__________________________________________________ / \ / ___> > > DREAMCAST WEEKLY MAGAZINE < < <____ \ / / \ \ / / ~Issue #23 - www.DreamcastWeekly.com~ \ \ \ \ / / \ \ Sega 2000 - http://www.sega2000.com / / \ \ Sega X - http://www.segadreamcast.net / / \ \________________________________________/ / \________________________________________________/ * Website made possible by Total Video Games * ======| EDITORS COMMENTS |================================ Happy New Year! So what was your new years resolutions eh? My first one would be never to let my studying get in the way of my gaming again (hehe), oh and... hmmm... ok so that's the only one so far. Anyway... With the new year, we've improved just about every part of Dreamcast Weekly. There's new sections, interviews, features and plenty more! (I won't list them all since the contents page is just below this). I was going to have a review of Sonic Adventure here, but unfortunately because of holidays, UPS can't deliver it until the start of next week (doh!). So next issue we'll have our official review of Sonic Adventure. Now it's 1999, and with Sega back in the running the burning question is, what will this year hold in store? In this issue we focus a lot on the future of Sega, and what Sony might do to fight back. Until next issue, Happy Gaming everyone! ~ Elijah (Editor) ---~> Page 1 - Cover Story <~--- ---~> Page 2 - The News <~--- ---~> Page 3 - Review <~--- ---~> Page 4 - Stuck??? <~--- ---~> Page 5 - Editorial <~--- ---~> Page 6 - Interview <~--- ---~> Page 7 - Best Of The Web <~--- ---~> Page 8 - On Your Mind <~--- ---~> Page 9 - Credits & More <~--- ======| COVER STORY |===================================== ---~> PREDICTIONS FOR 1999 Looking into my good old crystal ball again I see... everyone trading in their Playstations for Dreamcast's!! ... Ok ok, so there's a difference between predictions and wishful thinking. However, even though I have a top quality crystal ball, these are still just predictions and aren't fact. But having said that, I'm first going to print some laughable (and annoying) predictions from MSNBC... "Though Sega officials insist that there will be 10 to 12 games available at launch, I am expecting only about five — “Sonic Adventure,” “Virtua Fighter 3tb,” “Sega Rally 2,” “Incoming” (ported from the PC) and “Blue Stinger.” None will present a compelling argument for consumers to abandon their current systems and spend $200 for something new." Talking about a new programming technique that will be discovered that... "will probably be something that sharpens the look of games on the Nintendo 64 and makes them competitive with the best art on the Dreamcast." LOL! Yeah Right!! Anyway, onto some more realistic predictions... EARLY 99: Over in Japan, the Dreamcast gets over it's shortage of consoles, and with no sign of a Playstation 2000 on the horizon sales get better and better every day. Sega has the whole of Japan playing Sega Rally 2 over the modem, and with other ace games such as Blue Stinger, House Of The Dead 2 and of course, Shen Mue, Sega shoots past Sony and Nintendo leaving them puffing to keep up. All seems a little quiet on the Sony front though... rumours start to form... TGS: As the Playstation 2000 rumours grow, everyone is expecting an announcement at the first Tokyo Game Show. Not wanting to totally disappoint, Sony release the name and a few details like 128-bits, but keep almost everything else under wraps. There's more revealed behind closed doors of course though, and yes, of course it's the start of a whole new batch of rumours. So Sega take the show again, and with gamers loving modem play, along comes Virtual On 2! The little information Sony gave out didn't have the impact they hoped, and with a pile of Dreamcast games, the future has never looked brighter for Sega. MID 99: As Sega start to settle into their leading position over in Japan, Sony take a step back, preparing for a world announcement... DREAMCAST LAUNCH: Bernie Stolar will keep the release date a little loose at "September 1999" for awhile, hoping to avoid any delays being made public (like SOJ's 1 week delay). However they'll definately let the public know what's coming... the $100 million advertising will be put to good use starting just after the E3 show. Adverts will probably show small clips of Sonic Adventure and other big games (If Namco do indeed come up with Time Crisis 2 or Tekken 4 on Dreamcast, you can be sure Sega will shout about this!). As the launch comes closer