Dreamcast retro-ing

[masaki86]

I have really got back into my Dreamcast as of late; I have some great memories with it-especially games like Shenmue(I and II) and Skies of Arcadia.

No doubt there are many DC fans on this site, so here's the question-what game do you find yourself going back to on the DC for a laff with friends/family, and what games holds your fondest memory.

Of late, I have been going back to Bomberman Online, and playing 4-Player with my mom and 2 sisters. It's great getting the whole family round the TV, brings back those memories of when we did it week in week out when we were all that bit younger and naive.

Shenmue has to be the game which I'll always remember. Brilliant is one word that describes it. The OST has to be one of the best in a game, and it was just a joy to play, with the QTE and the brilliant fighting system-plus the story wasn't half bad either. :wink:

[Sarka]

My brother got out the DC several weeks ago and completed Shenmue in two days. I love Jet Set Radio, Space Channel 5, Chu Chu Rocket and Rush. Many more aswell obviously, it was a great console.

[Shmotz]

Soul Calibur of course!

Aye, SoA was a tremendous game. Going to buy Sonic Adventure soon - I'm a sucker for anything Sonic *sigh* :P

[harribo]

For me the best memory of dreamcast(which I only bought last year(i think)) has got to be powerstone although i have recently bought soul calibur I have not yet had a chance to give it a good play.

Back to powerstone. I had to get that game when I got my dreamcast just simply because of the memories I had playin with my mate on his dreamcast and powerstone.

[guaglio]

When i purhcahsd my dreamcast was very memorable, i had arragned to buy it a t a station w while away, and had to lug around a huge dreamcast package back to uni and keep it on for the whole day.

Shenmue 2 is the best DC game, its so involving and as a great story.

[Happenstance]

I turned my old DC on the other day to play through Shenmue again, damn thing works but the sound is all messed up. Had to play it with the sound off which isnt as much fun.

[Cheapshot]

Shenmue 1 left such an impression on me, it was just so immersive that you couldn't let go of you're controller. It had the same magic I felt when playing OOT for the first time - I still play it on my DC now. :smile:

But the game I loved the most has to have been PSO: ver II; the game was great but the community was what really made the game, we would talk about Dreamcast, Anime and stuff in general on adventures all day. :weep: Oh Sega! Come back!!

There was just so many great games for the Dreamcast: Soul Calibur, Samba de Amigo, Virtua Tennis, Shenmue 2 I could go on.

It was truly a console for the hardcore which was unfortunatly it's undoing...

:weep:

At the moment i'm collecting every last classic Dreamcast game I can find - how about you guys?

[Retro_Link]

Absolutely loved Shenmue I & II for the amazing storyline, characters, set-pieces, and non-stop action in Shenmue II (the fight on the roof of the skyscraper is AMAZING!)

Sonic Adventure 1 & 2 are FANTASTIC,

Resident Evil: Code Veronica, this was the first Resi game i owned and the graphics and storyline blew me away!

but Powerstone (1) was an unexpected gem!
It's easily one of the best games on the Dreamcast and so enjoyable in both single and multiplayer; i love the characters (especially how they all power up!), the weapons, the interactive scenary (how you can use objects as weapons or e.g. walls and pillars to run up/swing around) and destructive multi-layered, interactive levels.

If you haven't experienced Powerstone the you should do so!

[Cheapshot]

Yeah! I have Powerstone! 2 player is absolute CARNAGE! Did you play the sequel? 4 player heaven.

[Shmotz]

It was truly a console for the hardcore which was unfortunatly it's undoing...




That really is not the reason for it's undoing.

[Cheapshot]

That really is not the reason for it's undoing.

Then what would you suggest? I guess the advertising was bad... awful actually.

[Shmotz]

Then what would you suggest? I guess the advertising was bad... awful actually.

Advertising wasn't really the problem either IMO.

From what I have read, developers were not ready to commit to the DC because Sony announced its new console (which would be the PS2) just as the DC was launching. Sony said it was more powerful than the DC giving developers more freedom etc to achieve what they wanted. This caused a lot of developers to think, why should they program for what will be soon obsolete hardware? After all, the PS2 would be around 12 months or so after the Dreamcast. This caused difficulty when trying to raise 3rd party support.

