Shenmue Dojo

Zoltor wrote:

Skillz wrote:

Arjak wrote: I bought my original Dreamcast almost the day it launched in the US. I played a lot of Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, some Crazy Taxi, but somehow, Shenmue passed by, with me completely oblivious to it for a long time. Over the years though, I kept hearing about this amazing game, but never made the effort to locate a copy, and eventually, I gave my Dreamcast and games away to my little sister so she could play with Chao to her heart's content. I always felt uncertain of this decision.

Today, I went on a trip to an amazing used game shop in a nearby town and decided to pick up a new Dreamcast for myself as one of my purchases. I needed to choose a game though. I went through the options in the case before me. Sonic Adventure? I could get that anywhere. D2? It was missing discs and the clerk thankfully remembered that ("I keep telling them not to put this out!"). Then I saw that they had a copy of Shenmue 1. Sold.

The copy was in pretty bad shape. The case was falling apart, the discs were badly scratched, and it didn't have the main manual (just the passport one). I also overpaid for it, but the clerk resurfaced the discs, I ordered a new quad CD case online, and now all I need for completeness is the manual. Still, I now own Shenmue.

As I am about to play this masterpiece for the first time, I decided to keep a journal of my progress and experiences for you all to enjoy. I appreciate any advice you might have on making this the best possible experience it can be, as well as comments on my progress. I hope you all enjoy this record as much as I hope I will enjoy playing this game.

your going to need an original xbox for Shenmue II. Other than that play to your hearts content.

No not true, you can get a Pal version of 2, and use like Cheats' n codes to play it on the NA DC, which I advise doing(the XBOX port is butchered, not to mention the XBOX controller sucking, will make QTEs a nightmare).

I remember the pal version needing to do that... that was at the back of my mind. hope he finds a pal version for that. and the game shark from back then assuming you mean one of those.

Skillz wrote:

Zoltor wrote:

Skillz wrote:

Arjak wrote: I bought my original Dreamcast almost the day it launched in the US. I played a lot of Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, some Crazy Taxi, but somehow, Shenmue passed by, with me completely oblivious to it for a long time. Over the years though, I kept hearing about this amazing game, but never made the effort to locate a copy, and eventually, I gave my Dreamcast and games away to my little sister so she could play with Chao to her heart's content. I always felt uncertain of this decision.

Today, I went on a trip to an amazing used game shop in a nearby town and decided to pick up a new Dreamcast for myself as one of my purchases. I needed to choose a game though. I went through the options in the case before me. Sonic Adventure? I could get that anywhere. D2? It was missing discs and the clerk thankfully remembered that ("I keep telling them not to put this out!"). Then I saw that they had a copy of Shenmue 1. Sold.

The copy was in pretty bad shape. The case was falling apart, the discs were badly scratched, and it didn't have the main manual (just the passport one). I also overpaid for it, but the clerk resurfaced the discs, I ordered a new quad CD case online, and now all I need for completeness is the manual. Still, I now own Shenmue.

As I am about to play this masterpiece for the first time, I decided to keep a journal of my progress and experiences for you all to enjoy. I appreciate any advice you might have on making this the best possible experience it can be, as well as comments on my progress. I hope you all enjoy this record as much as I hope I will enjoy playing this game.

your going to need an original xbox for Shenmue II. Other than that play to your hearts content.

No not true, you can get a Pal version of 2, and use like Cheats' n codes to play it on the NA DC, which I advise doing(the XBOX port is butchered, not to mention the XBOX controller sucking, will make QTEs a nightmare).

I remember the pal version needing to do that... that was at the back of my mind. hope he finds a pal version for that. and the game shark from back then assuming you mean one of those.

Yea, Cheats'n codes was made by Game Shark, although for the purpose of playing imports, cheats' n codes works a bit better then the actual game shark(which is weird, since such is made by the same company).

The OP should beable to find both on ebay, It's the Pal version of Shenmue 1, that's impossible these days(since Shenmue 2 jumped to such a high price point, for obvious reason, people gravitated towards Shenmue 1, and basically emptied what little Pal Shenmue 1 supply there was).

Zoltor wrote:

Skillz wrote: I remember the pal version needing to do that... that was at the back of my mind. hope he finds a pal version for that. and the game shark from back then assuming you mean one of those.

