| DC
Roommate Ryouko Inoue |
Scans |
Your wretched
grades at school throw a monkey wrench into your plans for
world domination... or maybe just graduation. Around this same
time, family friend Ryouko's father goes on a business trip to
another country and won't be back for a spell. This opens up
two possibilities for a flunking student whose reputation at
his current learning institution is marred by dastardly exam
scores. Transferring to
another school might help to get you back on scholastic track.
Living with Ryouko Inoue as a companion and a caretaker opens
up the chance at some interactive romance. Both options are
undeniably savory in your predicament.
In previous Roommate games, Ryouko was your guest
in her role as a transfer student but the tables are turned in
the latest Roommate excursion. Gameplay ensues in the form of
animated conversation screens where action and speaking
options are presented to the player. Say or do the right thing
and the world is yours. Act the fool and all you'll get is the
cold shoulder and less. |
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Roommate Ryouko US$58 |
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| DC
Super Puzzle Fighter IIX |
Scans |
| A never-ending
barrage of crystalline baubles drop from the sky and it's up
to super-deformed Street Fighters and Vampire Hunters to
assemble the gems into color combos. From the SF camp, we
greet Akuma, Chun-Li, Dan, Ken, Ryu, and Sakura. On the
Vampire corps, the mighty Donovan, Felicia, Hsien-Ko, and
Morrigan match gems like there's no tomorrow. Devilot from
Cyberbots may be the only stranger in Puzzle Fighter but
you'll get used to her. Dev's saying "Don't you recognize
me? Cyberbots is Capcom's 1 game" offers both irony and
clarification on her origins. The gist is this: gems colored
blue, green, red or yellow rain down and your task is to group
them together. Crash Gems obliterate like-colored jewels and
the occasional Power Gem block takes up at least a 2x2 space.
Salvation in tough times come in the form of a Diamond Gem
which clears the screen of any one colored gem that you light
it upon. Unique to the Dreamcast version: Online Matching
Service play and new IIY and IIZ game modes, following the IIX
mode. |
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Puzzle
Fighter IIX
US$39 |
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| DC
US Shenmue |
Scans |
|
Sega could have gone with a myriad of names for this one. Some
examples of what might have been are "De la Shenmue"
or "Let's Make a Shenmue Re-release". Eschewing
fancy re-iterations, Sega went with the quick and literal US
Shenmue, and that's exactly what it is. In the event that
further illumination is required, US Shenmue copies everything
found in the American release of Shenmue. Two distinctions
should be made to discern the two however: US Shenmue ships in
a colorful, laminated box as shown to the right and the game
manual includes both Japanese and English instructions. Four
GD-Roms are enclosed within the game packaging. Since US
Shenmue hails from the Japanese market and meant for use in
that territory, US Shenmue only plays on a Japanese DC.
A chip-modified American or European DC capable of worldly
boots will also work. No DCX or Utopia boot-loader need
apply. |
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US Shenmue US$33 |
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| PS2
Dream Audition 3 |
Scans |
|
Big, loud, vocal intonations are the key to karaoke. Overpower
'em with vigor and booming skills. Meek voices won't win the
day or any respect from the onlookers at the karaoke bar. The inability to carry a
tune may hamper your ascent to the top of the pops or fail you
in the karaoke scene but an alternative exists. A virtual
option where you can sing until you're spent without damaging
the musical sensibilities of others or offend delicate ears.
At home alone, in your underwear, hamming it up with DA3, no one
cares. Especially not the forgiving Dream Audition 3
software. You won't be ranked on lyrical accuracy or even
intelligibility. Mumble and stumble your way through the
appointed song with the correct vocal intonation and string
together melisma after melody and you'll be fine.
Formulaically identical to the original Dream Audition and
it's sequel, players follow the rhythm of the J-Pop song and
try their best to match the tones and sings the lyrics
scrolling on screen. Professional karaoke players or show-offs
may want to try the "Key Mode" which will grade you
on how well you move between keys during a song. A large
assortment of J-Pop songs from the likes of "The Yellow
Monkey", Glay, Judy and Mary, Misia, and Whiteberry rock
your world. Sort of. The DA3 game packaging includes a USB
microphone at the price of Y6800, a much harried descent from
the original Y10800 pricing of Dream Audition 1 back in the
day.
