More shmupping action on the way...

Tired of every new Dreamcast release being a shmup? Well, I got to admit, it gets a little annoying sometimes, but as long as there are new projects for our console that's a good thing, I guess. To cut to the point, all this talk is because I've just discovered a new shmup being developed for the Dreamcast by the same guys that brought us Last Hope. Remember Last Hope? Neo-Geo quality graphics? Hard as hell? Well, this one is also going to be a horizontal shmup (I prefer vertical ones myself), and it's probably going to be as hard, since the guy admits that it's going to be a "memorizing shooter" (that means, forget reflexes, you need to know exactly where the next enemies will come from or you won't survive), but this time around this is going to be a Dreamcast game and not a Neo-Geo port, and the graphics really show that. Just see for yourself:

Nice, huh? According to the developer (I think this is not really a project by NG:DEV.TEAM, but a side-project from some of its members) DUX will be released as soon as June/July with a price of about 20 euros.

Zero Gunner 2

While I'm preparing my first DCJY-exclusive write-up, Father K suggested that I could repost stuff I had written for my personal blog, the badly titled NebachadnezzaR's Place of Awesomeness, which is a rather great idea since here my posts will have a much broader audience. So, what follows is a copypasta of my ramblings regarding Zero Gunner 2, exactly like you can read on my blog (no changes made). Enjoy:

"After the blast I had while playing Zero Gunner, I couldn't wait to try out its sequel, now on a real console instead of an emulator, so I popped the game in, turned on the Dreamcast, and...well, I liked some things but there's also some stuff that I really hate, so in the end I guess I have mixed feelings about this one.

To start with the good things, this game is beautiful. Really. Sometimes I end up forgetting just how powerful the Dreamcast is, and when I see it in action it blows me away. The textures are very detailed, the models have a great design to them, in that arcade fashion that only the Dreamcast seems to show, and the stages are really unique and impressive.

The gameplay is also very enjoyable for the most part, but the rotation system just fucks it all up. Unlike in the original ZG, where you would first lock onto an enemy and then rotate around him, here there's no lock-on system and you freely rotate your choopper. So far, so good. The problem is in the way this is done. To rotate you have to hold a button (thus stop firing) and then use the d-pad to rotate your ship. Now imagine doing this when all hell is broking loose around you! It's confusing, unintuitive and worse, it will most certainly make you loose lives, because you'll get so disoriented you'll loose any sense of direction and invariably run into enemy fire.



Unfortunately this is necessary, since enemies (and sometimes bosses) come from all directions, and sometimes the screen moves sideways or down instead of up. Shit... To make things worse, although this game offers many difficulty options, even the easiest setting is hard as hell. After two unsuccessful tries where I would always end up running out of credits in the last level, I thought "fuck it" and resorted to my life-saver, the Code Breaker cheat disc. With unlimited lives I eventually was able to beat the fucking game, but I immediately put it back in the shelter, since there's no extra modes to keep you busy, only a replay mode where you watch a previously saved game.

I may seem angry at this game for being so hard, but that's not the case. Hey, Under Defeat it fucking hard, I was never able to beat it, and I still love it. My problem with Zero Gunner 2 is that it's not only hard due to unforgiving enemies, but also due to a fucking control scheme that makes no sense! You don't loose because you suck, you loose because the control scheme to rotate the damn chopper is insanely unintuitive and impractical, and that's basically my major complaint about this game. Of course you can eventually get the hang of it you practice enough, but I doubt it's worth it when the Dreamcast as such an awesome library of shooters.

I would still recommend it to shmup fans, but be prepared for a challenge."

PS - As a bonus here's a picture of my (somewhat) customized Dreamcast. The picture is a little old, and right now the console looks a little different (I won't say exactly what I did to it because you would call me crazy...), so maybe I'll take another photo sometime, if you guys are interested of course.

Welcome Nebachadnezzar!

Lord knows that this site has benefitted from the contribuitions from Caleb, and now I'm inviting the awesome Nebachadnezzar to sew his Dreamcast seed all over the 'Junkyard. (ooer!)

Welcome Nebacha! May we bask in the glory of your Dreamcast knowledge! Oh and BTW, enjoy the video! I'm not sure it's been here before...

Lost Bleemcast video (and more!)

I was sorting through all my Dreamcast videos sitting on my harddrive (some of them take up a lot of space you know), I found a piece of Bleem footage that I had forgot to upload to the youtube account, so here it is: Time Crisis Project Titan running (poorly) on the infamous emulator. You can't use the light gun, the music doesn't play and it crashes after the first area of the first stage...but it's quite amusing to watch just for the skipping voices.



