Even since before the
announcement, it’s been clear that Sega Europe don’t treat Europe with
the same respect as Sega America and Sega Japan treat their respective
areas, which has lead to several things in European games if they make it
to us at all. Well several of us at DCS have decided enough is enough with
Sega Europe, and so, have decided to start importing our games, so just
for you, here is a little FAQ into the world of importing.
Why
Import?
Simple, you often get a
superior version of the same game.You
can get games earlier than their PAL counterparts, you get extra modes,
you can get it cheaper than it would cost to buy in the shops, and you can
get games which won’t be released in Europe, including the niche from
Japan such as SNK’s uber hip, “Cool Cool Toon!” the best of American
sports, NBA2K1 and NFL2K1 being the main games which spring to mind!
Enough reasons?
What
do I need?
Playing import games on
your DC is simple, and there are a variety of options available to you.
You can:
Buy
a US machine specifically for playing NTSC games if you got a good
budget that is!
The
second, and probably best option is to purchase an Action Replay CDX.
www.gameplay.com
are one web site which stock them, and then mostly independent
computer games shops stock them. It is simply a CD, and a special
memory card, which cons your DC into thinking it’s an NTSC console.
Action
Replay CDX Demo given with an issue of the now obsolete DC-UK will
also boot up U.S. Games on a PAL DC
Utopia
Boot disc, this is the cheapest method, but also the least reliable,
however if you don’t fancy any of the above, or haven’t got the
CDX demo then you can download it from www.dcemulation.com
and provided you have a CD-Writer can burn your very own Boot disc!
Klass J
Where should I go for
my Import games?
There are a lot of places
in Town Centres, and many stores on the Web which retail Import games.Beware of some internet sites though, make sure you know who
you’re dealing with!Simple
rules to follow:
If
you’ve never heard of them before, and don’t know any ‘happy
customers’ of theirs.. then we suggest you steer clear.
If
the price sounds too good to be true, then it probably is too good to
be true!
Make
sure you’re aware of their international shipping prices, and any
other charges that may be incurred.
We
tend to use www.tronixweb.com for many
reasons.They are reliable, helpful, but most importantly fast!
Average delivery time is around 4 days, which is faster than a lot of
established UK mail order companies! They generally charge the US RRP for
any games, and then $6 delivery, it can often work out cheaper than buying
the PAL version despite this. Tronix aren’t the cheapest, but it’s
worth the extra for the reliability!
If you haven’t got a
credit card, then don’t worry, you can still get your import gaming
goodness from the high street.However,
you will have to pay extra for most of the games as they take a charge
quite a bit for importing, so no bargains here! There are several UK
retailers which stock import games, however, they only tend to be found in
larger cities,
2 of the major import
retailers are GameStation, and Computer Exchange, which are both pretty
good, on service and customer care(the
all important warranty on the product, remember the warranty that comes
with the game doesn’t count in the UK)
Problems you may
Encounter
Although rare, there are
some problems it is important you are aware may arise with importing
games, so just to keep you in the know, here are the problems I have come
across with importing.
Some
games only boot up in 50hz (a recent release being Daytona) unless you
use a VGA monitor, or the NTSC mode the full version of CDX allows you
to use. If you can’t use either of these, then u cannot play the
game online.
Some
games don’t work with the SCART lead and so need to be played either
through the VGA box, or with a standard RF lead supplied with every DC
console. (Skies of Arcadia and Unreal Tournament are 2 games like
this!)
Some games only work through a VGA box
or NTSC compatible TV no matter what mode you boot it up with through
the CDX however this is an extremely rare problem and so far I only
know of one game which has this problem (the game being Experimental
Gimmick Gear)
Other than those above
there should be no other problems at all with importing games, if you know
of any others simply email them to me on the email address below!
Current Recommended
imports
Here’s just a list of
the titles we currently recommend you should consider importing, although
don’t worry about importing a game if it isn’t on the list!
Daytona
USA 2001, well this HAD to be number one on the list, fantastic
graphics, insane speed, and ultra hyper power slides! What more needs
to be said, other than that the king of 3D racers is back, with style!
If you don’t believe me, then just check out our reviews here!
Daytona USA costs around £30 to import including shipping!
Unreal
Tournament, we know the PC version was fantastic, but only if u had a
ninja monkey of a PC to run it on! The superior console version
surprisingly comes not onto PS2, but onto our very own Dreamcast with
slightly simplified graphics, the frame rate (which was a dog at times
on PS2) is now a lot smoother, and the DC US version at least, has an
8-player online mode, however “due to reasons beyond their
control” Infogrames had to remove it from the PAL version which
isn’t due out until June, (out now in USA)! Like Daytona USA, Unreal
Tourney is about £30 to import, and for less…you are getting
more!!! With Online play included, you’d be a fool to miss either of
these!
Sega
Smash Pack, are you a fan of the classic 16-bit Mega Drive hits? Or
even a Virtua Cop 2 mad psycho-maniac? OR just looking for another
excuse to dust down that DC light gun which you haven’t touched
since you finished House of the Dead 2? Well, if you fit into any of
them, you might well want to import yourself a copy of Sega’s retro
Smash Pack, it’s at a budget price too, less than £25 including
postage to be more specific!
Spider
Man, for those of you who missed his classic outing on the PSX,
Spiderman is back on the DC fresh from Tony Hawks 2 with the usual
love and attention Neversoft games have been getting! In fact, the
game is even ported to DC by the same company responsible for Tony
Hawks 1 + 2, that’s Trey Arch to those who don’t know, and
they’ve done an equally good job of porting Spiderman to DC, well
worth a look!
Armada,
this title was originally due to be released in the UK way back in
March 2000, as you’ve probably noticed if you’ve kept up to date
on the DC games scene the game just simply never appeared. Armada is a
3D Space sim/shoot ‘em up/RPG, packed with everything you’d expect
from a Metro 3D game, you explore the galaxy (which is endless, you
can go on forever, just as in space itself, without ever looping back
around so thankfully there is a return to centre option!) Mixing
classic shoot em up action, with a little bit of simulation from the
physics, and RPG elements, Armada is a different experience from
anything else on the DC, and at £15 including p&p from tronix,
you’ve got absolutely no reason not to import this little
undiscovered gem!
We’ll add more games as
the FAQ is extended, if you’ve got a question about importing games then
simply mail them to mike@dreamcastsource.co.uk
*NOTE
This can lead to problems when trying to play online as the US games are
running around 17% faster, which means you can be constantly disconnected.
Something to think about when buying games purely for the online option
(recent examples of why you might be doing this being Daytona USA, and
more recently Unreal Tournament) but playing through VGA this is not a
problem as the game still runs at full speed!
