I will begin playing Shenume during the Super Bowl on Sunday.

Ok. It is time to get this thing started. The month of January is all but gone and I’ve yet to start my Shenmue journey. All of that is about to change! On Sunday I will begin my quest to complete Shenmue I & II within the year. Again, for many people out there, this is a very easy task. I, on the other hand, do not have the time to play games like I used to. If you are curious as to just how busy I am, you can check out this blog’s first post here, it outlines all of the things keeping me away from my Sega console. Since the Dreamcast Marathon, I have had every intention to begin Shenmue sooner but there was always something keeping me away. On top of everything else, the very little amount of time I have had for video games these last 2 weeks have been spent playing Sonic Adventure (I’m so close to completing it) and an import of Cotton 2 for the Saturn (btw I’m loving this game and a few other imports – but more on them another day).

 

Instead of delaying things further, I will begin playing Shenume during the Super Bowl on Sunday. Yes, I will stream the event on my Justin.tv channel. I do not expect many viewers because of the football game but maybe there are others, like myself, that do not watch football. We’ll see. My main reason for setting this date is to give myself a timeframe. It is hard to get started doing something new in your life, like playing Shenmue. By penciling in a start time and promising to stream my initial game play forces me to stay focused. In addition, 02/01/09 is a great date to start something like this.

If the Super Bowl is broadcasting, so will I: from first kick-off to the final play, the Dreamcast will be humming.

p.s. My Athens buddies – come over if you want – watch the game on my monster tv or just play Shenmue with me. Whichever!

During the stream, and after, we received a number of questions about the website and what made us do it – so I decided to address some of the more common questions (I also included some pictures)! Enjoy.

Why a 24 hour Dreamcast marathon?
I was talking with my buddy Sean about the game Shenmue. I have owned the game since its launch but for various reasons never got around to playing it. It’s a massive game and I never wanted to start it until I had the time to enjoy it. Well, the time never came. So, I told him I would I play and complete Shenmue I & II this year. Sean, knowing how busy I am, seemed doubtful but would support me nonetheless. Even with the support of my friend, I felt I needed something more to keep me in check, so I created this website to blog about my progress. I figured with this website I would feel a responsibility to play and post regularly, despite my hectic schedule.

However, we needed a URL and something to get us in the spirit of our beloved console. After much joking around we came up with www.ihaveadreamcast.com and decided it would be fitting to stream a 24 hour Dreamcast gaming marathon on Monday, Jan 19, 2009. It would serve as a launch party for the website and way to get us all back into the Dreamcast frame of mind. So with only a few days to go, we started planning. In the end, we had close to 30 games gathered, 2 Dreamcasts (one for the big screen/stream and one on a small tv for people to play), a gathering of friends willing to take part, and bands that agreed to play and write songs for the event.



Are you using a digital projector?
Yes, we needed to use something that everyone in the room could see. Crowding around a television set didn’t seem like the best option. Additionally, we figured a digital projector would make it easier to see via streaming video.



Why not just use a capture card and stream a nice clean and crisp image?
After looking at many streaming video game channels on justin.tv, I thought it was cool that people could stream the same screen they were looking at home, however, for us the games were only one part of our marathon. We wanted to include everyone involved: the friends playing the games and the folks in the chat room. We felt it was important to create a sense of community and stream the entire room, not just a game with a voice commentary. We wanted people to get a sense of the room and the party, it’d seem silly to do it any other way. I know the image quality suffers but we felt it was important to do it that way.

Why no emulators or homebrew?
There are many games we would have liked to play but we wanted to keep it simple. We decided to be at the mercy of fate and only play games we could find. In our collections, we had somewhere around 20-25 games and ended up buying about 5 new ones. It was tempting to download the iconic Dreamcast games and play some homebrews, but we wanted to keep it pure. Besides, it was enjoyable going on the hunt for the games in used video game shops and flea markets. It really did fell better that way, especially these days when you can download any retro game on any retro system and play away. In the age of instant gratification, I tend to get overwhelm with my emulators and endless selection of titles that I usually only play a game for a short period of time because I want to jump to another one. Instead, we wanted to get more invested in the handful of games we had and relive some memories.

Why do you guys suck at so many games?
Even though most of us are seasoned gamers, we haven’t played many of these Dreamcast games in years. For most of the titles, we had forgotten the control schemes, game objectives, even the basics – in other words, we were very rusty. Also, there is a strange sense of anxiety that comes over you when you are trying to figure out how to play a game, half awake, and people in the chat room are telling you to go to “The Mystic Ruins” or “kill something.”

