Post a Comment On: The Dreamcast Junkyard

An update now on the maraca compatibility with World Series Baseball 2K1 that's going to make me look rather stupid.

I noticed yesterday that even though with the Maracas I end up playing both teams, it boos at me if I let one of the teams win and cheers if I let the other team win. With this in mind I decided to try and make sure the team it cheers for me on wins, by deliberately playing crap with the other team. When it came to the 'Boo' team, I just shook the maraca lightly, hoping to just tap the ball. For some reason doing this made me get a homerun. What the hell?

Next time the team was on, I just sat the maraca on the floor, to see the character totally miss the ball. But he hits it. I leave it again, he hits it a different way. It was then it started to haunt me: was I even playing this game in the first place? I exit the game and go back into quick start mode and look at the options. Both players were CPU. I wasn't even playing this game the whole time, it was just making me think I was playing it. Shit.

Ok then, I thought, I've been playing a game that's just been doing what it likes and fooling me into thinking I'm actually swinging the maraca about to hit the ball, fine. So I made sure 1 Player was picked this time, to see how it really plays. Sure enough, the proper in-game layout is now in place, with the little square on the screen and the target. Moving the maraca about does indeed move the target about pretty well, if a little slow (but not as slow as in Rez) but here's the rich part: you can't hit the ball. Shake the maraca, anything, it just didn't let me hit it. What's more, you have to control the other players on the pitch, which is impossible with the maracas. Shit shit shit.

[Image]So in other words, the maracas are not compatible with the game. All that stuff I said about it being just like Wii's baseball game is tripe now, but it really did have me thinking I was playing it, the bastard. But hey, maybe I can fool people who come around into thinking the same and play 2 player anyway. hell, it's still hella fun if you ignore the fact that you're not really making any difference to how they hit it. It would explain the delays when you hit it sometimes though. I least I discovered this before someone else tried it and pointed it out to me, that would of been even more embarrassing.

[Image]Ignoring this, I've been playing Samba De Amigo ver.2000 (haven't found an English back up of the version I own, so this will do for now even though it‘s in Japanese. Besides, it's even better than the original version with the hustle mode) religiously recently, mainly trying to beat this one level in Challenge mode of this odd song called S.O.S that I just can't beat, mainly because you have to get a 98 or above percent ranking on it, and the highest I got so far is 97%. I still say this is one of the greatest games on the Dreamcast, though.

[Image]I'm also still playing Sega Marine Fishing to death, trying to earn all the items for the Aquarium. Unlike the dire Sega Bass Fishing (and it's even more dire sequel, in which you simply can't catch anything), Marine has turned out to be one of the most additive games I've played on the Dreamcast, as sad as it may sound to admit. If only real fishing was this fun, everyone would do it. Mind you, you don't get Great Barracudas and Mako Sharks in your local little ponds, in which your most likely to catch a boot or a shopping trolley.

I also got some more cheap games from a boot sale last week. Both MSR and Quake III were games that I owned a while ago, but sold due to lack of interest, although I've been playing MSR a lot since I got it. The music ranges from the average to the downright ear-bleeding (Those rock songs are so cheesy and cliqued they make me want to vomit) and the game has it's frustrating moments but this time I'm going to play it properly rather than giving up a few levels in and just nabbing a complete save file like last time, which sucked all the game play out of it. Quake III is enjoyable with a mate over, but is annoying on your own as the first difficulty setting is too easy (because the enemies don't even shoot at you) and the one just after that is close to impossible. Maybe I just suck at it, although I didn't seem to when I used to own it and completed it. Eh, at least it's a bit better than Unreal Tournament. man that game is dull.

One last thing: I have something big planned for the Dreamcast Junkyard, which I’ve just started developing a couple days ago. Tom knows what I’m talking about, but it’s top secret for now, and probably won’t be ready for some time yet. Still, it’s big, I tells ya.

MSR: "It's not about how fast you drive, it's about DON'T TAP THAT WALL YOU ARSE MONKEY."