GRcade Retro Gaming Chat

[Sandy]

So I picked up a Dreamcast for what I think was a good price (£40, two controllers, 1 VMU, VGA-->HDMI adapter box) with a couple of games (only Sonic Adventure worth mentioning) but got to say I'm a bit in love with the thing now I've figured the backups out. Playing Power Stone 2 and Project Justice looks great on a modern monitor and so many of these games never made it off the Dreamcast.

Q. Does anyone have any further recommendations/hidden gems for the console?

Sidenote: Also picked up a PSP GO so the same question could be applied for that as well.

DAYTONAAAA

For the PSP there are a lot of games, I'll put the genre beside so you can decide if it's worth you checking out or not.

Crisis Core - Final Fantasy VII - Action RPG
Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness - Tactical RPG
Final Fantasy Tactis: War of the Lions - Tactical RPG
Gitaroo Man Lives! - Rhythm
Killzone: Liberation - Shoot 'em up
Little Big Planet - Platform
LocoRoco - Platform
LocoRoco 2 - Platform
LocoRoco Midnight Carnival - Platform (e-shop only)
Mercury - Puzzle
Metal Gear AC!D - Tactical RPG (with cards)
Metal Gear AC!D 2 - Tactical RPG (with more cards)
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker - Stealth Action
Outrun 2006: Coast 2 Coast - Arcade Racer
Power Stone Collection - Arena Fighting
Persona 3 Portable - JRPG
Street Fighter Alpha3 Max - 2D Fighter
Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins - Platform
Valkyria Chronicles II - Tactical RPG
Wipeout Pure - Racing
Wipeout Pulse - Racing
Virtua Tennis - Sports

Games other people might mention but I can't / won't recommend:

FIFA (go outside and play real football)
God of War: Chains of Olympus (God of War is mindless boring gooseberry fool)
God of War: Ghost of Sparta (God of War is still mindless boring gooseberry fool)
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (I'm just not a GTA person, I get why people are though and if you like GTA then this is it on the go)
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (as above)
Gran Turismo (just stick to the console versions)
Monster Hunter(s) (I just don't get it - I've really tired as well)
PaRappa the Rapper (it's just nostalgia making you think it's a good game)
Patapon 1 & 2 (I just haven't played them enough to comment, they're meant to be really good though)
Any First Person Shooter (they're all gooseberry fool - there's a reason they stuck a second nubbin on the Vita)

[Victor Mildew]

chu chu rocket and crazy taxi are brilliant.

[The Doom Spoon]

Not super experienced with Dreamcast but I remember having a lot of fun playing Soul Calibur when I went over my friends house.

[Pedro]

Just won a DC keyboard for 99p off eBay so hoping to give Typing of the Dead a go as well.

Cheers for all the recommendations.

[Victor Mildew]

^ My games

Of that list:

Essential - F355, soul caliber, crazy taxi, chu chu rocket, shenmue, daytoooonaaaaaa usa, RE:CV, ecco (nothing like it these days), Samba de amigo (with maracas, not pictured)

Nice to have - tomb raider, sonic adventure, msr (good looking but it plays like gooseberry fool by modern standards), quake 3

Turds - Sega rally (dreadful conversion, plays like gooseberry fool and the frame rate is all over the shop), Jimmy white , f1 world grand prix

Where are you getting burnable isos from? I'd like to get a console playable soul reaver

[Gemini73]

^ My games

Of that list:

Essential - F355, soul caliber, crazy taxi, chu chu rocket, shenmue, daytoooonaaaaaa usa, RE:CV, ecco (nothing like it these days), Samba de amigo (with maracas, not pictured)

Nice to have - tomb raider, sonic adventure, msr (good looking but it plays like gooseberry fool by modern standards), quake 3

Turds - Sega rally (dreadful conversion, plays like gooseberry fool and the frame rate is all over the shop), Jimmy white , f1 world grand prix

Where are you getting burnable isos from? I'd like to get a console playable soul reaver

They all look like the boxes might be in good nick.