To make matters worse, Sony had promised that it would include a DVD Player. This was new technology in 1999/2000, and there was, as evidently shown, a big market for an affordable DVD Player/Console to be in the living rooms of millions of people. Again, Sega had been made obsolete in technology.

Also, the Dreamcast was raped by piracy. Apparently, when in development, Sega made it so that the DC could read from normal CD's to quicken up development. Sega had chosen GD-ROM as its format. This sounds good, except that Sega left in this development - the DC could run off normal CDs when reprogrammed.

Lo and behold, some German hackers seized the initiative. They created a boot disc, called Utopia, which reversed the bootstrap sequence that loaded a game. Normally, the sequence read from the inside out, so it checked that it was an official Sega GD-ROM in the drive before loading. With it reversed, it loaded from the outside in, and bypassed this security check. Infact, the only security check.

Companies usually take a loss on hardware, and recoup the profits from software sales. You can imagine the impact that this had on Sega, despite it having a very good software lineup for each year it was available.

I don't think SegaNet took off very well outside of America either - it peaked there with 300,000 subscribers. It was $29/month on top of what you paid for Internet Acess. However, there are still servers for you to play PSO and Quake III on with your DC to this day.

[Tyson]

I play Quake III online from time to time but Sega announced they were shutting down the last online servers for PSO (Europeon servers) but apparently they forgot. Last time I went on the servers there was 2 people besides me on PSO so I stopped going on it.

Powerstone II is still very playable. Awesome styleness.

[altheman]

My fondest memory of the Dreamcast is when my mate got one at the launch, seeing the first level of Sonic Adventure with the killer whale chase was just amazing. I got a brand new DC for £40 in 2002 when it was finished and all the games were being sold off dirt cheap, ive now got abot 30 games, and play it more often than my Cube.

[ConanTheLibrarian]

Nice to see Powerstone getting a mention. I really enjoyed the original, I didn't get the second one though as I read there wasn't a huge amount of difference between the two.

I also enjoyed Virtua Striker, although I think I might be alone in that respect :o.

[masaki86]

Heheh; Virtua Striker was poor imo.

Been playing Sega Bass Fishing today due to the Revo controller announcement. I was always crap at it though.

[Platty]

i love my dreamcast its still all set up! i loved playing sonic adventure on it, was awesome, as was crazy taxi in its day! i also have the gun and love playing house of the dead! but shenmue is by far the best game on the console

[RoadKill]

The SEGA Dreamcast is the finest console in all the land, and I own no less than 4 working PAL Dreamcasts.

[Hudsoo]

oh how i wish i still had shenmue 2 as i (accidently of course) broke disc 2.........cue the violin.....ah but the good thing was i did complete the main game before it happened, now just to find another cheap copy of it

[Eddage]

Think Headhunter is the game I enjoyed hte most/still enjoy! Treid playing Ahesnmue again recently (was gonna get the second since I had never played it before so wanted to get back into the story), sadly I just couldn't get into it again, despite loving it the first time round!

[Retro_Link]

Think Headhunter is the game I enjoyed hte most/still enjoy! Treid playing Ahesnmue again recently (was gonna get the second since I had never played it before so wanted to get back into the story), sadly I just couldn't get into it again, despite loving it the first time round!
The original Shenmue does go a little slow at time; though it has some great moments!

Shenmue 2 however is totally different in terms of action, as it just doesnt stop! I wouldn't put off trying out Shenmue 2 based on Shenmue 1 (as Shenmue 1 is really just setting him up for his adventure).