Sega will have advertising floods similar to Sony. Except that familiar orange swirl to pop up all over the place, and some adverts will focus or more technical things like the Modem, and of course, the VMS (VMU in America). But unfortunately, despite heavy advertising and an amazing machine, sales won't be as huge as Sega had hoped for. While everyone is impressed, they'll wait until other people start buying them before they invest their $200 on Sega. SONY'S NEXT STEP: This is where Sony will step in. While people are on the verge of diving into the Dreamcast games, Sony will reveal the Playstation 2000 with an early 2000 release. Stealing the excitement from Sega, and giving gamers a reason to hold onto their cash, Sega steps up advertising for 3rd party games, showing other companies are going with Sega, so you should too. CHRISTMAS: For the first time in 4 years, Sony is worried about a "Sega Christmas". But revealing another set of PSX2000 games, they try to get the publics attention back. Happily though, Santa has a high order for Dreamcasts on your wish lists. Thanks to the second bunch of games as well, and the advertising of games to come such as "Shen Mue", the holiday season goes to Sega. :) After a slow start, many people unsure of weather or not to trust Sega, they're back in the running. OUR SPIKY BLUE FRIEND IS COOL AGAIN! NINTENDO: So, was there something missing in there? Yes, Nintendo... facing more and more problems as they go along, all add-ons to the N64 are canceled (people won't want to buy the N64 and an add-on, it just costs too much and is too messy). So the "Big N" slumps into where Sega was with the 32X, only with no clear light in the future like the Saturn was. Using the Game Boy Color to scrape by, they put there brains to work on the next step. ======| NEWS |============================================ ---~> ROLE PLAYING GAME OF THE YEAR... At Videogamespot's recent "Games Of The Year" awards I was really pleased to see Panzer Dragoon Saga won RPG of the year and Saturn game of the year! Also Import Of The Year, Radiant Silvergun (only includes games not coming to the US) was released on Saturn by Treasure. While I won't mention the other categories (there are plenty of them) Zelda: Ocarina of Time took Overall Game Of The Year, with Panzer Dragoon Saga being in the "Honorable Mentions" for it. ---~> PREPARE TO DREAM... AGAIN! Now Sonic Team has completed Sonic Adventure, what's next? Well according to Game Weekly, one of China's hottest and more reliable game magazines, it's Nights 2. Imagine what it will look like in hi-res, with the power of the Dreamcast! At the moment we can only dream, but except more details later this month. Dreamcast Weekly will keep you up to date. ---~> SEGA 2000 UPDATE: As you know Sega 2000 is on holiday till Jan 4th, and because of changing servers this week might bit a little messy. Very sorry about all this, but while some other sections might not get updated because of problems, we'll be sure to keep you up to date with the latest news every day. ---~> GET ON-LINE WITH YOUR IMPORT DREAMCAST! Yes it's true, the guys at Console Domain have cracked the problem every importer is asking about... how to get on-line. Ken Comeforo has been experimenting with his newly imported Dreamcast modem. Until now, nobody had figured out how to get the 'Passport' software to work from outside of Japan. However, Ken can now reveal exactly how to get your Dreamcast's on-line capabilities up and running… 'I used a phone line that has two jacks in my house. One jack hooked to my Dreamcast while the other went to a regular phone. After telling the Dreamcast to attempt to connect to the server in Japan, I immediately picked up my other phone. When the Dreamcast stopped dialing, I pulled the phone line out of the back of it. Surprisingly, it does not detect this has happened and sits there waiting! Then I simply dialed the number with the correct country codes, etc., for the US to Tokyo: 011-81-3-5953-3012 and plugged back in the Dreamcast. Then I hung up the regular phone. Voila, the Dreamcast negotiates and connects!' 'There are a bunch of Japanese menus at this point. I didn't take the time to write everything down, because I wasn't sure if I was still connected to Japan or not, and I didn't want to rack up a big phone bill.' 