Defective Dreamcast disc?

I just got a new Dreamcast game. Puyo Puyo 4, a Japanese import.

I tried to play the game to test it out. It booted up ok with the Utopia boot disc. It says something in Japanese. Then the SEGA screen comes on... then is says "in cooperation with Compile".... Then nothing. A black screen comes on that never goes away. Does this sound like a defective disc? That's my theory...

I only have one experience with a defective Dreamcast disc. I have 30+ games myself, but a friend of mine had a defective Jet Grind Radio which got to the loading screen and simply stayed on "now loading" forever. :\

Bleh.. this sucks hardcore. :mad:

It might not work with the Utopia disk, my Sakura Wars did something very similar with the Utopia boot disc but worked fine with the DCX and Innovation ones.

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Originally posted by Werewolf
It might not work with the Utopia disk, my Sakura Wars did something very similar with the Utopia boot disc but worked fine with the DCX and Innovation ones.

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Hrm... I thought that might be the problem too.... But I figured since the game actually started to load that it could not be the Utopia disc?

Bleh, I wish I had one of those other boot discs around to test it with.. :(



ps. *jealous of your Sakura Wars*

at least your game gets as far as booting up. i have a U.S. Dead or Alive 2 game which the system will not recognize az a game disc or a music disc. it has no scratches on it or anything. it's not a CDr.
what do you think of that? i have tried it on 4 different Dreamcasts

One of the things so many were pissed about when the DC launched was the defective games. Answer to your question about it being defective is a resounding very possible.

Hrm.. well, this will definitely suck if it's defective and I have to return it to Japan for a refund. :(

Does anyone here have Puyo Puyo 4 (att'n: Shidoshi?) and can confirm if it does or does not work with Utopia.

*sigh*

:(

You might wanna see which version of Utopia bootdisc you're using...
I believe there were 2 different versions of them.
One of my friends used to own Puyo Puyo-n (4), and I remember him using an Utopia bootdisc to play it. Don't remember which version though. (Sorry for the vague info, but it's been a while...)

On a sorta relative note, my friend's Gigawing (Japanese version) loads fine, except most of the in-game sound effects & sprites are messed up. We tried the game on 3 different DC's (including my Japanese DC) and still got the same problem. We've tried cleaning the disc many ways, but still the same... Weird, but true.

It may be the fact that you are using a boot disc. My Magic the Gathering will work up until gameplay and then freeze if I play it with a DC-X, but works fine on my Asian Dc. So it is very possible that the game is not compatible with the boot disc. Good luck.

Thanks for all the help guys... I guess I can't know for sure until I either try the game on a Japanese Dreamcase, which is not going to happen, or try it with a different import playing device.

My gut tells me it's a defective disc. I am not sure why but it just seems like that's probably it. My gut has been known to be very wrong about things though.. heh. :p

I guess I should try to get ahold of a DCX or something, which is a nuisance because the Utopia disc (I think it's version 1.1, it's in the other room though) works fine with my other import game (Rez).

Today has been "one of those days". :(

I will check my Sakura Wars again with the Utopia CD v1.1 and see exactly what it does, I know it doesn't work with that and I am pretty sure it boots the Sega screen but nothing after that.

I would suggest a Innovation boot CD (just like DCX), www.gexpress.com has them for $14.50, I wish I knew for sure if that was what was wrong... if you have a EB or GameStop you could try and see if they have one and if it turns out to be a defective game you could at least return the boot CD... wish I could be some more help.

http://www.gexpress.com/detailedspec...r=738012518915

Yeh, that's exactly my dilemma Werewolf.... I don't want to buy another boot CD and then have it turn out that the game is defective and basically end up with a boot CD I don't need. If any of the stores aroud here had any I'd buy it and test it out, but I am quite sure none of them do. So, mailordering something I might have to send back is not very appealing...

Oh well, I am sure I'll figure it out eventually.

Thanks for the help. It's much appreciated.

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Originally posted by sggg
Thanks for all the help guys... I guess I can't know for sure until I either try the game on a Japanese Dreamcase, which is not going to happen, or try it with a different import playing device.

