Hydro Thunder (Dreamcast)

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Sonicx9
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Re: Hydro Thunder (Dreamcast)

Postby Sonicx9 » June 18th, 2019, 9:01 pm

VideoGameCritic wrote:I'm going to give the red disc version a try! Can't wait.


Once you try that version, you will never come back to the launch version, also it might be a good idea to get the red disc versions of Mortal Kombat Gold (already reviewed but never said what version it is?) Ready 2 Rumble (also already reviewed, but never said which version?), and NFL Blitz 2000 (also already reviewed, but never said which version?)

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Re: Hydro Thunder (Dreamcast)

Postby VideoGameCritic » June 19th, 2019, 9:04 pm

You're making me paranoid Sonic. I tried my Ready 2 Rumble and Mortal Kombat Gold, and they both worked in VGA mode. NFL Blitz however did not. But it has a red label! What's the deal?

Sonicx9
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Re: Hydro Thunder (Dreamcast)

Postby Sonicx9 » June 19th, 2019, 9:52 pm

VideoGameCritic wrote:You're making me paranoid Sonic. I tried my Ready 2 Rumble and Mortal Kombat Gold, and they both worked in VGA mode. NFL Blitz however did not. But it has a red label! What's the deal?


Ok to clarify, all 4 of those games where rushed for the 9/9/99 launch and found notable game breaking bugs and glitches especially the launch version of Mortal Kombat Gold which has more info on the situation over here: http://www.whipassgaming.com/genesisrev ... tgold.html at the bottem of the review. The other 3 were not a bad, but still had problems resulting in Midway to ship the Hot New red disc version to address the problem as patching games was not possible back then unlike now. For both Hydro Thunder it also had problems saving when trying to save on an almost full VMU along with no VGA support unlike the Hot New re-release, and Ready 2 Rumble apparently had Music skips problems that where fixed in the red disc label version.

NFL Blitz 2000 on Dreamcast can be forced into VGA mode via the Switch trick: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEggdHKGuK4 in both Blue and Red disc versions apparently.

Ready 2 Rumble always had VGA mode in both Yellow disc and Red disc versions.

Mortal Kombat Gold has no VGA support in gold disc version unless doing the Switch trick, but in the red disc fixed version it works in VGA without the Switch trick.

The launch version of Hydro Thunder has no VGA support in blue disc version unless doing the Switch trick, but the red disc version works in VGA mode no problem which is the copy I have.

Anyways critic what color are your disc copies of Ready 2 Rumble/Mortal Kombat Gold and Hydro Thunder, because you did not say the disc color for those 3 games, only NFL Blitz 2000, although the later NFL Blitz 2001 release is VGA native out of the box no problem however.

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Re: Hydro Thunder (Dreamcast)

Postby VideoGameCritic » June 22nd, 2019, 12:37 pm

So this is weird... I got the red disc version of Hydro Thunder today. It loads in VGA mode and looks great. I noticed at the end of the race it compares the high score to yours, which I never noticed before in the blue version.

One thing bothers me though - the sound. The audio during the race is very muted starting with the fact that there's no announcer shouting 3 2 1 GO GO GO! at the start. During the race it's actually pretty quiet. You can barely hear the engine and nature sounds. It doesn't seem right after playing the blue Hydro Thunder for all these years.

So now I'm wondering if there's something wrong with my disc (it did lock up once before I polished it) or if the game was changed on purpose. Ideas?

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Re: Hydro Thunder (Dreamcast)

Postby snakeboy » June 22nd, 2019, 5:27 pm

My copy of Hydro Thunder is on a red disc and came in a case with "Hot New" printed on it, but for some reason it doesn't want to display properly in VGA mode. The picture is jittery and the screen intermittently goes black. I thought maybe there was an issue with the monitor I had it connected to, but all my other VGA compatible games seem to work perfectly. Pretty annoying.

Sonicx9
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Re: Hydro Thunder (Dreamcast)

Postby Sonicx9 » June 25th, 2019, 12:20 am

VideoGameCritic wrote:So this is weird... I got the red disc version of Hydro Thunder today. It loads in VGA mode and looks great. I noticed at the end of the race it compares the high score to yours, which I never noticed before in the blue version.

One thing bothers me though - the sound. The audio during the race is very muted starting with the fact that there's no announcer shouting 3 2 1 GO GO GO! at the start. During the race it's actually pretty quiet. You can barely hear the engine and nature sounds. It doesn't seem right after playing the blue Hydro Thunder for all these years.

So now I'm wondering if there's something wrong with my disc (it did lock up once before I polished it) or if the game was changed on purpose. Ideas?


I have the red disc version and will test it when I have time.

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Re: Hydro Thunder (Dreamcast)

Postby VideoGameCritic » July 17th, 2019, 10:46 pm

Got tired of waiting for Sonic and picked up another red version of this game. This one works - complete with all the voices and sound effects.

Finally I'm able to enjoy this game on the big screen. Some of the tracks like Nile Adventure gave me vertigo! Good times.

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Re: Hydro Thunder (Dreamcast)

Postby Sonicx9 » July 18th, 2019, 12:53 am

VideoGameCritic wrote:Got tired of waiting for Sonic and picked up another red version of this game. This one works - complete with all the voices and sound effects.

Finally I'm able to enjoy this game on the big screen. Some of the tracks like Nile Adventure gave me vertigo! Good times.


Sorry, I was going to get back to you, but when I tested my red disc copy on my HDMI Akura box it was glitchy due to the way the game is coded. So I could not help you, but glad it works great for you the other copy.

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Atariboy
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Re: Hydro Thunder (Dreamcast)

Postby Atariboy » July 18th, 2019, 5:26 pm

VideoGameCritic wrote:Finally I'm able to enjoy this game on the big screen. Some of the tracks like Nile Adventure gave me vertigo! Good times.


While it doesn't matter now, the Dreamcast version was ported to the Xbox, Playstation 2, and GameCube as part of Midway Arcade Treasures Volume 3 (Rush 2049 on there was also the Dreamcast version rather than a direct arcade port).

Pretty sure you've reviewed this one before, so you possibly could've already been playing it on the big screen if you have that system connected to it. :)

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Re: Hydro Thunder (Dreamcast)

Postby VideoGameCritic » July 18th, 2019, 7:46 pm

You're right about the Midway Arcade Treasures Vol 3 - I forgot about that!


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