So this post doesn't look quite so meek, here is a collection of some of the best Dreamcast related videos I could find recently.

A Space Channel 5 live dance show at E3 2000. Not just another excuse for seeing a girl dressed up in Ulala gear, honest. Sega's set up at E3 2000 was simply magical, wasn't it?

A Saturn and a Dreamcast slagging each other off. Like that ancient Dreamcast Vs PS2 one, sort of.

A early tech demo that teases us with Scud Race models. Why did we never get a port of that game?

Hot naked Dreamcast porn. Actually, it's a video tutorial on calibrating your GD-Rom drive.

Dreamcast Hip-Hop from 'The Big Cheese' Sure beats that song Mega64 did, even if he is singing in in his kitchen.

A run through the "What's Shenmue?" demo. With narration that points out the subtle differences. Worth watching just for the cameo by Sega executive Hidekazu Yukawa.

Mario Kart 64 (just about) running on the Dreamcast. These emulators are just getting more ambitious, aren't they?

A expansive guide to getting good at Street Fighter 3rd Strike. Brilliantly edited with clips of Shenmue.

Gamma Powered!

Back in May last year, I introduced a website called 'Unseen 64,' a cool little place where they post pictures and gameplay details of games that either never saw the light of day, or were changed radically before being released. For some reason hidden deep within the cavernous emptiness of my pre-fabricated heart, details of beta versions and unreleased games captivate me with some kind of morbid fascination, and as such I often check the hallowed pages of Unseen 64 to see if they've added any new Dreamcast screens. And guess what?

They have:

World's Scariest Police Chases: Deadly Pursuit
Played the PSX version to death with my flatmates when I was at University, and it was a pretty decent craic. Especially after several litres of Lidl cider and a couple of tokes on the bong. The unreleased DC version looks like it could've kicked it's ass though - the graphics are way better:



Thunderboats
Thunderboats appears to be an arcade style speedboat racer very much in the vein of Hydro Thunder. Indeed, if you view the promo video, I'm almost certain you can hear the 'engine power down' sound effect used in Midway's blistering racer...



Galleon
Eventually released on the Xbox, Galleon was intended for an earlier Dreamcast launch and in it's original form probably would have garnered the recognition it deserved. As it is, it's just an also-ran Xbox game clogging up bargain bins around the country:



PBA Bowling 2001
Bowling. The real life game, for me, is just a tiresome way of interrupting a good drinking session so why anyone would want to actually play a computerised version is beyond me. Maybe the developers had the same thoughts and duly pulled the plug on PBA Bowling. Grapics look alright though...



Picassio
Picassio is one of the most enigmatic and simultaneously interesting games that was promised but never arrived on the Dreamcast. You were meant to play a sort of lycra-clad cat burglar who broke into museums and stately homes etc to pinch priceless works of art. A bit like Hudson Hawk, only good. Here's a (slightly grainy) video taken from Unseen 64's YouTube page:

Capconmen

Capcom – undoubtedly one of the Dreamcast’s staunchest allies – brought some superb games to the swirl-shaped table. You only have to look at stuff like the Marvel Vs Capcom fighters, Resident Evil Code Veronica and Power Stone to see that when it came to the DC, they had their fingers on the pulse. It is for this reason alone that I decry Capcom releases like Dino Crisis. Why? Three little words for ya: Shitty PlayStation Port.

Look at Code Veronica. Look at it! It’s frigging awesome! The graphics are some of the best on the Dreamcast, so why does Dino Crisis look like it was dragged backwards through a hedge before being thrown up on and then shat on by Brian Blessed? I’m getting ahead of myself here, but come on people! The DC is capable of so much more and Capcom should be shown up as the money-grabbing twats they are for releasing such a shoddy looking cash-in on our favourite defunct console.

But before I really start laying in to Dino Crisis, let’s view the whole picture.

