I’ve wanted a Dreamcast for 11 years (I asked for one long ago when it was in stores for Christmas but I was told that it looked lame, not that I agreed it did, thats just why I couldn’t get one for Christmas) and now, 11 years later, a Dreamcastic friend of mine who is always talking about the Dreamcast (like a Dreamcast version of my VB enthusiasm) made me want to finally get one and I now I have one coming in the mail, does anyone have any game suggestions on what to get for it?

also, said Dreamcastic friend drew me a VB yesterday… I’m guessing you fellow VB freaks might like to see it?
(unbelievably, she draws the VB better than I can and she doesn’t even own one… yet 😉 )

last silly note: she thinks once I play the Dreamcast the VB will have no chance against it being my favorite console 😛

Dreamcast is one of my favorite consoles of all time. Here are some great games:

-Soul Calibur
-Jet Grind Radio
-Crazy Taxi 1/2
-Power Stone 1/2
-Sonic Adventure 1/2
-Pretty much ALL of the “2K” series sports games
-Hydro Thunder
-Typing of the Dead
-Resident Evil Code Veronica
-Spiderman
-Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1/2
-Ikaruga
-Rez
-Virtua Tennis 1/2
-Shenmue
-House of the Dead 2
-Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
-Seaman
-Chu Chu Rocket
-Samba Di Amigo
-Marvel Vs. Capcom 2

The list goes on and on. Such a fantastic system in every way.

gunpeiyokoifan wrote:
[…] I have one coming in the mail, does anyone have any game suggestions on what to get for it?

Depends on what kinds of games you like. The only game I played through on it was Rayman 2, which is also available on N64, PS1, PC, etc.

MDK2 is an interesting 3D platformer/shooter.

There’s a whole bunch I could tell you not to play, but I’m a bit picky when it comes to games, so you’re better-off just ignoring me 😛

Mostly, I would just borrow all your friend’s games and buy the one(s) you like 😉

also, said Dreamcastic friend drew me a VB yesterday… I’m guessing you fellow VB freaks might like to see it?

Sure, why not…

(unbelievably, she draws the VB better than I can […])

Post both pics and let us verify that theory 😉

last silly note: she thinks once I play the Dreamcast the VB will have no chance against it being my favorite console 😛

Bzzzt, wrong! It’s an okay system, but it’s no VB-killer by a long shot. Although, it might inch a bit closer if I ever get time to add a VGA-out to mine and hook up my shutter glasses (but I’d still need to write software for it…). (Anyone have a VGA-out box they’re not using? ;-))

PS: I don’t think you should refer to your friend as “dreamcastic”… It’s used as a derogatory term referring to the graphics on the DC.

EDIT:

How did I forget about Rez?! It’s my favorite game for the system! Definitely try that one.
* Makes mental note to hook up the DC *

EDIT2:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dreamcast_games

Rez is one of the greatest games I have ever played on any platform, and I own the original Dreamcast version (which looks GREAT with a VGA cable) in addition to the “Rez HD” port on Xbox Live Arcade.

Also, I would argue that Power Stone 1 is one of the best party/fighting games of all time, possibly even better than any of the Super Smash Brothers games.

Dreamcast was a fantastic console, but you really can’t compare it to the VB at all. They are completely different.

[gunpeiyokoifan]

RunnerPack wrote:
Mostly, I would just borrow all your friend’s games and buy the one(s) you like 😉

I can’t… she is an internet friend from the UK and I’m in the US 🙁

RunnerPack wrote:
PS: I don’t think you should refer to your friend as “dreamcastic”… It’s used as a derogatory term referring to the graphics on the DC.

Oops… I just meant they really like the Dreamcast

(so that one time I said “thats Dreamcastic!” when she bought De La Jet Set Radio (special edition of the Japanese version) it was an actually an unintended insult? 😯 )

they seemed to have not taken it as an insult… so either they don’t know it is an insult or knew I wasn’t meaning it in the bad way… or were being sarcastic when said they thought “Dreamcastic” was a fitting word for Dreamcast things 😉

EDIT:

RunnerPack wrote:
Post both pics and let us verify that theory

my picture is the black one (It was a doodle and I had no red pens)

their picture is the red/black one (They planned to draw it and colored it in too 😛 )

• This reply was modified 14 years, 2 months ago by gunpeiyokoifan.

