BetamaXXX

Well hello there! It seems like ages since the last post....well, four whole days - and four days is a long time when Peter Crouch keeps dancing like Clockwork Knight. It'd also help if Blogger wasn't constantly 'down,' or would occasionally let you post a picture without making you wait...well four days, actually. But you can't have it all can you.

Can you?!?!

No, you bloody well can't. But YOU, Dreamcast owning super-being, yes YOU, can have something (nearly) just as good! What? Why 3 new Dreamcast reviews of course!

And here, for your perusal, are they:

Spirit of Speed 1937! F1 Racing, old skool style. Think Jackie Stewart/Stirling Moss an' shit. Only nowhere near as good. More like Sly Stallone in Driven.

Re-Volt!
Pleasantly...er...pleasant remote control car 'em up, ported from the Ultra 64 Interactive Multimedia System (or something) and given a lick of strato-resolution, super shiny emulsion.

Sega Extreme Sports!

I only mentioned this one recently, and now I'm mentioning it again because it's pretty decent. Apart from the hang-gliding. Think Pilot Wings without any playability whatsoever.

"Monsuier, with these superb reviews you are spoiling us!" I hear you screech. But please, think nothing of it.

Elsewhere, two new Dreamcast related items entered the Junkyard's cavernous and fully automated vault this weekend. Unfortunatley, it wasn't the shipment of pure kryptonite I got off eBay for £3, but I'll wait a few more days before I serve ebay seller 'ZOD159' with the Paypal complaint form. Ahem.

No, the new arrivals are as follows:

Dreamography 2 - May to December 2000 VHS
This VHS tape was availible for free to any herbert that wanted one from Electronics Boutique (RIP). It features footage of the period's biggest releases and has some blurb on the back about Chu-Chu Rocket, and also makes the cardinal sin of having MSR written as M-SR. A truly hideous useage of the hyphon that should never be repeated.

DC-UK Magazine Promotional VHS
For those not in the know, DC-UK was the ingeniously titled magazine from Future Publishing that promised the Earth, delivered it in part and then vanished without a trace leaving the shipment half complete. This VHS is quite similar to the Dreamography one in that it features a load of in-game footage with a shite soundtrack over the top. It came free with Issue 1 and features the word 'schmooze' on the cardboard sleeve.

Good eh? SCHMOOZE!

Samba De Baseball!

NOTE: This article has been since proved as rrubbish. See this Follow-up to see why.

YES. I knew it. I knew I would find a hidden gem game that can work with the maracas,. There just had to be, as every Dreamcast controller has a game that works remarkably well for it even if it's not mentioned to work for it on the back of the box. With the Fishing Controller it's Soul Cailbur, which the Dance Mat it's Space Channel 5, so what is it with the Maracas?

Well, I was determined to find another game that worked really well with the maracas, considering that I had to fork out £75 for them, and while Mr. Driller worked sort of well, it isn't perfect, and more or less every other game I have tried hasn't worked in the slightest. Looking around IGN Dreamcast's archives, there was this article about Samba's release in the US. I can't find said article at the moment, but it's tag line was "Don't laugh, but you might just be playing World Series Baseball 2K1 with those maracas". I took this with a pinch of salt, but I own the game from where I picked it up along with two other Sega Sports 2K1 dirt cheap from a Toys R Us in Florida back in 2004 (along with Sega Marine Fishing and Alien Front. When I say dirt cheap I'm talking £1-3 each cheap!) so I decided to give it a shot.

Normally I couldn't give a toss about Amercian sport sims, however..

Well, the menu's are not navigational with the Maracas, which gave me a bad sign. Once I got into the game however, using the 2nd controller plugged in, I noticed something different about the in-game layout. Normally the camera angle is third-person from behind your batter, and you get this little window to aim your bat with. This time, the angle was more of a full shot, with the pitcher facing the back of the camera and the batter facing in front. First few shots didn't seem to register so well, but that was maybe because I was using both maracas. I put one down on the floor and had a swing with just the one like you would with a real bat and, holy hell, the character on the screen did near enough exactly what I did!

What I lookedlike playing it. Sort of.

That's right, you can actually use one of the maraca's (either one will do, it seems) as a bat, and it registers exactly what you do with the swing! Hit it high, the ball will fly high. Hit it low, and it'll roll along the ground. Hit it fast, it goes fast! When using the maracas, the CPU plays the other characters on the ground for you, including the pitchers, and with this in mind you end up playing the batting roles of both teams. This should be great for multiplayer, as you could just pass the maraca to he next player when their team's batters come up. This game was most defiantly made with the maracas in mind, as these alterations to the game play prove. It must actually register the maracas much like Samba De Amigo) only without telling you, and switches to this simpler game play that only involves the batting.

