By Quintin Smith on March 7th, 2011 at 9:37 am.
Oh, this is hot stuff! Couldn’t be hotter. Kieron sends words that Steam is now selling noteworthy Dreamcast titles Crazy Taxi, Sonic Adventure DX, Sega Bass Fishing and (here we go!) the inestimable, irrepressible Space Channel 5: Part 2 for £5.99 each, or £19.99 for the lot. Gamersgate has exactly the same deal, as it happens. Why should you be interested in taxis, fishes, Sonic the Hedgehog and… space channels? Careful, now. Those are poison thoughts you’re having. You’ll find precisely why you need each of these games after the jump.
Here’s a video of somebody really, really good playing the GameCube port of Crazy Taxi. You see what the game is here? In a sense, it’s Burnout Paradise before Burnout Paradise. You’ve got a big city, and you’re just ripping around, avoiding bystanders and learning shortcuts.
Next, a trailer for Sonic Adventure DX. Arguably the finest 3D Sonic game ever made, depending on who you’ve been talking to, what format they played the game on first and how highly they rate awesome music in a game.
Here’s a trailer for the Wii version of Sega Bass Fishing, the first ever game to seamlessly blend both bass fishing and electric guitars. The second game ever should be along any moment now. Yep.
And here’s rhythm action game Space Channel 5: Part 2! Or more specifically, here’s level 4:2, Rescue Space Michael, featuring a cameo from none other than Michael Jackson himself. Slide with me, Ulala.
I remember playing crazy taxi at an arcade once… it was crazy!
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It was probably also a taxi!
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they should release Rez for steam too, including support for force feedback vibrator
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I actually still have my PS2 ‘Trance Vibrator’, there’s apparently open source programmes out there for it. But I wouldn’t know anything about that.
*looks innocent*
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The definitive version of Rez is now the HD port on the 360 which let’s you use up to three extra controllers in trance vibrator mode.
I mean, what is up guys? PC games amirite?
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While these are all great games in their own right, I’m hoping against hope that this release means other, somewhat less popular DC games will be getting the port treatment as well – especially Jet Set/Grind Radio, Shenmue, Skies of Arcadia, and of course Seaman.
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“Jet Set/Grind Radio, Shenmue, Skies of Arcadia” – Yes please.
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Pleasepleaseplease.
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Yes! I really need to pass Shenmue 2…but something in me kind of doesn’t want to…I am dissapointed that they never made the third one and something in me if it passes Shenmue 2 would kind of break down and cry because i will never see the end.
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JET GRIND RADIO. I’d buy three just to give Sega more money for doign it. Oh my GOD I want it so bad, now that I know it’s possible.
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Yes absolutely. All of those games should have been in the pack. Screw Bassfishing and Space Channel whatever! Although the space chearleaders cheering unwittingly was kinda funny ^^
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I also hope to see the Dreamcast version of Ecco, because though it was shit hard, it was awesomely fun. It was also unnaturally beautiful for anything at the time, because we’d never seen anything like that before the Dreamcast, which came along long before the Playstation2. I daresay it’s one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever played.
And Powerstone II, which was probably the most fun I’ve had in any console multiplayer game, ever, and is unmatched in that regard.
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Ooooh yes pleaaaase, it was my first idea when I saw that on steam : more classic Dreamcast games! Especially the games those fine people mentioned in the comments above. The Dreamcast was the last console I owned, after its death I just lost interest in console gaming.
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Would Sega even consider port Shenmue 1 and 2 to PC?
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I really hope so, that was one of my favorite games of all time.. I find their choice of games a bit strange, but then again, i am fairly sure that whoever is making decisions at Sega is actually insane.
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Has anybody actually tried these ? Ports scare my spidey senses
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Apparently the port quality is terrible – these are direct ports of the 360 re-releases and thus have no graphics settings at all, do not control well with m+kb and cannot display a resolution higher than 1280*720.
