Father K's Dreamcast Round Up!

Well, dear readers!

What a great time it is for the Dreamcast Junkyard! Our esteemed leader, Tomleecee is back and posting again. The Gagaman(n) is coming out with some amazing posts including Fideo Friday, Dreamcast DIY furniture guides, and another bout of sublime Bleem analysis. Caleb (The American Dreamcaster) has made his first stunning post regarding Scumm Emulation, so I think its about time I chipped in my 'two penneth's worth' and updated you all on what's been happening in my Dreamcast recently.




First off, Caution Seaman. If you've never experienced this title, then its high time you did... Indeed, the first time I ever posted on this hallowed blog, it was to postulate on the virtues of this particular title. However, I only got approximately half way through the 'game' before I gave up. This summer, I decided to play the game through it's conclusion. Believe me, that's quite a commitment. It means being attentive on a daily basis, being careful about your care package and the order in which you do things.




The care and attention has reeped rewards however. My Seaman is now in the final stages of its evolution and become the frogman merely hinted at on the cover of the box. Like all good naturalists, I have taken photos of these rare and sought after creatures. So enjoy! There are loads of pictures on the Internet of Seaman in his fish stage of evolution, but until I'd raised the little tyke myself, I had never seen his amphibious persona... If you don't know about this game, have a look here... and here...



OK next up, Chef's Luv Shack. This game is somehing of a 'virtual game show', with South Park's Chef as your genial host. I love South Park, but having been extremely underwhelmed by South Park Rally, I wasn't expecting much. The game pits opponents against each other in a 'first to the buzzer' quiz, with crazy categories, and general knowledge questions. In between rounds, opponents have to play simple arcade mini games against each other. This is a perfect party game, something which non-gamers can pick up and play, and a title which actually delivered far more than I had hoped for. I played it at about four in the morning with a mate, after a few ales, and I would suggest the game is best appreciated in this manner. For a better review look here...







Third is Fighting Vipers 2. Originally a Saturn game, this fighter was given a second outing on the Dreamcast. Because I'd enjoyed it so much on the Saturn, I was very keen to accquire its Dreamcast incarnation. I ordered it for (I think) £6, from the wonderful Chips. However, like Daytona USA 2001, when I eventually got it, it didn't live up to my expectations.



First of all, it felt 'light'... a strange description I know, but it's the only way I can describe it. Punches and kicks didn't seem to connect in the way that other Dreamcast fighters like Soul Calibur, Dead or Alive or even Virtua Fighter 3tb did. One of the great and innovative features of this game is it's characters. Unlike the usual stereotypical fighters we see in the affore mentioned games, Fighting Vipers has a skater, buxom rollerblader, BMX rider, guitar axe-man and so on... And they'll use those attributes on you, whilst performing show boating tricks at the same time. Its also rather nice when you smash your opponent through the 'ring' thanks to a particular lethal combo. I re-evaluated my opinion, when playing it against my games nemesis Tay. Its much more fun in 'versus mode' than playing it on your own... For a much better review, look here...

Number 4. Ikaruga. No, I've not re-mortgaged my house to buy an original copy, but I have had a CDR of the game for years, which has never been played. My recent purchase of Last Hope has turned me into a bit of a 'shmup' fan, and finally popping into my Dreamcast left me very pleasantly surprised. This game is fan-fucking-tastic! The first thing you notice is the visual gourgeousness of the 3D backgrounds.

Depsite it's retro gameplay, the visuals look very current gen. A top down shooter, (based on the switching between black and white enemies and your response to them...) Ikaruga rocks... The trick is, using the L and R trigger to switch your absorbtion potential... If your enemy is white, then you become 'white' and you can absorb the white enemies attack. Geddit? I only found this out after several plays, where I died repeatedly... Literally translated as 'speckled dove', Ikaruga was released in 2002, and was heralded as the LAST Dreamcast game, ensuring it sold out almost instantly. It eventually got a release on the Gamecube, but still remains a much sort after title for the Dreamcast. Warning!

This game is fucking ROCK hard, but worth the perseverance... For a much better review, look here...

