PlanetDreamcast | Community | Mailbag | 6/01/01

Community - Mailbag 6/01/01 - Mindless Ramblings, Memory Cards, and Multiplayer - by RaptoR It's been a few weeks since E3 landed and made its impact on the gaming scene. It's also been a few weeks since the last PDC mailbag landed on an innocent PDC staff member, so here's your chance to get a few of your Dreamcast-related questions answered. It's also a chance for me to attempt to match Mr. Domino's wit... 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! From: [email protected] Subject: Phantasy Star Online Help I just bought Phantasy Star Online on Saturday May 26th and i want to play online. The registration number and serial number that it gave me doesnt work, it says that someone else is using those numbers, but i just bought it and started for my self. What should i do? Well, someone else probably is. Did you buy your copy of PSO from a reputable store, and not some one-legged yokel? Did it happen to come on a CDR with no manual? If you can honestly answer 'yes' to all these questions then your best bet is to return the game to the store and explain the problem and get a replacement copy with new numbers. Another option is to contact Sega of America or Sega Europe (depending on your location) and explain the problem. Hopefully they should be able to either allocate new numbers, or kick off the person who's using your numbers. From: Evan Hall Subject: Logging onto Multiplayer I'd like to know why Gamespy wont connect when I try to play online. If you can reply as soon as possible I would be grateful. Evan -- [email protected] We may be a member of the GameSpy Network, but we don't provide support for GameSpy's server browser technology. If you're having problems, then check the GameSpy support page here. From: Christoffer Sahlgren Subject: Wait a minute... What's this with SEGA not even distributing the nearly finished Black or White for DC? This extreme stupidity surely cannot be true. I hear Isao Okawa is turning in his grave. He was someone who was comitted to consumer service and support, not to throwing in the towel. Chris Sega is still publishing Black & White as far as we know, although there has been news of the company "not distributing" the game. It simply takes time to port such a dynamic title as Black & White from the PC to Dreamcast, and the PC version's delays have consequently set the DC port back as well. We can expect to see Black & White on the Dreamcast towards the end of the year. It's likely that Sega will try and release the game just in time for the Christmas rush. As far as Sega not distributing the game, so far that's just a rumor at the moment. From: David Miller Subject:   what is the dae that the game comes out. Perhaps you should tell us the name of the game. :P From: [email protected] Subject: Memory cards Dear PlanetDreamcast, I have my dreamcast complete with about 20 games, but only 3 VMU's. Unfortunately, I have a couple of sports games and big RPG's. With the batch of great games coming this spring and fall (including more giant sports games), I think i'm going to be needing more memory. However, instead of buying another VMU or two, i'm looking into buying one of those giant memory cards. Which one is most reliable? Thanks -Nick Without knowing the brand or anything, there's not a lot we can do. If you don't want to shell out for more memory cards, why not just clear out the ones you've got. Do you really need those novelty Jet Grind Radio graffiti images and ChuChu levels? And what about that level 2 RAmar that you never play with? By deleting a few old files you can save yourself a bit of money. I'd always go for Sega branded VM's because I know they'll work with every game you care to think of. Some third-party VM units might cause problems with some games because of the way they're formatted, but are often a bargain. It's up to you whether you want to take the risk, but you recognise the brand, then chances are you won't have too many compatability problems with it. From: Jow Blow Subject: Half-Life As I am sure you are aware Half-Life for DC has been canceled (well its a serious rumor this time) I have started a petition to "Save" it. http://www.petitiononline.com/dchlcan/petition.html the exposure of a link from ur site and maybe some news etc would be greatly appreciated. Thank You very much. Exposure on our site... It's not really certain whether or not Half-Life has been canned. Everyone you ask gives a different story. Petitions like this usually have no impact on games developers, and its highly unlikely to have any impact on whether we see Half-Life on the Dreamcast. HL's problem is that it causes the Dreamcast to overheat. It's not that it sucks and so Sega decided not to release it. If the developers can't resolve the problem, then it won't come to the Dreamcast -- it's as simple as that. From: Joey Subject: sega go bye-bye?? I'm really curious. I know that SEGA will stop production of the Dreamcast soon, but after that will they still be making games for the DC? I need to know if I can expect Virtual On: Force on the Dreamcast!! All games that were already in production will be finished (or canned, as the case may be), however we won't be seeing any new Dreamcast titles being announced... ever. After the current 'in-developement' games have been finished, there will be no new Dreamcast games. So in answer to your question: no. We won't be seeing Virtual On: Force on the Dreamcast. From: [email protected] Subject: I think it should be inclucded. What? Where? Why? How? From: cube96 Subject: re: codes wont work Why won't the codes work for my fighting force 2? Well, it might help if you told us which codes you were referring to. I'll assume you're talking about cheat codes. Double-check codes if they're not working. If they still don't work, try looking on a cheat site such as Cheating Planet for codes that might work. From: Glenn Gardiner Subject: Question Does Skies of Arcadia take 83 blocks including saved game or not? No, the game takes 27 blocks per save, and 83 blocks for the optional mini-game. From: Sean Subject: Unlisted Fighting Games I just wanted to say that I think Street Fighter Alpha 3 is the greatest damn 2D fighter ever created. It strikes an excellent balance between Street Fighter 3's deliberate calculated style and the versus series' ridiculous combo-rific berserker style. With a plethora of classic characters (all hail Rolento and his band of knife wielding arabs) and the excellent World Tour mode, SFA3 is enough to satisfy my desire to beat the hell out of my closest friend any day. Thanks. Sean Turk There's no doubt that Street Fighter Alpha 3 is a great fighter, but whether its 'Beat Dreamcast Games' material is another matter. As with any game that's submitted to us as a 'Best Dreamcast Game', we'll take a look at the game and make a balanced decision on whether it warrents a place. Or we ask Mr. Domino. From: coleco coleco Subject: death crimson ox will death crimson ox ever be released in the us? There's been no word of a US release date for Death Crimson Ox. If you really, really want to play it, you'll have to get hold of an import copy. That's it for this Mailbag. Have a burning question? First extinguish the damn thing (crap, we really need to think of a new joke), and then send it to this handy address.