PlanetDreamcast | Community | Mailbag | 4/14/00

Community - Mailbag 4/14/00 - System Advocacy, Tech Stuff, and EA - by BenT Get this: NO troubling story from Australia. They must be saving up for something big. From: Jeff Subject: Soul Calibur and the views on consoles I have seen Hey, I know that sounds like an Odd title for an E-mail, 2 (kinda) unrelated topics. Im just wonderin why no one I know has every cared a $(^! about Soul calibur. Sometimes I get into a conversation about video games and I'm like "you know what a great fighting game is?" and I say Soul Calibur and explain why but they never care they are all like Yeah, well, I like mortal combat even though it sux and is outdated. Well they didnt say the last part but they should have =). Then they are like well I am just waiting for the PS2. I explain why it doesnt matter how technologically innovative a console is, but if you think it does really matter that much Just wait for the X-Box. then they are like duhh....what? it's just so funny that they are waiting for the PS2 just because it has pretty little advertisements and magazines about the black liitle box. I know that half of the people havent seen footage of Actual games from japan. not to say they are bad, but my friends and many others I assume just say how awsome it is by the black n' blue box o' internet-less fun. =) (i still like PS2, and it will be cool, so dont take offense PlanetPS2) it just boggles me that there are so many people that are devoted to one system. diffrent companies are good at making diffrent games. I just buy the console that has the games I personally like {Sega, because of racing (speed Devils and sega GT), adventure (sonic that is), RPG (the forecomings of grandia and phantasy star) , and fighting (SoulC 4ever!). I think that all of the future systems wil have a good mix, And I plan to buy at least one other system. Just, all of you anti systemed people, get a clue, N63.5 and playstation were neck to neck in the war. and now with sega being smart this time around it's gonna be another close one, always has been, right? oh yeah, I've heard about how you can hack into Dreamcast files with that ever so cool nexus memory card (by they way, member me? i made a big deal about these a while ago). I've never done it, but i see how someone could. I got my Soulcalibur game file into some format on my computer. I could have easily edited it. I know that someone has hacked into sonic adventure and gotten thos "rare blackmarket" chaos. pretty sweeeet. PS, I really really really hope that they come out with an ethernet adapter for DC, that way I can hook up my DC to my ever-so-fast Cable modem (hopefully). Whew, four paragraphs, thanks for your time. I'm having flashbacks to last week's mailbag. This is all pretty obvious stuff, but true nonetheless. Pity the poor advocate zombies, and try to guide them to the light. (And no, that doesn't mean to kill them, you sick bastard. Although a thorough Soul Calibur thrashing wouldn't hurt...) From: OCharlesJenkins Subject: Game reviews and timed puzzles I'm a fan of action games from way back to "Alone In The Dark" on the PC. I love sneaking around in cool environments, looking for hostages to rescue, mysteries to solve, and plenty of bad guys to shoot. But I hate timed puzzles. I hate 'em more than I hate car repair bills. More than junk mail. Timed puzzles are usually easy to figure out, but they're never interesting and never *EVER* any fun to do. They're like a test of how well you can interact with the game's (usually sucky) controller interface. Timed puzzles marred my enjoyment of Tomb Raider I, and then like a fool I forgot about that and ended up buying Tomb Raider III. I lost interest in the game early on when I came to a timed puzzle that's too difficult for me. (You gotta run into a dark room; position perfectly to move a lever; wait while Lara Croft does this casually, as if there *wasn't* a wall of spikes moving in to skewer her; run to position perfectly in front of another lever; pull it; wait; then run to jump down a hole into an underground stream in the nick of time. I always either fail to get her lined up in front of the levers just right or don't stop running quickly enough--when she bumps into a wall, you lose control over her for a precious second while she stands there watching her boobs jiggle.) Now I'm playing Carrier on the Dreamcast, and darned if I haven't come to another silly timed puzzle. It's like game companies are afraid to release games without 'em. Could you encourage your reviewers to warn us when a game contains timed puzzles? I'm just going to avoid games that have them. And I encourage anyone reading this to write in and support the drive to eliminate timed puzzles. Stop the inanity! Love 'em (?) or hate 'em, timed puzzles are a staple of video games. There's only so many types of puzzles a designer can implement into a standard action or pseudo-action (TR) game, so it's pretty inevitable that they'll resort to the time-based ones once or thrice. I agree somewhat; when done poorly, they suck. I thought your Tomb Raider description was right-on, by the way. Now that is a poor implementation. From: Maytag Subject: Dreamcast Power Conversion To whom it may concern: I recently purchased a Dreamcast console system. I've always been a tried and true hardcore PC-gamer only, and this is my first console system, but its was *well* worth it! It's increadable! I am extremely glad i made this purchase. So enthralled with this system am I, in fact, that i am trying to put it in my conversion van. :) The van has a TV and VCR, and has a panel prewired in the cabin for a video game system.