Already the players seem to be a whole lot happier about it.

What's extra great about this is how it's techniqully exactly what the baseball part of Nintendo's Wii Sports is said to play like, with the only difference being the graphical style. Of course, what Nintendo is doing is taking this expensive (in 2000) technology and making it the norm for all their games, but the fact that it could be done six years ago makes you wonder: What if Sega decided to stick to the console market, and leaped on this idea first? Whatever the case, it’s very enjoyable to think I’m playing a small part of what is essentially being called the future of gaming using a game and controller created yonks ago. Not so revolutionary now, are we?

Take note that I'm not slagging off the Wii console itself, but rather just the baseball game.

Now of course, being British I haven't got a clue how Baseball works. There's so many terms and rules that I was often confused by it all. Also, on it's own with a normal controller this is a very dull game, and hard to play if you, like me, just don't get it and have to play all the other guys on the pitch. However, this game suddenly becomes another one of those magic game play moments the Dreamcast has so many of when using a maraca, and I'm sure once I get some mates round this will become a multiplayer favourite. What was also quite cute was seeing my dad walk into the room and rather than make a remark about how daft I looked swinging a bright red plastic maraca about, but "Blimey, don't those graphics look lifelike?". Who said the Dreamcast can't still turn heads?

Anyway, if you were considering getting the maracas set one day, now you definatly have to get them along with this game so you can glote to your mates when they rave about the Wii's controller.

Step into my Office...

Several days ago I announced that I had, like a particularly fat, clumsy and oafish goalkeeper, let a coveted miniature Dreamcast keyring slip through my sausage-like fingers. 'Tis true. If I remember rightly, a simply stunning post about the Dreamcast Gallery followed thereafter, and I left you - oh hallowed and respected reader - with an Empire Strikes Back sized cliffhanger as to what I had purchased to make up for the heartbreaking loss of said keyring-based awesomeness.

Ladies and Gentlemen, please empty your minds of the Fonz's iconic black leather jacket...

...and prepare for something roughly 7.4% cooler:

Keep going...

Its...

THE SEGA EUROPE DREAMCAST VIP LAUNCH JACKET!

The Front, embroided with the letters 'SOEPD,' which for the most part I imagine stand for 'Sega Of Europe...something or other.'

The Back, embroidered with something extremely familiar...

Yep, it's the Dreamcast logo! look at that quality workmanship!

I got this amazing, waterproof and thoroughly stylish (in a retro, student-type kinda way (don't hate me)) jacket off eBay for an undisclosed fee, and apparently, these coats were given out to 'industry VIPs' at the console launch. There are only a very limited number in circulation, and - even better - this jacket was never made availible to the public.

At last - something to keep me warm whilst I obliterate YOUR Kudos scores waaaaaaay into the small hours!

Sad? You bet your candy ass...but I'm LIVING THE DREAM!

DREAMCAST FOREVER!!!!!!!!

Furthermore:

As the Dreamcast Junkyard celebrates it's first 6 months in existence (that's 5 months longer than Mr Dreamcast Magazine, folks!), expect to see a 'Best of the Dreamcast Junkyard' post very soon!

Oh, and I got the Jet Set Radio soundtrack the other day. More to follow...

IGN Dreamcast returns. Dun Dun DUNNN.

As a certian ghostly sprite once said all those years ago: "RAIIIIIISE FROM YOUR GWAVE!"

A while back, the rather fanboyish but bloody funny IGN-Dreamcast2 blog started a countdown. What was it for? Now the countdown has ended this is it.

No, Sega haven't announced a Dreamcast 2 console. The news is that IGN has re-launched the Dreamcast section of their website thanks to a collection of fans doing it for free. Why? Because for starters they want to re-review every single game (because to be honest some of the original reviews were a little OOT. A 9.9 score for Tony Hawks 2? What were they thinking?) and because there is just so much love for the console still out there. Their first new review, complete with new screenshots and videos (that when seen next to the one's posted way back in 2000 is quite a bizarre sight), is of San Francisco 2049. The new rating system used just for the Dreamcast section even includes how rare said game is now and how much they paid for it. They even have an article about the best video game uses of Monkeys. Here's the blog blurb:

"You love this blog? Well you're going to be in heaven over the new IGN Dreamcast. No rules. No bosses. Just a bunch of Sega fans run amok, reminding people that while games coverage is serious business, this shit is supposed to be fun.

We're counting down every single U.S. Dreamcast game for the next year or so. That's right, we're playing every single game again, taking new screens and videos and giving out impressions on the value of these games in 2006. We'll also have retrospective interviews with former IGN Dreamcast editors plus the latest new on Sega's plans for a Dreamcast 2."

Brilliant! This was followed wth quite possibly the most simple yet perfect tribrute to the console ever put to youtube..