Mullets

Hello there, Dreamcasters. The recent and rather uncharacteristic spell of exceptionally clement weather (pictured, yesterday) has lead to this week being a bit quiet on the post front. This is no bad thing when the previous post is of such high quality, however. I had a look at those two VMU applications that The Gagaman discovered and have to say that they are both very useful and yet another example of how easy it is for talented programmers to write interesting utilities for our favourite defunct console. I managed to change my background on the bios screen to a rather lovely psychadelic swirl in about 3 minutes of messing around - and if my camera wasn't a complete and utter pile of puss, I'd illustrate with a picture. As it is, it just comes up with black lines so to compensate, here's a picture of a lemon:

Chortle.

My predictions about my changing opinion of Shenmue also appear to be coming true. It is indeed one of the best things ever - and that list also includes Mr T, Button Moon and the smell of freshly cut grass on a sunny afternoon - so it's not to be sniffed at (sorry). I still haven't got to the end of the first game, but I'm getting quite deep into the conspiracy at the docks surrounding the mysterious 'Mad Angels' gang...and there's even some swearing!! Amazing. Although I have been getting slightly annoyed at the amount of slowdown in some areas...

This is mostly when you're driving your forklift truck around and there are quite a few people milling about so it's understandable, but there are some other places where the frame rate grinds to a near standstill. Most noteable is whenever steam/smoke is visible on screen - e.g. go into the arcade/shop at the harbour and position Ryo so that the kettle thing near the door swings past the camera, and get ready for some epilepsy inducing screen juddering!! Literally seconds of fun to be had there then. Speaking of Shenmue, have a gander at this site, Shenmue Master, for some pictures comparing locations from Shenmue to their real-life inspiration.

Found this great site, Game Ads, that features a hur-uge collection of video game related TV adverts from around the globe. Of course, we're only interested in the Dreamcast section, so click here to go straight there. There are some great ads featured, but one can't help but think that the country-specific PAL Online Gaming ads are just a tad close to being classed as jingoistic; and I don't really think depicting the Germans as tracksuit wearing, sun-lounger hogging, mullet-sporting squares is the best way to get them to buy into your product...

The hunt for randomly placed Dreamcast swirls also continues. Here we have some NTSC style orange swirls that somehow managed to escape and set up home on a friend's living room curtains:

The cheeky young scamps.

Just a quick footer - I discovered some music by a talented dude called Jason Mraz (pronounced "Meraz" I think) this week. I'd never heard of him before but a local radio station bequeathed a shed load of promo discs to me and Mr Mraz's album 'Mr A-Z' happened to be included with the other non-descript, student-type crap. Unfortunatley, the CD wasn't in the box but a bit of internet 'research' allowed me to sample some of the songs on the album. It's a bit like James Blunt but without the suicide inducing depression that comes free with every copy of Back to Bedlam; and also a bit like Jack Johnson, but with more energy. Hmmm...not exactly an NME quality review. Verdict: Outstanding. Orders? Get it.

VMU Wonders

The VMU, Dreamcast's memory card thingy, is a truly underrated piece of kit and I'm surprised that the idea never managed to stick with consoles that came after it. Sony tried to rip it off just months after the Dreamcast launch in Japan with the PocketStation, and Nintendo did there own teeny tiny handheld with the Pokemon Mini, but this is still the best smaller-than-a-game-boy-micro hand held out there. Thing is, a lot of people who are first time buyers of a Dreamcast won't know of the possibilities of this little thing, other than saving progress. As if the screen and buttons weren’t a dead giveaway,

Back when the Dreamcast was online, many games had websites you could access on the disk which would have special downloads to add to your games. These include some lovely seasonal themes and extra race tracks for the Sonic Adventure games, new mini-levels for Rayman 2 and replacement characters for ChuChu Rocket. Then of course there were the Mini games. These were unlockable in certain titles, and as long as you have some watch batteries in the VMU, you could play little games on it on the move. In the end not many commercial games actually used this feature (mainly Sega and Capcom titles), but like all things Dreamcast, the Homebrew scene got into the act and programmed countless games, animations and even music for the device. While only one game can be placed on a VMU at any time, there are in total there are around 100 games for download out there. Now most people won't want to go to the hassle to set up their DC online, however, how can you get all this stuff?

This is where the wonderful world of HomeBrew development comes in again. VMU Collections have been made that can be burnt to a CD-R and played through the Dreamcast, which not only feature save files for every released DC game but all the other downloads too. The two best discs are VMUBackupCD by and VMUTOOL by . I'll be reviewing both of these discs, as well as showing you the best downloads for the VMU
which are on them.