My gut tells me it's a defective disc. I am not sure why but it just seems like that's probably it. My gut has been known to be very wrong about things though.. heh. :p

I guess I should try to get ahold of a DCX or something, which is a nuisance because the Utopia disc (I think it's version 1.1, it's in the other room though) works fine with my other import game (Rez).

Today has been "one of those days". :(

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I recommend getting a Gameshark to boot it. There is a new version that is disc only and is available at Circuit City and other stores for 10 bucks. It boots my imports (including Puyo 4) with no problems...

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Originally posted by ssbomberman
I recommend getting a Gameshark to boot it. There is a new version that is disc only and is available at Circuit City and other stores for 10 bucks. It boots my imports (including Puyo 4) with no problems...

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Well, since it works with your Puyo 4 I may try just that...

You seem to have similar taste in games to me.. Puyo and Bomberman are among my favourites.. and Saturn Bomberman is the best Bomberman. ;)

Thanks again to everyone for the advice.

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Originally posted by sggg
Well, since it works with your Puyo 4 I may try just that...

You seem to have similar taste in games to me.. Puyo and Bomberman are among my favourites.. and Saturn Bomberman is the best Bomberman. ;)

Thanks again to everyone for the advice.

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Just make sure to get the Gameshark Lite version because then you don't have to plug in that bulky memory unit that breaks after a couple of months...

Well Puyo 4 is amazing, especially as a two-player game. I'd also recommend Twinkle Star Sprites on DC-- it's a great puzzle game mixed with a shooter...

I love puzzle games because my girlfriend (well now my wife) and I used to play them all the time. We played Puyo 4 non-stop competetively for months. I recommend using the angel girl (I can't remember her name)--her super is awesome...

Good Luck getting it to boot...

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Originally posted by ssbomberman


I recommend getting a Gameshark to boot it. There is a new version that is disc only and is available at Circuit City and other stores for 10 bucks. It boots my imports (including Puyo 4) with no problems...

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Hey! I saw Lite at CC a couple of weeks ago and almost picked one up to play Shenmue II.

Looks like I'll be going back this week :)

See, problems like this are why it's just better to have a Japanese system. Or at the very least, an internal mod. No disc-swapping, very few compatibility issues if done right. Puyo Puyo 4 works with an internal mod just fine.

Well, the disc is not defective after all. The Gameshark did the trick! Huzzah! :) See what I mean about my gut feeling usually being wrong with these kindsa things? Hehe.. oh well, I am relieved anyway. Saves me a lot of hassle. -- The game is great too, btw... I am still trying to figure out all the options and menus. But trial and error is working OK, especially since I have played other Puyo games. :)

I'll definitely check out Twinkle Star Sprites too, I like those kinds of games so it sounds up my tree. How much do you think that game will set me back?

Also, the older Gameskarks with the "memory unit".. um, what was the memory unit for? Was it some kind of special VMU? Or was there no CD? I am just curious......... I have actually never used any Gameshark type device before, for any console.

I was pretty disappointed with Twinkle Star Sprites. It's not bad but if I was smart I would have checked it out on a Neo Geo emulator ahead of time.

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Originally posted by ssbomberman


Just make sure to get the Gameshark Lite version because then you don't have to plug in that bulky memory unit that breaks after a couple of months...

Well Puyo 4 is amazing, especially as a two-player game. I'd also recommend Twinkle Star Sprites on DC-- it's a great puzzle game mixed with a shooter...

I love puzzle games because my girlfriend (well now my wife) and I used to play them all the time. We played Puyo 4 non-stop competetively for months. I recommend using the angel girl (I can't remember her name)--her super is awesome...

Good Luck getting it to boot...

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I'm going to have to disagre with you there, I have had my GS CDX since day one of its release and I have had no probems with it yet, the VMU still works, the disk still boots up and all that good stuff.

I picked up a GS Lite the other day at CC for $9.99 as well thinking it might play imports, guess what, it doesn't boot imports on either of my DC units, if you have some sort of special trick to get it to work, feel free to share.