Sometimes being overtired really does take its toll. Take Sonic Adventure for example, a game I used to play a lot of during the Dreamcast days. I played it at point in the marathon where I could barely focus. Man, was it tough. Sonic slides around like he is on ice and it isn’t the easiest 3D world to figure out. Our big screen was nice but when everything in the Mystic Ruins is blocky, brown, and green it’s hard for a sleep deprived brain to comprehend. At times, I was happy just to keep moving Sonic around. Excuses aside, it was fun. I was sucky. I kept getting stuck in the casino and having to play pinball FOREVER. I’ll get better and I’m going to finish the game later this week. Sorry we never played Chao Racing.

What bands played?
Gemini Cricket - played around 10pm
Bicycles & Gravel - played around 10:45pm
The South Will Rave Again- played around 11pm
Grey Milk - played around 11pm
Captain #1 - played around 11:30pm

Where can I get those songs? We are recording the songs now. Remember, for the most part, the lyrics and music for those songs were written that Monday. As a result, it is a going to take a week or two to get them ready for download. We are shooting for an early February release. It will be free. Check back for more information.

Will the Dino Piano be on the Dreamcast album?
Yes. He might even have his own track.

I heard lots of voices, who were the game players?
Jesse T., Jesse H., Sean, Matty, Tim, Jenny, Blake, Sara, Dan, Marie, Gabriel, Kathleen, Betsy, Cristal, Julian (the baby)

What games did you play?
Power Stone
Marvel vs. Capcom
Sega Rally
Soul Calibur
House of the Dead 2
Sega Bass Fishing
Jet Grind Radio
Space Channel 5
Virtua Tennis
Evil Dead – Hail to the King
Gauntlet Legends
Crazy Taxi
Sonic Adventure
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2
Toy Commander
Illbleed
Seaman
Phantasy Star Online (we booted it up and then turned it off at the serial number screen)
Shenmue (we booted it and let the title screen play during one of the musical performances)



How did you choose what to play?
We had no set rule on what would be played or when. We wanted to keep it fresh and in line with our moods. At the beginning we started with Power Stone and Marvel vs. Capcom and held gaming competitions, letting the winner select the next game. Next we started giving the chat room choices as to what we played next. Other times we played what we felt like. And near the end we played (rather poorly) what the chat room demanded.



Will you do this again?
Yes. Probably. When is another question. We have some ideas for future marathons but we want to keep it fresh and original. We do not want to turn around and do the same thing. Think about it. We had 10-12 people playing games, we had live music written for the event, we had cookies baked in the shape of 9s, we had a variety of contests, we wore snuggies, and we participated in tomfoolery. We cannot just turn around and do all the same things. It’d be uneventful and not as special. We do have lots of ideas that we were unable to fulfill, so that right there gives us reason to do it again. Keep an eye of the website and we’ll announce new streams –we’ll probably do some shorter streams with Shenmue – but we will be back with something bigger and better. I hear there are some others out there that are thinking of copying what we did. So, in the meantime, if you need a fix, check them out. 


Check back later this week for the beginning of my Shenmue journey.

 

 

Still very tired. But I'm getting some pictures together to go with a re-cap of the games played and the players involved.. I'll try to include some insight into what we were thinking and why we did what we did during the marathon.

Later this week we will start recording The Dreamcast Ep and we hope to have it available by early Feb. (it will be a free download - so spread the word!).

Going to work was a bit tough and I was very tired all throughout the day (even now) - I wanted to type the update today but I'm still too drained. I should get it all done by tomorrow. Then I'll start updating about our plans for Shenmue.

Thanks again everybody (and a big thanks to everyone that sent in screen grabs) .

Thank-you to everyone for watching and taking part in www.ihaveadreamcast.com!!!!
Check back in the next day or two for full reflections, the plans for the future & Shenmue, & The Dreamcast EP (it will be free and available late Jan/early Feb.) talk to you soon!!!!! (panta AT ihaveadreamcast DOT com !!! BYEZ! Check below video for written re-caps!

Watch live video from I have a dreamcast on Justin.tv
If our live feed cuts out (as it does once every hour or two), have no worries, mates! It'll be back up within 5 minutes tops.

Into hour #23!!!

Bands began playing in the ten o'clock hour. Gemini Cricket kicked things off. Bicycles and Gravel will be up momentarily. Following them will be the South Will Rave Again, Grey Milk, and lastly, Captain #1.Gaming will be presented, much like a Velvet Underground show, in the background.

LESS THAN 3 HOURS LEFT!!!

