Now you have heard that one epic tale before probably, of a SEGA console that just refuses to lie buried after production ceased years ago. The Dreamcast has been resurrected to be the host for another 2D shooter more times than any other so-called "dead" system ever (apart maybe for the Neo Geo and its endless suite of King of Fighters remakes and Metal Slug episodes). Fans of the last SEGA manufactured platform can rejoice once more, as Milestone throws a spell on the still fresh dirt upon the grave of the swirl-logoed machine and beckons it to crawl to the job once more. Far from being the standard brainless Zombie now, the Dreamcast is still very much "thinking", as the original ad campaign upon it's initial introduction to the Japanese market promised. See, this is no cheap souped-up cash-in of a game we are talking about today, Milestone followed up good on their fine Dreamcast shooter Chaos Field and will release Radilgy (aka. Rajirugi) in about two weeks from now.
In our age of sequels and mainstream hits, it's refreshing to see the retro-regarded 2D scrolling shooter genre so well interpreted in a brandnew game. Radilgy simply delivers on all accounts. Being a straight port of the NAOMI based Arcade original, it shines with relentless action, easy-to-grasp gameplay mechanics and crisp, adorable cel-shaded visuals. Grab your sword, ignite your vulcan cannon and steer your mecha into pure projectile mayhem. A game to relive what it means to truly be "in the zone".
The Linux based <a href="http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-2pz-71-d1-84-j-70-uq6.html" target="_blank" >GP2X</a> console has surprised those who have brought it with a <a href="http://gp2x-emulation.dcemu.co.uk/" target="_blank" >Staggering amount</a> <a href="http://archive.gp2x.de/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi" target="_blank" >of Homebrew releases so far.</a> Today sees the release of the Worlds first Coding Competition ran jointly by <a href="http://www.emuholic.com" target="_blank" >Emuholic</a> and <a href="http://www.gbax.com/main.pl" target="_blank" >GP32X UK</a> full details on the <a href="http://www.gbax.com/main.pl?gp2x2006/gp2x2006comp.html" target="_blank" >Competition page</a>. Prizes include a 4GB Memory Card and more and starts today and finishes in 20 days.
It's true! Has a touch panel and everything! Well...it's mostly true. Longtime friend to ic Vander Fujisaki pointed us to a Game Watch article with further details. The system, called the Beena, is made by Sega Toys, and is basically the Pico reborn, though while the cartridges are the same size, the Pico carts won't work with the new unit. It actually says 'advanced Pico' just above the Beena logo. Take another look at that last image - touch panel...'training game'...sign of the times!
The graphics do look a bit sharper now, but I'd imagine it's the same architecture. The lineup currently boasts the normal japanese childrens licenses, such as Anpanman, Doraemon, and now Mushiking, of course. The big shocker for me is seeing Pokemon in there. A Nintendo game for a Sega console. That's progress!
While it's primarily postioned as an educational tool, some of these do look profoundly game-like, which is damn exciting, even though it shouldn't be. It's been endorsed by educators as a tool for intellectual and moral (!) training. But I can't help but get excited by the prospect of actual games on this thing, though I'm sure that won't be happening any time soon. There's a car game which teaches safe driving, and has a rumble function...that's pretty close!
Differences from the Pico include: ability to play without a TV, use of a second pen for two players, data saving, score ranking, and playtime can be set by a parent to an alloted slot. Other exciting things: it uses a battery to keep the time. If light strikes the innards of the Beena (ie if the cart isn't set right) it won't operate properly. Demons! The unit costs 13,440 yen, and carts are quite expensive, ranging from 4,000-7,000 yen. anyway, it's all very exciting. Long live Sega.
OpenJazz, the interpreter for Jazz Jackrabbit, has been updated. A precompiled Windows binary is available, and the sourcecode is available and can be compiled for Dreamcast, Linux, MacOS, GP32, and GP2x.
I've just made available the version 0.76 of the dreamcast port of
the atari800 emulator (atari800.atari.org).
The main changes are:
* use Atari800 cvs code base as of jan-27-2006
* use KOS svn code base version 289
* unplugging/replugging controllers after atari800dc has started
up works now
* screen update is now done by an assembler routine
You can get source and binaries (no CD images, since there are
copyrighted BIOS ROMs and games/programs needed to make a CD) at
OpenBOR, the open source extension of the Beats of Rage brawling engine, has been updated. There is a memory saving Dreamcast version available, as well as a standard Dreamcast version. The memory saving version loads the data before each round, so it takes longer to load than the standard version. Some of the mods that are available require the memory saving version, however.
The Gadgeteer have done a hands on review of the new Ifish from Sega, heres an excerpt:
And now for a review of a product that is both wacky and different. The iFish from Sega Toys, the same people that brought us the iDog. I wasn't too sure what I would have to say about this combination speaker and robot pet thingy when Brando asked if I would review it, but I thought it would at least be something offbeat. So here goes...