High five? Tech Romancer... This is a 'mech' game from Capcom. If you don't know what a mech game is, its a giant robot game. Think Transformers or Ed 209... Beautiful anime graphics, Japanese dialogue with English sub-titles and lots of weapon based combat. Each character comes with its own story mode. You can also play in 'vs. mode' against a pal... I've only dipped my toe in the water of this title, but I like what I see so far... To find out more look here...

So there you have it! That's my recent Dreamcast activity in a nutshell. I've recently scored Ill Bleed, and am about to receive Zombie Revenge and Godzilla Generations (plus the Space Channel 5 soundtrack CD) , so I should have something else to talk about soon... Incidentally, my Wii really hasn't seen much action... I did think it was gonna rock my world, and so far it hasn't. The Dreamcast still holds my attention and the lion's share of my console love. However, for my musings so far on Nintendo's run away success, please check out Father Krishna's Wii-kly Sermons. If I may also shamelessly plug another couple of sites, for all Saturn related nonsense, please check out mine and Caleb's, Saturn Junkyard. For anything Master System (the Dreamcast's great grand father) related, please check out a collaboration between me and Gnome... The Master System Junkyard!

This is FK, for News At Ten, signing out! Good Night dear children, wherever you are...

New Scummvm out! And the adventure gamers rejoice.

Let me first say that it is an honor and a privilege to be posting on the Dreamcast Junkyard. I had wanted my first post to be the video of my collection but that was not meant to be. I will be posting that as soon as it’s edited…

However, there IS new Dreamcast news out that I felt was “blog-able” for the Junkyard, a bit on the technical / old school PC gamer style though…

It’s a great day for fans of “point and click” adventure games and the Dreamcast:

The new the version of ScummVm is out!

http://www.scummvm.org/downloads.php

(The Dreamcast version is towards the bottom of the list next to the Dreamcast Swirl)

This nifty little program allows the user to play a number of older PC titles on bunch of different systems. The only drawback is that you need the original game files for it to work. (For the lazy blogger who just wants something to download for their Dreamcast there is a newly released full version ScummVM game download link at the bottom of this – feel free to skip the rest)
With the new program out you can simply boot up your Dreamcast with a copy of ScummVM and then CD swap for the original game. Or you can be fancy and put the game files on the same CD. Either way you still NEED the original game files to play the game. However, most of these games are cheap and easy to get. Some of them even appear on abandonware game sites frequently (abandonware games no longer have copyright protection and thus free and legal to download).

Here is the new updated list of old school games you can play on your Dreamcast:

Maniac Mansion
Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Loom
The Secret of Monkey Island
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Day of the Tentacle
Sam & Max Hit the Road
Full Throttle

AGI Games by Sierra:
The Black Cauldron
Gold Rush!
King's Quest I
King's Quest II
King's Quest III
King's Quest IV
Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the
Lounge Lizards
Mixed-Up Mother Goose
Manhunter 1: New York
Manhunter 2: San Francisco
Police Quest I: In Pursuit of the Death
Angel
Space Quest I: The Sarien Encounter
Space Quest II: Vohaul's Revenge
Fanmade Games (Any made with AGI)

AGOS Games by Adventuresoft / Horrorsoft:
Elvira - Mistress of the Dark
Elvira II - The Jaws of Cerberus
Simon the Sorcerer 1
Simon the Sorcerer 2
Simon the Sorcerer's Puzzle Pack
- Demon In My Pocket
Simon the Sorcerer's Puzzle Pack
- Jumble
Simon the Sorcerer's Puzzle Pack
- NoPatience
Simon the Sorcerer's Puzzle Pack
- Swampy Adventures
The Feeble Files

GOB Games by Cocktel Vision:
Bargon Attack
Gobliiins
Gobliins 2
Goblins 3
Ween: The Prophecy

Other Games:
Beneath a Steel Sky
Broken Sword 1: The Shadow of the Templars
Broken Sword 2: The Smoking Mirror
Flight of the Amazon Queen
Future Wars
Inherit the Earth: Quest for the Orb
Nippon Safes Inc.
The Legend of Kyrandia
Touche: The Adventures of the Fifth
Musketeer
To burn a bootable disk you simply need to use the Bootdreams program to create a .cdi from a folder containing the plain files of ScummVM and then use Bootdreams again to burn that .cdi into a disk the Dreamcast can boot up. You can either add the game files into the ScummVM folder before you burn it or if you have the original game CD you can simply "swap" CDs once ScummVM boots up.

