__________________________________________________ / \ / ___> > > DREAMCAST WEEKLY MAGAZINE < < <____ \ / / \ \ / / ~Issue #25 - www.DreamcastWeekly.com~ \ \ \ \ / / \ \ Sega 2000 - http://www.sega2000.com / / \ \ Sega X - http://www.segadreamcast.net / / \ \________________________________________/ / \________________________________________________/ ======| ABOUT THE MAGAZINE |============================== Dreamcast Weekly is proudly sponsored by Consolexpress, New Zealand's only import dedicated store. But not just aimed for New Zealanders of course, they supply to all around the world. The domain name www.DreamcastWeekly.com is provided thanks to Total Video Games, the UK's premier video games magazine up-dated daily, and The Junction, the best place for Teens to chat. www.the-junction.net & www.totalvideogames.com ======| EDITORS COMMENTS |================================ Only 12 days left until Sega Rally 2! Personally that and Sonic are my reasons for importing a Dreamcast, and I can't wait to play it! Speaking of imports aswell, our sponcer Consolexpress has an AMAZING deal. Trust me you'll never find better import prices. They are selling everything but the system at the normal retail prices in Japan! I can say after ordering from them myself that they are for real aswell, (and no I'm not getting payed for saying this, hehe). Defiently THE place to import from! Well along with that, in this issue we feature mainly on how to raise your Chao VMS creature, an Interview with co-webmaster of Sega X, Matt Langan, an editoral on messages in games, news, letters and plenty more. ~ Elijah (Editor) ---~> Page 1 - Cover Story <~--- ---~> Page 2 - The News <~--- ---~> Page 3 - Importing <~--- ---~> Page 4 - Staff Interview <~--- ---~> Page 5 - Editorial <~--- ---~> Page 6 - Best Of The Web <~--- ---~> Page 7 - On Your Mind <~--- ---~> Page 8 - Credits & More <~--- ---~> Page 9 - Finally... <~--- ======| COVER STORY |===================================== ---~> HOW TO RAISE A CHAO ---~> By Elijah & Thanks To Jin Sonic Adventure features the best use for the VMS yet, expanding on the Nights A-Life engine, Sonic Team presents... Chao's! Little creatures you can breed, play games with, fight, explore, race, and so much more with (including marrage! But being in Jap, it can take some time and alot of guessing to work out how to do all this right. Hopefully this guide will solve that problem, and I'll add more details as I find them out. Getting A Chao: First you need an egg. Either goto one of the breeding areas (in the hotel lift for example) or find one in the exploration areas. Then, in the breeding area, smash it against a wall (A then B) and the Chao should hatch. You can feed it by shaking the trees inside the room for nuts (walk next to one, hold Y and shake with the d-pad) and then picking the nut up and taking it to your Chao. If you've just played a level and collected alot of creatures (after destorying an enemy you get one) they should all pop out of you when you enter the breeding room. To merge your Chao with an animal, simply pick up the animal and take it back to your Chao. Your Chao may grow bunny ears and have better running power if merged with a bunny for example. Then, it's time to put your Chao in your VMS. In the corner of the room should be a large VMS machine (pictured to the left and right). Take your Chao to it and step on the orange button. Then release your Chao over the doors and it should start saving it to your VMS. Starting The VMS Adventure: After the title screen and pressing A+B in the VMS, your Chao's adventure begins. Please note if you take your Chao out of the VMS during his adventure and put him back in later, it will start back from the beginning again. Use the A button to select, and B to cancel. Pressing Sleep will pause the entire game, so you don't have to worry about minding him when your busy. Press A, and you'll get a long list of menus. Below is their English translations... o Status o Items o Card Game o Marriage o VS Play o Owner Info > Name > Birthday > Telephone > Favorite Things > Secret o Friends o Map o Settings > Sound on/off > View User Data > Edit User Data - Name - Sex (Male/Female) - Blood Type (A/B/O/AB) - Birthday (YY/MM/DD) - Telephone Number - Things You Like - A Secret o Chao's Name The first thing to do is scroll to the bottom and name your Chao. Keep pressing down until you reach the English characters and use A to select, B to backspace. Then your adventure begins, the aim to build him up so he'll win in the races, and to finish walking through all the VMS levels (explained in Map). When ever your Chao needs something he'll beep at you, and here is explainations for all the options... Status: The first screen is easy to understand, but pressing A again brings up his stats. They include... o Swim o Fly o Run o Power Items: During it's adventure you'll collect items, either in treasure or by winning the card game. Eating different items will incrase different stats. There's alot of different ones, from increasing HP, max HP, running power, swimming etc... but becareful not to over feed him otherwise when you try again, he'll just kick the fruit away. More specail fruits are detailed below... Card Game: It's a game of memory. The object being to flip over 2 cards at a time, and if they match, they stay turned over. Once you've got every card flipped over (6 pairs), you win. But