Dreamcast

Blap Blap

I’ve been working on making the DCBlap menus look a big more professional.

Typey Typey!

Ok, so I finally got around to making an on-screen keyboard for DreamZZT so that the percentage of the Dreamcast audience not cool enough to own a real keyboard or PS/2 adapter wont feel left out. Now that people can finally enter stuff, I can finish up the save dialog (OMG YOU CAN ENTER A FILENAME NOW!!!), and finish up the online scoring.

Also, the modem support in KallistiOS is coming along nicely, so hopefully soon dialup users will be able to access the online content too. Also, the code I wrote to read the network configuration from Dreamcast flash rom has been comitted to KallistiOS! After years of just being a “user” of KOS, I’ve finally been able to contribute back 🙂

Memories

Ok, since I can’t code from the living room anymore, I’ve moved the Dreamcast into my room and hooked it up to the capture card. This way I can debug stuff without having run all around the apartment. Anyway, I found a spindle of old cds, so I figured I’d take some screenshots of my old Dreamcast work. So as not to fill up everyone’s friends pages, click below to read the rest of this post (I’m learning how to use LJ! yay!)

Icon!

Ok, so since saving is almost complete, I figured I should make an icon for the Dreamcast’s file manager. They’re 32×32, 16 colors (of a 16-bit palette), and can animate if you put in more thanone frame. Anyway, I came up with this cute little guy:

I’ll probably do something a bit more inspired later, but this will do for now. None of my previous Dreamcast games even have an icon, they just use the generic icon the filemanager provides, so at least this is a step up!

Here’s what it looks like in the Dreamcast’s file manager:

Isn’t it cute? I knew my capture card would come in handy eventually.

Untitled

It seems there was a bug in the Dreamcast network driver. I’ve uploaded a new build of DreamZZT for the Dreamcast to the DreamZZT download page. Enjoy!

DreamZZT 3.0.31226

After almost two years of hibernation, I’m proud to announce the first new release of DreamZZT! Head on over to the DreamZZT section and check out DreamZZT 3.0.31226!

Teaching an old dog new tricks

Ok, so I was feeling overly creative this weekend and added a pretty cool effect to the water in ZZT. Check it out: (click to enlarge)

Of course, it looks even cooler animated. Hmm, I think this is also the first screenshot I’ve posted in here that was taken from the Dreamcast instead of from Windows. yay!

Also, I’ve finally implemented enough of ZZT-OOP for the Town of ZZT’s ending sequence to work, so the game is finally completable! If all goes as planned, I should have a beta release ready for the holidays.

-Sam

It’s Thinking(TM)

Ok, so I’m talking to James today and he sends me some Japanese text in gaim. Since I’m on Windows, I didn’t have the Japanese font installed, so I figured.. hey, IE likes to bother me with annoying messages, lets make that japanese language pack box pop up! So I browse over to http://www.sega.co.jp and ….. THERE’S A NEW SONIC GAME COMING OUT AT THE END OF THE MONTH!!!

Ok. So I’m a little behind in gaming news. I haven’t read a gaming mag since the last issue of ODCM (Official Dreamcast Magazine, for the uninformed). So anyway, Sonic Heros brings back some of the characters from Knuckles’ Chaotix: Espio the chameleon (the bestest, coolest character), Charmey Bee (the smallest, annoyingest character), and Vector the Alligator (Gil calls him Lizardo).

So anyway, to ease my excitement, I busted out the Genesis + 32x and played Knuckles Chaotix as Espio, teamed with Heavy, Lizardo, and finally Knuckles. After a few hours I finally beat the game, but couldn’t get all the Chaos Rings. Those special stages get incredibly hard, and Game Genie isn’t compatible with 32X, so I can’t even cheat 🙁

Anyway, back to James. I’m chatting with him, and I blurt out:
welco
metot
henex
tlevel

and he’s all like “wtf? that’s gibberish!” and I’m all like “Hello!? Sega slogan!”. For the uninformed, or those of you too young to remember, Welco Metot Henex Tlevel, or spaced correctly: welcome to the next level, was Sega’s marketing campaign for the SegaCD, an addon for the Sega Genesis. You know, the thing before the Saturn, which is the thing before the Dreamcast. Yes, it’s a sad state of affairs, but some of the youngins out there aren’t familiar with the Genesis.

Anyway, while trying to prove my case to James, I took this pretty little picture with my phone:

It’s Sonic CD, with WELCO METOT HENEX TLEVEL proudly displayed on the front. I also found the most amazing livejournal entry ever while searching google for said phrase:

WELCO METOT HENEX TLEVEL
Google only turns up 9 pages that match Sega’s old advertising phrase. I want to be the tenth one. =)

Amazing. If google manages to find this, I suppose I’ll be number 14 or so!

-Sam