DCJY Rummage: Visual Park for Dream Eye



Here is the review of the Dream Eye's Visual Park software. I also mentioned a homebrew photo manager that was recently released on DCemulation which you can get here.

New Dreamcast on sale for $99! And now it's sold out...

Wow.

ThinkGeek had some new in box Dreamcasts for sale. $99 each.

...and now they are all gone.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/games/ba52/

However, you can sign up to be emailed if they happen to get any more in.

Wow. These sold out very quickly. I think the the TG store is probably kicking themselves for not charging more.


(And yes, I know that you can get NIB Dreamcast's elsewhere on the web for the same price. I posted this to note how quickly these things sell out when major sites report on the sale (Kotaku, Cheapassgamer...ect)

Dreameye InsideOut Video




Well here's that Dream Eye video I promised, or should I say the first of two, as this will be followed up with a Rummage video of the Visual Park software. 'InsideOut' is the name for all the unboxing type videos I'll be doing from now on (I guess you could count these
Samba De Amigo and Wind and Water videos as 'InsideOut' videos, too).

The Dream Eye! Oooh.

Well lookie what showed up toady: The DreamEye, a digital camera for the DC which I got rather cheap in an auction (about £20). Is that not the happiest box art you have ever seen? It's right up there with Samba De Amigo's box, at least.

Here's all the hardware of the box. The camera itself almost feels like a toy one, it's very light, has barely any buttons, a tiny light and weighs almost nothing. The blue part attached to it is a battery pack (takes two AAA's) so you can use it as a portable digital camera (albeit an extremely out of date one now, as most mobile phones can take better photos than this, let alone anything else).

You get a blue microphone adapter for the controller (just like the one you get with Seaman, Planet Ring etc) and a microphone head set, so you don't have to talk at the controller, which is nice. There's also a stand you can screw the camera into, which is quite heavy and sturdy.


Finally this is the software you get with it: Visual Park. The disc is in a CD case like any other Japanese Dreamcast game, only with no manual inside it as the manual is rather big, the same size as the box. Using the software is pretty easy even without being able to read the Japanese as there are plenty of visual clues to what is what.

The disc has an excellent photo editor that lets you do all sorts of daft things, and a video creator where you can record a (terribly compressed) 25 second clip and save it to your VMU or e-mail it to someone. You could also chat online with this thing, which is pretty amazing on a console considering it's age. Once again Sega was far too ahead of its time for its own good, and sadly this wasn't used for any other games like the Eye Toy was when that came out years later.

I'm working on videos of both the DreamEye and Visual park at the moment, but for now here'sa video I uploaded a little while ago in case you missed it.


VG Chartz rates the top 10 Dreamcast Games.

http://news.vgchartz.com/news.php?id=3396&a=2

You will notice that they included both the American Dreamcast and European Dreamcast controller in the graphic for this article. Classy. It's the little touches that really do it you know.

The list itself is not really that surprising.

However, I was pleased to see that Resident Evil Code Veronica was at the top.

As the very first Dreamcast game I ever played and beat RE CV holds a special place in my heart of hearts. Actually utilizing the Dreamcast VMU for something other than memory was fun (it displayed your current health). I felt that this was the best control-wise of all the classic Resident Evil games.

With all the remakes of this game (That actually added very little to the game) and the more recognizable titles in the Dreamcast lineup it's good to see this title get some respect.

I actually bought the limited edition of this game but I have not tried to play it yet. The CD art and cool red cover are marvelous looking.

Stop - Shower Time!

Went round to see the old dear over Easter. She hadn't bought me any Easter eggs, which I'm sure you'll agree is bloody outrageous. Anyhow, upon entering her bathroom to throw up in disgust, imagine the surprise when I saw her shower curtain:


Dreamcast swirls inhabiting my mum's bathroom. Who'd have thought it?

Ignoring claims that I should 'get out more,' I've gone and got myself on Xbox Live. It's pretty good ain't it? Except for the chavs infesting Project Gotham 3, that is. Feel free to add me to your list - Tomleecee1982.

FIN.

Caleb, you're starting a craze!



Kicked out of school for trying to run a Dreamcast on one their projectors, only to take over a Lan club with them instead, pulling everyone away from their Call of Duty to play some House of the Dead and Capcom Vs SNK. Wouldn't it be nice if public Dreamcast gaming became something of a global phenomenon? :P

Giana Returns Trailer



The team working on an unofficial homebrew sequel of the famous Commodore 64 game Great Giana Sisters have released a trailer showing of the new version of the game, with completely re-drawn sprites and a re-done engine since the version supplied on the DCEvolution disc 'The Sandman'. Kudos on the choice of music: Machinae Supremacy are brillaint, go download some free songs by them if you get the time.