Dino Crisis was originally a PlayStation game very much in the vein of Resident Evil – you know the sketch: fixed camera angles, badly animated characters, appalling voice acting and laughable cut scenes. These things are all present and correct in Dino Crisis, but where Resi had shambling zombies and stuff, Dino Crisis has been out and employed a gang of immigrant dinosaurs. Possibly for below minimum wage, judging by the game’s production budget. And that’s about as complex an explanation I can give: it’s Resident Evil with dinosaurs. You play as a sassy female member of a sort of rescue team (hmmm…S.T.A.R.S, anyone?) dispatched to a remote island to investigate the disappearance of an undercover agent who has vanished whilst trying to infiltrate a dodgy laboratory. Once there (and after the team gets – surprise! – split up), you get to explore the deserted facility, find keys, open doors (by using the most contrived key/code set up I’ve ever encountered in a game, I hasten to add), stumble across half dead lab workers who hand you vital items before kicking the bucket, and shoot/run away from various time displaced dinosaurs.

The old Resident Evil-style loading screens also make an appearance, but you get the added bonus of being able to see your character now, instead of being a disembodied head clunking up the stairs.

Quite why Capcom decided to release Dino Crisis on the Dreamcast is something of a mystery to me. From the outset you can tell it’s a direct port from an inferior platform with virtually no attempt at making use of any of the extra system resources available. The options screens are bargain basement, the music and sound effects akin to what you would expect from a Megadrive game and the graphics…well, lets have a looky…

The game is viewed from a third person perspective, but the locations switch from fully rendered 3D to 2D pre-renders depending on where you are. For example, in some rooms the camera will follow you as you wonder about, ducking under pipes and around corners; whilst in other rooms it just stays static because the background just appears to be nothing more than a low-res drawing. I may be wrong here (as I usually am in these matters – as I’m sure some smug cunt will gladly tell me via the comments thingy), but that’s just how it looks to me. The characters themselves are bereft of any real detail and are generally quite angular – nowhere near the standard of Code Veronica or even Blue Stinger’s protagonists. Pick-ups take the form of rotating floating boxes no matter what they are, so health, ammo etc all look the same until you acquire them and can see what you’ve got in the ‘items’ subscreen. It’s a bit like Deal or No Deal but without the Lovecraftian horror of Noel Edmonds’ goatee and strange tattoos. The map too is very antiquated – you just get a basic line drawing of the floor plan of the facility and whichever room you’re in glows blue whilst your destination glows red. Your character (who goes by the improbable name of Regina) isn’t actually shown on the map though, so it can get confusing and annoying when you’re trying to work out which door you’re meant to open to get to where you’re going. Especially when two of the three exits have raptors lurking behind them and your health and ammo are both minimal.

Look! A floating, rotating box! Wonder what's inside...

One of the remedial class puzzles. Put the fuses in the right order and press the button. Krypton Factor it ain't.

The dinosaurs don’t actually look too shabby – they move quite well but they’re just as dense as the zombies were in Resi so you can just run past them if you can’t be arsed standing there popping caps into their leathery green asses. To be honest, running past them is probably the best course of action in most cases considering the relative scarcity of ammunition and pathetic stopping power of the weapons at your disposal.

There are a few nice ideas in Dino Crisis – such as the branching storyline, the way you drip blood after being attacked and the way dinosaurs can follow you through doors so you can’t just keep being a cowardly be-atch by running away.

On the plus side, Regina's quite fit. Wonder if she's a natural red head.

However, as you’ve no doubt gathered, I’m not Dino Crisis’s biggest fan. On the 32-bit consoles it’s probably par for the course, but not on a console that has stuff like Shunmue, Nomad Soul, Code Veronica, Headhunter or even Carrier knocking about. If you want a decent adventure game, go and seek out one of those badboys. If you want a by the numbers Resident Evil clone with a shit, cliché-ridden story, poo graphics (it’s even got that weird texture-warping thing going on that most PSX games have), and acting straight out of the Barry Burton Academy of Drama and Dance then by all means have a crack at Dino Crisis.

40%

Verdict: More Barney the Dinosaur than Jurassic Park.

In the next gripping installment? Why it’s a double header! F1 Racing Championship and Spec Ops: Omega Squad. I can almost feel the testosterone welling up inside me. Fast cars AND guns? Lock and load, people – Lock and Load.

The Lost Golem is a Lost Gem

Now here's a game you most likely won't have heard of. I was going to include this as part of 'Japanese Import Oddness Part Two' (read the first one here) which i will be writing in the near future, but this game really deserves an article of it's own. I have actually owned this game since November, but have only really got around to playing it recently.

I first heard of this game while browsing through Segagaga Domain's Dreamcast write ups. Always a great place to get info on Japanese Sega releases, that. Described as a simple but clever puzzle game, I was intrigued as I do love me a good puzzle game.