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SEGA has really lost the plot with their rereleases,instead of releasing an upscaled version of the fantastic PC Golden Axe, they bafflingly chose to run with some emulated Megadrive rom an intern googled. It just seems so unbelievably lazy of one of the past heroes of gaming to have stooped so low as to shit their back catalogue all over Steam without even the tiniest bit of respect for what they’re doing.
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I’m thinking you’d get a better experience from buying a Dreamcast disc and playing it in the nullDC emulator.
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I am told by INTERNET PEOPLE that the Crazy Taxi port is also lacking the music, or at least the original allegedly-memorable music.
lol no refunds on steam
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@LionsPhil
That may be the case, but this is the PC. So step 1 – turn the in game music off. Step 2: have Spoitfy installed. Step 3: Click on this little link right here. Step 4: Profit!!
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I dont know about this port but in Craty Taxi 3 port it was easy to replace the .ogg that came with it to other music. Its just not the same if you dont hear “Ya ya ya ya ya!” or “Lets go!” when a race starts.
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Step 2.5: Move to a country where Spotify will work.
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I suppose they could have copped out and re-released the ORIGINAL horrible ports of Crazy Taxi & Sonic Adventure.
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I have heard reported elsewhere that this is all we are getting as these games were ported to other platforms and most other games from the era were not. Shame really, as the Dreamcast to me represents the last great run of any of the publishers in the past twelve years and counting. In the span of two years you had one company debuting a ridiculous number of new IPs (space channel, crazy taxi, shenmue, jet grind radio, chu chu rocket, samba de amigo, phantasy star online) most of which are fondly remembered if not still as relevant today as they were in 2001. Sorry to get all console toy obsessed up in here but the idea that we get these four games and no others (minus the random port, like Typing of the Dead) to live on forever on PC makes me incredibly sad.
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That said, I have also heard these ports are downright terrible and more a cash grab than anything else. So Caveat Emptor I suppose.
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sad… it might be cheaper to get a second hand dreamcast (still got one!) and get a few games.
though when I bought Rez for my brother several years ago, it was going for 35 quid @_@ being hard to find and all that, but seller person gave me some others games with it too :D
btw nice yotsuba avatar :3
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Ah Chu Chu Rocket, there’s a game that needs to be on PC right now. They can have their bass fishing malarkey (or mackerel).
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Spacewalk: Chu Chu Rocket is available on iphone/pod/pad, published by Sega.
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If I had any of those I would have bought it the instant I was aware of it but I want it on a proper computer.
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It’s all a bit meh, but Space Channel 5 pt 2 has a certain milleniall retro charm.
Still as many have already said if the next pack contains the following it will be an instant buy:
Rez – best music game ever
Jet Set Radio – Mirrors Edge ON WHEELS
Daytona – DAYTOOOOOONAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAHHHH AHHHHH AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH
Shenmue – Do you know where I can find some sailors?
Chu Chu Rocket – !!!!
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You can tell these are proper video games, because they’ve got blue skies. Games with brown skies or grey skies are not proper video games but murder simulators.
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No kidding. I miss the Dreamcast, ever since SEGA left the industry gaming has been less fun for me. SEGA seemed to be the last major developer to allow their teams complete creative control, at this point the most fun I get from gaming is Nintendo and the indie studios, but Nintendo recycles the same franchises every gen as much as I love them, and the indie releases I care about are sparse.
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I also loved the Dreamcast and miss it every year, the quality and the rate of really good games was quite astounding really. No other publisher was doing what Sega was doing on the Dreamcast and its completely gone now. :(
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Argh, Reply Fail…
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Are you familiar with the UK Resistance campaign for Blue Sky In Games? Sounds like they have your support http://www.ukresistance.co.uk/2005/11/blue-sky-in-games-campaign-launched.html
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Reads like a direct reference to me, Anarki.
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Why only part 2 of Space Channel 5? That’s just bizarre.
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And, more to the point: wrong. The first one was superb; the second one was not quite so – but still including at least 74.3% more joy than pretty much any other game except Katamari Damacy.
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Or Okami.
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No Skies of Arcadia? That game was brilliant. Although an existing port (on Xbox? I don’t know what platform) did at decent job, albeit inexplicably increasing random encounters.
