Summer of Dreamcast

[Neon Ignition]

Completely failed to notice that the 30th is a Sunday so I'm making today the final 'official' day of Summer of Dreamcast. Feel free to continue to write up your Dreamcast memories and current experiences with Sega's last console though.

Time to say goodbye...

[Neon Ignition]

It's time to say farewell to the Summer of Dreamcast and Sega's little white wonder that refused to die

To those bright blue Sega skies....



To those quirky experiences that will stay with us forever...



To the countless hours lost in amazement of arcade beating results....



To years of waiting and delays, rewarded in joy...



To characters and worlds which stay in the mind....



To snowy days, black cars, facial plasters, hunting for sailors and over a decade of Shenmue III jokes....



To single songs making an experience whole...



To fans love who continue to create great things to get thrilled about...



To fans love who continue to create rumours to roll our eyes over...



And to you, the machine that gave us all this...


Sega Dreamcast

Farewell

[Lyris]

Well, looks like I chose the wrong time to pull mine out

I was bored waiting for stuff to happen on a BD I'm authoring, the first time I've not had something to finish in months. So I pulled my Dreamcast out, burned a Utopia boot disc (to get around region problems) and put on an American copy of Skies of Arcadia that was donated to me on my last trip to New York.

I never got into Skies back then because I had le Eurotrash edition, and couldn't stand the flicker on the CRT TV I had. That and the random encounters. Not that that would have stopped me playing the game ordinarily, but there was so much other great stuff that didn't have that problem, so it ended up going to the bottom of the pile.

[Harry]

Dreamcast should not be exclusive to the summer. Although I remember vividly getting Crazy Taxi & Resident Evil: Code Veronica in the summer (my birthday on June 30th), I remember it well because I got two brilliant games, I also found an answer machine message from a teacher I pissed off for avoiding his detention on the same day , I decided to do a bunk and play those amazing games and after listening to the message I quickly deleted it. Hahahaha. (Hey, it was my Birthday! Do detention, or play awesome games - you do the math).

I also remember a painstaking talk later in the year with my mum for being suspended for a few days whilst playing Code Veronica. Can't remember what it was for but I do remember the exact part I was at in the game when the conversation took place. A jeep crashed through a floor and there was a conversation with Claire & Steve. That's pretty worrying come to think of it.

[monel]

Well, looks like I chose the wrong time to pull mine out I was bored waiting for stuff to happen on a BD I'm authoring, the first time I've not had something to finish in months. So I pulled my Dreamcast out, burned a Utopia boot disc (to get around region problems) and put on an American copy of Skies of Arcadia that was donated to me on my last trip to New York. I never got into Skies back then because I had le Eurotrash edition, and couldn't stand the flicker on the CRT TV I had. That and the random encounters. Not that that would have stopped me playing the game ordinarily, but there was so much other great stuff that didn't have that problem, so it ended up going to the bottom of the pile.

Would the Utopia disc run imports in 60hz or is it 50hz? I thought the latter because I remember asking about that other DC cheat disc that supposedly ran imports in 60hz, in a Code Veronica thread I think... Code Veronica caused a huge problem for me because I played through it in two nights (almost) but the lack of sleep made me oversleep and miss a very important task I needed to do. So, I try not to remember the game .

[Lyris]

Would the Utopia disc run imports in 60hz or is it 50hz?

It depends on the game. If the software is from the US and wasn't designed with Europe in mind, the Utopia disc lets it run in 50hz.

If it has code at the start which forces a certain scan rate (Skies seems to) you'll get that rate.

Or you can just modify the console with a piece of wire and a switcher disc to change regions/video standards and be done with PAL crap altogeher

[monel]

It depends on the game. If the software is from the US and wasn't designed with Europe in mind, the Utopia disc lets it run in 50hz. If it has code at the start which forces a certain scan rate (Skies seems to) you'll get that rate. Or you can just modify the console with a piece of wire and a switcher disc to change regions/video standards and be done with PAL crap altogeher

So I guess Skies runs in 60hz or you have a modded machine? Thanks for the detailed reply. I think, with you being the video expert I was hoping (just a bit) to catch you out playing the game in 50hz . I think I'm a bad person now.

[Lyris]

Yes, the US Skies runs in 60hz on a Euro Dreamcast.

You can catch me out with many things, but video is not one of them

Although speaking of which, I'm playing with the Composite connection from my 3rd party VGA box at the moment because the TV I'm using doesn't have a VGA input. The resolution is appalling, way below what should be possible with Composite. Not sure if it's bad hardware, overdone lowpass filtering or what, but the horizontal resolution is about half of what it should be. The RGB SCART output was full bandwidth but I don't have the cable anymore.

And the damn thing keeps kicking me back to the BIOS... not good in a game where you can't save anywhere you want.

[Lyris]

On YouTube tonight I found something amazing.

Remember those crap British Dreamcast commercials? They had one about a haircutting contest, something about Germans that got banned, but never did they show any gameplay footage.

Well, I found this embarrassing trailer for Sonic Adventure. Not only is it bad, but it also falsely implies you can play Sonic Adventure online, or in multiplayer at all.

Did the idiots they had for advertising in Europe even play the games?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfhvApIkoWc

[tokyochojin]

Yeah, the adverts in Europe were generally appalling. The launch one possibly the worst of all. I actually looked over each region's launch adverts on my blog - http://dreamcastgaga.blogspot.jp/201...t-adverts.html


As for games, I spent the weekend playing through Segagaga, an awesome, if not bewildering game for the Dreamcast. Loving the inside jokes but the development segments are a nightmare and I can never seemingly get projects finished in time.

Will try and get something written up soon.

[monel]

Someone please tell me if a fan translation for Segagaga exists. I wish I could understand it. I do find it hilarious that the game ever got made.

[tokyochojin]

I wouldn't hold your breath. I remember how long the Policenauts one took and this will be just as, if not more intensive as there are far more cultural references.

http://segabits.com/blog/tag/segagaga-translation-project/

I also can't believe that this game got made, so many obvious jokes aimed at Sony as well as themselves, make what would be a rather average game per-se, a fantastic one-off, experience.

[monel]

I wouldn't hold your breath. I remember how long the Policenauts one took and this will be just as, if not more intensive as there are far more cultural references. http://segabits.com/blog/tag/segagag...ation-project/ I also can't believe that this game got made, so many obvious jokes aimed at Sony as well as themselves, make what would be a rather average game per-se, a fantastic one-off, experience.

Thanks... I wonder if this game was made today, whether Ryo from Shenmue would be chilling with Alex Kidd.

[Neon Ignition]

My only memory of Segagaga was watching footage on Youtube and getting the Final Stage music stuck in my head

[monel]

My only memory of Segagaga was watching footage on Youtube and getting the Final Stage music stuck in my head

Was that the amazing last boss / bosses fight? To be honest, the project development and RPG side of the game was a disappointing decision to me, since I can't understand a word of Japanese, except the essentials (SF2). I can only imagine what an all action game would've been like with some crazy bits of story dropped in like Bangai-O, but referencing Sega's history.