Dreamcasting :D

[DOOM Anomaly]

Hiya.

Well, just on Saturday I went out and Bought a Dreamcast and Sonic Adventure, but it wasn't easy.
A friend and I had to take a bus to a few miles away from here, then the store we had planned to buy two Dreamcasts, 2 Sonic Adventures, and 2 Sonic Adventure 2s, only had 2 Sonic Adventures there, no Dreamcasts, no Sonic Adventure 2. (But they DID have Sonic Action 4-Pack for PC (Which I bought) :D) So we asked the nice store peoples to check for other stores which have any, they found another one which had ONE Dreamcast left, so we reserved it. Only problem, this store was about 8 miles, mainly uphill, and along with us not knowing how to get there, it started raining and we didnt really think we'd have the energy to make it there, AND back with the Dreamcast, easily. We walked a couple miles, stopped at a Gas Station and asked for Directions, we got them, but our confidence wasnt helped; we asked and the guy replied "WOW you're going All the way there? Walking? HAH, are you Sure? Walking? All the way there? wow! okay. go aaaaallllll the way down the street, straight, then go alllll the way up the hill, that you'll die on, then go straight and it should be there at a intersection. Good Luck" So, we walked, and then we found a bus that took us there, so we broke $5 at a Dairy Queen and rode to the Mall, there we got our beloved Dreamcast and got some Skittles too. :D We then walked to the sky train, but there were none going to where we needed, so we walked to a intersection, saw a bus, one we needed, so we raced it uphill to the next stop, and we made it, and got on. Rode back to the first mall, then rode another home. And Played Sonic Adventure for the next 19+ hours. :D

Now, anyone else have to do quite some bit for something they wanted?

I also noticed that Dreamcast is very impressive for graphics (or at least Sonic Adventure) for its time, and wondering why it didnt do very well, I for one feel it was worth it. :D And that lots of people wanted them (hence the reason the first store was out).

heh, we almost beat the game entirely, but then had to shut it off, but we couldnt save cause we had no memory card. :P

Tomarrow, a Memory Card. :D

Also, anyone else have a Dreamcast (and Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2)? if you do, what is your opinion on it?

Well, I'm out to go play Sonic Adventure. :D
...Until someone takes the TV command Dee-Lee away from me. :D

[SteelPH]

the dreamcast died because sega didn't have the $$$ to support it.

[Ubik]

DOOM Anomaly said:

Now, anyone else have to do quite some bit for something they wanted?

I spent six months searching the planet for a copy of Bola's Soup, and although the Virgin Megastore in Chicago was charging $25 for it (I don't CARE if it's an import CD or not, that's TOO MUCH) it was worth every single penny.

[EllipsusD]

DOOM Anomaly said:
Now, anyone else have to do quite some bit for something they wanted?

I'm not sure that this would count since I never actually had to do it... but if I had had about $500 to spend at the time I would have driven across 7 states to pick up an old SplatterHouse arcade machine. God... that has got to be one of the best games ever made.

[jute]

EllipsusD said:

I'm not sure that this would count since I never actually had to do it... but if I had had about $500 to spend at the time I would have driven across 7 states to pick up an old SplatterHouse arcade machine. God... that has got to be one of the best games ever made.

YOU ARE TOTALLY CORRECT. in fact, the whole splatterhouse series is fucking fantastic. in the second one you have to use a chainsaw to hack up dead zombie babies hanging from nooses. holy shit that's cool.

[Gokuma]

It's terrible how hard it is to find good Dreamcast stuff anymore.

Some stuff I recommend:
Nester DC v7.1 and SMEG from DCemulation.com
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
Spawn (4 players)
Fatal Fury Garou: Mark of the Wolves
Last Blade 2
King of Fighters 99 Dreammatch (really KOF98 with 3D backgrounds)
Jet Grind Radio
Street Fighter Alpha 3
SF3: Third Strike
Project Justice (Rival Schools sequal)
Cannonspike
Gigawing 2 (four players)
Powerstone 2 (four players)
Gunbird
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 and maybe 2
Zombie Revenge (not that great, but pretty amusing)
KOF 99 Evolution (Dreammatch is better though)
SF3: Double Impact
Marvel vs Capcom (1) is cool for it's 4 player cross fever mode (but it's only with four people, no less unless you're reasonably coordinated at controlling two characters with separate controllers at once).

