racketboy.com

if any y'all feel like posting times we could have a little competition.

Actually me and Blu and Mike had talked recently about starting a thread that I affectionately call "The Dreamclub." (I don't think they were into the name). But basically an on-going high-score thread for Dreamcast games. But my idea was basically to do it totally not formal. Like instead of having a schedule or something, I'd just pick a game and we'd post scores on it until everyone just sort of got sick of the game. Then we'd move on to another. And wanted to do it DC games of all genre. But really wanted it to just be something pretty loose and fun. Nothing too overly structured.

But I don't know. I have lots of ideas, and not always enough motivation to stick with em haha.

noiseredux wrote:But I don't know. I have lots of ideas, and not always enough motivation to stick with em haha.

Exactamundo. Maybe instead of the shipping of VMU's w/scores, we just post 'em here? Casual, post scores, talk strategy, and can still talk general DC stuff of course too.

If there were just a ton of activity and it got competitive - we could always pull the scores and start an "official" HS thread.

Why don't you toss out 3 games you'd like to compete on and we'll either play them all, or we can just select one to focus on to start? The nice thing about DC is so many of the games are built for time / score / survival markers that it can be a casually competitive thing.

mjmjr25 wrote:The Pod Racer cab is one of the absolute best arcade experiences ever. Amazing.

Is it ever. One of the largest, most immersive arcade racing cabs I've ever seen.

mjmjr25 wrote:Exactamundo. Maybe instead of the shipping of VMU's w/scores, we just post 'em here? Casual, post scores, talk strategy, and can still talk general DC stuff of course too.

Yeah I gave up on the VMU idea before it even got rollin'. Just impractical really.

I guess I'm just thinking, should I start a dedicated DC hi-score club thread or post here? Here seems messy though amid the various other talk.

Why don't you toss out 3 games you'd like to compete on and we'll either play them all, or we can just select one to focus on to start? The nice thing about DC is so many of the games are built for time / score / survival markers that it can be a casually competitive thing.

Yeah my thought too - fighting games, shmups, racers, puzzlers, all kinds of stuff that is very score-centric.

But I don't know. I didn't want to get too into doing like a schedule or anything. I guess I wanted to be kind of organic. Like, say we started playing Pod Racer cuz we're talking about it now, and we post scores for a week or two, and then a few days go by w/o anyone posting new scores, or people are like "well, that seems to be my best" then we just concede "alright time for a new game... what do you feel like playing Blu?" or something. Don't know. Guess I feel like it might work well if it's just a sort of loose, casual affair instead of the kind of voting and debate and set month-long calendars of SOTM/TR or whatever? Sometimes you vote on a game in January that you don't feel like playing by the time June rolls around right? So it's more a "hey we've all been talking about THIS GAME this week, let's play that one now!" Maybe?

Here's my challenge:

Fastest Lap on Tatooine on Episode 1 Pod Racer - Default Pods
Highest Score in NBA Showtime - NBA on NBC - your choice of team, default difficulty.

Blu wrote:Here's my challenge:

Fastest Lap on Tatooine on Episode 1 Pod Racer - Default Pods
Highest Score in NBA Showtime - NBA on NBC - your choice of team, default difficulty.

I like this (but have neither of them currently, will pick them up).

I agree, noise, we'll need a new thread. Not for each new game or challenge, but just as a general discussion thread and keep this more on collecting and other shop talk.

No pressure on it, no timelines, just...chill...

mjmjr25 wrote:

Blu wrote:Here's my challenge:

Fastest Lap on Tatooine on Episode 1 Pod Racer - Default Pods
Highest Score in NBA Showtime - NBA on NBC - your choice of team, default difficulty.

I like this (but have neither of them currently, will pick them up).

I agree, noise, we'll need a new thread. Not for each new game or challenge, but just as a general discussion thread and keep this more on collecting and other shop talk.

No pressure on it, no timelines, just...chill...

Like "Racketboy Dreamcast Challenges" ? I think that's a pretty good idea, actually.

Flake wrote:Like "Racketboy Dreamcast Challenges" ? I think that's a pretty good idea, actually.

I already patented the name "Dreamclub" haha.

But yeah, just one thread that I'll change the OP as games change.

@Blu: I think I wanna try to keep it one game at a time. So if we wanna start w/ Star Wars Racer that's cool. A few of us have it, a few want it and surely can nab it within a week's time?

So... will it be fun enough to just compete on the one track? Should we post best times from all 8? (Are there only 8 in Normal Mode? I haven't cleared 7 yet, so it only shows 8 for me...) If we did it that way, then we'd basically all be trying to get the best time on each of the 8 tracks which might be kind of fun, as it will give everyone a chance to mess around w/ each track or try to focus on a particular one they like a lot?

noiseredux wrote:

Flake wrote:Like "Racketboy Dreamcast Challenges" ? I think that's a pretty good idea, actually.

I already patented the name "Dreamclub" haha.

But yeah, just one thread that I'll change the OP as games change.

@Blu: I think I wanna try to keep it one game at a time. So if we wanna start w/ Star Wars Racer that's cool. A few of us have it, a few want it and surely can nab it within a week's time?

So... will it be fun enough to just compete on the one track? Should we post best times from all 8? (Are there only 8 in Normal Mode? I haven't cleared 7 yet, so it only shows 8 for me...) If we did it that way, then we'd basically all be trying to get the best time on each of the 8 tracks which might be kind of fun, as it will give everyone a chance to mess around w/ each track or try to focus on a particular one they like a lot?

Sounds fun, I'm in and I'll have to grab a copy of the Dreamcast version.

Edit: Done, I just bought a copy.

So... I've been playing a little Hydro Thunder to warm up my Dreamcast in anticipation for the Episode 1 Racer competition. To be honest, I am terrible at this game. I've managed to unlock the medium tracks but I think unlocking the hard ones will prove to be... interesting. The game is still a blast though!

As a side commentary, does anyone enjoy comparing different ports of the same game? Hydro Thunder was released on DC first but also received N64 and PS1 ports. I think it would be fun to see how all three versions compare. I know Ep. 1 Racer was released on N64 so again something to compare as well.

Another side commentary, this is the first time I have hooked up my DC to the projector with VGA. I am still impressed by the image quality that the VGA output of the DC offers. The image is blown up on a 100" screen with 4:3 ratio and it's still very sharp and clear. I think the VGA out makes the Dreamcast age a lot more gracefully than PS2 on native hardware.