Catch yourself some B.A.S.S.

B.A.S.S.

Beneath a Steel Sky...


For those of you that do not know this name it might be a moot point. However for some "hardcore adventure gamers" you already know and love this post-apocalopticaenseitiy work.

-It's available free...

-On the awesome DC Evolution website...

-For the muther-f'ing DREAMCAST...

-FULL GAME PLAY...

-Full saving function...

-And you can use the dreamcast mouse and keyboard...

How the hell have I waited this long to play the damn thing and to blog about? I really don't know. I personally think it's an awesome game. And believe me it's worth getting the files and burning a CD-R just to watch the intro to this game...

A quick rundown of the game places you in an Australian post-apocalyptical outback wasteland after a helicopter crash. Since Mel Gibson is nowhere to be seen in this game you are adopted into a tribe of desert dwellers and learn to live in your new harsh environment. Then *stuff* happens and you start the game armed only with the powers of POINT and CLICK.

Let me stress again that some people might not like this game. However, it's a small download, it's a classic, the game has rabid fans and again it's worth the download just to see the intro. (HINT: Limited animation comic book scenes.)

The graphics are not all that grand in scale but the style is great and I still used my new VGA box to play it.

The sound is good in this game...But the voices in the CD version of the game had me actually laughing. Not because they were bad or anything, the voices are actually quite good for a retro game! But if you are a gaming fan listen to some of the character audio for the first scene after the intro. The "bad guy goon" voice is just so awesomely retro, I just could not stand it.

Gameplay? I LOVED the Quest for Glory series. I mean REALLY LOVED that series. So yeah, my personal perspective might be off on this...needless to say I liked it.

So yeah, even for the short comic book style intro you might want to sacrifice a CD-R and some bandwidth to get this.

DOWNLOAD OPTIONS...

OK you got two options here:

1. EASY

There is the Nero file here if you have a Nero burning program.


http://www.dcevolution.net/game_bass.php


Download the file Nero (81.3 Megs) and try burning it.

2. A bit more involved

The more complicated way of doing this is getting the plain files from the DC evo site (4.4 Megs)


And then get the CD or floppy version of BASS from the ScummVM site. Since the CD version comes with voices I highly suggest that.


http://www.scummvm.org/downloads.php (Scroll down to the "Extras" menu)


Beneath a Steel Sky, Freeware CD Version


The DC Evo site says to only put the Sky.dsk and Sky.dnr files from the CD file in the plain files folder. However I also downloaded the extra file and put that in as well.

Beneath a Steel Sky, SKY.CPT - required to run the game with a post-0.7.* ScummVM


I do not know if this will cause problems or not but it seems to work fine.


Download bootdreams and install it.


http://consolevision.com/members/dchelp/index.php?download=BootDreams_101b.exe


Finally make a .CDI of the folder with Bootdreams. Then put a blank 700 Meg CD-R into your disk burner and use Bootdreams again to burn the .CDI file you just created.


Put it in yer dreamcast and enjoy...

So to summarize...


Get plain files folder:


http://www.dcevolution.net/cgi-bin/download.pl?file=ScummVMBASSforDCplainfiles.zip


BASS CD file:


Beneath a Steel Sky, Freeware CD Version (67M)


BASS CD fix file (optional because I do not know if this is required or not)


Beneath a Steel Sky, SKY.CPT - required to run the game with a post-0.7.* ScummVM


UNZIP EVERYTHING


Put the CD files and the fix file into the folder containing the Plain files.


Get bootdreams


http://consolevision.com/members/dchelp/index.php?download=BootDreams_101b.exe


Use Bootdreams to make a .cdi then burn it.

Boom. You got a classic game on an awesome system.

Now use that Dreamcast mouse for something other than FPS!!!! (Don't worry the game still works well with a standard dreamcast controller.)


BIG THANKS to DC Evolution and the people at ScummVM for putting this up.

I am the most bad ass guy ever to throw a spear at a kangaroo...

*This paragraph is not about Retro games*


I called the entire episode of LOST last night. I came into the living room about 7 minutes late but I still managed to guess the ENTIRE plot of the episode, including the ending within a minute of watching it. I read a lot and I am pretty sure that that whole episode was based on a short story I read once or something since I CALLED it. The fake death, the betrayal, the ending, EVERYTHING. So yeah, now I have bragging rights on that.


*We now return you to your regular retro programming*