So I tried to serach for more info, and came back with nothing. That was until I tried seraching for it by it's Japanese title Golem No Maigo, which gave me two excellent articles about the game by a Jeff M at his blog gogamego. The first claimed it to be "The Dreamcast's Best and Rarest Puzzler" with only around 500 copies sold, that gave a good description of the game play and features.

This was later followed by an interview with the games' developer who revealed that he was a student while producing the game, did a large lump of the work himself, and that the studio who put this out CaramelPot (who's logo looks like the Dreamcast logo stretched out) only ever made this one game before closing.

Now I just had to see this for myself. I was expecting when a copy did eventually show up it would cost a bomb like other rare games like Lack of Love, but it popped up on an Ebay shop for no more than £10, so I bought it.

Graphics wise the characters are very blocky crude models, much like those seen in Sengoku Turb, only in this case we're talking about a small team of student programmers and not the company that produced the Dreamcast's graphics chip. It makes up for the lack of any technical prowess with a very charming art style, including a beautiful colour scheme and characters you will find yourself warming up to, despite how simplistic they are. Even the instruction manual is full of cute child-like drawings of the characters. This charm comes across in the story as well, which I found a translation of at Gamefaqs...

"A Golem got his existence from sorcery conjuring the rocks and soil. The
masters of magic has come to an agreement that there would be only one of
them, nothing more. There were two peaceful countries, Pipiria and Mabel.
The kingdom of Pipiria was composed almost entirely by plains, with some
forests at the northern tip of the land. The magic sorcerers lived in that
forest during the peace time. Mabel, south of Pipiria, had an enormous lake.
On the lake, there was a wizard composing wizardry for Mabel, up on a tall
tower. One day, Pipiria was attacked by goblins and the people of Pipiria
lived in uncertainty and fear every day ever since."

The game manual also suggests that if you are the emotional type, you should get a handkerchief while playing the game. I haven't played enough of the game to see why this is yet and such emotional scenes might end up being lost to those who can't read Japanese, but with the exception of the text in the cut scenes this game can be easily played without any knowledge once you know what menu is what.

So what do you do in this game then? Well, you play as the rock golem with it's big square body and beedy little eyes, who has to guide a king who seems to be lost and has no sense of direction. In each stage you have to guide him from one door to another using walls you can push around to change his direction. You see, much like the Lemmings series of games, every time the king comes across a wall he will turn in the next possible direction, either left or right, and he will do this no matter what. Even if he is about to walk straight towards a hole.

But getting the king into the exit is not all. You also have to make sure all the walls on the stage are linked to the red wall when the level is over, so the Golem can knock them all over in one push. This is where things can get complicated as you need to adjust the walls to move the king towards the goal and link them all together once he is heading in the right path.

There are many stage elements that will complicate matters more such as pole that will make walla rotate 90 degrees, and various types of enemies that will break down walls, get in the kings way or even attempt to kill him. half of the fun comes from seeing just how many ways the king can be bumped off. If a level is driving you mad you can push a wall into him, knocking him off the stage and landing on his fat arse.

There are about 100 or so levels in total with cut scenes inbetween every 10 or so of them. Once you have conqured all of those however the game is not over. Considering what a low budget, small staffed game this was, Caramelpot sure did utilize a lot of the Dreamcast's features. There's also a two player battle mode (which I have yet to try out) but the real life expansion for this game is the stage creator, which gives you free realm to produce a level using any of the games elements and save it to your VMU, as many as you like as far as I can tell. What's more, there is a link to caramelpot's website on the disc where you could download new stages and upload your own for others to play. It's a shame the website has long since vanished as i would have loved to try out some of the user created stages.


A note must also be made for their use of the VMU screen while playing. While it has no real purpose in-game, the animations displayed throughout the game are a nice touch, with a close up of the king's face in which ever direction he is facing, as well as death and victory animations amongst other things.

So if you ever manage to come across this rare but cheap game and like a good puzzle game that will get your brain going, I would defiantly recommended this, so long as you can get over the basic visuals.

