Summer of Dreamcast

[Neon Ignition]

Well, yesterday I got my much-bigger-than-I expected speakers home and hooked them up to the Dreamcast. I turned on the system and for the first time in a long while that familiar swirling logo came out with the sound and VGA powered DC came to life! Of course, then we have the clock screen because the internal battery died long ago and I'm still waiting for my controller to arrive in the post. However, that should hopefully be today and tonight will be the first official gaming day on my summer of Dreamcast. I think I'll juts put on what I find first, some surprise element to it!

[ItsThere]

If i'm brutally honest, I don't think the timing of the game is quite right tbh.

Agreed. It is so bad on the 360 that I turned it off in a rage.

[Zaki]

I played Space Channel 5 (part 1 on DC) last night. Not having issues with timing just my bad short term memory

[Kit]

I've kicked off my summer of Dreamcast with Virtua Fighter 3tb.

Never played this before so I must admit the graphics were a bit of a shock, though I do like how hats, masks and so on, fall off during battle - I remember reading about this in a mag before the DC launched. The combat is a lot different to what I'm used to. Instead of the two button grappling seen in Tekken, one of the buttons is assigned to 'dodge' and (as far as I can tell) there's only a single grappling move for each character.

I've played and enjoyed the combat in Shenmue, so I should be at home here, but I'm finding it a bit of a struggle.

Oh, and it looks like I've ran into the dreaded Dreamcast 'reset' issue so I'll be checking youtube for a guide on how to fix that.

[Shozuki]

I've kicked off my summer of Dreamcast with Virtua Fighter 3tb.

Never played this before so I must admit the graphics were a bit of a shock, though I do like how hats, masks and so on, fall off during battle - I remember reading about this in a mag before the DC launched. The combat is a lot different to what I'm used to. Instead of the two button grappling seen in Tekken, one of the buttons is assigned to 'dodge' and (as far as I can tell) there's only a single grappling move for each character.

I've played and enjoyed the combat in Shenmue, so I should be at home here, but I'm finding it a bit of a struggle.

Oh, and it looks like I've ran into the dreaded Dreamcast 'reset' issue so I'll be checking youtube for a guide on how to fix that.

VF is and has always been a tough game to play - especially at any reasonable level! As for your reset issue, open the console, remove the plug board and wipe the big silver pins with WD40 lightly sprayed onto a cloth. Ta-Dah!!

[averybluemonkey]

I found on mine bending those pins ever so gently towards the front of the case was also needed to fix it.

I loved VF3 just as much as SC, such a deep game, harder but more rewarding for it. The way it incorporated 3D terrain into the combat model was spot on and I think it's a shame it hasn't been taken up by more fighting games.

[teddymeow]

Forget sonic, samba was the best sega character ever.

QFT! The Wii version was teh sucks. DC is where it's at baby!!

[Yakumo]

Forget sonic, samba was the best sega character ever.

His name is Amigo, mate. I love him too. Me and my son call him Crazy Dude or I should say my son named him Crazy Dude

Space Channel 5 - why is the timing so difficult? I must be more rubbish at games now than 10 years ago...

It could be lag from the HD TV or it could be because the English language versions all have off timing IMO. I own the DC games in Japanese plus the Xbox Live version of Space Channel 5 pt2. When played in English the timing is off IMO but when played in Japanese it's perfect and I even have the audio running through a 5.1 system not the TV so that should add more lag if there was any.

[nakamura]

Would setting a hdtv to game mode reduce lag?

[gIzzE]

Those getting lag, are you using seperate sound systems?
Sure it is not just the audio out of sync with the picture?

I always found that as long as I had set the delay correctly on my processor so the audio was delayed to match the image I could play rhythm games ok, it was not the fact it was lagged that was a problem as such, more a case that the audio and picture was not synced.

A typical lcd will be 40-60ms behind the audio, a plasma 15-40ms behind.

I would try adjusting your amps delay you might be surprised.

[nakamura]

For the record, I play on a CRT and still found the game to feel out of sync. But the info gIzzE posted is worth looking in to.

[speedlolita]

Best to run your Dreamcast through VGA to reduce lag.

[Neon Ignition]

Last night my Summer of Dreamcast started with some testing out of the system. Everything looks like its working bar sound in one speaker which should be OK from tonight.

The Messy Set Up



Bit of a borked image but you get the idea

I tried Hydro Thunder but either it doesn't work with VGA or I couldn't get the boot trick to work. Next up was the much discussed MSR. Got to say it still plays brilliantly and for the most part looks okay.











Takes some getting used to the odd dimensions of the controller again but soon was slinging it around the corners again for Kudos

Next was Daytona 2001, twitchy as hell but I still love it. Hard to get a clear shot in motion though

[nakamura]

I am going to chew on my words a little, via VGA MSR looks very good......

How much is a DX VGA cable? Also is that via a HDtv?

[Neon Ignition]

I'm just using the silver VGA box for mine and those are taken off the Samsung 3D HDTV