I suggest the Japanese versions of Jojo, Fatal Fury/Garou, LB2, and maybe Project Justice but the US ones are still fine and much lower priced.

Cheat discs such as Code Breaker disc or Cheats N Codes will allow you to play imports. Or you can burn a boot disc.

Imports:
Guilty Gear X
Ikaruga
KOF2002 (Should be closest to as good as Dreammatch if not better, might not be out yet)
Vampire Chronicle
KOF2001 (interesting, at least until 2002 comes out)
KOF2000 (haven't played, might be the worst KOF but any KOF is still good)

As far as hardware goes, I only suggest official Sega controllers and VMU's, except I highly recommend just about any adapter to use Saturn controllers and 16x Nexus memory cards. With the Nexus card or Innovation version be very careful to follow the instructions and you shouldn't have any problems with corrupt data. It's worked perfect for me.

All the other third party stuff is pure shit. Defective Mad Catz controllers have been known to fry all four controller ports no matter how careful people were. Do not plug controllers in while the system is on (well you can get away with it with Sega's standard controllers). The adapters to use Saturn controllers WILL fry the ports IF you plug them in while the system is on, but if you follow directions, they're perfectly safe. I use two different kinds all the time and haven't had any problems.

A few things about the controller adapters:
I have three of these transparent blue DC Connection/DreamConnection ones which are the highest quality but are rare and don't have a VMU port. They support all eight normal Saturn buttons as unique buttons, but no game does, so usually L and Z are the same and R and C are the same. In SF3:Third Strike and Jojo C and Z don't anything so you have to use L and R.

I have two of these Innovation versions of DreamConnection 2 which have a VMU port and are easy to find but seem lower quality. L and R on the Saturn controllers are simply disabled/not used but C and Z do work in SF3:Third Strike and Jojo.

There's also these rare Total Control 3 adapters but they're very cheaply made and most broke during shipping.

Do NOT buy the Agetec arcade stick (actually official but Sega licensed US release to them and they cheaped it up) or the Interact Alloy Stick (or its PS2 equivalent shadowblade). I had them both and they were both cheap shit that broke down. The Alloy stick looked nice and worked nice for a short while but it's sloppiest shit on the inside I've ever seen. Freaking $50 and $60 down the drain. Of course they held out as long as their warrenties, so I was screwed.
Go to MasSystems for what I hear are very high quality arcade sticks.

Also Agetec released the US versions of FatalFury/Garou, KOF Evolution, and LB2 and they don't know how to properly manufacture the discs. So music might not sync up nicely and if a system's GD-rom is a bit beat (early models were a bit cheap, I needed a replacement drive) there may be loading problems and skipping.

[Gokuma]

Phantasy Star Online was great before cheaters ruined it. The US version 1 is free to play online while Version 2 requires a fee (cheap though and even cheaper for Japanese version). Playing offline severely handicaps you (no way to transfer a weapon a character can't use to one who can and can't play v2's challenge or battle modes or lobby soccer).

No matter the system Phantasy Star Online is either screwed up or overpriced online anymore, except the PC v2 was fine last I heard.

I highly recommend the Gamecube PSO EpisodesI&II for splitscreen multiplayer offline (up to 4 players), but online it's screwed without the help of cheaters.

The freaking X-Box port of it is going to require you to pay for X-Box Live to even play the game offline. And to play online you have to pay for that as well as Sega's fee. Unless they change their plans, screw them to hell.

