Games By James Plafke Dec. 27, 2013 5:02 pm
Sega’s ill-fated Dreamcast released in North America in September of 1999, and production ceased less than two years later in March of 2001, in no small part due to the ease with which you could burn pirated games to a disc and have them run flawlessly on the system. Despite not being the forebear of competent DRM, the console did set the stage for future console tech, such as built-in modems, downloadable content, and games with online voice chat. Some of the Dreamcast’s most popular games lived on other consoles for a while, like*Jet Set Radio and*Phantasy Star Online. Other games began life on the Dreamcast and ended life on other consoles. One such game was*ToeJam & Earl III, which released on the original Xbox. Now, that Dreamcast version has finally released.
Nearly 13 years after the console officially ceased production, the Dreamcast is still receiving the occasional (never official) game. This time, it’s in the form of an abandoned version that was ported over to the Xbox.*ToeJam & Earl may not have much of a presence in modern-day gaming, but the series was iconic back in the gaming days of yore. The second game was most notable for not only being hilarious, but featuring one of the earliest “complex” rhythm game segments in gaming history. The segments had mechanics similar to Harmonix’s*FreQuency and*Amplitude, which in turn led to the Guitar Hero and*Rock Band boom. The first*TJ&E*featured the most notable segment from the series, a secret hot tub level complete with hula girls.
The third game — ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth –*was initially in development for the Dreamcast, but when the console folded, creators Greg Johnson and Mark Voorsanger preferred if the title continued life on the PlayStation 2 or GameCube. However, due to the simplicity of porting over to the Xbox — and also thanks to some free advertising on Microsoft’s part — the third game in the series made its way to the Xbox.
A beta copy of the Dreamcast version of the game was discovered on the*hard drive of a Dreamcast dev kit*– purchased for around $1,200 on eBay –*and recently released. The beta version is unstable, and is more like the original game than its sequel or the Xbox release — no boss fights, mini-games, or hub world. Also, no one is panicking on Funkotron, which is regrettable.
If you’d like to brave the early, unstable beta, you can grab the files here — links are toward the bottom of the first post. If you don’t want to brave an unstable beta, you can just be sad with the rest of us that ToeJam & Earl don’t have much influence on this world anymore.
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Nearly 13 years after the console officially ceased production, the Dreamcast is still receiving the occasional (never official) game. This time, it’s in the form of an abandoned version that was ported over to the Xbox.*ToeJam & Earl may not have much of a presence in modern-day gaming, but the series was iconic back in the gaming days of yore. The second game was most notable for not only being hilarious, but featuring one of the earliest “complex” rhythm game segments in gaming history. The segments had mechanics similar to Harmonix’s*FreQuency and*Amplitude, which in turn led to the Guitar Hero and*Rock Band boom. The first*TJ&E*featured the most notable segment from the series, a secret hot tub level complete with hula girls.
The third game — ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth –*was initially in development for the Dreamcast, but when the console folded, creators Greg Johnson and Mark Voorsanger preferred if the title continued life on the PlayStation 2 or GameCube. However, due to the simplicity of porting over to the Xbox — and also thanks to some free advertising on Microsoft’s part — the third game in the series made its way to the Xbox.
A beta copy of the Dreamcast version of the game was discovered on the*hard drive of a Dreamcast dev kit*– purchased for around $1,200 on eBay –*and recently released. The beta version is unstable, and is more like the original game than its sequel or the Xbox release — no boss fights, mini-games, or hub world. Also, no one is panicking on Funkotron, which is regrettable.
If you’d like to brave the early, unstable beta, you can grab the files here — links are toward the bottom of the first post. If you don’t want to brave an unstable beta, you can just be sad with the rest of us that ToeJam & Earl don’t have much influence on this world anymore.
More...