For those of you that had no idea what the hell the previous paragraph said (or for those of you that do not have any of the game files listed above) you can use the following link to get started with the newly released “Flight of the Amazon Queen” game. It already has ScummVM, just burn it and pop it into your Dreamcast!

http://www.dcevolution.net/game_fotaq.php

Download the game and burn it using Bootdreams or the demo version of Padus Diskjuggler. DC Evolution has guides for burning with Diskjuggler (same spot you downloaded the game from).

Remember to use a decent quality CD-R and burn at very low speeds.

The DC Evolution site seems to be having a bit of trouble with their main page at the moment but go visit them when everything is in order to get more free games for the Dreamcast. Including the beat ‘em up Crisis Evil game.

http://www.DCEvolution.net

All hail the undead console. All hail the Dreamcast!

9 New Bleemcast Videos!

It's been a while, but here's a new collection of videos showing off Playstation games running in the infamous Bleemcast beta emulator. I've been picking up a lot of dirt cheap Playstation games recently from boot sales, particularly this weekend when I got a bundle of 8 discs (all with no manuals or covers) for 50p, for example, which mainly consisted of rally games, and half of them worked in the emulator. In fact, there are only a select few games that I've bought that haven't worked.

I've been buying all these not because I care for a lot of the games (I find a big percentage of the PSX's game library to be rather boring, excluding all those rare games I'll never find, like Vib Ribbon) but simply to see what one's work via the Dreamcast, and I've come to the conclusion that the emulator especially likes games by Namco, what with Klonoa, Time Crisis, Tekken 1 and 3, Ridge Racer 1, High-Spec and Type 4 and Soul Blade being on the "playable" list.

So to make up for not making one of these Bleem posts for a while, here's a heap of NINE new videos! Of course, if you own these games, don't bother watching them...just try them for yourself!

Crash Bandicoot

Now here's something you may of never expected to see: Sony's unofficial mascot (until he went multi-format some time after the Dreamcast was out of stores) on a Sega console! Crash games ain't all that original, but the first trilogy of platformers by Naughty Dog weren't too bad, really. The game works pretty darn well, too. The graphics, bar for some glitches at the title screen and company logos and some semi-transparency on the pits, are close to perfect. The sound effects are missing (which is a shame), but at least the music is intact so the game isn't completely mute. Definably worth a shot considering I paid 50p for it! I hope to hunt down Crash 2 and 3 eventually to test on it too (I already know Crash Team Racing doesn't work, however).

Compatability Rating: 4 and a half out of 5

Crisisbeat

A 2000 budget release, Crisisbeat is a scrolling beat em up with four playable characters, one of which has a slight resemblance with Ryo from Shenmue. The game works really well except for the fact that the cut scenes consist of some terribly irritating voice skipping. Also, after playing the game on the Playstation I noticed that most of the time the game runs a whole lot faster on the emulator, and when your characters runs to the next area Benny Hill music might just pop into your brain. Still, it's a mildly entertaining game that only cost me a quid.

Compatability Rating: 4 and a half out of 5

Tekken 1

Seeing as Bleem! released a disc for Tekken 3, I figured: why not try the previous installments? First off, the one that started it all. This game really hasn't aged well, at least not as well as Virtua Fighter has (as blocky and simple as it was, VF1 has a certain retro charm to it. Tekken 1 is just ugly). Still, Bleemcast seems to like it: the game's graphics are 99% perfect: all that's wrong is that the sky is always black in the very top half. There's no music either, but all the grunts and smashy effects are there. The game's not really worth it, but it's nice to see the emulator run it well..

Compatability Rating: 4 and a half out of 5

Tekken 2

..which is more than can be said for it's sequel, unfortunately. Everything seems fine enough until you get into an actual fight..and then it hits you with one of the oddest glitches I've seen in this emulator yet: the characters polygons are stretching out all over the place turning good old Heihachi into a mess of scrambling spikes. This is a real shame as everything seems to be in place: the backgrounds, sound effects, even music (although it's choppy). Oh well, some arty farty type might like it's abstractness.