Ebayneezer Scrooge

What a freakin' amazing few weeks its been here at the Central Administration of Dreamcast-related Intelligence (that's CD-i, to the uninitiated. If anyone else has used this name in the past, then I assure you it is purely coincidental), aka: The Dreamcast Junkyard. Not only do we get to see the awesome Dream Tablet and SD Card Reader, but Caleb preaches to the unwashed masses by showcasing Powerstone 2, through VGA...on a 65,000 ft projection screen. On the moon. Truly brilliant. Unfortunately, I cannot boast about such activities. Infact - and even whilst writing this I shed an acidic, cheek-rotting tear - my love for the Dreamcast is now very often hidden from friends for the fear of scorn that I have received in the past. Like someone who has a sexual preference for eating freshly delivered shit directly from another man's arsehole, I keep my passion locked away in the deep caverns of my Hollow-like heart and only allow it to ejaculate forth when I point my web browser at a certain site:

EBAY!

So to cut a long (and incredibly dull, convoluted) story short - let me elaborate in the voice of Robert Downey Jr's character from Tropic Thunder: "I got new shit, motherfucker!" Not that you're a motherfucker, dear and sacred reader...erm...(door slams)

Before I continue however, I must stress that devouring excrement from the business end of another dude is certainly not something I partake in. On a regular basis.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

I know what you're thinking. I also know that this can barely be described as a 'game,' but when I saw it for 99p, I had to have it. Based on the hideously drawn-out real life game show of the same name, WWTBAM features that slimy gimp Chris Tarrant barking questions at you. Get them right and you win...well, nothing actually. Except a screen telling you that you've won a virtual 32,000 quid. Or 64,000 quid if you haven't used all your lifelines by that point. This would be great if you could download your virtual winnings straight into your heavily overdrawn Barclays account, but alas you cannot.

About as exciting as it gets

The back of the box boasts that the game features over 1000 different questions, but they soon get repeated after a few plays. What you get with WWTBAM is basically one of those DVD games you play with your remote control. The presentation and music are very faithful to the actual show (the UK version, that is) so in that respect it can't really be faulted. Likewise, there are a few multi-player variations of the main game show that make it quite good to play with housemates over a few beverages of the alcoholic variety (just avoid the methylated spirits)...and that's it really. Like The Next Tetris, it kind of ticks all the right boxes and does everything it sets out to do (i.e. recreate the show), but ultimately the thing wears thin when familiar questions start to come around again. Still, not a bad game for 99p.

Gauntlet Legends

I've never actually seen this on sale - even in those halcyon days when Dreamcast pods graced the entrance to our favourite branch of Electronics Boutique, I never recall seeing an actual copy on a shelf. I did see the reviews, however and they were mainly favourable - so when this little beaut showed up last week, I had to have it at all costs. Luckily, bidding interest died out at the £4.00 mark, so I was lucky enough to secure it for my own evil machinations (erm...playtesting it). So, does it live up to the hype generated in my corrupted mind? Well, yes and no. Gauntlet Legends is a pseudo 3D update of the classic game series Gauntlet, and the only previous Gauntlet game I've ever played is one on the NES...and rose tinted specs aside, I thought it was a load of shit. You just wondered around maze-like top-down levels killing hundreds of baddies and collecting the odd item or power-up.


Fast forward a decade or two, and Gauntlet Legends is more or less in the same vein, only with polygonal characters and a Pandemonium-style rotating camera view. You get to play as one of a number of suitable mythical character classes (knights, wizards etc) who all boast their own strengths and weaknesses and must roam various themed stages beating the shit out of the swarms of ogres and monsters that pile out through little doorways. Destroy the doorways and the stream of nasties is cut off at the source, leaving you to continue on your quest of opening treasure troves, avoiding traps and finding keys. Each of the themed worlds (valleys, castles, caves etc) is accessed through a central hub world in the form of a Wizard's grotto, and you get the chance to purchase armour and weapon upgrades aswell as various magic potions that you can unleash on your foes for even quicker and more colourful deaths.

