Well, I've been doing some ebaying to pick up some games I wanted. So far I've ordered

World Series Baseball 2K2 (Dreamcast)
Shenmue (Dreamcast)
Dead or Alive 2 (Dreamcast)
DOA2: Hardcore (PlayStation 2)

DOA2: Hardcore just came today and the others should be shipping today or tomorrow. Neat! I also got a mouse and a keyboard for the Dreamcast for 99 cents each - I might get the broadband adaptor and actually play some games online. There are still people that do that. :)

I'm still on Espresso-2-Go on GTA3, but I haven't tried it again since the other night. I think what I've been doing is taking Paul's save and trying to beat the game. So far I'm having no luck, but I only tried three time I think. I've got the route to the dam pretty well down, so I'll be prepared for when I get there. Thoughts of re-starting the game and going through to 100% it are running through my head - I know so much more now than I did a few weeks ago when I started it again. I think that would be much more satisfying for me.

I'm thinking about re-working the TV/console area to make better use of space. I have two levels - the consoles are on top and the games are down below, but there's still room down below. The TV is up on another level but that's just there by it's self, so no big deal. Anyway, from left to right, I have the Dreamcast, the PS2 with an N64 on top of it, and a DVD player with the Xbox on top of that (and the video switch for all the systems on top of that). I'm thinking about putting the PS2 down below with the games. I'm also considering sticking the PS2 vertical - but I've heard it can have problems with some games this way. Any truth to this? Do I need to worry about it? Once I get it set up, I'm not going to want to move it just to play a game. I'd rather get it right the first time. Basically, I want to have room to put a GameCube once I get one.

Also - how did the Dreamcast get so many great games and then fail? Sega's upper management must have <b>really</b> sucked. I know Saturn got creamed by the PlayStation - that's understandable. But <b>HOW THE HELL DID THE DREAMCAST FAIL?</b> Man, that still just amazes me. Shit, I still don't think the PS2 is a better console than Dreamcast, save for the controllers, where the PS2 easily whips the Dreamcast (in my opinion). Shit, even the VMUs are better than the damn memory cards. And you can put TWO in each controller! Damn. I still don't understand it. I love my Dreamcast. Jenni likes it to play Q*bert. Hehe. :)

Anyway, basically I'm just looking forward to beating GTA3 pretty thoroughly and then taking on some of these other games that I've got. What's going on in your gaming world?

The Dreamcast died because:

1) The first wave of games was okay, with two standouts (NFL2K and Soul Calibur). The next real system-seller (Crazy Taxi) didn't come out for five months. The first US game with network capabilities (originally promised at launch, but not delivered) was a month after that. By that time, the US PS2 launch was mere months away, and Sega quickly assumed its standard crisis-response position (i.e. roll onto their backs and put a big red X on their stomachs with a sign reading "STAB HERE").

The online advantage was theirs to use, and they badly fumbled the ball. Instead of having a sizeable online lineup in the Xmas 2000 season to point to (screaming "HERE's your reasons not to buy a PS2"), they had very little to support it, and Phantasy Star Online (their one and only answer to the FF series) came out months later, too little too late. Shenmue was too little, too late, and was met with roaring rounds of indifference.

2) Sega of USA management was, in fact, dimwitted. I can vouch for that, going back several years.

3) The DC is much more import-friendly than the PS2... but that's always an niche audience. The trick is to import the right games and bring them to the US masses, which is one reason the PS1 was so successful. Space Channel 5 is not my idea of a major game to push.

4) The DC was (and is) pirate-friendly. It's not too difficult for those with broadband connections to download game images off the Internet and burn them to CDs, and use them on unmodified DC consoles. Doing so with PS1 games required a modchip or dongle, and doing so with PS2 games is quite an adventure.

5) Honestly... there aren't that many DC games I've been excited about. I will rave about Crazy Taxi, Soul Calibur, the NFL2Ks (though I'm not much of a sports-game person), Fire Pro Wrestling D (best game for the system), and I haven't tried Skies of Arcadia or Record of Lodoss War yet... and after that, I'm at a loss as to big games that weren't also on PS1 or PS2. The Tony Hawk games are ubiquitous, Jet Grind Radio left me flat, VF3tb flopped in the face of 5,3837E+09 Tekken junkies, Seaman flopped, PSO did okay, and then what?

Once the PS2 got a huge foothold and the XBox launch started approaching, it had no chance and Sega pulled the plug.

Man. You hit it in #1. Sega just didn't try. They could have creamed the PS2, I think. They just didn't push it enough. Xbox and PS2 <b>still</b> don't have online shit going. It's pathetic. Dreamcast was ready for that (or <b>should</b> have been) back in early 2000. Man.

Such a great console killed by mismanagement.

It sucks that there are no new games, but it's great that they can be had cheaply now :) I'll have to get Fire Pro and check it out - I've been looking for a good wrestling game for any system.

As far as wrestling games go, the Fire Pro series is unparalled for realism. They're heavy on Japanese text, so FAQs are definitely required to make sense of the menus and such, but if you follow pro wrestling at all, you can pretty much do anything in these games that they do in real life. The Edit mode has an _unbelievable_ amount of depth.

Fire Pro games are unlicensed by the big feds, but use that as an excuse to sample from ALL of them, worldwide. WWF, WCW, ECW, New Japan, All Japan, Michinoku Pro, NOAH, FMW, Toryumon, Big Japan/garbage feds, Osaka Pro, shootfighting promotions, and even Japanese women's federations are represented, and you can create your own (fantasy or real) federations. The wrestlers look and move like their real-life inspirations, but have goofy names -- which can be changed to the real names (in English). Check out the FAQs on character creation in Fire Pro D -- I can't do justice to it, and it puts games like Smackdown to shame.

And how many other games let you drag Hulk Hogan's wrinkled ass into an Electrified Barbed Wire Exploding Cage Death Match or a Fluorescent Light Bulb Board Barbed Wire Death Match, then have Abdullah the Butcher chew on his forehead and stick a fork in his skull?

We live in very different worlds.

I guess you've never seen the real Abdullah the Butcher in action, then. :)

(The table fork and the bite are, indeed, two of his trademark "moves." He also owns and operates Abdullah the Butcher's House of Chicken & Ribs in Atlanta, Georgia. There is no causal relationship between these two sentences, we hope.)

