PlanetDreamcast | Community | Mailbag | 11/10/00

Community - Mailbag 11/10/00 - Light Guns and Irate Wrestling Fans - by BenT Welcome to the PDC Mailbag. Every week we toss in a bunch of letters from our readers and do our best to dazzle you with wit and wisdom. Roughly, that translates to copying/pasting your emails and writing the first thing that comes to mind. But hey, you take what you can get. If you have something you want to contribute to the Mailbag, send it to this address! Without further ado... let's go! From: Till Lindemann Subject: Dreamcast Recording I think your site is very good. However it seems to be missing something. When I visit Planetunreal their site just has a larger impact. Also, I'm curious if you are going to update the top ten and bottom 5 (under games). Yes, the Top Ten is finally coming back in the near future. For real this time. No, really. I'm serious. Stop laughing! As for a lack of impact... well, let's just say that they have Nali Healing Fruit and we... well, don't. I still cry about it sometimes. From: HUGO VEGA Subject: Question of SF Alpha 3 controls Hello, In your review for the street fighter alpha 3 game for the dreamcast, there was something mentioned about using the import ASCII Pad FT (Fighting Type) controller. What I want to know is is if that import controller works on U.S. Dreamcast systems? Thank you for your time -- HUGO VEGA Yes, it sure does. The Japanese light gun is about the only standard controller that won't work on a non-Asian Dreamcast. From: Brad Subject: DC Light Gun? Usually I'm just a classic gaming type of guy, but out of curiosity, I took a visit to find out what Big Sega is up to these days... lo and behold, LIGHT GUNS! Now there's something I can really get into. I could write for paragraphs upon paragraphs about the genius and wonderment that is synonymous with light guns, but this is not a mushy feel-good classic gaming mailbag. Anyway, I'm glad to see that the Mighty Sega does not feel too high and- er- mighty to have a light gun game or two. Wouldn't it be great to see some old classic Genesis Light gun franchises come back? I mean, there's ... Lethal Enforcers and ... er ... was Lethal Enforcers a Genesis game? Um, I can't really think of any good Genesis Light gun games right now. Come to think of it, Duck Hunt is the only good light gun game that ever existed. Why am I so impressed with Light guns? Maybe it all goes back to my great grandfather, Julius T. Light, the inventor and namsesake of the Light gun. Contrary to popular belief, the name Light gun actually comes from him, hence my capitalization, and not from the way the gun operates. This may have sprung from the common misconception that a Light gun works by shooting a flash of light at a television screen, refracting the reflection on what it's targeting back to a receiver in the gun, and judging if it is a direct enough hit to send the info back to the game. This is not true! As any learned person would know, the Light gun operates by firing a concentrated laser beam into the televison, scrambling a code through the pixel depth of the target, relaying that signal into Moris code, projecting it to a satilite orbiting high in space. Then, the satilite beams the signal back to the Sega building in Japan and redigitizes the image on the screen of a computer terminal where a diligent Japanese "Light gun judge" quickly decides whether you had a direct enough hit or not. After pressing the right, green button for "hit" or the left, red button for "miss," the signal is carried back through the satilite, to your Dreamcast and gives you the correct response. Psh ... light flashes ... what could be more juvinile? Thanks for clearing that up! As for a lack of good light gun games, I think there are a bunch. Virtua Cop 1 and 2, House of the Dead 1 and 2, Namco's Time Crisis and Point Blank series, Konami's Silent Scope, SCEI's Elemental Gearbolt, and I'm sure there are others. Hell, even Mad Dog McCree on the 3DO wasn't too bad. Where have you been? :) From: Mark Matheson Subject: XMas: DC vs. PS2 As Christmas approaches, my eldest son (7) has decided he wants a Playstation 2. Personally, I would rather he has a Dreamcast, however we have a couple of Pros and Cons either way, can you please help me with this. My son has one big problem, he really, really likes spider-man. Please help. Dreamcast Pros: More games are aimed at a general age group other than adult Good varied selection of games Great Controllers for kids hands Dreamcast Cons: No Spider-man No DVD PS2 Pros: DVD PS2 Cons: Very, very expensive No Sonic Adventure No Ecco The Dolphin I'd say the clear choice is the Dreamcast. It has a *much* better software library, both in terms of quantity and quality, and only costs half as much. Not to mention the fact that PS2's are scarcer than coherent Majora's Mask reviews on Daily Radar. About the only con I can think of is that the PS2 will likely be supported with software beyond the end of the Dreamcast's lifetime. Still, I think Sega's surprising everyone with how well they're doing, so the DC still has a lot of life left in it. From: M3Drop4Me Subject: Online Play If you want to avoid slow "lag" times when playing on-line against someone, try different login phone #'s until you find one that many people do not use. This will enable you to play with almost no slow down at all in the game. Good Luck! That could be useful, but make sure the number you end up dialing is not long distance! Hehe, I still remember the look on my Mom's face when she got that $200 Prodigy bill, all those years ago... From: Carey/Sue Subject: I love you guys You (meaning www.planetdreamcast.com ) and dc.ign.com are the light in my dark harbor....or something like that.... You see i love video games, and i need to know everything about them and you guys tell me! Thank You! Thank You again! I could not live without you. I spend a lot of my day lookin up reviews and previews of the latest games but when you get right down to it, nobody deals the info out like my good ol buddies (meaning you, meaning www.planetdreamcast.com ). Ok so now that i've seriously scared you ill leave it at that. -Ruzhyo- PS: keep up the good work!!!!!! The thing is, I *am* scared by this. It's like someone came up with a fill-in-the-blanks, Adlib-style praise email. I'm gonna check if Daily Radar or IGN got this, and if they did, you're in big trouble! From: SoccerAL Subject: NFL2K1 Reviews Could you please (I know it's a pain in the ass) put more reviews, like different magazines, on your NFL2k1 page? That woudl be really sweet and I would be sooo happy. it's ok if you don't cause I know some of the magazines don't have reviews yet of the game. Thanks a million SoccerAL87 Well, we could... except for a pesky thing known as intellectual property laws. The next best thing is letting you, the reader, submit your opinion for all to see. We're currently looking into making this a reality. From: Andrew Katz Subject: Wanting to Purchase Hello, Your site is great! However, I want to purchase the following games: Namco Museum NFL 2K1 Virtua Tennis Viva Soccer Word Series BBall 2K1 Where do you suggest I find and purchase these? I cannot do it from your site, correct? Any help is greatly appreciated! Thank you, Andrew I would suggest a store. Well, except for Word Series BBall 2K1... that hasn't been invented yet. From: BrownMurderer Subject: (no subject) what happened to the other characters? huh tell you true i like smack down better for the play station console then royal rumble for the dream cast console the fucking is not wroth $40 i expect the game to be a lot better for the dream cast console that the reason i bought royal rumble I've never bought a WWF game, and if I did, I doubt it would be for the fucking. To each his own, I guess. From: Lou Cifer Subject: Stupid I agree that the ECW game for dreamcast sucks but ECW beats the shit out of WWF and WCW anytime.Its too bad dumbasses like you talk trah about them without even knowing what you're talking about That is too bad. From: Joe Slade Subject: H&D Just because you aint no good at the game it deserves a 5.5 out of 10? I`ll give you a 3.5 out of 10 for your review of the game as it was quit e poor- Maybe oneday you`ll try at it and realise your mistake. Joe Slade I'm sure I'll recant on my deathbed for publishing that review, but until then, don't hold your breath. That's it for this Mailbag. Have a burning question? First extinguish the damn thing, and then send it to this handy address. Until next time!