has the ability to create positive and negative polarity fields and by creating these fields in certain places you can propel yourself off platforms, grab swinging ropes and, obviously, destroy baddies. And by reading that, and looking at the amazing graphics in the poor quality screen shots here, you be forgiven for thinking that Super Magnetic Neo was a platform fan's wet dream. Which it would be, was it not for the immense difficulty level. A wolf in sheep's clothing if ever there was one. And just to nail it in even further, Super Magnetic Neo makes MDK 2 seem like a walk in the park.

Everywhere you turn there are pits and baddies that kill you instantly with the slightest touch, and in some areas you must jump from swinging rope to swinging rope to platform to platform to swinging rope...where the polarities change and you have to get the right one...or it's game over. Hair tearingly annoying? You bet your ass.

Be afraid. Be very afraid...

As such, I haven't actually got past the second world at the time of writing this guff. However, seeing as the graphics are so mind-bendingly good and the story so completely off the wall, I'm prepared to stick my neck out and recommend this to neurotics, people with pace-makers and inmates of high-security medical wards only. Have fun!

The Emperor's New Clothes

Wahey! Welcome to the third generation of The Dreamcast Junkyard! Thought it was looking a bit tired around here so I spent today sprucing the place up a bit - no point going out boozing when there's important work to do. I realise that other members of the team may have (much) more creative skill than me when it comes to graphic design - Gagaman, I'm looking at you - but seeing as this place was originally my baby, I thought it only right that I put my ham-fist to it...

Hope you like it - and we'll have no more talk about these 'new' blogger templates. Or else... ;D

Edit: Yes, I took the advice. The 'Yard has entered the 24th Century. Or something.

Dreamcast Games to Play on Halloween.

Well, I have been forced into the Halloween spirit this year as my place of work seems to require it.

The theme is "Batman" this year so I managed to grab a burlap sack from a local coffee shop and I am making into a "Scarecrow Mask" for Halloween. It's coming out quite nice.

Here are a few games to play during Halloween.

The new Beats of Rag Mod based on the Splatterhouse series.


I have not played it yet. I am assuming you go around and kill evil stuff in a messy manner (If they stay true to the source material that is...)

Here is the DCEmu article and the LavaLit article for future reference.

http://dreamcast.dcemu.co.uk/splatterhouse-trilogy-openbor-mod-168907.html

http://www.lavalit.com/index.php?topic=2056.0


The original RE series is a no brainer when it comes to horror themed games.

RE Code Veronica was the first RE game to do away with 2D backgrounds and was the first RE game to debut on a non-Sony console.

I find that the Dreamcast controller is perfect for survival horror games and thus I enjoy playing this game on the Dreamcast rather than the PS2 or Gamecube.

Find a copy of this lovely gem and proceed to have a good time running away from zombies and biological freaks for awhile.


Bats are really annoying. Hold up your lighter to get rid of them. I played through this game once before I learned that trick.


Illbleed is like starring in a B-Horror movie.

Instead of running away from enemies the gameplay drives you to walk slowly through each level looking for traps and steak dinners to gorge yourself on.

It's fun to play a game that doesn't really take itself too seriously but still manages to be very creepy and bloody at times.

Also: Evil Undead Sonic.


And of course the ultimate Halloween party game.


"Suffer like G did?"
"No! Don't Come!"

We have all heard these lines before and we all love them.

You know what I really wanted to do an in depth article about why this game is so fun but come on.

Zombies with Chainsaws people...

...You can't get more Halloween than that.
Happy Halloween Everyone!

Atari Punk Console, Housed Inside a Dreamcast.

What is an "Atari Punk Console" you ask?

Wikipedia.

(NOTE do not watch this video if you have epilepsy or are sensitive to flashing lights).



Wow.

It's kinda a shame everyone was giving this guy crap for using a Dreamcast. I mean that particular Dreamcast had died already. Why not use the parts for a project like this?

My favorite part is that he installed Furby eyes in the middle control ports.

More photos of this project.

New Sonic Adventure 2 character revealed

It's no secret that by the time Sonic Adventure 2 was released, Sega had pretty much abandoned all hope of a victory in the war against the PS2. However, this was no excuse for clearly sacking the in-house proof reader:

Rouge the Bat. Worse than all of the Chaotix characters combined

What the fuck is an echnida? And all this time I thought Knuckles was an echidna...

HD-Cast

Just a few days ago, I was a wreck. A gibbering, sweating, puss-filled mess. And for once, it wasn't down to smashing in too many cans of Special Brew down the park and shouting at pigeons. No, it was down to the state of my eyes and contrary to what some may say, It had nothing to do with the Gok Wan-style goggles the cretin at Specsavers duped me into buying (left).

You see, several months ago I invested in a quite lovely Argos own brand HD-ready LCD telly. And you know what? It's sublime. Not only can I watch infinite Freeview repeats of Top Gear and Montel Williams in pupil-eroding clarity, but I can also romp through the Galaxy as Commander Shepherd in Mass Effect in the truly magnificent Xbox 360 hi-def. There was a problem though. Playing a Dreamcast on my new telly was something of a nightmare simply because the SCART signal gave such a crappy picture.