Well, maybe not even brilliant. But very good. And a very interesting and well-realised world. Particularly for younger players. Also gave rise to a very good review on Gamespot.
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It was Skies of Arcadia: Legends on the Gamecube, and it actually tuned down the number of random encounters, that had always been ridiculous. Added in all the bounty-hunter stuff as well and was generally just an excellent port/improvement. I owned it on DC and GCN because I am such a geek.
Played it again last autumn-ish, and it’s still brilliant.
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I adore skies of Arcadia, I owned both versions, still have the GC version. Like to replay it from time to time.
The random encounter rate never really bothered me, though it is pretty high compared to some other RPGs.
I’d love a PC port of the GC version.
Just so long as sega didn’t find some way to mess it up.
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I see a distinct lack of Seaman.
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I’m not entirely sure why I’m supposed to want any of these games.
Although I did find the video for SC5:P2 oddly hypnotic.
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You want it because you like fishing.
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…I do?
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These games were all good ten years ago when they came out, but are far from the best dreamcast games (crazy taxi is probably the best of those, but has aged pretty badly when compared to even the last 4 burnout games).
One can only hope that further games are ported across, skies of arcadia is fantastic, probably the pinnacle of dreamcast games for me (no idea how well it would go down on steam mind) , shenmue is an experience in itself (and possibly more pc-like), rez, jet set radio etc.etc. are all brilliant. I’ve still got a box full of 30-40 great games for my dreamcast, was one of the most disappointing failures of any hardware of recent times, when they were clearly making innovative, original games but got destroyed by fifa et al. coming out on the playstation2 (as a VERY short and generalised summary!)
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When it comes to the Dreamcast, its all about Ready 2 Rumble.
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Fuck, I forgot all about Ready 2 Rumble.
Yes, I’d so buy that (if it was actually a good port – from the sounds of this comments thread, these ain’t!).
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Talking about Dreamcast games, I really liked Metropolis Street Racer (Project Gotham for the XBox was a sort of sequel). Anyone has any tips for something comparable for the pc?
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Anybody played that Sonic Adventure DX by chance? I’m curious how Sonic should stay controllable in those insane camera movements in that trailer from 0:10 to 0:20. Looks very clusterfucky to me.
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Those very fast parts are very much on rails. You have limited control.
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The Crazy Taxi port sucks. It’s changed the music and everything – I spent hours playing this game on the Dreamcast and I literally can’t play it on the PC as the music is completely changed. Sure it only had four tracks that repeated over and over and sure they weren’t particularly good tracks but they were Crazy Taxi’s tracks and removing them takes so much away from the experience.
I was all ready to build up that nasty Speed Boost callus on my middle finger again on my way to mopping up the city of customers. Shameful.
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I posted this earlier in the thread Marty, but thought you’d find this useful as well, if you have Spotify installed: The Crazy Taxi soundtrack in a handy playlist.
Just mute the ingame music and enjoy!
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Shenmue 3!
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Go Go Go Go! Space Channel 5! Let’s dancing! Let’s shooting! Sexy, Ulala, YEAH!
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*cue Mexican Flyer*
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I’d totally get JSR or SA2, but I’ll pass on this batch. SA1 was okay, but hasn’t aged well.
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I remember when back in school I changed my PSX+3 games for a Dreamcast+40 games. Man I totally ripped that guy off.
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That’s a really nice price compared to the euro prices of €9.99 each or €29.99 for the package.
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Crazy Taxi was nothing like Burnout Paradise! Crazy Taxi is fun, and has loads of character. Burnout is a horrible bland mess of bland aimless blandness.
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Can we see Armada ported? Please please pretty please?
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So, am I correct in guessing that Space Channel 5 has friendship and courage and whatever?
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That doesn’t even rhyme!
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Is that a crime?
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Don’t know if it’s because I never owned or even played a Dreamcast (being firmly entrenched in PC gaming for the decade previous to it’s release) but I read this article with a massive tone of sarcasm throughout. I also couldn’t believe Sega’s asking price on Steam – talk about overpriced and catering to fanboys, no one else is likely to but at that price.
