Want even more homebrew FPS goodness on your Dreamcast? Well I've just been informed about this project by TDGMods called Hypertension. It's based on and the Monolith series Blood, and is being developed with an engine called EDGE, which is based on the Doom source code. Here's the video preview:
The game is unfinished so all the bugs haven't been ironed out yet but either way it looks interesting. The game has some RPG elements including an inventory so you can combine items to make weapons. Looks like theres some good fun to be had setting enemies alight with a lighter and spray can, reminds me of Dynamite Cop/Die Hard Arcade!
I've played some great games on a variety of systems so far this year - Resident Evil 5, Gears Of War 2, Left 4 Dead, God Of War, Resident Evil (remake), House Of the Dead Overkill, Tekken: Dark Resurrection, and so on... But in every gamers life comes the need to reconnect with his Dreamcast, and most recently I decided to do this via the unholy game mentioned above.
If you look at the sidebar of the Dreamcast Junkyard, you'll see a section devoted to Tomleecee's Dreamcast reviews. In there, is a review of Kiss Psycho Circus, which says: "This game is appalling. Rubbish graphics, rubbish design, just plain rubbish." I should have heeded the words of our leader, instead I chose to recklessly ignore them.
I'd played it a little way back in the day, and my hazy memory recalled it as being a little bit different to anything I'd seen before. It was, in fact, the first the first FPS I'd ever played. But some sort of software or hardware glitch had cut my playing experience short. Six or so years later, I decided to give it a go for the second time...
So what is this monstrosity all about then? Ostensibly a first person shooter/mythical quest type thing, the game has very tenuous links to the rock legends Kiss. In fact it's got more to do with a comic: "KISS: Psycho Circus chronicles the adventures of an unusual traveling circus. The macabre stories focus on exploring the deepest, darkest corners of the human soul." (according to Image Comics.)
So what's it got to do with the band then? (initially the main selling point for me - who doesn't like spandex and stage make up???)
Well, fuck all really! You might find a jukebox or stereo which will play a Kiss song. As the player, you go around collecting pieces of Kiss costumes... Ace Frehley's platform boots, Gene Simmon's shoulder pads or Peter Criss's cod-piece. There are rumours on the internet that if you put the GD rom in your PC that you'll get a Kiss pinball game - not true. There are also rumours that if you put the GD rom in a CD player, it'll play a few classic Kiss tunes -also not true. You do, however get a very snotty sounding English lady telling you take the disc out of your CD player, as it's only compatable with the Dreamcast (!) which is quite surreal...
The game ends up being a very tedious run through of a middle of the road, dated, FPS. Some of the game's monsters are pretty well designed, some of the landscapes boldly coloured in psychedelic hues, which make it alright to look at for a while, and graphically lies at a kind of cross between Half Life and the more trippy boss levels in NiGHTS. Having said that, why when some publishers were able to come up with graphics as good as Soul Calibur, Sonic Adventure, Code Veronica or Headhunter, did so many Dreamcast software publishers settle for knocking out games which look average, like Death Crimson OX, or this one?
The game gives you nothing for your dogged completion of levels. No 'easter eggs', interesting cut scenes, hidden mini games or unlockables. If you die you get put back a long way, meaning the necessity of replaying of elements of the game over, and over, and over again. The story is literally one of the most convoluted pieces of bullshit ever, one that I can't be bothered to relate. The cutscenes that are in the game are minimal, there's nothing to collect and the boss battles are never really going to inspire. After literally hours of playing through seventeen, long, long levels, the game just fizzled out with one of the most boring and simple boss fights ever. Nothing memorable at all.
I was hoping for a Dreamcast revelation, a repeat of the joy I found when I played 'SOTB: Gut's Rage' last year, or completing Headhunter earlier this year. But the only joy I had from completing this game is knowing that I beat it, completed it and I'll never have to play this particular piece of crapola again!
On my first trip to Japan in 2006, I went to a local little shop somewhere in Osaka that sold all sorts of computer games related stuff.
Somewhere way down there!!
I ended up buying a whole manner of things, which I am sure to talk about. One of which was a Shenmue Pen (shown below in a glorious photo I took). I've kept in the box the entire time, so I can't comment on how the little blighter writes... but I bet that if you tried to write with it, the little thing would only scribe "Do you know where I can find the sailors?" or "Umm...".
It's just a standard ball-point pen, but it's from the Japanese promotion of the game and as such is quite a rare item. I've never seen one before (a Shenmue pen, not just a pen). I know there's a lot of promotional material for games these days, but it's rare to see something from 1998 lurking around. The shop owner said he'd picked it up sometime in 1999, so it's original location is unknown to me.
I've decided to sell this little gem, so if you fancy a chance of owning it, go and get yourself a piece of gaming history.
EDIT: The original post lacked content somewhat, which was kindly pointed out by a reader and fellow blogger - have a read in the comments section. I respect the DCJY is a place for premium Dreamcast content and admit not meeting that requirement in my original post. My intentions the entire time were to allow an avid DC fan the chance to own this piece of history... I didn't want it going to some loser that'd mark it up.