Compatability Rating: 2 out of 5

Bomberman

Good thing you can always rely on Bomberman to cheer you up, especially when even a Playstation game of his works so well on this emulator. This exactly-what-it-says-on-the-tin title is such because this is a remake of the original NES game, and much like Crazy Climber 2000, it lets you choose from 'modern' graphics and the original 8-bit visuals (except unlike Bomberman, Crazy Climber is shit). here's the great part: the graphics are nigh-on perfect, the sound effects are all there, and the music is there too, although it is choppy. Still, 2D games rarely work in Bleemcast, so this is darn impressive. I picked this and Tekken 1 up for £1.50 the pair.

Compatibility Rating: 5 out of 5

Soul Blade

Soul Calibur: we all know it's the greatest thing to happen to the human race since toasters were invented, but games like this can't just happen out of the blue: they have to start somewhere. Hense there was Soul Blade, the prequel to our much loved fighter on the Playstation about 3 years prior, and it still holds up well enough. As far as this emulator goes, however, it's so close but so far. Thankfully the music and sound effects are all fine, at least until you get to those dreaded cut-scene voices (which loop in a similar fashion to that in Crisisbeat, but not as severe), but while the game is perfectly playable, the textures are just not having it: most of them refuse to load until a match is over, in which as soon as the replay begins they all decide to finally show themselves...too late. If you really don't mind playing on a blank white stage with blank white characters most of the time, you have the option, but really your betting off staying with Calibur.

Compatibility Rating: 3 out of 5

Colin McRae Rally

At the time this was being prasied as the best rally game ever. I can't see what the fuss was all about here: Sega Rally was way better, but each to their own. The emulator runs this game very well, with just some texture issues here and there that mainly stand out. Instead of not loading textures, though, this game oddly loads the wrong textures. For example: some of the gravel and trees get replaced with lumps of random numbers and letters, and the Start and Finish signs are now a map of a stage. How odd. Otherwise, perfectly fine to play.

Compatibility Rating: 4 and a half out of 5

Colin McRae Rally 2.0

Now this is more like it. I can see why people loved this one, it's a huge improvement on the first installment. McRae Rally 2 was actually penned for a Dreamcast release, but was canceled, so here's the next best thing. The games music and sound effects are all there, but much like Soul Blade, the emulator has trouble loading the textures at the start of a race, it takes about 30 or so for it to adjust, and even then textures will pop on and off here and there. It;s perfectly playable, though. Just pretend it's been snowing a lot.

Compatibility Rating: 3 and a half out of 5

Intelligent Qube

Finally we have a game I don't own (it's too rare) but burnt, a puzzle title called Intelligent Qube that has you clearing blocks that are slowly rolling down the screen. It's pretty clever and well worth a look, especially when the emulator can run it so well. he graphics are very simple so they are all 100% there, and so are the sounds. Once again, the only issue is with the voice in the tutorial section, although it doesn't loop forever luckily. As the game so brilliantly says it, this game is about as "PERRRRFECT!" as emulation is gonna get on the Bleemcast beta!

Compatibility Rating: 5 out of 5

Red Ringer? Bum Stinger? Poo Finger?

Add your own title to this "Lavendar" tribute to one of my FAVOURITE Dreamcast games... Whilst this was obviously a piss take of the game, highlighting the gay relationship between Elliot and Dogs...

I loved it! Despite the homo erotic overtones, the only thing this clip did was make me want to play this horror-survival classic!

YES! I want to see Dogs in a Santa Claus suit! Yes! I want to complete this game! I'll use my *Hallowed* Blue Stinger strategy guide (Bought off eBay for a snippance).

At the end of the day, I'm open minded... If Elliot and Dogs are 'Friends of Dorothy' so be it...

If their 'man love' can help me defeat their mutual six armed mutated foes then so be it!

BRING IT ON!

Cripes! Heck! Blimey!