To review here is what has happened recently (working backwards): Jet Grind Radio, Seaman - the Gillman were not being that talkative and a little too murderous, Virtua Tennis, this time with double matches... and before that is below. Oh, we also ate some dinner, mostly pizza from various places. Yum. A little bit of music soon and some 2D & 3D fighters.

The 20th hour approaches!!!

From 9 or 10:00 until our commencement at midnight we will be featuring live musical performances alongside our best of the best games. Each artist will play 2 songs, one of which will be a brand new song inspired by Dreamcast!!! For the list of bands check our earliest blog entries. Shenmue (the basis for this project) will also be unveiled in some fashion by the closing of this 24-hour extravaganza so stay tuned and tune in your friends!!!

In our 19th hour Crazy Taxi made a comeback for a brief stint where still no one has achieved better than a Class C license in arcade mode. We attempted to resurrect Power Stone and unlock 4 player but it became to arduous a task so we've laid that prospect to rest.

Looks like we'll finally be getting some doubles going in Virtua Tennis, a favorite on all fronts!

The room is filling up again and it looks like we're gonna pull this off! All three crickets are back, and with a new friend! Dan has returned as well. Tim stopped by briefly for his lunch- break and should be back again with Jenny in toe round about 10:00. In just a couple hours things are going to get really intense. We'll be rockin' Soul Calibur at some point and we will also indeed, even if only for a tad bit, be booting up Seaman. We've also got some delicious pizza and such from YourPie coming courtesy of Kathleen's courier service.

Thanks for sticking with us- we're pumped! The best is yet to come!

PS- Don't forget, if you're having trouble signing up for or logging into our chatroom, hit us up on AIM. We're signed on as xpoorxfishx.

Less than 6 hours to go

ILLBLEED - what can I say? I'm sorry that I didn't get to put the proper attention into that game, but it really is a slow-moving-watch-your-every-step type game, not the best choice when you are running on lack of sleep and trying to keep the momentum going. However, it always has been a favorite of mine and many folks were requesting some playtime - so I'm glad we did. Additionally, I'm glad I eventually wised up and jumped to a save file so I could fight the bizarre Sonic monster/boss and rescue Sexy Doll. Mission Accomplished.

Continuing into the 18th hour with the horror/comedy theme was a return to House of the Dead 2. Earlier in the marathon we played the game briefly but were stopped by a frozen screen - things are running much smoother this time around. In the end, our shooters, Matty and Jesse H, got oh so close to completion BUT not close enough.

So, it happened sort of like this

The 17th Hour is complete!

We continued to hop and grind around tricked out versions of famous cities until everyone except those of us playing wanted to break our thumbs. We'll try to refrain from any more THPS2 during this broadcast although we are infected with the urge now.

So it's on to Illbleed which unfortunately has a pretty slow start but should be a fun time. You can't beat the dialogue in these Dreamcast games either. No lips move and every voice sounds like Trey and Matt from South Park voicing someone with mild retardation. Lovin' this creepy two-note piano soundtrack too!

And speaking of piano- we have a new mascot- The Pianosaurus! Three cheers for Pianosaurus! Hip Hip Hooray!!!

The 17th hour is upon us!

With 2/3 of our all-day odyssey behind us, everyone has rekindled their long-lost affinity for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, the game which ruined our high school social lives after introducing the manual option, taking combos to a whole new level!

Gabriel has departed and Matty has returned from work. Illbleed will be up next per David's very emphatic request. Of course, we'll have to pry ourselves away from skating as Sean's little brother (our create-a-skater character) before the slaughter commences.

Don't forget to bring a towel!

We have a renewed energy as we stumble into the 16th hour...

Our number of players are increasing and after Kathleen's Crazy Taxi fit, I made a mockery of Jet Grind Radio. Now Sean is back on Sega Bass Fishing.

Hours 12 - 15: Soldiering on!

The hardest of the hardcore (Jesse T, Jesse H, and myself, Sean W), have kept the madness going. I fished for a bit, catching an 18-pound bass. Holy albino ape turds, Batman! That's right ladies. Line up.

After my incredible fishing performance, we moved back to Virtua Tennis, per Jesse H's request. Gabriel showed up midway and hopped in for some slappin' of ze rackets. Jesse H proved to have a slight edge, due to his unnatural obsession with men in shorts and sweatbands. Fortunately, the Doritos, Blue Mountain Dew (key to the nerd's sustainence), and Reese's provided by Gabriel kept the tennis losers' spirits high.

We then transitioned to Toy Commander, in 4-player Deathmatch mode. After we all figured out what the hell we were doing (slightly), Sean repeatedly launched tiny cute missiles at the opposition, further cementing his awesomeness. We moved on after the fifteen-minute plastic massacre had ceased.

