--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------~ S E G A F A N S   W E E K L Y ~           ~ ISSUE #7 - Mar 26 2006 ~                      copyright 2006 segafans.com------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------A Message from benstylus                                      ~ Page 1----------------------------------------------------------------------It's Sunday, and that means you guys are hungry for another breakfastlow in fat and high in Sega.Some of you may be returning for the second installment of the TwinkleStar Sprites strategy guide.  If so, you won't be disappointed.Others may be returning to get some impressions on Sega's new Game BoyAdvance game.  You, too, won't be disappointed.If there's one thing SegaFans Weekly is missing, it's disappointment.
But I'm not too disappointed that we don't have it!Also, don't know how it happened exactly, but I totally spaced out onthe Under Defeat release date - I had it preordered even, and I forgotto tell you all it was coming out.  At any rate, it was released thislast week.  And so far, it's looking to be THE LAST OFFICIAL DREAMCASTGAME.  I'll give you my impressions after I get it.On a more personal note, those of you who regularly visit the SegaFansforums or communicate with me via other means know that I recentlypurchased a Mac Mini in the hopes that it would be a replacement formy PC.How does it fare in comparison?  Well, it's still new, so I can't tellhow I'll feel after having used it for a while, but so far there arethings that i like and things that i dislike.I like the size - this thing is TINY.  Just telling you the dimensionsdoesn't really give you a good mental image... but basically I can putmy hands together side by side and completely cover the top of the MacMini.I like the Spotlight technology - it's comparable to a full textsearch in Windows, but takes about a second instead of minutes.In fact, I like a lot of the features - especially the fact that youcan rotate background images.  I currently have about 50 random Segawallpapers on rotation in 30 minute intervals.  Many of the things that I dislike are simply different hotkeys.  Forexample, I'm used to pressing Ctrl-S to save documents.  Now I have topress an unpronounceable key (in the same spot as the Alt key on a PC)and S instead.  It will take some getting used to, but I don't thinkit will be a long term problem.There are some issues that seem like bad design choices though.  On aPC you take for granted that you can select a file and press thedelete key to delete them.  Not so here on the Mac Mini - you have todrag it to the trash can.  As far as I can tell, there isn't akeyboard shortcut for deleting.Another big issues is Quicktime.  Microsoft has Quicktime beat in theMedia Player category - full-screen playback should be STANDARD, notan extra $29.99.I've already had three programs crash - to be fair,  two were in the"Classic" emulation mode (which appears to be largely useless).  Theother was Fire - a multi-messenger program similar to Trillian on thePC.  It's not an official Apple product, but it still shouldn't crashduring something as simple as  deleting some contacts.So I've got mixed feelings.  Soon I'll hook up my scanner and we'llsee how the Macintosh fares with that.  In the mean time, go enjoy theissue!                                                           ~ benstylus----------------------------------------------------------------------   To subscribe to the free SegaFans Weekly newsletter and have itdelivered to you via email before it shows up on the SegaFans website,send an email to sfw.subscribe@segafans.com & follow the instructions!----------------------------------------------------------------------Table of Contents                                             ~ Page 2----------------------------------------------------------------------1 - A Message from benstylus2 - Table of Contents3 - Top Story - If you build it, they will come...4 - Weekly News Roundup5 - SegaFans Forum Digest6 - Strategy Corner - Twinkle Star Sprites: Part 27 - New and Upcoming8 - Game of the Week - Sega Smash Pack (Dreamcast)9 - Links10- Credits / Contact Information----------------------------------------------------------------------Top Story - If you build it, they will come...                ~ Page 3----------------------------------------------------------------------Sim games have always been a fairly popular niche market in videogames, eventually evolving and creating a spinoff genre that isincredibly popular today - real-time strategy.Back in 1994, a man named Yoot Saito had a vision.  He wanted tocreate a sim game unlike any other.  Instead of building a city or atheme park, he wanted to focus on making a single building.  Not justany building mind you, but a tall skyscraper building.From Saito's concept and design, SimTower was released.  Five years later, Saito was at it again, and a new tower sim wasreleased - Yoot Tower.  