Retro Exploration: Dreamcast (Part 2)

Posted on January 8, 2012 by geelw

Aha… some US Dreamcast games got omake files after all. Here’s a two-page comic and two gorgeous posters from Elemental Gimmick Gear (E.G.G.), Hudson Soft’s interesting Action/RPG which originally started life as a Sega Saturn game before being moved over to the DC. The US cover art was pretty terrible and it’s surprising to me that neither of the two posters were used instead. Ah well – the game is actually really well done, featuring hand drawn art, polygon boss battles (added to beef the game up a bit to Dreamcast quality visuals) and a nice mix of puzzles and combat reminiscent of a Legend of Zelda game. The intentionally odd localization is a bit off-putting if you’re a grammar purist, but I like the way language is used throughout the game as it adds to the feeling of being on another world.

Want more? OK, below the four E.G.G. illustrations are four CG images from The Lost Golem, Caramelpot’s super-cute and quirky puzzle game (also never released outside of Japan). This one’s a bit rare, but can be found for not too much money these days (well, the last time I checked it was pretty inexpensive compared to the more in-demand DC imports out there)…

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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Gallery: Phantom Breaker

Posted on January 7, 2012 by geelw

With 2D fighting games on somewhat of a roll these days, it’s nice to see yet another developer enter the fray with a sweet-looking console title. Set to be published in North America this February by 7sixty Games, Phantom Breaker is an Xbox 360 exclusive from developer 5bp that, according to the press release, “takes its cue from classic 2D brawlers, offering a host of spectacular special moves, high-impact combos and a counter system that’s easy to pick up but takes a lifetime to master…” I’m pretty awful at fighting games compared to the top masters out there, but I do love excellent sprite-based artwork like the stuff found in the game trailer and screens below.

Also, for the collectors out there, the game will be available in a Special Edition that includes a mini strategy guide, desk calendar featuring characters from the game and two double-sided posters. Amazon has this listed at $39.99 (which is a steal for a nice set like that), so make sure to pre-order this pack if this looks like something you’ll be down with. Check out the game’s Facebook page and sign up if you like what you see – 14 pretty cool screenshots await below the jump…

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Update: And Miles To Go (Sort Of)…

Posted on January 6, 2012 by geelw

Well, I still have a few more (well, a lot more) pics to take of the collection, but here’s a quick peek at some of what’s coming once I find the time to get everything down and photographed. Yes, I COULD have done the US Sega Saturn and Sega CD stuff when I did the Jaguar/Lynx games a while back, but I got busy right afterward tackling another project and haven’t been able to get to that other stuff since. It’ll get done, don’t worry…

Collection Update: Nice, My Vectrex Still Works…

Posted on January 6, 2012 by geelw

This nostalgia trip I’ve been on lately has had me going through my old systems and handhelds to find that some are working (which is fantastic) and some aren’t (which isn’t). A few years of non-usage (or just plain normal aging) can really make a difference, as I’ve discovered thanks to now non-functioning Game Gear and Turbo Express units (both need capacitors replaced so the screens can show images and I have NO idea how to go about doing this), and a Lynx that’s funkier than it was last year when it comes to keeping a decent image on screen. HOWEVER (and hoo-ray!), my Vectrex works and works excellently. I just need some more games for it, having sold off what I had around five or so years back. I do wish time travel were a reality, as I’d live to zip back to when Macy’s and Gimbels were closing out their video games in the post-crash period and had stacks of Vectrex units and games going for a song (along with tons of Atari stuff). Ah, well… I’m out of space here anyway in terms of adding more boxes unless I get an Extreme Gaming Makeover at some point – my kingdom for a Vectrex multi-cart!