VMUBackupCD: Available at El Bucanero, this disc has a very simple layout with full descriptions on each file. Nothing too complex here at all. Also, there is a disc you can get that also features a tool called VMUZIP, which lets you compress the amount of blocks a save file takes. When these games are compressed, you can't se them in the game, but this is very handy for games you don't play often that take a lot of blocks. All the VMU Games are in one folder, and you run them through a emulator on the TV and on the VMU screen sitting in the square ole your controller
, although I soon discovered that while you can emulate the Mini games, you can't actually copy them to the VMU to take away, which is a real shame. The other snag is probably he music, which as far as I can tell is not turn-off-and-onable, and also rather dull so you may want to turn the TV to mute while using it. It is, however, very good for save files.

VMUTOOL: Available at Blue Swirl, this disc has a hell of a lot of features, including some that need some sort of Dreamcast to PC plug in system going on, but plenty that can be used with just the DC too. This disc's layout may not be as simple or descriptive as BackupCD, it lets you do a whole lot more. Want to copy a save file to another VMU that the DC Bios tells you "cannot be copied"? Sorted. Want to change the colour and image of your VMU on the Bios without clearing all the files off? Sorted. Want to emulate AND download the mini games? Sorted. You can even slap a new image on the background of the DC Bios. Also the VMU game emulator on this disc is better and the settings are a whole lot more customable. Only thing that I got with this CD was it's a bit fussy which VMU's it lets you edit, and out of my collection of 10 (including the 4 slots on a 4-in-1 card) 2 of the VMU's crashed the CD every time I went into them on it.

CONCLUSION: get BackupCD for the save files and compression tools, and get VMUTOOL for the editing and downloadable mini games. There both worth tinkering with. One last note: the Mini-Games run better when actually downloaded to a VMU then they do in Emulation, where they lack their sound and often play to fast.

Now, onto the best of the Mini-Games!

Sega Pocket GT
From what I can tell this game was only available on the Japanese import version of the game (judging by how there's some Japanese in this game, although not enough to make playing difficult) and there is in fact three different sets of levels to download: Japan, Europe and America. Actually more fun than the game it was downloadable from, you find yourself racing on 6 tracks each set, trying to beat the clock while avoiding rocks and other cars. Graphics do their job well and there's also a great training mode where you have to prepare your little racer geezer to be ready for the championships. Great stuff. 9/10

Soul Calibur 3-in-1
I don't remember this being downloadable with the game but it's in English so I presume it was. This download gives you three cute little games: a game where you bounce treasure off of Volvo’s belly (no kidding!), a word puzzle game where you have to swap letters about to make words, and one where you have to light up the right rope to blow one of the characters out of a rocket. For those who can read Japanese, there is also a Soul Cailbur Text Adventure game for download. 8/10

Mini Pacman
A homebrew "port" of the game that as been on every format known to man (even Microsoft Excel). It may not run as fast as the original, and you are not able to see where about the ghosts are wandering about, but this is over wise a fine re-creation of the game. There's also some added features: a boost that lets you chomp faster for as long as you have the boost bar above empty, 20 levels including one in the dark, and even secret passage ways. 8/10

VMU Fighter
Possibly the best Homebrew title I have tried so far, VMU Fighter is a scrolling shoot 'em up with 4 changeling levels and some of the best SFX to be heard squeaking out of your VMU. Lot's of variation in the levels, and plenty to keep you coming back. 9/10

Chao Adventure 1 + 2
Downloadable off Sonic Adventure 1 + 2, you really need to do this on the actual game as it pretty much involves placing one of your own chaos onto an adventure where they bump into Sonic characters, get into fights and collect fruits. A lot of the game is made in he fashion of a virtual pet, where you leave it on and wait for it to bleep at you when an event occurs. Superb. 9/10

Chao Editor
An interesting homebrew download that lets you create your own Chao, or throw in one you have and edit it's stats (999 Power!), name, colour etc. Nice if you want to cheat n the Chao races on the games, or if you wan some truly freaky looking creatures in your garden. 7/10

VMU Football
Ok, so it's American football, but this mini-game features some brilliant animation and game play. Run trough all the opponents and make sure you don't get too close to them over wise they'll pounce on you. 7/10



VMU-a-Sketch
Missing our old Etch-a-sketch pad? Now you can use the VMU to be it's replacement! Still very hard to draw with, though. 6/10

Zombie Revenge
Another average Sega title with a great mini-game to download, here you train up the characters and gain points which can be used in the game. Featured are two games including the rather odd Zombie Fishing. 8/10

Breakout
Another homebrew "port". Cute SFX and still as additive as ever. 7/10

Space Invaders
More Homebrew classic game port goodness. 7/10

Tiny Tetris
"Tiny" is an understatement. You need very good eye sight for this. 6/10

3D FPS
Probably the most impressive of many VMU tech demos. Very short and vaguely interactive, but looks the bee's knees. 6/10

So while you should hardly expect Game Boy quality hand held games from your VMU, there is some nice stuff to pass the time away from it, so it's well worth a look into.

EDIT: Oops, I forgot to insert the links to the websitesthat provide these CDs! There up there now. I'll also add reviews of the Power Stone and Tech Romancer mini-games when I can remember what they were like.

