Recently I’ve covered lots of Everdrives and some lesser known flash carts. In the past I’ve even covered a few homebrew cartridges as well as reproduction carts. Well now we’re taking a slight detour into the world of disc based reproduction games. These games may be ports or games that do exist for Dreamcast but are in low print numbers. Let’s talk about the fun that comes from the
“Nights into Dream” site.
Disclaimer: a free product was provided by the manufacturer for this review
Description:
“My reproductions are made with the utmost care, using quality photo paper as well as high grade discs. Any questions feel free to ask! “Flat rate shipping on all US orders. New titles added monthly! We ship internationally!”
Unboxing:
Pros:
- Burning. For those with a modern computer and no disc drive, this is your solution. Or even if you do, save yourself the time of trying to perfectly recreate an original game if it’s just a one off thing by buying one of these. It’s just easier unless again, you intend on making yourself swaths of reproduction games. But if that were the case you wouldn’t be here reading this. I have giant CD books full of burned games of the past and they’re ugly. I mean they’re charming and have a place in time, but for an adult gamer that just wants to play games and not pay too much money… This is your best bet since it saves you hassle. Oh, and your ISP won’t flag you for downloading something that they deem is against the rules.
- Supplies. With these games, you’re very obviously only paying for the art, the time spent assembling, as well as the jewel case and blank disc too. If you’re someone on the fence about buying repros, you should rest easy. “Nights into Dream” is a site that has a lot to choose from and does the work for you (as we’ve already established). But if you think you’re taking the money out of the pockets of game developers, don’t fret. You’re truly just reimbursing the seller for a cost that they feel is worth their time and supplies, not the game itself. You can’t give the developers money for these games anymore anyway. If it exists digitally and you want to feel better, you can pay for it on Steam or what have you and then buy this physical version to play on the console of your choice. And if you already own the game and want to play a backup, this is even better for you. My driving point is that the supplies and labor are what you’re paying for, so just take a deep breath.
- Price. Now we can talk about the actual cost since we’ve defined what you’re paying for when you buy a game from “Nights into Dream”. You’ll find that most games are a sensible cost of $19.99. This is usually games that are easy to find and only have one disc. There are exceptions to this and no exact pattern that I can see. Some are $5, $10, or $15 more, but I don’t know how the pricing structure works. These prices are generally relegated to games that are multidisc. I’m sure it’s scaling to the extra time needed for burning and supplies like the double box and more blank discs. But yeah, $20 for most games is a great price for reproductions!
- Quality. The quality of the supplies is the next great thing that I want to talk about. Depending on the game there are different styles of jewel cases. Of course there are different ones for multidisc games. But there are also different styles of the hinge. Some have matte black with texture, some are glossy black with no texture, and some games are bound to have transparent hinges. So upon seeing and feeling these products, you find that you’re getting what you pay for. It’s amazing how awesome they are in person compared to viewing them through a picture on the site. They have so much stuff included and so many fine details baked in. It makes you wonder how this person gets any sleep with all of the work they put into it. The only thing that I can’t answer for you is how long these discs will last. I’m unsure the brand, the batch, their age, if they’re CD-R, CD-RW, etc. All that I can give you is that Imgburn says they’re Ritek Co. brand. And since they’re also printable on the top, I’d guess that they’re these. I’m sure eventually they’ll degrade, but I have Riteks that I burned Wii games in 2008 that still run. So I think we’re all good in terms of disc longevity here.
- Games. One thing that I truly love about their site is that they clearly have a passion for it. They’ve put out so many games over these years so far and there’s apparently no stopping. At the time of writing this review, there are over 200 games available to buy. They’re likely manufactured on demand, so don’t expect them to ship out within 24 hours like Amazon could do. As far as what kind of games they supply, it’s interesting. They don’t sell games that are commons and easy to come by, naturally. They do, however, sell first party games that are rare or hard to come by, and there are ports or homebrew too. So don’t put off buying from him if you are thinking this is just someone selling warez. On “Nights into Dream” you can get high quality homebrew and high quality imports on your favorite retro consoles! I would like to see even more homebrew be made available on there, working with the developer on getting a cut, of course (unless it’s abandoned or shareware).