[EllipsusD]

pregnant with worms said:
YOU ARE TOTALLY CORRECT. in fact, the whole splatterhouse series is fucking fantastic. in the second one you have to use a chainsaw to hack up dead zombie babies hanging from nooses. holy shit that's cool.

I think you need to go visit the West Mansion. It's an awesome site. My contribution to it is the sprites for all of the games except for SH3 (though one of these days I'll get around to making maps for it).

[Job]

pregnant with worms said:

YOU ARE TOTALLY CORRECT. in fact, the whole splatterhouse series is fucking fantastic. in the second one you have to use a chainsaw to hack up dead zombie babies hanging from nooses. holy shit that's cool.

Oh man, yeah. I loved the SP series!! I searched forever and ever for the Splatterhouse 3 rom. (if that's not legal to mention, either remove the post or that statement) That was one tough game, but I beat it on the hardest difficulty...what a satisfying accomplishment. I wish someone made a Splatterhouse Doom -- now that'd be great. :D Do you guys think Namco will resurrect that old series and port a fourth one to one of the new systems?

[EllipsusD]

Job said:
Do you guys think Namco will resurrect that old series and port a fourth one to one of the new systems?

Rumor has it that they might make a new Splatterhouse game. A statement has been released saying that they're thinking about it, but there has been no definate word.

[DOOM Anomaly]

Gokuma said:

It's terrible how hard it is to find good Dreamcast stuff anymore.

Heh, yeah. But the only reason I bought a Dreamcast was cause my friend and I wanted Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2, we don't really care for much other than those for it. :D

[Job]

DOOM Anomaly said:

Heh, yeah. But the only reason I bought a Dreamcast was cause my friend and I wanted Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2, we don't really care for much other than those for it. :D

Weird. That stuff is easy to find here in Wisconsin. In fact, this last weekend, some friends and I just went Dreamcast shopping and picked up a few games for it.

[Sharessa]

I bought a Dreamcast once. Never used it.

[Job]

the_Danarchist said:

I bought a Dreamcast once. Never used it.

Eh? You're meaning to say you've never played Soul Calibur?!

[Sharessa]

Job said:

Eh? You're meaning to say you've never played Soul Calibur?!

Actualy, I played that several hundred times. Thats why I bought the thing, got Soul Calibur free with it. Then I played 3 or 4 short games with my friends on it and put it away forever.

[Epyo]

Dreamcast is the best system ever, thanks to it's wonderful easiness to port any arcade game to it. I've wasted so many months in front of the Sonic games, and my favorite video game ever, Rush 2049. Hydro Thunder too. and other stuff.

[Rotting Corpse]

EllipsusD said:

I'm not sure that this would count since I never actually had to do it... but if I had had about $500 to spend at the time I would have driven across 7 states to pick up an old SplatterHouse arcade machine. God... that has got to be one of the best games ever made.

I'm going to break in ot your house and steal that game.
Ware did you find it?

[Use]

It's a great system, the mutiplayer on it was untouched in the console biz at the time. Glad i've got most of the games and lots of memory cards, cause dc stuff has disappeared. I bought the console on 9/9/99 (release date) and it's still works. the drive is a little flakey until it warms up. I should invest in a replacement before it's too late.

[Lost Soul]

I think the only reason this system failed is because sega did not have the money to suppourt it. And they didn't have the money cause someone found out you could burn games and play them without a mod chip, so endless amounts of pirates made the games ready for download online, so anyone would be able to just download, burn and play at no charge! no income = no profit = no suppourt = dead system,
no matter how good the games might have been.

[EllipsusD]

Well, for any of you who can get the means to play it, here's the Jamma board for Splatterhouse. If I had a job right now I would consider bidding, but I can't even buy a job these days.

[jute]

EllipsusD said:

I think you need to go visit the West Mansion. It's an awesome site. My contribution to it is the sprites for all of the games except for SH3 (though one of these days I'll get around to making maps for it).

wow, you help with that site? that's awesome. it's been in my favorites since it first premiered on classicgaming.com. it's a rad fucking page.