Gauntlet Legends is a pleasant enough way to while away a few hours, but it does get a bit repetitive after a while - you just do the same thing in every level: kill monsters, collect health, kill monsters, open door...ad nauseum. Graphically, it appears to be nowt more than a sharpened up N64 game - the character models are boxy and the animation is as basic as Amstrad CPC 464 programming language...but like I said, it's entertaining guff in short sharp bursts. The most interesting feature is probably the 4-player co-operative mode, but seeing as most of my friends would baulk at the idea of playing anything that isn't a 360 or PS3, I doubt I'll ever get the chance to experience it. Sigh.

Spider-Man

Can you believe I paid £1.70 for this?! It normally sits aloof with the likes of Resident Evil 3 as a DC title that commands bids of £15 and above! Not that I'm complaining, you understand. So, Spider-Man then. In essence, it is no more than a port of the PSX title of the same name, but as a port from an inferior piece of technology it remains one of the shining examples of how porting should be handled. Initially, should you choose to look beyond the slightly shoddy FMV sequences (thaf for some reason feature shitter character models that the actual game engine), you'll discover that Spider-Man boasts some of the slickest presentation and menu screens seen on the DC. But it's the actual game that impressed me the most.


Taking the form of a 3D platformer-cum-beat 'em up, you (naturally) assume the roll of Peter Parker dressed in uber-camp lycra and must swing around the rooftops of New York twatting the shit out of henchmen (who for some reason seem to enjoy swaggering around atop skyscrapers without guardrails). Occasionally the action takes you inside said skyscrapers and involves you rescuing hostages, opening doors and acting all Spidey-like by climbing up walls, through vents and shooting ne'erdowells with your web and then roundhousing them. Nice.

I really liked the way Spidey mutters classic one-liners to himself ("my Spidey-sense is tingling!"), but the neatest thing about this particular PSX port has got to be the graphics. The character models (and Spidey in particular) are great - rather than be an angular mess with texture-mapped muscles, his arms, legs and even head are very smooth and rounded. Likewise with the enemies and even the locations themselves are clean and sharp. Lets not get too excited here - the outside sections are hardly Mirror's Edge, but it all looks and moves exactly as you'd like an interactive comic book to do so. Definitely one of the DC's finest platformers - easily up there with Soul Reaver in my humble opinion. Top stuff.

Donald Duck: Quack Attack

Another platformer in the vein of Crash Bandicoot, NebachadnezzaR covered the merits of this Disney produced romp here. I'm inclined to agree with most of his points, although I wasn't overly impressed with the graphics to be honest. Super Magnetic Neo it most certainly ain't. Still, can't complain for £1.50.

Now, Gagaman - hurry up with that 'Z' based Rummage video...the anticipation is killing me!

Oh, and Happy Easter to those who still give a toss.

Bouncing off the walls with excitement!

Just done a trade deal with someone on a message board this week, and what I'll be receiving has me rather giddy with excitement! Though I'm not sure how long it'll take to arrive. I won't go into details yet but here's a clue as to what it is..


So yes, you've probably already figured it out. Either way, expect plenty of photos and a video feature about it some time soon! Oh yeah, and I'm working another Rummage video at the moment of a game I doubt many have heard of. It begins with a Z but is not Zombie Revenge (though I should really do one for that, too).

Classic Video Game Day footage

Here is some rather crappy footage of the classic video game day that I organized for the local public library. (It's hard to run something like this and get decent footage at the same time.)

In any case there is a lot of Dreamcast (and Saturn) action in it. During the Tournament I even used the Dreamcast Atari collection.



The most popular Dreamcast titles were Marvel Vs Capcom 1 and 2. I had seven different stations set up with classic video game systems including an Atati 2600, NES, N64, Genesis, PS1, Saturn, 2 Dreamcasts, and a couple of PCs with Starcraft and Doom multiplayer set up on them.

The Dreamcast systems were by far the most popular with the general public.

DCJY Rummage: Wind and Water Puzzle Battles



Finally I've sorted this review out! I had a lot of bother with it when I ended up losing all my editing and voice work for it a couple months ago, but dedicated yesterday to finishing it off. Take note the footage was recorded back in December so my gameplay stats shown are quite old! Also note the new intro I animated for the Rummage series, and it's in widescreen (sort of)! That artwork I made a while back was for this video too.

Download the I Have a Dreamcast EP!