Gallery: PlayStation 2 Library (US)

Posted on January 5, 2012 by geelw

Minus about 15 games that are out on loan, here you go. I have to call this gallery “updated”, as it was a lot larger a few years back. I had close to 450 or more games here at one time, but it was a bit hard to get anything for any other system stored, so I started whittling down quite a bit. There’s an import in one of these pics (oops), but that’s because it was borrowed before and returned after I took pics of my PS2 imports Yes, there were a few Final Fantasy games here, but those went to someone who’s probably a lot more appreciative of the direction the series has taken than I am. I think I sold off a few games I meant to keep otherwise for reference purposes (oops), but most of what I’m looking for is dirt cheap these days and pretty easily located. As for some of the pricier games I no longer own or never got around to getting, well, I’m not dead yet…

Yeah, yeah, those press DVD’s aren’t “games”, but they were on the shelf, so in they went. I have a ridiculous amount of press kits stored here in a few bins (I saved nearly everything I’ve gotten since the late 90’s), so perhaps I’ll post a gallery of those if you ask nicely. It’ll take me a while to go through them all, that’s for sure…

Gallery: Xbox 360 Library

Posted on January 5, 2012 by geelw

Well, it’s weird, I’ll admit it, but I have to say that both my 360 and PS3 collections are VERY fluid. As in games come in, get played and traded/sold faster than with anything else I’ve collected. I’ve probably owned close to 200 – 250 games for the console, but here’s what I have at the moment, minus about 15 titles out on loan. I have a few region-free imports as you can see, but I’m not much interested in a Japanese 360 at the moment (other than a ton of cool shmups we never got here that I’m not too interested in playing and a few interesting titles I might like, I’m not urgently pursuing an import console). Yeah, that Shadow Ops DVD should have gone in the Xbox library, but it was on the bottom of a stack of games that I just got around to relocating (oops).

Gallery: CD-i Library

Posted on January 4, 2012 by geelw

OK, OK, it’s way too small to be an actual “library”, but I’ll take care of that (again) in due time. Actually, I had about 30 titles here at one point, but I sold/traded most of them off thinking I’d pick them up again at some point. The system is pretty easy to collect for with a few exceptions like the Mario and Zelda games Nintendo really doesn’t wish existed. I like that the system plays VCD’s (remember when THAT was supposed to be a great format back in the day?), so it does double duty on occasion when I want to see how bad things might have become if we were all relegated to swapping to Disc Two after 74 minutes passed. It’s a good thing there were no epics released for the format (as far as I know). Getting up to change to a fourth or fifth disc would give some of the lazier folks around these days a hear attack as they reached for the remote, a bag of chips and their laptops or phones to tap out a complaint…

Gallery: PlayStation Library (US)

Posted on January 4, 2012 by geelw

Here’s the rest of the PS1 collection to go with the PS1 RPG/SRPG library I posted a few weeks back. What’s here is about 100-150 games less than it was about two years back, so anything you don’t see was most likely played to death and sold or traded. I absolutely never wanted a complete PS1 collection anyway, as I’d have a ton of games here that I’d never play. Still, I wish I’d kept more of the racers and all of the shmups I sold off, but oh well. That last photo is stuff I dug up after I took the others and put everything away. Oops. I was wondering where my import copy of D no Shokotaku ended up all this time. The items on the bottom row of the pic are a few of the small selection game soundtracks I have: Soukaigi, Silent Hill, Threads of Fate and Biohazard Remix. I don’t have anything resembling a decent game soundtrack collection at all – I just stuck those in because they’re PS-related…

Gallery: N64 Library (Plus)

Posted on January 3, 2012 by geelw

What’s left of my N64 and Famicom/Famicom Disk collections plus some loose Super Famicom games I didn’t add with the boxed stuff a while back. As with all of the library pics, the collections here are much smaller than they were a few years back, but I’d say the Famicom stuff has been condensed the most overall, as it was around 150+ games at one point. I do miss my N64 imports (Bangai-o, Wonder Project J2 and Neon Genesis Evangelion among others) and most of the bunch of other stuff I don’t have these days, but that’s the way that ball bounces, I suppose. Oh well – once I’m rolling in loot from my world domination plans, I’ll grab a plane to Game Central and clean out a few places again. That is, provided the world doesn’t blow up before then…