Dreamcast Megamix (and YouTube onslaught)

Until I get time to actually write up another article here, here's a video I made just last week out of all the clips of DC game footage so far. There are 52 games featured in this video (53 if you count the one you can hear but not see at the start), and none of them are of FMV scenes, just the in-game goodness. The music used is from Sonic Rush, which sadly is not a Dreamcast game, but would have been if the DS was in fact a Dreamcast in a very clever disguise.

And because I constantly check the Search:Dreamcast in order of last posted age of Youtube, here's a link collection of the most interesting posts by people recently:

Power Stone has it's own Japanese cartoon, complete with naff theme tune. What, you didn't know?

Just when you thought you'd seen it all with Soul Calibur, here comes a documentary on how the game becomes a natural reflex. "It's the true test of manhood." Kudos, Dr. Rek, Kudos.

Remember any good British commercials for Dreamcast games? neither do I, but I never saw this one.

Ulala lives. I'm serious, there is no why this girl can NOT be Ulala herself.

Not exclusively DC related, but this Sega tribute inspiried me to make Dreamcast Megamix. Will bring a tear to your eye (or was it just me?)

Would you believe that this Homebrew game (which has a DC port) is in fact based on the Quake engine?

Someone playing Shenmue music on a Piano. Nuff said.

Girls play Dreamcast too! Well,it IS Bust-a-Move.

Because closing the Dreamcast lid takes SO much effort, someone has modded one with a close function.

Let There be Light(guns)

On the first day, God said "Let there be lightguns," and not, as is wrongly recorded, "Let there simply be boring old light." Cough. That's because God, in His infinate wisdom, knew he was onto a good thing when he planted the idea of videogames into Man's tiny, naked-ass mind. Of course, as we all know, games were shite until Man ate the Kebab of Knowledge, quaffed the Pint of Ingeniousness and invented the Mighty Dreamcast:

And lo, House of the Dead 2 was spewed forth unto the world like so much bile from the gullet of a 16-day old corpse, and it was good. So good infact, that Sega didn't give us another lightgun game for about 3 millennia...

At this juncture, I'd like to share with you a small musing I had earlier on. Bear with me. Anyone played Knife Edge on the N64? It was a pathetically bad 'lightgun' game...on a console without a gun. Now - if I had a) the intelligence; or b) the inclination to invent an N64 lightgun, and plug it into said 1920's themed console (it's pure art deco), would Knife Edge have the ability to recognise the lightgun? Hmmm. It's like that shit about the tree falling in the forest and nobody being around to hear it. Anyway, back to the real world (sigh).

Yes, after all the zombie blasting and enduring the horrendous dialogue of HOTD2 (who can forget such ambiguous gems as "Die - like G did," and "Don't come" (Snigger)), Sega rewarded us with:

Confidential Mission!

Yep, the newest entrant into the Junkyard is here - gleaming and shiny like a new 2 penny piece cast adrift in a particularly watery dollop of dog shit. However, in direct contrast to the evil, murderous, death-dealing shennanigans that go on within Confidential Mission, the circumstances surrounding the game's arrival in the 'Yard bring a tear to the eye. For, you see, Confidential Mission was donated to the cause by long time reader, supporter, and indeed commentator of this very blog - Father Krishna. Father Krishna - fellow Mancunian, Dreamcast lover and owner of the only Dreamcast collection visible from space - discovered that he, in his all knowing omniprescence, actually owned TWO copies of CM...and the rest is (recent) history.

But how does CM play? As you've probably already guessed after reading all the preceding guff, CM is - gasp - a lightgun game! The second one after HOTD2 infact. And it's a fucking stormer. After completing HOTD2 something like a bazillion times, it's refreshing to actually get to shoot some real-life peeps, and not already-dead buffoons with Sugar Puffs for teeth. But I'm jumping the gun (arf!).

In CM, you play as the decidedly un-heroically named Howard Gibson - a recent graduate from the James Bond school of smoothness. Armed only with a pistol, you set off (with your lovely blonde partner, Jean Clifford) on a 'confidential mission' to stop an evil genius (Agares) holding the world to ransom with a hijacked military satellite laser. Playing like Virtua Cop on anabolics, CM is big, brash and loud. It has great visuals and the game takes you through some really cool environments with loads of stuff to shoot and civilians WHO GET IN THE FRIGGING WAY. Ahem. Similarly to Virtua Cop, it features terrorists to cap and also the familiar green reticules that appear around an enemy and slowly turn red before he fires. An interesting feature in CM is the 'Justice Shot,' whereby if you manage to blow the gun out of an enemy's hand, he will surrender, thus furnishing you with more points. I don't bother with that though - I just shoot to kill. Maybe I'll try to get a job with the Metropolitan Police...

