Sin & Punishment

I'm slightly pissed off right now. I found this bizaare item on eBay last week and I tried so hard to win it - even going to the lengths of outbidding myself on a daily basis just incase some cunt snuck in at the last moment and snatched it away from me. Guess what? Some fucking uber-cunt snuck in at the last minute and wrestled it from my virtual hands. I was powerless to stop it because I was in the pub watching Man United get thrashed 4-1 by Liverpool at the time. The price we pay for having psuedo social lives, eh?

Anyway, here's what I'm on about:

It's only a Dreamcast branded laser pen, complete with batteries and presentation box. 

To the winner of the auction: I will find you, and I will kill you. Then I will piss on your wife's decapitated head and burn your house down with your kids locked in an upstairs bedroom.

Headhunter Completed

Like many a reader/contributor to this hallowed site, I love my Xbox 360 and this bastard Dreamcast progeny takes up a large part of my gaming time. Having spent literally 100+ hours playing Fallout3 on that sucker, however, made me hark back to the simpler, more linear gaming experiences from the last generation...



My first choice was to finish God Of War on the *cough!* PS2. Whatever your feelings are towards the PS2, you can't deny that God Of War is one of THE best videogames ever. It shows what can be delivered from a console by developers if enough time is given for development on that console. If games like Soul Calibur, Sonic Adventure and Shenmue could be developed for the Dreamcast within it's short lifespan, think what could have been acheived if it had the eight years of life that the PS2 was blessed with... But I digress.

I decided following the joy of God Of War, to finish a Dreamcast game I had previously played half way through, before abandoning it. That game is the mighty Headhunter. The game is set in a not to distant future, where the government is all pervasive, fascistic and working hand in hand with global multi-national corporations. (Sound familiar?)

As well as the rather worrying scenario mentioned above, there is a rather unhealthy trade in human organs, both sanctioned by the government and criminals via the black market. The world in which we find ourselves is beautifully illustrated through out the game via "news bulletins", videos interspersed throughout the game, which tie up the game's back-story and provide a humorous distraction after tense missions!



The character you play is Headhunter Jack Wade. Headhunters are future cops, stealth assassins and all-round bad ass dudes. And who's the baddest bad ass of 'em all? Why YOU of course! Only at the start of the game, you've lost your gun, your license and your memory.
Does this hinder our hero? Fuck no!! That's because Jack is a hybrid of Dirty Harry and Snake Plisken. I'm not gay, but I could swing in that direction for Jack, he's THAT fucking cool!


Fortunately, your former chief and a wealthy heiress who's father has just been murdered are there to set you on your feet again and restore you to your former position as Headhunter number 1. In order to regain your license you need to go through a series of virtual training missions in cyberspace, facilitated by the L.E.I.L.A virtual reality computer.

Oh and did I mention that you travel through your futuristic city-scape on a whopping motorbike? The better you ride your bike, the more experience points you acquire assisting your progress through the game.


The game plays like GTA (the bike-riding bits) and Metal Gear Solid (the stealth bits). The game really shows the potential of the hardware it was produced for, being one of the best games on the Dreamcast and delivering some stunning graphics for it's 2001 release. Unfortunately it never merited a release in the USA on the Dreamcast, as the console was already doomed to obliteration by the PS2 when the game came out. However, it did get a PS2 port, which you can pick up for a pittance if you're silly enough to not have a functioning Dreamcast in your house.

The save system, health regeneration and weapon/ammo upgrades are all conducive to a satisfying gaming experience, although some of the boss battles are bloody difficult! The soundtrack, by Sega stalwart composer Richard Jaques is amazing, so good in fact that I've thrown it up in the videos at the top! Overall I'm glad I delved back into this game and would say it's an essential Dreamcast purchase/experience. Father K rating 9/10.

Dreamcast mods

I picked up a bit of a scuzzy PAL Dreamcast on eBay. Nothing really wrong with it, just some yellowing:

I had a can of spray paint that was left over from when I sprayed some wood for something years ago... and I remember how much I loved the smell of solvents. Anyway, I got spraying. Paint that is.

So, all-in-all, I recommend it. Here's the finished article:

Share your modded Dreamcast ideas/pictures/stories!

New Dreamcast 2 details!

Look at those specs! HD-GD ROM! A 1 Terabite Harddrive! Erm...what ever those other features say! Ok, not really, this is just some art I found over at Pixia. It's a pretty neat place to find odd Japanese fan art like that, and this rather excellent piece below. Click it to full view and see if you can recognize everyone on it!