Take this guy:


and rub this into his eyes/hands:


And you have some idea of what I had to contend with when I wanted to play on my DC.

NOT SO ANYMORE, PEEPS! After moaning about this subject in my last post, the honourable Gagaman pointed me here. Behold the majesty of Racketboy.com! A magical place that offers DC VGA cables for under twenty quid - INCLUDING postage! All the way from The New World!


I seem to remember The Gagaman preaching about his experiences with a VGA cable some time in the distant past, but it's taken till now for me to have a reason to actually buy one, and boy, am I glad I did. Plugging the DC into a VGA compatible display opens up a whole new world of visual delight - everything becomes super-sharp and the Awesome Levels(TM) go through the roof! Granted, there are a few games that don't support this (mile) high-res display mode (most disappointingly is Hydro Thunder), but you have to take the rough with the smooth, I suppose.


Click here for a game compatibility list.

So, to reiterate, the crux of the matter is this: if you own a Dreamcast and a PC - which I'm guessing you do if you're reading this, click here. Get your debit card out and buy a goddamn cable! You'll be glad you did.

One thing I really must point out though, is that the VGA cable's connection is a 'female.' If your monitor also has a female connector, you'll need to invest in a male to male VGA adapter, like I did.

Dreamcast: The Novel

You know, it's amazing the amount of bollocks you can dig up on the net if you look hard enough. And by 'hard enough,' I mean trawling Amazon for cheapo Dreamcast games. During this morning's epic journey, I happened across this little gem:

"Wow!" I thought - someone's written a hard hitting novel documenting the rise and meteoric fall of our favourite dead console! Just think - the intrigue! the espionage! the blood, sex and tears played out against a backdrop of hardcore business meetings and mass redundancies! DREAMCAST - A NOVEL!!!*

Alas, upon reading the actual synopsis...

"What really goes on behind the scenes in the mysterious world of community theatre? Dreamcast is a look at the most underpaid volunteers on the planet, those who serve the muse of live theatre in the small towns and suburbs of America."

...I came to the conclusion that it actually sounds like a load of shite.

Shame.

* Once again, I apologise for wanton over-use of apostrophies.

A Gentle Reminder: Dux and Wind and Water Puzzle Battles

For everyone who has been living without Internet access...(you know, like me). The rest of you might be sick of hearing about these games but come on!

Wind and Water.It's a fast paced puzzle game!
http://www.wind-water.net/
http://www.redspotgames.com/shop/

Dux.
It's an old school shooter!
http://www.hucast.net/
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-17-71-4-74-1uf-49-en.html

This is a very exciting time for the Dreamcast scene. Possible success for these titles may help usher in a new wave of Dreamcast Independent releases from smaller companies.

Also bear in mind that similar games with limited releases became quite the collectors items once the original run ran dry. So yeah. If you are considering spending some cash on a "current gen" game maybe you should consider investing your cash in one of these instead. It's gonna cost you about the same amount of money.

(And don't forget they still have some copies of Last Hope left at Red Spot Games. I know I am gonna grab one!)

"Dream Trooper" Storm Trooper Head Portable Dreamcast.

I am sure you have all seen this before.

Better late than never.

http://forums.benheck.com/viewtopic.php?t=26128

He made this thing out of an old Lazer Doodle! Amazing! All it's lacking is the back cover.

Recession? What you talkin' bout, Willis?

'Sup. Seeing as it's been about 9 millenia since I last ejaculated anything of note onto these hallowed pages, I thought it was about time I got back into the swing of things with a post of sorts. I have however, in my absence, been a regular visitor to the 'Yard and have been quite entertained by the exploits of the rest of the team over the past few weeks and months. Kudos where it's due.

So what's been happening then? Well, there's this 'credit crunch' thing going on at the moment. To be quite honest, if it wasn't for BBC News presenters constantly banging on in their painfully middle class accents about the ECONOMIC CRISIS gripping the ENTIRE MEGAVERSE, I'd be none the wiser to it's apparent existence. How so? Simple: I, like many other proletariat, live within my means, don't go fox hunting and don't take my obese kids to boarding school in a Range Rover. So, you see - for the normal person, everything is as it ever was: expensive. For the rich...well: WELCOME TO OUR WORLD, BITCHES! YEEHAW!!!

There is a point to my rambling on about this Bantha shit though - the price of Netto beans may have gone up by a solar system-shattering 1.5% in the last month (which has hit me hard, regardless of the contents of the last paragraph); but the meagre price of a Dreamcast game has remained constant, even in the light of Wall Street crumbling to the ground and the FTSE melting down into the sub-components of a Pot Noodle.

Want evidence, my Lord? Then wrap your festering eye sockets around this little lot:

Virtua Atlete 2K - eBay price: A QUID!