'Basically, I just kept hitting A. If you start seeing some of the same screens over again, look to see if there is another option to select and then hit A on that. Eventually you get to some big English words that say "Dricas" or "User ISP". Choose "User ISP" and you'll enter the following three configuration screens:' 1st screen: Phone number 1 Phone number 2 2nd screen: Logon ID Logon Password Email address Email account ID Email account password 3rd screen: DNS 1 DNS 2 SMTP email server POP3 email server Proxy server (may be left blank) 'When you're done with entering those three screens worth of data, there are three choices at the bottom of the screen. I chose the leftmost one, but I don't really know what any of them stand for. I was able to get on-line, so I guess it was an OK choice!' There you have it! Follow the above instructions and you can register your Dreamcast's on-line capabilities with a local ISP. Some other tips: There are 3 screens to go through before you even get to dial: 1) Dialing info: probably want to leave everything blank, but the fields are: Pulse/Tone # for outside line I think # for long distance Extra AT commands 2) Personal info. You must fill in all fields, but I put in a lot of garbage and had no problems. 3) Hmm, I am drawing a complete blank here. I'm pretty sure there were 3 screens, though.... Once you get into the web software itself, the icons are fairly obvious. From here, use the L and R buttons to get menus. The left menu contains options from the main menu, an option to hang up, and some other stuff. The right menu is: Back Forward Refresh Stop Zoom in SEGA 2000 NOTE: Currently people are working on translating the menus, when they're complete, we'll be sure to let you know. Thanks for your patience. ---~> HOUSE OF THE DEAD 2... IN MARCH!! Nights 2, now House Of The Dead 2, the line up of Sega games in '99 is looking better and better every day. The first Naomi port, House Of The Dead 2 is coming to Dreamcast on the 18th of March. This just goes to show how quick ports can be achieved. Like Virtua Cop, 2 different versions will go on sale. A "game & gun" pack, and just the stand alone game. ======| REVIEW |========================================== ---~> SONIC MUSIC CD ---~> Written By Mike Where would a big-budget game, like Sonic Adventure, be without it's own great soundtrack? Realizing the need to cash into the lucrative music business, Sega has present gamers with an album complimenting their newest installment in the popular series. From cover presentation to the powerful songs inside, "Sonic Adventure: Songs With Attitude" is a non-stop joyride. The compilation of selections in Sonic Team's special presentation shows the many types of music liked by the group. From the electrifying hard-rock verses of Sonic's theme, "It Doesn't Matter" to the smoother rap beat of Knuckles, "Unknown from M.E." everything is here and makes for good listening. Six songs are included in the album, ranging from four to five minutes and written and each character's own point of view. What makes this great title even better is that all the songs are performed in English. Not only does this bring some familiarity to the CD, but it also allows English-speaking gamers to understand what is going on with each song. Briefly, here is a small rating of each song and their music type: 1. "It Doesn't Matter," theme of Sonic: hard-rock, 5/5. 2. "My Sweet Passion," theme of Amy: pop, 5/5. 3. "Lazy Days Livin' in Paradise" theme of Big: rock (ska?), 4/5. 4. "Believe In Myself," theme of Tails: pop, 5/5. 5. "Unknown from M.E.," theme of Knuckles: rap, 5/5. 6. "Open Your Heart," theme of Sonic Adventure: hard-rock, 5/5. Presentation is also very important to a music album. It must showcase the featured music through cover images and the insert-booklet. How a publisher treats a jacket sends important signs to listeners, both good and bad. "Sonic Adventure: Songs With Attitude," does not disappoint in this aspect, either. The cover includes the updated looks of all the characters featured, along with a good booklet. Lyrics are written in Japanese for the sake of the Eastern listeners along with comments from the musicians. What is most surprising about the booklet, is that it includes an English-lyrics insert. One last comment about presentation? I need that Sonic doll ---and the guitar?