Nomad Service Resumed

How do. Whilst it’s true that since my last (proper) update (the last one was shite – I know) I’ve bought more Dreamcast games than were released in total for the pile of decomposing hog remains that is the Tiger Game.com, my ‘working’ erm ‘life’ has been quite ‘hectic,’ and as such my Junkyard related duties have been neglected somewhat. However, this will be rectified posthaste. How so? By telling you what the fuck I’ve been spending the equivalent of a good piss-up on over the last few weeks, that’s how! Well, I say ‘good’ piss-up. What I actually mean is ‘good’ if you’re a ketamin addled, illiterate 16 year old abortion of a child from Salford. Y’see – the total sum of money spent on expanding my already burgeoning archive of Dreamcast games is roughly the same as the amount of Jobseeker’s Allowance that the average hoodie-wearing scrote blows on White Lightning or Pulse Cider over the course of a weekend. So, for those unfamiliar with the rampant social decay in inner-city modern day Britain: about 20 quid. But anyway – The Dreamcast Junkyard is an impartial source of information and as such, all previous comments on chavs, cider, dole and Salford are null and void.

In a revolutionary overhaul of the way I bleat Labrador shit about what I’ve recently bought, I’ve decided to dedicate individual posts to said games. Not only does this allow me to update (almost) daily – it also allows me to wax lyrical in more depth about the game in question, blowing away the notion that maybe, just maybe, I haven’t actually bought the game but merely lifted gameplay details from Wikipedia, bastardized the article and offered it up as my own experience. As a side note, I’d also like to point out that this has never happened in the past. On this site, at least…

The Nomad Soul

PC ports. Bizarre creatures that were touted as being commonplace in the early days of our favourite console’s life. Hidden & Dangerous, Monaco GP2, Incoming…all PC ports. All wank, I hasten to add. But what of The Nomad Soul? A game developed in part by none other than Ziggy Stardust himself. The PC version was quite well received by the gaming press if I remember rightly, so a DC conversion seemed on the cards from the off considering the Windows CE…er…stuff inside the Dreamcast. Quite weird bearing in mind it’s hardly the kind of thing console gamers usually want to play. For that, read Poke-fucking-mon. Or Need For Speed: Underground 9 - Sponsored by Road & Smack (your be-atch up) Magazine.

Giggidy Giggidy - Allll Riiiight!

So, Nomad Soul. You play – strangely – yourself. Yourself invited by a dude called Kay’l (snigger!) to inhabit his body and basically take over his existence in order to discover why his life’s gone to shit in recent weeks. Geez - If I could’ve done that circa August 2003, there’s a strong possibility I’d be approx 87% happier in life right now. The difference between me, circa August 2003, and Kay’l though is that he’s a cop residing in the futuristic alien city of Omikron and I was an unemployed bum living in a gun-crime ridden district of Manchester.

Upon answering Kay'l’s call for help – simply by turning your Dreamcast on, I might add – you are told virtually nothing except that his world is under threat and that you are the only one who can help. Not to put you on the spot or anything. After that, you’re thrust into Kay’l’s 3D, fully explorable world. Forget that the world into which you are ‘thrust’ is a dystopian, segregated, fog ridden metropolis and you’ll be fine. Welcome to the city of Omikron. A city that runs to the dulcet tunes of David Bowie and is encapsulated by an enormous crystal dome – minus Richard O’Brien – that protects its inhabitants from the harsh winter blowing a gale outside. Well, probably more than a gale, but you get the (world destroying) idea.

So, you’re in a foreign body, no idea what the crack is and you’re in a strange alien city. First thing I’d do is hit the bars, check the manhood and then pull a bird - but for the sake of videogame coherence, you are instructed to seek out Kay’l's apartment in order to piece together what it is you’re meant to be doing. From here, you discover that Kay’l is a member of the fuzz (that is, a police officer), disappeared a week ago whilst on duty with his partner, his partner has since turned up brown bread (dead) and that he’s a prime suspect for the murder. Oh, and he’s been assaulted by a demon. Cue much running about trying to find out what happened to your partner, quite why you’ve become Derek Acorah, completing side missions and shagging Kay’l’s missus. Rock on!

Shit jokes and innuendo aside, The Nomad Soul is quite a unique game on the Dreamcast. It’s a sort of paranormal detective story with you cast as the detective. You start with no knowledge of where you are, but through clever use of the in-game computer system (known as the ‘Sneak’) you can piece together a coherent idea of what’s going on and what’s required of you. At heart, The Nomad Soul is a 3D third person adventure but in certain situations the perspective switches – sometimes to first person for shooting sections; and sometimes to side-on for the fighting sections. Shenmue Lite? You bet your ass.