Lawsuit Imminent...Part 3

The Dreamcast Junkyard is a place for mature gamers who enjoy the finer things in videogaming. Of course, ownership of a Dreamcast and access to the finest arcade conversions in the history of the universe is a testament to this ethos. As such, mockery of rival consoles is something you will rarely find written here - although that's mostly because the DC has no rival when it comes to quality over quantity.

However, something has been brought to my attention by a regular reader of the 'Yard - a man who goes by the mysterious name of 'JP.'

Look at these two pictures:














One is a Sony-VTX800u Freeview box; the other is a Nintendo Wii. Are we the only ones who can see a tiny similarity?! A major Apple/Apple Corps lawsuit may be imminent...and remember where you read it first folks. Rest assured that if a lawsuit fails to materialise in the mainstream press, these pictures will be personally delivered by my hand to Nintendo's Japanese Headquarters in 1985 Dobuita. Or maybe I'm confused...


Does anyone out there still play with their Dreamcast online? If so, I would like to introduce you to a site that may be of interest. I featured a Dreamcast promo video these guys did a few posts ago, but Ladies and Gents, allow me to re-introduce UK Rockers - a multiformat gaming clan who hold tournaments and competitions for online gamers across most major online enabled formats...including the Dreamcast! Here's a list of games that are covered and are still online:

• StarLancer
• Quake 3 Arena
• 4x4 Evolution (US)
• Phantasy Star Online V 1 & 2
• Maximum Pool (US)
• Sega Swirl

If you're still playing online with your 'Cast - good on ya. If you're not, go visit UK Rockers to see what you're missing. They also have up to date gaming news and a regularly updated reviews section so there's something for everyone. As it were.

69 Dudes!

Went to a BBQ yesterday. Guess what? It pissed down. Not actually that uncommon for Manchester - it tends to rain pretty much incessantly all year round. The thing is, Thursday and Friday seemed as though the city had been dug up by some kind of ginormous JCB and transplanted somewhere near the equator. Seriously - on Friday afternoon you could have cooked an egg on the pavement, slapped it between two crusts of bread and been laughing. Saturday? Fucking torrential. I believe that if we all club together and boycott the weather, we can have permanent sun at the weekend. Tsk.

Anyways, I know you didn't come here to listen to me bitch about the weather. You're here for harcore Dreamcast news, reviews and irreverant features, right? For now, the news and irreverent shit is on hold - but, hark, reviews are abundant! Want to read about Vanishing Point?

Click here me auld mucker!

Let it be known that the Editor in Chief of Defunct Games is on his way to E3. Lucky git!
Seriously though, if you are into your DC based drive 'em ups, you should get a copy of Vanishing Point. It 'rocks ass,' or something equally American. There's loads of longevity in it and it's about as close as you can get to The Need For Speed on the Dreamcast. And I ain't talking about those 'bling'-ed up Underground/Most Wanted games on the current consoles. No - they are hideous 'gansta' style offerings that really make me want to projectile vomit all over the shelves in Game (that's Electonic Boutique (I think) for the non-UK based readers). I'm talking about the original 'Road & Track Presents' version on the good old Saturn (or 3DO, but NEVER the PSX). So, yeah - Vanishing Point is top. As an added bonus, it also features one of the best intro movies I've ever seen...all the more reason to buy 700 copies and help to ressurect Acclaim.

As we all know, the internet holds many hidden jewels. Not real jewels, you understand...I mean top little sites. Yesterday I discovered this cool website. It's a PC page called mini-itx.com that features loads of top case mods. You guessed it - there's even a Dreamcast PC case! cast your retinas downwards for the incredible pictures:


Those ker-azy PC modders have also been molesting other Sega systems...LOOK!



In the words of Bill S. Preston Esq (and occasionally Ted Theodore Logan), NO WAY!

Similarly, and with only a little bit to do with the Dreamcast, news has wafted up the U-bend that Uwe Boll, the cretin behind such Hollywood disasters as The House of the Dead and Alone in the Dark, is pencilled in to 'direct' the film versions of both Postal and Far Cry.

Christ. Judging by his aforementioned offerings to the Razzie nominations list, Postal will probably feature Postman Pat, while Far Cry is about a grief sticken widow who lives on top of a mountain miles away from her estranged kids. How so? Because it's clear Mr Boll never even looks at the box of the games he's turning into films, let alone plays them...

While we're talking movies, saw Crash last night. What a great film, exploring the many facets of racism in American society. A truly exceptional film - and it features Thandie Newton, which is ALWAYS a bonus - even if she does have a ridiculous name. Ahem.

Right. Man United just thrashed Charlton Athletic 4-0 in the last game of the season, meaning that we automatically qualify for Europe next season ahead of The Scum (Liverpool); and I've got a date with several bottles of San Miguel Cerveza. "In a bit yo," as Mike Skinner may be overheard to say...