Fideo Friday! #4

I only went and completely missed last Friday's weekly video didn't I! Oh well, here's this weeks one, of a pair of puppet Godzillas playing Mortal Kombat Gold or something. I dunno, I'm starting to run out of content that isn't game play footage now, but this is bloody funny, with great voices. Wouldn't it of been great if there was a limited edition Godzilla Dreamcast that says "Dreeeeamcast" like that puppet does in this video? No? Oh, it's just me then.



I've been pretty busy recently mucking around with TV's and junk, and haven't gotten around to writing the articles I have planned, including one of my trip to Canterbury earlier this week where I picked up six games from their brand new Gamestation. I'll come back to you on the other stuff I've been doing..so er...wait.

Logo Painting and Loft Finding

When I got me that lovely blue cabinet to hold all my Dreamcast games, one thing sprung to mind: what if I could give it a little more Dreamcast identity? being stuffed full of games and featuring zombies and crazy taxis on top simply wasn't enough, I wanted the logo slapped along the side of it. Having not long broken up from Uni, I now have time to do all sorts of time wasting things, like make my own multi game discs (I'll come back to you lot on this), make loads of custom covers for Bleem games, and go back to some games I still haven't completed. Last week I decided to have a go at painting the Dreamcast logo on the side of my blue cabinet. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of he steps I took, so you'll just be seeing the final thing.

Now I may be a slightly arty type, but I'm no expert at painting things, so I only had a rough idea how to do this. printed off the logo nice and big, then cut it out into a stencil. Then I taped this onto the side, and with acrylic paint tried to paint into the stencil. The stencil, for a start, was on tracing paper, so it flopped all over the place so the final result was a complete mess, so I had to clean that off.

Clearly that idea didn't work, so this time I went about getting me some spray paint to do it, and stronger paper while I was at it. I waited for a sunny day, dragged the cabinet into the garden and spayed a bunch of layers into the stencil. After about 4 or 5 layers it looked white enough. The stencil was still only paper, though (I really should have used cardboard or something) so quite a bit of spray creeped through and I ended up with what looked like a ghost of the logo, all glowy. This would of been fine if it wasn't for the blobs of blue left behind by the blue tack I used to keep parts of the stencil down! I let it dry, though, and decided to tinker with it the next day.

To finish the job off, and make the logo look almost as if it came off of the side of the box art, I got some white spirit, dripped some cotton buds into it and rubbed around the letters and swirly thing until it looked a lot nicer. here is the final result of about two days work. It's not perfect but it looks fine enough for me, especially from a distance. It's the first thing you see as you walk in the room, too.

In other not very exciting news, I found some bits and bobs in the loft I forgot all about. Usually all the console boxes are kept on one side of the loft, but while sorting out boxes for video players we're going to sell, a black sack full of Dreamcast boxes was found that I didn't realize was even up here! These included one for a controller, a arcade stick, a VMU and and a keyboard...with the keyboard still in it. These were boxes for the first pieces of Dreamcast kit I brought along with my system way back in 1999. The keyboard was my original one and had been stuffed up here for some reason and is in nasty shape from so much use back before I had a PC and used the consoles internet connection to write on my old website Segagaga, which was essentially a blog (before the term 'blog' existed) about my Dreamcast purchases only without any kind of layout (literally, it was just text). I would go onto the Chu Chu Rocket chat rooms, set the web address and a shortcut key, and just plaster the link everywhere. People naturally ignored it. Memories~

I'm taking photos of boxes! I must be bored!

But Dreamcast boxes weren't all I found. Also stuffed up there long forgotten about were some HUGE Sonic promo cut outs from the good old days when Sonic was hugely popular with real people, not furrie FREAKS who want to have sex with him. These probably date date back around 1992/93. I plonked a Dreamcast and Sonic figure next to them to show you the sheer scale of them. They are now sitting in my room, where I can wake up to them staring at me everyday. Just like my childhood. No, I never wanna grow up.

36 inches of AWESOME.

The good old days. Sega ruled the world in 1993.

The Sonic 2 board still has it's flap at the back, so you could sneak this into a shop, kick that Playstation 3 sign out of the way and make the public believe shops have started to stock good games again. The other board had it's feet ripped off, so I crudely taped them back on. I remember when a Sega bus visited my scouts club, and gave us Sonic toddles for our ties. That was the scale of how massive Sega were back then, they made Sonic TODDLES.
More coming soon from the Gagaman: New Bleem footage, the wonders of VGA and custom multi-game disc making.

