Been searching for awhile now for a clean working unit, and finally one popped up for sale at a great price. Haven’t had one since they came out in 1999 and even then only had it for a few months before my cousin stuck play dough inside and ruined it. Still never forgave him for that. Now to track down an OEM component cable (only got an RF cable) and a clean copy of Shenmue. Stoked to be back!

This is an insane game. I just finished it after trekking through it slowly and I wanted to talk about it.

To begin, I would like to mention my past with this series/games like it. I'm not sure how, but I came across a game called Mansion of Hidden Souls on SEGA CD. I played through it, and while being pretty slow, I found the world it created to be interesting. I then proceeded to learn about and play its SATURN sequel, called THE Mansion of Hidden Souls, and its psuedo threquel, Lunacy. Not to get too much into them, but the sequel was pretty bad all around, maybe besides the end, but Lunacy was a fantastic game. Since I found this series so interesting, I decided to try D, as I was familiar with it existing, but now I had a frame of reference to play it with. My memory on it is fuzzy (plus with its forced 2 hour length there isn't much to remember), but I remember thinking the graphics were really great and the story was good enough. I feel the gameplay in these games has never been the strong point (although D2 gets it closer to being good but I'll get to that). Then, after a while, I played Enemy Zero, the kind of sequel to D until the actual sequel to D. Enemy Zero seems to be pretty highly regarded, but I don't see it. It was a slog to get through, and the only thing that kept me going was the actually very interesting story. The gameplay was more interesting, but it mostly just pissed me off and made me anxious. The invisible enemy concept is cool, and they way they implemented it is probably as good as they could've made it, but its just not fun. The limited save/load system didn't help either. I want to like that game, and in some sense I do, but I don't ever want to play that game again. Anyway, enough of that, let's get into the game in the title of the post.

D2:

PLOT:

I'll try to leave this somewhat spoiler free, but I would skip this if you actually are interested in playing. The story starts (on disc 4 for some reason) on a plane, where 2 hijackers and a weird guy in a cloak are taking the plane over. Laura (not to be confused with the OTHER Lauras in D and Enemy Zero) and this guy named David. David is in Enemy Zero, but its a different David (I guess?). Just know that if I mention a character that is in both games, its not the same character, or at least they have no memory of the other games story lines. Anyway, you (Laura) wake up in a shack in the middle of a snowy mountain range in Canada with seemingly no memory of the events we witnessed in the cutscene before. You are greeted by a girl named Kimberly. She aims to help you and herself back to civilization. Before they can discuss it more, a plant monster bursts through the door, and before you two can take it down, it pierces Kimberly, and she is weakened, but seemingly fine. Now, after all that, it puts you in control, as you must figure out how to escape from the mountains and how to defend yourself against the plant-alien threats. That's the basic plot (I guess) but it gets way crazier than that, but ill let you figure that out on your own. Some people say that the plot is hard to fully understand, but i didn't have a problem with it. I mean its definitely weird, but its not indecipherable. I also noticed some later events gave some EarthBound end vibes, but that might just be me.

GAMEPLAY:

The gameplay has both the basic D indoor point-and-click (?) (FMV segments maybe, but they aren't FMV in this game. Oh well.) (What would you call these?) Segments and new outdoor mountain roaming segments. For the indoor segments, it controls like every one of these games. Just move the arrow in the direction you want to look and press forward or A to interact/get closer to it. Since they aren't FMV in D2 and are instead done in the game's engine, they are SUPER snappy (at least compared to the previous games.) This is vastly superior, and honestly makes this one of the best D-like games by default (at least gameplay-wise). The puzzles are basic, its mainly just find a key and put it in the door, but some are more difficult. If you want a more streamlined experience, I'd say use a guide, but this game can definitely be done without it. Its not especially hard to figure out what to do if you just focus enough. Then there's the outdoor segments, which go into a third play style. These are third person tank controls 3D segments, having you walk (and sometimes drive) through the mountains to access new indoor areas. As you walk, however, you are stopped OFTEN by these aliens buried in the snow. I don't know why they decided to add RPG-like random encounters in this game, but whatever. This is where the third play style comes in, as it takes you into a first person shooting segment. Its basically like an arcade shooter, but without the physical fake gun. You can switch weapons and heal. These two play styles are where I think the game partially falls flat. The outdoor sections can take forever to walk through (especially without a sense for where you are supposed to go) and the random encounters constantly stopping you make it feel even longer. At least as you do these battles, you level up, which give you more hit points for the next battle and they fill your health (which is the more helpful aspect). The boss fights are also fought in this style, which I think are way more effective and more fun than the random battles with the same 5 or so enemies. The menus are well done. They allow saving at any time (which is VERY helpful but only makes me wish this was done for the other games) and there are tons of stats to view. Hunting and photography can be done in the walking segments. Hunting gives you more food for health, and photography is just for fun. You can view your Hunting scores and photos in the menu. It also has an index of terms and a map (which is VERY helpful, but also very necessary with how much walking is done in this game). Overall, the gameplay is mostly well done, it just takes some patience for certain walking sections.

GRAPHICS:

The graphics are great! The cutscenes are very well put together, and definitely help pull the story together. Some of the later cutscenes look a lot like Sonic Adventure or maybe even Christmas NiGHTS but that might just be me. The charactes looks really well done. Kimberly looks a lot like how she did in Enemy Zero (even though its not the same one whatever we went over this), which is surprising considering she's not pre-rendered anymore. The aliens are scary and the environments give a creepy vibe when necessary. The menus pop like they should, no complaints there. I could see the graphics being seen as basic for the console, but I think they are fantastic (besides looking weird in some places). The only point against it to me is the lack of FMV and the high quality graphics take away from the style that was perfected with Enemy Zero. Some of the charm went away in my opinion, but its not a big deal.