you only get 3 errors (none matching cards) before it's game over. Try to remember as many pairs as you can at the start of the game when it flashes the cards at you as possible, and finally aim to get 0 wrong. If you do you'll get... o Chao's Fruit (+ 4 to all status) or o Star Fruit (Punch * 2) or o Speed Fruit (Agility * 2) Punch and Agility are explained in the VS Play section. Marriage: If you have 2 VMS's with Chao's in them, join them together and they can get married (This means they will produce an offspring aswell!). VS Play: Join 2 VMS's with Chao's in them together, and fight! It goes like fighting a CPU character along your adventure, and quick reactions, strong Punch and Agility stats will dicide the winner. Onwer Info: Along the adventure it will ask questions about yourself, it's best just to ignore them to be honest. Friends: Details about the onwers of other Chao's you've joined with. Map: This shows you how far your Chao is on his adventure. The first screen shows how many metres it has until the next junction and the second screen shows the route he has taken. At each junction you have 3 options... o Left o Right o Let the Chao dicide (random) Settings: The different settings are showen at the top menu translation. Chao's Name: It's important to give your Chao a name, and there is a huge range of letters and symbols to choose from. Scroll down to get more of them, including English. Use A to select a character, and B to backspace. When your done, highlight OK and press A. It's name isn't set forever, so you can always go back to this option and change it later. ======| NEWS |============================================ ---~> MARVEL VS CAPCOM DETAILS The Dreamcast version of Marvel Vs Capcom won't just be a straight arcade port, it features multiple brand new game modes! GR Online reports... The first new system is called "Variable Cross", which will enable you to call in the first character that you select, during the fight and control it for a specific period of time. At the same time, the other character that you have been using can be used for attacking other opponents. Surprisingly, you can use as many hyper combos as you want during this period. Another new mode is Variable Assist where you can pick one friendly character out of 20 and make them attack your opponent anytime you want. Of course, the systems that came with arcade version such as Variable Counter where you can change your partner anytime during a bout and Variable Combination where two characters can use super attacks at the same time, will be available in the DC version. To be kind on novice players, Capcom will include an Easy mode, where a player can attack with super combo by pressing a button continuously. This should prove to be a monster title for the DC! ---~> NEW ARCADE GAMES While Sega is mostly concentrating on the Dreamcast, they haven't forgotten about the arcades... here's a list of what's currently in development thanks to Magic Box... AM2 is working on a new Naomi arcade racing game called Ferrari F 355. AM4 announced a new arcade drum music game called Smash Beats. Sega will release their new 3D action game Zombie Zone and music game Flash Beats in February. Sega is also working on a brand new arcade soccer title called Flash Soccer. ======| IMPORTANT MATTERS |=============================== Consolexpress wishes to thank all those who responded to our advertisement from the previous issue. Please be informed that our website(www.consolexpress.co.nz) will definitely be ready by next Saturday,23 January(NZ time/+1300GMT). Good news for everyone! We have lowered our prices and is now selling all but one of our Japanese Dreamcast products at Japanese retail prices(in NZD). We are fixing the exchange rate at NZD1=YEN60. The exception is the Japanese DC System which is now selling at NZD710.22. Our specially made DC transformer is priced at NZD52.44. All prices are fixed in NZD and will be displayed on our website. We have now decided to process orders only once our website is ready. Because of the changes in our prices and to be fair, we have to cancel all current orders that were done by email/fax/phone. All customers will now be paying at the new prices. Current customers have been given reservations for their requested DC products. New customers can also reserve our DC products from now until the time the website is ready. Reserved customers are under no obligation to purchase anything from us. If we do not receive any online order from them, those reserved products will be made available to other customers. To become a reserved customer... Email us at order@consolexpress.co.nz with your... o Name o Country o Dreamcast Products that you wanted In stock DC products are: Japanese DC System, VMS(grey), Arcade Stick, DC transformer, Virtua Fighter 3tb and Sonic Adventure. You can backorder or preorder any other DC products once we are online. We accept payment by credit card(Visa/Mastercard/Amex) or money order. Payment instructions and shipping information are all available on the website. New releases coming out soon: Evolution, DC Steering Wheel and Sega Rally 2. More updates in the next issue. Happy gaming to everyone! ======| STAFF INTERVIEW |================================= ---~> Interview With Matthew Langan ---~> By Mike Next in line of our staff intreviews feature is Matt, co-webmaster of Sega X. 1. First of all, tell us a