Sweet Bleems are Made of This.

(This article was originally from my old blog Sega Freaks, which is now dead. I've mysteriously moved it over here to the Junkyard. Whoo~)

I'll apologize right now for that terrible pun but hey, what's this? What are a bunch of Playstation games doing within the collection of anti-Playstation Sega Freak Gagaman's? Well, if you didn't already guess from the title, I finally got some games to try out the Bleem Beta that has been leaked across the net. If you haven't heard of it, it lets you play these ol' games on your Dreamcast, with smoother graphics too. Because it wasn't complete, however, only some games work well whereas others are either riddled with bugs or just give you the black screen of death. And thus the hunt for compatible games begins.

Firstly, how does it work then? Plain simple, it's just a case of disc swapping. Modeled by my cat above, all you need is a copy of the beta burned onto a disc, and any PSX you can find to try out on it. I've never actually owned any PSX games before, due to going with the Saturn for the 32-bit era instead (I don't regret it, the Playstation's games libaury has never really excited me quite as much, and, to my possible mistake, made me buy a Gamecube instead of a PS2, even though hat has turned out to have a lot of interesting games), but luckily the games are as common as muck at bootsales, and can picked up for daft little sums of money. For example, just today I picked up Cool Boarders for 50p, Driver 2 for 25p, and Time Crisis, which I will be demonstrating with, for £1.50). Stick the disc in and this below is what you get.

Here's Time Crisis running on it. I always have loved these games in the arcades, and would even go as far as to say it blows Virtua Cop 2 out of the water. The game runs almost perfectly, except unfortunately it's not compatible with the Dreamcast light-gun, so the controls can be sort of awkward. The other obvious problems is the DC pad lacks three buttons - L2, R2 and Select. For games like Driver 2, it prevents you from getting where you need to, although you can grab a PSX/Saturn controller to DC port off Ebay. The other obvious problem is not being able to save, although luckily that's not such a big deal for arcade titles like Time Crisis anyway. Below is some shots of Cool Borders 2, which doesn't have sound and looks major buggered in any mode other than championship, with textures going mad including black and green snow. Gran Turismo 2 is another game that runs almost perfectly, which is nice.

Ok, so it's a totally geeky and almost pointless way of playing Playstation games, but the games that do work look bloody brilliant, much better than they do on a PS2, and hey, it's a fun novelty and saves having to own a console that looks like a toilet on your desk. Also, if anyone does decide to hunt it down and try it out, here's some guys' incomplete, but very handy compatibility list.

Dreamcast gets in the news again!

Thanks to those lovely folks at dcemu.co.uk, I was informed about this news post on the BBC News website in which the Dreamcast is featured. This isn't some dug up archive news however, this is NEW news. With the Dreamcast in it! Hurrah! Ok, so it's hardly a great place for one to be found, owned by some bloke in jail who beat someone to pieces with a metal bar, but the guy at least has good taste in gaming, which should at least mean they could take a day or two off of his 5 year jail sentence, although how someone who's in the bird got such a wonderful luxury is a mystery. They should of maybe pawned him off with a CDI instead. Anyway, he was suing the prison for damaging this little white box of joy, and wanted 350 quid for it. Funny that, I don't recall hem ever costing that much. maybe he's counting the 15 games he had for it. With that kind of money, once he gets out in 2011 he can pop into a Gamestation and nab whatever remaining DC titles their might be at the time, of course if Gamestation hasn't become a new-games-only whore like GAME by then. Whatever the case, this would make much more interesting front page news than Jade Goody knocking herself out trying to run a marathon.

In other news which unfortunly didn't manage to get on the BBC News website, I got two more games from the good old Station today. My local one down me ighstreet got a huge new pile o' stock today of retro goodies including more DC games then the Southend one has probably had for ages. Titles there for a mesly 2.50 include MSR and Red Dog, but the two I picked up were Unreal Tourny and Super Runabout. you just can't lose for £2.50 a piece now can you?

