Samba De Amigo Dancer

I make no apologies for this post. Not strictly Dreamcast? Check! Poor quality video? Check! Father Krishna posting drunkenly with a small amount of hours before he has to turn up for work? Check! It seems to tick all the boxes in my world right now, so I thought I'd subject you all to it.

Now we all know that the Dreamcast was host to a number of great arcade ports, but how often do you get to see the machine that spawned the home console game? Here we have a dance sequence comparable only to Napoleon Dynamite's stunning opus that won Pedro the election, but this time, it's on Samba De Amigo.


I'll throw up the Gagaman(n)'s wicked moves on the Dreamcast port so you can compare the beauty of playing in the arcade, to the excellence of playing it at home.

So there you go, one great game, two formats and the Wii incarnation isn't even in the shops yet.

BTW, the arcade video was first revealed to me by the most excellent Nick 944, over at the Planet Dreamcast Forum. Our youngest commenter and appreciator of all things Dreamcast, the dude deserves a mention. Nick, G-Man(n), Samba De Amigo and the unknown cat who gives it his all in the arcade, we at the Dreamcast Junkyard salute you.

Homebrew Project Dead Sky is Still Alive!

Project Dead Sky is a homebrew RPG that is being created for the Dreamcast and PC. From this update I can see that these guys are pretty serious about making this a reality. The game itself seems to be an interesting mix of RPGs. I would be pleased if they used more gameplay elements from Chrono Trigger.

In any case it will be great to have another RPG on the Dreamcast considering how there were only about a half dozen released on the Dreamcast in the US.

http://thechaosrift.com/

Another Update! This one is a bit dry and only interesting if you like programming (or Mountain Dew). Feel free to check out some of the other videos the team has made.

Dreamcast News for the end of the week.

Only two items today.

#1. There *might* be a remake of Shenmue 1 and 2 on the Wii.

Pulled from Sega Nerds.

Swedish Magazine 'Game Reactor’ has printed a rumor about a remake of the two Dreamcast games on the Wii. Considering the Wii's setup this might actually work out pretty decent. Motion controlled extra content?

I know alot of gamers in the US will want to get their hands on this since the *good* version of Shenmue 2 only came out in Europe. If this does happen and somehow becomes massively popular it could also lead to the development of Shenmue 3. *could*

#2. Every single Japanese Dreamcast game for sale, sealed!

Pulled from Racketboy

Take a look!

“606 games,including all Dorikore reprints, all games in “deluxe version” when they were released as normal AND deluxe versions!” …. “Games are BRAND NEW, FACTORY SEALED, all CD case sized ones protected with extra plastic bag from dust&stuff!It will take you YEARS of collecting& searching, like me, to find all of them!”

Wow. It's amazing that someone would take the time to collect all these games then turn around and sell them.

So if you happen to have an extra 20 grand lying around collecting dust this might be your lucky day...

First Soul Calibur XBLA screens

As I'm pretty sure you all know, Soul Calibur, the best launch game ever and still one of the best fighting games ever made (if not THE best), is coming to Microsoft's game download service, Xbox Live Arcade. This conversion is enshrouded in some controversy, due to the fact that it's going to lack any sort of online play, making it somewhat redundant. After all, exactly why would we want to play for it if we're not getting anything new? Of course, there's the online leaderboards and the HD graphics, but speaking of those, and as expected, they don't look that much better than the Dreamcast game running on a HD tv through a VGA cable. See for yourself here (they're probably on other sites too, but this was the one I saw them on first, so here it goes), and share your thoughts on this matter.

The definitive Phantasy Star Online experience

Yesterday I was craving for some PSO. Don't know why, maybe it was a sudden attack of nostalgia. Anyway, I just felt like I needed to play the game, even if just for a little bit. The problem was, which version to choose? Would I just play the good ol' PSO, the 2nd Dreamcast I bought back in 2000 (the first was Jet Set Radio), for the 10th time? Or would it be better to hunt down the upgraded PSO Ver.2? After browsing the webz what I accidentally found was that there was a 3rd option, the best of them, the definitive PSO version, Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst, exclusively on the PC.


Yeah, I know, it would be a lot better to be playing it on my Dreamcast, but the game makes up for it. But what exactly makes it the best PSO version of them all? Simple, not only it has all the content from the Dreamcast games (known as Episode 1), but it also has the exclusive content from the Gamecube and Xbox versions (Episode 2), and a whole new Episode IV (Episode III was the spin-off Battle Card Revolution for the GC), which means more levels, monsters, NPC's, items and quests than ever before!