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these are also available on gamesplanet and direct2drive. why bother with the steam part?
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For easy patch retrieval? Hahaha! I make joke.
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RPS has a habit of advertising sales, new games etc first on Steam, and then secondarily (if at all) on other DD platforms. It’s an unfortunate blind spot in an otherwise generally even-handed site.
I suspect it’s simply the case that they use Steam more than other platforms, so they notice these things on Steam before other platforms, but it’s still unfortunate that the result is a bunch of free advertising for what is already the biggest fish in the pond.
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Please let Shenmue and Shenmue 2 be part of this concept. I’ve wanted to play the sequel for years. Glad to see that Sega’s giving the DC some love too.
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Yeah, I got SADX and the port quality is pretty dang awful. The highest resolution supported is 720p, and even then they use massive borders to pad it out. The config app won’t recognize any of my USB controllers making it impossible to play.
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Thanks for the info. That and the price makes it ‘not very interesting’. Maybe other DC games, but I guess their arrival will depend on licensing questions.
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Man, Sonic Adventure and Crazy Taxi were excellent. And yes, the music in both was awesome (I have several tracks from SA1 on my mp3 player, excellently fast-paced rock and techno).
That said, I don’t think I would play them again. I enjoyed them on the Dreamcast but I don’t think they’d work on a PC, they were good at the time.
Anyway. It’s KERRRAAAAZZYYY TAXI! IT’S PARTY TIME, LET’S HAVE SOME FUUUN
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This pack makes me sad, the silly price they are asking will not gain them any sales. I got this pack many moons ago http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=sega+mega+pack&um=1&hl=en&biw=1920&bih=989&ie=UTF-8&cid=1695022314980682404&sa=X&ei=Aih1TYCBCMWBlAft47CwBw&ved=0CFMQ8wIwAg#
and couldn’t be happier. There is also a previous port of Sonic Adventure DX to the PC, with all the issues the “new” ports have I am failing to see whats supposed to entice me here.
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I want powerstone and multiplay.
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I hope I’m not the only one who was wishing Toy Commander was one of the games included.
I actually never owned a Dreamcast myself, but my friends did. Toy Commander was the only game we ever played.
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Never really looked into it myself, but I’ve heard that Dreamcast emulation is surprisingly good at the moment, which would bypass a lot of problems with crappy ports.
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Eh, Crazy Taxi without Offspring isn’t Crazy Taxi. I don’t even LIKE Offspring, but it worked so damn well there I couldn’t imagine playing without it. Much like how the only time I ever listened to rap was in GTA:SA : sometimes, the atmosphere just calls for a specific soundtrack.
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Normally, I would resist, but bugger it….
WHAT A SHAME.
I saw this flash up on Steam, thought OOOH AT LAST! Crazy Taxi on PC for me!
But then, I thought “Hmm, is it going to be a decent port? Can I actually use a gamepad? Run the games at a decent res?”
And it would seem that disappointment is the order of the day here.
Look, I’m not going to whinge about the music – either Sega have the rights – or they don’t.
But having the “official Dreamcast emulation of Crazy Taxi” with far less options than the “unofficial” (pirate) one is simply bad business.
And it’s not as if Sega can rely on ‘well-meaning relatives’ to buy these things as gifts. Aunt Esmae hasn’t heard of Dreamcast, she won’t see this title on most retail shelves (too obscure) and she knows damn well that steam is the stuff that comes out of the kettle.
BAM – SHIT JOB!
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The (expensive) official port being worse than just playing it on an emulator is pretty sad.
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Funny you mention Burnout Paradise ’cause I can’t play that game without the Offspring in the background. In fact, I can’t play any driving game without the Offspring. In fact, Dexter Holland is tied up in my trunk.
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After Sega’s appaling treatment of Sega Rally on Steam I’m touching their stuff with a very long pole.
in fact, I’ve just checked and Sega Rally seems to have disappeared entirely from not only the steam store but my games list as well, which is a shame as I paid for the bloody thing. Time for investigation.
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