You start the game in a sort of Blade Runner-esque cityscape full of police droids and impolite citizens, but rest assured that the game progresses out of the futuristic squalor. This is because Omikron is quartered into different sections that have their own cultures and technological styles, all of which are completely sealed off from the others to control population. Inevitably, you will get to venture into these alien environs and you’ll also get to migrate bodies – hence the name The Nomad Soul. In an effort not to destroy the storyline for those who have yet to sample the delights of the game, I will desist from revealing all.

Basically, The Nomad Soul is a kick-ass action RPG with slight frame rate issues and crap first person shoot ‘em up sections. Its story is original and the music is supplied by David Bowie. Anything else…? Oh yeah – you get around by calling cabs called Sliders. You can’t actually drive them, they’re controlled by the CPU. Which is a bit shit, hence:

85%

Verdict: The Nomad Soul ROCKS!

Next up? The slightly less impressive Dino Crisis…

Scraping the Barrell

I realise it’s been a while since my last post here at the Junkyard – but fear not! The recent blizzard of clear and blue plastic cases that has been battering my letterbox like a weather-based version of Ricky Hatton will put paid to this dearth of updates over the next few days. In the meantime, I thought you may (or more likely may not) like to see this:

In a maelstrom of ventricle-ceasing boredom, I borrowed – and subsequently only watched half of – possibly the shittest Adam Sandler film (EVER) off a mate last week. It’s called Punch Drunk Love, and even though the DVD box says it’s “Fucking Awesome, you twatting cunt” (sic), it’s actually a load of bollocks about a socially inept cluster fuck who is afraid of (amongst other things) getting intimate with a woman. Yep – it really is that good. Anyhow, the reason I bring this celluloid bowel movement to your collective attention is this: It’s got a Dreamcast in it!

Spotted a DC in a film? Want to share it with the world? Don’t bother – this is just a shite filler until I can be arsed to write about my new stuff.

NB – To the mate who entered my domain, saw my Dreamcast and ran over to it with childlike glee screaming “Wow! Is that an N64?!” – have a word with yourself.

Shopping for a Dreamcast in 2008

Someone needed a Dreamcast and made the trip down to the local swapmeet.

They find a re-packed Dreamcast for $60. With the Wild Thornberries video game! (They knew that it wasn't a game for the Dreamcast. They were just making fun of it. But they really didn't know what a RFU adaptor was...oh these kids today.)

My favorite quotes.

"Why do you want a Dreamcast?"

"Because the PS3 sucks."



This mirrors alot of my experiences with buying Dreamcast stuff. (It's mostly Russian or French and not Spainish being spoken though) You have to go to these places though. You never know what you can find. And, sadly, they are about the only place to find older games in some areas with no independent video game stores that carry retro stuff.

And people are ALWAYS trying to include the wrong system/games in a bundle. WTF? Is it so hard to tell a Dreamcast game from a PS1 game or computer software? Read the side label people!

I should document my next trip to a local flea-market to find Dreamcast stuff.

People still want the Dreamcast though. That is clear.

I just got the unreleased K-Project for my Dreamcast and I have been playing some Expendable as well. Damn Expendable is a fun little game. Pick it up and play a round if you haven't.

Arcade Goodness

This post has been written by Portugese Gaming Guru and Saturn Junkyard correspondent Nebachadnezzar over that his most excellent website Nebachadnezzar's Place of Awesomeness.

But being a diamond geezer, he's let me reproduce it here! Enjoy!

"Featuring several well-know characters from various Capcom titles (only one character was created exclusively for this game), this is pure arcade goodness that plays somewhat like the cult hit Smash TV. Using an overhead camera, you're put in levels that basically consists of just a small area filled with bad guys. After you wipe them out, the "semi-boss" comes and after him the real boss of the stage shows up. You beat the fucker and move on, simple as that.

The downside is that the game is painfully short, ending in (depending on your skills and difficulty level) 20 minutes/half an hour, if not less.Once you beat it for the first time, an artwork gallery shows up, but that's about it. There's no secret characters (actually there is, but they don't need to be unlocked, you just have to figure out how to play with them, and it's worth since we're talking about Megaman and Bulleta from the Darkstalkers series), secret stages or additional play modes.

There's a 2-player mode and nothing else, all you have left to do is beat records or play with all the characters (they play somewhat different, specially when it comes to the special attacks).But despite that this is a great game. The gameplay is solid and as fun as an arcade game gets. It would be better with a dual analog controller, but still the Dreamcast pad gets the job done. Also the graphics are really great, I wonder how this game looks when hooked up to an HDTV through a VGA cable...