Yoot Tower revolutionized the genre by...being almost identical in every way (including graphics) to SimTower.Not content to stop there, Saito wanted to revolutionize again, so 7years later, he created another nearly identical game, this time onthe Game Boy Advance.  This game is known as The Tower SP, and wasjust recently released in the US by Sega.  Hey, if a formula works,why change it?Well, you already know that it's just like SimTower and Yoot Tower,but if you've never played either of those, you probably still don'tknow how it plays.Thankfully, the game starts you off with a brief tutorial - introducesyou to the game's controls and what you'll need to do to be asuccessful building manager.  One of the great things about the game is it's attention to detailwithout actually making you focus too much on details.For example, the goal of running one of these buildings is obviouslyto make money.  To do that, you'll need to build offices that can berented to tenants.  At night, buildings can be burglarized.  Tenants will be unhappy iftheir office is robbed, so you'll need to set up a security room andhire some night security guards to prevent this from happening.Offices get dirty throughout the week, so you'll need to set up ajanitor supply room and hire some people to do the cleaning on theweekend.People don't like waiting a long time for elevators, so you may wantto install additional elevator cars or some stairs.  You have to becareful with stairs, however, as people won't want to walk up morethan two flights of stairs at a time.Also, people need to pee.  You'll want to set up bathrooms that aren'tterribly far from the tenants, and you definitely want stairway accessbecause having a tenant wait for an elevator when they have to use thebathroom can get ugly.Successfully managing a tower will give you lots of profit, but to besuccessful, you need to keep your tenants happy.  By giving them fastelevators, convenient bathrooms, security and cleaning, their stresslevels will stay low and they will actually make it easier to get moretenants.  On the other hand if stress levels are high, new tenantswill be hard to come by and you may lose some of your existingtenants.The cutaway view of the action in The Tower SP is another cool idea.  You can see everyone in the building individually, and you can evencheck in on them to see how or what they're doing.  You can give themnames if you want.There's tons more stuff to do in the game - you can sell condos,create shops and restaurants (hey, if people buy from yourrestaurants, that's more money for you), create hotel rooms and suites(which aren't long term rents like offices, but they do provide higherincome), and more.  Each of these things has an effect on other things - hotel rooms forexample, should not be too close to any offices or restaurants, asthose places are noisy.The Tower SP is a pleasant way to spend an afternoon, evening, week,month, etc.  Like most Sim games, the basic gameplay is pretty simple,but highly addictive.There is one big problem, however.Currently, the Tower SP is available only at Toys R Us stores, so ifyou want to buy it retail, that's your only option.  It's alsoless-than-generously priced at $29.99, so if you're really dying toplay it, I'd recommend spending 5 bucks and getting Yoot Tower for thePC or Mac instead.                                                           - benstylus----------------------------------------------------------------------Weekly News Roundup                                           ~ Page 4----------------------------------------------------------------------I've figured out how to use RSS feeds, and so the weekly news hasgrown a bit as a result.Sega Europe has announced they will be giving the hugely successfulJapanese soccer game "Let's Make a Soccer Team!" (otherwise known as"Sakatsuku") a European release on the Playstation 2!  No release datehas been given yet.    - http://www.sega-europe.com/en/NewsStory/1098.htmSega has also announced they will be providing classic Sega titles fordownload on the Nintendo Revolution.  While Sega licensing their gamesout is certainly nothing new (RealArcade and Gametap are twoexamples), this is the first news of retro games that aren't fromNintendo systems appearing on the Revolution.    - http://www.sega-europe.com/en/NewsStory/1097.htmSega announced they will be teaming up with Obsidian Entertainment(developers of Neverwinter Nights 2 and Star Wars Knights of the OldRepublic II) to develop an RPG for next-gen consoles and PC.    - http://www.sega-europe.com/en/NewsStory/1093.htm----------------------------------------------------------------------SegaFans Forum Digest                                         ~ Page 5----------------------------------------------------------------------We've had quite a buzz about GenkiVideoGames.com in our forums lately,and so we will be adding them to our permanent "Where to Buy Sega"list during this next update.  They're located in Europe, so now youfolks across the atlantic have a reliable place to buy import games!  