The iFish is about 8 inches long by 4.5 inches tall and is constructed of plastic. The head of the iFish is solid, while the tail resembles an actual fish tail with many bones. The tail can sway back and forth with a slight touch.
You might know that people can not have more than one game on a VMU. What a pain as you need a Dreamcast or another VMU to get a new game on it.
But that was then, now you just put VMU All Stars on your VMU and get 13 well-known homebrew games at once! Games can be selected from a menu.
Because half of the games had to be disassenbled in order to get included, there are 3 games (marked with a !) that might freeze, but you can always reboot the VMU by pressing the metal button on the back.
The new Naomi Shmup is now in Locations Tests at Sega City. Have a look at some pictures, and videos of level 2 and some kind of boss battle. All at Icycalm's page!
Scroll down to the bottom for the videos. http://www.insomnia.ac/japan/pinksweets+exelica.php
SuccessHK have let me know that for the time being they have both the Treamcast and Widescreen Treamcast at their store:
The Treamcasts are homebrew friendly and can be plugged into a TV, the price is $180 or around £100 so its a bit steep but as far as i know they are the only shop to stock the console.
Heres a heads up to a site that many of you have probably never heard of, now you have all heard of Ebay and most likely been scammed at some stage and paid silly prices to start an auction.
Well Video Game Auctions is an Auction site that is for the forseeable future 100% free, no paying for listing or anything.
February 11th, 2006, 20:50 Posted By: DCDayDreamer
Another 'ready to burn and play' release from DC Evolution:
the CD image contains ScummVM along with 19 demos available for some of the supported games (13 of those demos are fully interactive). For those who haven't tried ScummVM yet (and anyone who's had difficulty compiling a CD with the game data files) - this is for you, the CD image also supports disc swap for any of the compatible games. Get into some classic adventure gaming and give this one a whirl!.
OpenBOR, the open source extension of the Beats of Rage brawling engine, has been updated. This version fixes a "sound bug" in the Dreamcast version that caused sounds to cut off.
The latest new Dreamcast game Radilgy is now out at Lik Sang, heres the info:
The new NAOMI based Shoot Em Up, Rajirugi (aka "Radilgy") features cel-shaded graphics. Some familiar moves from other shooters such as Chaos Field are also featured including the ability of the player's ship to swing a sword to cause damage, and destructible enemy fire. The Dreamcast version should also feature exclusive features only available on the Dreamcast version.
If you quickly dismiss SEGA's last console as having seen better days, think again: the Dreamcast is blessed with at least two new quality releases this year, both splendid genre representatives that bring pure Arcade shooter feeling into gamers' homes. Milestone's Radilgy, which we have received today, comes dressed in full 2D cel-shaded glory, sporting a unique look for a title like this. It's in-your-face, non-stop action that will keep you in front of your screen for a long while to come, always striving to top your own scores (and above all, surviving on your given credits to be able to see the next gorgeous level). Then, in about a month, developer G.Rev will release their helicopter action shooter Under Defeat, which offers more realistic visuals and from footage and shots seen so far, reminds us of Psikyo's Zero Gunner 2, in more than one very welcomed way. Pilot your machine through heavens chock-full with projectiles and explosions, where the saying "Ah, I'll have just one more go!", seems to be a mantra that won't keep hardcore enthusiasts and fans of the genre from playing away another whole night.
After receiving the first early batch of Radilgy on Tuesday, we are now waiting for the second delivery to come in tomorrow morning. The balance of preorders will be dispatched as soon as possible and new purchases are welcome for only US$ 59.90. As mentioned, Under Defeat will be released in a few weeks from now, on March 23rd (just US$ 64.90 shipped!). As with all import games, both titles ship free worldwide!
For a long time, we didn't knew if it is possible to emulate 16 bit systems like Genesis or SNES on Saturn. Well, now it seems we have certainty for the SNES:
On special request, I started porting snes9x to SEGA Saturn. The hardest thing involved was to meet the RAM requirements and so the emu requires a 4MB RAM cart.
The emulator already features loading from CD and frameskip setting. Unlike these shots from SSF, the gfx is not yet that correct on real hardware.
The future of this project is undetermined, it's on hold currently.
The Gianas Return Site posted this news about their platformer for multiple systems:
If you believe it or not... we are STILL ALIVE and working on a final. Unfortunatly real life is kickin' in, but we are NOT DEAD.
Regarding the Windows version: It has A BUG, password mode doesn't work after Level 26. You may consider waiting for the final.
Our GFX guy will start retouching the graphics in March. Our music guy will finish the soundtrack soon and a seperated sound-track cd will be made available. The homepage design will change dramaticly very soon. Our coder <not CHN anymore) is slowly working on a completly new, from scratch coded version. The code will be clean and easy portable C, tho we do not plan to make this game open source. Selected trusted people from the console and handheld coding scene will be choosen for a port. Someone for a Sega Saturn and a Dreamcast port is already found. A Windows, Linux, MacOSX and GP2x version is planed for sure. The new game core will be developed under windows, so the windows version will be VERY SURE.