--- yeah, that too!! There are few complaints with this awesome mini-album. It is a great way to experience apart of Sonic Adventure, for those who will not be buying a Dreamcast to the end of this year. Produced by Yuji Naka himself, it capture the soul of his masterpiece and deserves to be on the want-list of every gamer worth his salt. Rating: 5/5, definitely make this your next import item. ======| STUCK??? |======================================== ---~> NEED HELP WITH A GAME? If your stuck on a game or just want some tips / secrets, please e-mail our tipster... me, on madcow@ihug.co.nz and we'll print them in the very next issue. ======| INTERVIEW |======================================= Aaron, Sega X's top Asian correspondent tells us about gaming over in Hong Kong... Dreamcast Weekly: Tell us a little bit about yourself. How long you have lived in Hong Kong and what you do at SegaX? Aaron Lee: I'm born in Hong Kong and lived in here till I'm 5 years old. Then I followed my father to go to Singapore for his work. I lived there for 7 years(where I got my primarily education). By the time I was 12, I had to leave Singapore because if I stayed there longer, I will have to be in the Army. This doesn't make since I'm a Chinese and not a Singaporean. So I left Singapore and came back to Hong Kong, now I have stayed here for another 5 years....Basically, I am a News Editor in Sega X and my main job is to translate news from the magazines in Hong Kong(like translate interviews..etc.) and sometimes I have to scan pictures of up coming games. But once in a while I would like to write an editorial or impression of an arcade game. DCW: Saturn failed poorly with gamers in the West. Do you believe this will carry over with most people in the East? Aaron: No, I don't think so. The market of the East and West is very different. In fact, the Saturn did a good job in Hong Kong and Taiwan. According to the survey carried out by Game Weekly(best selling game magazine in Hong Kong) 31.6% of the interviewees own a PS, 26.6% own a Saturn and 11.7% own N64. This shows Saturn is just behind Playstation and miles away from N64. And 74% of the people who own a PS, also own a Saturn. This result shows there aren't any real winner in the Asia market, PS is only the best selling console. So I believe that the Saturn have the best results in South East Asia, compared to other regions of the world, including Japan. DCW: How well do you feel the Dreamcast launch went over in Hong Kong as compared to Japan and other Asian countries? Aaron: I had always believed that Hong Kong is the 3rd best place to live in, for playing computer games. The 1st of course is Japan, the 2nd is Taiwan and the 3rd is Hong Kong. Actually the difference between Hong Kong and Taiwan isn't big, the main difference is its market. The population of Taiwan is far more than Hong Kong as Hong Kong is only a city. The gamers in these 3 places doesn't treat computer games as children's toys anymore, they treat it like a kind of hobby. As for other Asia countries like Singapore and Malaysia, computer games aren't taking a very important position. Even people living in Malaysia have to import Hong Kong magazines to read!:) Since gaming has such a important position in Hong Kong and Taiwan, of course the launch in these two places are larger than in other Asia ountries(except Japan). If compared to the launch of Saturn, 4 years ago, the Dreamcast's launch also have better advertising, just that there wasn't enough Dreamcast consoles. DCW: What games do you feel will help Sega win the Asian markets next year, in 1999? Aaron: Arcade ports like Spike Out, Virtual Striker 2, VOOT..etc. can't be lack of, these games have made SEGA the leading arcade company in the world, no matter which place, these ported arcade games will sure be a big push on the Dreamcast's sales. Besides arcade games, home consoles games like RPG is another important affector to the success of a console. Luckily, unlike the N64, Dreamcast has lots of great RPG titles waiting to be released, Grandia 2, Climax Landers..etc. this shows SEGA have already prepared for a long time before they launched their Dreamcast. Since there aren't lack of RPGs the only matter is whether there is an RPG which could take Dreamcast to a higher level. In this situation, I can't think of a reason why SEGA is not developing Phantasy Star 5 now. Shen Mue alone is not enough, there must be lots of 'must play games' on your console in order to get people to buy your system. DCW: Sonic Adventures and Shen Mu are shaping up very nicely. What level of anticipation have these games reached in Hong Kong? Aaron: The popularity of Sonic Adventure and Shen Mue is very different. Let's talk about Sonic first. I can ensure you that Sonic Adventure is going to be a breakthrough of all the games that have ever