Pro Tip of the Day - dreamcast

Pro tip: The highest scoring game I know about

Will — Fri, 07 May 2010 12:02:46 +0000

Pretty much since the video games kept score, it's been the obsession of a lot of people to get as many points as possible to show that they were the best player. And an arcade game called 'Giga Wing' takes that to its crazy extreme.

In Giga Wing, you have the ability to reflect enemy shots back at them, which allows you to collect these shield emblems, emblems that when collected increase your score multiplier, and your score multiplier increases the number of points you get every time you shoot down and enemy ship. And very quickly in this game there are lots of shots and lots of enemies that explode into a shower of pickups when hit

Seriously, it's enough anyone to get a score in the hundreds of millions.

But that's nothing compared to people who are actually good at the thing. Heck, you have to go through the whole game on one credit to see the 'real ending', and if you manage to do that, your score rockets up to the crazy-high territory: the Trillions.

Needless to say that I'm probably not going to achieve that any time soon. But maybe you can, if you can find a Giga Wing arcade machine (or a copy of the Dreamcast port).

Pro tip: Crazy Taxi driving techniques

Will — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:40:33 +0000

Crazy Taxi is kind of a tough game. Mostly because if you play the arcade game, you have no indication of how to perform the advanced techniques that you need to know to be successful at the game.

But that's what I'm here for.

You need to know 4 techniques to be a successful cabbie.

1. The Crazy Dash - The idea is to shift into Drive and then immediately stomp on the gas. The timing is a little tough to get without a demonstration, but pulled off successfully, you'll immediately rocket to top speed. You can do this at any time, even while you're driving. Also, if you're at a stop, and you do the Crazy Dash, but immediately put the car into Reverse, you'll go full-speed backwards.

2. The Limiter Cut - Once you get going at top speed with the Crazy Dash, you'll notice that your car will start to vibrate. When that happens you want to throw the car into Reverse, then Drive, and then hit the Gas, with the same timing as the Crazy Dash. This will give you a burst of speed that lets you go faster than your top speed for a couple of seconds.

3. The Crazy Drift - While you're driving, put the car into Reverse and then into Drive while turning a direction. You'll easily slide around corners. Let go of everything and do a Crazy Dash to recover.

4. The Crazy Stop - Do the Crazy Dash, but hit Reverse and the Brake instead of Drive and the Gas. You'll manage to stop much faster.

Here's a video I prepared of me performing all 4 of these techniques on the Dreamcast version Crazy Box challenge rank S-S. I'm a little out of practice at the game, but I think you'll get the idea.

Pro tip: Auto Mode in Space Channel 5

Will — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:27:07 +0000

Since today's the 10-year anniversary of the US launch of the Dreamcast, I figured a Dreamcast-style tip was in order.

The game Space Channel 5 is a rhythm game with kind of a nutso story: You have these aliens (in space) who are capturing (space) people and forcing them to dance. You play the part of a reporter who uses her power of dance to rescue them, Simon-Says-Style. The better you dance, the more people you rescue, and the higher your ratings get. You have to maintain a certain viewership or the game ends.

Easy, right?

Well, for the first few seconds it is kind of easy, but then the game throws all kinds of stuff at you: stalls, motions between the beats, changing tempos, that kind of thing. It actually gets pretty tough.

So that's why, when I get frustrated, I take my controller, hold L & R, and press Up, Left, A, Left, A, Down, Right, B, Right, B. Done right, you hear Ulala (your character) say, "Yeah!" I don't even have to pause the game first or anything. From then on, the computer takes over and plays a perfect game, which is kind of hard to convey in picture form, so I've prepared a video sample.

It takes about an hour to watch the game go on autopilot from start to finish, but it's worth it if only to see (and hear) the cameo by Michael Jackson as 'Space Michael' (no, really).