Confidential Mission is fairly short lived compared to HOTD2 and doesn't feature alternative routes through the levels (of which there are only 3), but it does offer some brilliant variations on the usual 'shoot, shoot, shoot' mentality of the genre. For example, during the second mission you hang upside down from the roof of a speeding train and as such must play that section from an upside down point of view. Also, to break up the monotony Confidential Mission throws in the odd time-limited task, such as firing blobs of glue at air vents to stop deadly gas from filling the room. Ace.

Like I said, CM isn't a massive game, but it features a great training academy filled with Point Blank style mini-games (above), and also a mode called 'Another World' where you play through the arcade mode but enemies appear randomly. An added bonus also appears in the manual - the page footer reads "The last trump for the peace of the world." Righty-ho.

So, all in all, a fantastic post-pub blast that breathes new life into the old dual Dreamcast lightguns (Health Warning: Playing with dual guns is only for the most hardened Dreamcaster. Do not attempt if you are of a weak disposition). Sadly, upon inserting the Microphone you still can't take Private Hudson's advice and use 'harsh language,' but you can't have everything:

And once again, many thanks to Father Krishna for supplying it to the 'Yard.

Oh, and through playing Confidential Mission, I think I may have stumbled on something that is as Earth-shatteringly amazing as playing Soul Calibur with a fishing rod. Watch this space...

Inferiority Complex

Ah, the August Bank Holiday. A 3-day weekend that traditionally consists of a continual deluge of rain coupled with nothing but shite on TV. I feel sorry for the unenlightened fools who are weak-minded enough not to posses a Dreamcast to get them through the endless hours of alcohol abuse and staring out of the window. Sigh.

***HOWEVER***

I'm not the kind of gamer who regularly partakes in the act of badmouthing rival platforms. This is generally because it's a pathetic waste of brain power, oxygen and above all - time. Oh, and because the Dreamcast simply has no rivals anymore, it being for all it's merits, a truly defunct system. Nevertheless, in-between random bouts of stating the bleeding obvious, today I spotted something I feel I must share with you.

Now, we've mentioned the embryonic Nintendo Revolution (or Wii, as I refuse to call it) previously here at the Dreamcast Junkyard - namely in The Gagaman's superb hit-attracting Soul Calibur-with-a-fishing-rod experiment. Now I'm going to mention it again. To be totally honest, the Wii (cringe) is definatley the console I'm most looking forward to in the Next, Next, Next Generation of hardware simply because of that brilliant controller/remote thingy, and the fact that the system's overall appearance is - let's face it - cool as fuck. Cooler, infact, than Samuel L. Jackson sitting in a deck chair made of ice whilst sipping a Bud Ice and staring out over the perfect and untouched Ice Deserts of Ganymede. A first for a Nintendo system, I'm sure you'll agree. But enough waffle. Look at these shots:




They're of a game entitled 'Elebits,' that looks to me like some sort of Pikmin style affair but set in a giant house. The striking thing is that it all looks a bit Toy Commander to me (in that it...erm...features small things in a kitchen)...but with graphics THAT AREN'T AS GOOD:

That's right folks - a game on a console TWO generations after the annihilation of the Dreamcast...with INFERIOR GRAPHICS than a 1999 LAUNCH TITLE!!!!

Put that one in your pipe and smoke it!

***Disclaimer: If you are a Nintendo fan boy, please don't leave messages on here about how I'm a cunt/idiot/fuck head etc. I know this already. Thank you for your cooperation.***

The Dreamcast Rap

Running the Official Dreamcast Junkyard (tm) You Tube account, I'm always hunting for the best Dreamcast videos to fave to the collection for people to see in one place. Just recently this clip popped up of a Dreamcast rap as er...rapped to you by the guys from Mega64. If you've never heard of Mega64, you don't know what you're missing out on, so I suggest you go to their website, and download all the clips (especially the Shenmue one because, you know, it's a Dreamcast game and all). Meanwhile, here's the rap in all it's filmed-with-a-camera-in-front-of-a-telly glory, submitted by a Yoshikid619. Dawg.