Snipped by 50p!

Hi folks! In a recent Saturn shocker, I've just found out that my recent bid for official Sega Saturn Magazine issue 26, with a free demo disc of Christmas Nights has been beaten by a measly 50p! I had made a top bid of £5.00, and then gone off for the weekend, full of hope!

However, on my return home I checked my eBay account, only to cry bitter tears as I discovered that some bastard had bid £5.50 and won!!! BAH!

Still, on a positive note, I did manage to secure issue 15 with free demo CD called 'Sega Flash' (Vol3) I think... For the princely sum of £2.39 no less! So all is not lost...

BTW, as there isn't much to this post,I thought I'd include a real picture of the Good Father, so you can finally put a human face to the patron of this particular blog... You've seen Caleb, NebachadnezzaR and now old FK... Here I am last Saturday in one of the arcades at my caravan site in Wales, posing ridiculously in the cab of my all time favourite driving game and Saturn stalwart, Sega Rally! If you're wondering about the gesture I'm rather rudely making, it's 'cos I'd just lost two games to my mate John, who is taking the picture... If you're wondering why I'm wearing shades inside, it's so I look like a bad ass! LOL!

I'll pictorially catalogue the wonderful selection of Sega arcade games on each successive visit I make. Oh well, I'll sign out and wish you a fond farewell! Oh, and in a bit of Wii news, I'm now online on my Wii and have just downloaded the Megadrive classic Comix Zone on the Virtual Console... But I'll need to chat about that over at 'the other place...' Good Night!

Sega Model 2 emulator

Like most gamers, until recently I thought the arcade games emulation scene was just about MAME and nothing more, since that is the one emulator everybody talks about. Well, now I've expanded my horizons, and so I want to expand yours too, by telling you about a great Model 2 emulator.


By now I can almost hear Gagaman(n) screaming "Why the hell are you posting this in The Saturn Junkyard? This place is for Saturn posts and nothing more! Go post this stuff in your own blog!". Well, the fact is, like always there is a link between this and the Saturn. See, the Model 2 is for the Saturn what the NAOMI board is for the Dreamcast. Can't see the picture yet? The M2 board is basically a Saturn with more power locked inside an arcade cabinet, which explains the many games they have in common.

Know Sega Rally? Daytona USA? Sega Touring Car? Dead or Alive? Virtual-On? The list could go on, and on, but I think you all get the idea by now. All this games and many more were originally released for the Model 2 and later ported to the Saturn, with some having better conversions than others.


So, if we already have most games on our beloved Saturn, why would we want such an emulator? Well, many games have been ported, but only half or so, so there's plenty more games exclusive to the system waiting for you to have a blast with them, like Desert Tank, Gunblade, Indy 500, Motor Raid, Over Rev or Zero Gunner, just to name a few.

On the other hand, since the Saturn is less powerful than the M2, no ports are "arcade perfect", with all sporting worse graphics and many having tweaked gameplay, removed features and such, so if you want to experience the real Daytona USA, for example, this is the way to go.


Unfortunately, all 3D emulators need a lot of work into them, and since this one is still in development, not everything runs perfectly yet. All the racing games I've tried so far have graphical and control issues (so no "arcade perfect" Daytona for you, yet...), and many games run somewhat slow. The latter issue is mostly due to my PC, since I've heard that people with recent machines run every game at full speed. My PC is not that bad, though, so if you want to have good speeds on most games make sure your PC is really good.

Anyway, despite this, I already had a blast playing Zero Gunner (full speed, graphically perfect) and Gunblade (half speed, graphical issues), a game that was a real blast from the past, since it was the last game I've played in a real arcade, 4 years ago on a trip to Lisbon. Many more games await me, so there's plenty more stuff to try the emulator with.

Huh? Want links? Well, of course! Here they are:

Emulator

Roms

As always, if you have any problems with the emulator, just tell me about it and I'll try to help.

And, as always, good bye and good (arcade) games ;)

Resident Evil: Gun Survivor 2 Code: Veronica (ufhh!) review

Behind this long title lies another game that I bought for my light-gun, one that I've actually been interested for some time. I know everyone, from fans to critics, says the Gun Survivor games are shit, but I always wanted to try them myself, since in theory they sound awesome. Imagine the trigger happy feeling of a light-gun shooter with the freedom to move everywhere of an FPS and the horror theme of Resident Evil games! Sounds good? Hell yes! So, what went wrong with this one? Well, let's find out...


Unlike the first game, originally made for the PlayStation, GS2 first debuted in the arcades. This explains alot, like the lack of a real story (forget about any new additions to the code Veronica narrative), the dated graphics and the game modes.