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You’re kidding me, no Bangai-O on that list? If you like shooters, don’t miss that one… (I even have an extra copy you could buy off me 😛 ) Ooh, and pick up a copy of Space Channel 5 while you’re at it. Also, there’s a freeware homebrew game for DC that you can download and burn called dRxLaX which is a lot of fun if you can round up 3 friends (and 3 more controllers.) And that doesn’t even scratch the surface of all the Naomi arcade ports for the system… My Dreamcast is probably my second favorite console, right behind my SNES (Sorry RunnerPack, I think it beats the VB by just a smidge 😉 ).

[Raverrevolution]

As odd as it is that I remember this off the top of my head, I believe that today is the launch anniversary of the system.

9/9/99 in the USA.

It was an awesome day!! I remember preordering it from Babbages and going to the mall on the public bus that day to pick it up, and was the second day of school my senior year of high school. I got the system, a memory card, and power stone. I can’t believe how underrated it all was.

If I could, I wish I could go back to that day. It was a time in my life of lesser responsibility and pure gaming bliss.

Luckily for me I have built THE BEST dreamcast collection of games ever!! I had plenty of spare cash at that time too.

Marvel vs Capcom 1/2jap
Capcom vs SNK 1jap/2jap
Shenmue 1/2Eu
Power Stone 1/2Jap
Project Justice
Resident Evil: Code Veronica
Street Fighter 3 double impact jap
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure jap
Jet Set Radio jap
and literally like 30ish or so other games.

Fighting Game sweetness!!

• This reply was modified 14 years, 2 months ago by Raverrevolution.
• This reply was modified 14 years, 2 months ago by Raverrevolution.

Fwirt wrote:
Also, there’s a freeware homebrew game for DC that you can download and burn called dRxLaX

I want to avoid CD-R games since I hear it burns out the laser causing it to slowly die 🙁

gunpeiyokoifan wrote:

Fwirt wrote:
Also, there’s a freeware homebrew game for DC that you can download and burn called dRxLaX

I want to avoid CD-R games since I hear it burns out the laser causing it to slowly die 🙁

I used to burn games all the time and played them straight up and I can tell you first hand that yes, it does kill the laser badly. I ended up replacing the laser and now my launch console still works good.

cosmic smash is an awesome dreamcast game.

Raverrevolution wrote:

gunpeiyokoifan wrote:

Fwirt wrote:
Also, there’s a freeware homebrew game for DC that you can download and burn called dRxLaX

I want to avoid CD-R games since I hear it burns out the laser causing it to slowly die 🙁

I used to burn games all the time and played them straight up and I can tell you first hand that yes, it does kill the laser badly. I ended up replacing the laser and now my launch console still works good.

Yeowch! Better stop playing that then. I’ve only booted homebrew a few times, but I’d like to keep my Dreamcast functioning as long as possible. I recently got Fatal Fury: MotW fro someone who swears it worked on their Dreamcast, but I can’t get it to play on mine. I hope this isn’t the cause! Thanks for the tip!

I’ve basically ONLY run CD-Rs on my Dreamcast and it still works.

DogP

DogP wrote:
I’ve basically ONLY run CD-Rs on my Dreamcast and it still works.

DogP

Same here, and I’ve been doing it for years with no problems. Then again, I bought the system for $20 on eBay and it’s not in the best physical shape, so if my laser ever goes bad I would probably just get a new one.

I bought my system new, so it’s always been well taken care of, but it got a LOT of play from CDs (though I haven’t played it much in the last few years). I do remember some games causing the drive to be really noisy, so of course I didn’t play them.