[Victor Mildew]

Yep, being mine from original purchase, there's not a crack on any of them. Sadly some of the little bits that gold the discs in were broken when I got them (I think they made them out of the most brittle plastic known to man).

Not a mark on any of the disc, or a crease in any of the manuals either. The marks on the shenmue card sleeve are from when I stupidly lent it to someone.

[Gemini73]

At least some people look after their games. Some of the gooseberry fool folk are asking high prices online for is shocking.

"Condition - Good! (Disc only, some light scratches)

£19.99"

I gooseberry fool you not.

[Drumstick]

Sounds like many a GameCube auction I've seen.

[Gemini73]

Sounds like many a GameCube auction I've seen.

GC and Dreamcast are the worst. I've half a dozen original DC games and a tad more GC titles, but I've stopped buying them now unless I stumble across them in a charity shop or at a car boot sale. Sellers online just take the piss and I can only see prices getting more ridiculous.

[The Doom Spoon]

The retro collecting trend is moving forward from the N64 / Saturn etc towards the Dreamcast and Gamecube therefor the prices are being pushed up. I started collecting for GC about a year ago when the prices were a bit lower. Nows the time to pickup a gameboy player + disk before the price skyrockets again. Got my eye on Twilight Princess for GC too the price is holding steady on that for now but that's going to change.

[Drumstick]

The retro collecting trend is moving forward from the N64 / Saturn etc towards the Dreamcast and Gamecube therefor the prices are being pushed up. I started collecting for GC about a year ago when the prices were a bit lower. Nows the time to pickup a gameboy player + disk before the price skyrockets again. Got my eye on Twilight Princess for GC too the price is holding steady on that for now but that's going to change.

I started collecting for GC about 3 years ago, although I've cooled on it over the past 12 months due to the ever increasing prices. It is possible to beat average price if you keep an eye out for auctions that end at unsociable times. Also, sometimes underpriced Buy It Now auctions will come up but you've either got to be lucky with your timing or quite militant with refreshing your search.

Alas, I've got most of the games I want.

[Sandy]

Sounds like many a GameCube auction I've seen.

I won a batch auction once that included Fire Emblem. It was still well over £100 but I got a tonne of other games along side Fire Emblem that I would either sell on or keep as wanted. When it arrived I did the initial check and Fire Emblem had a completely different game in the case. Seller maintained they didn't know and they must have sold Fire Emblem in a different case.

I got my money back but it was still a massive faff. The most annoying thing is that overall the condition of most of the games was good. No broken cases or writing all over the manuals and games etc.

[The Doom Spoon]

I started collecting for GC about 3 years ago, although I've cooled on it over the past 12 months due to the ever increasing prices. It is possible to beat average price if you keep an eye out for auctions that end at unsociable times. Also, sometimes underpriced Buy It Now auctions will come up but you've either got to be lucky with your timing or quite militant with refreshing your search.

Alas, I've got most of the games I want.

That collection though!

Yea I'm constantly scouring through eBay, Gumtree, Shpock and Facebook listing for bargains. It's all about luck, as I've stated in another thread I picked up 2 working Gameboy Micros for £20 off Facebook!

I have to be honest I get the "thrill of the chase" feeling when I'm hunting down games lol.

[The Doom Spoon]

Sounds like many a GameCube auction I've seen.

I won a batch auction once that included Fire Emblem. It was still well over £100 but I got a tonne of other games along side Fire Emblem that I would either sell on or keep as wanted. When it arrived I did the initial check and Fire Emblem had a completely different game in the case. Seller maintained they didn't know and they must have sold Fire Emblem in a different case.

I got my money back but it was still a massive faff. The most annoying thing is that overall the condition of most of the games was good. No broken cases or writing all over the manuals and games etc.

Ahh man that's so annoying! Did you buy batch mainly because of Fire Emblem? I'm always a bit dubious about eBay. I like Shpock, Gumtree and Facebook because they are mostly local sellers where I can check out the goods before procuring them.

