Command and Conquer Coming to the DC.

I know you have probably already seen this elsewhere and there really is no reason for me to post this here...

...but I still think it's pretty damn cool.

One of the finest RTS games ever made is coming to the Dreamcast!



Pulled from DC Emu UK.

http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=116105

Metal Gear Solid: Dreamcast VS PS2

A side to side comparison of the Bleemcast version of Metal Gear Solid VS the PS2 version Metal Gear Solid. Yeah NOT the original MGS disk running on a PS2. This is the version they recently released in the Metal Gear Solid 3 pack for the PS2...

The Dreamcast version had some blurring of the text but the rest of the comparison will shock you...(Well, it didn't shock me as much as leave me with a smug feeling that's gonna last all day)



And now to get a copy of Bleemcast for Metal Gear Solid. Unlike other bleem offerings you can actually save your game. Of course this takes up a whole VMU dedicated to Playstation saves but thats not really a problem for a guy like me who hase collected like 20 of them.

So while all the current-gen sheep line up to buy MGS4 I will be playing the best game of the series on the best console of all time...

All hail the Undead console!

Treamcast review

I'm pretty sure everyone here knows what a Treamcast is, but in case someone doesn't there's a great article over at Racketboy's that gives you the basics about that rather unique and interesting (and somewhat illegal) clone of our favourite console. It's a pretty interesting read, so even if you have heard of the Treamcast already, or even own one (*looks at Father*), I'd still recommend you take a look.

Donald Duck: Quack Attack

Yeah, I know what you're thinking, another shit-ass PSX-port licensed platformer, isn't it? Well, I'm glad to tell you that, surprisingly, this is not the case with Quack Attack! I shit you not, I'm really enjoying this one. It's not the kind of game you play for hours and hours straight, but when you need a quick fix or something more simple to take a break from more "serious" games, this game is perfect. It basically is a platformer with two kinds of levels, the usual Super Mario-like ones where you start on the left corner of the level and have to make it to the far right, and the Crash Bandicoot-like ones where the camera goes behind your character and you have to move forward. This obviously can cause some issues, like some sections where it's hard to measure distances and you end up missing a jump, but overall the gameplay is really well done and the game is forgiving for the most time, so you won't get too frustrated with it.


This is a rather short experience. You have four areas, each one with four levels and a boss, so basically you can finish it in an afternoon, but as I said before, that's not really how you should play it, and I seriously doubt anyone will, because it can became repetitive real quick if you play more than a handful of levels on a single session. Still, after finishing it there's a lot of replay value. If you manage to recover all of Donald's nephews' lost toys, they reward you by unlocking an extra level (one per area, which means a total of four, which is rather odd since as far as I know Donald only has 3 nephews). Once again these levels are not original, but borrowed from, guess what game, Crash Bandicoot. I'm talking about the chase levels, where you're being chased by some sort of giant, angry enemy and you have to desperately run towards the screen before being eaten, caught or ran-over. Still, we don't see those everyday, so they have their appeal.


Once you beat these levels you unlock an extra challenge, beating all the previous levels in a time-trial, which in time rewards you with an extra costume. As you can see there's more to this game than what meets the eye. Graphics-wise, I got to say I'm impressed with this one. Not that it's something uber-incredible, but for a PSX port it looks really nice! The resolution is way higher and the textures are so detailed that one would think it was programmed for the Dreamcast in the first place! If only all the ports were like this one... (couldn't find decent Dreamcast screens, the above are from the N64 version, and as you can guess, the DC port looks even better)

So, if you're looking for a nice, little game to entertain you for a couple of hours, try this one, I doubt you'll regret it.

(Samba De Amigo) + (German Beer) = Fun.

Since we are posting Samba de Amigo videos.

Oh how those Germans love the Dreamcast...



See! Samba De Amigo is the Best game to play while drinking beer in ANY county!

German Dreamcast site is now open for business! Eat some sausage, drink a Becks and play some Dreamcast!

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?