Unreal is pretty standard FPShooter flare much like Quake 3 Arena, only with funny dialogue added and some infamous commentating (DOUBLE KILL! KILLING SPREE! You have to of been there) and some really fun weapons. The font's used in game are a bit cack though. Super Runabout is one of those games I bought years ago, sold, and then regretted so eventually re-bought. I normally can tell when I re-buy something why I sold it (Such as Re-Volt making you want to kick your telly), but I honestly don't know why I did with this one. The cut scene stuff at the start is terrible, but the in game is hella fun (even if the steeling can be dodgy) and there's just so much here to do and unlock it's hard not to like, especially when you can smash up just about anything. It may not be Crazy Taxi, but it's still rather fine in my books.

Nippon Attack Inbound!

Well, St George's Day passed without anybody actually noticing. It's funny that St Patrick's Day is the talk of the town, but when our own Patron Saint's Day arrives, no-one really gives a toss. And correct me if I'm wrong (which I invariably am), but St George killed a big fuck-off Dragon (see pic, taken yesterday) and wore cool looking Knights Templar style armour...whereas all I'm aware St Patrick did was drink Guinness and swear at kids playing football. Speaks volumes really.

However, that's all academic.

What isn't academic is my stop/start progress in Shenmue. If anyone is still contemplating buying this game, please first ensure that you get your attention span surgically lengthened. See, since I got hold of the ever-elusive Shenmue 2, I have promised myself that I will not jump the gun and have a go on it (even if it is just to see how much better the visuals are) until I have finished the first installment. It'd be like watching the 3rd Harry Potter film before even seeing the first one, not having a clue what is going on and then branding the whole thing 'shite.' Which is what I did. Shenmue shall not go the same way - I am determined to play through it as it was intended...although those goddamned sailors have once again scuppered my progress - all because I missed a trickshot at a game of frigging pool.

*Sigh*

I spent another couple of days wandering around Dobuita trying to figure out what to do next...and then inevitably lost interest again. Bah.

So my interest wandered - but it didn't get far. Oh no my friends...not far at all. I may have mentioned that I also got hold of Zombie Revenge (which is quite frankly a hideous little game) and another by the rather dubious title of MDK2. I always thought MDK stood for Murder, Death, Kill - but it actually stands for Max, Dr Hawkins and Kurt - the three heroes you get to control in this unbelievably good 3D action adventure (above). And while the last sentence may sound like a press release for Interplay, I can assure you that when I say this game is incredible - I comes from the innermost caverns of my cold, dead, coal-like shell of a heart. Oh yes.

It's so original, features great stylised visuals and storyboards, and each character has a truly individual style of gameplay. Bear in mind that I only played the first two levels, but I was hooked and only the absurd difficulty I encountered in one section made me stop playing. A review will follow shortly, but I can't recommend this game enough. Zombie Revenge on the other hand, as described above, is akin to finding that your kitchen has become over-run with ants to such a level that they are in your bread, cereal and teabags. And as much of what is written here is based on real life experiences, Zombie Revenge must be described as sickening. However, smearing the box with Nippon Ant Killer (pictured) WILL NOT remedy the problems of sloppy graphics, poor graphics or atrocious voice acting. It WILL, though, make you very ill if you don't wash your hands after using it. Hmmm...

Finally, just a quick note to apologise for the lack of updates - Blogger wouldn't let me publish for about 2 days.

The perfect woman?

(This article was originally from my old blog Sega Freaks, which is now dead. I've mysteriously moved it over here to the Junkyard. Whoo~)

We all love the Dreamcast it's true, but how far exactly can you go? You can celebrate it's birthday by spending a whole day with it playing it's best games, and you can spend hours cleaning and looking after it's many little faults that occur over time, but could you REALLY love your Dreamcast? Well, maybe if your Dreamcast had a woman's body like this one does, although even then, the moral implications are rather dubious (what do they call people that have a fetish for machines again?) Well, it seems there is someone out there who has dreamed this exact thing up and put it into comic form, luckily without stooping into any dodgy territory. And get this, she's not a fan work but officially endorsed by Sega!