If you couldn't figure it out, their website is genkivideogames.com    - http://www.segafans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1589 Bortumer pulls up some screenshots of what looks to be a Sega versionof Nintendogs...    - http://www.segafans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1807Icepak asks for opinions on V-Rally 2 (Test Drive: V-Rally in the US).  I give him mine, but you should give him yours too!    - http://www.segafans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1809Steve continues his GameCrazy pilgrimages, and comes away withDinosaurs for Hire and Zero Tolerance for the Genesis.  Got anyopinions on the games?  Share them!    - http://www.segafans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1816----------------------------------------------------------------------Strategy Corner - Twinkle Star Sprites: Part 2                ~ Page 6----------------------------------------------------------------------Last week, we went over the basics of the game.  Starting this weekwe're going to give an in depth analysis of each character (half thisweek, and half next week) including their strengths, their weaknesses,and some effective tactics for playing with them.  I'm going to assumethat you read last week's article - otherwise some of what I'm sayingwon't make a lot of sense.  And if you didn't read it, well, it's archived at SegaFans, so you'dbetter head over there now and get up to speed.Before each character's strategies, I've set up a stat box.  Thistells you the character's name, their movement speed, their chargingspeed, and my names for each of their three levels of attack.  Remember, Level 1 is a simple Charge Shot, level 2 is the Extra Attackwhich sends your minions to pester your opponent, and level 3 is thepowerful Boss Attack.Now, on to the characters! ____________________________________________________________________/                                                                    \|NAME: YAN-YAN           Lv. 1: GREEN WAVE                           ||MOVE: POKEY             Lv. 2: AMAZING FLYING ANGRY PIGGUMS OF DEATH||CHARGE: ULTRA           Lv. 3: BIGGUM PIGGUM                        |\____________________________________________________________________/Right off the bat, I'll introduce you to quite possibly the mostpowerful character in the game - Yan-Yan.  Don't let her in-gamerating fool you - Yan-Yan packs a serious wallop.Yan-Yan has an extremely fast charge speed, and a very useful chargeshot to go with it.  The Green Wave is very wide, and so it can beused to knock out an entire fleet of golems or even turn back a wallof fireballs onto your opponent with very little lead time.This ability is Yan-Yan's greatest asset - as such, you should playYan-Yan as aggressively as possible.  Sometimes reversing a wave offireballs is enough to knock your opponent out.  Chances are theywon't be able to shoot all of the reversals down (unless they, too,are playing as Yan-Yan).  Be mindful of how many golems they've got ontheir screen, though, as a chain explosion on reverse fireballs can bedevastating to you.Yan-Yan's Extra Attack is useful later in a match, but the AmazingFlying Angry Piggums of Death (tm) are not particularly helpful earlyon.  The pigs are pretty easy to dodge, but as a match progresses,things get faster and the pigs get more dangerous.  They don't stay onscreen very long, so in the early stages of a match, you're better offnot wasting your charge shot to send them.If you manage to fill your charge meter, by all means unleash theBiggum Piggum.  Be aware that it's not a particularly difficult bossto deal with, so you'll want to augment it with some fireballs orreversals to make it a bit more difficult.Yan-Yan's only real downside is that she has a slow movement speed,which can make dodging large numbers of harmful projectiles difficult.  But that's what bombs are for. ____________________________________________________________________/                                                                    \|NAME: LOAD RAN          Lv. 1: POWER BLAST                          ||MOVE: AVERAGE           Lv. 2: AMAZING FLYING EXPLODING STEALTH     ||CHARGE: AVERAGE                BUNNIES OF DEATH (TM)                |  |                        Lv. 3: BIG BUNNY                            |\____________________________________________________________________/It's a given that being the main character of the game means beingwell-balanced.  As such, she's the perfect character for beginners.  Ran's charge shot provides enough width to be useful in certainsituations, but she doesn't charge fast enough to be able to makeparticularly good use of it.  Ran does have a fantastic Extra Attack, however.  Her Amazing FlyingExploding Stealth Bunnies of Death (tm) come from the side and below,so they can often catch an opponent off guard - especially if thatopponent is hugging the inside edge of the screen.Like Yan-Yan, Ran has an average Boss Attack - the Big Bunny shouldalways be accompanied by a swarm of fireballs or some Extra Attacks.  