Happy Birthday Sega Dreamcast! 10 Years of Fun!

It is 9/9/09 and today marks the 10th anniversary of the Sega Dreamcast. Since the beginning consoles have attempted to bring the real arcade experience into peoples homes but it wasn't perfected until the Sega Dreamcast hit shelves on 9/9/99 !

This little white box had one of the greatest and most creative software libraries in the history of gaming and years after it was orphaned by Sega games are continuing to be developed and produced for it.

We salute you Dreamcast! Thank you for being one of the best!

It's still thinking!

PS3 is the new Sega Saturn! Is bankruptcy imminent?

As we discussed in previous articles there has been a wave of backlash from the gaming community. We have three consoles on the market and the only one that has shown to sell in great numbers can be found collecting dust underneath a television or still in its original box. The others are either broken half the time or are still on the store shelves.

What has moved me to write this post is the foreboding nature of the present financial circumstances of Sony's latest console .....................the PS3.

Since its creation Sony has bet the farm on this huge black box. Just like its predecessor it doubles as another media device. A fancy Blue-Ray player. Now this is all fine and dandy in theory but who do you know that has a Blue-Ray player? And if they do own one, How many Blue-Ray movies do they own? I would think not many if any at all.

So where are we now? Well since a year and a half ago Sony has officially lost over 2 billion dollars on their new device. This a huge financial blow to this once technological giant. Every quarter that goes by Sony loses more that a hundred million dollars on their creation. Now that is just the profits, dear friends. Sony has had to let go over 20-30 percent of their workforce just in their gaming department. I ask. How long can they last? And that’s what brings me to this poorly written article that was posted earlier today in the Sega of America forums. An ironic place to have a conversation about bankruptcy and financial problems.

"Sony May Quit Gaming Market Claims GIN "

http://www.smarthouse.com.au/Gaming/Industry/M5B6J5L3?page=1


Immediately after reading it I made the comparison, the PS3 is the new Sega Saturn. It all came together so clearly now. The two systems are literally identical in terms of financial short comings. The sales for both are quite depressing and the system is not only hard to develop for but overpriced.

Now if you think that I'm being to harsh on the PS3 and Wii and not to the XBOX360 I must say that Microsofts console does fair much better. Yes, some gamers prefer the XBOX360 to the Wii and PS3 but I can tell you right now that consumer confidence in the XBOX brand has almost been chiseled to nothing. Microsoft is going to have an extremely tough time making sales whenever the new XBOX console comes out. People are not happy that their expensive new age gaming console can be turned into a hunk of useless plastic and circuits just because the temperature in the room goes up 2 degrees.

So is Sony out of the race? You would think me being a die hard Sega Fan I would scoff at this news but in all honesty I feel somewhat upset. I don't want Sony to go out like this. I feel that they did so well with the PS2. Yes, their games weren't as colorful, entertaining, or creative as some Dreamcast games but I still think it’s a good system none the less. I still have my second PS2 (first one broke) and I'm quite pleased with the variety of games I still have for it.

Now at the end of the article the writer muses that Sony may end up like Sega. A publisher of software after calling it quits in the hardware arena. Its completely understandable why Sega went down for the count. The trail of mismanagement was blatant and obvious. The 32X, Nomad, Sega Saturn. The Sega train ran out of coal right after the second year of the Dreamcast. Sony doesn't seem to have a beaten trail of folly like Sega had, what they had was bad luck. It was a gamble to them and they came up short. They bet it all on red and the roulette wheel turned up black. From an Electronics company that wiped the floor with the veteran video game corporations like Nintendo and Sega to a ravaged hulk a drift on the oceans of debt and misery.

I can't imagine what can come next but we all know that there is no Hope & Change in this economy. People don't have the time nor the money to invest on a new console and a $60 dollar game every pay check. People are saving, their using their money to pay off bills, pay off debt, medical costs, food, electric, oil, gas. The farthest thing from the peoples mind right now is to buy a giant black block to put it in their living room to collect dust because they can't afford the software.

Now who is to blame? The people?

No.

The Sony Employees?

No.

The Sony executives, CEO, and Board Members?

I guess. If blame needed to be hung around the neck of anyone it must be them. They are the decision makers. They are the signers of contracts and the designers of products.

Will they lost their jobs?

Probably not. They don't care if the company burns to the ground. They signed their contract. Its the little people that work for them that will suffer.


This is a lesson that everyone should take heed. The detach of upper management from the ground levels and consumer wants causes needless havoc. Not researching how much the average person is willing to buy and allowing Olympian like corporate elites to decide the life and death of an company only ends in disaster.

Note to all hardware manufacturers. Listen to your fans and ask them what they want.....and for what price they are willing to spend.