EDIT: Another one, why not? This one is probably the only time I've ever seen anyone illustrate Seaman and Ulala IN THE SAME PICTURE.

More DC fan service from Sega themselves!

Sega hasn't forgotten about the Dreamcast, as seen when it made a brief appearance in two cut scenes of their recent game Sonic Unleashed (the best Sonic game on consoles since the last DC one), and it also appeared in a couple shot of that short film 'Night of the Werehog', sitting pretty on a table. Well in a recent Japanese Sonic Unleashed blog post it was revealed that for that film they started animating a scene in which Sonic and new character Chip were actually playing the Dreamcast, though sadly the scene had to be cut before it was finished. But we do have this shot above of what it would have looked like (sans all the fancy pants rendering, of course). How cool would that of been? Read more about the making of Night of the Werehog here.

Space Channel 5 part 2: Special Limited Edition Boxset

Everyone knows about Space Channel 5. Everyone has now seen the lovely SEGAGAGA Boxset (which I also own). Not everyone has seen this though; the limited edition boxset, only on sale in Japan, comprising headphones, pouch and game. Here are some pictures to enjoy.

The box is in fantastic condition. Arrived from Japan in just a jiffy bag - I was a bit scared!

The back of the box has some excellent blurb about the headphones. Worth paying attention to...

Well displayed here; game and headphones. It's obvious what this game is all about - the music.

The headphones are actually really good. They have a strong dynamic range and a good bass response. I must say though, I reckon I look like a right twat with them on. More than normal. It does come with a pair of black pads rather than the fluffy white ones... but... *they keep you so warm!*

Not opened the bag with the pouch - this boxset is minty fresh and it is staying that way. 

This is possibly the rarest thing I own...? Possibly...

Advantages of DUX delays

Taken from the DUX blog:

"Given DUX is receiving many delays since its first release date announced at april 2008, I'd like to explain a bit how these delays have been occurred and how its all for the good of the game.

Originally DUX has been intended just to be side-project with only 5 stages and simple scoring system. During the development our quality bar to meet has been increased from time to time, so upgrading and expanding is what we're using the delays for. Now the game is a full-scale project with 6 instead 5 stages. Additionally, most stages are longer and featuring way more enemy types then before. The game also now features a more advanced scoring system, given the bullet soaking ability of your pod. The difficulty settings are more balanced as well, to make the game a fair but still challenging experience. All in all the game has a lot of advantages from its extra time given, which is of course a good thing for players.

To give an exact release date is currently hardly possible, because this depends on very hard to estimate factors. From now on I'll report how thing going with the release of this game once a week, so more on this in the next week."

I am actually pretty excited about this one chaps...

Let's Play Dynamite Cop!

I don't know if anyone here keeps an eye on my personal youtube account, but I've been doing rather a lot of play throughs of games lately, mainly of Mega Drive and arcade games (because they're nice and easy to emulate), and my latest one is of one of my favorite Dreamcast games Dynamite Cop. It's not the Dreamcast version being played, rather the original arcade Model 2 version on the rather excellent M2 emulator, but it's nigh on identical to the Dreamcast one bar the cut scenes not being pre rendered (and as you'll see, the emulation for these parts isn't quite perfect yet). Either way, if you ever wanted to watch someone laugh and shout at one of the silliest games on the Dreamcast here you go! The first part is below, click here to find the rest of the videos (of which there will be a total of 8 of by tomorrow).

Pippin At(black)mark(et)

OK, so it might be slightly old news by now, but some dude has ripped the decrepit G3 processor, shite memory and 'daughter card' (or something equally alien to us normal*, PC using people) out of an old iMac - and replaced them with the innards of a 200MHz, Windows CE-powered, NAOMI-based behemoth. Kinda like sucking Barry Chuckle's guts out through his mouth and squirting Brett 'The Hitman' Hart's vital organs up his ass to fill the void. Pictures? Why, yes:

An iMac. And a Dreamcast. In same body. Just think what Brundle could've achieved if only that pesky fly hadn't got into his teleportation pod...

Pippin Atmark? Possibly - but I digress.

Speaking of bizarre shit, how would a NES look if it was dressed up like a moderately successful early nineties console and sold in flea markets in Peru?

Erm, like this:

* By 'normal,' I mean people who can't afford to buy a crate of branded lager, let alone an Apple Macbook. Fucking Ikea catalogue-reading, scatter cushion owning CUNTS. Cough.

Virtual On: XBLA

It's Virtual On. On Xbox Live Arcade. Do I need to say more?

