Gift Box – Christmas, birthday and celebration from Crestock Stock Photography

From all of us at DCHelp and the rest of the DCEvolution network, we would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas (and, for everyone that celebrates other holidays, we hope you have [or had] an extremely happy holiday). In honor of Christmas, DCEvolution has brought you the “Twisted Christmas” package, a total conversion (TC) mod for Quake.

As we usher in the new year, we want you all to know that we are still alive and kicking, and we are still devoted to the Dreamcast. We will continue to produce high-quality (and probably some low-quality) CD images for your Sega Dreamcast, along with some new tutorials and tools throughout 2010 and hopefully for a long time to come. Thank you for your support, and we look forward to seeing you again in the new year.

For anyone even remotely close to the Washington DC metropolitan area, I hope I will get to see you at MAGFest 8, as we spend three days doing nothing but playing video games, listening to music and enjoying a game-filled atmosphere.

After a few days out in the ether, DC Evolution has been resurrected again. We have moved the site to a new Web server and got it back up and running. Everything should be working properly again (and, hopefully since we’re on a new server, more reliable and fast). If you find something on the Web site that’s not working properly, please let us know by commenting on this post or by posting something in our forums.

Here in the United States, today is a day of giving thanks and reflecting on the blessings in your life. Here at DCHelp, we would like to wish you a very happy Thanksgiving and we hope that your upcoming holiday season is a very joyous one. We at the DCEvolution network want to thank you for your continued patronage and we hope to bring you lots of great new things in the coming months.

So far, we have released five old (some of them are genuine classics), public domain horror films for you to watch on Halloween night (or whenever you want). I would suggest grabbing each of the images and burning them to CD, pulling out your Dreamcast (if it’s not already hooked up) and settling in for a spooktacular Saturday evening. Dress up as one of the zombies from Resident Evil or House of the Dead 2, watch some classic horror films and rock out some House of the Dead, Resident Evil: Codename Veronica, Quake III Arena or Carrier in between movies.

We’ll provide the movies, but you have to supply the popcorn, costumes and games for yourself.

With that said, we hope you enjoy the following multimedia images, courtesy of the DC Evolution team:

• Horror Express
• Deadtime Stories
• Night of the Living Dead (the original zombie film)
• Horror Hotel
• House on Haunted Hill (the 1959 version, featuring the legendary Vincent Price)

We might even squeeze in one more classic film before Halloween is upon us. You’ll just have to wait and see.

Don’t have a Dreamcast? That’s okay. You can still download most of these classic videos from the Internet Archive.

In the near future, we will probably be adding some of our favorite Dreamcast-related YouTube videos, adding some photos and adding some of the upcoming events in which we’re participating. If there’s anything else you think we should post on Facebook, let us know.

Please share your thoughts with us about the new layout. Some time in the near future, we’ll probably be making some similar changes to DCHelp.

The DCHelp Team has compiled a list of helpful applications that can help you put together various elements to be used with your Dreamcast applications, and much more.

Video Applications

• CamStudio – an application that will capture anything from your desktop, and save it as an AVI file.
• VirtualDub – an application that will allow you to convert basically any video file into DivX format. This application is referenced in ZacMC’s “DCDivX 4 Dummies” tutorial.
• TMPGEnc – an application that converts virtually any video file to VCD or SVCD format.
• SlideShowMovieMaker – an application that helps you create a video slide show out of jpeg images. You can add wav files to the background, you can add captions to each picture, and you can add special transitions between each photograph.
• DivX – this site offers old versions of the DivX package. DCDivX will not work well with any versions newer than 5.0.2, so we suggest getting your DivX codec from this site.
• VCDEasy – this is a front-end GUI for cdrdao, but it is much more. VCDEasy will create a VCD or SVCD for you. It will help you create menus, set chapters, generate XML files, etc. It will also burn the VCD for you. We recommend searching for v1.1.5.2, which is the last freeware version of VCDEasy.

Burning Utilities

• DiscJuggler – this is one of the applications you might need in order to burn Dreamcast-related items. DiscJuggler will burn CDI disc images. Padus offers a time-unlimited trial of DiscJuggler. It is the full-featured version, but the only catch is that the program will force the slowest possible burn speed.
• Nero Burning Rom – this is another burning utility you might need. Any versions of Nero from 6.0 and newer will not burn Dreamcast-related items properly. That is why we suggest you get Nero from this site.
• Alcohol 120% – this is another burning utility that you might want to use. Alcohol 120% will burn CDI or NRG images, along with a few other disc image formats.
• CDRecord – this is a freeware burning utility that works beautifully for burning Dreamcast-related items.
• BurnAtOnce – a very nice freeware burning utility. This program cannot be used to burn selfbooting Dreamcast-related items, but it can be used for just about everything else.

Miscellaneous Utilities

• BCX – this is the programming utility that the DCHelp team uses. BCX uses a programming language similar to BASIC, and translates it to C before compiling.
• YaBB – if you are looking for a nice, free message forum for your web site, YaBB is the way to go.
• BoardMod – BoardMod is a nice little utility designed to help you install modifications on your YaBB message forum.
• ForceASPI – you may need this little utility in order to get CDRecord to work properly.
• 1-4a Rename – This is one of the most helpful utilities I have ever come across in my life. This freeware proggie will go through an entire directory and find a specific search string in filenames, and replace it with anything you want (or append or remove anything you want). If you have mp3 files that all have an artist’s name at the beginning of them, and you want to remove the artist’s name, you can fix that in one or two clicks. If you have an entire directory full of files, and you want to change their extensions, this proggie will do it in a matter of seconds. This is a recommended download for anyone that has ever considered batch renaming files.

