Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Yet another crappy video!

I created yet another crappy video project in my spare time yesterday after work. The video quality is so bad I will not finish editing it. But I still decided to upload it since it was about the dreamcast. All in all it took me about 2 hours. (not counting rendering since I was eating dinner).
I wanted to do a video that was based on some of the darker games from the Dreamcast (a system which is sometimes unfairly labeled as girly). I had a bunch of stuff but ended up cuting alot of it because of bad video quality.

I was inspired by the video Gagaman did for the Dreamcast Junkyard.

TURN SOUND DOWN.


Dcshort
Video sent by Blandco

Oh those Japanese imports.

So I guess I really don't know that much about Japanese imports for the Dreamcast, save for those shumps that you can play without knowing how to speak Japanese.

There is some "interesting" stuff out there. For example check out this Ebay auction:

http://tinyurl.com/33fm7m

Yeah... It's a dating sim type game for Neo Genesis Evangelion! With a custom dreamcast mouse even! Games like this just make me scratch my head in confusion.

So I guess there is alot of dreamcast stuff out there that I may never know about. For now I think I will focus on the US and Europeans releases though. If I ever get into Japanese imports it will be after my North American/European collection is complete...

Monday, February 26, 2007

Lack of WHAT?

Is this a Japanese release game?

This makes me sad.

Alice Dreams

I always like gory manly games that include killing demons, zombies and aliens. Half Life, Blood, Quake, the Resident Evil series, Soul Reaver, House of the Dead 2, VtM, FEAR, diablo, and many others.. I like those games. I really do.

But I have a deep dark secret...

...not all my video game favorites are filled with bloodsoaked carnage.

I love point and click adventures when they are mixed with other game genres. For example I loved the Quest for Glory series because it mixed point and click with RPG.

If you too hold a love of games like this in your heart, check out the demo of the homebrew game Alice Dreams.



http://www.alicedreams.com/HomePageANG.htm

Yes the game title is pink...I still hold onto my hardcore gaming creds though since it's damn cool little game IMHO.



It's point and click with elements of side scrolling and has a bomberman type bonus game.

It's looking pretty awesome. I played through the first level and I really like it. Reminds me alot of Kings Quest and Quest for Glory. This game will be kick ass once it's done!

Here's a code to unlock the bonus games in the main menu.

Hit : Y X Y X Y Y Y for the bonus stage 1 X Y X Y X X X for the bonus stage 2 Enter in the "stage game" Menu.

The main menu doesn't look like a main menu in the game. It's Alice's room. Click around to choose different options. For example you can turn off voices in game by clicking on the stereo or click the poster to change the difficulty level.

Here is the quick and easy guid how to burn the ISO .cdi file onto a CD. If you use the Bootdreams method you can just pop it into your dreamcast and run it. Remember the CDI burning icon is to the far right. You don't want to MAKE a .cdi if you download a ready made one ISO .cdi like the Alice demo. You just need to burn it.




The only problem people seem to have is if the Bootdreams program does not recognize their drive. Then just follow the instructions (inlcuded above) and get it to work.

Then go to dcevolution.net and try out a bunch of other cool dreamcast stuff.
One note though. Sometimes on my dreamcast the disks I use will refuse to load up. Usually even a badly burned disk WILL boot up on the third try. So if your disk doesn't load, try try again. You might have to burn another disk, but atl least you will know that your CD isn't totally crap. Try burning at the lowest speed and using a better CD-R.

Cool Stuff.

If you are like me at all you probably have some used video games in you collection without a proper label. Maybe you even have a disk case that has been broken into several small bits.

In that case just buy some plain DVD cases and then go over to this site.

http://dreamagain.free.fr/layout.php?p=DVD

Even though the site is not in english you can get some new fancy labels for your favorite games (and homebrew games!) (and some wallpaper!)

There is also a nice selection over at the dcevolution site.

http://www.dcevolution.net/covers/

Including a pretty sweet duckhunt label for the NESter emulator!

Friday, February 23, 2007

Dreamcast? Meet your d00m

YES!


Doom for Dreamast.
Or...nxdoom for dreamcast to be exact...Get the latest version here...
It's pretty damn kick ass. The sfx are there but the midi music you have to install are a bit crappy.

It supports keyboard AND mouse though so you can party like it's 1994 once again!