There's a particular comment below that really got my back up, but we can take that offline, Ross.
Half.com has an interesting system for looking up video games they have for sale. They list EVERYTHING including Dreamcast games like Half Life that were never released.
As a point of interest to me they listed something else too.
System Shock 2!!!!
Shodan on the Dreamcast!?!?!??!?!
Oh...what could have been...
This falls under the category of "I had no friggen' idea this existed." How awesome would this had been? As it is now I have to hook up a different PC to make my PC copy of this game to work (video card conflict). How great would it be to hook up the old Dreamcast mouse and keyboard and kill some Many???
Alas this never happened. Vatical Entertainment canceled the port.
One has wonder though...
...is there a playable copy of this game floating around somewhere in the ether of the Internet?
Hello Dreamcasters! I'm trying to raise a bit of money at the moment, so I thought I would alert you to some Dreamcast related goodness I am currently selling on eBay. Each game/peripheral will be coming out of my personal collection - I have a few duplicates and I want these to now go to a good home.
Check out the post on mysegacollection if you wish to see everything that's for sale (Shenmue 1,2, Last Hope, Dreameye...), or jump straight into eBay if you wish to bid on my auctions. Good luck and I hope one of our excellent readerbase here at DCJY picks up a few quality items.
More to come... such as Samba de Amigo maracas, limited edition VMUs, a Segagaga boxset and more!
Another new Rummage review! I would love to make one of these every month or so, though things don't always work out as planned. Possibly the oddest (and oddest named) game I've played yet. Robotic animal chariot racing awaits in this drab racer, a game that would be mind numbingly boring if it wasn't for the battle mode.
You could say Wind Squid of Classic Game Room's obsession with flame-throwers has rubbed off on me. Also next time I decide to doodle art for one of these, I'll make them actually fit the ratio of the video, me thinks.
I ordered one. I admit it. I REALLY wanted a Dreamcast new in box. Now in three days I will have one. Is it worth $107? Well considering that 2 new gen games would cost more than that I am just going to assume yes. Well no fast food or wasted money for the rest of the month then. I have to justify this purchase somehow.
Don't blink or you might miss them selling out of these again!
The undead console has risen! Quite a few online shops have been selling (out of) brand new Dreamcast's and this has led to the video above from Yahoo games. "It's a good thing consoles can't eat brains, because it's certianly the first time we've heard of one coming back from the dead!" Wahahaha!
Still this is probably a blow to anyone who dropped over $60 to get a mint copy of the game.
Will the re-release cause more people to get rid of their Dreamcast versions of the game? Will the resale price of the game bottom out?
Is this a good time to get a copy?
Should you wait it out and see if this price drop continues?
What does this mean for the rest of the used Dreamcast game stock prices?
Are we nearing a Dreamcast game price recession?
Only time will tell. So until then you should always the latest reports here at the Dreamcast Junkyard, your source for all news that deals with a certain ten year old video game console.
Searching for Sega related junk to buy on Ebay I stumbled across this auction and er...I don't know what to think of it, but it needs to be saved for prosperity. Judging by the image locations I guess you can blame this guy for this nonsense.
"Michael Reynold's virtual horror land Illbleed is a game for Dreamcast. In one level you turn into a wood puppet.
This is Eriko Christy, she's the character I used when I entered that level.
One day I discovered Eriko in wood puppet form about to be run over by a car.
I took her home, fed her and gave her a place to sleep.
She's enjoyed staying at my house.
She made my home her own.
We play dreamcast together, but she's not that good at it. She also tries doing my homework sometimes. She's better at doing oral exercises than at writing though.
But lately, she's been a royal pain.
This is her trying to fix my VHS tapes.
She leaves my room a mess after having slumber parties with her human friends. My mom has been complaining about stolen lipstick and blush.
Here she is listening to music with MY CD PLAYER.
She get's jealous when I play other horror games.
I don't even know what she's going to do to me when she finds out I put her on auction.
What you are bidding on is the Eriko Wood Puppet. She's been through a lot. When I found her she had some cracks in her ankles and arms. She's about a foot and a half tall and is pretty light.
I beg you, you must help get her off my hands. "
And all this can be yours for just $179 (or Best Offer)! Take note he almost accepted an offer for $5, but the doll caught him and got angry. Just so you know.
Now that I have a copy of the Dreamcast version plus a pair of arcade controllers I really don't know what to think about this.
I am almost a little sad that one of the greatest Dreamcast games will be available to the general gaming public. It was one of those games that you really had to play on the Dreamcast to get the full experience (of course you could always try out the expensive xbox or PS2 version but I always thought the Dreamcast version was the best).
In any case I hope that this means that people will pay their respect to the Dreamcast for originally bringing this game to the console world.
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.
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)
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).
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.
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.
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.