Links to helpful sites

• DCEmu UK – a site that is quickly becoming a haven for everything Dreamcast.
• DCEmulation – the home of all things DCEmulation related
• Boob! – a great site for emulation tools, themes, etc.
• Boob!Covers Central – This site strives to be the most comprehensive collection of themes, covers, and artwork for the DC, and other consoles. If you need a theme for any of your emus, or you want a cover for any of your discs, you should definitely check out B!CC.
• DreamSNES – the web site for the creators of DreamSNES. Contains some nice tools for emulation
• OneThirtyEight – Another web site with some nice DCEmulation tools.
• Fackue’s Website – This site includes some great tools, and some very nice tutorials. It is definitely worth a look.
• DCEvolution – another great site dedicated to the Dreamcast, and all of the wonderful applications and utilities that can be used on the DC.
• Dreamcast @ MacEmu – This is the definitive Dreamcast site to visit if you are a Mac user. There are some helpful applications available there, and some fantastic tutorials.
• DCPawnShop – A great place to buy, sell and trade all things DC related.
• MAGFest – A fantastic Music and Gaming Festival in the Mid-Atlantic region. It is basically a 4-day orgy of music and video games, 24-hours a day. It is a great time for anyone that attends.

A Comprehensive List of Independent Software for the DC

• Applications
• Demonstrations and Examples
• Original Independent Games
• Ported Games
• Moddable Games and Mods
• Multiple Game Emulators
• Single Game Emulators

Senile Team, the creators of Beats ofRage, had this to say about BOR:

As fans of the ‘Streets of Rage’ series that originally appeared on the SEGA megadrive/genesis, we always wanted to see streets of rage 4. But the waiting proved futile, and streets of rage 4 never came. That’s why we tried to correct this mistake and fill the void by making the ultimate tribute to Streets of Rage:
Beats of Rage!!

Beats of Rage is one of the most revolutionary homebrew games to ever hit the Dreamcast. Not only is it a fantastic game on its own, it is also possible to modify the game in many ways (similar to the way people can create TC’s for Doom and Quake). Out of Beats of Rage, many new games have emerged, giving birth to an entire community based around the game and its modifications.

How Do I Burn BOR To Use On My Dreamcast?

Most of the modifications for Beats of Rage are available in selfbooting CDI format from BoR Revolution. You can simply follow our tutorial on “What Do I Do With CD Images” to burn them. Beats of Rage, itself, is available from Senile Team’s web site, under the “Beats of Rage” -> “Download” section. You can also download a selfbooting CDI of the original Beats of Rage from DCHomebrew.

In addition, we now offer exlusive downloads of SBI files for use with Beats of Rage and its modifications. These files will allow you to use Selfboot Inducer to put more than one mod on the same disc (or they will allow you to put Beats of Rage on a disc with other games, emus, apps and demos for the Dreamcast). Until now, most everyone thought it impossible to use Beats of Rage with DreamInducer (the menu program that Selfboot Inducer uses on the Dreamcast). However, with a little bit of creative programming and editing, the staff at DC Evolution figured out how to boot Beats of Rage (and therefore all of its mods) from Dream Inducer, without having to generate a new loader with a separate menu.

Where Can I Download Beats of Rage Files?

All mods based on the BOR engine should be available from BoR Revolution. There are two sections of the site devoted to downloads. The first is devoted to Completed Mods. These are mods that have been finished by the modder, and are complete games on their own. There is also a section for Demo Mods. These are demo versions of mods that are still in the process of being completed. All of the game information for Beats of Rage and its mods is stored in one single file, generally called BOR.PAK. That PAK file can be used with any of the ports of Beats of Rage (in other words, you can use the same PAK file on your PC, your Dreamcast, your Xbox and various other platforms). BoR Revolution offers many of their downloads in two formats: You can download a selfbooting CDI made just for the Dreamcast, or you can download just the PAK file (which is all you need if you’re using the SBI files below, but you will need to have the plain files for Beats of Rage in order to create your own disc without the SBI’s).

You can also download SBI’s from the links below. Right now, we have SBI files available for all of the completed mods, and for the original BOR. These SBI files are available in PAL and NTSC formats. In addition, we have created a special SBT (menu theme for use with Selfboot Inducer), based on Beats of Rage.

Beats of Rage Dream Inducer Theme

You can also download our exclusive Beats of Rage Dream Inducer theme.

Download the Theme

Where Can I Find More Information?

Beats of Rage can be burned in essentially the same manner as all other homebrew Dreamcast software. There are various tutorials on our site, designed to help you burn various DC projects. If you need additional help, please feel free to visit our forums.

In addition, you can find information on the status of various mods, as well as help creating your own mod, at BoR Revolution.

Also, you can find some unique collections of BOR mods at DC Evolution.

Finally, you can find a lot of great info at Team Senile’s official web site.

On top of all of that, our new Web site is now based on the popular Wordpress blog system, allowing us to more easily organize our content and allowing you to post your thoughts and comments. We hope you will stick around and renew some of the love we all have for our favorite video game console, the Sega Dreamcast.

Happy 10th Birthday, Dreamcast!