Holy crap. At this rate I will be playing more homebrew games than regular dreamcast games!!!!!!!
If you have the collectors edition of doom like I do you can use Bootdreams to burn a self boot copy of all the versions of this awesome game. Just jam those .wad files into a folder along with the midi files and burn.


The Dreamcast has not seen so much digital blood! (except when I played HotD2, RE, Illbleed, The Ring, Blue Stinger, Quake, Quake 3, Unreal T, Legend of Kain Soul Reaver, Shadow man, D2...HOLY CRAP! WHo says Dreamcast was a pussy system!?!?!?! Look at all these violent games!!!!

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Phear my 133t Dre@mcast Skillz!!!!!!!!!

...Yeah not really...

So anyways I was checking to see if I could use my meager skills to play full version Quake on my dreamcast.

I was inspired by a dreamcast junkyard post in which it was discovered that a copy of Quake turned out to be just the shareware version.

There are actually many different little setups that will allow you to play Quake on your Dreamcast.

Sadly the only one that has full hardware accleration (and looks the best) is QuakeDC. You can get the shareware version of it along with a bunch of SP maps at DCevolution. That also comes with copies of HexQuake (remake of QuakeDC) and Makaquake and covers for your disk and stuff. (use explore when you use the CD in your computer)

If you have the full version of Quake at home you can play it on your dreamcast using HexQuake or Makaqu. Here's the damn twist though...

It's easy to burn both of these using bootdreams, but...

Both versions are sort of a pain to use music on. You can use Joymenu and a Quake sound pack to install music on the directory you are going to use bootdreams on. It's a pain. The only version that you don't have to dick around with this stuff is the .CDI that only has shareware.

Hexquake LOOKS awesome. But no mouse support. None. It never will. Long story.

Makaqu has mouse support, but no hardware acceleration. So it doesn't look as good.

The DC controller with keyboard does a decent job. But I LOVE mouse support for FPS.

So you have three choices!

1. The easy path of going to the above link, burning a copy and having fun playing shareware Quake and a ton of little deathmatches against bots. NO MOUSE SUPPORT. Looks awesome because of hardware accel.

2. Burn Hexquake and screw around trying to get the music to work and getting the files off the original quake for Full version play. NO MOUSE SUPPORT. Looks great because of hardware acceleration.

3. Burn Makaqu Screw around with music. Get full version play. Mouse is supported. Feel slightly dissapointed that you can't get full graphic smoothness because it is software accelerated.

So as you can see there is no perfect solution to this situation...

The easiest I found was to get Hexquake and use it with the full version without music. Painless, looks great. You can always get used to the controll and play music on a nearbye boombox.

However I think I am going to end up editing a Makaqu disk for full version quake and music. It will be a pain, but I will have my DC mouse support and music. It may not look as good and seamless but the damn gameplay is kick ass and the music really adds to the game!

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

D2 Dreamcast Finished - Review

I do not know why it took me so long to beat D2 but I am glad I did.

First off let me tell you D2 is not to everyone's taste. Some people might not like it at all. Other might be put off by some of the gameplay issues.

Here are a quick few bad points about the game.

1. This game has VERY annoying cutscenes. Didn't like the doors opening and closing in RE games? You will HATE the amount of time this game takes to focus on opening doors and picking up items and stuff. Learn to love double clicking the B button since that is what skips cutscenes. A real shame since most of the cutscenes are great! But WHY would we need a 10 second cutscene of Laura picking up an item????? It's not even an important item, just a health pack or something...shit man.

2. This game should have had lightgun funtion. This would have been AWESOME. When you go into combat in this game you move from 3rd person to 1st person perspective. You have a target that you move arount with the directional or the analog controller. I use directional since the analog aiming seems to be pretty damn shoddy. But I think the light gun could have made this game SO much better. I mean you go into combat mode. You quickly grab the lightgun and aim it. It would have been great!

3. The voice acting does not match up well to some of the characters.

4. The item system sucks.

5. Not enough bonus stuff to find. Everything is linear.

6. Battle system is either WAY too easy or RAPES you.

Overall though I had an excellent time in this game. I like the weird story more than the glitchy gameplay. You command your chracter Laura (who must be related to Gordon Freeman because she almost never TALKS) around Canada after a plane crash. The story is weird and the cutscenes are weirder. Consider slogging through the 4 disks just to watch the ending movie. It's awesome and possibly the most messed up video I have seen in a video game yet.