[Eddage]

Well... maybe... once I've finished Skies, bought and played through Baton Kaitos, Advance Wars DS and any other new and interesting games that I'm sure will be out by the time I've finished those, then... I'll think about it :yes:

[RATM_4_EVA]

Power Stone pwns all

[Happenstance]

Shenmue 1 was definately my fav of the 2. It had a more friendly, homely vibe. Seemed that everyone knew you there and it was easy to find your way around, I kept getting lost in shenmue 2

[Retro_Link]

Well... maybe... once I've finished Skies, bought and played through Baton Kaitos, Advance Wars DS and any other new and interesting games that I'm sure will be out by the time I've finished those, then... I'll think about it :yes:
TOLD! :blink:

LOL

[bencallis]

Do any of you not like zombie revenge , I think its great just to have a go on now and then.I like resident evil c v though the best :)

[xino]

nah mine are and still play are
*Sonic Adventure: fastest sonic game ever created not until sonic nex gen:D
*Shenmue: Best 3d RPG, with great storyline, design, graphics, action
*Quake 3 arena: One of the best FPS games
*Soul Reaver: Great plot and storyline
*RE:Code Veronica: one of best action pack re game
*Spawn:in the demons hand: LOTS OF GAMEPLAY AND ACTION
*Headhunter: was great but...:D

[Shmotz]

I noticed Powerstone mentioned a couple of times and I didn't mention it because secretly I thought it was crap (Read: I was shit at it).

However, just last night I had another attempt and managed to play through it on my first attempt! So yer Powerstone is cool. Even my Gf played it with me, still she prefers Soul Calibur though ;)

[masaki86]

A note to all; everyone must play Jet Grind Radio. Brilliant game!! I had my doubts..for about 5 minutes, and after that, it was sweet gaming heaven all the way.

[Cheapshot]

A note to all; everyone must play Jet Grind Radio. Brilliant game!! I had my doubts..for about 5 minutes, and after that, it was sweet gaming heaven all the way.

With you all the way there; I must have completed it over 10 times already and it has some of the best gaming music ever IMO.

[masaki86]

With you all the way there; I must have completed it over 10 times already and it has some of the best gaming music ever IMO.

I concur; just been replaying it this morning, got up to cube and combo levels-cube is such a cool character!!

[Retro_Link]

*Headhunter: was great but...:D
But what??

Headhunter was a great game IMO, though it got a little to Resi towards the end, but i really enjoyed it!
A note to all; everyone must play Jet Grind Radio. Brilliant game!! I had my doubts..for about 5 minutes, and after that, it was sweet gaming heaven all the way.
I had the demo (from the official magazine), and thought it was great, i used to play that quite alot; maybe someday i'll look into finding this game.

[Hellfire]

There aren't a lot of games that keep me going back to my Dreamcast, but I still love it. Soul Calibur, Shenmue I and II, Crazy Taxi, Skies of Arcadia, Chu Chu rocket, PSO,... Ahh such fond memories.

[Sabre]

I have one, Sonic Adventure, Soul Calibur and Crazy Taxi were the best games on it I had at the time and I kind of abandoned it when I got a PS2 in 2001; Thus I didn't play Shenmue till last year. (Have 2 on the Xbox)

In the last year I've picked up some games I wanted at the time but couldn't afford being 14!; including 18 Wheeler, Ecco, Dino Crisis and Shenmue of course.

[Shmotz]

Got Sonic Adventure today. Despite some terrible camera moments and it not really looking that pretty it plays allright; can get insanely fast in places, so I'm enjoying it. Playing that alongside Sonic 2 on an Emulator (God bless Save States ;))

[Fierce_LiNk]

Has anyone played the DreamCast Version of Unreal Tournament? My mate brought it around a few weeks back, and it was bluddy great.

[masaki86]

Has anyone played the DreamCast Version of Unreal Tournament? My mate brought it around a few weeks back, and it was bluddy great.

T'is a great DC game-much better than Quake III Arena. I can't be sure, but I think there is still an Unreal server being hosted by fans.

[Fierce_LiNk]

T'is a great DC game-much better than Quake III Arena. I can't be sure, but I think there is still an Unreal server being hosted by fans.

Awesome. :cool:
I was just curious if anyone else has played this fantastic game. It's certaintly up there with Goldeneye and Perfect Dark as the best console FPS's out there.

[RoadKill]

I have it and I have Quake 3 Arena also.

[Fierce_LiNk]

I have it and I have Quake 3 Arena also.

Which one you like most? I'd say at a guess...Unreal?

[RoadKill]

Hmm, I haven't played either a great deal, but Quake 3 tends to have a slightly better frame rate.

Heh. However looking at it as a game -- Well, I liked Unreal Tournament far better than Quake 3 on the PC.