Yea, Cheats'n codes was made by Game Shark, although for the purpose of playing imports, cheats' n codes works a bit better then the actual game shark(which is weird, since such is made by the same company).

The OP should beable to find both on ebay, It's the Pal version of Shenmue 1, that's impossible these days(since Shenmue 2 jumped to such a high price point, for obvious reason, people gravitated towards Shenmue 1, and basically emptied what little Pal Shenmue 1 supply there was).

An actual cheat device instead of just an import loader would probably be preferable, since he's using the US version of Shenmue 1. That way he can use the cheat device code to import a US save file into PAL Shenmue 2 without converting it.

And a Codebreaker or Xploder are better options than Gameshark, since they don't require a proprietary memory card dongle in the controller. But either is hard to find and it's probably easier to just burn a copy from the internet.

Sappharad wrote:

Zoltor wrote:

Skillz wrote: I remember the pal version needing to do that... that was at the back of my mind. hope he finds a pal version for that. and the game shark from back then assuming you mean one of those.

Yea, Cheats'n codes was made by Game Shark, although for the purpose of playing imports, cheats' n codes works a bit better then the actual game shark(which is weird, since such is made by the same company).

The OP should beable to find both on ebay, It's the Pal version of Shenmue 1, that's impossible these days(since Shenmue 2 jumped to such a high price point, for obvious reason, people gravitated towards Shenmue 1, and basically emptied what little Pal Shenmue 1 supply there was).

An actual cheat device instead of just an import loader would probably be preferable, since he's using the US version of Shenmue 1. That way he can use the cheat device code to import a US save file into PAL Shenmue 2 without converting it.

And a Codebreaker or Xploder are better options than Gameshark, since they don't require a proprietary memory card dongle in the controller. But either is hard to find and it's probably easier to just burn a copy from the internet.

I heard someone created a way to transfer a NA Shenmue 1 save to a Pal Shenmue 2, but I have no idea how they did it. If they used some kind of adapter or whatnot, what is it called? Also does that really let you play imports by its self as well(1st time I have ever heard of it also being used to play imports)?

There was a vmu explorer disk that had that option I think, but don't quote me on that.

Zoltor wrote:

Sappharad wrote:An actual cheat device instead of just an import loader would probably be preferable, since he's using the US version of Shenmue 1. That way he can use the cheat device code to import a US save file into PAL Shenmue 2 without converting it.

And a Codebreaker or Xploder are better options than Gameshark, since they don't require a proprietary memory card dongle in the controller. But either is hard to find and it's probably easier to just burn a copy from the internet.

I heard someone created a way to transfer a NA Shenmue 1 save to a Pal Shenmue 2, but I have no idea how they did it. If they used some kind of adapter or whatnot, what is it called? Also does that really let you play imports by its self as well(1st time I have ever heard of it also being used to play imports)?

There was the VMU explorer disc like mentioned above, but it does a one way conversion and then you'd have to manually convert back or delete the file to be able to play Shenmue 1 again. Yes, cheat devices can boot imports as well. The code posted in this thread allows the game to import Shenmue 1 files from any region without converting:
viewtopic.php?f=37&t=49245
You just boot Shenmue 2 with that code active, and you can import a US Shenmue 1 save without converting it. Once you've imported it and started the game the code is no longer required, it's just needed for the game to recognize and import it.

Arjak, I'm really enjoying reading your Ryo journal. I look forward to more ^_^

Arjak wrote: One of my neighbors found an orphaned kitten and, not knowing how the menus worked, accidentally chose to give it tofu instead of the obvious fish. Oh well, lesson learned.

You're not the only one to have done this!

Hey guys, sorry about the lack of updates lately. I did something really stupid recently. I wanted to show my sister the game, and I deleted my save file, without checking when we would be able to play. We still haven't played any yet.

I've decided that if we aren't going to play sometime soon, that I will just have to start over and quickly make it back to where I was. Sorry about the inconvenience.

Arjak wrote: Hey guys, sorry about the lack of updates lately. I did something really stupid recently. I wanted to show my sister the game, and I deleted my save file, without checking when we would be able to play. We still haven't played any yet.

