40 replies to this topic

[King Atari]

Okay, local shop has Tomb Raider (forget which one, The Last Revelation, maybe?) for $5. The only other games they had were cheap $1 titles that really didn't interest me (the rest were too overpriced). So, how's Tomb Raider?

[King Atari]

BTW, do you need to have the light gun to play House of the Dead 2, or can you use the controller?

[Lost Monkey]

You can use the controller. There is no US Sega-made light gun, you'll have to go third party if you want one.

I'm honestly not even sure if the US version of HOD2 supports a light gun... I bought the Japanese release with the gun and game together.

[King Atari]

Excellent, that will be my first game. If a trip around town doesn't work, I'll head to ebay.

BTW, I know the system works, I turned it on and set up the clock .

Now I need to find a place for it, perhaps in the same box as my PS1 (not because they go great together, but because I'm running out of room and there's enough space in there).

[Brian R.]

Don't block the vents, you don't want your DC to overheat.

[King Atari]

I'm guessing that's the reason I hear so many have died? I'll probably get relatively few games for the system (I have to space my money to as many platforms as possible), so overplaying shouldn't be a big problem, though I'm looking forward to HOTD2.

[Brian R.]

I don't think it's the only issue, maybe not even the main issue, but it is one of them. The DC definitely needs its proper ventilation. I remember reading some of the early DCs used a liquid cooling system.

Oh, and the DC has to be on for a while for the batteries to fully charge. Otherwise you'll have to keep setting the clock. This will also happen if you don't play it for a while.

One thing you may want to do is head out and find some VMUs so you can save your games. You can get 'em new pretty cheap - $9 or so. Many stores that no longer have DC software still have some leftover VMUs and jump packs. You might also find new controllers.

[King Atari]

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Oh, and the DC has to be on for a while for the batteries to fully charge. Otherwise you'll have to keep setting the clock. This will also happen if you don't play it for a while.  

I more or less did that just to check the system. I didn't know it even had that feature. I was just looking for the light to come on to make sure it worked.

Any skipping problems associated with the DC like there is with the PSX? I haven't heard of any, and it certainly doesn't look like it was built shoddy (Sega knew what they were doing), but you can't really tell from outside appearances.

[Hydian]

House of the Dead 2 does use the lightgun. I like the Madcatz gun myself (I forget what brand the other one I have is.)

Definately buy your VMU's new if you can. Anything used is about guaranteed to need batteries and the new ones are under $10 anyway. Media Play around here was clearancing them, but have been out for a while now.

No skipping issues that I'm aware of (I've had 3 machines...recently sold one...other two are still running fine though the one comes up in japanese.)

I also noticed that the local EB dropped their Dreamcast game prices recently, some as low as $2 (tho you tend to get what you pay for.)

[King Atari]

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House of the Dead 2 does use the lightgun. I like the Madcatz gun myself (I forget what brand the other one I have is.)  

I've been talking to friends about this. Apparently the gun is an option, but not required. Correct?

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I also noticed that the local EB dropped their Dreamcast game prices recently, some as low as $2 (tho you tend to get what you pay for.)

Yeah, those are the games I've found. Sure they're cheap, but I want my first game to be something really good. Besides, I can use the few bucks on 2600 games.

[Hydian]

No, the lightgun isn't required. Dunno how it would play with a controller though.

[Ze_ro]

King Atari said:

BTW, I know the system works, I turned it on and set up the clock

I should point out that that's not a fool-proof way of testing the system... even if the laser is buggered, you can still do all the bios stuff without any problem. A better test would be to stick in an audio CD.

A friend of mine bought an "as-is" DC off of a pawn shop for $40 with two controllers quite some time ago (Not long after I bought mine new for $100)... the pawn shop woman told us it didn't work, but we had a feeling she just didn't know how to use it. Sure enough, the system didn't work... it did all the bios stuff fine, but would never recognize disks at all. However, $40 for two controllers was a good price at the time.

--Zero

[King Atari]

Yeah, I've been thinking about that. I might pass on HOTD2 on ebay and just buy a cheap game to make sure it works.

[Brian R.]

I've always played HOTD2 on my DC using the controller. I think it works fine enough. Ideally you would play it just like in the arcade, but you can't, so you make do. And as I recall, while there are third party light guns, they have their own issues.

I've never had a skipping problem. Usually if a disc is bad - most often when it's used and abused - it just won't play at all. And then there are issues like Ready 2 Rumble - which I found out about after buying R2R 2 - you'll be in the middle of a match, the background sounds will quit, and then it'll lockup at the end of the match. At first I thought it meant my DC was dying, but I found out later it was the game, thank heavens.

Although the VMUs have batteries, they don't need them simply to store game data, which is all I use mine for. So once the included batteries die, I tossed 'em and didn't bother replacing them.

[King Atari]

Didn't feel like waiting for shipping, so I went and bought Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation for $5 today. The system works great, and it's not a bad game either (though it's hardly as much fun as the first one for PS1, in my opinion).

[King Atari]

My friend just gave me a CD with an NES emulator and a load of ROMS. I didn't know a DC could be this fun. Double Dragon, Contra, Ninja Turtles, and Mario all on one disc? H*ll yeah! Seriously, this CD has just about everything you could want on it.