"I am beginning to love the classic Abdullah; he is nothing fancy, just a fat psychopath who is going to jab this Number 2 Pencil in your head and there ain't shit you can do about it."
-- Phil Schneider

No kidding. I suppose that's another attempt to be mildly amusing shot down. Anyway, thanks for the info. Some forehead sounds delicious just now.

So I'm thinking about buying <b>Red Faction</b> for my PS2. I've read really good things about it (IGN rates it at a 9.1 or something) and it's only $20, which is cool. Gotta love that whole Greatest Hits deal - I have all of them except Dark Cloud and Red Faction, and that's because I haven't gotten around to Red Faction and Dark Cloud doesn't seem like my type of game really. I'm open to the idea though - but I'll focus on what I've got before taking on an entirely new genre.

I spent an hour or so 100%-ing the first two levels in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 with a second skater last night - on my way to completing the game again. I can't even stress how fucking great that game is and just how fun I find it. Infinitely playable. Way better than Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2. After playing 3, I find it hard to even go back to 2 - it's that much better. I'm going to be playing that game until Tony Hawk 4 comes out.

I'm still thinking about putting the PS2 upright, and you still haven't told me if you've heard anything bad about doing so :)

Work is fun, so I'm gonna get back to that. But I just really want to get home and play some Hawk tonight. It's good fun.

Ehh. I played the demo of Red Faction, and wasn't blown away -- it wasn't bad, but FPS games are typically better suited to the PC than to the console. But that's just me.

Vertical PS2s are either (a) harmless or (b) a potential cause of games being inexplicably scratched. Choose the answer you like best, because I've heard both and can't verify either.

Well, I've 100%'d Tony Hawk 3 with like 4 characters now. I just had this momentum over the weekend. I did all 4 characters on Saturday, and it only took me a few hours. It was definitely a lot of fun. Man do I love that game.

I did pick up <b>Red Faction</b>. I haven't played it yet; I'll get to it later. But I have it for when I'm ready.

In the last few days, my attention has been with <b>Spider-Man</b> for Xbox. So far it's definitely pretty fun, but I'm not far enough along to say whether or not it's a "great" game.

I also picked up the new Xbox controller. I like it, personally. I like the older ones too, but I can see this one being my choice for fighting games - the directional pad is simply that much better.

No GTA3 in a while - I've just felt kinda burnt-out from it. I played it so much in such a little time and now I've just been hitting the other games. But they've been satisfying so there's no problem there.

Andrea was playing <b>Fatal Frame</b> while she was here over the weekend and that looked like something I could get into - not so much that it's addictive as it looks intriguing.

Games to focus on: Dead or Alive (all versions, all 3 platforms), Virtua Fighter 4, Soul Calibur, Grand Theft Auto 3, Spider-Man, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3.

I have a lot on my plate. :)

Bringing some Dreamcast love
 

Okay, after a week of investigation, realization and frantic downloading, I am officially SOLD on the Dreamcast.

Why? Emulation. Not emulation OF the DC... emulation ON the DC.

I now have a burned version of NESter 6.0, a Nintendo emulator for the DC, with 2000+ ROM images on board. I have a hacked Smash Pack loader with 180 Genesis ROMs on board. I'm working on a DreamSNES disc, though I really don't have that many SNES images (mostly RPGs, and a few oddballs like Jaki Crush). I can follow this with DCStella (Atari 2600), NeoPocutt (NGPC), and a host of other emulatables. Someone took the time to write a freaking SINCLAIR SPECTRUM emulator for the DC. How can I not reward that misguided devotion with a download?

MAME for DC? Why not? It'll even play some NeoGeo games, albeit at reduced speed and without sound. Many older games are just fine. I find the concept of a Sega console being hacked in 2002 to emulate a Sega arcade game from 1981 delightfully ironic.

A million billion stars. Joe Bob sez check it out.

As for mainstream DC games, I've been doing some obtaining of those, too (insert parrot and arr! here), so here's some quick capsule reviews:

Bomberman Online: A very good (if polygonal, which is odd) Bomberman title. You either love or hate Bomberman by now, so I'll move on.

Sonic Shuffle: A steaming turd.

Urban Chaos: A nice concept destroyed by an abysmal frame rate and poor controls.

Dynamite Deka 2 (Dynamite Cop): Pure beat-em-up goodness... for the half-hour it'll take you to finish it.

Floigan Bros. Episode 1: Needs to be seen just for the graphics, which are wonderfully animated.

Gauntlet Legends: I've barely started this one.

Super Runabout: GTA3 has spoiled me as far as car handling goes. I find myself trying to powerslide around curves and slamming into walls instead in this one. Loved Runabout on the PSX (Felony 11-79 in the US), so I won't give up on this one yet.

Power Stone: Frenzied Capcom fighter, nice graphics, haven't come to terms with its complexity yet.

Marvel vs. Capcom 2: Frenzied Capcom fighter of the button-mashing variety. I can't say I'll spend the time needed to master it, but it's a cute diversion.

Super Street Fighter 2X: Old-school Capcom fighter. The online component won't work outside of Japan, so this is simply SSF2T on the DC. Which isn't a bad thing, of course.

Super Puzzle Fighter 2X: Now THIS is an f'ing game. Classic Puzzle Fighter plus two new modes (one akin to Puyo Puyo, one more like Tetris Attack). I don't mind that I can't go online with it, only because I suck at head-to-head on this game.

Street Fighter 3 - Double Impact: I'd never played SF3, so I'm still learning this one.

Dance Dance Revolution Club/2nd Mix: I watched people freaking out on the dance mats at the Philly Classic convention, and laughed my ass off. I watched people dancing at the Park City Mall arcade, and laughed my ass off. Then I figured "what the hell -- maybe they know something I don't" and gave it a try. Surprisingly addictive, even without the dance pad (though having one makes it a completely different game).

Guilty Gear X: An underrated 2D fighter, gorgeous animation, and apparently there's quite a lot of depth to its mechanics.

Red Dog - Superior Firepower: Heavily armed moon buggy goes nutzoid. Dodgy controls (so far) but somewhat entertaining.

Sega Tetris (Japan): Tetris with a few frills thrown around it, most of which I haven't found a translation for yet.

Fire Pro Wrestling D: Had this one already, but who could pass it up? Best... wrestling game... EVER.