little bit about yourself. How long you have lived in Ireland and what you do at Sega X? How has the site come on in the last few months? Matt: Well, I've lived in Ireland all my life, and am a full blown Irish man, although I do have Canadian, American and Scottish relations. I started off working at Sega X last June. It was all of a coincidence really. I ran Sega Zone with Ryoni Shouten for the first few months in 1997, which were basically my first time getting experienced in working and writing for websites. I learned a lot working there. Anyway, after a while, I started to become fed up. I decided to go and form my own site, and with a number of top class staff in mind, I'm sure it would have been a success. Before I made my final decision, I happened to meet Sajed Ahmed, the webmaster of Sega X. We got talking and after a while, I was offered a position at Sega X. I was having doubts about doing my own site, and I wanted a break away from the industry, so I took the job, expecting only to contribute once or twice a week. But being me, I couldn't help but contribute every day, and form some sort of passion for working at that site. It wasn't long before Sajed gave me the position as Senior Editor, which I still hold to this day. My jobs include writing news, reviews, previews, running the mailbag section, and contacting developers within the gaming industry. I also do the odd editorial, when I can manage to get the time. When joining, I honestly never expected Sega X to be all that big. Thankfully, with some great staff, and Sajed being the top guy he is, we put a lot of work and effort into the site which has paid off today. I've learned a lot over the past few months, and I'm just glad I can be apart of it. I'm also glad that I can help out other Sega fans by keeping them up to date with all things concerning Sega's brand new machine, the Dreamcast. 2. In America, Sega became one of the most unpopular game-brands thanks to a parade of failures. Where does the company stand with European gamers, especially in Ireland and England? Matt: Well, while Europe has realistically been a more successful area for Sega's past consoles, I still wouldn't class their recent machines such as the Mega CD, 32X and Saturn to be successes. While I enjoyed my Saturn, and found it to be better then the Sony Playstation and Nintendo 64 in many areas, it didn't achieve the sales which it did deserve, despite a number of mess ups on Sega's behalf. 3. Overall, Saturn was a great system with unrealized vigor in the West. What must Sega do to avoid those same mistakes with Dreamcast? Matt: If I had to give you a one word answer, I'd say marketing. Basically, Sega need to establish the Dreamcast as a "cool machine", just like Sony did five years ago. Along with quality titles at launch, such as Sonic Adventures, Sega Rally 2, Virtua Fighter 3, and perhaps Blue Stinger, Sega would definitely be off to be a good start. It's also important that SOE take full advantage of their one year lead against Sony's next machine. If they can do that, and have a good user base by mid 2000, then I think the Dreamcast will have a very good chance of rivalling any product that Sony may unleash within the next period of time. 4. How well do you feel the Dreamcast affected Christmas sales in Japan? Was there room for improvement? Matt: There was definitely room for improvement on Sega Japan's behalf. Their launch titles, were, overall, a disappointment. July should have never seen the light of day, and games like Godzilla, Pen Pen and even VF3 should have had more time spent on them, perfecting both the gameplay and graphics. Also, Sega Rally 2 being delayed didn't help the situation either, but overall, it was a wise decision to make, as Sega will be depending on this game to keep the Dreamcast hype going throughout the slow month of January. Finally as you know, not enough machines were made available, which was, in a word, shocking. Sega had their chance to sell off their 128 bit machine to almost any Japanese games fan eager enough to get the newest piece of technology. Sega left a lot of shops with little or no Dreamcasts available on the day. Thankfully, Sega has a stronger image in Japan, but if this were to happen in Europe or America, then Sega could kiss goodbye to any hope of future success. 5. Living in Europe, what must Sega focus on there to win gamers next Christmas? Matt: Well in Japan, we all know that role playing games and simulation dating titles are extremely popular. In America, it's sports titles, particularly basketball, American football and ice hockey. In Europe, it's mainly arcade titles, particularly racing and beat em up games, hence Virtua Fighter 3, Sega Rally 2 and Metropolis should do very well. English football games also do well, and titles such as the Fifa series manage to sell off the shelves at an amazing rate, despite most of them being utter crap. Another genre that also does very well over here is one with lots of blood, guns and gore, so a Quake or Duke Nukem style game would go down very well over here on the Dreamcast. In general, European games players like a variety of different titles, which is why I think we won't just see a lot of one genre being published over here. 6. Realistically, how do you think the launch day will go in Europe later this year? Matt: Well as I said before, it really all depends on how SOE handles it. We all know that if they release it without a modem or a handful of killer titles, along with a hefty price, it's going to be doomed. Thankfully, they do know this tactic won't work again, so they'll have to play things safe. I've yet to see any advertising for the machine over here yet, but I don't expect any until late Spring. If they do get a good advertising scheme running, with words such as "Let your Dreams come true..." showing glimpes of all the graphically stunning games being released. They'll need to keep the Dreamcast in the minds of the public, so frequent showings of the machine on the television will probably be necessary. If that happens, and they play all their cards right, then, and only then do I honestly think we'll see some excellant sales in the first week of the console. 