PlanetDreamcast | Community | Mailbag | 10/27/01

Community - Mailbag 10/27/01 - Cable Modems, The Evil Cancellations, And Buying Dreamcasts Now. - by Celeryface Hey Dreamcast fans, Celeryface here to answer your questions and concerns about our site, the Dreamcast community, and whatever else you need to know about our favorite little white box, in the latest edition of the PlanetDreamcast Mailbag. Dreamcast owners have taken in a lot of disappointing news over the past couple of weeks with the cancellation of Shenmue II for the US and many other DC cancellations. This week we answer some of your questions and concerns about buying a Dreamcast, Evil Twin info, cable modems, and more. Now on with the mailbag, your letter might be in there! From: Brent Hundley Subject:Cable Connection Hey, I was just wondering if there is ANY way possible to get online with my Dreamcast now that I have cable internet access?? I've heard that an ethernet card and broadband adapter would work... will it? Or anything else to do? I WANT MY SPEED DEVILS ONLINE!! Brent Well you will be happy to hear that, yes, it is possible to get online with your Dreamcast and your cable modem. Using the Broadband Adapter you can access the Internet and play games that support this device through your cable modem. The bad news is that the Broadband Adapter was only sold through Sega's online store and was available in limited quantities. Sega stopped selling the BBA last spring, but if you wan't to get one, you can check out places like Ebay where it goes for at least $125. So the device doesn't come cheap. Another thing that I should point out is that the Broadband Adapter doesn't support all online games. The BBA only supports a small handful of games. So you might want to think about that before you shell out some serious cash for this device. Hope this helps. :) From: TOMsk8DEAN Subject: feedback!!!!!! hi my name is tom ands i was considering buying a dreamcast but have noticed that it hasent exacty sold like hot-cakes could you inform me on how long there will be dreamcast releases and what future ones there will be, p.s-i very much enjoyed your site. Well Tom, the Dreamcast only has about three more scheduled games to be released. Conflict Zone, Bomberman Online, NHL 2K2, and the recently released Tennis 2K2 and NBA 2K2 are the final scheduled games for the Dreamcast. Bleem is currently supporting the system with their Bleemcast product, which allows you to play certain PlayStation games on your Dreamcast. You can check out Bleem here. From: Francisco Sauceda Subject: Another game cancellation? I looked in the Eb Games website today and noticed that Evil Twin for the Dreamcast is not in their upcoming titles anymore. I just want to know if the game has been cancelled. I really hope not, since I was totally looking froward to that being my last game purchased for the Dreamcast. Thanks. Evil Twin for the Dreamcast was taken off all released dates lists a few weeks ago, and was also taken off UbiSoft's website. This is a pretty good indication that the game has been cancelled, but UbiSoft hasn't sent out an official word on the product's status. UbiSoft is bringing out Conflict Zone for the Dreamcast in November, so it's possible that Evil Twin was put on the back burner. We will have to wait for the final word from UbiSoft to see if the game is cancelled or not. So stay tuned for that info. From: Steele Subject: Evil Dead: Hail to the King Dreamcast game The saying "hind-sight is 20/20" has never been more correct, for had I known how frustrating and disappointing this game would be compared to the movies(which I thought were really cool), I would have left it sitting on the high spot on the shelf. Oh well, I guessed this was lesson learned. By the way, is it possible that the game could be redone and correct some of the difficulties in playing it? The Evil Dead movies are great! I am a huge fan of the series. However, the game is a different story, as you have pointed out. As many of you know, Evil Dead for the Dreamcast isn't a very good game. The voices from Bruce Campbell are great, and watching the CG movies are cool but the gameplay is pretty bad. To answer your question, yes it is possible that they could bring out another Evil Dead game. If a new games does get made, hopefully they will fix up the problems that hindered the first game. Bring out an original sequel to "Army Of Darkness"! From: Andrew Meyer Subject: Ads in Games Dear PDC, I go to your site everyday, and I thank you for sticking with the Dreamcast while other sites have stopped putting up news and reviews. I own PSO v2 and AFO, and I am about to buy Ooga Booga because of your review. I have several questions though. First: will I have to pay $10 a month to play Ooga Booga on the internet, and pay for the hunter's license in PSOv2? I only get $20 a month allowance, and that's $15 right there. I don't want to spend that kind of money on video games every month. 2. Does anyone still play Unreal Tournament on the internet? I bought Outrigger, and there were 2 people online every now and then, but that is pathetic. 40,000 people play Half-Life at all times. Also, is Unreal run by Seganet? Do you have to pay to play it? 3. Now for the most important question. Do you know anything about game developer's policies on advertisements in their games? I am doing a school project on this, and Sega just sent me some dumb auto-response. Thank You, Andrew Meyer P.S. Is Propellor Arena gone for good? Thank you Great! Glad to hear that our review helped your decision on buying a game. To answer your first question, yes Sega will start their pay-to-play service on November 1st. It will cost you $10 per month to play Dreamcast games online. The only game that will remain free will be the original Phantasy Star Online. From personal experience playing Dreamcast games online, it seems that you just have to find a certain time during the day when regulars go in and play. Besides PSO, online Dreamcast games don't seem to have a huge following like PC games do. So if you want to play your Dreamcast games online you just have to keep checking back on the servers to see if anyone pops up. For your final question. From a personal stand-point, if the price is right I think any developer will put ads in their games. But that's my opinion. ;) P.S. Yes, Propellar Arena has been cancelled for the Dreamcast. That concludes another great edition of the PlanetDreamcast Mailbag. Next week we will be back with more answers to your letters. Be sure to keep sending them. As always, you can send your letters to this address. Maybe you will see your letter in the next edition of the PlanetDreamcast Mailbag. Have fun! :)