Dead or Alive 2 - Limited Edition: I may get into this one a lot more than I thought I would. Sharp graphics, and some of the most painfully pathological move animations I've seen in years. The Kasumi throw where she leaps up and rat-tat-tat-tat-tats her feet into her opponent's head is hysterical -- sort of like Kim Kaphwan gone horribly wrong. And who wouldn't want to stomp the hell out of a Dennis Rodman look-alike?

Well, I'm slowly working my way through <b>Spider-Man</b> on Xbox. I picked it up the other night (as well as one of the new Xbox controllers and <b>Red Faction</b>) and I've been playing it ever since. The control can get a little wacky (camera-wise - if you play it, you'll know what I mean), but it's still pretty fun. My only complaint is that Tobey Maguire's voiceover comes off as a little dry, but Bruce Campbell's narration more than makes up for it.

I also got <b>Devil May Cry</b> for $25 at KB Toys. They were having a sale and a lot of their PS2 games were 50% off. I've never seen it that cheap before, so I snagged a copy. I imagine it'll be a while before I get around to playing it, but I've got it for when I'm ready :)

Devil May Cry is pretty sweet, particularly at that price. I've got it on hold at the moment -- I reached level six or so, hit the wall in terms of difficulty, figured that I needed to practice quite a bit to work out how to handle progressively nastier opponents (my wife's the Resident Evil-style third-person shoot-creepy-things genre junkie, not me)... then got GTA3 and DMC was thus shelved. Hell, I bought Monster Rancher 3 that week (before Xmas!) and I haven't even started it yet, but I'm weird that way.

Anyway, it's got tons of flash and style it hasn't even used yet and it's a great relief-of-aggression tool, even if I usually end up so involved in launching ghoul X into the air and performing hideous rapid-gunfire-into-sword-thrust combos on him that every other ghoul in the room gets to gang up on me. Ah well.

Additions to the DC Games I've Played Recently pile:

* Worms World Party: Just like every other Worms game you've ever seen or played, in that it's essentially Scorched Earth gone Nickelodeon. No game with exploding sheep can be all bad, though. Surprisingly addictive, but much better in multiplayer mode.

* Pen Pen TriIcelon: THE SINGLE MOST CHIRPY AND UPBEAT GAME I HAVE EVER PLAYED. This makes Motor Toon Grand Prix look and sound like Wall Street Week. Muppets-gone-horribly-wrong swim, hop and belly-slide over Arctic landscapes and you get to watch AND control one. Woohoo! Gameplay isn't very deep, but the presentation has to be seen to believed - really hi-res and smooth. Bring some insulin.

* Wild Metal: Very bare-bones tank shoot-em-up; great physics engine, solid controls, not a whole lot to DO that makes sense or is fun. I'm not ready to toss it yet, but it's ehhh so far.

* Chu Chu Rocket: First off, I love Electronics Boutique. They had new VMUs for $11 -- or new-VMU-with-a-GAME blister packs for $15. Four extra bucks for a NIB game? Sign me up. That said, this is a decent puzzle game as-is, but I haven't gotten to play it as it's supposed to be played (in frenetic four-player mode at warp speed).

I also found <b>State of Emergency</b> shrink-wrapped (read: brand spankin' new) for $30 and promptly wet myself (and then bought it). <b>Tokyo Xtreme Racer: Zero</b> looks pretty good, and that's only $20 at Best Buy (where I got SOE), so I'll get that too.

I've been eyeing SOE for a while now, and though I don't really have time to get into it at the moment, I didn't want to miss it. So I picked it up.

Lots of cheap PS2 games to be found if you look in the right places, which I'm apparently doing. I've now got like 11 PS2 games, and I only paid the original $50 for 2 of them - Grand Theft Auto 3 & Metal Gear Solid 2. And <b>all</b> of them have been brand-new. Yeah! :)

SoE is a raw adrenaline rush, and you paid $20 less than I did. There are HORDES of used copies of this game out there, for a very simple reason -- 95% of those who bought it expected it to be Grand Theft Auto 3 1/2, and were dramatically surprised when it didn't have a quarter of GTA's depth.

It's got more in common with, say, Dynamite Cop/Die Hard Arcade than GTA, apart from a shared sick sense of humor. A raw beat-and-blow-em-up that's good at what it is. (Hints: When you're running low on health, the best way to replenish it is to grab a billy club and plow through a crowd of security guards. Each one you flatten drops a health and/or time powerup, and you get double value for hand-to-hand attacks. The point total goals seem hard to reach at first... until you figure out that when you walk up to the front door of a building and pump in a grenade-launcher shell, good things happen. The sword is useless. Spanky rules the earth.)

I had some mild motion-sickness problems with the Last Clone Standing mode, which only one other game has ever done to me (Gex: Enter the Gecko). Major camera whiparounds. I didn't feel it in the regular Chaos modes, however.

Well, Best Buy is having a sale so a lot of the games are cheap cheap cheap :) I was thinking about getting it a week ago at $50; I'm glad I waited :)

Anyway, IGN is my best friend (not really), and I read all their reviews, which I find to be pretty spot-on. I know what to expect from SOE - they say very plainly that it is not GTA3, and that's alright with me. I haven't played GTA3 in weeks still - like I said, I got burnt-out from it 'cause I was playing it SO MUCH. Even so, I'm down with the sick sense of humor - that's something that I share as well. :) It looks like it will be a jolly good time and that's what I was looking for, so I picked it up.

I'm really not into buying used games unless I can't avoid it. Lots of times you can get great deals, but there are also some lemons out there. I got Mortal Kombat Trilogy for my original PlayStation from FuncoLand and it was scratched and didn't play right. Ever since then I've pretty much tried to stick to brand-new games.

Well, let's see if I can list off all the PS2 games I've got right now. This list has changed a lot in the past few weeks.

Twisted Metal: Black
Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec
ATV Offroad Fury
Red Faction
Metal Gear Solid 2
Grand Theft Auto 3
Virtua Fighter 4
State Of Emergency
Devil May Cry
DOA2: Hardcore

and Fatal Frame is sitting at my house, but it's Andrea's. She just doesn't have a PS2 to play it on, so she plays it at my house.

Anyway. I want to go home and play around. But I still have hours of work left. Ugh. I should do it and make the time go faster. Which I think I will. Weee.