Now, I'm yet to explore most of the new stuff, but I took a peek at one of the new levels (and that level's new enemies), and let me tell you, it rocks! It's the PSO we know and love, but at the same time it's like a new experience. To sum it up, this is a game that every PSO fan should try out, specially since the official Dreamcast online servers were shut-down a long, long time ago.

Behind the scenes with DUX - an interview

Remember my post about an up-coming shmup for the Dreamcast? Racketboy just published an interview with one of the guys behind the game, so if you want to know more about the oddly named DUX, just follow this link.

There's not much we didn't know already, like the fact that it's an horizontal shooter like Last Hope (but supposedly easier) and it's almost finished, with a planned July release and an estimate cost of about 20 euros (you can't buy much with that amount of money nowadays...). Still, this is an interesting read, so if you're even slightly interested in the game, I encourage you to read the whole interview (it's not that long).

Silver Lining

Howdy. Thought it was about time I checked in with a proper post – it’s been about a month since I actually wrote anything of note for the Universe’s greatest Dreamcast site – The Dreamcast Junkyard (as seen in Retro Gamer Magazine). I almost coughed up a ventricle when I saw that we’d had a rather flattering mention (as documented by the Gagaman several posts ago), but seeing as I was onboard a flight to Turkey for a week in the sun, all I could do was sit there in silent awe – the DC-less cretins all around me oblivious to the fact that we were mentioned in the mainstream…well, niche press. Sigh. Anyhow, many thanks to the people at Retro Gamer.

I tried to keep my eyes peeled whilst in Turkey for the odd DC game, but to be honest I didn’t manage to find even the slightest reference to anything remotely connected to gaming, let alone our favourite deceased console. It appears that the Turkish economy relies solely on the sale of flip-flops, plastic footballs and fake Tag Heurs. On the plus side though, I did wear my Dreamcast shorts whilst swimming in the Aegean Sea. Just keeping it real, people.

Also, I’d like to congratulate Manchester United for winning the Premier League for the TENTH time, and also congratulate Middlesborough for putting EIGHT goals past Manchester City. Snigger.

This is just for you, FK

But that’s irrelevant. You’re here for DC shit, so without further ado, let’s delve into my most recent purchases…

Silver
I absolutely detest RPGs. I find them hideously boring and most of them are a patchwork of clichés involving ogres, orcs, wizards and ‘mana’ – all of which are things I have no interest in. There are a few exceptions for me – Ocarina of Time on the N64 and Shenmue held my attention to the end, but they’re more action/adventure games than traditional RPGs. Imagine my surprise then, when playing through Silver, I didn’t actually vomit and fall into a boredom induced coma. Viewed from a 3^rd person, static camera perspective, Silver seemed at first to be everything I despise about the genre. It’s Final Fantasy-esque looks and antiquated mechanics looked like surefire ways to induce a sense of hatred from this gamer. But no – I actually quite enjoyed playing Silver. There is no shitty turn-based random combat and the voice acting is really quite good. The graphics are very basic but the backgrounds are nicely drawn, and the storyline – whilst simple (the evil emperor Silver has kidnapped all of the women in the land so he can choose which one he wants for a wife, and you have to gather up a motley crew of bad-asses to go and get you’re missus back. Fail, and its wanking-room only for the rest of your days, me old mucker), is quite original for the genre.

It’s far from perfect – the real time combat consists mainly of mashing the attack button until everyone’s dead; and the distance of the camera from the action in some areas is unbelievable – you might as well be looking through the Hubble Telescope in some instances. Those minor niggles aside, Silver is a perfect RPG for those who aren’t really fans of the genre due to the relative simplicity of the gameplay. Go here, speak to a person, go there, collect key, fight some monsters, get a new weapon etc etc etc. Might sound a bit basic to the average 45-year-old Warhammer geek who still lives at home with his mum, but for me, it’s sweet.
8/10

F1 Racing Championship
Hmmm. It’s another Dreamcast F1 game. Based on the Monaco GP engine, F1 Racing Championship betters its spiritual prequel by bringing in official drivers and track names, but in reality it’s got the same problems as EVERY other F1 game in existence: F1 is BORING. So, it’s got the SAME tracks as every other F1 game, has the SAME engine noises, the SAME championship…I could go on.

