Up to 6 Billion Players - A Dreamcast Remembrance Thread - The Bear and Badger

Blue Swirl

davyK wrote:

Not an FPS fan but I enjoyed Outtrigger. The smaller levels suited me. DC had keyboard + mouse control option too.

Keyboard and mouse is only something I got for my DC after it'd been packed away and became something I collected, rather than played. One day I'd like to get it all set up again and see what I was missing out on with stuff like Outtrigger and Quake III.

davyK

I played about with Quake, Outtrigger and Unreal Tournament using that setup. It controlled really well. I've never been able to play an FPS with a pad but I was moving about and firing pretty well.

I sold the mice as part of my big clearout years ago but I kept the keyboards for Typing of the Dead.

Rez works with the mouse. And I think Chu Chu Rocket does as well.

hunk

Oh man, I remember playing Q3 and UT on dreamcast with those southpaw pad controls. Amazing visuals as I've only ever had seen such gfx fidelity on mac and pc. At the time it was astounding to see pc quality games running on a console.

But those controls, never got used to them. Always wondered why Sega didn't nab Sony's ds twinstick config. Even in the ps1 era, it was obvious the industry was moving in that direction.

That being said, the analogue triggers were a nice innovation for racing and shooting games. Took Sony a while to adopt those into Dual Shock. Anyone remember GT on PS2 with analogue face buttons?

EvilRedEye

I had the Dreamcast keyboard and mouse and played Quake III with them. IIRC the mouse was a traditional ball mouse and I kept having to clean gunk out of it.

hunk

Also, those non drifting analogue stick designs in dreamcast which are now being reintroduced in modern pro controllers. Sega did get some things right with that flawed pad.

afgavinstan

I had the fishing controller, lightgun, maracas, arcade stick, and steering wheel at different points. What a lineup. I'd kill for a modernised version of the arcade stick.

Moot_Geeza

I wasn't a fan of the pad either. The DC had its fair share of Vs fighters it was a case of making do with that dpad and button layout.

davyK

EvilRedEye wrote:

I had the Dreamcast keyboard and mouse and played Quake III with them. IIRC the mouse was a traditional ball mouse and I kept having to clean gunk out of it.

It was indeed.

davyK

afgavinstan wrote:

I had the fishing controller, lightgun, maracas, arcade stick, and steering wheel at different points. What a lineup. I'd kill for a modernised version of the arcade stick.

The stick is really nice. The buttons are beautifully responsive still - only need a very light touch.

I still have the wheel. Not force feedback but it's sprung to resist the further you turn it. Nice job. Daytona is super playable with it.

Of course - both stick and wheel accept the VMU.

davyK

Moot_Geeza wrote:

I wasn't a fan of the pad either. The DC had its fair share of Vs fighters it was a case of making do with that dpad and button layout.

They really needed the stick. I don't think it was that expensive at the time - not much more than a pad.

Minnesänger

hunk wrote:

But those controls, never got used to them. Always wondered why Sega didn't nab Sony's ds twinstick config. Even in the ps1 era, it was obvious the industry was moving in that direction.

Yeah, this is one of those things that seems super clear in hindsight, but it's worth remembering what the actual standard was at the time.

The first proper mainstream game to actually use dual-analogue aiming as we know it today in the console space was Alien Resurrection on the PSOne, which actually came out 2 years after the launch of the Dreamcast (1998 vs 2000). And that game got criticised for it's weird control scheme.

Even when the PS2 launched with Timesplitters, most people didn't use dual analogue in the way we do today. Turning and moving on the left analogue was what most people used.

The DC really should have had 2 analogues, you're right, but it's genuinely one of those hindsight 20/20 type situations. Back in 97/98 most people were still trying to work out what to do with dual analogue controls and the best they had come up with was acceleration in sim racers and...Ape Escape.

Moot_Geeza

I don't think I've seen Super Magnetic Neo mentioned in here. Not a clue how it holds up today but I quite like my corridor/into-the-screen 3D platformers and along with the first Sly Racoon that's probably my favourite from the era. Hard as nails but generous with extra lives - quirky and had a whiff of Treasure about it imo.

Edit: plus it had a minecart stage which always improves anything.

LivDiv

Yeah first game I remember blowing up while having what would be described as contemporary dual analogue controls was Halo.
The impression I got was that Halo's popularity pushed it as a standard, along with a load of other FPS features.

Minnesänger

LivDiv wrote:

Yeah first game I remember blowing up while having what would be described as contemporary dual analogue controls was Halo. The impression I got was that Halo's popularity pushed it as a standard, along with a load of other FPS features.

Yeah, I could be wrong but I think Alien Resurrection was the pioneer and Halo was the populariser.

hunk

Now that you mention it, I vaguely remember this as well. Super interesting topic, the evolution of vg controllers and game design.

EvilRedEye

I’m tempted to try emulating Alien Resurrection now. I feel like games of that time often had over-sensitive analogue controls so I wonder if it was a bit twitchier than Halo or something?

I tried looking up the controller control scheme for Quake III DC but it’s not shown in the manual. It’s just like ‘there’s a default but you can fully customise it’. All seems a bit messy.

Moot_Geeza

Face buttons for movement wasn't it? It's been so long I can't quite remember, even though I spent months deep in the zone on that one.

hunk

Left stick for camera, face buttons for wasd movement, L for jump and R for fire.
D-pad was weaponselect and some other stuff?
You could also swap Lstick for wasd movement and facebuttons for camera but that setup always felt off.

SpaceGazelle

Loved the DC. I bought one late after it had flopped and thought it was wonderful. The games looked so clean and was like having a proper arcade in the house.

Unlikely

This is probably of no interest these days but I have a boot disc. Haven't tested if it still works but the console survived 20 years in storage so hopefully the disc did too. With a bit of prompting VT, MSR and other original discs came to life.

Hodge360

Vast majority of them don't seem to need a boot disc and will load straight from CDR

ZMM

LivDiv wrote:

Yeah first game I remember blowing up while having what would be described as contemporary dual analogue controls was Halo.
The impression I got was that Halo's popularity pushed it as a standard, along with a load of other FPS features.

Halo was definitely my first experience with that control scheme, but it instantly felt natural, even with the OG beastly Xbox control pad. Seem to remember the analogues sticks being too long on that thing, though.

Questor

I remember you needed a specific burning program (Nero perhaps?) and 80 minute CDRs to be able to burn the majority of games - and early days there were self loader and boot disc required versions of the images..

Those were the days!

kneecap

The dreamcast has Dual Digital controls for Virtual on, now that's forward thinking.

The PS2 played dvds with a fucking green tint.
The dreamcast had porn.

ChopperByrne

Goldeneye on N64 had dual analog controls if you used two controllers.

It also had the worst default control scheme of all time, but one of them let you use the C buttons as wasd and the stick for aiming, which was much better. Think Turok had that as a control scheme too.

Anyway, Dreamcast was Sega's 5th (6th if you count Nomad) failure in a row.

I'm glad they were around to experiment, before everyone else just did their ideas better, but they just couldn't last the way they tried to.

kneecap

And now we have PS5s out for as long as the dreamcast and fuck all to show for it.

afgavinstan

Oof, shots fired and hits confirmed.

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