[Sandy]

Ahh man that's so annoying! Did you buy batch mainly because of Fire Emblem? I'm always a bit dubious about eBay. I like Shpock, Gumtree and Facebook because they are mostly local sellers where I can check out the goods before procuring them.

Yeah, there were a few other games in there I would have kept but it was mainly for Fire Emblem. I don't mind spending a bit of money on retro games but when Fire Emblem is going for over £150 consistently it's too much for me.

[Ironhide]

So I picked up a Dreamcast for what I think was a good price (£40, two controllers, 1 VMU, VGA-->HDMI adapter box) with a couple of games (only Sonic Adventure worth mentioning) but got to say I'm a bit in love with the thing now I've figured the backups out. Playing Power Stone 2 and Project Justice looks great on a modern monitor and so many of these games never made it off the Dreamcast.

Q. Does anyone have any further recommendations/hidden gems for the console?

Sidenote: Also picked up a PSP GO so the same question could be applied for that as well.

Dreamcast games worth checking out:

Hydro Thunder - Arcade racer featuring speedboats and outrageous courses
Tony Hawk Pro Skater - same as PS1 version but looks a lot nicer
Jet Set Radio - In-line skating and graffiti tagging adventure game (for those who've spent the last 18 years living in a Mongolian monastery)
Skies of Arcadia - JRPG (a pretty damned good one)
Grandia II - JRPG

PSP games worth trying:

Field Commander - Advance Wars clone, surprisingly brilliant
Jeanne D'Arc - JRPG made by Level 5, not very historically accurate mind you
C.R.U.S.H - mind bending puzzle platformer
Everybody's Golf 2 - digital crack in golf form
Lumines - music based puzzler, far better than the sequel featuring licensed music (Black eyed peas and Gwen Stefani )
Metal Gear Acid - utterly mental fusion of MGS stealth and card based battles

[Green Gecko]

The retro collecting trend is moving forward from the N64 / Saturn etc towards the Dreamcast and Gamecube therefor the prices are being pushed up. I started collecting for GC about a year ago when the prices were a bit lower. Nows the time to pickup a gameboy player + disk before the price skyrockets again. Got my eye on Twilight Princess for GC too the price is holding steady on that for now but that's going to change.

Yup, I recently flipped a gameboy player (actually kept it as it was in better condition than mine) along with a boot disk I found in a charity shop in 2011 for £1.50, total £81.

Got twilight princess on launch and still have it, I'll probably never sell it even with the HD version on my shelf.

I certainly don't regret getting some games on launch back in the day (never do anymore except for maybe the odd 3DS game as they're cheaper). Bought paper Mario TTYD in game during the GameCube slump for about £34, that was a good buy, I believe there was one copy. Actually I don't recall getting any other good deals from Game, maybe Viewtiful Joe pre owned for about £7.. Which I then sold and repurchased at some point (probably in worse condition).

[Gemini73]

I'm after PSP games that I may have overlooked. Below is a list of what I currently own.

Breath of Fire III
PES 5
Sega Rally
WH40K: Squad Commander
Star Wars Battlefront II
SF Alpha 3 Max
Ridge Racer 1&2


Suggestions?

[Jazzem]

I'm after PSP games that I may have overlooked. Below is a list of what I currently own.

Breath of Fire III
PES 5
Sega Rally
WH40K: Squad Commander
Star Wars Battlefront II
SF Alpha 3 Max
Ridge Racer 1&2


Suggestions?

Great list there! SF Alpha 3 was one of the PSP games I returned to most, excellent little port that.

Here's a few off the top of my head:

Gitaroo Man Lives
Mega Man Powered Up
Mega Man X: Maverick Hunter
Outrun 2006
Rock Band Unplugged
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky
Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins
Ys 1&2/Oath in Felghana/7

EDIT: Ooh Sandy had some great suggestions at the top of the page also