Overall this is a great game that I recommend to all you arcade action fans out there.After beating this game (several times), I thought it was time for a more traditional shmup experience, and the first game that came to my mind (don't know exactly why) was Zero Gunner 2, also on the Dreamcast. But wait, that's 2, what about ZG1? The bad thing is, 1 was an arcade game only, there's no console port. The good thing is, it runs almost perfectly using the Model 2 emulator I talked about sometime ago in the Saturn Junkyard!It actually runs even better, since you can play it in full screen mode at a maximum resolution of 1280x1024. That's as much as my monitor can handle!

Talking about gameplay, it plays mostly like any other vertical smhup, the bullet hell variety, except for the fact that you can lock-on to enemies and then move freely around them, even to the point of turning your chooper 180º and shooting down instead of up!This really contributes to differentiate it from the countless other shmups we see and play everyday and it was probably the idea behind the most excellent Under Defeat, one of the last official Dreamcast releases. Other than that, the progression is also interesting. From the main menu you can choose to play every single level in a row, but you can also select from the Europe, Asia and USA "campaigns", each with their own set of 5 levels to beat.

This is great for an arcade game, since you can try the 3 different scenarios at your own will, without having to beat one to have access to the other.The downside is it's difficulty. Yes, it's an arcade game, and at least using an emulator you won't end up broke, but still it could be a little easier at times. Anyway, as long as you're patient and don't forget to add more credits, this is a pretty good shooter to spend an hour or so with. Not to mention you can get both the game and the emulator on the web for free! What are you waiting for? Go grab it now! As always, if anyone needs links or help configuring the emulator, just ask.PS: I just found out that both Cannon Spike and Zero Gunner were developed by the same company, Psikyo. Funny, uh?"

Some interesting Homebrew projects

Well I think we all need a fresh breath of air to keep our spirits up after recent events.

If nothing else, the past week has shown that there is still alot of interest in the Dreamcast out there.

Speaking of interest in the Dreamcast...check out this quote from http://dreamcast.dcemu.co.uk/


"Dreamcast Scene is going through a major resurgence with the releases of a New Genesis emulator, New Games, a new compilation and much more. If you have a Dreamcast rotting away at home or can pick one up cheap then you could be enjoying one of the best console homebrew scenes" wraggster


Let me give you a quick rundown of some of the releases he is talking about.


Gens4All


Yes, you heard right! A brand new Genesis/Megadrive emulator has just been released for the Dreamcast!

I am still playing Genesis games on my Genesis of course but emulation on the DC is a close second. I really enjoy being able to emulate games on a console vs a TV.



Read all about "Gens4All"


Neverball


Neverball, a game similar to Monkeyball.

It reminds me of one of those old wooden box games where you tilt the top to move a ball around a maze. One false step and your ball goes kerplunk.

Like Monkeyball I play this game even though I am horrible at it.


There are some very prettty colors though.


Read all about the new version.



Visit the Neverball Homepage.

Captain Commando And The Avengers by Gabo-Hanzo

Another Beats of Rage Mod.

It looks pretty spiffy and I like most games where you can play as Captain America or The Punisher.

Read all about it.

EmuForge Homebrew Compilation CD

Do you like ZX-Spectrum video games? Do you also happen to like the Dreamcast? Well then by Golly you are IN LUCK.

This lovely CD image comes with a bunch of ZX-Spectrum games inlcuding Cannon Bubble, Phantomasa and Sokoban.

Camelot Warriors (the hardest platformer I have EVER played) is also present on this disk.

In addition it comes with an EDGE 3D engine port with FreeDoom.

All in all a very promising look toward the future all on one .cdi. I love the Dreamcast homebrew community for putting together such awesome compliation disks.

Read about it here.

http://chui.dcemu.co.uk/

nxDOOM vs Escena DOOM

This seems to be a Doom mega disk filled with mods and new levels.

You do need the original Doom2 .wad to play this homebrew though.

I have not had a chance to run this yet since it's split up into different parts.

But, hey, I like playing DoomDC. The loading times on that kinda sucked but the game itself ran fine once you got into the program. Some of the mods seem like good fun.

Read about this.

So there are a number of great releases for the Dreamcast and the homebrew scene seems to going strong.

Sega asks us "Do we still own a Dreamcast"?

