Strange House of the Dead 2 Dreamcast problem

[Anayo]

I bought House of the Dead 2 for the Sega Dreamcast. It seems to work, until I reach the part that lines up with 1:02 in this video

Then the guy getting knocked off the building is invisible and all subsequent scenery is invisible, except a few walls and rooms here and there. For the most part it's unplayable up to that point.

I tried cleaning the disc with toothpaste and cotton swabs, but no luck. Then again there's still scratches on the disc, maybe I should try harder... but it seems weird that the game would load only half a level then keep progressing me through. It makes me wonder if the dreamcast itself is messed up, or if I somehow ended up with a buggy version of the game.

Anyone seen anything like this before?

[CRTGAMER]

Maybe try plastic polish on the disc.

[s8n]

hi Anayo , i remember playing HOTD2 a while ago and at the same point in the game the enemies would disappear off the screen.

It would happen for about 10 seconds then return back to normal , i read somewhere else of others having this problem but cant remember where i read it.

Also the ver i was using was a rip ( CD-R burn ) of the game.


hope you find this interesting

s8n

[Anayo]

Hey, thanks s8n. I google searched for this and found a forum on IGN where a guy had the same problem, so I knew this wasn't just me.

When you 'waited 10 seconds' did you pause the game, or just keep playing? For me, I kept playing and about 90% of the scenery stayed invisible... maybe I should try again, lol.

[s8n]

When you 'waited 10 seconds' did you pause the game, or just keep playing?

for me the enemies were visible then suddenly went , so i memorized where they were and killed them. Once that wave of enemies were dead the game returned back to normal.

[Anayo]

I solved this problem. Rather than resurfacing the game, I got a different Dreamcast system. I bought it for $5 at Goodwill today. This one seems to load the levels. Who knows, maybe my other Dreamcast lens didn't like this game. I'm just glad it works.

[BurningDoom]

I was just doing a search on Google looking for a solution to this problem, and I stumble upon a thread here. So has anyone found a solution? I'm having this issue myself. Level 1 is a-okay, but soon as I get to level 2, it all goes black and/or invisible.

[CD AGES]

Well the good news is that it's not a console issue. This problem is a result of fualty media (GD Rom disc) from a particular manufacturing plant or somthing to that tune not complying with launch DC units. When the DC launched in Sept, a significant majority of customers reported issues of their games either crashing, buggin out or not playing at all. This issue occured across Sega and Midway launch titles (Sonic, HOTD2, MK Gold, NFL Blitz and a few others). I remember reading a Gamepro "Buyer Beware" article shedding light on the issue as well as providing proper customer service numbers for an exchange of the purchased game that respective publishers would honor as result of the Sega's defective media. I remember the scenario being a significant damper on near perfect console launch that sega was aiming to excecute. The only solution from personal experience is to (like one person just mentioned, trying the disc on another console which may or may not work) but really, just simply purchase "Sega All Star" variants (or in some of Midways titles, ones with "HOT NEW" sticker cases) of these games as almost every title with an issue received an "All Star" copy. That is clearly the easiest way to identify a game from being a defective copy from a game pressed on fixed GD-R.

[BurningDoom]

Well that sucks, don't really want to pay for a game that I already paid for once. Thanks for the info, though.