As you probably guessed this character to the left is a creation of those barmy folks in Japan, who make comics about anything and everything. Yes, even for housewife's and business men! In this case, we have a comic series that serialized in a Japanese Dreamcast magazine rather brilliantly titled "Sega Make the Best Games in the World!" and stars a Dreamcast, Saturn, Game Gear, Mega Drive and others, all with bodies attached to them. Long-time readers of my web comic Manga-Gaga will probably recognize them, as I pretty much nicked the designs from where I saw them in an issue of the British mag DC-UK. here's the scan (Click to read and look at the scary lady holding the Mr.Driller guy):
Hunting across the 'net, I've also found other images from random sources of these characters, but haven't come across much info from it all. Here's a collection of stuff I found. If anyone out there has anymore info and/or images, please send them this way, as I would really like to know more about this series!

From top to bottom: The Dreamcast's name seems to be 'Casko'. She also seems to enjoy beating people up in the street with a baseball bat. Hense the orange logo, she's a red head. The third image looks like it could be a mug design (judging from all that merchandise in the mag scan, it could be just that), the 4th image gives you a better look at the Saturn character. The 5th: an actual page from the comic, it seems. It's a Powerpuff girl parody (also notice the looming PS2's, and one of the ingredients is a Sonic game). The small icons were found on a random Japanese message board. I was sure there was more lying about too, but I seem to have misplaced it.

EDIT: Ah, yes, here's the images I forgot. To prove that this stuff is actually officially by Sega, here's some images of the characters as capsule toys in Shenmue:
There's also a Casko featured on this webpage, that features loads of images that could be found on one of Sega's Japanese photo booth thingys.
The best find for the series, however, had to be this short animation I found on a movie download site a while back (Can't remember where exactly now, but it might of been Sega Fans). Apparently it was released on a CD-rom that came with an issue of the magazine the comic series is published in. It features all the consoles (except the Master System/Mark 3 that seems to have been left out of the series) as well as some mystery blue haired girl with a Dreamcast necklace. Hmm. I've gone to trouble of posting this up with YouTube for you. Credit goes to whoever found this rare gem of a Sega...thing.

As a bonus for the non Manga-Gaga readers, here's a collection of the best Sega console character comics I've done in the series from 2002-2005. Take note some of these are really old, and the characters are only based on what I could make out in that DC-UK ish. I made up the Saturn to be a samurai, for example. Some of these comics also feature characters from the bizarre DC RPG SegaGaga. Just for comparisons sake.

Shuffle, Resi Evil, and some F1.

The boot sale sucked this morning (Only made a tenner. Gack.), but I picked up a few more DC goodies. This one guy had two sets of Dreamcast consoles with a bunch of games on his stool, mostly he usual common-as-muck UEFA, Tomb Raider etc etc but he also had three games that I managed to get him to sell separately for a five "paund" note.

Sonic Shuffle: I can't begin to remember how long I've been meaning to try this out. The last time I actually saw a physical copy of it was back when it first came out (one copy) six years ago full price. Before you say Ebay: I only really use that for games and stuff I can't find elsewhere like import titles etc. Anyway, being the Sonic nut I am, it's kind of a shock to have not played this at all yet, until now. If you haven't heard of it there one simple, three-word way of describing it: Mario Party Clone. Mind you, it didn't turn out to be quite as bad as people have made it out to be (look about on any review site, it's not got very good ratings, which may of put me off buying it in the past maybe), once you get used to all the rules (Note to self: Read manual heavely before playing). Playing in 1 player is obverserly not the most fun in the world as you have to wait for the 3 CPU players to take their turns and faff about, and I really wish Knuckles would STOP saying "Is that all you got?" over and over again. Still, I found myself rather hooked to this today for some odd reason, and you'll be surprised where the hours go to (For a Sonic game, it's hardly what I would call a quick-blast game). All in all, from what I've seen so far I'd give this a 7/10 (Might go down to 6, although the fact I'm playing it so much must be a good sign)


Resident Evil Code Veronica: Now I never usually go for these titles or anything like it because they feature just about everything I don't want video games to have such as limited ammo and saves, searching back and forth a lot and all that equipping rubbish. I remembered the lengthy demo well, however, and for £1.66 it can't be a waste. Currently I'm in the same spot I got stuck in on the demo (which I solved, but can't remember) where you have to get some sort of material to make a 3D copy of a badge thing. It's not as tedious as I remember the original on the Saturn being, but I sill found myself wondering around aimlessly looking for one of those bloody herbs (I wasted one thinking I was giving it to that injured bloke in the cell room, and another was in the form of a spray can so I didn't even know what it was). I will, however, try and have a go at more of it. I won't give this a rating because I haven't played enough yet.