(AV inputs and a DC output jack). Unfortunately, this is designed for something more along the lines of the SNES and not the Dreamcast. Is there any way to circumvent the units AC-->DC inverter? Can you recommend a method for doing so? If not, do you know the specifications or have schematics of the unit that may be helpful in my attempt to do so? I would really wish to avoid buying another DC-->AC inverter, because that would be extremely pointless and very expensive (the ones at radio shack go for half the price of the dreamcast itself.) Or do you know of an inexpensive inverter? Any assistance would be greatly appreaciated. :) Keep up the great work on a wonderful website. Maytag My friend, I have no idea as to how to go about solving your dilemma, seeing as I'm a certified electronics ignoramus of the highest order. I'll pass this along to a handy friend and see what he has to say. In the meantime, I'm glad you like your Dreamcast, and its Planet. :) From: D-T-Ki Dood Subject: er.... Ok, I have 1 question.... uh, 2. 1) using an RF adapter, will the DC work on both PAL, and NTSC TVs? (and please don't send me to sega for support, since we all know their employees are a waste of a perfectly good salary, err, maybe just I know that...) 2)looking at how I'm currently facing the decision of wheter to buy a DC, or wait and save up for a PS2, and knowing how it all comes down to the games.... will The World Is Not Enough be released on the DC too? well, maybe just 1 more: 3) do you know/remember Marshmellow Duel? 1) An American/NTSC (60Hz) Dreamcast should work on any 60Hz TV with an RF input. Likewise, an European/PAL (50Hz) Dreamcast should work on any 50Hz TV that has an RF input. Dig? 2) Nope, Electronic Arts is completely snubbing the Dreamcast, so TWINE will not be Dreamcast-bound. A pity, seeing as how the game's engine (Quake 3) is already up and running on the system. From: Evan Ochs Subject: NCAA Football Are there any plans for an NCAA2K1 or any other NCAA football games for the DC? I love NFL2K, but it would be even better if it was a college game... In an NFL game I get bored when up by two touchdowns in the 4th quarter and just run out the clock... In an NCAA game, you want to blow out those teams and use every second to score so you can move up in the Top 25... Plus, the sheer number of teams and rivalries in NCAA make it more fun Evan Ochs Austin, TX Nope, sorry. A loooong while back there was a rumor that Electronic Arts was working on an NCAA 2001 title, but it's since become clear that they don't intend to support the Dreamcast in any way, shape or form. No NCAA for us. Or you, really, since I hate sports games. :) From: Greg Syquia Subject: Mad magazine's comment about the Dreamcast I was looking through a news article on your website about Mad Magazine's comment about the best system today, the Dreamcast. They called it "the 9th dumbest thing of 1999," calling it "overpriced." Since they also took a swipe at Nintendo and didn't diss any of the Playstation's franchise characters (a certain bandicoot and a fire-breathing dragon), I think that Sony actually paid Mad Magazine to write that article, don't you think? I do think. But no, I don't think Sony paid 'em to write that. I'm sure there are better conspiracies out there to find, so get on it. From: Michael Chilson Subject: Just before you do it... Please, please, PLEASE don't put in pages upon pages of stupid letters like every other GameSpy Network site out there. If I wanted to read letters with many mispellings, letters with 1337 speak, and letters talking about the hair around people's anal oriface, I would read one of the other mailbags on GSI. Please avoid turning a good mailbag into another Jerry Springer-esque "Who can send in the wildest letter?" contenst. After seeing the "I want freaks" letter, I felt compelled to send in this "nay vote" to you. Thank you. Mike Ok... we'll just run a few. They're fun. Please? And hey, look... what have we here? From: Wrestlers22 Subject: tell me tell me when you get roms for dreamcast i have the emulator i have rom for the dreamcast but no emulator perhaps we could make an exchange pAkchOOie ERROR Another Mailbag bites the dust. Damn, that was a short one. Where the heck are your letters? Throw 'em in the Mailbag, dammit, and bother us all you want. But remember - no freak letters! Michael would get pissed, after all. See you next week.