You get levels as a character that give you more hit points and allow you to do more damage but this is more of a bonus than something you need to do. Collecting the weapons and lmited ammo is more important. This is one of the VERY few games that I didn't feel the need to max out my characters levels to beat the game. You get basic weapons that have unlimited ammo...I usually do not like this, but the fact that you also have limited ammo weapons like the shotgun make it more acceptable.

A quick note on item collecting. You need to use the Y button + the analog stick to look around every room to collect items when you are inside a building and in first person mode. This is annoying... What is even more annoying is that in some spots you CANNOT get items that you miss after you leave a room or something happens. They are still there, you just CANNOT get them....this drives you slowly insane in certain spots where you can miss ammo and health packs. So when you get to a new area, look ALL around and get all the items before you actually DO anything. That's the only way to avoid missing items.

The hunting aspect of this game is nice and can be considered a minigame. In fact if your controller sucks and you can't get a hang of the combat, hunting is a great way to get meat to replenish life points without having to waste medkits. (save those for the final CD, there are NO animals to shoot and eat) Just select the gun from the left trigger menu when you see an animal in the distance, zome in and shoot the bugger. Kill more animals for better aiming and little metals. The meat is the important thing though. You need to keep plenty healthy in this game incase you get suddenly beat down by three different monsters. Save often so you don't loose your levels or meat if you happen to die accidently. (which is actually difficult until the last CD since you can pause and heal yourself at any time)

The bosses make up for the normally crappy gameplay. VERY cool. If the regular enemies were half as fun to fight as the bosses then this game would be GREAT.

There is also a ton of messed up shit in this game which is actually toned down from theJapanese version (tenacle in the mouth, nudity).

You really get the feeling that some of the characters in this game that you face off against are truly demented. Notice that I say demented and not evil, in fact most of the creatures and bosses you face were once normal humans and you feel better after putting them out of their insane mutated misery.

The true evil is the last boss, which was about the only gameplay I truly got into. An experience!
Good for collection purposes and to fight the last boss to see the ending. If you see if for about $9 American get it. Otherwise hold out. It was one of the last games distributed in the USA and it is NOT really rare (no matter what people tell you). I wouldn't pay over $15 for this game unless it was NEW in shrink wrap.

Like I said some people like me will enjoy this strange game, others cannot look past it's flaws. Not for everyone, but I enjoyed it. 8/10

Monday, February 19, 2007

Indie gamer! With the power to import!

http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=164

L33t Dre@mcast Ge4r

Yes I don't know how many of you read this blog but this is public service message.

You see when I was in college I was poor. I had my beloved dreamcast but pretty much nothing else. Not even a computer that was good enough to play video CDs. Not even a VCR. (Of course not a DVD player)

If I would have known what I know now I could have been doing alot better. I could have been playing video ON MY DREAMCAST!

Thats right. It's easier than you can imagine.

Remember this site:

http://www.dcevolution.net/

And this, Dream Selection Vol. 1.

With this nifty, FREE, program you can listen to .mp3s on a tracklist, play some cool games (including the most messed up version of minesweeper you will ever find...) and WATCH VIDEOS ON DREAMCAST!

Just get the .cdi file and burn it using Alcohol120 or the free program Bootdreams.

Here is an easy lesson on how to use Bootdreams.

http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=21626

Let me tell you. This little program would have saved my brain from exploding when my crap computer couldn't play the video cds that I had.

Just burn the .avi files you want to watch on a CD and swap the CD's after starting the DCDivX program. Same thing with the included .mp3 player with tracklist. Just start up the program and swap a cd burned with all the media you want.

There is also a pretty cool collection of demos and full games on the Sandman disk as well an excellent shareware version of Quake 1 with 300 frag maps. (think quake 3) In addition you can find CDIs collections of almost EVERY version of Beats of Rage, including Hatchet Ninjaz. Just look at the difference catagories on the left hand side.

Overall it's a pretty damn cool site and I wanted to let people who can't use torrent or sharing services like me know that you can still find cool downloads for your dreamcast.

On another note I found out that Memorex Lightscribe CD-Rs seem to work really well in my dreamcast. Consider it if you have a lightscribe recorder or find some disks on clearance.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

This started out as a response to FC and I just kept writing.

*EDITED*

IMHO - "New" Consoles - by Caleb

I REFUSE to pay full price for ANYTHING. Let alone video games.