As such, you should almost never unleash Big Bunny through a Level 3charge.  The Amazing Flying Stealth Bunnies of Death (tm) are moreeffective - set off two swarms in a row if you've got a full chargebar. ____________________________________________________________________/                                                                    \|NAME: DARK RAN          Lv. 1: DARK POWER BLAST                     ||MOVE: AVERAGE           Lv. 2: AMAZING FLYING EXPLODING EVIL STEALTH||CHARGE: AVERAGE                BUNNIES OF DEATH (TM)                |  |                        Lv. 3: EVIL BIG BUNNY                       |\____________________________________________________________________/Dark Ran plays exactly the same as Load Ran.  Except evil. ____________________________________________________________________/                                                                    \|NAME: NANJA MONJA       Lv. 1: DARK POWER BLAST                     ||MOVE: FAST              Lv. 2: AMAZING FLYING BOUNCY FLUFFS OF      ||CHARGE: FAST                   DEATH (TM)                           ||                        Lv. 3: MONJA KING                           |\____________________________________________________________________/Don't let their cute voice and plush exterior fool you.  Nanja Monjais arguably the most powerful character in the game.  He moves fast,charges fast (though not quite as fast as Yan-Yan), and all hisattacks are superb.His charge shot is a lightning blast that, while very thin, can beangled diagonally, which increases its versatility in preciselytagging just about any target.The Amazing Flying Bouncing Fluffs of Death (tm) slowly descend fromthe top of the screen and towards your opponent.  They're easy tododge by themselves, but there is strength in numbers.  If you can getthree or four of these guys onto your opponent's screen, they cancause a lot of trouble.  Not only are they harder to avoid in groups,but since they're invincible, that makes it much harder for youropponent to fight back for as long as they're moseying down thescreen.Monja King is best when surrounded by a few Amazing Flying BouncingFluffs of Death (tm), but even by himself he is potent.  He's got alightning attack that moves very quickly.  Unfortunately, he doesn'toften use it. ____________________________________________________________________/                                                                    \|NAME: ARTHUR SCHMITT    Lv. 1: BEAM OF SCHMITTINESS                 ||MOVE: FAST              Lv. 2: AMAZING FLYING SPRINTING SCHMITTY    ||CHARGE: AVERAGE                SPACESHIPS OF DEATH (TM)             |  |                        Lv. 3: SUPER SCHMITTY SHIP                  |\____________________________________________________________________/Arthur Schmitt is not a particularly popular character (who'd want toplay as someone named Arthur Schmitt?), but this can work to youradvantage, as Schmitt is one of the more powerful characters.If everyone used him, everyone would expect his extra attack.  Arthur's Amazing Flying Sprinting Schmitty Spaceships of Death (tm)have the distinct honor of being the only attack that goes directly upfrom the bottom of the screen.  You can use this to your advantageagainst folks who like to hug the bottom of the screen.  It's alsouseful against opponents who may not necessarily hug the bottom, butwho find themselves there on occasion during the course of a match.You really need to keep an eye on your opponent when you play asArthur to determine the optimal time to fire those Amazing FlyingSprinting Schmitty Spaceships of Death (tm).   Arthur's Charge Shot fires a beam straight forward that lasts for abit, but is always directly in front of Arthur.  Thanks to his highspeed, Arthur can literally wipe the entire screen clear in one pass.Just be careful you don't run into anything as you wipe.  Wipe frominside to out to be safe.The Super Schmitty Ship is also decent.  It's got a laser beam attackthat will instantly hit anything it touches.  It gives a brief warningbefore firing, but even if your opponent gets out of the way, theirmovement space is extremely limited during the time the beam lasts.  They're basically limited to a third of the bottom half of the screen. ____________________________________________________________________/                                                                    \|NAME: QUEEN MEMORY      Lv. 1: SCREEN-CLEARING SUPER BALLS          ||MOVE: FAST              Lv. 2: AMAZING FLYING DELICIOUS SNACK FOODS ||CHARGE: SINFULLY SLOW          OF DEATH (TM)                        |  |                        Lv. 3: CRUSHER CAKE                         |\____________________________________________________________________/Memory is the final boss of Twinkle Star Sprites, and is definitely aforce to be reckoned with when she is controlled by the AI.  However,she doesn't translate particularly well into a player controlledcharacter.  