If you have a CD-burner, a Dreamcast and an ounce of nostalgia, you owe it to yourself to try DCStella.

My wife was somewhat impressed by many of the DC games I've obtained, but she openly salivated when she saw it running Yar's Revenge, Adventure and Haunted House. (I married well.)

To my pleasant surprise, it even runs SUPERCHARGER titles like Dragonstomper and Communist Mutants From Space! I had them all already (thanks to the Stella Gets A New Brain compilation CD), but this is just icing on the cake. It doesn't support paddle-controller games yet, but there's always the next version...

A sad note
 

The Xbox is now down to $199, matching the PS2 and the Gamecube.

And I _still_ don't want to buy one.

(When I take out the cross-platform titles and series and look at exclusives, the only games left that look interesting to me are Halo, Wreckless (coming to PS2 later this year) and GunValkyrie. Even the future releases don't look promising -- maybe Shenmue II by Xmas.)

Not that the Gamecube looks much better -- right now it has Super Smash Bros. Melee, Pikmin, and, er... Pikmin?

Don't discount Super Monkey Ball. That game was retardedly fun when I played it, and I didn't even get to the Monkey Pool and shit like that.

Plus, the GameCube price has GOT to fall. Nintendo will have to cut it, probably to $149. I know they're saying they're not going to, but that's what they said back in the PlayStation/Saturn/N64 days too. To compete, it will have to be lower priced. It simply can't compete with PS2 otherwise.

Metroid Prime is really the game I'm looking forward to on GameCube. That and Soul Calibur 2, which is being designed around GameCube's controller.

Halo is seriously an unreal game. Its depth is amazing - the attention to detail will blow you away. Xbox is worth buying just for that. Especially at the $199 price.

If you already have a PS2 and are happy with it, then yeah, Xbox doesn't seem so great. But if you're looking at a next-gen system, Xbox has pretty good games so far and all the cross-platform games are better on Xbox. I'm pretty platform-agnostic when it comes to the big three - PlayStation was my favorite thing in the world, then Dreamcast... right now I prefer the Xbox simply because it plays better (no pop-up, slow down, etc). But I'm not a fanboy zealot type - whatever works best. Which is why I also own a PS2 and will be getting a GameCube whenever the price falls :)

Real big PS2 advantage - lots of games can be had cheaper than $30. GameCube and Xbox still have some catching up to do in that area. Also, now that PS2's controller and memory card prices have fallen, it's looking more attractive - Microsoft and Nintendo should respond with controller price cuts and cheaper memory cards.

Ah... it's a good time to be a gamer :) Now if only I had more time to waste...

A few more quick Dreamcast reviews:

Street Fighter Alpha 3: Now THIS is a goddamn fighting game. 2D Street Fighter goodness mixed with a Soul Calibur-esque quest mode and tons of extras. New fun that feels old-school.

Mr. Driller: About the same as every other Mr. Driller version that's ever existed -- in other words, addictive as hell and fast.

DreamSNES 0.94: A homebrew SNES emulator that's a port of PC zSNES. Lags unless you turn the sound off, so it's best used for RPGs. (Not that that's a bad thing. You can have Chrono Trigger, FF2, FF3, Lufia, Breath of Fire et al. all on one disc.)

Namco Museum: The games are classics, the controls are decent for the most part, but how lame is it that they put six games on the disc when they KNEW they wouldn't have a DC Volume Two?

Neo Golden Logres: low-rent pinball sim, three tables, lots of Japanese. So-so.

Metropolis Street Racer: Nifty racer, though difficult. Win races, earn Kudos by powersliding through turns, marvel at the purty graphics. It's no Gran Turismo, but I can't handle GT's ultrarealistic handling anyway.

Evolution - The World of Sacred Device: Garden-variety RPG.

Evil Dead - Hail to the King: A steaming turd, and I wish that it was otherwise. Nice FMV, horrific control scheme, zero balance in gameplay.

Nightmare Creatures 2: A slight bit better than Evil Dead, but still mindless. Psychotic with axe hacks up zombies, simplistic controls, Rob Zombie soundtrack. Should be better than it is.

Sword of the Berzerk - Guts' Rage: The best of the hack-and-slashers I've played lately. Big dude with bigger sword, crossbow and arm cannon goes nutzoid on mutated enemies, spilling enough blood to fill the Metrodome.

Zusar Vasar: Older Japanese game, kind of a neat concept. Robotic animals pull mechanical chariots in a race and YOU get to drive.

Sonic Adventure 1 & 2: Your first reaction to the word "Sonic" will probably describe your response to these games -- either you'll love them or you'll recoil in horror. Platformers are an acquired taste.

http://news.com.com/2100-1040-919045.html?tag=fd_top

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW YEAH.

VICE VICE BABY.
 

We all knew GTA3 1/2 was coming, but it's always nice to see it confirmed.

In the meantime, since GTA3 for the PC shipped _today_ (though those with non-hefty machines may experience chuggage), I'm keeping a close eye on www.gta3mods.com. It'll be worth buying GTA3 twice if I can roll my own features the second time...

DEMENTIA STRIKES.
 

Yet another reason that I have newfound love for my Dreamcast:

The Dreamcast, as you may know, works with Windows CE (which made PC ports a bit easier to translate over). Some demented soul out there in Internet-land thought "The DC runs a form of Windows. Quake has a Windows-native .exe. I wonder if I can port this over?"

And so, QuakeDC was born. The fact that I'm playing it at all is rather choice. (It uses the .pak files from shareware/registered Quake, so as to keep the lawyerbots from id happy.)

I twiddled with it for a while tonight, and worked out that the audio tracks (as .wav files) could be replaced without harm to the product.

I am now playing Quake on my DC with Sifl & Olly's "United States of Whatever" merrily blaring away in the background.

Life is good.

Post linkage. I'd definitely be interested in that. Since I own Quake, I could have the full version. Nifty.