This is from the PC port, but you get the idea

And because it's based on the 2000 season, there's no Lewis Hamilton. What a shame. To be fair, the visuals are quite good (but not as good as F1WGP2’s), and the choice of either Arcade or Simulation modes adds something new…but again, I’m hardly a massive F1 fan so it’s hard or me to get excited. Bias? You bet your ass. As far as F1 games go on the DC, it’s probably joint second with the first F1WGP game, but as a general racer its several racing leagues below the fabulous Le Mans, F1WGP2 and even Vanishing Point. Ho hum.
6/10

Spec Ops: Omega Squad
Fuck me. What a load of shite. Omega Squad looked like it could be the game to finally put the epiliepsy-inducing ghost of DC Rainbow Six to bed, but in actuality its worse. Horrific, in fact. Things start off well, with you getting to choose your weaponry and mission etc – all fine and good. There are lots of missions to take and there is a frightening arsenal of guns, grenades and other pointy things to equip your soldier geezer with, but that’s all irrelevant because when the game actually starts it’ll take somewhere in the region of 9 seconds to realize that this really is a game you don’t want to play. The graphics, for a start are barely above PS1 standard – the character models look like something out of 1970s Doctor Who and the ‘animation’ they exhibit is akin to Pinocchio’s. Before he was a real boy, you understand. Add to this the general murkiness, the flat, drab textures and the pop-up (yes, pop-up in a first person shooter!) and you’ve got one ugly game.

A Lego gun! That'll keep the baddies at bay

Of course, beauty I only skin deep, but Omega Squad doesn’t even play well. The controls are far too complex for a joypad, but even with a keyboard they stink. The view can be switched to a 3^rd person one, but all that does is show you how horrendous your Spec Op-ist looks, especially when you kneel down or go prone and sink into the floor. Want more? How about being able to shoot through walls because collision detection is out to lunch? Or shooting a ‘baddie’ in the head at point blank range and the hit not being registered? Absolutely pathetic.
1/10

Pen Pen
One of the weirdest games you’re ever likely to play, Pen Pen was a launch title for the DC and one of my earliest Blockbuster rents back in the day. I didn’t really appreciate it’s charm back then, but now I have my wiser head on I can see it’s appeal. Possibly spawned from the depths of an opium den, the idea behind Pen Pen is that these brightly coloured penguin-type things from some far off planet like nothing better than to race around acid-trip worlds by sliding on their guts, swimming and running. Like you do. So, you pick your Pen Pen, get out onto the track and then try to beat all of the other contenders by rythimcally tapping the various controls in order to build up speed. Sliding is a bit like the luge from the winter Olympics, whilst swimming and running are self explanatory.

Graphically quite impressive and aurally quite sickening (in a sweet way, you understand), Pen Pen is very original and features some nice ideas – such as winning races to buy new clothes and hats for the various characters. There are some bizarre aspects, such as putting your Pen Pen to bed - but it comes with the territory I suppose. It kind of reminds me of that old N64 game Snowboard Kids, albeit with massively improved graphics and more abstract weirdness. There are only 4 courses to race but they’re all suitably long and the idea of collecting all of the clothes adds longevity. If you like that sort of thing. Still, Pen Pen is a unique title and worth picking up if you see it going cheap.
7/10

Wild Metal
Quite why Rockstar removed the word ‘Country’ from the title of this PC to DC conversion is beyond me, but they did. If you ever played the PC version of Wild Metal (Country), you’ll feel right at home with the DC port – it’s exactly the same. You drive a little tank around a rather barren and foggy landscape with the intention of destroying all of the other tanks and flying meanies roaming about. There is a slightly contrived story about how machines have taken over man’s galactic empire but its bollocks really. All you need to know is that there are enemy units bopping about and they have to be stamped out like the goddamned vermin they are. You do this by correctly aligning your turret and tuning your trajectory from afar and then letting them have it, in a sort of 3D Death Tank kind of way.

There’s little else to it than that to be quite frank. Once you’ve killed everything in a level, you move on to the next where it’s more of the same. Hardly the most complex or involving title on the Dreamcast, but the inoffensive nature of the proceedings makes for quite a relaxing experience. Graphics are very basic and sound almost non-existent, but the gameplay can be quite satisfying – the tanks handle very well and lining up shots with the turret is quite good fun. It’s not Alien Front, but it’s still a decent little shooter.
6/10

Finally, I appear to have lost my copy of Buggy Heat. How? I have no fucking idea. How do you lose a game? BAH!