So this is it... the first status update since a few months.
<blockquote>A while ago I did a small game in order to get used to the Fenix-language. The game turned out to be quite fun for a few minutes so I made a GP32 version. And now, I have done a Dreamcast-version as well. (Not really a hard thing, considering that Fenix-games can run on any system which has a runtime, thanks Chui for the DC one!).
Simple enough : Avoid the icicles and pick up the packages. Score as much points as possible. The game should save the hiscore to the VMU, but I have not tested this. I followed a tutorial on how to save files with the DC Fenix Runtime so it should work. But if someone wants to confirm this it would be great. I cannot test it myself for the moment.
I do not know if something can go wrong with the saves so don't have any important files on the VMU. And don't pull it out directly after a game (because that is when the game saves) but wait untill the titlescreen has appeared.
There is no image-files yet, since I cannot create them. The tools I have to create them (Dir2Boot, Bootdreams) does not run in Linux and Wine doesn't help either. However, if you use Bootdreams you can create an imagefile easily. It can be found here : http://www.consolevision.com/members/fackue/
At last, any feedback on how it runs will be appreciated. This is my first Fenix-game for DC so id like to know what works and what doesn't. Enjoy!</blockquote>
According to http://www.planetxbox.com/shenmuedojo, after 3 years of non-activity, the Shenmue Passport received an update on February 22nd, 2006 with the text-
"The Shenmue Passport is in update process. Come again and visit us!"
While it wasn't a large update, it makes a point that there will be future updates. Wait and see!
For those of you wanting to get a load of Dreamcast games on the cheap then this is a great moment for you, it seems Lik Sang have greatly reduced the prices of a ton of Dreamcast games, heres the rundown of them:
Bleemcast! for Tekken 3
Price US$ 1.99 (~1.14 GBP)
bleemcast! for Tekken 3 brings the PlayStation's most popular fighting game to a whole new level! Like all bleemcast! paks, b4TK3 delivers smooth, high-resolution graphics and texture filtering, plus a lot of features that make this great game even better.
Welcome to Feet Of Fury, where Cryptic Allusion has taken the idea of a 'dance game' one step further!
Play songs from various genres using one of nine selectable characters. Play against your friends and earn 'unlock points' that let you open up more characters, more music and bonus features! When you tire of the built-in songs selection, download a Swap CD from the Internet with new songs and steps.
Put your skills to the test as you work your way through level after level of tile clearing action!
S+F Software brings you Inhabitants, where you and up to three of your friends can compete for the highest score! Or play by yourself, unlocking new modes of play along the way.
Inhabitants features:
Various modes of play, each with its own strategies and challenges
Multiplayer action for up to four players at once
Four unique tilesets and backgrounds
Tons of unlockable content
Maqiupai is based on the ancient Chinese game of Mahjong, the origins of which are shrouded in mystery. Some historians believe the game began over 25 centuries ago in the time of Confucius and sailors and fishermen first made Mahjong popular as a card game that served as a diversion to the monotony of long ocean voyages. The cards that the sailors played with eventually gave way to bone and bamboo tiles that didn't easily slide off the tables.
Today, Mahjong is just as popular as ever and is played throughout the world! Here in Hong Kong, thousands of people are addicted to this game, gambling around the boards in the Mahjong clubs night after night. With Maqiupai, your Dreamcast calls you to the challenge of this ancient game of skill and strategy, with a mix of adventure through the in-game storyboard. Will you be able to remove all of the tiles in each challenging puzzle before time runs out?
This game is a wonderfully simple puzzle game. You must direct mice to your Rocket, by placing arrows for them to follow, but beware of cats, as they also follow your arrows and if they reach your rocket, you lose alot of mice. The graphics are bright and bold adding to the atmosphere. The one player game isn't the greatest, but with a few friends you can have hours of fun. Also you can play online, against people from accross Europe. At this price can you resist it?
We from Dreamcast-Scene will be at this year's Retrogamers convention in Ludwigshafen / Germany with an own booth and present new footage our titles ("our titles" = titles we publish, distribute and promote) Eerievale and DCastle to the public.
February 27th, 2006, 14:35 Posted By: Christuserloeser
LTK posted in our forums that his port of HOTA, an interpreter for Heart of the Alien, will be presented at MadriDC in March 4th. HOTA is based on http://hota.sourceforge.net which emulates the SegaCD version of Heart of the Alien.
February 27th, 2006, 20:21 Posted By: Christuserloeser
Semicolo posted about a new beta of Morback:
The goal is to align 5 pieces, diagonally, horizontally or vertically. You can play against the Dreamcast. You can make your own theme for the game, if someone's interested I can give you the informations needed.