Also, I agree with you about Street Fighter Alpha 3. Street Fighter has long been my favorite fighting game (as I am a mother fucking pimp with Ryu), and SFA3 for the Dreamcast is pretty tight. Admittedly, I prefered the PlayStation version, but only because of the controller. Thankfully, there are adaptors that allow you to use PS controllers on DC. So... Happy happy joy joy :)

Dreamcast really is a great console. Man I love my Dreamcast. :)

I also picked up a PSone and wow... it is <b>small</b>. I got it 'cause I knew it was smaller and I don't have room for my original PlayStation down here. Let me tell you though... imagine taking two DVD cases and laying one on top of the other. That's how big the PSone is. Maybe a bit smaller. It's tiny. Fits perfectly on my table. The only problem is that now I have like... 13 controllers laying around :) 4 for DC, 2 for N64, 2 for PS2, 2 for PSone, 3 for Xbox... good lord. And when I get a GameCube, that'll just be even more. Must have a system.

I've been spending a lot of time on Tony Hawk 3. I know, big surprise. Well, I'm quite a bit better than I used to be, and I now routinely get scores around a million points. That's pretty tight, I think, and it's just off vert tricks. My grind mojo is pretty good too :) I have a bunch of games which I need to get to, but I just lack the time. Hopefully this weekend (which is three days long - yeah!) will provide it. Really want to get into Shenmue - that tops my list.

Anyway, that's about it. I just can't break away from Tony Hawk 3. It's purely addictive.

http://quakedev.dcemulation.com is the best source I've found. It has the non-id files available for download in .rar archives, along with some patch files (JoyMenu 1.3 is highly recommended, and it's a snap to add and compile as it's just an extra .pak file). UnRAR the files, add in your .pak files from PC Quake, compile and burn. (Then hope that your DC is old enough to be CDR-friendly. CDRWs will not work under any circumstances.)

www.dcemulation.com, krypt.dyndns.org:81/dcfactory and www.zophar.net are also good sources of information and source files for Dreamcast emulation projects. I have working Atari 2600, NES, SNES, Atari 800/5200 and Genesis emulators already, and will probably give the Odyssey^2 emu a crack when I get home. I haven't gotten around to compiling MAMEDC yet...

There are a handful of different ways of compiling QuakeDC, some of which are explained on the quakedev page. Non-self-booting versions are easier, but will require a boot disc (the Utopia Boot Disc v1.1 being the most infamous of these, which isn't too hard to find). Self-booting discs require a bit more file-hacking and I'm not going to try to explain it in forty words or less here. The Echelon self-boot tutorial (insert those words into Google for more) does a good job of explaining the process and listing the necessary applications.

Let me know if you need any help or advice (PM me with your email or something, so as not to put it out there for ye olde spamharvesters).

Prices
 

Is anyone else pumped becuase of the price drops of the systems like Xbox PS2 and Gamecube. I am bc i might finally get an XBOX.

I also have a question about Microsoft and XBOX. Why is microsoft losing money on the xbox? are they that dumb or is there something that i havent heard

They need to sell at a loss to remain competetive (price-wise) with PS2.

Happiness
 

Some of you might be familiar with Game Stop (or Funco Land, which is now Game Stop). I've always been pretty happy with them...good selection of games, reasonable prices. We have one near us at Franklin Mills Mall (about a mile away), which is pretty convenient.

Now it seems as if Game Stop is expanding like nuts. They've opened several new stores in local neighborhood shopping centers. A new one opens at the strip mall by my house in a few weeks...only 4 blocks away. Sweet! I'll be up there all the damned time. :)

They don't carry PC games though, only consoles, right?

I don't remember if they carried them as Funco Land, but I believe they do now. They definitely offer them through their site.

Okay, here's the deal on Xboxes and selling at a loss:

All consoles sell at a reduced profit margin than games do, and generally at a loss until well into a console's lifespan (i.e. unless it's a breakout hit like the NES/PSX/PS2).

Some reasons:

To a company that produces consoles, the single most important factor is WHETHER THE CONSUMER BUYS THE CONSOLE. If a customer owns Console X, it doesn't matter that much which game the customer buys for it; the company will make some money. (Third-party games bring licensing and console-rights fees. First-party games have higher profit margins, obviously, but the company must also pay for game development, R&D, marketing, etc. for homegrown titles.) If a customer doesn't own Console X, he won't buy ANY games for it, obviously, so getting the customer to buy Console X is the first big hurdle.

The console company is thus not in a position where it can sell these at a high profit margin; it needs to sell them as cheaply as they can to get the maximum number of consoles into homes. More consoles in homes == more incentive for third-party developers to develop for that console == more choices for the customer == more game sales == more sales of overpriced peripherals (memory cards, controllers, etc.) == more money.

The next hurdle to consider is that consoles are generally big-bucks items in their youth, and if a console doesn't succeed then, it probably never will. An Xbox at $299, a PS2 at $299, etc. is not an impulse buy for the typical family; it's a luxury. The lower that initial price is set, the more people will buy it early, instead of waiting for a price drop (during which time other systems and games will be released and compete with it). Nothing new about those prices, btw: the original Intellivision, for instance, cost $249.99. in ~1980 dollars.

The console does not exist in a vacuum. Other consoles will be following the same laws of supply and demand, and pricing their systems accordingly. A console price drop has certain implications. For a market leader, it could mean that the R&D has been paid off by profits, and that the console is becoming cheaper to manufacture due to hardware redesigns, decreased part costs as technology advances, or both. (Hence the revamped, compact versions of many consoles -- Intellivision II, Genesis 2/3, small NES, GameBoy Pocket, PSOne.) It could mean that they're lowering prices to force the hand of other companies to lower theirs, who may not be as capable of absorbing the economic hit. It could mean that they're aggressively trying to add to that customer base, to remain number one even as new systems compete with the existing standard. Or, often, it's a combination of these.

When a non-leading console drops prices, it's generally the third reason above -- trying desperately to get the console into homes, by any means necessary, and taking an up-front cash hit to gain an opportunity to make it up in software sales.

What happened recently went something like this: The Xbox needed a price drop to try to make a dent -- ANY dent -- in the PS2 sales machine. It has been doing so-so in the States, and miserably elsewhere in the world. Word of the imminent price drop leaked, and Sony decided to be aggressive and act (cutting theirs immediately) instead of react (cutting theirs in response). By doing so, they probably gained some sales from people who jumped at PS2-at-$199 without knowing of the imminent Xbox drop.

Microsoft then pulled the trigger on their drop, knowing that their thunder had been stolen somewhat but needing to at least keep pace with their major competitor.