New Dreamcast games in 2008-2009

Isn't it amazing how things work out? In the year 2002 the headlines read. "DREAMCAST DEAD!" but year after year new software, homebrews, and emulations continue to appear for the Sega's last white hope. Its hasn't had an official Sega release in over two years, the last official game was Karous but since then worldwide Independent developers have discovered a soft spot for our little dream machine. On November 5, 2008 Wind and Water: Puzzle Battle was released for the Dreamcast. Developed by Yuan Works and published by Redspotgame, this puzzle game came out first for the GPX2 handheld and was later ported over to the Dreamcast with added content, options, and graphics. The story mode plays similar to Super Mario Bros. 3 but based around a puzzle system. The puzzle mechanics are very innovative and different from other puzzle games of our era. Instead of matching up blocks vertically or horizontally you have to match them up in a diamond pattern by what element they are, Water, Earth, Wind, fire, etc.
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Once you have 4 like elements they and whatever similar elements around them disintegrate. Which then awards you points! Some of the combos can be very fun to pull off. Combos such as chains, full, and dual come in handy to stop the press. The "Press" is what your fighting against in W&W. Its a large black waffle-like thing that pushes up from the bottom. One the press reaches the top you lose but you have numerous combo variations to push the press down so it will not menace you.
On the 15 June 2009, YET ANOTHER Independently produced Dreamcast game was released. This time from Hucast. Which is a German indie studio. DUX is a horizontal shooter which draws much of its inspiration from R-Type. The whole game is in full CGI graphics and the music is a cool techno melody. The game oozes futuristic space combat sci-fi action! There are 6 levels to the game all of which are very long and well done. Some have commented on the difficulty but once you get the hang of the soaking ability the game won't be overly difficult but it will still give you a challenge.

Both games are now bundled on Redspotgames.com or separately on Hucast.net and Play-Asia.com

Is Shenmue the greatest game ever created?

Ok, so I've been pondering about this for over a decade now and I've come to my conclusion.

Shenmue is the Greatest game ever made!

How do I know this? Cause I'm super radical. I don't wear sunglasses at night for no reason. I don't use massive amounts of hair gel and roar my engine at red lights for fun. This is fact.Alright, enough of my credentials. Let’s get back to Shenmue.

Shenmue has a simple format. The call to adventure starts when Ryo comes home from his daily sauntering to find his cool Japanese symbol thing broken. As he makes his way to the backyard and finds his maid on the floor. Now I would say "What are you doing lying around? I don't pay you to sleep lady!" but it seems that she was knocked down by some intruders. After you leave your faithful maid behind you run to the Dojo. This is where things get heavy. Your Dad seems too locked in mortal combat with some evil looking guy wearing some crazy old school threads. I would call him cool if he wasn't so homicidal!Anyway, Ryo's father takes a bad hit and collapses. Note to self: Do not roundhouse kick old people.Ryo rushes to his side and Iwao Hazuki tells his son some parting advice. His murderer AKA Lan Di miraculously doesn't smash Ryo into a wall and end him as well. He grabs the "Dragon mirror" from a hidden spot under the cherry tree and makes his exit. Pay attention people because I'm only going to explain this once. In mythological and allegorical stories this is what we call in the industry "The call to adventure" and is very important to the hero’s journey formula. After a tear jerking scene where Ryo holds his father until he takes his last breath their is a transition and days / weeks seem to go by after the incident. The day starts as usual for a young man who just had his father die in his arms with a horrifying nightmare. He awakes in his room and from then on the player has control of Ryo.Now as you can see there is quite a lot of storyline in this game. If I was to detail the rest of the game it would probably take up the whole website so I'm just going to hit the high points.Shenmue Best Game Ever High Points:


1. everything is interactive. Picture the real world. In your television. You have a phone, you can buy things, you can talk to anyone, you can take care of a kitten, you can take the bus, it’s as close to reality as physically possible. You have a freaking job in the game. A job. People can't get a job in real life. Now you can do a monotonous job in a video game. Forklift driver here I come! Did I mention you can drink sodas and get capsule toys?? Amazing! Soda and Action figures.

2. QTE Battles. Now Quick Time Events happen in most games but back in the year 2000 they were a real rarity. Nothing spells kick ass like hitting one button and sending a drunken sailor into a shelf full of glass bottles.


3. Practice! Practice! Practice! Sometimes in a video game you just want to hang out and hone your super karate attacks. Now you can. When you go into a parking lot, abandoned warehouse, or your very own dojo you can practice your moves at your leisure. This spices things up in real battles because you’re not constantly hitting the punch or kick button. You can actually do some very impressive moves that will throw your enemies for a loop. My favorite is the Dark Side Hazuki throw. Oh, ya! He's not getting up from that one.......


Another great thing they added was picking up move scrolls to enhance your move library. You can purchase them at the antique shop from a cool old man.


4. The most genius part about Shenmue. They actually built in an arcade into the dam game. I'm serious. Not only can you go anywhere, talk to everyone, and buy as much crap as you like BUT now you can actually play video games ......IN A VIDEO GAME. It's a riddle wrapped in an enigma. A paradox that no one can understand. Until now.