The I Have a Dreamcast guys have released the EP as a free download! They had a live performance of the album, and some more DC playing goodness last night. There are 8 tracks in MP3 format in the download:

The Pianosaurus - Green Hill Drone

Bicycles & Gravel - A Song for the Dreamcast

Gemini Cricket - Dreamcast Vision
Grey Milk - Venice is Dying
Bicycles & Gravel - Curious Console
The South Will Rave Again - I Fell in Love Playing Marvel vs. Capcom
I Have Read Other Books Besides The Catcher in the Rye - To Beat, From Gum
Captain #1 - Bring Sega Back


Oh, I'm so making some Dreamcast videos with these songs in them. Amazing stuff.

The DreamTablet

It seems we don't go a month now without hearing about someones ingenius Dreamcast mods: last time it was a Dreamcast shoved inside a iMac monitor, and now from the creator of this Dreamcast handheld comes the DreamTablet, a DC inside a 15" tablet screen thingy, complete with the GD-Rom drive as a very speedy slot loader in the side (I think that in itself may be a first), and controller ports in the other side. It can be plugged into a telly and has a battery life of about 3 hours or so. More photos and details over at the Benheck forums, as well as a video below. One of these days there will be a kitchen sink with a Dreamcast built into it!


A Dreamcast SD Card Adaptor!

The Dreamcast homebrew scene never fails to surprise me. Not content with developing games and game ports for the system, we now have a piece of homebrew Dreamcast hardware on the way via those chaps over at dreamcast.es! Here's the translated article from DCemu:

"After turning several months, we've assembled an adapter to connect an SD card for the Dreamcast port of the link. The truth is that the speed is amazing and we already have a library to use. More info on our wiki.

But for the production of a few adapters and selling, we need to know how many people would be interested. Cost about 20 € with shipping to SPAIN (+10 € for some foreign countries) and sent with a CD with a program that will be able to exchange files with VMU BINS and launch from the SD card.


The prices have been changed to make them accessible to the world, remember that this is not done for profit but for the common good. For this reason we have reset the price originally agreed to cover costs of materials, and assembly time.


Later we will use the library and implemented quickly to a pager for the big games of AES4ALL, load / save snapshots DCaSTaway all emulators and ROMS can be loaded from the SD card.

Reason for development

The Dreamcast has support CD / GD, and visual memory card (VMU). The first one is read-only, and the latter has clear shortcomings: transmission speed and size. For this reason, are always looking for an alternative storage unit that saves the main support (save states) and other files, such as the configuration in our emulators. For a time it was speculated that the port expansion (G2) where the currently connected network adapter (or modem) is ideal for access via the new peripherals. But unfortunately, its architecture and requirements are far beyond our reach. Therefore, the serial port of an alternative that, while not enjoying all the privileges of the port allows for expansion if the most part, our wishes for a new carrier additional capacity and speed. This port allows us to use an SD card adapter that are usually used in mobile devices such as phones, MP3 players, etc..


Key Features

* Good transfer rate in both reading and writing (about 500 KBytes / s).

* Very low average access time for reading (a few milliseconds).

* Support for cards up to 2 GBytes of SDS (not tested with larger cards).

* Loading binary from the card as a backup utility dcload and to / from VMU.
"

What an amazing development, I wouldn't of thought something like this was even possible! It even uses the extension port at the back of the console that was barely used! Imagine having all of your VMU save files in one place! I know in my case at least it would be major handy as I have around 15 VMU's worth of save files and it's hard keeping it all organized. Imagine being able to run emulators without having to keep burning CD-R's? This is one of the most exciting things to happen to the scene in a long time, and the fact there are going to sell it for rather cheap (cheaper than it'll cost to make) is highly commendable.

Chui is currently looking to see who's interested in one when they're ready, so if you'd like one of these reply at either the Dreamcast.es or DCemu forums. I know I'm putting myself for one!

Bottom. Barrel. Scraping Of...


There have been some blindingly good articles here at the Dreamcast Junkyard lately. Obscure games reviews, downloads of new home brew and modded games, custom made cover art, great videos and amazing collections to drool over.

It's not always been the case though, dear lord no! There was a time when we celebrated the most obscure of Dreamcast related paraphernalia... Towels, boxer shorts, tissues, bikes, even 1980's shower curtains with swirls coincidentally reminiscent of the Dreamcast logo would get a mention. You know, the sort of stuff that the boys over at UK Resistance go nuts for... Stuff like... this...


We, or more accurately I, would be scratching round in vain for post-worthy material. Heck, I was once desperate to post video of the 'Dreamcast episode' of South Park. The makers, (Matt Stone and Trey Parker) weren't happy about their show being shown on the internet without them making money, so they pulled all episodes off the sites that were showing them, and then sued them or had them shut down. (The mingey twats...)
Stupidly undeterred, I decided to post a very un-funny synopsis of the programme from Wikipedia. It was a definite posting low point...