Nintendo then dropped THEIR console by $50, because (for now) their cheaper price is their sole major marketing advantage over Sony and Microsoft. The flagship titles that early adopters want (Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, Metroid, Starfox) still aren't here, so they had little choice. This is far too early in the Xbox/Cube's lifespans for drops of that magnitude, IMHO, and it'll be interesting to see which of them (or either, or both) gets flushed out in the process.

As for FuncoGameStopLand, it's never really impressed me all that much. If you need something that's moderately old and moderately common, you can probably get it at a reasonable price; right now, that's the likes of a used NES or Genesis. Older systems tend to be dropped like a rock, however, often without warning. (The NES, for example, is rapidly vanishing from those stores.) They keep price listings for just about every game for each system, but they rarely have anything in stock that's the least bit rare or unusual. Likewise, recent releases aren't likely to be discounted significantly (sometimes at all) compared to pricing in the major outlets.

So, if you're looking for a game there, you have a certain window of time and popularity if you want a reasonable shot of finding it in stock. Before that point, you can probably find it cheaper elsewhere; after that point, they probably won't have it at all. Unless the game is very popular, the window isn't generally that long, and finding games past a certain age there is extremely hit-or-miss.

The things I do go there occasionally looking for are peripherals; memory cards, controllers, etc. Once in a while, someone'll trade in a system with some funky controllers, and they'll label them as "Misc Joypad" or "Misc Controller" and sell them pretty cheaply.

(I'm spoiled. We have several Stop 'n' Save Software outlets around here, recently renamed as EB Gameworld to more accurately represent that they've been Electronics Boutique's clearance outlet all along. I live near the very first one they opened in Edgmont, PA, which had some VERY funky stuff for quite some time after it opened. Duo Taps for $.10, TurboDuo games for $5, NeoGeo memory cards, NeoGeo Pocket Colors for $20, a TurboExpress for $50 new-in-the-box, all sorts of clearance-priced systems and merchandise... they're still my best source for used games for all systems.)

Realistically in the end, I would think that the makers really don't have to worry TOO much about making money off the consoles, with the exception of maybe Nintendo. Sony has its 90 quintillion other products, Microsoft runs the computer industry, and Nintendo has the Seattle Mariners. :)

It's not so much a matter of "worry," as a matter of smart corporate decision-making. Even an ubercorp like Microsoft has to look at a product that's funnelling money into a hole in the ground and pull the plug sooner or later, if there are no signs of improvement.

Obviously, Sony and Microsoft have a multitude of other products, and Nintendo has one product line that trumps the GameCube -- the Game Boy franchise. In its various incarnations, the Game Boy has simply destroyed all competitors for over a decade, most of whom were technologically superior to their Nintendo counterparts at the time. (Game Gear, TurboExpress, Nomad, NeoGeo Pocket Color... right now, only the WonderSwan remains, and that only in Japan for the most part.)

But in a three-horse race, the third horse tends to falter quickly. Just ask Sega. The Saturn was quite comparable to the PSX, superior in many ways, but it fell behind (particularly in America) and never recovered. Nintendo skewed younger, Sony skewed older, Sega went after that older audience and ended up canning the Saturn entirely, pushing Dreamcast development in hopes of THAT taking the technological lead. And even that didn't work -- despite the DC having a clear advantage in its modem capabilities and much better specs than the PSX, Sony held its ground, and when the PS2 took over the market, Sega gave up console systems altogether.

The thought of, say, Virtua Fighter 4 on a Sony system, or Crazy Taxi on a Nintendo one would have been ludicrous two years ago. Not anymore.

At the moment, the Xbox is the one on the hot seat, IMHO; they're chasing the Sony audience, and failing, just as Sega did. The wild card is that many speculate that Microsoft is much more willing to take a loss than Sega was, strictly for the purpose of getting a Microsoft gaming-and-entertainment box into American living rooms. Rumors of what the Xbox2 will be like (most of which depict it as more of a minicomputer than a gaming system) are rampant. A lot of that, however, will depend on how the first Xbox fares, and not many of the signs are good right now.

One has to realize that Microsoft has publicly stated that they <b>expect to lose two billion dollars</b> on Xbox. That is some serious, serious, serious cash.

Think about this for a second: Microsoft has some $40 billion dollars in the bank. There are 30 million PlayStation 2's out there. Microsoft could buy every PlayStation 2 owner an Xbox, ship it to them and still have some $33.4 billion in the bank. That's cash.

Then they could buy each of those people ten games to go with their Xboxes (at RETAIL, we're talking) and still have some $18 billion in the bank. And that's including shipping of both boxes to the customer.

Or... a controlling interest in Sony is only $26 billion...

At current rate, Microsoft's bank account grows by around $1 billion each month.

Microsoft is in this for the long haul. They don't care about losing money. They care about getting a good Microsoft product into the living rooms.

I was with you until that last statement.

They care about making money.

It's not a friggin' religion.

If they cared about getting the best systems into the homes ... they'd have bought Apple years ago, and we'd all have Macs. ;)

Let me rephrase:

Microsoft wants to own the house, and this is their way in.

They want a product in the living room that doesn't crash, works well, etc - kinda like Xbox.

But they're still the minority player in the field. Microsoft doesn't take over and rule every place that they stick their corporate nose into, and they're not the 900-pound gorilla in this arena. It's not to say that a new player can't quickly become dominant, obviously -- else Sony wouldn't have struck it gold with the PlayStation -- but they have one hell of a hill to climb with the Xbox, because Sony already owns that house big-time.

Microsoft has ONE route to dominance, and it's an obvious one -- spending major bucks to gain exclusivity rights to major game companies and properties. When Xbox is the only place for EA Sports, for killer apps like GTA3, for Tony Hawk, for the biggest games coming out, people will start flocking to it in droves. If you're a ten-to-one underdog, how do you convince developers to abandon the market leader and not produce cross-platform products? Money, baby, and big truckloads of it. Even Microsoft may not want to churn out THAT kind of dough, though it is something they do have in abundance...

You bring up a good point, and it's one I've been wondering about a bit lately. That is, why hasn't Microsoft shelled out for exclusivity rights for GTA? Probably because Sony is paying them big bucks, but still... plans for an Xbox version were scrapped (sadly - I would love to see Liberty City rendered on the Xbox) so it's all PS2 & PC now. Another big one would be Tony Hawk, because it's retardedly popular.