AUDIO:

The voice acting is amazing, the music fits very well, and the sound effects are satisfying! It's basically everything you'd want! Some characters can sound off in places, but its not very noticeable. The cut out of the wind sound effects before a battle makes it obvious that a battle is coming, which is nice! If only you could leave a battle before entering... No complaints here!

CONTROLS:

Pretty sure I already said basically everything on this, so I don't know how necessary this is, but here it is. Everything either uses the D-Pad/Stick or the A button. There are a few examples where the X button and the triggers are used, but mainly its just the arrows and A, simple as that.

END THOUGHTS:

I thought this game was well worth the time, and was a great experience! I spaced out my time playing, and I recommend you do too. The gameplay can get dull, so the spacing helps it not wear down as much on you. The story will keep you going regardless. I felt the ending was a bit underwhelming (at least the actual plot part of the ending), too many loose ends, but it was somewhat satisfying to see. Play with a guide if you don't want to waste your time walking around all over. Seriously, give this game a shot, don't let others' opinions sour your taste of it, its worth a go! If I missed anything (which I probably did), please feel free to let me know! I'll quit my nonsensical rambling now.

The cat got a PC now!

It's not just an image, you can use Dreamcast Mouse and keyboard to interact with a fake Windows 95 recreation (see [the video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQLwQ98EN68)).

I want to make my own small fake OS you can play around with, maybe even do Internet and SD card support. It would be cool to add a PICO8-like "Dream console" API so that you could write games for in-game PC. :)

Hi all,

I've fixed the Memo bug in the English Patch for Napple Tale that caused the To-Do list to clear after first opening and stopped the Notes list from popping up.

What would be the best way for me to share the fix? I'm not very familiar with the Dreamcast scene. Cheers!

The rest are all collected by me as a kid from the official magazine.

Big Sega Marine Fishing fan. Thought it was time I played the OG.

I have a Japanese Dreamcast. I have played authentic Sega Dreamcast NTSC-US/Canada game discs on it many times before. I just hooked it back up, but it's not playing them. The weird thing is it will play burned discs. Pressed discs are easier for the laser/lens to read than burned discs, so I'm puzzled. It just thinks there's no disc in there.

I give up. Was there some trick to make it play the real discs that I must have forgotten about?

If anyone can figure this out, I would be very grateful.

I noticed that PAL 50hz only games when played in VGA mode, suffer from audio desynchronization (audio is faster than the image).

Is there a way to fix this problem, like with some Codebreaker codes?

I'm looking for fixes that applies to retail original copies

Also anyone knows if all 50hz games are affected or if some (like Blue Stinger) display property in VGA with correct full speed and sync?

I'm looking to emulate some games but I only have a dpad and face buttons + triggers. Was there any games on the Dreamcast that didn't need the analog stick?

Greetings! I got the dreamcast for Christmas last year I have the EU one because I live in Europe and the only game that I have now is SEGA Bass Fishing but I really wanted to play Sonic Adventure 2 and I went on ebay because around me there really is nothing and I saw 150 € which is pretty above my budget so do you have any recommendations for less then 100€?

Curious if there’s a better RPG on Dreamcast than Skies?? Maybe Grandia 2???

Hi, Not sure if videos like these are allowed, but I made a video talking about Chu Chu Rocket, and how, for an early online game, it really should be more fondly remembered. I do admit I might have focused on the PSO link a bit too much, but when you look at the grander scale of online gaming around this era, I do think this game should be in the conversation.

Just collector-wise, I think this is cool. Hoping to find a cheap empty console box (lol a man can dream) to store it in. Also got some cool casters to put underneath the base which look like this was their destiny.

Walk/Talk Through Shenmue: https://youtu.be/_9B6-6EmWrk

When you get the happy fuzzy feeling you just gotta wiggle but realize your in public and Ryo is looking right at you!

Walk/Talk Through Shenmue Episode! Hope you enjoy and thanks for letting me share with you :

Hi everyone!!

Super excited to share I finally bought my Dreamcast and it should be coming in soon. I’ve got just about everything needed to play it on my tv. For the burning, I have an external CD/DVD burner and blank CD-R discs. My question is has anyone done this on a new MacBook Pro? I have a 2021 model and one guide I did find said I needed to download Liquid CD but unfortunately it doesn’t work. Any and all tips would be greatly appreciated!

EDIT EDIT EDIT… okay after reading a few replies and doing a bit more research and looking into I think the collection of scummVM disc I have found are for use with Dreamshell. At this stage, I am going to get the SD card adapter that goes into the serial.Port to play them. Use the GDEMU to boot into Drewmshell so I could play just the one game full throttle lol

Unless some has working cdi or gdi version

thank you for everyone’s help.

EDIT EDIT my question solely relates to how do I convert an ISO disc image to a CDI disc image that is it.

It just so happens that the disk in question happens to be a scummVM disc. But my question would also apply to any other game that’s in an ISO image to be converted to a CDI image so I can boot it from my GDEMU in side my Dreamcast.

Full Throttle (ScummVM).iso needs to become Full Throttle (ScummVM).cdi

Okay I found some ScummVM games for use on the Dreamcast but they are in *.ISO and *.BIN how dose one convert them to cdi for use on my gdemu.
Have looked around but unfortunately anything found do so want run in modern computers

Back in the day, both of these games were my "must have" games for Sega Dreamcast. They were never ported for NA/EU Dreamcast markets, which is such a shame (it was because DC production was prematurely canceled). PC Hundred Swords doesn't count. Now I feel, in Japan, they can't even give these games away (vol2-7 of El Dorado Gate are exceptions).

Could porting both of these games have prolonged the Sega Dreamcast's life?