Cool - Free Dreamcast

[RetroJames]

Went over to a friend's house tonight.  He just got a free Nintendo 64 and was swapping it out with the Dreamcast.  (His son is not allowed to have two consoles..)  

So there I was and now it's mine.  Poor kid.  

It has two controllers, memory packs, and 6 games...all kinda kiddie stuff though.  What are some good Dreamcast games?

[SteveJ34]

Two favorites of mine are Bass Fishing and House of the Dead....which to enjoy you'll want fishing and  light gun controllers.

[crashwg]

FYI the dreamcast has no sort of copy protection other than the fact that you cannot directly copy the pressed disks.  This of course means that people have infact copied DC games and they are redily available at substatially low cost on various places on the web.

Just a tidbit of info you may or may not have wanted to know...  

Have fun.

[abrannan]

Nintendo 64 for a Dreamcast?  Poor kid, that's quite a downgrade.

[RetroJames]

Nintendo 64 for a Dreamcast?  Poor kid, that's quite a downgrade.

Yknow, I was thinking the same thing.  I did tell his Dad that if he changed his mind I would give it back.  Or at least compensate him.  

[clanggedin]

I'd hate to be that kid. Limited to only one console would really suck.

[Sephroth57]

yeah what kind of rule is that seriously? ever since NES ive bought almost every system they just keep piling up.  well of course i didnt buy them... santa brought em =p

[Hoagie_one]

i had quite a collection of consoles in my day....now i just stick to pc's \ emulators...and the new DS handheld when it comes out

[eypyeash]

Wow. uhm.  You can go tons of directions with Dreamcast, but I personally hate sports games/3d platformers.  That said, here's my collection:

US
Sega Smash Pack Vol 1 - why isn't Golden Axe a two-player?  Virtua Cop 2 is more fun than I remembered, tho.  
Sonic Adventure (blah)
Sonic Adventure 2  - Okay, but a little boring
Crazi Taxi - Alright every once in awhile
Marvel vs Capcom - Good game, better music than sequel.
Marvel vs Capcom 2 - Best port, since NAOMI is a Dreamcast.
Plasma Blade - Dated graphics for a 3d fighter, pretty fun though.
Dead or Alive 2 - Fun for the four-player tags, that's it.
Soul Calibur - Good stuff from Namco.
House of the Dead 2 - Fun, but gets old quick.
Confidential Mission - Another light-gun game.  So-so.
Bangai-O - Hilarious and weird, crazy fun.
Street Fighter 3 Third Strike - Awesome fighter.
Mars Matrix - Crazy technical/manic shooter by Capcom.
Giga Wing - Flashy shooter, good stuff by Capcom.
Cannon Spike - Weird smash tv-ish shooter.  Capcom.
Fatal Fury Mark of the Wolves - Great 2d Fighter.  Not so much as Street Fighter 3 3rd strike, but better than 2nd Impact.
Last Blade 2 - Samurai Shodown style game.  Incredibly censored, but fun in its own way.  I prefer the SS games, really, but there are lots of people who go the other way.  
I've got another Capcom/Psikyo, can't remember its name, but shooter fans know it probably.  It's a cute'em up with the witch, robot, Alucard, Morrigan, the guy on a rug, etc.  Psikyo almost always plays the same - boring for me, but to someone new they're awesome.
Capcom vs SNK - Awesome, better music and graphics than sequel but more "broken".  

JAP
Ikaruga - prime shooter for the system, only JAP, but available in US on Gamecube.
Border Down - weird, sorta like Gradius/R Type with Metal Black
What's that Psikyo helicopter game with the 360 turning radius?  Eh, this is shooter just like all over the other Psikyos with a turning function.  Interesting for a second, but lame music and stuff puts it down.

I would recommend most of those, but I won't sell shooters just for "completeness" sake.  Otherwise I would ditch anything partially made by Psikyo.  The fighters are basically all top-notch for one reason or another, and Bangai-O is nutsy fun.  

Hope that helps.  

[crashwg]

Sega Smash Pack Vol 1 - why isn't Golden Axe a two-player?

I could swear that it infact is two player...

BRB!

[edit]
Yup, it is indeed 2P
[/edit]

[eypyeash]

Wow.  Why can't I get mine to work?  I've tried smacking all the various buttons to "coin up" the second player but it doesn't work at all.  Hrmph.  Maybe there's something I'm missing, and haven't found it in the book.  Blah.

Hey, Sega Swirl is fun though.  

[RetroJames]

I am broke as a joke right now, but I will keep the list in my pocket for the day I see some $$ again....lordy I love newborns

[Dave_K.]

What's that Psikyo helicopter game with the 360 turning radius?  

Zero Gunner 2

[eypyeash]

Yeah, that's the one.  It's a fun game for a little while, and gets kinda crazy, but I hate the Psikyo way of having music stop suddenly when you beat a boss and just jumping to the next level.  I guess I would enjoy a fade-out to a fanfare or something like in Strikers 1945 series.  

Psikyo's been buddy-buddy with Capcom too long, though.  Their music is turning into the "Take you for a ride!" song style... blah.  

[RetroJames]

Most of the games that came with it are pretty goofy like Toy Story and Sonic Adventure.  I have been playing Space Race though, that is pretty fun.

[Sephroth57]

hey sonic adventure isnt goofy! =p  i thought SA 1 and 2 were awesome. i own and beat both of em

[SteveJ34]

Most of the games that came with it are pretty goofy like Toy Story and Sonic Adventure.  I have been playing Space Race though, that is pretty fun.

I love Space Race!

[crashwg]

Wow.  Why can't I get mine to work?  I've tried smacking all the various buttons to "coin up" the second player but it doesn't work at all.  Hrmph.  Maybe there's something I'm missing, and haven't found it in the book.  Blah.

Hey, Sega Swirl is fun though.  

Try player 2's start button.  

[Spaced Invader]

Gauntlet Legends...it sucked on every other console.

[Stingray]

Gauntlet Legends...it sucked on every other console.

On this topic, after I kill the dragon at the end of the first group of levels, the second group of levels doens't open. Is there something else I'm supposed to do at that point. I got stuck there and pretty much gave up on this game. It's a shame because  I really liked it.

Sorry to take this somewhat off topic.

-S

[markb]

I read an article in a magazine in the UK called "PC Extreme" that it is possible to get a Dreamcast running linux and hence use Mame games on it.
Does anyone know of this or have they tried it?

[Dave_K.]

I read an article in a magazine in the UK called "PC Extreme" that it is possible to get a Dreamcast running linux and hence use Mame games on it.
Does anyone know of this or have they tried it?

Yes its possible to get linux running on Dreamcast hardware, complete with graphical xwindow managers.  But there is almost no resources left over to run Mame (you can try but it would be like 1 frame a sec for pacman).  Instead, you could run MAMED which is a port to Dreamcast using homebrew libraries (Kalisto I believe).  There is limited support for certain boardsets (based off Mame 37b15 which is quite old now).  They have a compatibility list of games it can support.

http://digita.mame.net/download.htm