Sega have updated Dreamcast.com with the following message: "Do you still own a Dreamcast?" along with a new user@Dreamcast.com registration set up page which requires your Dreamcast console's System number (which I believe may be the sticker at the bottom with the barcode). After Sega recently updated their trademark for the brand name and now this, what could they possibly be up to? What are Sega planning? Whatever this turns out to be, it shows that Sega has not fogotten about their last console after all of this time, and are even hoping that no one else has. Whatever it is, sign up and hope for the second coming, folks.

EDIT: Word is spending about on forums that this *might* be a hoax by a spammer trying to make money off the google ads from the G-mail account signing up to this gets you. Until Sega confirms that they are indeed not involved with this, I'm skeptical. At the moment the site is "temporarily suspended" due to so many requests, so who knows, but if someone is using the Dreamcast name as a scam...

The Escapist features an interview with Cryptic Allusion

Cryptic Allusion, makers of the finest video game featuring a samuari duck, were recently interviewed in the Escapist.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_139/2993-Interview-Cryptic-Allusion-on-Keeping-the-Dream-cast-Alive

Even though Cryptic Allusion seems to be trying to move in new directions the vast bulk of the interview had to do with the white wonder machine.

Including the following tidbit...

"I don't see the homebrew scene really opening up unless Sega decided to get involved with KallistiOS to help it along, filling in the gaps and, in the process, recreating it as a true dev-kit. I don't see this happening in the near future, but I suppose an old Dreamcast engineer could pop up somewhere. I want to point out that I do not know of anyone out there even considering this. Don't think of it as a rumor." -"Hot Rod" Roddy Toomim (Escapist, 139 March 4th 2008)

TOO LATE! It's out on the interwebs and is now FIRMLY A RUMOR. It's as real as the Dreamcast 2. Accept it Toomim. Just accept it...

In any case they seem to think that there will be a Dreamcast revival in about 10 years. I had my estimates for about 5-6. We will just have to wait and see who is closer.

It was mentioned they felt the Dreamcast was somewhat of a fickle machine, prone to breaking down. I heard this so often I now have like 5 Dreamcasts as backups but none of them have broken to the point of no return. In fact the only problem I have had (control board fuse) was easily fixed. Maybe I am just not as "hardcore" as other gamers???

They were also somewhat understandably skeptical about the future of Sega making hardware. I chose to ignore that paragraph just like I ignore reality since the year 2000.

The Escapist has great articles on gaming to read if you are bored.

All Hail the Undead Console.
All Hail the Dreamcast.

Brand new Dreamcast port...and yes, it's a Shump.

The first release of Tyrian on the Dreamcast has snuck it's way on the off white box.

God, Dreamcast Homebrew devs must LOVE shumps.

It does have bugs. For example the instruction screen doesn't work. Some people also said it's a bit slow, but I didn't notice that much. As with most first releases you can't save games yet.

The arcade version of the game plays nicely enough and the analog control stick is supported.

Get it here:

http://iberdc.dreamcast.es/ports/opentyrian/openTyrianDCcdi.zip

Pulled from DCNewsUKat DCEmu.co.uk:

http://dreamcast.dcemu.co.uk/tyrian-for-dreamcast-95043.html

Also there was a Golden Axe remake on the Dreamcast as well. Since I was out of the loop for a bit I forgot to mention this one before. It looks pretty sweet.

http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=91011

Sega Dreamcast NIB - ShopGoodwill.com

A Dreamcast New in Box is now posted at the Goodwill website. Of course it's not REALLY new in box since they opened the sealed box to make sure it was in there. This is my biggest pet peeve about shopping in thirft shops. They ALWAYS open stuff, even if it's factory sealed. I have bought Genesis and Game Gear games that had been "new in box" before they were put on the shelf.

In any case thift stores and Goodwill sometimes have Dreamcast stuff for sale. I have gotten alot of good deals from stores like that.

What's really interesting is that after this listing was put up from Kotaku the list price went from $30 to $301.00 in a very short amount of time.

Hmm...$301.00? How much is the Wii again? I guess some people still know who the king of console gaming is.

The Dreamcast isn't new-gen or current-gen. It's AWESOME-GEN.

All Hail the Undead Console.
All Hail the Dreamcast.

Pulled from Kotaku

Originally posted on Gamertell

Reminder...

My last (weak) post has sat on top of the DCJY for a while and I know this stuff has been posted here a gazillion times before, but I think it encapsulates the magic of our fave console (perhaps) to a select few that haven't experienced it before...

So sit back, enjoy and revel in the glory that was the major player (all be it not commercially) of the last gen, then weep for the glory of what could have been...