You may have noticed in my previous post that I own two copies of Super Magnetic Neo. Well, as of 2 minutes ago I have secured a third copy. No, I'm not a hoarding Neo fan who must own every copy of the game. I'm simply trying to own a working copy! My copies aren't scratched, in fact the second copy I bought was like new. The Gagaman's collection video mentions him having a similar problem with Virtua Striker 2. Why is it that this happens? Is it a production fault? Whatever the reason, I am now Ahab and Super Magnetic Neo is my white whale.
My first Neo purchase got me a mint case and booklet with a used but in pretty good shape disc. Unfortunately, the game wouldn't make it past the Dreamcast intro screen. Luckily, the seller refunded my money and allowed me to keep the game. My second auction brought me a near mint copy of the game (disc only), and while it made it further than the last copy it got hung up on the loading screen after the intro movie. While Neo has been described as a difficult game, I'd say it's more difficult to buy a working copy of it! I'm hoping that this post will bring me good luck in my third attempt. If it works, I'll be a very happy whale hunter.Coming next: The third and final part to the "Turning Japanese" article including a special extra on Dreamcast portable accessories! See, I haven't forgotten the "portable" aspect of this blog.
Is it the PAL version of the game you're grabbing or the US one? I have a US copy that works fine as far as I know, and it's not exactly in great condition. For me it seems to mostly be PAL games that do this, including V-Rally 2 and one time it happened with Virtua Tennis 2, as well. The one non PAL game to do it to me was a Japanese copy of Air Force Delta.
ReplyDeleteAll copies have been US versions, although I was considering trying other regions after the second failure.
ReplyDeleteI've had a few other "out of the plastic" US games that fail on me occasionally. "Hydro Thunder", purchased last month, freezes at the options screen and sometimes quits to the system menu mid-race. Also, my copy of "Ecco: Defender of the Future" usually takes a few attempts to boot up. I thought it had something to do with my Dreamcast, but I experience these problems on both my US and Japanese consoles.
Must be a faulty disc writing job.