I've decided that if we aren't going to play sometime soon, that I will just have to start over and quickly make it back to where I was. Sorry about the inconvenience.

Don't worry at all, dude. At least you didn't delete your save file because you got lost in the Hazuki house the first time you played, unlike my stupid self

Looking forward to future updates

Hey, guess what? My sister came over this morning and I finally had a chance to show her the game. We actually almost made it back to where I was before, and I even found a couple of secrets I had missed before! I experimented a lot more with the zoom feature to investigate objects in my house, and I am amazed by the amount of detail in this game, especially when it seems superfluous. I found I was able to rummage through all of my desk drawers and cabinets, and found a cassette player, an additional tape sitting on my desk that I had missed before, and a photo of Ryo and his friends. I also found lots of spare sets of clothing that I will most likely never change into.

I also found a Sega Saturn under the TV, but I couldn't get Ryo to play it, or even turn on the TV.

This time, I fed the kitten the fish, and got some additional dialog with Megumi. I also figured out how to name the kitten. My sister and I finally decided on Mimi, although I did jokingly recommend Sasuke, just to tease my sister with her disdain for Naruto.

I bought a soda, mostly to show my sister all the things you can do in this game, and wouldn't you know it, I got another winning can to make up for the one I lost when I deleted my save! Am I just lucky? Or is it because I tried to pick the same soda I did the first time? In any case, I should try booting up the Passport Disc next time I play and see what I won.

In one game day, I managed to make it back up through talking to Yamagishi-san. Next time, I will most likely get to new parts of the game, and I will definitely let all of you know what happens! I got permission from my sister to play without her as long as I show her the more interesting or exciting parts. Just to be clear, she liked the game and appreciated its "realistic fiction" vibe, but she doesn't have much free time (19 credit hours in one semester!? I would die within a week!), so playing the whole game with her doesn't make sense logistically.

In any case, that's all for today. See you next time, when I will most likely tread some new ground!

Arjak wrote: I bought a soda, mostly to show my sister all the things you can do in this game, and wouldn't you know it, I got another winning can to make up for the one I lost when I deleted my save! Am I just lucky? Or is it because I tried to pick the same soda I did the first time? In any case, I should try booting up the Passport Disc next time I play and see what I won.

You exchange winning cans for prizes at the grocery stores. You need to focus on the vendor then open up the menu and select the winning can and he will then be able to partake in a raffle with various prizes (including games you can play on the saturn)

Well...last night I played some more. After learning Pit Blow again, and getting the soccer ball QTE right this time, I went to Abe Store to redeem my winning soda can...and didn't win anything. Feeling frustrated, I decided to buy one soda, just in case I might win again, and against all odds, I got ANOTHER winning can! I then proceeded to not win anything again.

I went down to Dobuita to do some investigating, but I went a different way than usual and ended up getting lost in an unfamiliar part of town. However, this ended up leading me to a place I had heard great things about...You Arcade! I played Hang-On (for the first time ever, actually) and made it through the first checkpoint, I got to Level 2 on Space Harrier, and I discovered that I have a talent for QTE Title, getting the high score!

However, by that time, it was already the middle of the afternoon. The day had whizzed by without me noticing. As I tried to get back to where I was, day turned into night, and this time around, Tom didn't seem to know about the black car! I had to find another lead, and someone kindly mentioned that the Hamburger restaurant owner knew something. Talking to him revealed that Nozomi had seen the car. By that time, though, it was already almost 8 PM, so I headed home for the night.

It wasn't a very productive day, but I don't care too much. I had so much fun at the arcade that it didn't really matter. I'll talk with Nozomi in the morning and get back on track then.


In other news, I finally found and purchased a manual for my copy of Shenmue, so with the game migrated over to the new 4-disc CD case I got previously, the game almost looks brand new, or at least well taken care of.

Hey, guys. Sorry about the lack of activity lately. I've been very busy with school and other things and I haven't had time to do any playing in a while. I'll try to return to the game sometime soon, though.

Arjak wrote: Hey, guys. Sorry about the lack of activity lately. I've been very busy with school and other things and I haven't had time to do any playing in a while. I'll try to return to the game sometime soon, though.

Take your time and enjoy the game at your leisure, dude