been released since the times of SFC. Since Sonic Adventure has been announced, it had been the 1st in the 'Want to get' chart. And I mean even before the Sonic Adventure conference. After the conference, it got more and more votes. Leaving from the rest of the list, which includes Final Fantasy 8(3rd), Dragon Quest 7(5th) and Zelda 64(9th). There is no game on the list which could threaten its 1st position. As for Shen Mue, its not even on the chart...this shows how Virtual Fighter 3 isn't popular in Hong Kong. But its funny, because Virtual Fighter 2 was a great hit in Hong Kong for a long time just like in Japan, but I don't why it just doesn't get heated in Hong Kong. So Shen Mue just happens to be a ordinary game in Hong Kong. DCW: There are many great games in production for the Dreamcast. With 1998 coming to a close, give us your pick of the top five games slated next year. Aaron: Announced 1.Shen Mue 2.Grandia 2 3.Sega Rally 2 4.J League Pro Soccer Club 5.Virtual On Oratorio Tangram Rumored 1.Phantasy Star 5 2.Spike Out 3.Daytona 2 4.Burning Rangers 2 5.Langrisser 6 DCW: With an aging Playstation and the utter failure of N64, how do you feel Sega's major rivals, Sony and Nintendo will address the new Dreamcast threat to their empires? Aaron: The president of Nintendo has already said they are developing on a new 'thing'. Which could either be a add-on or new console. And on the Sony's side, they are surely developing Playstation 2. Let's talk about Nintendo first, if the 'thing' Nintendo is developing is an add-on to the N64, then there is nothing Dreamcast has to be afraid of. First of all, N64 itself is not popular at all, secondly, gamers have to pay another sum of money to play the games, which I think most people aren't willing to. Anyway, the more add-ons a console has, the more its shows the weakness of the console. If the console itself is good, then would it need an add-on? Add-ons only shows the weakness of the console. Just like the Genesis, the more add-ons appeared, the worse Genesis became. If Nintendo is developing a new console, it will take them quiet some time to finish the console up, which earliest could be at year 2000. But by that time, Dreamcast will already be 'mature'. Its hard for the new console to get a portion in the market. I think it will just end up like N64. So no matter which road Nintendo chooses, its also a dead end. They are kind of like doing the wrong thing at the wrong time. As for Sony, Playstation 2 has 3 main points that will attract people to buy it. 1.It can play PS's games(rumored) 2.it uses DVD(rumored) 3. Its a product of Sony. Whenever people think of PS, who will think of SCEI? Every thinks PS is a product Sony instead of SCEI. Sony itself is a very famous company which could attract people to buy their products. Then what can SEGA do? There's a lot SEGA could do, and I think SEGA has already done them. 1.Change the image of SEGA-SEGA had always gave a impression of expert gamer's company. Due to their arcade games. They need to change their image to attract non-gamers to buy Dreamcast. 2. Make use of time-SEGA should sell as much DC as they can before PS2 comes out. But due to the Power VR2 chips problem, this is a hard task for SEGA to reach...... 3.Make use of Sony's weakness-Sony's weakness is that it can't make games on its own. Many games released by SCEI are only distributed by them and not made by them. SCEI itself has only games like GT and Rapper, which is no way compared to SEGA's. SEGA shouldn't only release their own titles, try to get 3rd parties titles as well. FF? DQ? ======| BEST OF THE WEB |================================= There are sooooo many Sega sites across the web, wouldn't it be great if one place listed the most interesting bits?? Presenting the "Best Of The Web" section... ---~> Sega 2000 - www.Sega2000.com A new design in well on it's way, a HUGE thanks to everyone who is filling out the survey, it's a great help! I'll hopefully have a sample front page ready for you all later this week (well, ok so they'll be some "technical delays" when Sonic Adventure arrives, hehe, nah, I'll keep on it) ---~> Sega X - www.SegaDreamcast.net Gearing up for another great week, expect some big updates at Sega X. Through-out the week, start looking for a Tails walkthrough, along with more reviews of Sonic, Godzilla, PenPen Incoming and Seventh Cross!! All this and more great editorials, news, and a brand-new story based on the original (and best) Resident Evil!! ---~> Dreamcast Life - www.DreamcastLife.com Dreamcast Life starts updating again this Monday, with a few new sections and of course, the best news from around the web. The official website for the Dreamcast Weekly is now open at www.dreamcastweekly.com :) We've got the history of the magazine, daily news and plenty more. Specially if your a webmaster, there is lots of great information about how you can be involved as well! Then in the future... who knows, hopefully we'll be a print magazine one day :) ======[ ON YOUR MIND! ]=================================== ---~> GOT SOMETHING TO SAY? If you would like to express opinions, get some questions answered, or just feel that you need some light and wisdom, why don't you drop us some lines of text? Please e-mail Andreas, our letters guy on tuna@ebox.tninet.se. ---~> SATURN GAMES WORTH BUYING In a letter from a while back, the one to Viagra-man, you asked if there was anything you could do to make people realize it's mastering a game and it's fun factor that makes it great. I say no. There will always be some people who rush through a game as fast as possible. Metal Gear Solid comes to mind. Of course it's short if you rush through it, but there are so many intricate details in this game that make you wonder why you'd rush through it. I would mention Sega games, but I am unfamiliar with Saturn games (but willing to learn!). It's great adventure games like MGS that keep you wondering if you've seen it ALL, if you've done everything, gotten every secret, crawled into the deepest complexities of the game and mastered it in and out, even memorized some things about the game (guard locations and timing are great examples). I haven't seen too many PS fighting games keep me going for a long time because of load times (Tobal No. 1 is a strong exception). If the Saturn is re-released along with a "Greatest Hits"- like deal, I know that there are plenty of new games to master. Can you list a few of your favorite Saturn games, ones you would like re-released for everyone to enjoy? Thanks in advance! - Geoff REPLY: http://www.sega2000.com/features/topten.htm is my new feature on the top 10 Saturn games, some choices will be very obvious, but others might be more on the fringe. - Andreas ---~> WHERE IS ALPHABET MAN?!! (NO SARCASM INTENDED) I have played VF3 in just about every way possible (even naked while eating jello) but I still can't get Alphabet man. I have beaten it on the hardest difficulty with default settings and still no "alphy".... Is there something special you have to do? Can he only be chosen at the Practice mode? Do you have to hold START on AKIRA and LION for 2 or 3 seconds? What's the trick? Please help me oh exhalted one.. - Ben REPLY: You can play as "Alphabet Man" by pressing the top two buttons on your Dreamcast controller 600 times. After that, you'll hear a short beep. Then go into the character menu, and there he'll be! Alphabet Man has all the moves of every other VF fighter, and even has a few taken from Tekken. It's funny that they call him Alphabet Man though, because he's actually a woman. Is it a Transsexual?? Oh, and in Sonic Adventures, you can play as Mario by completing the game 1000 times. :) - Matt ---------------------------------------------------------- ---~> CREDITS Editor: Elijah - madcow@ihug.co.nz Assistant Editor: Mike - melbess@adelphia.net Letters: Andreas - tuna@ebox.tninet.se Website Host: Steve - angela.dixon@btinternet.com For more information please visit our official site (URL just below) :) ---------------------------------------------------------- Copyright, 1998-9 Elijah Parker - ELIJAH@SEGA2000.COM ---~> www.DreamcastWeekly.com - Official Website! Written and edited by Elijah Parker. (Who's real name, is interestingly Graham Parker, and who has a pile of 74 game magazines) The Dreamcast Weekly website is hosted thanks to www.totalvideogames.com and the magazine is owned by... me :) No parts may be copied without prior permission. I would have to send out my group of highly trained thugs who will have a tea party with you until you crack and your mind turns into jello... MMmmmmm.... Sweet Sweet Jello.... hehe, anyway... If you have any friends that might be interested in this magazine, it would be excellent if you could let them know about it. Thanks! P.S. My extra controller arrived yesterday, but with no DC until Monday, it's not too much use just yet. Still, it didn't stop me from having a play around (just hope no one was watching!) and the controller is VERY well designed. :)