Jesse H. picked up Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, manualing like a maniac. He continues to pound the pavement with 2 loose trucks. Beware, gaps! WE SHALL HUNT EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU DOWN!

*Ahem* Onward...

HALF WAY THERE

OMG - half way there... Even though we enjoyed Gauntlet Legends we could not get through without dozing, so part of the gang passed out for a bit but I soldiered on. I stumbled through Sonic Adventure until the mid-way point of this marathon. First time playing Sonic Adventure in years and I felt more lost than anything but the moments of true gameplay where great. Then I ate waffles and Kathleen jumped on Crazy Taxi We've reached double digits! Hour 10 has begun!

We gave Gauntlet Legends a good run but, while it is a fun game, it's rather repetitive and I actually passed out mid-play 3 times. Looking like monks, wrapped in our snuggies robes (thank you Jenny for the supply), we're doing our best to stay warm and awake.

Matty had to leave so he could get to work for 10:00, bringing us down to a mere 3 participators. Kathleen has woken up though, and provided a little moral support along with Jules (Jules mostly in the form of crying and stomping). Jesse T. is now pluggin' away at Sonic Adventure and I think Sean and I (Jesse H.) are going to let our lids down for a brief while. Even Mountain Dew can only last so long, and we've run out of Hot Pockets and Dan's 9-shaped cookies.

Thanks to everyone who's been spreading the word, showing us some love, and adamantly posting their disdain for us! It's been a blast so far and we're not even halfway through. Mayhaps when I'm done napping we'll have bushwhacked our way through 50% of this marathon. Go Jesse Thompson!

1/3 of the way through!

Let's hear it for landmark moments and fractions!

Hour number 8 was comprised entirely of Crazy Taxi. Our friends in the chatroom were not fans of Sean's skill or lack thereof. This disapproval continued throughout Jesse's turn at the wheel. Apparently a lot of people found it funny to promote violence in the form of strangling someone with a controller wire or punching one another in the face to the beat of Offspring and Bad Religion; but when I started laughing about a story we heard about a man killing his baby after being disrupted during Everquest, everyone's sensitivity meters burst. Perhaps it's sad, but so is clubbing seals and Guantanamo Bay- and who doesn't love a good Holocaust joke these days? Plus, and I stick by my guns, as I contended earlier; it's not like ya knew the baby.

While we're on the topic of dead things, the Lean Pockets ran through me like a bottle- rocket launched straight at the moon. I think they had less than two hours of hang-time inside my bowels before spattering out in he form of loose debris all over porcelaintown. In other essentially unrelated news, I noticed that our gaming room has developed a unique smell, a funk of sorts, somewhere between musty laundry, dirty socks, and damp closet. Fortunately the smell isn't noticeable after you're back in the room for 5 minutes or so.

So we're going strong(ish)...Sean's singing "Feliz Navidad" and we're on to Gauntlet Legends at this point. Sega Nerds has us at the top of their page (awesome!) and we've even got an article posted about us in Spanish on dreamcast.es!!! We also hit the 50 viewers mark! 50 people at once tuning into this nonsense! I love life! Onward Ho!

7 hours down!

Lots of Space Channel 5 this hour accompanied by some very exhausted Sean dialogue with our chatroom friends. I giggled to myself every time the host of the space radio show said something to the effect of "we're broadcasting live" or "our ratings are going up." We have a consensus that it may be the most entertaining game to watch thus far as it was pretty out there, pun intended, and full of upskirts and booty shorts of the dancing girl. truth be told, the main character didn't have much of a butt tough, so I don't know why the developers chose to switch from a short skirt to shorts.

After Dan's departure from the controller, he also left the gaming facility alongside Tim in the interest of sleep leaving us at a mere 4 tired but determined nerds. Belly full of pocket sized pizza and Mountain Dew, Sean undertook playing Evil Dead- a game version of the movie we all love so dearly. Unfortunately, we're not sure how much the video game Ash matches up to movie Ash. There is however, a pretty awesome feature in the game- a button for an Ash one-liner. Immediately disappointing, though, was that there are only three one-liners programmed- Bumsauce! Also underwhelming was the game-play itself which tried and failed to mimic Resident Evil well at all. Perhaps the best thing about the game was the quality of the toilet flush sound-byte, and oh how telling as it felt like taking a dump the whole time. According to Jesse T. the game gets a lot better once you make it out of the woods. If only it captivated us (or anyone) long enough to get that far. If every game on Dreamcast was like this we wouldn't have much of a leg to stand on with this blog's concept. Too bad the game couldn't also be directed by Sam Raimi.