Dreamcast question

[black dog]

I recently bought a copy of Zombie Revenge at Game Stop,took it home and it worked fine for the first couple of days. Now I can't get it to work on either of my DC consoles. When it loads it keeps going back to the screen with the four options(one of them being the bouncing controller). Anyway, is there any trick to getting a game that is not loading properly to work or should I take it back and get my money back. Any suggestions would be appreciated, Thanks.

[+Cafeman]

I've seen this kind of behavior many times with my DC -- unfortunately, I believe it is a sign that your DC lens is out of alignment, or dying.

 

I say this because I got a replacement DC recently and all these problems went away.

 

Still, you could make sure the disk is clean and not scratched.

[Invader_dag]

is the disc scratched or smuged?? if so, try to use a game(Cd, DVD, whatever) Dr. on it. If it still doesn`t play, then you might need to take it back. There just might be a particular scratch that is meesing up the initial boot sequence

[+-^CrossBow^-]

I have another idea...and one that has worked more than once for me. Make sure your using an actual SEGA VMU in the controller. I have several games that used to work fine on any VMU I had. Now many of them for some odd reason will lock up, or flat out refuse to go beyond a title screen unless I have an actual SEGA VMU in the DC controller. Games that do this for me are Bang! Gunship Elite, and Daytona which I thought was a bad disk and then started to work with only my SEGA VMU in the controller.

 

Just worth a shot since I don't know if you have tried that or not.

[CPUWIZ]

I recently bought a copy of Zombie Revenge at Game Stop,took it home and it worked fine for the first couple of days. Now I can't get it to work on either of my DC consoles. When it loads it keeps going back to the screen with the four options(one of them being the bouncing controller). Anyway, is there any trick to getting a game that is not loading properly to work or should I take it back and get my money back. Any suggestions would be appreciated, Thanks.

 

If all your other games work fine, I would either attempt to clean it or take it back.

[+Cafeman]

I have seen some strange things with DC not booting games. Games that would work fine on a friend's DC but not mine, etc.

 

Scratches and smudges are only part of the problem. I believe the VMU theory -- I've seen games lock up from full VMU's, then clear up space & reboot, and they load fine! BELIEVE IT ... OR NOT!

 

Regardless, Dreamcast rocks.

[RMila75]

For me, Bang! Gunship Elite only works if I remove any VMU or rumble pack from the controller.

And Sega Rally will rarely ever recognize any VMU or memory card.

The DC is certainly quirky like that.

 

I still never got the complete explanation of CD-Rs being harmful for the DC's disc drive. That seems to be a problem related to access time and too much motion of the drive with CD-Rs. Meanwhile, my ORIGINAL Hydro Thunder disc has some outrageous drive movement, especially at the high score name entry screen.

And everyone on any message board shies away from the CD-R questions, for understandable reasons, but I'd love to find some detailed answers.

I have never seen a system that has caused so many odd problems and raises so many questions.

[Xot]

Using the Playstatio/PC/Saturn controller adapter also causes many games not to boot. Don't understand it. Thankfully, all my Capcom & SNK fighters don't seem to mind it. I wonder if it has anything to do with the machine looking for an analog input to calibrate?

[Foxy Cleopatra]

Well we have 3 DC's and 2 work fine. My son's used DC is really quirky about the games it will play. Aerowings and the other "flying game" won't play at all. He gets all pissed off every time he tries to play them. You would think he'd give up trying after all this time, but he is a tenacious and optimistic little bugger