Most of the games are old school Sega games like Hang on, Space Harrier, Outrun (Shenmue II), afterburner (Shenmue II) or some unique games they created just for Shenmue. Some of those would be Darts (Which I absolutely love), a simple QTE game where you have to hit the right button in a narrow time limit, or a boxing game that is cool until you lose and then the jerk says "you suck". Which is awesome.



So what have we learned here? We learned today that Shenmue is the greatest game ever created. It’s a work of art that will live on forever. It's in the world records book for being the "MOST EXPENSIVE GAME EVER CREATED”, now that’s an achievement! Shenmue lives in the hearts of gamers all over the world. Its spiritual successor would be Yakuza. They share a similar gaming engine but in my opinion it lacks the innocents that Shenmue had. Furthermore some people have hinted that Shenmue 3 will be a Massive Multiplayer game. I hope not. What I want and I hope I speak for many a Sega fans out there is a new piece of Sega hardware that has Shenmue 3 as an exclusive. It wouldn't feel right kicking Lan Di off a building if it wasn't on a Sega made console.






I hope you enjoyed the article. I was somewhat rushed in writing it.







See ya at the arcade!

What's the deal with Retro-Gaming?

So, I've been noticing a very interesting trends these past few years regarding the Retro-Gaming Scene.

What it looks like to me is that all the gamers of my generation AKA The Cool generation have rejected the new games that are out today. Now your probably going to say "What you talking about Willis? People be buying games like day be hot cakes" and Yes, I know that sales are always good but people have been complaining constantly about the quality and style in which gaming has ......errr....evolved. And I'm being nice here.

Lets just go down the check list shall we of what genre's have been destroyed in the pursuit of quick cash for horribly developed software.

FPS - The First person Shooter Genre has been completely and utterly destroyed by a steady stream of mediocre titles and sequels. Every time you look over your shoulder you see another FPS coming out of the birthing chambers ready to snatch the money from your hand. I will say however that there has been small victories here and there.

Honorable Mentions: BioShock, Call of Duty: World at War

Real Time Strategy - Remember the times playing Command & Conquer: Red Alert over your 56k modem? Remember the wonderful campaign battles you used to have playing Starcraft and Warcraft? Well, Those days are over and they have been over for a long while. The only thing that saved this generations Real Time Strategy fans was Warcraft III and even that got stale "DAM NOOB TEAMMATES!" "STOP HIDING IN YOUR BASE YOU TURTLES!".

We need something new.

Will Starcraft II be our saving grace since the Command and Conquers have gotten so played out that even Jenny McCarthy couldn't save them?

Platformers - Is it me or is Sonic the Hedgehog the last platformer mascot alive? Even with Sega's constant milking of their kiddy cash cow we need a little more variety and I don't mean WereHogs. Give us something new, brightly colored , and simple and give it to us NOW!

Sorry, I just had a Veruca Salt moment.

Survival Horror - back in the good old days you used to be able to be spooked out by one Resident evil game after another. Now a days when you play a surival horror its more like an episode of the A-Team! Whats the deal? Where is the spooky atmosphere? Where is the horrifying enemies? Where is the shock value? Where is the parts in the game where you look at the door your suppose to go through and say to yourself "Man.......I really don't wanna know whats behind there.....Did I save?. .....Oh, boy....here we go"

Now its like.....whos got the grenades.....hey man did you see me totally use the chain gun on those slow moving almost identical enemies....ya that was sweet.

NO, ITS NOT SWEET. Its LAME!

We want little or no ammo, a knife that is strictly for decoration and to take up one spot in your very low inventory, Bad guys jumping out of windows, bad guys jumping at you threw walls, impossible bosses, impossible puzzles, cut scenes that make you want to yell "Heck ya!".

Not this RE: 4 clones all over the place. Yes, RE: 4 was great but its over. Time to move on or get back to your roots.

Anyway. My examples are somewhat weak but I'm winging it. It still doesn't change the fact that people in hordes have completely lost all interest in the gaming market. Its almost like they buy a new console now just to have it other than to play the games on it. I mean most of the stuff you can download on XBOXLA and Wii: VC you probably already own and if you don't its your own fault for trading in all your games for the newest system.

Your probably asking yourself. "OK, So? Ya, People like retro games, can't they just buy them on EBAY for a marked up price that will make you have to take out a loan on your house?"

No! There are numerous affordable new and old retro games on the market.

Sega has just officially licensed three new hardware items that are coming out for sale this month!

Sega FireBox - New Sega Genesis console that has 20 games already installed and a new port for downloadable content.

RetroGen - A Nomad clone that is able to play old school Genesis cartridges and downloadable content. May have 20 games included.

Hand Held Plug and play Megadrive - 20 games, can support downloadable content

Amazing right? This is what we call in the industry "blowback" meaning that when you dish out bad quality products (AKA Present day games / consoles) and you receive a backlash from the public.

We see a retreat back into the good old days when games were games and skills were skills. Not a $60 dollar half made movie where you get to play another guy with the over the shoulder view.