Talking about game modes, the first one I've tried is Arcade Mode, which I assume is a direct port of the original arcade game. Here you just have to go from point A to point B, where you always fight a boss, and usually you need to pick up one or two keys in order to open the point B door. In order to prevent gamers from being on the arcade machine for too long, Capcom introduced the "Nemesis timer", a timer that counts down and, when when it reaches zero, Nemesis is unleashed, which is stupid since Nemesis originally appeared on RE3 and has nothing to do with the Code Veronica storyline. Anyway, when this happens Nemesis will start pursuing you and one hit of this huge beast kills you instantly, so run like hell.


This is stupid, since this is a console game and you should be able to spend as much time as you want, exploring rooms and killing enemies, but hey, guess Capcom didn't realise this...

Now, before I continue with the game modes, maybe its time to talk about the gameplay. As I said before, you can use your light-gun to shoot the enemies (imagine you're playing House of the Dead), but there's no rails, so you have to move on your own. This is done with the d-pad on the back of the gun, but I soon realised that this sucks! The d-pad is slow, not responsive and a huge pain in the ass!


So, despite buying the game with the intent to play it using my beloved G-Con 2, I soon realised this game plays much better with the dualshock. The movement is so much better that you actually feel more powerful, being able to quickly turn around to shoot the zombie behind you in the face, unlike with the gun, where it takes ages to turn or even move, and even the shooting part is easier (!). There's autoaiming, so you just have to shoot; you can see the weapon you're carrying, unlike with the G-Con where you can't see your character's hands; and you can even tell if that zombie in the ground is really dead or just faking, by the way your character points automatically at him.

So, again about game modes, there's this Dungeon Mode which I think is the main mode for solo players. Here you have to complete missions in totally new areas created for this mode, with objectives like just reaching the end and fighting the boss or finding hidden objects throughout the level. This last one is really fucked up, since, unlike in Arcade mode, here you don't have a map. Well, how the fuck can you search for hidden shit in maze-like levels with multiple floors and rooms, then?


There's also a Ranking Mode, but this is just where you can see the highscores of the levels you completed and not really a playing mode per se.

And finally, the most...original...mode, VS. Roach mode. Unlocked when you complete your first Dungeon mode mission, I first thought this was either some kind of boss mode or a competition against some guy named Roach. How wrong I was...

The thing is, "Roach" is supposed to be taken literally. Yes, you're locked inside a room filled with cock-a-roaches and you have to take em all out within the given time limit. This is not only hard, due to the small amount of time and the hard to hit cockroaches, but also boring. Fuck, I want to shoot zombies in the face with a shotgun, not smash bugs! That I can do in the real life and it can be even more entertaining than in the game.


Now, about the graphics, the game was heavily criticised about it's aspect, but to be honest this really didn't bother me. The whole game has an undeniable arcade feel to it, with empty environments, without to many stuff to distract us, and huge items you can pick up. All the character and enemy models seem to be taken directly from RE: CV, which is not that bad and, and overall, I think anyone who misses the many arcade ports that came out for the dreamcast a long time ago will like the style of the graphics in this one. Oh, and by the way, the "door interludes" whenever you move from one room to the other are still present...


As far as the sound goes, both the sound effects and the soundtrack are the same present in many other RE games, so this should please every fan of the series.

So, overall, is this a game worth buying?Hmm...if you're a die-hard fan of Resident Evil, particularly Code: Veronica, you may find this game somewhat entertaining, but if you're just looking for a decent light-gun game or a good game overall, despite its genre, this game is not for you.

NebachadnezzaR gives Resident Evil: Gun Survivor 2 Code: Veronica 2 stars out of 5, which means "buy it if you have lots of money to spend".

Good bye and good games ;) [not this one, it seems...]

Virtua Cop: Elite Edition review

First of all, sorry for not posting much in the last weeks, but I've been really busy and it's all going to get worse from now on, so don't expect much from me.

Anyway, let's get to the point! I have a question for you all. What happens when you put this:

and this:

together?

Lots of fun, that's what!

After many year's playing light-gun shooters with a regular controller, which sucks hard, I've finally acquired this beauty called G-Con 2, and to make up for the fact that my first light-gun ever wasn't for a SEGA console, the first game I played with it was Virtua Cop: Elite Edition!

Unfortunately I can't really make a comparative between this and the original Saturn games, like Father K wanted to do, for I've never played them before. Ok, I played the VC2 port that came on Sega Smash Pack for the Dreamcast, but that wasn't the Saturn version, so...

Anyway, for all of you that don't know exactly what is this VC:EE, this is basically just a compilation of both Virtua Cop 1 and 2, with a couple of extras.


Wait, what's that, you don't know what Virtua Cop is? Fear not, for NebachadnezzaR is here! Journey with me through the annals of history (what? ANALS?) to the distant year of 1994, when a game called Virtua Cop took light-gun shooters to the next level!

Like Virtua Fighter or Virtua Racing, VC was the first of it's genre to feature fully 3D graphics, and with that came a lot of other features, like the localized shots or the improved interaction with the environments.