7. As with the problem plaguing NOE, which ultimately left them to delay a completed Rogue Squadron, do you see similar debacles happening with SOE? Matt: Rogue Squadron was delayed in Europe by Nintendo because the reality is, after Christmas, they would have little or no big games lined up. With this Winter being a fairly strong one for Nintendo, what with games such as Zelda, 1080 Snowboarding and Turok 2 hitting the streets, they felt that they need to spread out their line up, hence the delay of Rogue Squadron. Also, for some reason or other, Nintendo don't have their own publishing offices over in Europe. N64 games are distributed by a company called "The Games". One of the main reasons Nintendo are not doing well over here right now is because of the fact that they don't care enough about European game fans. Sony completely changed that attitude, and gave a lot of attention to us, which led to a huge success over here. I believe that Sega are trying to do the same, what with the 1.5 European developers being brought in. That was a good move, and one that will hopefully pay off. 8. How do you think Playstation gamers will react to the Dreamcast? Matt: Difficult to say really. Brand loyalty is a major issue in sales these days, and even I was victim to that just a few years back. Obviously, a lot of them will of course be sketical of the machine at first, and will probably look out for as many faults as they can find. Once Sega don't provide the fuel, there shouldn't be too many problems. As soon as SOE start to show people that they can get amazing titles like SA, VF3, SR2, Biohazard: Code Veronica and a long list of others on the Dreamcast only, it will definitely change people's opinions about the machine. 9. Sonic Adventure and Virtua Fighter 3tb have been impressing titles, a great close to 1998. Give us some of your top picks for games slated in 1999. Matt: Being a huge Resident Evil fan, I'm definitely looking forward to Capcom's Biohazard:Code Veronica the most. After that, I'd have to say Sega Rally 2, Metropolis, Carrier and Shenmue. 10. Finally, thanks for your time Matthew, and best of luck with Sega X. Matt: No problem, and likewise with Dreamcast Weekly. ======| EDITORAL |======================================== ---~> Messages In Games ---~> By Tunek Many games and other forms of culture/entertainment have messages that they want to have the player/viewer/reader discover by using their own mind. Often these messages fit in one easy sentance, like "Save the nature" from Final Fantasy 7 (I'm using a PS game even though we are a Sega site, but a lot of people have played it and it is a good example) or "Follow your heart" from the movie Titanic. Sometimes they are a lot more complicated. Dark Savior is a good example. To describe the message it has, according to me, would be a whole new article. Most of the time, these messages can only be found in games with a story, which would meana RPG or similar, but there are a number of action games with strong messages. For example Panzer Dragoon Zwei. That game makes a very clear statement about racism, but is a bit hidden :) Another example would Desert Strike and its sequels. It is quite clear in that game that the only real people in the world are we in the rich parts. If you're arab you don't seem to be more than cannon fodder. The games that I belive to have lead the way in presenting messages to people are the Final Fantasy series. Both FF5 and FF7 have strong nature messages. For example in FF5 (download that game now!!!!!) they talk about how they used their crystals too much and they now will break. Obviosly, the crystals are metaphor for the nature and how we humans have exploited it and that someday the nature will totally fall apart. You could even go as far as saying when the crystals shatter, that is an indication what will happen to nature. And FF7's message is also very nature oriented. But it also criticezes the huge multinational corporations of today. One could almost go so far to argue that it favors some kind of socialistic rule, but that might be going a bit to far. It certainly is pro-democratic though (to american readers, this isn't about US political parties). But why do they put these messages in games? Are games really reaching a level of 'high' that would put them equal to books and movies? They way I see it, games are the most dynamic part of our western/eastern culture. As more and more game designers start to realise that they are making people think they will start to think what people think about. Do they, like in Desert Strike's case, encourage stereotypes and racism, or do they like FF7 and Dark Savior really have people think about the lives we live and what we can do about them. I hope so, but time might prove me wrong............ ---~> Have Any Thoughts On This? Why not e-mail Tunek (tuna@ebox.tninet.se) and we'll post them in the letters section of next issue. ======| 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 Want to win a copy of Sega Rally 2 for FREE? Even if you don't have a Dreamcast, we'll send you a copy of the English version this fall instead! Be sure to come to Sega 2000 this week and check out our new Forum for entry details. Happy Gaming everyone! ---~> Sega X - www.SegaDreamcast.net This Monday, Sega X will be celebrating its very first birthday. Of course, usually on anyones birthday, you'd expect them to take the day off right? Will the Sega X staff be doing that? Of course not! In fact, we've been working on some pretty hot content all week, which will include an interview, a new contest (yes!) and a special Sega X trivia and more. ---~> Dreamcast Life - www.DreamcastLife.com In the coming weeks look out for new sections and writers. It is an exciting time for us and we hope you will come along for the ride. ---~> The Sonic Zone - http://szone.simplenet.com/soniczone/ Updated daily with a HUGE ammount of Sonic content that is sure to blow you away! From Fan Fiction to Chatting to Cheats and even Fan Created Games this is your one stop Sonic site. ---~> Sega Runway - underworld.fortunecity.com/ninja/60/ Daily updates, plenty of awersome downloads and a weekly poll make this a Sega site defiently worth visiting. 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 Tunek, our letters guy on tuna@ebox.tninet.se. ---~> ONLINE GAMING I will be getting a Dreamcast sometime next week and I have a couple of questions to those who already do (or know better than me) regarding Dreamcast online gaming. According to Sega, Sega Rally 2's official release date is January 28th. The game will have capabilities for online gaming too. Well, I should have my system up and running by then. If I import Rally 2, could I play someone in the U.S. with the same game and a modem? Does the Dreamcast modem let you put in the phone number you want it to dial for direct connection with another player? Or will it be something like X-Band was for the Snes where you have to connect to the network and wait for an opponent? This is considering that both players have the imported system and game. Now, having one player using an imported system and trying to play someone with an american Dreamcast.. That's another question. Only time will tell. Hopefully you will be able to. REPLY: As far as we know, yes, you should be able to have no troubles playing someone in the US or anyone in the world for that matter outside of Japan. Like I said before this can be expensive, but if you dial your own connection, calls will be of a normal rate. Another problem that seems to be rearing its ugly head is the fact that SOJ will probably charge people to play the game online, which could turn out pretty expensive. As soon as the game is released, we'll know for definite, and in turn, give you all the information you need. - Matt ---~> SEGA TOURING CAR 2 Sega Touring Car is a highly underrated game that is worthy of a sequel. It would only make sense to continue the series since now it seems that everybody is making one after Sega started the trend. I'll admit that the graphics were pretty weak on STC forthe Saturn but it was a hell of a fun game. It doesn't even have to come from the arcades, it could just be a Dreamcast exclusive. If the game contains the same racing elements as the first one, it very well be one of the best racing games. Are there any words on a sequal coming out? If not, you could place it on your wishlist because it sure as hell will be on mine. REPLY: While Touring Cars definitely has its critics, especially on the Saturn version, it also has its fan, and I'm definitely one of them. I love that game to bits, and like Scud Race, I'd like to see a conversion to Dreamcast, even though it seems unlikely at this point. Even if a sequel never makes it out, I'm going to bet that at some stage or other, Sega will release a special "Model 2 Collections", with the racing one including this game, in arcade perfect form. Here's hoping Sega won't disappoint this time around.... - Matt ======[ CREDITS ]========================================= Editor: Elijah - madcow@ihug.co.nz Assistant Editor: Mike - melbess@adelphia.net Letters: Tunek - tuna@ebox.tninet.se ---~> www.DreamcastWeekly.com - Official Website! ---------------------------------------------------------- Copyright, 1998-9 Elijah Parker - ELIJAH@SEGA2000.COM 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! Oh and finally... ----------------- This is a taken from the rumours section of the latest PSextreme Issue... it's so funny but also so #%&)*# annoying this kind of stuff is published... The Playstation 2 will be DVD based and push sixty million (60,000,000) polygons per second! Since real life runs at 80 million (What?? Where did they come up with that?!?!) Sony are 75% on the way to real graphics! Then they went on to say the Dreamcast is only selling as well as it is in Japan because the people over there are quick to buy stuff and in the end, they say Sega has failed again. Surely even PSX owners arn't that thick... are they?