She's got one of the most dangerous Extra Attacks in thegame, but the rest of her moves leave a lot to be desired.To be fair, her charge shot pretty much wipes out everything on screenno matter where she is, but it takes such a long time to charge, thatit's almost never worth it.Her Extra Attack is nice, though - She causes Amazing Flying DeliciousSnack Foods of Death (tm) to materialize in random places over on theother side of the screen which then fly straight towards her opponent.The Crusher Cake, Memory's Boss Attack, is equally useful - not onlydoes it fly around and send projectiles, but it also generates extraAmazing Flying Delicious Snack Foods of Death (tm).  The biggest problem with Memory is that you will have a ratherdifficult time charging to fire an Extra Attack or Boss Attack.  Dueto this, Memory should really only be used by advanced players thatcan get Extra Attacks and Boss Attacks by shooting down or chainingreverse fireballs. ____________________________________________________________________/                                                                    \|NAME: GRIFFON/EVAN/BURN Lv. 1: BOOMERANG BUZZ SAWS                  ||MOVE: AVERAGE           Lv. 2: AMAZING FLYING FEATHERED WARRIORS OF ||CHARGE: AVERAGE                DEATH (TM)                           |  |                        Lv. 3: GARGANTUAN GRIFFON                   |\____________________________________________________________________/Griffon is another character with a unique charge attack.  He firesout two boomerang buzz saws, which then return to him.  If you dodgethem, however, you can keep them circling you - creating a sort ofrotating shield.  The downside of course is that you need to keepmoving to keep the buzz saws from returning to you, and this can leadto you inadvertently running into something.His extra attacks are fairly weak compared to everyone else - he sendssome Amazing Flying Feathered Warriors of Death (tm) to the top of theopponent's screen, and they fly straight down.  They're easy to see,easy to dodge, and they don't last particularly long.Gargantuan Griffon is another average boss attack - a few projectilesand swooping attacks, but fairly easy to defeat.  Unfortunately thismeans that Griffon is a bit of a subpar character.  Without a strongBoss Attack or Extra Attack, you'll need to focus on getting perfectchains and sending as much stuff as you can to your opponent, becauseyou'll really need to overwhelm them to have a chance.Can you remember all that?  If your favorite character wasn't in thelist this week, fear not!  The remaining six characters will be herenext week, including the Saturn exclusive character Meirin Kisaragi!----------------------------------------------------------------------New and Upcoming                                              ~ Page 7----------------------------------------------------------------------Here's a list of Sega's upcoming releases (within 2 weeks of thisnewsletter) as well as recent games in case you accidentally missedany of them.  This list covers games developed by Sega, published bySega, or on Sega systems.  These dates are direct from Sega, butsometimes they change em.  So this should be considered a "roughestimate" rather than hard facts.Some of the games are starting to get really long names so I've goneto the two line format (at least until they're off the list).RECENTLY RELEASED - USA-----------------------The Tower SP                                     GBA            03/14/06UPCOMING GAMES - USA--------------------None :(RECENTLY RELEASED - EUROPE--------------------------Sonic Riders                                     GC PS2 XB      03/17/06UPCOMING GAMES - EUROPE-----------------------OutRun 2006 Coast 2 Coast                        PC PS2 PSP XB  03/31/06RECENTLY RELEASED - JAPAN-------------------------Jissen Pachislot Hishhouhou! Ultraman Club ST   PS2            03/16/06Under Defeat   DREAMCAST!     03/23/06UPCOMING GAMES - JAPAN----------------------Pro Soccer Club o Tsukurou!  Europe Championship   PS2            03/29/06Jissen Pachislot Hishhouhou! Ore no Sora   PS2            03/30/06Jissen Pachislot Hishhouhou! Aladdin 2 Evolution DS   DS             03/30/06Jissen Pachislot Hishhouhou! Aladdin 2 Evolution Portable   PSP            03/30/06----------------------------------------------------------------------Game of the Week - Sega Smash Pack (Dreamcast)                ~ Page 8----------------------------------------------------------------------The title of this article really ought to be "How Sega managed to makea decent port Virtua Cop 2 for Dreamcast despite their best efforts."Because in all honesty, they probably tried to screw it up.  Theymanaged to screw up everything else on the Sega Smash Pack.What could be better than 10 classic Sega games on one Dreamcast disc?  Nothing, if the games are ported right.  Unfortunately, Sega hired alazy monkey to write the Genesis emulator for this pack, and it shows.But it's not just the programmer's fault - there's lots of blame to goaround.  