So, what can we expect from the PS2 versions of both this great game and it's even greater sequel? Well, the graphics for instance are obviously better. The resolution is way higher, the textures are more detailed and overall both games just look better (I suppose, since, as I said earlier, I never played the Saturn versions). VC2 looks even better than the DC version, especially when the cars explode (the fire and smoke just looks awesome).

But never forget that in their core, they're still Saturn games, so don't expect anything near as good as other PS2 shooters.


Moving on to the extras, there's not much here. There's the training mode, where you can train your skills by shooting at cardboard targets alone or against the console, and there's the gallery, where you can gaze at various artwork that you have to unlock first, by shooting those coward bastards that runaway instead of facing you like a man or the various objects in the scenery.

When I beat VC1 I also unlocked a "random mode", which I can activate in the options menu, but I have absolutely no idea what that is, since my game came with no manual. Do you anything about this, Father?


By the way, since I already talked about the options menu, there's something here for everyone. If you plain suck at this kind of games you can select infinite continues, and if you're a gun maniac like me you can activate the "select weapon" option. Now you just have to pause the game and shoot off-screen to select your weapon from a wide variety of fine armament!

So, overall, is this a good purchase? Well, yes and no. If you've never played any of these games before and prefer to have just one disc with nicer versions of both games, instead of having to track down the 2 Saturn versions, this is indeed a pretty cool compilation. On the other hand, if you already have this games for the Saturn, there's really not much of a point in having this game, since there's almost nothing new here.


Anyway, this is a good way to pass time while we wait for the Wii version of Ghost Squad, a shooter very similar to VC judging from what I've heard about it. And if that game turns out to be a success, who knows, maybe SEGA will convert Virtua Cop 3 too. It should be an easy task, since both games run in the same arcade hardware.


Now, in an unrelated matter, I'm trying to build a decent light-gun collection for my PS2 and right now I'm after Vampire Night, among others. Since that game was produced by SEGA maybe I'll post something about it in the near future.


And in an even more unrelated matter, I can't finish this post without telling you about my latest PS2 acquisition: Gungrave! It's a fucking awesome action game, the brainless kind of action games, and it's really short, which is great! So, here's my advice: if you're like me and you're looking for short, brainless, immediate fun for the PS2, this is the game to get. NOW!


As always, good bye and good games ;)

Panzer Dragoon meets Virtua Fighter

So, what's up guys (and girl, hi Hex)? Been playing a lot? Hope so. Well, for me, I haven't played as I much as I'd like lately, and in the near future that probably won't change. Between studying for my driving licence and working for PTGamers, now more than ever (trying to convince those guys to give me a job there someday), my Saturn has been quite quiet (<-nice succession of words, isn't it?). Despite this I had the time to play a unique fighting game lately that I'm pretty sure most of you won't recognize.
It's name is Elan Doree, a Japan-exclusive arcade port of a fighting game different from everything you've seen before (and after, I don't recall seeing any game even remotely similar to this). Anyway, in most fighting games you control petty humans (now I sound like that alien from Futurama...), and there are even some where you control robots, animals, cars, palm trees, etc... Well, in Elan Doree you do control humans, or something like it, but they're mounted on top of dragons! Now, how cool is that? Really cool? Or Fonzie cool? "Aaay!"

Anyway, now that I've explained the title, let's talk about gameplay! I have unfortunate news, though, for the controls are too simplistic for they're own good. You just have 3 main buttons: attack 1 (quick but weak), attack 2 (slow but powerful) and jump, which you can combine with the attack buttons to make a jump attack. Also, if you press the 2 attack buttons at once you do a special attack that, if done well, can take up to half of your opponent's energy bar. Now, that's a lot!



You need to be careful, though, because this special attack takes time, and if you're interrupted you'll loose your chance (you can't do it everytime you want).

And that's it, those are the actions you can do. Of course there are other things you have to take in consideration, like the fact that you can move in every direction (you are, after all, flying) and that you can get knocked off your dragon (specially when jumping, and until your back on top of your beast you'll be more vulnerable), but overall this game is really too simplistic, and if you have a good timing you can win almost any matches by just using 2 special attacks and 1 or 2 normal attacks in between.



This makes for a very short game, because once you've completed the arcade mode with one character you'll feel like you've already seen it all. There's 2 hidden characters you can unlock, but it's like the palm tree in Fighters Megamix, not worth it unless you're a real fan of the game.



At least the graphics will appeal to everyone, and even shut a few mouths that said the Saturn couldn't handle effects like transparencies. All the fighters, along with their dragons, were modelled with great detail and all are well animated. Even the backgrounds deserve a mention for their quality.


So, is this game worth it or not? Well, if you're a dragon lover like me you should try this game, but if you're just looking for a quality beat'em up there's plenty other titles better than this one.