Just got a dreamcast, have questions.

[Mr_Biggs]

Hi all, i just came into possesion of a dreamcast, and i managed to get RadQuake to run on it, so it works with Homebrew. But i have a few questions. FYI, i like to use .sbi files from sbiffy!com

There is a phone jack on the back. how do i get access to the net?
Can i connect two dreamcasts directly together?
What does "compatible with windows CE" mean?
What are some good FPShooters?
What are the controls for nesterDC? i cant get past the start screens.
Is there a server list available for Quake 3 Arena? i need to find a server in North Carolina.
What sweet stuff can i use/make for the serial port? anything like a HD?
In the NXquake readme, it mentions "weird controllers", with 2 a-sticks and additional buttons. how rare are these?
Can anyone reccomend a good doom port? i cant figure out where to stick the wad files.

thanks all.

[beetroot bertie]

To go online you need a dial up internet service, the necessary phone cable and a DreamKey disc which lets you use your own ISP (sega's servers ceased quite some time ago now). To get a DreamKey disc for free you need to ask Sega Europe for one. See:

http://sega-en.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/sega_en.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=182&p_created=1096017863&p_sid=-xiLFgmh&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX 3Jvd19jbnQ9MiZwX3Byb2RfbHZsMT03JnBfcHJvZF9sdmwyPSZ wX2NhdF9sdmwxPTc4JnBfcGFnZT0x&p_li=

You can connect 2 DCs together but you need the serial cable (to go in that serial port you mentioned). That said there's very few games that offer link up play - the only ones I can think of are F355 Challenge (the option is hidden on the PAL version I have) and Virtua On - OT (Japanese game).

The windows CE compatibility means games developed for the win CE environment will work easliy/port easily with the DC. I think it allowed developers greater ease when porting PC games.

As for FPS, the DC lacked many good story driven single player games (especially with Half-Life not being finished) but had a few deathmatch type games. The better ones in my opinion are Quake III & Outtrigger. Also of note are Soldier of Fortune (suffers from long loading times) and Unreal Tournament (suffers from slowdown/dodgy framerates in splitscreen mode). If you like slow sqaud based tactical shooters, you may like Hidden & Dangerous. The NxMakaqu version of Quake 1 is also very good - better visually than RadQuake.

[Mr_Biggs]

thanks, but i dont live in europe, im a redneck in the states. do i call sega usa then?

[Eric]

There is no free webrowser disks available to North America meaning US and Canada of course. I suggest trying to find a webrowser at your local gaming shop and if theres none there check out ebay there usually good for it.

[Darksaviour69]

also sega of europe have been known to send some dreamkeys to europe, but i think that they got a load of orders they stoped that.

[Mr_Biggs]

Oh, that sucks. do i need the dreamkey disc for multiplayer games? if not, where is a site that i can get quake 3 arena server addresses at? Does anyone know what the select key is in NesterDC?

[curt_grymala]

AFAIK, the majority of the net servers for online games have been taken down. I believe there are a few topics discussing which online games might still have active servers, and there might even be a topic or two discussing some online games that can play over un-official servers, but I'll bet that someone else could post that information quicker than I'd be able to dig up any of it (since I have never hooked my DC up to my phone line in the 6 or 7 years I've owned it).

[Christuserloeser]

What are some good FPShooters?

If I remember correctly these are perfect/quite good:

Rise of the Triad:
http://www.dchomebrew.org/rott.shtml

Hexen:
http://www.dchomebrew.org/dchexen.shtml

Heretic:
http://www.dchomebrew.org/files/sbi3.0/Heretic-Shareware.sbi

QuakeDC:
http://www.dchomebrew.org/files/plain/quake_sw.rar
http://www.dchomebrew.org/files/plain/quake_sw.r00
http://www.dchomebrew.org/files/plain/quake_sw.r01

nxDoom:
http://www.dchomebrew.org/dreamcastdoom.shtml


Commercial FPS:

Quake III
Unreal Tournament
Fur Fighters
Outtrigger

...and probably a dozen others that aren't too bad but I can't remember atm.



What are the controls for nesterDC? i cant get past the start screens.

A brings you to the game menu, X to options (in NesterDC v6.0 & v7.x).

I recommend this download:
http://www.dcevolution.net/cgi-bin/download.pl?file=DEPNES.rar

Info:
http://www.dcevolution.net/emulation_depnes.php



In the NXquake readme, it mentions "weird controllers", with 2 a-sticks and additional buttons. how rare are these?

I really don't know but I'd like to mention that nxMakaqu (which is based on nxQuake) is by far the best Quake port for playing your Quake WADs:

http://www.dcemulation.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=861929



Can anyone reccomend a good doom port? i cant figure out where to stick the wad files.

Like I already linked to above, nxDoom definitly is by far the best Doom port for Dreamcast:

http://www.dchomebrew.org/dreamcastdoom.shtml