Recently while visiting the forums over at racketboy.com I discovered some very exciting news. Not only has the wickedly brutal (and awesome) platformer Volgarr the Viking been ported to the Sega Dreamcast but the developers Crazy Viking Studios have declared that the Dreamcast version of Volgarr the Viking is entirely free.
If you have a Sega Dreamcast and a blank CD you can have a legitimate copy of a game that I personally feel is outstanding. I mean really outstanding. This game is one of the most challenging games I have ever play while at the same time it is wildly fun despite countless deaths!
Very tight and responsive controls make you one with Volgarr. Every brilliantly executed double jump, spear throw and downward stab is a victory crafted by you.
…you’ll also feel entirely responsible every time Volgarr explodes into a cloud of guts and bones.
When I first tried out this version my Dreamcast was hooked up to an older 50″ 720p DLP TV. My first impression was that the Dreamcast controller wasn’t quite as good as my PC Logitech controller. Then when I moved my Dreamcast over to my CRT TV I noticed that the Dreamcast controller was just fine. What I had been experiencing on the 50″ HD TV was a very small amount of input lag.
The only reason I moved to a different TV was so that I could record the above video clip and I’m glad I did it. Volgarr the Viking is very challenging and the input lag would have been the end of me.
Compared to the PC version this port is almost perfect. The Dreamcast does have some noticeable load times between check points but they are short and will not at all hurt your enjoyment of the game. The gameplay itself is identical. The Sega Dreamcast is an excellent place to experience this really well made game.
Volgarr really will demand your best performance. I use to have Stage 1 and 2 down to an art. It surprised me how rusty I’ve become! But the point here is to see Volgarr live on a Sega Dreamcast and for you to start enjoying it for yourself 😀
Free download of Volgarr the Viking for the Sega Dreamcast:
http://volgarr.rkd.zone/
A big ‘Thank You!’ to Crazy Viking Studios for offering the game for free and to Marc Hall for porting the game to the Dreamcast.
An excellent and unforgiving game!
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Oh, I agree JC 🙂 Anyone into platformers should try it out. even if you have to buy it for a system that is not the Dreamcast it’s a very inexpensive game.
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Nice. It’s pretty cool that Crazy Viking didn’t make this port, but let some really talented fans of their game have at it and do it right. Now all I need to to is see if one of the DC’s here buried in a bin is still functioning. They’re all older models and should run this just fine.
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+1 for CRTs
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YEAH! Why am I not surprised that you’ve got lots of love for CRT’s? 😀
I recently got myself a cap kit for my Neo Geo Wells Gardner k7000 CRT. I still have to find a new flyback as well. I want it running 100% and looking like it’s brand new!
I also have a beautiful 32″ SONY Trinitron XBR CRT for my retro consoles. Got it for $50 on Kijiji and it’s like new.
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Those XBR’s are great CRT’s….when they work. Ive had a lot of bad luck with Sony HD CRT’s but its probably just my luck. I know there are very high quality when they work.
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Great game, free game, dreamcast game… There’s nothing else to say! Go for it! (Thus it is really hard and time consuming!)
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Excellent philosophy! Your first sentence summed up my entire post.
By the way, that Astro City cab you picked up is an awesome score! It looks like new!!
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Gotta get this. I’m playing my DC on a CRT so man is it awesome. Lots of love for those chubby old TV’s.
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Let us know what you think of it when you get a chance to try it out.
I only hate CRTs when I have to move one!
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HAH, me too!! I’ll burn the game tomorrow I think, I just have to find a CD-R first…
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I can’t get it to work. I use BootDreams and burn the Volgarr CDi into a disc but it just won’t work. Maybe I have one of those later mae models that won’t boot CDR?
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Yes, it’s possible that your Dreamcast might not be able to play CD-Rs but here are a few things to try.
1) Make sure to use a CD-R and not a re-writable CD (CD-RW)
2) Download the free software IMGBurn to write the image. http://www.imgburn.com. I believe this is the software they tested with. But I’ve read that BootDreams should be OK too.
3) Download the full .cdi image which includes the dummy file (padding) from here http://dreamcast-talk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=83933#p83898. When unzipped this volgarrbig.cdi file should ~771.9 MB.
Hopefully that will work!
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Ah, that might be the problem! The file was too small in size, it must’ve lacked the dummy file. I downloaded the one from the “official” DC Volgarr page. I’ll try this out! Thanks!
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I’m not getting it to work with BootDreams and that file with the dummy file (700 megs). I’m trying to use Imgburn but every time I try to use it AVG Antivirus warns me for a threat… And that’s no matter where I download it from.
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If you’re downloading it from the link I included above I would trust it. Have AVG trust the file or turn off AVG for long enough to wright it to CD. It’s a padded file so AVG might just be freaking out because it knows the file is misrepresenting itself.
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Aha! I’ll do that 🙂
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