I played Wii at a party and I think it's keen and all but I don't have a burning desire to have it. I already have awesome systems and a growing collection of cool games. As for X-box 360 all the games I would want to play on it I can play on my PC. (I already got Fear on sale for $15.99) And there have been NO games for it that I REALLY want...Now if later down the road I find one of these systems for a good price then yes I might buy it. Or if something truly great comes out.

For example I bought Resident Evil 4 for full price. But, I didn't have a problem with doing that since I really knew that it was a good game and I wanted to play it.

Can I say the same thing about any game out there today? No.

God forbid I ever get hooked by a game release and HAVE TO play it...but I still won't pay full price for new system.

The only one that tempts me alittle is the DS which has FF3 on it. (But now I can play the original Japanese FF3 with an English sub on my dreamcast! Whoot! F the DS)

Then there is simple economics...

I guess I just can't justify spending money on games I KNOW will go down in price when I can pick up retro stuff for a cheap price that I KNOW will only go up in price.

For example the NES I picked up at salvation army ($8.99) is selling for $60 at the local pawn shop. That means that they would pay 1/3 that price for one, i.e. $20. I could get more than DOUBLE my money back for the NES. And that number will only go up if I sold it on ebay.

Or I could buy a Wii for $250 and download NES games for $5 each and then play those. And not get anywhere near that much money back for a used Wii.

*ALSO*

And I am a solitary person in crap wilderness now...No proper lines for internet connection or anyone nearbye to multi-play.

As far as I am concerned single player games have not come as far as multiplayer/internet-content ones.

For my money the PC I purchased was well worth it. I can play games and edit video and stuff.

I have no need of "new" consoles (Which are untested) until something truly awesome comes out or I can get a system UNDER $100. That has always been my way.

And have you ever talked to someone that ONLY plays new console games? HINT: They are normally 13-16 years old and/or REALLY piss you off when they said that the X-box "is the greated system ever" and now they say the EXACT SAME thing about the X-box 360 and think that the original Xbox is nothing special.


FINAL ANSWER: Old games are still fun. Thats why the Wii has them for sale via download...They are not GIVING them away. I have fun collecting games and systems and playing them. I have no NEED nor WANT for the newer stuff.

Who really does? Where do you draw the line between what the hype is and what YOU want? Some dumbass consumers can't. Some people have just been trained by society to spend money or get left behind in the dust. If you REALLY like a new game then buy it. If you like collecting older games then buy them. Don't bow down to pressure from either side of the arguement...

Now FC - PRAY that I don't report you to the Retro Gamer PD and have your retro game creds destroyed...you new console loving traitor.

A few good links.

The underdogs site. A great site for old games that are free AND legal to download.

The only problem is that it seems like some of the games that I used to be able to download are not in that catagory any more, still a good site.

HERE

The warmmilkcomics site. The site that features a few skits that I wrote and acted in. Check out the free episodes. I appear in episode 1 in talkline and I wrote "Dark romance of the Vampyre" in episode 2.

http://www.warmmilkcomics.com/

I also did a quick web commerical awhile back because I was bored.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Snow and more snow.

Well the weather in my neck of the woods has hit some national news lately so most people in the USA know how bad the lake effect snow is.

Today was one of those days when I had to got to work at the TV station and create the "school closings" list for all the schools and local businesses that are closed because of the weather. It's a long list...

So while everyone else from college kids to local businessmen had the day off I had to work. It sucks, but it is actually not that bad. I have to get up early in the morning to go to work and nobody else is one the road. I am a really good driver in bad weather so it's OK. It's always the other guy you gotta look out for in bad weather. Who cares if you skid on the snow covered road if there is nobody else on the road to hit?

This weather is awesome for alot of stuff like skiin. It's also a great time of year for video games. There is nothing like chopping a bunch of wood for the fire, throwing off the snow and getting the feeling back into your hands before sitting down to burn a copy of SMS for the dreamcast!

And SMS for the dreamcast is smooth as silk! Look up SMS in the dreamcast junkyard for more on this emulation goodness.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

D-2 Dreamcast Intro video - Japanese version

Need to get into the "Dreamcast Mood"?

Video of someone overclocking a dreamcast to 270

Yeah. So.

Well shit man. I have tried to get pictures of the games I bought and tried to get a blog up but it has been hard as hell.

I have been working my ass off at the two jobs and getting my resume updated and trying to get into the placement center of my old college. So the Hunyak blog has been put on hold for awhile.