Next up: Freestyle Scooter. Oh yeah baby!

Dreamcast Love Continues...

A rather silly but affectionate look at our favourite console and it slags off Bernie Stolar or whatever that Saturn killing c**ks**ker was called. Enjoy!
(Oh and here's a Dreamcast alarm clock that just went for about £20 on ebay!)

Segagaga Review by the HappyConsoleGamer

If you've never seen the late Japanese Dreamcast release Segagaga then prepare to cream your pants with Sega fandom glee. If you thought Sega Superstars Tennis was a love letter to Sega fans you have seen nothing until you have seen this. I've personally known about it for years (why do you think my old web comic was called Mangagaga?) but I still sadly don't own it. This guy in the video above however, does own it and he owns the special edition box set they made that contains all sorts of neat stuff like a set of pin badges for every Sega console. Way too awesome.

If your thinking the heaps of Japanese text in the game will put you off, luckily there is a guy who is dedicating himself to translating it. You can check out his progress at his 1up blog. He is also looking for help on the programming side of things, so if you have the technical know how and own the game you could help out! Once again talented fans are keeping the Dreamcast and it's games that many may of missed alive.

Dreamcast Remake?

You know Tectoy? It's the Brazilian toy company that sometimes makes Sega stuff.

They has something interesting on their website.

http://www.tectoy.com.br/

Basically it's a sort of poll that asks which console people would want them to remake. Oh course they are not saying that they *are* going to remake the console that is chosen but...

(I miss Photoshop)

Here are the stats:

Game Gear (5.3%)
Dreamcast (91.0%)
Pense Bem (3.7%)

I think this is VERY interesting. Normally Tectoy seems to like to shrink consoles down and put a ton of games on them via flash memory. Could they do something like this for the Dreamcast??? Is it technically possible? Of course I suppose it could be. Is it financially viable to do this? That I am not sure of...

Still we can all dream. It would be nice if they could somehow remake the Dreamcast. However, is there really any point? How can you really improve on the Dreamcast? I suppose if they do something radical like wireless controllers or a built in screen or pre-load it with rare games...

In any case keep an eye out.

Pulled from DC Emu UK:
http://dreamcast.dcemu.co.uk/tectoy-dreamcast-possible-111395.html

Original article Insert Credit:
http://www.insertcredit.com/archives/002325.html

New Dreamcast Portable.

A rather boxy portable Dreamcast.



It looks pretty good. With a little work to protect the insides and maybe add some more ventilation this could be a sweet little unit.

I actually have a PS one screen that I was considering modifying to use on my Dreamcast. But I am lazy. A Dreamcast custom arcade cabinet is gonna be my next project.

Found at Sega Nerds.

The DCJY gets a nod in Retro Gamer Magazine!

Retro Gamer magazine, up until this point, had been pretty short on write ups about the Dreamcast. Maybe they weren't classing it as a "Retro" console just yet, waiting until the last few retail releases in Japan were out of the door to call it old. This has changed with the latest release, Issue 50, with a whole retrospective dedicated to Sega's last console, including a rather brilliant front cover with the tag line "Why the Dreamcast was the greatest Sega console ever". The cover is slighly spoiled a little by the big Grand Theft Auto logo (I know it's quite the event and all but you simply cannot go anywhere without hearing about it at the moment) but there is remedy in the fact that the issue also features an article about The House of the Dead and another for Gunstar Heroes.


The Dreamcast article itself, while I haven't read it in full yet appears to be very in-depth on the consoles history and strengths, and for their "10 Perfect games" bit they struggled to find just 10 games to pick, so cheated a little by putting Shenmue 1 and 2 in one entry. The best thing about the whole article however? The Dreamcast Junkyard gets a little write up in the "essential websites" part! We're described as "amusing", "passionate" and "one of the only Dreamcast websites that still updates regularly with anything other than emulation". Is this the first time this blog has been mencioned in print, or did I miss one along the way? Whatever the case, this is rather ace.don't you think?

Cosmic Smash making a comeback?

As I have been saying all along, the Dreamcast's line up of games seems to keep showing up in some form or another on the current generation of consoles at an alarming and increasing rate. By the year 2022 gamers who never owned a Dreamcast may have finally caught up with its entire line up across dozens of systems. At least for now, it looks like one more could be on it's way, and this is a game even many Dreamcast owners have missed out on.