- Extras. What if you have a game already, but the cover is busted or water damaged? Maybe you just want a replacement for it, but getting one from a reseller costs just as much as buying the game CIB. You don’t want that because you already have the game and a undamaged back cover. Well, for $8.99 you can buy replacement manuals from “Nights into Dream”. I didn’t even know this until I was researching the finer details of the site. I wanted to include it in here since I know not everyone needs or wants to buy reproduction discs. But they just might buy reproduction manuals. The links for the available manuals will be down at the bottom of the article.
- Execution. Now let’s dive into the methods of running these games. Let me first start by explaining my rationale with the game choices. One of them is a Bleem game, because I wanted to see if it would work. It isn’t prepatched to be Bleem, it has a Bleem boot disc that you launch first. Next, I chose multidisc games and I also made sure I got a Sega CD game, a standard Dreamcast game, and a Sega Saturn game. Again, my thought process was that I needed to make sure I covered the spectrum of games supplied by the site so that you can make informed decisions. So let’s talk about what it takes to run each of these games:
- Propeller Arena. I think it’s obvious why I chose this game. It was a finished first party game for Dreamcast that got cancelled due to 9/11. To execute it, you can simply insert it into your unmodified or modded Dreamcast and run it. You cannot have a model 2 Dreamcast for it to work as that patched the exploit used for selfbooting games.
- Cotton 2. I needed a Sega Saturn game and I’ve heard people gush about this one. To boot it, there are a few different ways that are supported. If you have a softmodded Saturn that uses Pseudo Saturn Kai or equivalent, it will boot it. The same goes if you have a hardmod running on the Saturn. They advertise it working on Polymega out of the box too, which is interesting and not something I could test.
- Grand Theft Auto III. The reason for this is also pretty clear, I wanted to play GTAIII on my Dreamcast! To boot this, it’s the same as Propeller Arena. Simply pop it into a Dreamcast, whether it’s modded or not. It will selfboot as long as you’re not using a model 2 Dreamcast.
- Popful Mail. Just the same as Cotton 2, I wanted to get a shooter that people rant and rave over. So my one and only choice for Sega CD is Popful Mail. This is interesting, because I don’t have any kind of a modification on my Sega CD. But it just flipping WORKS, you guys. This works with all Sega CD and Mega CD iterations, no mods needed. You can just drop it in and play. They advertise that this also works in the Polymega, I couldn’t test it because how many people actually own one?
- Gran Turismo 2. This is a Bleem game, and why not round off the reviews with a Bleem game. You want to make sure that what you buy works, right? This one, same as the DC games I mentioned, just boots. Yes, even on an unmodded system, it will work. Bleem is always known to be finicky, so it may not be 100% true and accurate. But you get what you get if you want to run a PS1 game via a PS1 emulator built for a Dreamcast.
- ONE LAST NOTE: It’s worth saying that if you don’t have any of these systems, you can always insert the disc into your computer and play these games via their respective emulators. Some may just read the disc, another may require ripping the ISO first. But still, those are small hoops compared to finding and buying consoles to play the games. The Bleem one is an interesting one. Because yes, you can technically run Bleemcast! on a PC Dreamcast emulator to some extent—especially the beta with pre-made “Bleemed” games—but it’s a hassle, unstable, and not fully functional (e.g., no saves, glitchy FMVs). For a smoother experience, skip the middleman and use a modern PS1 emulator directly on your PC. If you’re dead-set on trying Bleemcast!, on Flycast or Redream, dump all three discs and run the Bleem disc first. Have fun–but don’t expect miracles.
- Mini-Review. At this point it’s worth talking about whether the games I got for review were good picks or are coasters.
- Propeller Arena. Starting with the artwork chosen, I think that they did an absolute bang-up job. I’m not sure how or where they populated this art from, but it really looks great. It could be “official” for all I know but I’m not sure if the marketing was ever released for this game. The product features a double sided manual, an external spine card, and three trading cards. This is not my first foray into playing this game, so I already knew what to expect when I put the game into my Dreamcast. I had just as much fun now as I did when I burned it and played it with friends back in the early 2010s. I love the soundtrack, it gives THPS vibes. It’s a pretty alright multiplayer dog fighting game and definitely didn’t deserve the outcome it got.
- Cotton 2. This one comes with all of the same type of extras as Propeller Arena. In fact, all of them do, so just know you get a lot of extras regardless of the game. It’s an English translation, too, making it easy for you to play. Not that playing the game required English, it’s pretty easy to figure out. But the story around the gameplay is understandable now. I had fun testing the game out for this article and I can definitely see what the hype is about. It’s a cute ’em up from the late 90’s. I definitely never played the arcade either, but if this is how it plays in arcades too, I’ll definitely drop some quarters in the next time I see one. It has that, “Just one more try!” kind of feeling and I stayed up later than I was planning on the night I played it in my Saturn.