All in all, it doesn't matter much to me which consoles survive. There's room for two of them and possibly three, but if not, we'll end up with a cheap console and cheap games for it. Can't say that I'll complain too much about that. :)

--dave, lover of cheap games.

According to the last figures I saw, GTA3 for the PS2 has sold over six million copies worldwide. For reference, that's a very solid 20% of the ~30 million PS2s out there (not bad for a mature niche title), and about fifteen times higher than the announced sales criteria for the "PS2 Greatest Hits" line. (It should reach the other criteria (time of release) in mid-summer; picture the additional sales boost when it goes down to $24.99 then.)

Microsoft HOPES to ship five-to-six million Xboxes worldwide by the end of 2002. How much would Microsoft have to pay Rockstar/Take Two for exclusivity rights to offset that kind of sales loss, and to switch to a console with one-sixth the customer base?

A Windows:Linux and/or Mac::PS2:Xbox analogy would be flawed, but still nicely ironic. ;)

The alternative, of course, would be for Microsoft to attempt to buy Rockstar/Take Two outright and adjust their priorities accordingly. I'm far from savvy enough about the corporate-takeover world to speculate as to how that might be accomplished.

11 million copies. :P

400,000 being the "Greatest Hits" level... I imagine they will double their sales :)

Actually, the press release I saw said six million for GTA3, and eleven million for the entire GTA franchise (including GTA, GTA London and GTA2 for various platforms).

Either way, that's one hell of a lot of games. That's Final Fantasy VII levels, and GTA3 hasn't even enjoyed a price-cut sales boost yet or added in PC-version sales...

Current DC addiction: RECORD OF LODOSS WAR.

I have never seen any of the related anime series, so this isn't a biased plug for the game. Regardless, I'm finding it addictive as hell. It's sort of a single-player Diablo, with better graphics and a nifty equipment-upgrade system.

Joe Bob sez check it out. (Head Hunter's next. And sometime before the end of the year, I'm going to start on Freedom Force.)

paul and i bought a pirate game last night, which looks fun so far. when we get our little place and can play it all night, it will be tremendous fun. until then, we have to use the television sparingly.

I'm heading over to EB this weekend to pick up a new game. Anyone have any info on any of these?:

Medal of Honor: Frontline
Stuntman
The Getaway

No, but check out http://xxxxx.ign.com/reviews.html where xxxxx is your console - ps2, xbox, cube all work. They have excellent reviews and I find them to be pretty much spot-on.

From what I've heard, MOH: Frontline is a very good FPS -- it's on the linear side (don't expect Half-Life-level flexibility or AI), but very engrossing and vivid. Sorta like being in a good WWII movie -- the plot won't differ much from game to game, but it's a GOOD plot and the cinematography and special effects are solid.

Dave's July Gaming Roundup
 

Well, quite a few things have happened in my gaming world. I still play consoles pretty frequently, though I've had less time lately. I guess that's why I haven't written about it.

GTA3 was finally beaten while at Paul's. It wasn't beaten <b>fairly</b>, but it was beaten. I'll go through it soon enough and 100% the game, though I think I'm going to need a walkthrough for some of the packages.

I've been playing a lot of sports games lately and I'm definitely enjoying it. <b>FIFA World Cup 2002</b> has provided a number of hours of fun and I haven't even really scratched the surface of it yet - there are a number of difficulty levels, and beating it on "World Class" difficulty is definitely going to be the ultimate challenge. I think Paul and I <b>may</b> be able to accomplish it in a 2P Co-op while he's here. We'll see. We'll definitely have trouble with it, but I've gotten better since I played it as his place.

<b>NBA Inside Drive 2002</b> is also pretty fun, and I've started a season in that game. 80-some games + playoffs + championships should give me some serious play time on the game... and it only cost $10! You'll have to pay $30 if you buy it at the store though - I gots the hookup. Pretty good basketball game, though it has its quirks - sometimes you'll have the momentum for a dunk and you'll be in the right spot but it'll stop and do a fuckin' jumper. That's aggravating. :)

<b>Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3</b> has been beaten to a bloody pulp. It's still fun as hell though. I've 100%'d the game which is <b>no small feat</b>. I probably have over a hundred hours on the game. I'm now going through it and picking up the little things that don't count - stat points and extra decks. I have most characters complete now - only 5 more to go. That's out of about 20. But every goal for every character is complete. That was definitely a satisfying accomplishment.

I counted up and I currently have 17 Xbox games. Many of these were purchased at pretty hefty discounts, but I've still invested some pretty serious cash in my Xbox. I just got NFL 2K2 at Target the other day (for $17 and change) and I'll be getting into that when I have some time. Right now though, FIFA has got my attention.

I'm up to 13 PS2 games, which I think is a pretty decent amount. Again, most of these were purchased at pretty steep discounts - $20 for a lot of them, even though they weren't listed on the "Greatest Hits" roster. I really want to 100% GTA3, as I've stated previously. The other game that I'm eager to fully get into is <b>Virtua Fighter 4</b>, which I got at a discount thanks to a pricing error. I really really really suck at it right now, but I think that it'll come to me with enough practice. If I spend the time to master all of the characters, it will definitely be providing me with PS2 goodness for a long time to come.

As for the actual console, my original unit died after only a few months of use. The drive tray would shoot out of the console and remain in an open position, unable to close until I powered off the unit. Game discs would not read in the drive - I couldn't play anything. So I took the console back to Wal Mart, put up a bit of resistance to their resistance and got a brand new unit. I'm happy to report that it's working fine. I really really really hope this doesn't happen again. :)

Today's my birthday; last night was the party. I got a GameCube, Super Monkey Ball and Super Smash Brothers Melee. Both games are pretty good fun with a friend, and SMB has a pretty good single player game. I haven't had much time with the GC, but I'm enjoying it so far. I plan on ordering FIFA 2002 and NBA 2K2 today, as well as Eternal Darkness, which, I'm told by a friend, is one of the most amazing games ever. We shall see...

Happy Birthday!

definitely pick up eternal darkness. creepy as hell and fun to play. the story is a trip. lost kingdoms is supposed to be good too, i was gonna pick that up next week. rogue leader is another really good gc game.

~james

After hearing some raves about it, I did a little digging through some Eternal Darkness reviews. I have one simple response to the Insanity Meter/Effects: I _must_ get my hands on this game. This makes the Silent Hill games seem like Shining Time Station.