As for puzzle games, I'm also a big fan of puzzle games, Super Monkey Ball on GC has had me hooked since the GC launch :) A very obscure but ok DC puzzler is Plus Plumb, its lika like a mix of Puzzle Bobble and Puyo Puyo, but don't break the bank on getting it, $30 is the very highest you should go.

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Originally posted by NGEFreek
I picked up a GS Lite the other day at CC for $9.99 as well thinking it might play imports, guess what, it doesn't boot imports on either of my DC units, if you have some sort of special trick to get it to work, feel free to share.

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There is actually a trick to it. You have to select a game in the list and then exit out of it so you have a screen that says "Start game with codes" and "Start game without codes." It doesn't matter which game you pick--the trick is to have the screen show both options. It won't work if the screen just says "Start game without codes."

If you look through the menu of games there are listings for Import versions of games-- this is a nice way of saying that it has to boot imports. So if you want, you can use some codes as well with some of your imports, or just select "start game without codes" to boot it up.

This is very strange, but it only took me a few minutes to figure the trick out. I also have the first version, but I hate having to keep the attachment plugged in-- plus it doesn't fit in the joystick. But I assure you the Lite version works. I tested it on the following imports-- Rainbow Cotton, CvS2, TSS, Puyo 4, Powerstone 2, GGX.

I'll go home tonight and confirm the exact set up to get it to work. Let me know if it works for you.

One note: I have an original model DC (packaged in the first type of white box)-- I'm not sure if some later DCs locked out boot discs...but then the first GS shouldn't work, unless it's a GD-rom, which I don't think it is...

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Originally posted by ssbomberman


I recommend getting a Gameshark to boot it. There is a new version that is disc only and is available at Circuit City and other stores for 10 bucks. It boots my imports (including Puyo 4) with no problems...

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Yeah, I've used Utopia, DreamPass, and DC-X, but the thing that worked best for me has been the Pelican Codebreaker, which is basically a GameShark for half the price. Best of all, it boots imports (Euro and Jap) with no tricks needed, and there's no external memory unit. Suprising, since every other Pelican product I've ever owned has broken. But the Codebreaker's worthwhile.

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Originally posted by sggg
Well, the disc is not defective after all. The Gameshark did the trick! Huzzah! :) See what I mean about my gut feeling usually being wrong with these kindsa things? Hehe.. oh well, I am relieved anyway. Saves me a lot of hassle. -- The game is great too, btw... I am still trying to figure out all the options and menus. But trial and error is working OK, especially since I have played other Puyo games. :)

I'll definitely check out Twinkle Star Sprites too, I like those kinds of games so it sounds up my tree. How much do you think that game will set me back?

Also, the older Gameskarks with the "memory unit".. um, what was the memory unit for? Was it some kind of special VMU? Or was there no CD? I am just curious......... I have actually never used any Gameshark type device before, for any console.

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Glad you got it to work!

TSS might set you back a bit, but should be findable new for $50 or so. It's definitely not a traditional drop-down puzzle game, more like a hybrid between a shooter with puzzle elements. You shoot creatures, thus causing chain reactions that send them across to your opponent. And it's not as good as Puyo 4, but it's unique enough to own.

Puyo 4 has a lot of options. My favorite mode is two-player where you can choose from all the different characters, you can use their super moves, and the game starts that you have a few rows of blocks that take multiple combos to break down.

I like to use the angel and use he super right away, since they regenerate, and convert those blocks for a quick jump on combos.

The first version of GameShark is a disc with an add-on attachment that needs to be plugged in to slot two of the first controller. It won't work without it. It works as a memory unit and holds all the codes for the GS as well, but it's bulky and a pain if you use a joystick most of the time only. The Lite is nice because it works with any memory card you want.

okay guys since we're at the subject, i was thinking about ordering shenmue 2 euro, and i was wondering if it worked good with the utopia bootdisk or any of the gamesharks? i dont feel like ordering an expensive game that i couldnt play.

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Originally posted by shinobi
i dont feel like ordering an expensive game that i couldnt play.

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expensive? i got mine for $40 plus shipping.