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Dream
Audition 3 US$63 |
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| PS2
Piposaru 2001 (Nani Kore?!) |
Late Apes |
PS2
Piposaru 2001, Tetsu-One Train Battle, and Yanya
Caballista were expected today but holiday flight delays
botched our shipments. The remainder of this week's PS2 stock
is now expected to arrive tomorrow morning. On the Wonderswan
Color, we'll take delivery of Blue Wing Blitz from
Squaresoft which features tactical airship battles and
stylistic characters. Since Piposaru got delayed, we'll
have to wait one more day to realize our dream of suctioning
simian drawers.
An assortment of Japanese toys arrived today but
we won't get a chance to update these until Friday. Some of
the stock include: Yamato Macross VF-11B mecha, the FFX
2-poster set, Bandai DX Fire Valkrie and DX Stealth
Valkrie, Samba de Amigo plushes, Parappa plushes,
and Macross figures including three for Minmei and a
couple for Hikaru and Misa Hayase. The dancing Parappa and the
Furby-Parappa are not expected until later this month but
we'll update once they arrive.
NCS also took delivery of Sega's new C-Bot
robotic toy and we'll post a review of the product tomorrow.
C-Bots are available for shipping today on phone orders only
but they'll be posted online tomorrow morn.
Other than the PS2 newbies, nothing else is
expected tomorrow but we'll update if other shipments somehow
scurry in. |
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Piposaru 2001 soon |
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| PS2
Hard Drive Solicitation |
Media |
|
News winged it's way from overseas about
the PS2 hard drive due to ship on July 19. Two models are on
offer as listed below. |
SCPH-10210
External HD |
Compatible
only with SCPH-1x000 models |
| Retail
price in Japan: Y20,900 (NCS US$185) |
| Measures
120mm x 39mm x 178mm (W x H x D) |
| 40
GB capacity; product weight of 1.1kg |
| Includes
network adaptor, pc card, HD utility disc v1.0 |
SCPH-10260
Internal HD |
Compatible
only with SCPH-3x000 models |
| Retail
price in Japan: Y19,000 (NCS US$170) |
| Measures
122mm x 27mm x 153mm (W x H x D) |
| 40
GB capacity; product weight of 0.7 kg |
| Fits
into PS2 expansion bay |
|
Pre-orders for either version of the PS2 hard drive are
welcome by e-mailing NCS
with the header "PS2 Hard Drive". Thank you. |
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|
Reading through Sony's product flyer for the hard drive, it
appears to be used initially as a buffer of sorts to reduce
disc loading times for various software titles. It also serves
as a receptacle for downloads of data to expand game scenarios
available to the player. The A1 train simulator supports this.
The 40 GB capacity is forward looking
since the current uses of the drive would probably fit nicely
on a 10 GB drive. Once the 56K modem arrives, perhaps PS2
phanboys will download little moviez, pictures, mini-games,
etc onto their hard drives. We'll see how this potential
cottage scene develops over the summer since you can never
have enough HD space... |
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| Earthlink
Mail Down |
eLiT3 |
|
Earthlink DSL, which NCS uses to handle most of our e-mail, is
down this morning. We can't send or receive anything but we're
assuming this will be fixed soon. Messages sent to any other
NCS account will reach us but we won't be able to respond
since all outbound messages are routed through ELNK's service.
Lame? Yah it is, we're switching to AOL.
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With regards to reliability, dial-up beats DSL if you don't
need the speed. So, yes, we would have to consider stodgy old 56K
sturdier than DSL. |
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| Frequently
Asked Questions |
Protocol |
|
Common
questions, rotated on a weekly basis, are now posted online
for perusal. Please check the FAQ before sending an
e-mail message
that may already be answered on the page. It's not that we
mind (well, maybe sometimes we do) the voluminous daily e-mail
queries but very common questions come up very often. It's our
way of addressing redundancy and consequent inefficiency. Thank
you. |
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|
Questions received henceforth which are already answered in
the FAQ
won't be ignored. You'll
still receive a reply within 48 hours but not the usual 1 to
12 hour reply time. |
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