It's a pity that there's really nothing else for the 'Cube (yet) that I'd want to play. Tony Hawk's on PS2 (if I wanted it), Smash Bros. doesn't excite me, and I don't have the patience right now for Monkey Ball, which leaves a horde of sports games (which I don't generally play) and Pikmin in the Doesn't Suck And Might Be Worth Your $50 category. For one game, the Cube's not an impulse buy... yet, anyway.

On the PS2 end, things are equally slow. I picked up Frequency for cheap (Best Buy, $9.99) and am trying to figure out its quirks. Stuntman looks _very_ interesting, and might be a time-killer until GTA: Vice and The Getaway arrive this fall/winter. The Mark of Kri (end of this month) has possibilities.

The Italian Job is on my bought-it-and-need-to-find-time-to-play-it list, as is (still) Freedom Force for the PC. I'm actually getting more mileage out of Final Fantasy V (the PSX remake) than anything else at the moment.

I totally agree that there's not much on the Cube yet, especially if you don't do a lot of your gaming with friends. Most of the fun in Super Monkey Ball and Super Smash Brothers Melee is the multiplayer. However, Nintendo now has Eternal Darkness (which, we can all agree, looks amazing) and the other big one I'm waiting for is Metroid Prime, which promises to rock the socks off of everything else. Soul Calibur 2 is geared toward GameCube's controller, which is the other reason I wanted one.

All in all, I think I'll be pretty happy with it as a console... but of course, to each their own.

Re: Dave's July Gaming Roundup
 

Ooooook. No no no. If you spend the necessary time to master half of VF4's characters, you will be in a nursing home when you start on the other half. ;)

Some are easier than others, of course. Mastering Jerky is a snap compared to, say, Jeffry or Akira, and anyone who can master Shun-Di deserves Congressional recognition and a temple built in their honor.

I'm far from that level myself, so I've taken the next-best route; those who can't do, teach. I've been working on a Wolf AI and plunging it into Kumite mode, with sparring and replays in between to drill good habits into his thick Indian head. He's at 7th Dan and counting, even if he still can't figure out "Catch" throws or go-behind throws 90% of the time. It's a great way to vicariously experience the fun of characters whose combos are too painful for mortal fingers to execute... the first time my Wolf pulled off a toe-kick/gut-punch/Tiger Driver combo smoothly, I felt like a proud papa handing out cigars.

(My big three: Lion for speed and annoyance, Wolf for power and chain throws, Lau for flowing attacks. An Aoi AI is next on my list to develop.)

Yep. I'd rather have the Cube than, say, the Xbox. With Eternal Darkness's release, the Cube now has more games I'm lusting for than the Xbox by a one-to-nothing score. ;)

I am definitely more of a solo gamer than a multiplayer type; hell, I have an Athlon 1300 with 768K DSL and the ONLY online multiplayer game I've played on it so far is Netrek, which is the cutting edge of 1991 technology. (Okay, I compiled Dreamcast Quake on it, but that doesn't count.)

without giving anything away, the sanity effects are by far the scariest thing in the game. i actually start to panic when my sanity meter gets low. its been a long time since a game sucked me in like this. the ambient sound is freaky. ive jumped out of my seat more than once because of the sound alone. this is the kind of horror i dig. resident evil was cool, but it didnt really scare me.

of the next gen consoles, i have only the gc (unless you count the dc), and im actually quite pleased with my purchase so far, given some of the stuff thats out now, and what will be coming out. gauntlet dark legacy, super monkey ball, ssbm, pikmin, ssx tricky, lost kingdoms, eternal darkness, spider-man, mario sunshine, zelda, metroid prime, resident evil. my faith in nintendo is restored. i know some of those are cross-platform, but like i said, i only have a gc currently. im gonna pick up a ps2 one of these days, and i might get an xbox mostly because i want to play jetset radio future and world series baseball 2k3.

~james

I count the DC. Hell, it's STILL the only console with a reasonable online presence, though the PS2's network adapter isn't too far off now.

The facts that it's very easy to bypass country-code verification (hello Fire Pro), that European versions tend to support 50hz AND 60hz displays (making them US-friendly), and that its games are, er, easily distributable (arrr! arrr! me hearties!) don't hurt, either.

easily distributable. :) yeah, there are a few games i had an extraordinarily difficult time finding. a couple of them i still cannot fathom why they didnt make it to the u.s. super puzzle fighter, fire pro, some of the capcom vs. snk, and the worst offender, shenmue ii.

dc was a great console. based on principle alone, it will have a place on my entertainment center for a long time to come. that and world series baseball 2k2 is still the only game i can get my wife to play on a regular basis. have you ever played sega bass fishing? i didnt really like the game too much until i got the fishing controller. that may be the coolest specialized controller ever.

speaking of baseball, can anyone recommend a good one on the gc?

~james

In a way, Shenmue II did make it to the US. You can buy it at Gamestop (nee Babbage's) at either of two local malls near me. It _is_ a European version, but a boot disc (also sold there) fixes that, and the PAL thing shouldn't be an issue if 60hz is supported.

Fire Pro will never make it to the US in unmodified form. (It exists for the Game Boy, but the visuals were heavily hacked to fend off Vince McMahon's Corporate Copyright Fairies.)

i should probably pick that up. i have discs 1 and 2 in that 'easily distributable' format, but i really do try to have legit copies unless its totally impossible or unreasonable. im one of few people i know that has authentic coas for every ms product i own. oops, i mean 'license', cuz you cant buy software.

~james

SWEET SWEET FIRE PRO. HOW I LOVE THEE! :) :) :)

I unlocked the <b>Monkey Billiards</b> mini-game in Super Monkey Ball. Let me tell you, this could be a game all by itself. It is stupidly addicting. The only game is 9-ball (unfortunately), but it's still a lot of fun. Instead of hitting the ball, you're the monkey and you roll yourself in various directions at varying speeds. Man is it a good time. :)

I've also gotten pretty good at <b>Monkey Target</b> Yeah. All I'm saying is, come over and play me. :)

I haven't gotten <b>Eternal Darkness</b> yet, but I most likely will whenever I've the time to play it. I'm hesitant to sink $50 into a game when I might not have much time to spend with it. Life's been kinda busy lately, so I haven't spent as much time gaming. But when that clears up, ED is on the "must have" list.