Retro Exploration: Dreamcast (Part 8: PSO!)

Posted on January 12, 2012 by geelw

Phantasy Star Online & Phantasy Star Online Version 2 are for a lot of Dreamcast fans, the crown jewel on the late console, even eclipsing Yu Suzuki’s flawed epic, Shenmue. Combining a solid, lengthy (and addictive) single player campaign with an innovative (and even more addictive) online mode, excellent visuals and plenty of loot to collect made the game an instant hit worldwide. While the superior Game Cube version polished up elements and added some new content, the Xbox version cut off solo offline play for those without Xbox Live accounts ( a VERY foolish move by either Sega, Microsoft or both companies that hurt the game’s sales). Anyway, here are omake wallpapers from the Dreamcast PSO (above) and PSO II (below) discs. I love the artwork in these wallpapers and almost wish Sonic Team had decided to make both titles with a ‘cel-shaded’ look instead of what we ended up with.

The good news about PSO is it’s going to live again soon enough as Phantasy Star Online 2, currently in development with a 2012 release date. However, it looks as if this one will be Windows PC only (grrrr…) and there’s no concrete news to date of a definite release outside Japan. SEGAAAAAAA!!! Don’t neglect your dedicated PSO fan base on other platforms (and other countries) so much!

Sonic, Meet Flo. Flo, Meet Sonic…

Posted on January 12, 2012 by geelw

I think I’m the ONLY one I know who hasn’t seen this new Progressive ad on TV just yet, so after hearing so much about it, I’m glad it’s as cute as I’ve been hearing. In a way, it reminded me of those Japanese PlayStation TV spots with Crash Bandicoot that were all over TV and even ended up as bonuses on a few demo discs there… Go Sonic!

Retro Exploration: Dreamcast (Part 7)

Posted on January 11, 2012 by geelw

Here’s a ton of fun bonus images from Red Dog, the superb drive ‘n shoot game from the late Argonaut Studios. You get a few background artworks from loading screens, enemy render, unused logos and some more oddball stuff below the jump I remember this one from all the crazy four-player matches that were a huge part of the workday at the indie shop I worked at for a few years. No matter how crappy the day was, a few MP sessions would kick things into a cooler place. Of course, the single player mode was a ton of fun as well with all those challenging levels and tough boss battles. I haven’t played the game in ages, but I’ll absolutely give it a whirl when I get some more free time just to see if my reflexes are still as good as they used to be…

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Retro Exploration: Dreamcast (Part 6)

Posted on January 10, 2012 by geelw

Hey, how about a little Urban Chaos? Mucky Foot’s underrated action game was pretty fun on the PC and got a decent Dreamcast port (as well as a not so hot PS1 version) that, despite a few issues, made for quite an interesting “open world” experience before Grand Theft Auto III took the gaming world by storm. UC was definitely a bit more focused on getting missions done as quickly as possible in the mix of combat, shooting and vehicle sequences plus a bizarre story (the opening cinematic is still a head-spinner) common to some Eidos games of the era (Project Eden, anyone?). Here are a dozen “hidden” screens from the DC disc – I didn’t know there were cheats for this version of the game as the screen text shows (unless they’re PC version screens that didn’t get removed for some reason). As interesting as these screens are, it would have been nicer to see character and/or environment renders as bonuses, as the game has some nice looking assets here and there.

Retro Exploration: Dreamcast (Part 5)

Posted on January 10, 2012 by geelw

Above: three simple but nice wallpapers from Sega’s hilarious and fun Action/RPG/Beat ’em up Rent-A-Hero #1, which WAS actually localized for the original Xbox and set to be released by AIA Games (who bought us Illbleed on the Dreamcast) here in the US. I even got to review the English version of the game for Digital Press before the game was set to ship. Alas, it got canned a few weeks before the release for some reason, but I still have my debug code here and a console to play it on, so there’s that. YOU, dear reader, unfortunately got chunks of the game presented in a more watered down form as Virtua Quest, a kid’s game for the PS2 and Game Cube… so there’s that. Hey, SEGA!!! Wake up and do RAH some justice with a proper remake!

More images below the jump…

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Retro Exploration: Dreamcast (Part 4)

Posted on January 9, 2012 by geelw

I-Spy with my little eye… omake images from NEC’s quirky Sega Dreamcast real-time spy simulation (known as Espion-Agents in Japan). Although the game didn’t do so well back in the day as a solo play experience, I think it would be pretty cool as a multi-player focused reboot one of these days. Not that this is going to happen any time soon, but I’m sure someone can take the idea behind the game and turn it into something super…

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Retro Exploration: Dreamcast (Part 3, Swimsuit Edition!)

Posted on January 8, 2012 by geelw

Tecmo added different sets of omake images on the Japanese and US versions of Dead or Alive 2. Tina to the left there and the seven pics below the jump are from the US version of the game and the next five are taken from the Japanese Limited Edition release. I’ll need to see if the Japanese standard edition of the game has the same bikini shots as the US version, but I actually prefer the art from the LE disc a lot more.

More updates to come later tonight and tomorrow – stay tuned…

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Retro Exploration: Dreamcast Games Reveal A Few Hidden Surprises (Part 1)…

Posted on January 7, 2012 by geelw

While doing a bit of computer maintenance today, I decided on a whim to dink around with a few Dreamcast games by popping them in my PC and seeing if there were any hidden art or music files. I’d been curious about this for a while, as a few years back I wrote an article about Redbook audio tracks on CD games for Digital Press and was thinking about doing some sort of update. Back when the Dreamcast was released in the US, I popped a few discs into my PC at the time and found only text files with copyright info and occasionally, a game credits listing, and after a few of the same bunches of nothing, I retired the idea.

Flash forward to earlier today and I’m looking on my Japanese copy of D2 for cool stuff, only to find nothing except the usual three files. Then, I grabbed my copy of Seventh Cross and “bingo!* omake surprises galore, all some interesting (and intentionally amusing in a few cases) CG artwork that was removed from the US version, Seventh Cross Evolution. Below are the images from the hidden gallery (the second image gallery file on the disc features some of the same images, but in a higher resolution). I went through a bunch of other DC games as well, but I’ll run those images starting sometime next week… or sooner, if I knock out enough reformatting work to take a break.

Oh, I actually DID find some cool D2 stuff on an import disc or two, but not where I thought it would be. More on that in a bit…

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Update: Winding Down 2009…

Posted on January 7, 2012 by geelw

If things go well, folks – I’ll be done with reformatting all the 2009 posts this weekend. I’ll update you as soon as that’s done, pop the cork on a bottle of something (probably Martinelli’s Sparkling Apple Cider) and then get to work on the 2010 posts. Eek.

Well, all this necessary insanity is for a good reason, that’s for sure… I just wish it weren’t so tedious…

Gallery: Sega Saturn Import Library*

Posted on January 2, 2012 by geelw

This collection is now about 1/4 of the size of what it once was, but still has some nice titles in it along with a few commons and a bunch of duds. *Yes, I stuck in all the NIGHTS demos and versions from the US and UK, but those were in the same shelf space, so I figured I may as well run them here. I’ll get to my smallish US Saturn library at some point. It’s up in a closet with my US Sega CD stuff (also slimmed down dramatically) and I need to see what’s leftover after a few on and off years of whittling it down. Now, if Sega would FINALLY get wise and do a Sega Saturn collection of some of those games I no longer have, I’d be a much happier man…