And my cat decided to blast my jacket when I hung it up down cellar. If you have not had the honor of of having your stuff "marked" by a cat please take note: If the ENTIRE side of your cool polar-tek jacket is stiff as a board do NOT put it on.

In his defence I DID pet another cat in a bookstore when I was wearing that jacket so I guess he just wanted to remind me that I am only supposed to pet ONE cat, him.

In other news fatherkrishna put up a punks and nerds webcomic on the dreamcast junkyard blog that I had featured in my blog. Such an honor. I will have to light an extra incense burner at my Segata Sanshiro shrine tonight. It's a shame he didn't repost this classic...

Right click and open in new window.

Yeah as for new "Cool stuff" thing I have to offer is a list of the used merch. I scored from the local Salvation Army, Used shop, crooked pawn shop, comic book store and opium dens around town. I will arrange by console.

Saturn:

These are the games that I got 2 per game case for $3.00 each.

Mr Bones - Side scroller! Score! This game looks Hella fun. I had trouble with the first level though. It is a two disk swapping game which makes it a first for my Saturn. It looks AWESOME.

According to Wikipedia this little know Saturn game is quote: "one of the Saturn's most technologically advanced games"

Also the storyline:

"A dead blues musician, Mr. Bones, was mistakenly buried in a cemetery full of criminals. The evil Da Goulian, not knowing this, brought the entire graveyard to life. He is quickly pointed out by a nearby skeleton, and they are ordered to catch him."

I don't know about that but this is the kind of game that Saturn was SUPPOSED to be made for! Side scrolling goodness!

Crimewave- Vehicles, guns and missiles? GTA for Saturn?

Die Hard trilogy - Crappy Bruce Willis audio!

Maximum Force: Pull the Trigger - crappy Arcade translation shooter. Live action actors -AGAIN! Kind of like Area 51 - except without all the good stuff like aliens and zombies...

Note: since I got these games two in a case I only got the cases for Crimewave and Maximum Force. All disk were in decent condition though.

Got for 1.50 a week later on reduced sale...


Hangon GP '95 - Have not played it yet - looks alot like a hang one game I played on the computer...

VR Soccer - Have not played it yet.

PS1:

Like NEW PS one - tiny version with controller memory card and all cables for $9. -used shop. Nice... I will enjoy FINALLY finishing FF7 and Crono Cross on this. It reminds me of the...

Dreamcast:

Sonic Adventure - 2.99 Wow! Who knew a whale could be so bad ass? A bad copy of the game, the cutscenes and some audio seem messed up...Still playable. Will have to be my crap copy if I ever get a good one.

Maken-X - 3.99 "Jackinto" other people...hahaah! Shoved in a genesis case but has intructions and CD cover on front. - Blockbuster rental copy I would bet...in good condition.

Ooga Booga - 2.99 Looks fun if I ever get 3 other people to play it with me.

Disney's Dinosaur - 2.99 Suckarse...but a DC game...(I made it past the fire!)

Ripping Rider - 2.99 Snow boarding for the bored.

Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX - 2.99 I hope it's about vampire dragons. *fingers crossed*

Re-Volt - 2.99 Control radio controlled cars without the hassel of going outside.

Nintendo:

A fully functional NES system with two controllers, power cable and RF connector

+ Star Tropics - 8.99!!!!!!!!!!!! Salvation Army score! These are going for $60.00 in the local crooked pawn shop!

All in all a nice haul for January and the beginning of Feb. I will have more info soon! I am working on a few projects including my local access cable show and online video blog as well as regular work and better job hunting.

-Caleb

Friday, February 02, 2007

This is America?

http://collegehumor.com/video:1739538

Looks like those guys at Adult Swim have decided to treat the matter like a joke. Which is what it is. Fucking moron authority figures in Boston...

Those fucking light bright signs were up for like 3 weeks!

Goddamn losers dropped the ball on this one and they won't admit it.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Those crazy Moonintes

Well it looks like those two Atari Characters from the moon have tried to wreck havoc once again.

Again once again the stalwart Boston police quickly respond after just 3 weeks!

Hopefully these horrible terrorists with their brightly colored bombs will not win!

BAN ALL FORMS OF PUBLIC ART BEFORE WE AMERICANS ARE OVERRUN AND DESTROYED! ACT NOW!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,249241,00.html

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2840425