Which leads me nicely into this latest journey into barrel scraping Dreamcast obscurity... In an attempt to reign in my scattered PSP collection, I summoned the ginger children and sent them off to the hidden bowels of Krishna Towers to see what games/boxes/manuals etc. they could find. Virtua Tennis was there (hooray!) but the Powerstone Collection is lost... (DOH!)

What did turn up amongst the chaos ( and I swear I'd never seen it before...) was this though...


Great photography don't you think?

The 2003 GamesMaster Cheat Guide. "The best cheats for the biggest games of the year..." boasts the cover. And would you believe it? That most loyal of publications was still printing Dreamcast cheats a good two years after Sega had pulled the plug on it's final console... Admittedly there are only three games included, (Cannon Spike, Phantasy Star Online Version 2.0 and Rez...) but they proudly printed the Dreamcast logo on the front of their little booklet and gave hope and comfort to devastated Dreamcast fans two years before the birth of the Dreamcast Junkyard became our salvation!


*Voice of Rolf Harris* "Can you tell what it is yet???"

It is now that my little post would have ended, if it were not for a most miraculous discovery....

On the back of the book, was a full page advert for a business entitled, "The CheatMistress Presents: Cheats Unlimited" apparently "compiled by gaming experts". Again, the Dreamcast logo was proudly displayed. Now believe it or not, as recently as 2003, many people did not have Broadband or even 'dial up' Internet. People phoned "cheat lines", listening out for hints on a pre-recorded tape and furiously scribbling them down, missing something and having to phone again at premium rate, before finally being able to move forward towards completing a game... And we were fucking grateful for the privelige...


Yeah? You saying my pictures are shite??? Step outside yer bastards!

I looked at the number... Surely it must be discontinued now? - Perhaps they had sold the number on to one of those sexy chat lines - I might be able to ring it, and 'crack one off' whilst some over-weight, 56 year old trollop smoking a fag, pretended breathlessly to be a 21 year old Thai student whose clothes had just fallen off - (and when Mrs. K checked the phone bill and saw the incriminating number, I could 'innocently' state that I was checking out it's integrity for DCJY research purposes... heh, heh, heh!) *Harumph!*

But instead I found myself weeping with joy as the number proved to be a still active 'cheat line', with FAQs, hints, cheats and walkthroughs for - you guessed it - the whole fucking A-Z of Dreamcast games!

In 2009!!!!


I tried it for 'survival tactics' to use in 'Alone In the Dark-The New Nightmare' and the advice was great! (The voice of the lady on the other end of the phone talking about the game, was probably sexy enough to 'crack one off' to as well, but *Ahem!* I digress...)



To the evil, fan-hating, tightwad, soulless, killjoy bastards that closed down the Dreamcast servers and technical support elements of the Sega website not too long ago, get with the programme! THAT IS REAL SUPPORT!

(Surely the Jedi-like, 'Gamesmaster' spirits of Dominik Diamond, Dexter Fletcher and Patrick Moore must have combined to keep this business afloat throughout the turbulent first decade of this new Millenium!?) Halle-fucking-luia!



Cheats Unlimited, we at the Dreamcast Junkyard salute you! Now has anyone got a post more tenuous, vaguely linked, piss poor and unlikely than that?

Ever wanted to own over 500 mostly sealed Japanese DC games?

Well now you can for only 7,499 Euros (that's £7014, or about £13 a game) plus 149 Euros shipping! I spotted this insane buy it now on Ebay from a French shop there. Oh, and the seller isn't taking any offers. There is only one small photo of the massive lot, but the auction also has a list of everything featured in order of their release, phew! Even with this lot not everything is there: I noticed Trigger heart Excelcia's not there, oooh!

Apparently many special edition box sets are not pictured but included, though. Wouldn't it be great to just sit on a floor with this lot like a little kid at Christmas, unwrapping all those seals and sticking it online just to piss off all those hardcore collectors who don't like to play their games! Well ok, there are probably at least 100 games in there that are just anime schoolgirl dating nonsense, but still!

I found some other pretty bizarre auctions on there, including a job lot of 50 rumble packs. What in the hell could you do with 50 rumble packs? Actually, don't answer that.

You know what the real crazy part is, though? If this set of games was the equivalent of a couple quid a game, I'd be very tempted.