The project leads, for example, had to decide that it wasgood enough to send for approval.Then one of the higher ups at Sega had to look at it and decide thatit was good enough to ship.The fact that Sega Smash Pack was released at all has caused me tobelieve that nobody at Sega of America has actually ever played avideo game in their life, and only have a vague concept of what avideo game is in general.So what's the problem?  Anyone who has ever played the original games on the Genesis willimmediately recognize that the sound has been butchered.  The gamesstill play all right, but by golly do they sound awful.  Some are bad,but playable, and others are so incredibly grating that they make youwant to turn the game off and hurl it out the nearest open window (orporthole if you play video games on a boat).To be honest, it sounds like the programmers took the sound chip fromthe NES and incorporated it somehow into their emulator.There is a silver lining to all this, however, and that is Virtua Cop2.Virtua Cop 2 was ported using the Windows CE operating system, whichon Dreamcast almost universally means the game will suck.  But itdoesn't.  In fact, Virtua Cop 2 plays marvelously.  You'll need a gunperipheral to enjoy it properly, but the fact that it is enjoyable isquite welcome, when compared to the other games on the collection.It's got a solid framerate (a rarity for WinCE Dreamcast games), andit's compatible with the standard Dreamcast controller as well if youdon't believe in using even fake guns.Considering there's only 3 other light gun compatible games on theDreamcast, if you're itching to get some more use out of your guns,there's no excuse not to get Smash Pack.If you've got no guns, or if you already have Virtua Cop 2 on yourSaturn, you should probably just avoid Smash Pack altogether. You're all probably wondering about the sounds in the Genesis games,so I've put in a few of them in the video.  Those of you who just wantto see Virtua Cop, it's roughly the last minute of the video.    - http://www.segafans.com/gotw/dc_sega_smash_pack.mov                                                              -benstylus----------------------------------------------------------------------Links                                                         ~ Page 9----------------------------------------------------------------------SegaFans: Covering the past present and future of everything Sega     - http://www.segafans.comSega of America     - http://www.sega.comSega Europe     - http://www.sega-europe.comSega of Japan     - http://www.sega.jpCuddly Gamers: A forum where gamers are nice to each other     - http://www.cuddlygamers.comGame Trading Zone: Buy, sell, or trade your games online for free     - http://www.gametz.comGame Tribute: Provides ad free hosting to quality game fan sites     - http://www.gametribute.comGenki Video Games: People at SegaFans like 'em!  Bet you will too!     - http://www.genkivideogames.comWhip Ass Gaming: A very hip gaming site run by BelPowerslave     - http://www.whipassgaming.com----------------------------------------------------------------------Credits / Legal / Contact / Subscription Information         ~ Page 10----------------------------------------------------------------------This issue was created in its entirety by benstylus.All original content copyright 2006 segafans.com.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------You may redistribute this newsletter under the following conditions:1 - You will not add, remove, or change any part of this newsletter.  2 - You will not charge for this newsletter.  If you run asubscription-based website, this newsletter must be in a non-subscription area of the site.3 - You will provide proper credit and a link to www.segafans.com----------------------------------------------------------------------All games featured are copyright their respective owners.----------------------------------------------------------------------Would you like to subscribe to the free SegaFans Weekly newsletter?Just send an email to:sfw.subscribe@segafans.comNOTE: To avoid spam, you will receive an auto-reply from that address.Read the instructions in the auto-reply to confirm your subscription.----------------------------------------------------------------------Tired of receiving the newsletter in your email every week?  If youwant to cancel your subscription, send an email to:sfw.cancel@segafans.com----------------------------------------------------------------------Got any comments, suggestions, complaints, or even submissions (hinthint)?  Just e-mail:sfw@segafans.comMake sure to put SEGAFANS WEEKLY in the subject header to get pastthe spam filter!Do not send file attachments without my approval - unsolicited e-mailwith files attached will simply be deleted.----------------------------------------------------------------------                             ~THIS ISSUE MADE WITH MACINTOSH TEXTEDIT~