- Grand Theft Auto III. First off, the developer keeps putting out revisions of this game. There are likely newer revisions of this since I bought it even. But the person who runs “Nights into Dream” assured me that they burn the most up to date version of any ROM, ISO, GDI, etc. so at least I know it isn’t the very first beta. It plays like a buggy, fun version of GTAIII. Though I do wonder, if people are chomping at the bit to play a wonky version of this on the Dreamcast, why did they pitch a fit when they played the Trilogy on new consoles? I understand a new console should play the game perfectly the way we all remember it. But I’m saying, they’re willing to tolerate doing an entire playthrough on Dreamcast, but they don’t wanna play 15 minutes of a modern one? Ok, rant over, all I know here is that this version is fun and I want to play this over my OG Xbox version.
- Popful Mail. I played a lot of this and I definitely felt like I chose a good game for the Sega CD entry. I used to have more Sega CD games when I was a kid than I do now, however, I think most of them are duds. The mind boggling thing to me is that nobody really talks about the Sega CD so it’s likely hard for it to grow a fanbase. Well I’m here now saying that Popful Mail has to be in the top 10 Sega CD games. I would love some engagement from the Sega CD fans of the world. Let’s get a conversation going in the comments if you think it’s in the top 10. If not, what is in your top 10 games for the console. Having said all of that, I do not think it’s a better cute ’em up than Cotton 2. It wins out of the two of them. I hope I’m not sparking a debate, but I felt that Cotton 2 has tighter controls.
- Gran Turismo 2. This is a Bleem game as I mentioned before. Gran Turismo 2 is a two disc game. That means that if you buy this, you’re automatically buying a three disc set. I was wondering if they would be sending it in a double wide box like the actual Gran Turismo 2 or if they had one of those crazy 3-in-1 jewel cases that look like they only hold one. They sent a double wide box, I’m guessing they’re the easiest to procure or maybe the cheapest. Or maybe it was a matter of looking like the original Gran Turismo 2 box. I’ve played plenty of Gran Turismo 2 in my formative years, so I’m not going to go into depth on this already deep game. I will say that they mention on the product page for this that it looks better than the PS1 game. “Utilizing the power of the Dreamcast, this version of Gran Turismo features enhanced resolution and anti aliasing resulting in a sharper superior version than what was originally produced for the PlayStation!” I can’t really compare my PS1 version to this version at the same time since I only have one TV for retro games. But when I swapped back and forth, it definitely appears less jagged. I’m guessing that that’s the anti-aliasing kicking in. It looks good and when it loads right, it plays well. I just have to get used to the controller being different!
Cons:
- Print. In my video I did point out that the darks are really dark in the booklets, covers, and backs. It seems that they’ve printed on a type of photo paper, which would explain why it’s so dark. Another reasoning for darkness is when you make a scan of an existing thing, like a booklet, it’s bound to be a little lighter than the original when printed. So it’s possible they made the print darker to combat it looking like a reprint, at least as much as possible. This can be a pro or a con in your book, but since it’s noticeable, I’m going to consider it a con, but a very mild one.
- Extras. There are actually a few things that I could do without, personally. I say personally because not everyone will disagree. But I don’t feel the need to have an external spine card or the trading cards. Spine cards are impossible to keep ahold of without me buying a hard plastic CD protector box. The sleeves they came in don’t play nice either as the adhesive is already lessening. Long story short, I don’t want to have to buy something additional just to keep a spine card on a reproduction game. The trading cards are called “mock” trading cards on their site, which mean that they’re a nice touch, but not real or necessary. They just repeat the artwork that the game, booklet, and back cover art already show. I think there should be an option for you to save a couple bucks if you don’t want these appendages.
Final Thoughts:
These are a great way to fill out your collection without feeding the resellers. $20 gets you a game that may otherwise be hundreds of dollars or just plain not exist. If you want a more involved title, you may have to pay a bit more, but still not hundreds. It’s easy to go crazy and fill up your cart on their site. If you’re on a budget, then do what your mom used to do when you wanted a lot of games. Buy a couple, then once you’ve beaten them, buy a couple more. You’re supporting a person in the long run this way and they clearly put their whole entire soul into it. These were sent to me for review, but I’m 100% going to buy more in the future.