F1 World GP something or other 2 for Dreamcast (duh): The Dreamcast has way too many racing games. I mean, in Formula 1 alone it has 4. According to, well, a lot of people though, this is supposed to be the best one, so even though I only got another one a few weeks ago (F1 Racing Championship. Confused with the titles yet?) I decided to get this on the promise that I'll sell the inferior one. I'm glad to report that this one I just bought it is indeed the better one, with much, much nicer graphics, and a whole lot more options as far as I could tell. That other one will be on the boot sale tomorrow. 7/10

I also bought a PC game that can be found on the Dreamcast on American import that I haven't stuck my teeth into yet from the same bloke for a quid. I'll come back to that one another time.

Halcyon Days

For reasons known only to the shadowy organisation that controls my life, my homepage when I load up Firefox is set to BBC News. This is good, because before I instantly click on either the Hotmail, Free Porn or Russian Brides tabs on the toolbox window, I manage to get a glimpse of the day's unbiased, up to date and un-CNNised events. Today though, I decided to have a proper look at the BBC News site because I noticed, tucked away in the top right hand corner of the main page, an article about the PS2 and Sony's arrogant refusal to lower the price in the UK even though they have pretty much everywhere else. At the bottom, there were links about related articles so after a few minutes of sifting through them, I had a brainstorm: I typed 'Dreamcast' into the search window and found this article from early 1999 reporting the upcoming launch of the system, and also a rather interesting Real Player interview with a James Snodgrass, editor of some now defunct (probably) magazine on the potential of Sega's (then) unreleased baby.

I also unearthed this one reporting on the phenomenal launch success of the system as gamers went mental for Dreamcast and queued for hours to get hold of a console (see pic). It brings back memories of Game and Electronics Boutique actually stocking Dreamcast stuff, and playing on Blue Stinger in the entrace on one of those pods with a gaggle of school kids watching...ah, halcyon days.

Battle on through the tears though, brave reader - we shall have our day...but in the meantime, have a read of my review of 18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker. Actually, don't. It'll only make things worse...

Pimp my Dreamcast!

(This article was originally from my old blog Sega Freaks, which is now dead. I've mysteriously moved it over here to the Junkyard. Whoo~)

Here be a link to a site that features modified Dreamcasts with new paint jobs and LED lights! Devcast features a whole gallery of people's pumped up Dreamcasts, which include paint jobs, over clocking, controller shell mods and even artwork of some early Dreamcast prototypes. It's just like custom car show, only not. Here's some of my favorite mods from the site:

A lovely yellow paintjob with an even sweeter cut-out window.

Gotta love this shade of blue. I'd pay someone to make one of mine like this, because I'm too lazy.

This 'DC Viper' design is too sexy for words. I'm serious, I would pay someone to do something like this.

And finally, a very clever mod: A Dreamcast disguised as a Sega Saturn. Admittedly, I don't see why you would want one dressed up in a Saturn shell when the Dreamcast's is both smaller and more attractive, but kudos for pulling it off none the less.

Return of the...um...Brown Leather Jacket

That title won't make sense unless you're familiar with shite, late nineties British rap. However, Ladies and Gents - today my collection of Dreamcast stuff reached not one, but TWO Earth-splintering milestones. If you divert your eyes away from this very sentence, and point them slightly up and to the left you will no doubt, via use of the cones and rods every-so-neatly crammed into your eyeballs, be able to make out the distinct shapes of the numbers 'six' and 'zero.' This is because, my ginger beer drinking chums, today saw the arrival of the sixtieth* game into my collection! Of course, now that the 'Yard has assimilated the services of The GagaMan, the overall figure of Dreamcast related items is rapidly approaching a number only matched by the number of nuclear warheads George W. Bush has waiting to launch at the push of a single, flashing red button.