Siliconera are reporting of a new trademark registered by Sega of America for Cosmic Smash, a game released on the Dreamcast in Japan only. For those who have yet to play it, it's like a mix between Virtua Tennis and Super Breakout, with the visual flair of Rez. The game was released in limited numbers in a fancy DVD case for a budget price (about £20), and was a direct port of a even harder to find arcade cabinet of the game, with no console extras. Short, but very, very sweet. I still need to make a article about it at some point.



Yes, we know what happened last time: Sega got out a new trademark for "Dreamcast" just so they could sit on the name for longer without anyone using it for a dishwasher or something, and we have had rumors of Sega franchise revivals up the wazoo in recent years, many of which have gone unfulfilled (New Space Channel 5 and Skies of Arcadia games being the most painful to not get) so don't get your hopes up for this just yet until we hear more. Stranger things have happened though, and Sega do seem to be on a remake sugar rush at the moment.

If this does end up being on Sega's upcoming production schedule, the real question lays in what system will it land on? Cosmic Smash was quite a short game to begin with on the Dreamcast, so my bets is going to go on one of the many download services out there like X-Box Live Arcade, the Playstation network or Wiiware. There's no doubt the gameplay style would just suit some motion controls, but a HD version of the game ala Rez HD wouldn't go a miss either. I'm personally rooting for Wiiware myself, seeing as I probably won't be buying a HD console any time soon. We shall see!

Dramatic Gamestation U-Turn!

Well, not quite. You may recall Father Krishna's post a few weeks back documenting Gamestation's outrageous (but unconfirmed) policy of incinerating unsold games of yesteryear in some sort of macabre retro holocaust. Imagine my suprise then, whilst having a nose around a local branch of Gamestation I noticed the tiniest of Dreamcast 'sections' peeping out from under a load of Gamecube titles:



This 'section' comprised dog-eared copies of Ready 2 Rumble and MSR (sans box cover) but also contained Jet Set Radio and Shenmue. I also found it quite apt that several of the Gamecube games above were ports of Dreamcast games.

And you thought mobile phone cameras were useless!

Forbidden Kingdom movie features the Dreamcast

There is a Dreamcast in the new movie "Forbidden Kingdom". Apparently there are a number of video game references in the movie.

"the best reference is also the most subtle. In the first five minutes of the movie, after Jason wakes up from his dream, you can see a Dreamcast on the left hand corner of the screen underneath his TV."

(Quote from Siliconera)

http://www.siliconera.com/2008/04/28/the-forbidden-kingdom-co-starring-the-dreamcast/

Jackie Chan, Jet Li and the Dreamcast?

Ticket Bought.

Nice Dreamcast Vid...

Says it all really... I like this dude (remember when he was bigging up MDK2?) Imagine you'd never heard of the Dreamcast. If I had this guy as my guide, I'd buy one. Then I'd get down on one knee and pledge my allegiance to him. I'd cater to his every whim and lay down my life for him.

Alright, maybe not his every whim, but most of them. All those except for the sexual ones.
OK, if I'm completely honest, maybe the odd one or two, but I'd definitely buy a Dreamcast.
But I would grow a moustache for him. (If he asked...) LOL! Enjoy...

Law56kers NXdoom Collection - Homebrew Collection

Do you like the Dreamcast?

Do you like Doom?

Do you wish there was a way you could play well over 100 modifications of Doom on your Dreamcast?

Well the future is now.



Law56kers has released a HUGE 2 disk collection of practically every Doom modification that will work on the Dreamcast with Nxdoom. All you need is the original Ultimate Doom and Doom 2 .wad files.

http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=106657

So, if you happen to want to shoot some Nazis in Outerspace...



Or go insane with Doom cranked up with Doom 2 Extreme.




Or if you happen to feel like going nuts on some Nintendo characters...Nobody is gonna judge you...




This collection is pretty sweet for anyone who is a fan of Doom. I know I am going to have some fun just going through the lists and seeing what each of the mods looks like. Half Life Doom? Zombie Doom? Duke Nuken Doom? Star Wars Doom? Half the fun is just seeing what the insane Doom modders community have put together.

Big thanks to Law56kers for putting this collection together.

Help, Download, and Discussion Topic:
http://dcemulation.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=96980&p=992988#p992988