Fideo Fri..oh shit..SATURDAY! #4

Oops, I completely forgot about this week's video yesterday, so here's one a day later! Just pretend it's Friday, you've just got back from work, and Have I Got News for You will be on in a few hours.

This week's video is a pretty in-depth, somewhat amazing documentary on Soul Calibur called "The Legend Will never Die!" starring a group of stoner's who mumble about the Zen quality of the game while their girlfriends moan about not getting boned often enough. This one's a lengthy piece, a whole ten minutes, but it's well worth your time, trust me (or don't, you might find it to be a complete waste of time, but then that'll because you just WASN'T THERE.)

Beta Overload

Long time readers and visitors to the 'Yard may, quite possibly, remember a post I knocked up some time ago that introduced a site called X-Cult. If not, go here now.

Had a look? Good.

Now you're up to speed, I'll crack on. Whilst perusing the net, which is something I've gotten quite good at in recent decades, I found another interesting little site that sort of does the same as X-Cult - reveals details of cancelled games for a multitude of formats...including our beloved Dreamcast. Before you groan, listen up: Unseen64 features previously...er...unseen pictures and screens of a few forgotten gems that would have been a credit to the DC had they been released, and even grabs of a few games I've never actually heard of...

Take the Bullet


Quark


Shrapnel: Urban Warfare 2025


Spiral Nightmare Type X


Jump Runner


Akolyte

Boarder Zone

Innocent Tears
Ecco 2: Sentinels of the Universe

Dark Angel


Gorka Morka

Agartha

Of course, this little collection is just the tip of the iceberg - there's even more beta action at the actual site, and that includes some rather interesting shots of an early Metropolis Street Racer and a massive Shenmue archive. Granted, explanations of the titles shown are either non existent or written in Italian (which is fine if you can read Italian...which I can't) so you have to make assumptions about how some of the games may have played by sight alone. Still, very cool, if that's yer bag.

Convalescence

Alreet, hows everyone doing? Seems like aeons ago that I was last here, but then with the mesmerizing skillz of The Gagaman, Father Krishna and Caleb all now combining, it's not the end of the world. Just the beginning, oh yes.*Evil cackle*

I'm recovering from a heavy night on the piss, that incidentally included a good kicking from several 20 stone Neanderthals (see left). However, this isn't a bad thing. Looking on the bright side of being bequeathed lips that look like a pair of inner tubes and a re-modeled (albeit slightly bent) nose, last night's UFC has given me a reason to lounge around today like a man of leisure simply in order to recouperate and reflect.

And by recouperate and reflect, I mean play Dreamcast games. But you knew that already.

But before I dive into my usual blurb about what I've been up to on the virtual field, let me first congratulate The Gagaman for his stirling efforts to keep the Dream alive. Virtua Tennis with a fishing rod? Marvellous, bloody marvellous. In a similar vein, I thought it might be possible to really shit in the Wii's cornflakes and play Tee Off with the rod too, but alas that idea was binned when I remembered that you don't actually use the analogue stick to control your player's swing. That and the fact that Tee Off doesn't recognise the rod as a controller anyway. Bah.

To be fair, I am slightly guilty of neglecting my Dreamcast promoting duties of late but hopefully this will change shortly, and the resurgence is clearly noteable in the recent purchases made by my good self that have totalled nearly TWENTY QUID in recent days. Yes, £20 on DC related software. Shocking innit?