Well, actually, yeah. The guys over at Gametrailers fucked up. Virtual On: Ontario Tagram? WTF? It's Oratorio Tangram, you twats...

Eat My Shorts

OK, so in the past we've featured a Dreamcast hat, a Dreamcast jacket, a Dreamcast towel and swimming shorts set...fuck, we've even spouted shit about a (pretty poor) Dreamcast-shaped tissue box holder. We now sink to new depths, however:

Dreamcast boxer shorts!

Do you love your Dreamcast so much that you want your cock and balls swinging up against a high quality embroidered image of Sega's magnum opus? You do? Then click here for more details.

Radical!

G'day. You may recall a video I did a few weeks back that documented the visual qualities of ace racer LeMans 24hrs. Well, I've been at it again. Y'see, last week I bought the rather spiffing 360 snowboard 'em up Amped 3 and I've actually been playing it non-stop since then. But earlier today, I had a thought: How do the DC's best snowboarders stand up to Amped 3?

Cue me rummaging around for my copy of arguably the DC's best looking 'boarding sim - Sega Extreme Sports. I know it's not technically a proper bonafide snowboarding game, what with all the hang-gliding and mountain biking going on, but the boarding sections are super cool (sorry), and miles better than Snow Surfers and that bit in Sonic Adventure where you have to outrun that avalanche.

Anyway, enough waffling. Here's the vid. Enjoy.

A Dreamcast Flightstick?

Oh Dreamcast. When will you stop surprising me?

I found a new controller that I had never heard of before. Perhaps someone here has seen one before but it doesn't seem to be listed on any of the major Dreamcast sites and is only mentioned in the odd message board post.

Behold the Dreamcast Panther Flightstick:

Look at all them buttons...

Apparently this controller was also able to be used with FPS games like Quake 3 and perhaps even the unreleased Half Life.

As it is there are several opinions out there ranging from "Crap it doesn't work on many games" to "Wow this works awesome on Starlancer" to "Ugh Madcatz...". (I personally never had a problem with Madcatz stuff on the Dreamcast My steering wheel works well and my lightguns are good. I actually sold a new madcats controller for nothing because I was told that 3rd party controllers shorted out the Dreamcast's control board...then a first party controller shorted out my control board...)

As soon as I get this and my copy of Starlancer I will give a proper review of this seemingly rare controller. Is it a good controller? Is is crap? Is it worth it as a collectors item?

Only time will tell.

Unveiling a moment in history...

I'm currently doing a little mod on my Dreamcast (more to follow), and came across something rather interesting...

Nothing particularly interesting there, you think? Look closer...

"katana" inscribed on the motherboard. 

The katana was the Japanese version of the Dreamcast prototype. There were two basically, the SEGA USA "Dural" and the SEGA Japan "Katana". Eventually, SEGA went with the Japanese one, though both were pretty similar. It's a shame the Dreamcast didn't have a built in DVD player... but it was far too expensive in 1998. Things could have been rather different... but then again, Sega was in so much debt by 1999, even though the Dreamcast was doing quite well, there was nothing to be done against the Sony machine.

Some Wind & water fan art for ya.

Take this artwork as an apologise for still not getting around to sorting out that video review I promised.Sorry, it might get done one day!

Wind and Water - €12 + Shipping

Thought I would share this good news with others... HuCAST (bringing us the eagerly anticipated DUX) have some copies of Wind and Water puzzle battles for sale for €12.

From their email:

"HUCAST.net decides to do not stock redpostgames products anymore, so you can get Wind & Water for Dreamcast to a special pricing. Only 12 EUR instead of 32,95 EUR. "

Bargain. I nearly bought this last week at full retail. The Gods have spoken, open up your paypal accounts and go and buy it.

Dreamcast: A Forensic Retrospective

Dan Whitehead wrote up a Dreamcast retrospective over at EuroGamer.

Any comments on this?

I personally thought that this line made the article worth reading:

"most gamers opting to wait for the sure-to-be-awesome PS2, with its mysterious "emotion engine" and games that would literally emerge from the screen and fellate you senseless."

I am somewhat disappointed that never happened...

In other news I am setting up another classic video game day and the the Dreamcast will play a huge role (Powerstone 2 and Marvel vs Capcom 2 Whoo!). Last time I had hooked up the Dreamcast to the VGA port of a projector and the Soul Calibur matches looked really nice. Perhaps this time I will actually edit some of the footage from the matches and showcase them here.

In other other news Saturnalia is going on at the other Junkyard. So if you enjoy other CD media game devices from Sega check that out.