Never been much of a fan of athletics games. They're always the same - basically you have to either tap buttons so fast that your fingers seize like a Montego engine in winter; or you have to rotate the analogue stick until it buries itself into your palm and draws blood (something that actually happened to a friend of mine). Virtua Athlete 2K is no different. It's basically an unofficial take on the Olympics and involves you participating in a number of events such as running, running and jumping, throwing stuff and, well not much else.

The number of events is pretty small and there's no swimming, fencing or shooting involved. Granted, those aren't really athletics per se but with such a crappy roster of events (7, with a few unlockable ones) you'd have thought Sega would involve them just for the sake of longevity. Graphically, Athlete is fairly good looking. It's not Anna Faris good looking, but it's decent enough. For a quid, I'm not going to berate Virtua Athlete 2K too much but if I'd paid 40 notes for this back in the day I probably would've taken it back to the shop and projectile vomited bile into the face of the twat who allowed me to purchase it.

Resident Evil 2 - eBay price: £2.40

I recently ventured into a branch of Gamestation and was astounded to find that they had a handful of Dreamcast games hidden in one of those glass cabinets that they unusually preserve for the display of broken and/or stolen iPods. One of those games was Resident Evil 2, and they were asking £24.99 for it. TWENTY FIVE QUID! As much as I love the DC, there's not a chance in hell that I would even entertain the notion of paying that much for ANY DC title. Not even a white label disc that contained fully working versions of Picassio, Take the Bullet and Scud Race. Actually, I probably would pay 25 nicker for that, but Resi 2? Pfft.

But why was it so expensive? Is the DC version that much of an improvement over the original PSX game that it warrants such an incredible price point? The answer is a resounding no. It's basically the same game, albeit with higher resolution backgrounds and a new random item mode, plus a few extra bonus modes that were only available in the original after you'd completed the game. Everyone and their mum has played Resi 2 before so there's not much point in me going into the story in any great depth, but it's basically a survival horror set in Raccoon City, you can play as either Leon or Claire and you've got to shoot zombies...yada yada yada. On the plus side, the VM helpfully lets you know how much health you've got left...but this feature is made redundant if you're using one of those cheapo-nasty third party VMs with no screen. To put it bluntly, if you've ever sampled any version of Resi 2 before (excluding the pathetic Game.com version), you've played the DC version. But if you ain't - it's a classic; and at £2.40 it was a steal, too.

Razor Freestyle Scooter - eBay price: yep, another quid!

I seem to recall that at the very end of my last post I promised a review of Razor Freestyle Scooter. It's taken until now to do it because I simply couldn't be bothered. But here it is! Another entrant into the "I only paid a pound for it" Hall of Fame (Shame?), Razor is a sort of Tony Hawk style game, only with the 'coolness' associated with sk8r bois/MTV rejects ripped out and replaced with those hideous little folding scooter things that feral youths just love to ride along pavements up and down the country. They're also extremely useful as getaway vehicles after mugging old women for their pension money...erm...apparently. Cough. But back to Razor Freestyle Scooter.


Like I said, it's a Tony Hawk clone with frankly superb graphics...but only 3 - yes THREE! - stages. Oh, and a rather strange back story that involves a robotic paedophile who steals kids and takes them to his magic castle for a thorough seeing to (I would imagine). Dodgy storylines aside, Razor is a fairly enjoyable game for the time it lasts - all there is to it is riding your scooter around the various (3) stages doing tricks and collecting scooter wheels. It's clearly another one of those infamous kiddie games and it's predictably easy peasy lemon (muthafuckin') squeezy, but if you have a four-year-old who loves scooters AND has a penchant for rare Dreamcast games...by all means make Razor Freestyle Scooter your next purchase.

Moving away from my most recent purchases, I was toying with the idea of finally taking the plunge and buying a Dreamcast VGA cable. Y'see, I bought a fucking amazing HDTV a few months back and whilst it displays my Xbox 360 games in glorious 1080i HD-O-Vision(TM), when I plug my faithful ol' DC into it via SCART, it looks like someone has smeared a tub of beef dripping across the screen. I then, in my infinate wisdom, went and got an S-VHS cable off Amazon...only to find that it doesn't FUCKING work. So basically what I'm saying is: Can anyone out there in the ether tell me where to get a reasonably priced VGA box/cable from? Cheers, me dears.

Finally, I'd just like to congratulate Sega on their awesome homage to all things Dreamcast: Sega Superstars Tennis. Got it on 360 yesterday for a tenner...and it's simply brilliant.

That is all.

Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles Pre-orders are open!

I just received an e-mail from the guys at Yuan Works that Pre-ordering is now open for their indie Dreamcast release Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles. It'll be released at the end of October, and costs about £21/$40. There's still a chance to buy a custom sprite if you haven't alreday, but get a move on if you want one of those! You can pre-order it from the RedSpotGames shop, the publishers of this game as well as last year's shump Last Hope. If you enjoy puzzle games like Panel De Pon (otherwise known as Tetris Attack) this is a must play, and the love and care that's gone into it's production shines through every pixel. Look out for a Rummage video review in November!