Several months of no buying action at all, and now this:

Head Hunter
The Rt. Hon. Father Krishna MBE waxed lyrical about Jack Wade's near future adventure several posts ago, I know, but let me emphasize just how good this third person adventure really is. Want stealthy sections? want fucking amazing shootouts? want a hair raising orchestral - almost Hollywood quality - soundtrack? want mind-melting, Dreamcast-pushing graphics? want GTA-style motorbike sections that make you tear your already thinning hair out? Then go out RIGHT NOW and get hold of a copy of Head Hunter. Unlike anything else on the console, Head Hunter is, for me at least, one of the highlights of the Dreamcast's catalogue and stands out due to it's outstanding production qualities

The whole package is just so well done - from the newscast style sections that move the story along, to the cutscenes and voice acting, to the loading screens that show mock-up adverts for in game fictional products from the sinister BioTech Corp., everything about Headhunter is silky. Unfortunaltey, Head Hunter is a PAL-only release (as I'm sure we've mentioned several thousand times in the past), so if you're not from Europe you're gonna probably have a hard time getting a copy, but you'd be advised to at least try to do so. Brill. And, again, sorry for banging on about a game Father Krishna spouted about earlier...it's just, y'know, FUCKING AWESOME.

Championship Surfer
Oh God. What the fucking hell is this shit?! I got it free with Headhunter granted, but Christ almighty - this dirge should never have been allowed to see the light of day. Well, maybe a really crap cloudy day, with thunder and brimstone and shit falling from the heavens. As you can probably tell, I don't really rate Championship Surfer. I'm all for trying a new style of game; we'd never have gotten NiGHTS if nobody ever tried new stuff...but Championship Surfer ain't NiGHTS. It's a lorry-load of decaying pig cadavers covered in puss from the ulcers of a million bed-ridden pensioners' legs. Basically, you pick your gnarly surf dude (cretin)...and do some surfing. On waves that look like they're made of Lego. Yep, Champo is yet another Dreamcast game that features water effects that Wave Race 64 laughs in the face of. How dare Krome Studios try to palm these waves off on us! Look at them!

Sorry about that. Got a bit carried away there. Of course, good graphics don't make a game (as PS3 owners will vouch), but when the graphics consist almost completely of water...surely it's a good idea to make them look something like water? Not fucking blue tack. Shit me, the water in fucking Dead or Alive 2 looks better than the wet stuff in Championship Surfer...and that's a fucking fighting game!!!

Oh, and the rest of it's just as pathetic as the waves. Just in case you were wondering.

Sonic Adventure 2
Yay! We all love Sonic, and y'know, he loves us too. Sonic Adventure 2 is the sequel to...er...Sonic Adventure and features more of the same really. You get to bomb around as Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and a few other characters collecting rings and generally kicking Robotinik's arse. Cool. One thing bothers me though. Why, if he's so good with a screw driver, doesn't Robotnik create a robot that doesn't fall to bits when a hedgehog jumps on it? Trial and fucking error my man. He's had about NINE freaking Sonic games before SA2 to figure that out, do a bit of Q&A and iron out the technical difficulties. Sheesh.

That niggle aside, SA2 is a wicked little game - a true showcase of the DC's technical capabilities. The visuals are excellent and the music, much as it pains me to say, is also rather good. A Dreamcast-ignorant mate of mine was round while I was playing Headhunter and then Sonic Adventure 2 and upon seeing the graphics being displayed couldn't believe that the DC was released 8 years ago. So that must surely go some way to explain how good these games look, even today.

But then I put Championship Surfer on and the magic was lost. DAMN THAT SHIT TO HELL!!!
I almost converted one of the ignorant and opened his mind, only to be foiled by the dystopian powers of Championship Surfer. Speaking of dystopian powers, my face hurts again so I'm off to swill down half a box of paracetamol with an 8 pack of Guinness.

And a bottle of Jack Daniels.

Oh, and don't forget to get those Fission rods out of the cupboard for a quick game of Virtua Tennis, y'hear?!

Fideo Friday! #3

This week's video I literally just found a few minutes ago and is a daft parody of the bloody brilliant RPG Skies of Arcadia, complete with a guy with a chunk off of a Dreamcast controller for an eye patch and a bloke wearing a ginger ponytail wig and what looks like a yellow bin bag fighting...pillows? If you've never played the game (what, not even that huge demo they did with the official magazine once?) this will probably go staight over your head, so play it already!



You may of also noticed I've been tinkering slightly here and there with the blog, what with my new admin abilities. The links section as been revamped and updated, along with a (soon to expand) collection of tab links. I've even taken my old Dreamcast related articles from the long-dead blog of mine Sega Freaks and have squeezed them into the archives here! Mwa ha ha.