Shudder.

But back to me. Yes, today at lunchtime I took my crappy old Gameboy Advance to Elysium (Gamestation) and was awarded the princely trade price of 40 notes for it. With this I was able to procure MDK2, Zombie Revenge, two PC games (FarCry & Evil Twin)...and...

SHENMUE 2!!!!!!!

IN BRAND NEW CONDITION! NO tatty corners on the cardboard sleeve; NO scratches on ANY of the disks; NO spunk stains or bits of biscuit/cheese/pubes (delete as applicable) crushed into the pages of the manual!

There is a downside to all of this you understand - I still haven't even found the bar where the sailors 'hang out' in Dobuita in Shenmue 1, and since I'm abstaining from playing Shenmue 2 till I've completed the first segment of the adventure, I reckon it's gonna be a while before I actually get to play it...

Like the French Foreign Legion recruit in that ancient Kellog's Crunchy Nut Cornflakes advert, I will "RESIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIST!!" But then, when I eventually complete Shenmue 2 and have inevitably become enlightened that it is indeed the best thing ever, I'll be so totally crushed that there isn't a 3rd and final chapter and then commit suicide. So it's probably for the best that I refrain from pulling on that brown leather jacket...for a few weeks at least...

...And Breathe.

As is the norm, I will now impose my opinion about some films I saw recently. However, unlike in the past, I will keep it extremely short and even sweeter:

1. Charlie & The Chocolate Factory: Turgid. Depp - miscast, pathetic, camp, gay, bollocks. The original had soul, passion...DECENT ACTING.
2. Cinderella Man: Fantastic. Every time I read about Russell Crowe being arrested for being a tosser (or repeatedly smashing a telephone into a receptionists' face - come on, we've all done it), I wonder why he's even famous. Then I watch a film like Cinderella Man and all is forgotten. Marvellous.

End of rant. Oh, and check this Dreamcast bike out. Yes, It's fucking UK:Resistance, and you've probably seen it already, but it's DC related so check it out, y'all. And (please?) make comments so I don't look like the only one sad enough to bother...

*-The total number of games is actually 63 (if I include Planet Ring and WWF Warzone), but I couldn't find a '63 Today' badge. Fucking Google image result philastines.

Fishing! Pinball! Spawn...ing?

First post from the GagaMan(n) here, mainly because I just bought some stuff for me lovely Dreamcast collection today. After managing to make £75 at a boot sale Easter Monday (score), I was desperate to buy me little white box something new for it to nibble on. Ebay had nothing tempting (except a £60 buy-it-now Dreamcast display pod which I'd have no room for), and Gamestation in Basildon had nothing worth grabbing either (makes a change, normally I bring back something from there every time). Popping into the Gamestation down here in Southend, however. I found a couple games to tempt me to part with my money.

Firstly here was Pro Pinball Trilogy, which was £7. On the basis that I want to own at least one good game of every genre for my DC (hence my recent £2 purchase of F1 Racing Championship), Pinball was one I had missing, and this is the only Pinball game on the DC, unless you count those funky pinball boards in Sonic Adventure. The others that were asking to take me home were Track & Field and Spawn: In the Demons Hand. My fingers decided they'd survive better with Spawn, which was a tenner next to T&F's fiver. Whats more, Spawn was by Capcom, and I loves me Capcom titles (trying to catch 'em all, excluding the Resi Evil type ones), even though was well aware of the 5/1 rating it got in Official Dreamcast Mag, of which I have all it's rating s pretty much memorized by heart from repeated readings. But I took note that they also gave Maxen X and Stupid Invaders 5/10, and I liked those, so I had it along with Pinball Trilogy. That lovely "Bog Off!" deal meant I got the pinball one for free.

Waiting in the queue, rummaging through a basket of random game controllers, I came across a fishing controller! Score! Then I saw the buttons...it was a Playstation one. Bugger. When i got to the till I asked if they had a Dreamcast one, and low and behold they had one hiding upstairs! Sometimes it helps just to ask. It's an unofficial "Fisson" brand one, and one of the orange handle thingys was snapped off (you only need one anyway) but it was a measly £3, so I couldn't pass it up. I've been after one of these beauties for ages, and finally I had one in my grasp, along with two games for £12.98. Which was nice.

