When Even the Box Impresses More Than The Controller Inside.

Despite being dead as a console hardware manufacturer, SEGA was probably one of the more polite/friendly/nice ones. When was the last time did you see a Thank You note attached to the inner flap of the box you are opening, conveniently located where you are bound to see it?

Taken from a box containing a brand new original Dreamcast Controller:

"Thank you very much for purchasing this product. Please read the instruction manual included and the Dreamcast instruction manual before use and retain for future reference."

You would be hard-pressed to find even a thank you note on a box of premium chocolates, and I'm talking about a videogames controller here.

This was taken from the back of the same box:

" We all play games, it's one of the most natural things in life.
It's how we learn to think on our feet and take our chances.
It's how we get to know our friends and understand our opponents.
This is Dreamcast - It's time to compete together. "

I thought that was rather nice, and as a sum of its parts (minus the last line), a very good reason for playing any games. You can tell that I really dig this box as I brought it home with the new controller inside, despite my Dreamcast having a permanent residence in my OFFICE.

Anyways, if you are wondering where would be a good place to get Dreamcast peripherals, Play-Asia is a good place to start if you are looking for brand new ones, the site sells them cheap too. Otherwise, if you can't find whatcha looking for, there is always eBay.

Playing with Junk

The newly cleaned (scrubbed) Dreamcast had its first proper shakedown today, having hooked it up to the office projector after finishing work at 6 p.m. With the game of choice being the off-balanced, but colourful and engaging 2D beat-em-up known as Marvel vs. Capcom 2, it was pure madness with all the button mashing going on.

This is a confirmation that this purchase, wasn't done in vain and that the cleaning methods employed a couple of days earlier onto the console, controllers, vibration pack and VMU didn't harm the parts at all.

I've entertained thoughts of getting a used Gamecube (PAL) and a brand new original Xbox (Asian version), both unmodded, and despite the rather attractive price (for the both of them) the lack of games is THE determining factor in my decision not to go ahead with the purchases.

The trouble with purchasing a half a decade old console is that if it doesn't come with games, you are pretty much screwed. Any attempt to look for original games on the local front would be in vain and despite Ebay being your new best friend, shipping charges are pretty much killer.

So if you are planning to buy and play with junk (which is aptly put, for some people), be sure that you have channels to get games (regardless whether they are brand new or used) or otherwise, you'll end up with a white elephant in the living room. Having a big budget would help in the part of getting games, but hey, you would be better off saving for an Xbox 360 or a PS3.

New Consoles, Old Consoles.

Owners of modded Xbox 360s must have gone through a torrid time this past week as most of them are getting banned from the Xbox Live! online service. It's the first time Microsoft actually laid the banhammer on modded machines and the ban applies on the machine itself (now, that smarts), and not the owner's Live! account. Well, it's no Live! for you guys, so go get an unmodded Core unit for your Live! fix.

On the other hand, I added a new (well, secondhand) console to my collection. One that doesn't get banned going online, not that it needs to go online anyways, since the servers for the last remaining online game for this console were shutdown back in 2003. Enough hints? Yes, said console is a Sega Dreamcast.

The funny thing about beige or white-coloured consoles and PCs is that they tend to discolour over time, gaining a yellowish-hue combined with all the dust/dirt/fingerprint stains. My latest acquisition is no different, since it's produced circa 2000, but the owner seems to have taken care not to scratch the console. It's safe to say that it gotten old...gracefully.

As for the rest of the details on this particular console of mine, for starters it's not modded and is a US machine. The interesting part is that I can load Japanese games with the help of a bootloader CD. The entire package cost me RM 200, and it came with 3 controllers, 1 additional casing, 1 VMU, one vibration pack, A/V cables, and the seller's entire collection of games, with one original copy of PSO (now, what am I gonna do about that).