I wonder what the reasoning would be on why CDs would be tougher on the laser though. The system was meant to be able to play CDs (audio), so the physical CD shouldn’t be a problem… maybe the low quality CD-Rs we had back then were harder to read and caused the laser to turn up the power (who didn’t buy the cheapest “free after rebate” CD-Rs back then 😉 ).

The other possibility is that EVERYONE played CDs on their systems, so anyone who does have a laser die says “oh yeah… I played CDs on here, now my laser is dead”, rather than “oh yeah… my system is 11 years old, now my laser is dead”.

DogP

It’s too bad there isn’t a way to check the “health” of your laser. You could actually prove one way or the other by doing regular “check-ups”.

I’m inclined to believe DogP’s “cheap CD-Rs” theory, though, since some people turn up the laser power manually to use CD-RWs (which reflect less light or scatter it more or have lower contrast or whatever).

This is what I found about it from reading message boards:

“In most cases, the wear is gradual. You’ll notice the Dreamcast will go back to the BIOS / configuration screen and ask you to insert a game. Another telltale sign is an unusual amount of activity coming from the GD-ROM unit. That’s usually because the unit has to keep rereading the data it’s having a hard time picking up.

The problem with reading CD-R media stems from the way the unit was designed. The GD-ROM format is a high-density medium with a lot more data packed into the same area a CD-ROM would normally occupy. When you create a backup or otherwise, the format of the GD-ROM format is lost (if you look at a real GD-ROM disc, you can see a special protected area towards the center). The data gets misaligned and spaced out. This can occasionally be caused by writing the disc too fast or overburning.”

That explanation doesn’t really state any relevant information on the laser wearing out from CD-R though. The first paragraph explains what happens when the laser wears out (from CD-R or GD-ROM use). The second paragraph just talks about a GD-ROM in general. And the area in the middle is the CD-ROM compatible area (which tells you to use in the DC, not a normal CD player). None of that has anything to do with a laser working harder… even if the data got fragmented (which it didn’t), that’d just cause the motor to run around a lot.

I personally just think the lasers wear out anyway. Lasers wear out in all the other systems (PS 1-3, Xbox/360… why not the DC?).

DogP

Dogp, I think you nailed it on the cheap cd theory. That’s what I used to use. I would go to computer shows and buy them for about $20 a pack and they would work fine, but much later on the tops would peel off easy. I’m pretty sure that’s what caused my old cd burner to die out too.

Also remember that I have a launch console, so they could have upped the quality of the lasers in later consoles.

Replacing the laser is actually quite easy as long as you find the whole laser assembly. You just pop the old one out and put the new one in.

My understanding was that the badly spaced data on the disk would cause the drive motor to burn out faster from doing so much seeking, not that the laser would fry. Unfortunately, I think all we buy is cheap CDs. 😀 It’s also possible that, like DogP said, some consoles wear faster than others. I see DRE Gamecubes turn up in local thriftshops all the time. Funny story, my current Gamecube is one I got for $3 that I cranked up the power on to squeeze a little more life out of it, having traded my good Gamecube for my Dreamcast… At any rate, since I don’t play backups and only really have 1 burned game anyway, I probably just shouldn’t fret about it.

I got my Dreamcast in the mail!

I have no game to test on it, so I’m unaware if it works or not, I know its a bit dirtier than it was described or pictured… the controllers are even dirtier (I didn’t test the two VMU’s to see if their batteries died yet though) it seems the dirt or whatever it is, is kinda like something sticky tan/brown (not spilled on it) dried on it (and its even in the creases of the controllers and the letters of “POWER” and “OPEN”)… I hope this is just dirt/chocolate/food and not something more disgusting 😯

I knew I should have just got a Dreamcast at the retro game store thats close to me but my friend was all “no, ebay has a better choice of Dreamcasts” yes but Play N Trade cleans their consoles 😛

For those of you who are also of the “current-gen” persuasion, Sonic Adventure just came out on Xbox Live Arcade. It’s a good chance to take a glimpse at what passed for “new and revolutionary” game design and graphics in 1999… 😉