RevolveR (Dreamcast)

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RevolveR was made in 2004 by Brendan O' Connor under the username Vortexx for the Sega Dreamcast. It is a homebrew game which he did as a college project. The game uses the Iris3D engine. He felt that very few light gun games existed and especially too little Western themed ones. Therefore he decided to make one himself.

The game, albeit nice and impressive, is more of a tech demo and solely consists of one level. Brendan did not own the official Dreamcast Gun nor the Mad Catz Dream Blaster which was used in the United States as the official gun instead after the events of the Columbine High School massacre. He used an InterAct StarFire LightBlaster and wasn't able to explore further compatibility. Personally I tested the game with both official guns and it worked well. There is no calibration screen. Instead Brendan hard coded the offset obtained from the combination of his LightBlaster with his specific monitor into the game, which causes an offset to other players.

While writing the gun driver Brendan encountered problems with the maple bus. Shooting works best if three guns are attached to the console. Having two guns connected is still supposed to be far better than just one gun. However it is important to note that the game can still be played just using one gun.

The player uses a six shots revolver which is reloaded by shooting off screen. The player can take five hits before dying. 4 credits let the player continue. Similarly as in Virtua Cop circles appear over the enemies which slowly turn red as the enemies fire towards the player. The enemies' shots are inaudible and so is taking damage but otherwise there are fitting sound effects. The game features a two player mode. The achieved score can be saved onto a VMU if the memory card carrying gun is connected to slot A. If no VMU is connected no scores are memorized, not even during the current play session.

In my opinion it's jaw dropping what Brendan achieved here. Making a mostly functional 3D game is no easy task. The models of the enemies and the objects look good and the camera movement is smooth. I am very glad Brendan shared his little tech demo with the world back then.

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Brendan O' Connor allowed me to make the game available to my dear viewers.

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