I've owned Sega Bass Fishing and Sega Marine Fishing (found in a American Toys R Us about 2 years ago for about 50 cents in a clearance) for quite some time now, but playing them with a normal controller wasn't very exciting, but the fishing controller really makes a big difference. Sorry for the bloody awful pun, but I got hooked on the games now thanks to it! Complete with my dad's big telly, it's like playing the games in the arcades all over again, except it doesn't cost me a quid every minute. I don't now how they do it but those blokes at Sega sure know how to take a boring arse old sport and make it exciting. They did it to Tennis, and they've done it with fishing. What's next, Virtua Cricket? Now that would be a challenge.

Bass Fishing: Without Rod: 6/10 With: 7/10 Marine Fishing: Without: 7/10 With: 8/10

Now, onto the other two games. Now as the title suggests, Pro Pinball Trilogy features 3 pinall tables. While I think they culd have maybe put a lot more than that in (5 at least), the amount of options and detail you get for each table is amazing. You can change the strength of the flippers, the condition of the table (from out of the factory to beaten up pub table), look at every little detail close up, and a manner or other things. One thing I'd complain about would be the angel of the table, though. You can change it slightly, but you really don't want to play this on a small TV as the top half of the table will just look like a mess of colour. In fact, if you play your DC on a small TV, I can't recommended this at all. Still, for those that can make it out it's a nice pinball set. 6/10

Now, onto Spawn. It's a sort of deathmatch/beat 'em up thingy with, eventually, 36 unlockable characters and whole lot of weaponry and violence. The graphics are very nicely done, although the camera angles can be a pain in the arse at times. Also, the controls are a bit hap-hazard, as you find yourself bashing the buttons hoping for the best. The bosses are massive screen filler that can kill you over and over again sometimes ripping you i half) over and over again unless you managed to grab all the items and keep dodging. I've only played one mode n it so far, but first impressions are that it's a bit of a mess but pretty fun once you get the hang of it. 6/10

For anyone interested (hey, Tomleecee posted his when this blog started), here’s a list of my current DC collection. Unlike Tom, I'm not out to own every single game on it, but every game I like enough to keep.

PAL Format games: 18-Wheeler, 4 Wheel Thunder, Bangai-O, Bust-a-Move 4, Capcom Vs SNK, Chu Chu Rocket, Confidential Mission, Crazy Taxi, Crazy Taxi 2, Daytona USA 2001, Dead or Alive 2, Ecco, F1 Racing Championship, Gunbird 2, House of the Dead 2, Jet Set Radio, Looney Tunes: Space Race, Maken X, Marvel Vs Capcom, Marvel Vs Capcom 2, Mr.Driller, Phantasy Star Online Ver.2, Power Stone, Project Justice, Re-Volt, Sega Bass Fishing, Sega Rally 2, Shenmue, Shenmue II, Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, Soul Calibur, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, Stunt GP, Stupid Invaders, Tech Romancer, Le mans 24 Hours, Tony Hawks 2, Toy Commander, Virtua Striker 2, Virtua Tennis, Virtua Tennis 2, Wacky Races.

USA Format games: Alien Front Online, Bomberman Online, NBA 2K1, NFL 2K1, Seaman, Sega Marine Fishing, Space Channel 5, World Series Baseball 2K1.

JAPAN Format games: Cool Boarders BURRRN! (Snow Surfers in UK), Sega Tetris, Sonic Adventure 2 (10th Annversary boxset), Virtua Fighter 3tb, Virtual On 2.

Homebrew: Bleem Beta, SMSPLUS (Master System/Game Gear emu), Beats of Rage Collection 1 and 2, Amiga emulator, Feet of Fury, Armored Campain, DCcirus, DCfighting, Aiming Tank, Dream Seclection 1, Dream Selection Tetris Clone edition, Fenix Collecton, NesterDC (NES emu), Smash Pack 2 and 3 (Mega Drive emu), DreamSNES (guess), DC Video CD player, Neopockott (NGPC emu), Raptor Quake, probably others I missed out.